History Main / VoodooZombie

* Nigerian musician Music/FelaKuti wrote a satirical song called "Zombie" which criticises the Nigerian Army by comparing them to zombies.

** In ''Discworld/ReaperMan'' there's a discussion of voodoo practices when the wizards get distracted from "Why is Windle Poons a zombie?" by the more interesting question "''Is'' Windle Poons ''technically'' a zombie?"
** In ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'', Mrs Googol is a voodoo priestess who says she only raises zombies when there ain't no alternative, like when the house needs repainting. She is accompanied by Saturday: "He was - or, technically, had been - a tall, handsome man. He still was, only now he looked like someone who had walked through a room full of cobwebs." [[spoiler: He's also the late Baron of Genua - yes, Baron Saturday.]] It's mentioned that Discworld voodoo can't bring someone back from the dead unless they have serious UnfinishedBusiness they want to come back for.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', when the malevolent Others kill someone, it reanimates as a "wight," a freezing cold zombie with glowing blue eyes. They are resistant to normal weapons but highly susceptible to fire ([[spoiler: and obsidian, probably because it's igneous rock and therefore "created" by fire]]). Hacked-off limbs continue to move for many days afterwards, but will eventually crumble apart.

* ''Film/HocusPocus'' has [[Creator/BetteMidler Winifred's]] zombified ex-boyfriend [[Creator/DougJones Billy Butcherson]]. The BlackMagic in this context is {{Salem|IsWitchCountry}} witchcraft, not HollywoodVoodoo. But historically, the girls whose accusations spurred the Salem witch trials may have been exposed to the occult through a UsefulNotes/{{Barbad|os}}ian slave named Tituba. So there is a connection between Caribbean mysticism (albeit not specifically UsefulNotes/{{Voudoun}}) and Salem, whether or not the movie's creators knew this.

In "zombie" media, this idea of a [[UndeadLaborers zombie slave]] has been [[OurZombiesAreDifferent largely replaced]] by masterless monsters out to kill and eat the living, as introduced by Creator/GeorgeARomero in ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}''. However, Voodoo Zombies still show up a lot in {{fantasy}} as a villainous necromancer's standard {{mooks}}. Related is the concept of undead villains like [[OurLichesAreDifferent liches]], {{mumm|y}}ies, and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] reanimating other dead people (often including their victims) [[ReforgedIntoAMinion as minions]]; such minions are often referred to as [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]] if a vampire reanimated them.

In "zombie" media, this idea of a [[UndeadLaborers zombie slave]] has been [[OurZombiesAreDifferent largely replaced]] by masterless monsters out to kill and eat the living, as introduced by Creator/GeorgeARomero in ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}''. However, Voodoo Zombies still show up a lot in {{fantasy}} as a villainous necromancer's standard {{mooks}}. Related is the concept of undead villains like {{mumm|y}}ies and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] reanimating other dead people (often including their victims) [[ReforgedIntoAMinion as minions]]; such minions are often referred to as [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]] if a vampire reanimated them.

In "zombie" media, this idea of a [[UndeadLaborers zombie slave]] has been [[OurZombiesAreDifferent largely replaced]] by masterless monsters out to kill and eat the living, as introduced by Creator/GeorgeARomero in ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}''. However, Voodoo Zombies still show up a lot in {{fantasy}} as a villainous necromancer's standard {{mooks}}.

Zombies based on this tradition are originally slaves to a sorcerer or {{Necromancer}}. If [[TechnicallyLivingZombie living]], they have been {{Brainwashed}} using MoreThanMindControl. If undead, they have been [[AnimateDead reanimated]] with {{blood|Magic}}, [[BlackMagic evil, or some other form of unholy magic]]. As such, they may be vulnerable to ReviveKillsZombie. [[SaltSolution Salt]], of all things, can often break the spell, freeing the living and allowing the dead to rest...or go after their master in a vengeful rage.

