The Love Wanga Review: Weird 1930s Voodoo and Hilarious Zombies

If you have seventy minutes to spare and love dusty, weird 1930s movies, The Love Wanga (also known as Ouanga) is absolutely worth a watch. Voodoo fans and history nerds will find it fascinating, but anyone looking for modern jump scares or polished storytelling will probably turn it off after ten minutes. 🧟‍♂️

Its a strange relic that sits somewhere between a gothic melodrama and a really awkward travelogue. The plot is simple enough, if a bit messy.

Clelie, played by the amazing Fredi Washington, is a plantation owner in Haiti who gets her heart broken. The white neighbor she loves chooses a white woman instead, so Clelie does what any sensible 1930s movie character does. She turns to voodoo. 🔮

Fredi Washington is easily the best thing in this whole thing. She has these incredibly intense eyes that just burn through the screen.

Honestly, she is way too good for this movie. While the rest of the cast is busy acting like they are in a high school play, she is out here delivering real drama.

Speaking of the rest of the cast, we have to talk about Sheldon Leonard. You might know him as a tough-guy producer later in television, but here he plays a shady overseer.

His accent is pure Brooklyn. In Haiti. It makes absolutely no sense and I loved every second of it.

The movie is famous for having some of the earliest "zombies" on film. But do not expect The Walking Dead here.

These zombies do not want to eat brains. They mostly just look like they got woken up from a very deep nap and are mildly annoyed about it.

They just sort of... shuffle. Very slowly.

There is a scene where a zombie is sent to kidnap someone, and it takes so long you feel like you could walk over and stop him yourself. It is hilarious.

If you have seen older melodramas like The Lady Lies, you know how heavy-handed these old stories can get. But The Love Wanga takes it to a whole new level of wild.

It also has that same rough, silent-era-leftover feel you get in things like The Barrier, where the camera just sits there and hopes for the best.

The music is basically just constant drumming. It never stops.

After about forty minutes of continuous hand-drumming, your head will start to throb. I think the filmmakers just forgot to record other sound effects.

There is a really weird scene where a servant finds a voodoo charm—the "wanga" of the title. The camera just stares at her face for what feels like three minutes while she gasps.

We get it, she is scared. You do not need to linger so long that we can count her eyelashes.

The film was actually shot on location in Jamaica and Haiti, which gives it a cool, dirty look. It does not feel like a cheap Hollywood backlot, which is nice.

But the editing is just so choppy. Sometimes characters just teleport to the next scene with no explanation.

And the dialogue is pretty clunky, especially when the white leads are talking. They are so incredibly boring compared to Clelie.

You actually find yourself rooting for the voodoo curse to work just so something interesting happens to them.

Is it a masterpiece? Absolutely not.

But as a piece of weird cinema history, it is a total trip. Just do not expect it to make much sense. 🌴