Revolt of the Zombies (1936)
“An army that cannot be killed because it is already dead!”
Streamed free from the Internet Archive · no signup, no cost — this film is in the public domain.
Synopsis
Director Victor Halperin's follow-up to his own White Zombie trades Haiti for French Indochina and the temple ruins of Angkor. An obsessed Allied officer masters a Cambodian formula that turns men into mindless slaves and turns it toward winning a woman's love. The atmosphere of crumbling temples carries a thin plot.
Cast
About the Director
Victor Halperin — Halperin tried to recapture the dreamlike dread of White Zombie but had a bigger story and less command of it. His most famous touch is the recycled close-up of Bela Lugosi's hypnotic eyes, lifted from the earlier film and superimposed over the screen.
Why It’s Free: The Public-Domain Story
The film is public domain in the United States: the original 1936 copyright was not renewed at the end of its first 28-year term, so it lost federal protection and passed into the public domain. No renewal registration was ever filed.
Behind the Scenes
Produced independently by the Halperin brothers and released through Academy Pictures, it was an early zombie talkie following their genre-defining White Zombie. A dispute over rights to the word "zombie" in titles dogged the brothers during this period.
Did You Know?
- The hypnotic eyes that fill the screen are stock footage of Bela Lugosi reused from White Zombie; Lugosi himself does not appear in this film.
- The story is set amid the ruins of Angkor Wat, recreated on California sets and stock plates.
- Dean Jagger, the obsessed lead, went on to win an Academy Award years later for Twelve O'Clock High.
Reception & Legacy
Critics then and now rank it well below White Zombie, faulting a sluggish romance and weak payoff, though it survives as an atmospheric curiosity and an early entry in the screen zombie tradition.
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