Ouanga (1935)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Ouanga (1936)* 1/2 (out of 4)Plantation owner Kiki (Fredi Washington) falls in love with a white man but when that man picks a white woman to be with over her, Kiki decides to use voodoo to bring the dead back to life and go after the man.If you're familiar with the race pictures from this era then you probably already know that they were made for very little money and more times than not the talent in front of and behind the camera wasn't the greatest. That's pretty much the case with this horror film that, like a lot of the horror race pictures, is more melodrama than anything else.I must say that I was a little surprised by the storyline. Interracial mixing wasn't a common thread back in the day so for this film to tackle that was pretty brave. Having a black woman lusting for a white man and then putting a curse on him isn't something you'd normally see in 1936. With that said, the film has a cast of actors who are quite light-skinned, which was another common issue for these films.As You'd expect, the performances ranged from bland to poor and technically speaking there was nothing impressive about the film. The "zombies" in the film are like the ones seen in WHITE ZOMBIE so those expecting the George A. Romero type would need to wait several more decades. The zombie aspect really isn't explored too well and the horror elements are rather light.If your'e a fan of these race pictures then there's no question that this is worth watching just due to the subject matter. One wishes that a better film would have came from it though.

This movie begins with a village witch doctor in Haiti giving a local plantation owner named "Klili Gordon" (Fredi Washington) a magical amulet to protect her. Not long afterward, she falls in love with a white man named Adam Maynard (Philip Brandon) who owns a plantation nearby. To her surprise, when Adam returns from a trip to the United States, he brings a another woman back with him by the name of "Eve Langley" (Marie Paxton) and announces that she is soon to become his new bride. This infuriates Klili who subsequently puts a death curse upon Eve that sends her into a deep and deadly coma. Fortunately, Adam manages to negate the curse when he confronts Klili about it. But Klili's anger only intensifies when he rejects her because of their racial differences and this prompts her to delve even deeper into the black arts in order to destroy her new rival. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie was filmed during the Great Depression and like a number of pictures produced back then is relatively short (only 56 minutes or so). Additionally, the manner in which zombies were portrayed was quite different during this period as well. Be that as it may, while this film is certainly quite dated and has several other faults as well, it still retains some of its charm and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.