The new zombie boom should learn something from Black Zombie
It's time that those still capitalizing on the undead reckon with their voodoo origins. Black Zombie shows how that's possible.
In 1968, Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero made a significant impact in the horror genre by creating a high-minded, independent film that also became a massive blockbuster success. His innovative approach to the zombie genre set the stage for future films, although the original zombie concept was far different from the slow-moving, bloodthirsty creatures we know today. Instead, early zombies were often tied to voodoo practices, as explored in the documentary Black Zombie by Maya Annik Bedward.
Black Zombie delves into the historical roots of the zombie, highlighting the cultural erasure of the Vodou zombie—a result of cultural appropriation that shaped the genre's rules while stripping away its Haitian origins. Despite the emergence of a new wave of zombie movies, these films often perpetuate harmful stereotypes that originated with directors like Val Lewton, demonizing Haitians, African diaspora religions, and other aspects of Afro-Caribbean culture.
The story of the zombie can be traced back to William Seabrook's 1929 bestseller, The Magic Island, which introduced Haitian zombies in his "Dead Men Working In The Cane Fields" chapter. Seabrook saw the Black fieldworkers he observed as being under a spell, setting the stage for the racist and stereotypical portrayals of zombies in later films. One of the earliest adaptations of Seabrook's work, 1932's White Zombie, starred Bela Lugosi as "Murder" Legendre and became a minor classic.
Other films, such as Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 and Wes Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow, have struggled to navigate the complexities of the zombie genre. Fulci's Zombi 2, for instance, sends a party of white travelers to the Caribbean to survive gory sacrifices and rituals, while The Serpent and the Rainbow turns ethnobotanist Wade Davis' exploits into a late-1980s update of The Magic Island.
By avoiding Vodou, Romero built his undead characters into a constantly shifting metaphor, allowing the zombie to represent various societal issues throughout the years.
In recent years, zombie movies have largely been confined to television, with The Walking Dead and The Last of Us continuing the genre's popularity. However, the genre remains stuck in a specific narrative cul-de-sac, and many recent attempts to revive the zombie genre have failed to captivate audiences. To truly freshen up the genre and address its problematic past, a new filmmaker should return to The Magic Island, not to propagate its stereotypes, but to grapple with the origins of the zombie and its true meaning.
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