Kino Lorber is set to release their documentary BLACK ZOMBIE on VOD and digital platforms early next month, arriving on October 6th, 2026. The film world premiered at the 2026 SXSW Festival before launching in US theaters on September 11th, 2026.
Black Zombie is written and directed by Maya Annik Bedward, and features Yves-Grégory Francois, Erol Josué, Mambo Labelle, Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown.
The film 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 genre legends including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and Zandashé Brown.
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.
We’ve added the release date to our Streaming Calendar. Check out the official trailer below.