Black Zombie begins with a creature so familiar that we hardly think to question where it came from. Zombies are so foundational to the horror genre that we assume they’ve always been a part of common mythology. Part history lesson, part cultural investigation, and part cinematic excavation, the film traces the zombie back to Haitian folklore, exploring Vodou and the ways the figure was transformed by Western culture into something monstrous and hungry. Along the way, Black Zombie draws a fascinating line between Haitian history, the white supremacist traditions of early horror, and Hollywood's long fascination with the undead. The film examines how early American horror cinema turned unfamiliar cultures and peoples into objects of fear, while also tracing how the zombie eventually escaped those origins to become one of the most recognizable figures in popular culture.
The 2026 edition of the Forest City Film Festival is Powered By London Hydro.
