Maya Annik Bedward’s documentary “Black Zombie” examines nearly a century of zombie cinema and argues that the genre has obscured the painful Haitian history and beliefs from which it emerged. The review finds the film engaging for treating the zombie not simply as a horror icon, but as evidence of cultural appropriation and distortion.

The film contrasts today’s hugely popular, flesh-eating screen zombies with earlier Haitian ideas of people deprived of their will and forced into labour. It traces modern cinematic conventions back through George A. Romero’s 1968 “Night of the Living Dead” to William Seabrook’s 1929 book “The Magic Island”, while placing Haitian zombie beliefs in the context of colonial slavery, Vodou and exploitation. Kino Lorber is due to release the Canadian documentary in the US on 11 September.