BLACK ZOMBIE Documentary to Open in New York and Los Angeles
The documentary features interviews with Slash, Tom Savini, Tananarive Due and Zandashé Brown.
A new trailer and poster have arrived for BLACK ZOMBIE, a documentary directed by Maya Annik Bedward that examines the origins of the zombie figure in colonial Haiti and its transformation into a staple of horror cinema. The film is set to open in New York City and Los Angeles on September 11.
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.
Canada | 2026 | 90mins | In English, French, Haitian Creole
Credits
Director: Maya Annik Bedward
Writer: Maya Annik Bedward
Producers: Maya Annik Bedward, Hannah Donegan, Kate Fraser
Executive Producers: Jennifer Holness, Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, and Slash
Featuring: Yves-Grégory Francois, Tananarive Due, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown
BLACK ZOMBIE opens September 11 at the Quad Cinema in New York and Laemmle's Nuart in Los Angeles, and will expand to select theaters nationwide.
BLACK ZOMBIE traces the zombie's evolution from a symbol of slavery and stolen agency in colonial Haiti to its reinvention in films such as WHITE ZOMBIE, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, drawing on archival footage and interviews with cultural historians, artists, and genre figures including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown.
