I'm taking a short break from old vampire movies and am going to venture into zombie land. I figured it was a while since I've mentioned any flesh-gnawer from the good old days. This is why I found myself checking out the Internet Archive and browsing for zombie flicks. A few searches later, I settled for King of Zombies and started watching it. The result was … interesting.

In one sense, King of Zombies is very typical of its times. Folks land on a mysterious island that is ruled by an evil man, a quirky landowner who controls zombies. Alright, so that is the age-old formula for making a quick zombie flick. But there were parts of this movie that gave it a rather unique touch. I will explain them in the following summary of the movie. Two guys, McCarthy and Summers crash their plane onto an uncharted island. By the way, did I mention that they brought along their man-servant, Jeff? This guy steals the show with his lines and comedic moments but, at the same time, the treatment of this character ends up being a disturbing indication of the social inequality present in that time.

So there you are, squirming uncomfortably about the overall reaction to Jeff. And then it gets worse. These guys run into a foreign property owner on the island, incidentally a man who also controls much of the island and its people. Hmm, not very apologetic about colonial conquests now, are we? The power freak is called Dr Sangre and he is openly condescending towards Jeff: poor guy is not offered a proper room and is told to mingle with house servants. After a few nasty remarks and gestures from Dr Sangre, you inadvertently start comparing him to famous fascist group of the black-and-white era. You know, the one spoofed in numerous Downfall clips. Anyway, with this guy's attitude, all he needed was a uniform, the angular salute and perhaps be married off to a blue-eyed blonde. Er, wait, is that his wife coming down the stairs? She does fit the bill rather well. Oh and he's Austrian? How nice. And for some reason he is sending mysterious radio messages to 'HQ'? I must say it was kind of sad that my initial joke turned out to be the underlying plot-line for the story.

Well, there was a bit more to the story. Dr Sangre is also dabbling in voodoo magic … or at least pointing a figurative gun at someone who has the occult knowhow. Thus, he ends up with an army of zombies, either folks raised from the dead or hypnotized to be minions. Interesting to note that Dr Sangre's wife belonged to this group; given her catatonic state, I was impressed at whoever was doing her hair every morning. If it was Dr Sangre, he certainly has a second career to fall back on. Jeff finds out about the zombie army and tries to warn the others but in vain. He's quickly recruited into the army after undergoing hypnosis whereas McCarthy kicks the bucket and ends up as the only white guy in the army. That bit right there, was another jarring moment of colonialism and racism joining hands and contributing to zombie lore. Back to the story. Dr Sangre is planning to interrogate a high ranking soldier for info! Oh no, can the last remaining survivor save the day?

It was only after watching the entire movie that I read up about it. And it all made sense afterwards. Apparently, the movie was made during the Second World War but a bit before US ventured into it. Hence, movie was actually going for a suave, espionage tale that involved zombies. And of course, what better enemy than the Nazis, the biggest worry of their time? What amused me was some reviews that hinted at a toned down effort when depicting Nazis; apparently, since US was not directly involved, the movie-makers were slightly squeamish about direct comment on the WW2 efforts or involved parties. Hah, they might as well have had a blinking neon sign over Dr Sangre! I think we can safely class that as a subtlety fail.

There are two things I want to point out. Firstly, I may have been skittish about Jeff being a caricature but I was, nonetheless, impressed by the actor. Usually, comic relief ends up detracting from main story or being plain annoying. In his case, he added dignity to goofy humor. My favorite bit was when he awakens from his hypnotized state and realized that he was, in fact, eating dinner with a group of zombies.

Which brings me to the other point. Isn't it fascinating that movies from the past had such a different take on zombie lore? Nowadays we can't imagine anyone getting that glassy-eyed, must-eat-brains look unless some sort of incurable virus is involved. Contrary to the modern hypochondriac take, folks in the past compared zombies to oppression in the form of racism and colonialism. After all, White Zombie and Revolt of the Zombies had the same theme. Are we just a bit too obsessed with illness nowadays?