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White Zombie is a public domain classic and has a number of releases that vary greatly in what they offer.

This is one of the few really old movies that I've seen get a Blu-ray treatment. There is a DVD of that same release both billed as a Kino Classic's Remastered Edition. There's also a ROAN edition, an “enhanced” release, a package with a shirt, and various other stand-alone releases. If that weren't enough there are a number of combo packages one of which I'll talk more about below. There is a new Roan Blu rumored to be in the works. It's very likely to be released by the time you read this so you might want to look it up. And lastly is a Blu miuti-pack called Ultimate Horror Classics.

I got mine in a collection of 50 “Horror Classics.”

Video:

1.33: This is the TV standard “full-screen” ratio. Even by old movie standards the video quality of this transfer is terrible. It's extremely washed out at times with a lot of trash and flickering. To make matters worse there are jumps in scenes that result in omissions of portions of the film.

Audio:

1.0 mono: The audio quality isn't much better than the video. It can be difficult to make out some of the dialogue.

Packaging:

This particular disc is housed in a cardboard sleeve contained in a Velcro-fastened box. You can read about the set as a whole in great detail in the Horror Classics (50 pack) guide.

The two most notable releases I found have a posted run time of 69 minutes. The Horror Classics run time in only 65 minutes. This could be because there is a superior cut, and it could be because of the scene skips I mentioned (in other words it may be due to technical issues rather than an actual alternate cut of the movie).

Extras:

There are no extras of any kind.

Other Editions:

None of the combo packages I saw offered anything special aside from offering multiple movies for the asking price. The specs (when they are listed at all) are all the same as what I've already covered, but it wouldn't take much to improve on the horrible quality I've seen.

The same applies to most of the stand alone versions. Even the “enhanced” release gives so few details that I question whether it would be worth getting.

The DVDTee shirt package deal doesn't appear to offer anything special aside from the shirt.

The ROAN DVD is one of the few that lists any extras: “Intimate Interviews,” a trailer, and a segment from “Ship's Reporter” featuring Lugosi. While it doesn't specifically mention being restored, it does include a comment on the cover saying that the movie hasn't looked this good since it was released suggesting that this might indeed be an improved presentation. One review also praised the quality of this specific release. It lists a run time of 69 minutes which is about 4 minutes longer than the one I saw though I haven't seen any mention of this being an “uncut” version.

The Kino Classic's version (on Blu and DVD) boasts having the first HD remastering of the movie. I have read that the release offers two different prints of the film both with their positives and negatives. One softens the image to remove the trash but also kills the visual details while the other showcases the details as well as all the trash. It reportedly looks significantly better than previous DVD versions. The audio appears to be a 2.0 mono with all the white noise issues of any other release though perhaps lessened slightly. Extras include a commentary that is full of history and interesting stories, an interview with Lugosi, and a theatrical trailer. This one also offers the 69 minute run time.

The Roan Blu (unreleased as of this writing though it's probably out by the time you read it) does not have enough detail for me to accurately report on currently. It will supposedly be at the original ratio of 1.37 or 1.33 (depending on whose listing is correct) at 1080p. Audio specs are not listed (I'm betting on 2.0 mono at best), and no extras are announced at this point.

The Ultimate Horror Classics Blu collection seems to be part of a slowly growing trend (or perhaps attempt at a trend) of using Blu's storage capacity to fit a lot of movies on a single disc. 18 public domain films (some very common, some fairly rare) reside on a single disc in standard 480i definition (no HD here). The best I can say for these is that they seem to occasionally present the original image ratios and may be very slightly improved quality over some of the cheaper DVD budget packs. Otherwise they offer nothing special aside from being exceptionally self-space friendly. They offer no extras and can be somewhat hard to find.

Final Thoughts:

I often recommend the 50 Horror Classics versions of its movies as acceptable, cheap copies of the film in question but not this time; this one is hardly worth seeing. You have at least 2 clearly superior options: the ROAN and Kino Classics DVD's. While I wouldn't drop any extra cash to own it on Blu instead of DVD if you are looking for the best possible quality those are your best bets. If you chose to go with a cheaper stand-alone DVD option, at least try make sure the run time is listed as 69 minutes before you buy. Anything less than that and you run the risk of getting a severely flawed transfer like mine.