In "zombie" media, this idea of a [[UndeadLaborers zombie slave]] has been [[OurZombiesAreDifferent largely replaced]] by masterless monsters out to kill and eat the living, as introduced by Creator/GeorgeARomero in ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}''. However, Voodoo Zombies still show up a lot in {{fantasy}}, including as {{mooks}} in roleplaying games like ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

This type is commonly encountered in TabletopGames and VideoGames with roots in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''.

This idea of a [[UndeadLaborers zombie slave]] has been [[OurZombiesAreDifferent largely replaced in pop culture]] by the idea of zombies as masterless monsters out to kill and eat the living, as introduced by Creator/GeorgeARomero in ''Film/{{Night of the Living Dead|1968}}''.

* In ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'', voodoo priest Remy [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/todays-comic-429/ explains]] that zombies aren't dead people but victims of TTX poisoning (pufferfish venom). Unfortunately, he's explaining this to Unity, a [[PatchworkMan Patchwork Girl]] animated by classified non-blood substance.

* In ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'', voodoo priest Remy [[http://skin-horse.com/comic/todays-comic-429/ explains]] that zombies aren't dead people but victims of TTX poisoning. Unfortunately, he's explaining this to Unity, a [[PatchworkMan Patchwork Girl]] animated by classified non-blood substance.
-->'''Unity''': I'm like 20 dead people.

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}: Warriors'' has an American marine who was betrayed and killed by his squad-mates while stationed in Haiti. Proximity to a voodoo priest caused his body to reanimate. Currently looking for revenge, he has a number of tricks up his sleeve, including burying himself over night to heal.

* [=ReDeads=] in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'' games sometimes have shades of these. While they are shambling corpses like traditional zombies, in their first appearance, ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', they drop magic bottles whenever defeared, suggesting that they're animated by a spell (and may even be made of clay), and their ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker Wind Waker]]'' design is more tribal, with large pointy ears and earrings, and tall screaming heads like tiki faces.

[[folder:Real life]]

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Creator/CarlBarks wrote a ComicBook/DonaldDuck comic, "Voodoo Hoodoo", where a zombie from DarkestAfrica wants to give Donald a cursed doll to shrink him. The shaman who originally placed the curse was an enemy of Donald's uncle Scrooge, who stole his tribe's land during the Scramble for Africa. ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'' by Creator/DonRosa shows the original events: Scrooge, who strongly resembled his future nephew Donald when his beard is tucked back, changed his appearance back to confuse Bombie. However, the curse caused Bombie to keep tracking down Scrooge over the years until a different shaman in the Pacific Islands trapped Bombie there before he showed up in Duckburg.

* ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck'': Bombie the Zombie was enchanted by African voodoo priest Foola Zoola to get revenge on Scrooge [=McDuck=] for [[CharacterizationMarchesOn attacking his tribe and stealing his land]]. Scrooge, who strongly resembled his future nephew Donald, changed his appearance back just enough to confuse Bombie to leave him be. However, Bombie continued to pursue Scrooge for years as the curse was never lifted, and eventually went after Donald in Carl Barks's original story.

* The CIA basically tried to make this a reality through their infamous MKULTRA experiments.

* American SerialKiller Jeffrey Dahmer attempted to create these out of several of his victims, albeit with science instead of magic, so he would have permanently submissive sex slaves. To accomplish this, he would drill a hole through their skull and inject either hydrochloric acid or boiling water directly into their frontal lobe. By his own admission, “it never worked” -- all this generally did was kill them in horrible fashion.

* The Rock Zombies in ''ComicBoo/{{Runaways}}''. Although they turn out to be not actually undead, but rather people deformed and mind controlled by Magic. And then there's Dead George Pellham from the 1907 arc.

* The CIA basically tried to create these through their infamous MKULTRA experiments.

* Nigerian musician Music/FelaKuti wrote a song called "Zombie" which criticises the Nigerian Army by comparing them to zombies.

* Nigerian musician Music/FelaKuti wrote a song called "Zombie" which criticises the Nigerian Army and compares them to zombies.