‘Black Zombie’ Review: An Engaging Doc on How the Flesh-Eating Hordes of Screen Fame Obscured Painful Real-Life History
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- Maya Annik Bedward directed the Canadian documentary 'Black Zombie,' which Kino Lorber opens in the U.S. on Sept. 11 while Raven Banner releases it in Canada the same date.
- The documentary traces the cinematic zombie's roots to William Seabrook's 1929 bestseller 'The Magic Island,' which described trance-like Haitian cane-field laborers and inspired films like 1932's 'White Zombie.'
- Scholars and Vodou priests interviewed in the film argue that classic zombie thrillers — reprised as recently as Wes Craven's 1988 'The Serpent and the Rainbow' — reinforced racial stereotypes by suggesting Vodou hypnosis could threaten white, especially female, protagonists.
- The film features commentary from gore FX legend Tom Savini and 'Night of the Living Dead' co-writer John Russo, who notes Romero's 1968 breakout adopted its cannibal-ghoul premise only because the team couldn't afford science-fiction trappings.
- Experts in the documentary argue modern fast-moving cannibal zombies, while disconnected from Vodou lore, amplify contemporary anxieties about immigration, climate refugees, and otherness — as one observer puts it, zombies now simply 'represent otherness.'
- The film mixes archival clips, newsreel footage, animations, and staged B&W sequences starring Anderson Mojica as an 18th-century slave who overcomes his 'zombie' state; interviewees note salt deprivation may have stupefied enslaved laborers in Haitian colonial history.
Why it matters: The documentary gives Haitian scholars and Vodou priests a platform to challenge decades of Hollywood distortion that reinforced racial stereotypes portraying Haitians as 'savage' zombies incapable of self-governance — a framing the article notes has been reprised as recently as Wes Craven's 1988 'The Serpent and the Rainbow.'
