Black Zombie

dir. Maya Annik Bedward
90 min.

Black Zombie digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins. Long before it became associated with flesh-eating ghouls, the zombie was a living metaphor for slavery: not a monster, but the ultimate victim of colonial power. A symbol of stolen agency was recast as an object of fear, while Black spiritual traditions were distorted, sensationalized, and erased. 

Director Maya Annik Bedward traces the evolution of the zombie from colonial Haiti to contemporary Hollywood, reconsidering iconic films like White Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, and The Serpent and the Rainbow alongside archival footage, vérité scenes, and interviews with cultural historians, artists, and genre legends including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown. Part cultural reckoning, part horror remix, Black Zombie exposes how a figure born from enslavement, spiritual belief, and resistance was transformed into one of pop culture’s most profitable monsters.

An act of reclamation…Black Zombie demands you reconsider both the horrors humans are capable of and the untold beauty of the living and the dead.” – Jessi Cape, The Austin Chronicle

“Fascinatingly unpacks the origins of one of the most popular horror genres of all time.” – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“A multigenerational, multilayered production that captures the richness of Haiti, Vodou, and zombies… Tackles dense history while weaving through a serene ode to the beautiful island and its residents.” – Tina Kakadelis, Film Obsessive