‘Black Zombie’ Trailer – Maya Annik Bedward’s Documentary Digs Up Forgotten History of the Zombie Character  

In her debut feature Black Zombie, director Maya Annik Bedward 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 her work, Bedward features 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. 

Black Zombie premiered at the 2026 SXSW Film Festival and went on to screen at notable film festivals around the world, including HotDocs, BlackStar Film Festival, and Fantasia Film Festival. The film will open in select theatres across the country starting in New York at the Quad Cinemas and in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Nuart Theatre on September 11th.

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.

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 more.

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.

Watch the official trailer for Black Zombie above.