A morbid poetry permeates the decor and imagery of this unique chiller, which achieves its ends entirely through carefully created atmosphere. The film is perhaps eeriest in establishing zombies, the “walking dead” of Haiti, in a realistic context, as corpses reanimated by witchcraft for the purpose of supplying labor for the cane fields and sugar mills. Bela Lugosi portrays the island's notorious zombie master, Murder Legendre. The plot is as much a Gothic fairy tale as a horror story, involving a wealthy plantation owner who lures a young bride and groom to his home in order to have the girl for himself, with the help of Murder Legendre's voodoo. Carlos Clarens, in his book Horror Movies, writes, “White Zombie is fluidly cinematic, filled with lengthy, wordless sequences and supported by an effective musical score.... Bela Lugosi throws himself into the part of Legendre with real relish, gleefully etching lines in venom....” Clarens also notes the “traditional symbols, dreamlike imagery, echoes of Romanticism, and (probably unintentional) psycho-sexual overtones.”