New documentary Black Zombie traces the Haitian origins and Black spiritual traditions that were distorted or erased in early zombie cinema, and the first trailer has arrived.
Black Zombie opens in NYC and LA theaters on September 11 courtesy of Kino Lorber.
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.
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.
“This film is my expression of gratitude to the knowledge keepers who have safeguarded these traditions and carried these histories forward. It is an invitation to look again at a figure we think we know and to confront the histories buried within it,” Bedward said in a director’s statement.
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.
Check out the trailer and poster below.
