Who “invented” zombies?
Filmmaker George Romero turned zombies into movie icons in his epic “Night of the Living Dead” horror series. But to say he “invented” them is giving the guy too much credit. The truth is, these lurching, brain-crazed creatures have deep roots in Haitian folklore. HowStuffWorks explains that Haitian zombies are quite different than the American pop-culture version. According to Haitian legend, dead bodies are brought back to life by sorcery. They aren’t self-aware and are relatively harmless unless they’re fed salt, “which restores their senses.” A 1945 article titled “The Story of Zombi in Haiti” goes into further detail. Apparently, in remote areas of Haiti, some people were believed to be more “fortunate in their undertakings” because t
