31 Days of Horror Day 15 Zany Zombies Double Feature DVD

Title-King of the Zombies and Revolt of the Zombies
Source-Pop Flix DVD

Over a decade ago Dollar Tree got flooded with piles of public domain double feature horror DVDs. All of them from Pop Flix. And all of them had great cover images. The same image that is on the topside of the DVD.Each of these DVDs had a theme. With this one of course being zombie themed.

We get 2 films. Both of which are in the public domain and both of which are from the late 30s/early 40s. Now before watching this DVD I had heard of King of the Zombies. But had never seen it. Also I had never even heard of Revolt of the Zombies.

From 1936 Revolt is a almost sequel to White Zombie. With this movie being pre-68 these zombies are the voodoo dead mindless type. Not the brain and flesh eating type. Straight up this movie fucking sucks. It is 65 minutes and took me 4 times watching it to finish it. Even though it is barely over an hour it feels 4 times longer. The acting is kinda middle of the road. The FX work is crap. And if it wasn't in the public domain I bet this would be a forgotten film.

The only neat thing about the movie is Bela Lugosi's eyes from White Zombie are used for every zombifying effect in this movie. From what I can find online this started off as an official sequel to White Zombie. Then lawsuits stopped that. So a tiny bit of the script was changed and we got this turd of a film.

Then we get our other feature,King of the Zombies. 2 guys and Mantan Moreland are flying a tiny airplane when they hear an odd radio signal. Running low on fuel they crash on an island between Cuba and Puerto Rico.

They get rescued and are told there is no radio on the island. But ships pass by often so they should be recused fairly soon. But Mantan knows something is up. And thanks to a helpful maid Mantan finds out the island is full of zombies.

Seems Dr Sangre is a secret agent and trying to get some vital info out of US military officer,who's plane crashed on the island before our trio's did. And he has a plan to use his army of zombies to take over the world.

The movie is 67 minutes and flies by. The cast is decent,with Mantan Moreland being the standout. The FX work is decent. And the film is a nice mixture of horror,comedy and spy drama.

Speaking of Mantan,he steals the movie. Before this I knew his name. But all I knew was he was an actor back in the 30s and 40s and he was stuck playing parts below his skills cause of how at the time non-white actors were treated in Hollywood. He is great in this. Being  able to convey all kinds of emotions with out talking. Just with a facial expressions he shows his fear. In a way Mantan reminds me a bit of Buster Keaton. Another comedic actor that was able to make me laugh without saying a word.

King of the Zombies is worth seeing. With it being Public Domain there is piles of VHS/DVD releases. Plus you can find it on Youtube or even the Internet Archive. Hell it is worth tracking down this DVD release cause of King of the Zombies plus the great art on the cover and the DVD.

Revolt of the Zombies was just flat out bad and boring. And not just cause of it being a film made 4 decades before I was born. But then King of the Zombies is a damn fun film. It flies by. Makes ya laugh and is one you could show to kids. King of the Zombies is so good it almost makes up for how bad Revolt of the Zombies is.

Zany Zombies gets a C.