Theme: Voodoo

Voodoo is a religious practice that originated in Africa and spread to various Caribbean countries. A fascination with such practices began in the 1920s out of lurid accounts in US newspaper articles. This spilled over onto screens shortly after and the first voodoo film was White Zombie (1932).

The majority of film depictions have stripped voodoo down to little more than depictions of natives banging drums and dancing. The greatest fascination to emerge from voodoo is the zombie – a creature that has been resurrected from the dead and blankly shuffling – although the modern Zombie Film has abandoned all connection to voodoo.

The other fascination is with the voodoo doll – which contains hair or a personal item of a person and can be pricked and sympathetically affect the donor. Films have also created a lengthy series of fictional voodoo curses and spells.

There have been a small number of films that dig deeper and treat voodoo in terms of cultural practice and phenomenon.