From Night of the Living Dead to 28 Days Later, zombies have become a staple in horror movies. The shambling flesh-eating creatures we see on the the screen are a modern creation of George Romero though, with very little ties to the Haitian spiritual traditions they were born from. Their origins aren’t the walking dead. They aren’t what most people think they are, but symbols of a people who longed for their freedom. The documentary Black Zombie takes a closer look into the history of the zombie, and why it’s culturally important to the people who created them.

Black Zombie does an amazing job doing a deep dive into the zombie films horror fans love, while at the same time exploring their origins. Director Maya Annik Bedward takes us back to 17th-century colonial Caribbean sugarcane fields and the slaves that were forced to cultivate them. She shows viewers how the religion of Vodou played an important part in their lives and gave them hope for freedom. She also slices through the mythology by interviewing modern day practitioners of the ancient religion, and filmmakers who created something new out of it.

While Black Zombie is extremely thorough and well made, fans of zombies and their history will probably learn very little from it. This documentary seems to be made more for people who have never delved into the origins of the zombie before. This doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the film, or the work that went into making it, but the audience for it has limits because of that.

If you are curious where zombies came from, and know very little about them, Black Zombie is for you. If you are a fan of them however and have read their history before, this documentary will offer very little new.

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