Zombi Child

Beginning in Haiti in the early sixties, "Zombi Child" deals with voodoo and is one of the best and most poetic horror films in many a moon. It is obvious from the title and the setting that we are meant to think of a much earlier film with a similar setting but that would appear to be where the comparisons with Jacques Tourneur's "I Walked with a Zombie" ends for in the next scene we are in comtemporary France and a group of schoolgirls are being taught French history in a very white classroom.

What follows is a deliciously unsettling movie that manages to encompass the pains of teenage romance with a tale of the 'undead' as a metaphor for colonialism and it actually works. I can't think of too many examples in recent cinema where two opposing themes have been as beautifully united as they are here. In some ways it's closer to something like "The Neon Demon" or the recent remake of "Suspiria" than it is to Val Lewton. Here is a film with a creeping sense of dread, (we've all seen films in which schoolgirls are not as sweet as they appear to be), and the grand guignol finale is as spooky as a good horror movie should be. It also confirms director Bertrand Bonello as one of the most exciting talents working anywhere today.

The zombie film has come a long way and has returned to the beginning: from the movies about slaves who worked in cane fields, it went through all kinds of cannibal gore and splatter, to finally go back to its origins, such as "Atlantique", a return to social issues, telling the story of modern young slaves in Africa. This other attempt remained halfway. For a good while, I thought, "This may be the one that would set the record straight". I also found it interesting, for its respectful description of a (fascistoid) school of privileged girls in Paris, and of the girls themselves, as pleasant, intelligent and normal beings. A few scenes, such as the insubstantial class about the French revolution, were distracting from the main subject. But the "main subject", which seemed to be the encounter of two cultures in the 21st century, based on the story of a real zombie (that of the Haitian Clairvius Narcisse, who claimed while being alive that he had been a victim of zombification), seen through the eyes of Narcisse's granddaughter, a girl who survived the 2010 earthquake in Haiti... that is not, in fact, the "main subject." The "main subject" is about a girl who is desperate to meet up with her lover Pablo to make love until she is dry, but the girl disguises her tickle with cheesy declarations of love as in the worst romance novel, which we have to listen to every time Narcisse's story advances a little, because it is she who will take us to the "scène de rigueur" of cheap supernatural horror, which, as in "The Serpent and the Rainbow", almost erases all good intentions, a collapse rounded off with a song by Rogers & Hammerstein. Anyway ... that's a shame, but maybe it is asking too much from Bertrand Bonello...

P. S. In the case of Craven's "The Serpent and the Rainbow", we knew the horror fest would happen in any moment, so although it weakens the movie a bit, it was a typical horror movie "a la Craven", and a very good one.

Although the last twenty minutes are breathless, the introduction languishes and lasts about eighty minutes. Thus, in order to appreciate the very ending, you'll have to be patient... very patient...

Extremely boring movie.. Could have been made more good but it was as boring as those girls were bored in thier hostel.

Zombi Child blends voodoo, boarding school, pretty women, and some sort of avant-garde horror into a daub of mediocrity, painting in broad, superficial strokes that look pretty but ultimately amount to nothing of value. It tells two disconnected stories (or at least, that's what writer/director Bertrand Bonello wants you to think): one of a reanimated man forced to work in sugar plantations, and another of a young, high-school girl trying to fit into boarding school while pining for her boyfriend. The film lacks any tension, dramatic or otherwise; although being touted as a horror film it lacks suspense; and it lacks an engaging storyline and characters, making the almost two-hour film really feel its runtime.

Zombi Child suffers from various problems, although not all at once. It starts off promising, setting up the two storylines quite well with vivid imagery and fantastic cinematography. Almost immediately after, however, the endgame becomes painfully obvious and the rest of the film is merely a slog to that point, watching teen girls be angsty and sighing while speaking to each other in hushed tones under muted sepia lights. The writing is painfully lacklustre, with dialogue woefully inadequate and characters chewing the scenery more than anything else at any given time. Lack of dialogue doesn't bother me; after all, Beanpole does a fantastic job with sparse dialogue; however, the sparse dialogue in Zombi Child, designed to come off as artistic, only presents itself as shallow and vapid.

Unlike The Wave, however, Zombi Child is not a complete loss of cinema. The film works best when it completely gives itself up to the legend, with the mysterious, occult scenes where voodoo is performed a highlight in cinematography. The acting is brilliant: both women (Louise Labeque and Wislanda Louimat) perform admirably in the spotlight, doing the best with what they're given: Labeque playing the vapid, love-lorn teenager filled with angst and hormones, and Louimat playing what appears to be the only person of colour in the film.

The final third of the movie is its saving grace, with beautiful cinematography and displays of Haitian (or is it voodoo?) culture that almost make the slog through the first two-thirds worth it.

Zombi Child could have been so much more if it had focussed its attentions on the tale it was trying to tell. It wastes its time talking high-school romance and pining for faraway lovers, when it could have been trying to build interest and suspense. It also might have helped if we, the audience, weren't aware of how things were going to turn out in the first ten minutes or so. In fact, it might have been better if Zombi Child had been two movies: one exploring the life of a man returned from the grave and forced into slavery, and one where a young woman does everything in her power to keep herself together after her love falls apart.

Instead, what we have is two halves of slightly under-baked pies struggling to be one. I mean, I'd eat it, but I think I'd enjoy it a lot more if it had been something else. At least it looks pretty.