A new documentary, Black Zombie, is tracing the roots of zombie mythology in Haitian Vodou, and exploring how its evolution from a folkloric metaphor for slavery into a Hollywoodian horror trope has distorted a part of Black history. The first trailer has been released ahead of the film’s September 11th release date.

“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, sensationalised, 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.“

Executive producers for the documentary include Guns N’ Roses icon, Slash, who also appears as a talking head in the trailer. Black Zombie made its world premiere earlier this year at the SXSW Film Festival.

Check out the trailer below.