5. White Zombie (Victor Halperin 1932)
Upon arriving in Haiti, Madeline Short (Madge Bellamy) meets up with her fiance Neil Parker (John Harron) and they go to a plantation owned by Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer). Charles falls in love with Madeline and seeks the help Voodoo master Murder Legendre (Bela Lugosi) who uses zombies to operate his mill. He asks Murder's help to lure away Madeline using a voodoo curse. His response is to give Madeline a potion that will kill her and turn her into a zombie, making her Charles' possession. While there is an older movie on the list, White Zombie is generally considered the first zombie movie ever made. It takes the root of the notion of the zombie and adds a love triangle to it. While Murder does have a farm full of zombies, this is completely different from the hordes we see in Post-Romero films.