Long before it became associated with flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a living metaphor for slavery.
The upcoming documentary “Black Zombie,” traces the origin and evolution of zombies from Haitian spiritual traditions to fixtures of Hollywood horror examining the cinematic, historical and cultural significance.
In the film, director Maya Annik Bedward digs deep beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s origins. She traces the evolution of the zombie from colonial Haiti to contemporary Hollywood in classic films “White Zombie,” “Night of the Living Dead,” and “The Serpent and the Rainbow.”
With archival footage, interviews with cultural historians and featuring genre legends Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown, the documentary exposes how a figure born from enslavement, spiritual belief, and resistance was transformed into one of pop culture’s most profitable monsters.
“Black Zombie” will be released theatrically by Kino Lorber who acquired U.S. distribution rights the documentary after it made its World Premiere at the 2026 SXSW Film Festival.
From Haiti to Hollywood, Bedward’s doc unearths the buried origins of the zombie genre and opens theatrically this fall.
