In 1962, a Haitian man is buried by his family and his brother that caused his death by voodoo, only to be brought back as an undead zombi slave. 55 years later, a teenage girl Fanny makes friends with Mélissa, who moved from Haiti to France after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. After it is revealed that Mélissa's family is associated with voodoo culture, Fanny convinces Mélissa's aunt Katy (a mambo) to perform a ritual in order to cure Fanny's heartbreak over a recent breakup. The ritual goes awry, however, leaving Fanny possessed by Baron Samedi himself.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 86% based on 83 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "If the strain of its ambitious juggling act sometimes shows, Zombi Child remains an entertainingly audacious experience, enlivened with thought-provoking themes."[7] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 74 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]
