Continuing on the “[insert R word] of the [insert monster]” trend…
Zombie films first came to America in the 1940s. At this time of war anxiety, zombie films centered around mind control and invasion from afar. Themes like those in Revenge of the Zombies, in which a mad Nazi scientist, Dr. Max Heinrich von Altermann (John Carradine), uses technology to secure power over Lila’s mind. In films such as these, fears of loss of individuality and loss of control over the self are predominant, mirroring the changes in suburban America at the time as expansion into suburbs and mass production led to new forms of consumption.
What makes the zombie unique from other movie monsters is its unique place of origin. While Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Werewolf all have ties to Gothic literature, the zombie stands apart in having a relatively recent origin. The origin of the zombie is attributed to Haitian folklore and the hybrid religion of voodoo. But the zombie didn’t make its way into American culture until the 1920s and 30s. What Revenge of the Zombies (1943) does differently than previous zombie films is show zombieism as a matter of science, not hypnotism. This film is consequently not horror, but science fiction.
In historical terms, it is also important to note that Revenge Of The Zombies is the earliest zombie film in which the zombies are unambiguously the living dead. The other major change in Revenge Of The Zombies is that, by 1943, the American film industry cared very little about wounded German sensibilities, allowing the film to rejoice in its villain’s name, Max Heinrich von Altermann, and his overt Nazi motivations.
One of the twists of the film is that Lila in fact has the ability to think independently of his own. While von Altermann waxes lyrical about the advantages of his zombie army: “Even blown half to bits, undaunted by fire and gas, zombies would fight on so long as the brain cells that receive and execute commands still remained intact!”
Lila then interrupts him, “No, no, no!”
Von Altermann, clearly taken aback that Lila’s brain “works independently” of his own, orders her back to the chapel. Lila obeys – but as she turns away from her husband, she gives him a sly half-smile that tells the audience exactly why the doctor decided to use his wife as an experimental subject in the first place.
Something unexpected happens from this point on. The film itself becomes an amusing allegory of sorts about the relationship between man and woman in a marriage — with a dismayed von Altermann hastily explaining away Lila’s autonomy by insisting that he simply succeeded “too well” with her, and that all he should do to bring her into line is to, “Paralyse certain portions of the brain”, so that the resulting zombie can neither “question nor reason”, but simply “hear and obey”.
Despite the film’s predominant World War II themes, it ends on a feminist note. This is really not so unexpected, as the 1940s marked the change in women’s societal roles that came with wartime, as well as the seeds of Second Wave Feminism. As Larry (Robert Lowery) prepares to leave with Jennifer (Gale Storm), and Jeff (Mantan Moreland) prepares to leave with Rosella (Sybil Lewis), Jeff says to Rosella, “When I gets you to Harlem, I’m gonna get you a good job. A swell one! You just save your money, and you’n’me can get married!”
To which Rosella replies, “If I gets a swell job, honey, I don’t need to get married.”