Voodoo in popular culture

Tropes regarding voodoo appear most often in supernatural fantasy or horror films, with common themes including the activity of witch doctors, the summoning or control of dark spirits, use of voodoo dolls to inflict pain on people remotely, and the creation of zombies.

Once in New Orleans' aspects of Vodou changed, including the wearing of charms for protection, healing and harming others.

[3] One of the first books to expose Western culture to the concept of the voodoo zombie was The Magic Island (1929) by W. B. Seabrook.

[4] Zombies have a complex literary heritage, with antecedents ranging from Richard Matheson and H. P. Lovecraft to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein drawing on European folklore of the undead.

Victor Halperin directed White Zombie (1932), a horror film starring Bela Lugosi.

[6] Its reputation is notorious;[7] in broader Anglophone and Francophone society, it has been widely associated with sorcery, witchcraft, and black magic.

[8] In U.S. popular culture, for instance, Haitian Vodou is usually portrayed as destructive and malevolent,[9] attitudes sometimes linked with anti-black racism.

[5] The link between this magical practice and Voodoo was established through the presentation of the latter in Western popular culture, enduring the first half of the 20th century.

[16] In John Houston Craige's 1933 book Black Bagdad: The Arabian Nights Adventures of a Marine Captain in Haiti, he described a Haitian prisoner sticking pins into an effigy to induce illness.

[5] It had become a novelty item available for purchase, with examples being provided in vending machines in British shopping centres,[5] and an article on "How to Make a Voodoo Doll" being included on WikiHow.

[25] Documentaries focusing on Vodou have appeared[26]—such as Maya Deren's 1985 film Divine Horsemen[27] or Anne Lescot and Laurence Magloire's 2002 work Of Men and Gods[28]—which have in turn encouraged some viewers to take a practical interest in the religion.