This movie begins with a village witch doctor in Haiti giving a local plantation owner named "Klili Gordon" (Fredi Washington) a magical amulet to protect her. Not long afterward, she falls in love with a white man named Adam Maynard (Philip Brandon) who owns a plantation nearby. To her surprise, when Adam returns from a trip to the United States, he brings a another woman back with him by the name of "Eve Langley" (Marie Paxton) and announces that she is soon to become his new bride. This infuriates Klili who subsequently puts a death curse upon Eve that sends her into a deep and deadly coma. Fortunately, Adam manages to negate the curse when he confronts Klili about it. But Klili's anger only intensifies when he rejects her because of their racial differences and this prompts her to delve even deeper into the black arts in order to destroy her new rival. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie was filmed during the Great Depression and like a number of pictures produced back then is relatively short (only 56 minutes or so). Additionally, the manner in which zombies were portrayed was quite different during this period as well. Be that as it may, while this film is certainly quite dated and has several other faults as well, it still retains some of its charm and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
3 Reviews
Interesting Story but Poor Results
Michael_Elliott25 July 2018
Ouanga (1936)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Plantation owner Kiki (Fredi Washington) falls in love with a white man but when that man picks a white woman to be with over her, Kiki decides to use voodoo to bring the dead back to life and go after the man.
If you're familiar with the race pictures from this era then you probably already know that they were made for very little money and more times than not the talent in front of and behind the camera wasn't the greatest. That's pretty much the case with this horror film that, like a lot of the horror race pictures, is more melodrama than anything else.
I must say that I was a little surprised by the storyline. Interracial mixing wasn't a common thread back in the day so for this film to tackle that was pretty brave. Having a black woman lusting for a white man and then putting a curse on him isn't something you'd normally see in 1936. With that said, the film has a cast of actors who are quite light-skinned, which was another common issue for these films.
As You'd expect, the performances ranged from bland to poor and technically speaking there was nothing impressive about the film. The "zombies" in the film are like the ones seen in WHITE ZOMBIE so those expecting the George A. Romero type would need to wait several more decades. The zombie aspect really isn't explored too well and the horror elements are rather light.
If your'e a fan of these race pictures then there's no question that this is worth watching just due to the subject matter. One wishes that a better film would have came from it though.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Plantation owner Kiki (Fredi Washington) falls in love with a white man but when that man picks a white woman to be with over her, Kiki decides to use voodoo to bring the dead back to life and go after the man.
If you're familiar with the race pictures from this era then you probably already know that they were made for very little money and more times than not the talent in front of and behind the camera wasn't the greatest. That's pretty much the case with this horror film that, like a lot of the horror race pictures, is more melodrama than anything else.
I must say that I was a little surprised by the storyline. Interracial mixing wasn't a common thread back in the day so for this film to tackle that was pretty brave. Having a black woman lusting for a white man and then putting a curse on him isn't something you'd normally see in 1936. With that said, the film has a cast of actors who are quite light-skinned, which was another common issue for these films.
As You'd expect, the performances ranged from bland to poor and technically speaking there was nothing impressive about the film. The "zombies" in the film are like the ones seen in WHITE ZOMBIE so those expecting the George A. Romero type would need to wait several more decades. The zombie aspect really isn't explored too well and the horror elements are rather light.
If your'e a fan of these race pictures then there's no question that this is worth watching just due to the subject matter. One wishes that a better film would have came from it though.
Wow, made less than 90 years ago!
JoeB13114 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is a horrifying look into race relations in this country within only a few generations.
The plot is that a white plantation owner moves from Haiti to the States to learn new methods of growing crops, but in the meantime, leaves behind his mixed-race girlfriend whom he can never marry because she is mixed race. He finds himself a nice white girl to be in love with.
Like almost all Exes, his is a witch. The problem is, she's a voodoo witch, and she proceeds to engage in an array of curses trying to ruin the happiness of her former boyfriend. Well, this is 1936 and drunk dialing hasn't been invented yet. Meanwhile the mixed race overseer of the White dude's plantation is also in love with the ex-girlfriend, but has like zero game.
The horrifying part of this movie is the casual racism! Of course, the girl is supposed to accept that she isn't "good enough", and she becomes the villain because she doesn't accept this. Other black characters are shown as oversexed, uneducated, and subservient.
The plot is that a white plantation owner moves from Haiti to the States to learn new methods of growing crops, but in the meantime, leaves behind his mixed-race girlfriend whom he can never marry because she is mixed race. He finds himself a nice white girl to be in love with.
Like almost all Exes, his is a witch. The problem is, she's a voodoo witch, and she proceeds to engage in an array of curses trying to ruin the happiness of her former boyfriend. Well, this is 1936 and drunk dialing hasn't been invented yet. Meanwhile the mixed race overseer of the White dude's plantation is also in love with the ex-girlfriend, but has like zero game.
The horrifying part of this movie is the casual racism! Of course, the girl is supposed to accept that she isn't "good enough", and she becomes the villain because she doesn't accept this. Other black characters are shown as oversexed, uneducated, and subservient.
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