The buried origins of the cinema zombie will be explored in the upcoming documentary Black Zombie, and it’s set to arrive this Halloween season.
From writer and director Maya Annik Bedward, Black Zombie digs beneath the blood-soaked spectacle of modern horror to uncover the zombie’s buried and unsettling origins.
Black Zombie will open in select theaters across the country on September 11 courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The doc traces the origin and evolution of zombies from Haitian spiritual traditions to fixtures of Hollywood horror, examining the cinematic and historical context and reclaiming their deeper cultural significance as powerful symbols of survival and resistance.
In Black Zombie, “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.“
Executive producers for the documentary include music legend Slash.
Black Zombie made its world premiere earlier this year at the 2026 SXSW Film Festival and has continued to garner acclaim as it screens at notable film festivals around the world, including Hot Docs, Blackstar Film Festival, and next at the Fantasia Film Festival.
Stay tuned for more on this doc and our coverage out of Fantasia.
