Directors: Juan Ibáñez and Jack Hill
Writers: Jack Hill, Juan Ibáñez, and Luis Enrique Vergara
From: Chilling (only 4 remain!)
Watch: archive.org
A police captain is dispatched to an isolated island to stamp out the practice of voodoo, only the people’s dedication to their faith may be more than he can handle.
The pre-credits sequence has what turns out to be the assistant and a little person performing a ritual over a coffin. The assistant opens the lid and starts kissing the now-resurrected woman inside while the little person laughs. The scene makes a promise that, unfortunately, the rest of the film fails to live up to. The opening moments are campy and ridiculous with more than a splash of Coffin Joe to them, and then the rest is just bland and predictable.
After the credits, Anabella, a temperance worker, and the new police captain arrive in the village. They find the police station in shambles and the Lieutenant who’s supposed to be in charge lounging in the courtyard. The Captain promises to whip everyone into shape.
The Lieutenant takes the Captain and Anabella around the village to introduce them to everyone including Boris Karloff, a retired scientist investigating the powers of the mind. Turns out he’s Anabella’s uncle and his aide is the zombie priestess. The movie delays the revelation that Karloff is involved with the local cult for a long time even though it’s clear from his introduction.
The Captain learns more details about the Voodoo practice on the island—the wrinkle this movie adds is the practitioners are all cannibals. From there the plot goes as you’d expect, though unfortunately slow and uninventive. Voodoo agents cast spells on the new arrivals, recruit people to their cause using magic, and things escalate. The Captain turns to torture to try to get the identity of the high priest Damballah and then entire police force deserts.
Karloff catches his assistant with the zombie bride and has the priestess destroy the zombie. The assistant goes to the Captain to reveal the time of the next big ritual. The Captain calls for the Lieutenant, the niece gets kidnapped by zombies, and the assistant is killed. The Captain and Lieutenant infiltrate the ceremony and watch as Anabllea is prepared for sacrifice, but the Captain is revealed. The Captain is bitten by a snake causing him to shoot Karloff. The Lieutenant saves Anabella as the Captain, wired with explosives, lets himself collapse into a fire, blowing up the ritual site and sealing the practitioners within. The Lieutenant and Anabella escape and walk off together. THE END
Like I said, it doesn’t rise to the more extreme aesthetics suggested by the opening. The colors of the opening sequence are lurid and the costumes are ridiculous in the way that only a horror production from the 70’s could be. I really wanted to like this, but couldn’t even pay much attention to it. In the end, the only positive I can think of is that the movie is in the public domain. There are several copies on the Internet Archive already, and I added an MPEG version here. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from watching it, but it’s just not particularly compelling.
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