The movie is very tame by today’s standards. Zombies are mentioned, but never seen. Other than Isabel’s death chant directed at her sister, we are given distant drums sounds, ceremonial singing and “The Blood Dance” as the sum of our voodoo experience. There is more humor than horror here with a comedic subplot about a dim witted “house man” who believes that Isabel has transferred his soul to a pig and a very (unintentionally) funny fight scene. It was an interesting movie to see, but not something that you really have to.
The Devil's Daughter
by Shrub 01/05/06
Are you intrigued by anything voodoo related? I am, and that’s what led me to this strange little flick from 1939. And I do mean little, with a running time of less than an hour, it feels like about 20 minutes. It has a simple plot (which I think must have been the inspiration for “Blood of the Zombie”) that wraps up tidily awfully quick.
The premise is that there are 2 half sisters, one (Isabel) lives in Jamaica and runs the family banana plantation. The other (Sylvia) has moved away to Harlem, but somehow, she is the one that inherits the plantation. Isabel is none to happy about this and decides to use her voodoo (or at least the appearance of such) that she has learned from her Haitian mother to chase naïve Sylvia from the island. Not only does Sylvia have to deal with Isabel’s scheme, she is also unaware that her suitor only has his eyes on her inheritance.