'Zombi Child': When The Real Horror Is Colonialism
Writer-director Bertrand Bonello uses the tale of a Haitian zombie to explore intergenerational racial trauma in this quiet, moody film.
Before the zombie, there was the zombi: the original undead corpse, a creature of Haitian folklore typically summoned back to life by Vodou or other means. Often these shuffling souls were returned to our world to work manual labor in the fields without complaining, stretching the tendrils of capitalism and colonialism into the spirit realm.
Cerebral and slippery, the French writer-director Bertrand Bonello's new film isn't really a horror movie. Bonello wants his undead to provoke (mild) discomfort and (major) self-reflection, rather than shock
