Folk Culture VS Pop Culture: ZOMBIES By Grace Lanier

History of Zombies in Haiti The translation of the Haitian term “Zombi” is translated to “Spirit of the Dead” Haitian “Zombis” came from Voodoo folklore Haitian priests (Bokor) could supposedly resurrect the dead with coup-padre powder Coup-padre powder mostly consists of the deadly tetrodoxin poison of the porcupine fish. “Zombis” were disliked people who hired the Bokor to administer the coup-padre. The coup-padre would decrease the heart rate and body temperature of the poisoned, alluding that they had died. The Bokor would resurrect the essentially comatose “Zombis”, but they no longer had the memories of their previous lives and wandered as mindless drones. Though still living, “Zombis” remained under the Bokor’s power until the Bokor himself had died.

From Haiti to Hollywood Early zombie movies in the 1930s and 1940s generally represented zombies as they had appeared in Haitian folklore. (See White Zombie of 1932, The Voodoo Man of 1944, etc…) The only variation between some of these early zombie films and Haitian myth was location. During the “Hammer Films Era” of the 1950s and 1960s, Hollywood zombies changed: They could only continue their ‘undead’ existence when sated by human flesh. (See I Eat Your Skin of 1961, The Plague of the Zombies of 1966, etc…) These zombies were usually still under the influence of some supernatural force, but this era introduced the zombie-as-cannibal theme, the “vampires with lobotomies”.

Night of the Living Dead is Revolutionary George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) redefined zombies as total monsters AND the horror genre’s effects. Zombies were reanimated but unstoppable by any master; they were only motivated by the promise of human flesh. Gave America a monstrous enemy rather than the human enemies of the Vietnam War. Zombies’ brutal behavior became cliché in zombie films to follow.