Black Zombie

No one can ignore the complicated nature of Bedward’s topic. A conversation with a priest in the final act shows him distrusting Bedward. Still, the finished film does well to unravel, as best it can, something that never needed the glitz of movies and, presumably, might have been better kept within the circles of those who genuinely cared.

The filmmaker Maya Annik Bedward’s “Black Zombie,” about the historical and cultural roots of a seemingly unstoppable genre, begins and ends on a spiritual note. Or, as Yves-Grégory Francois, a Haitian I.T. professional and Vodou priest, suggests, a note of “metaphysical justice.”

While modern-day blind spots burden the film, “Black Zombie” stays true to its motivation: lifting the cloche on the erasure and exploitation that founded one of horror’s most iconic figures.