Brooke Obie

In Haitian mythology, the idea of what we now call zombies emerged from enslaved Africans’ deepest fear: not even death would bring freedom. Though suicide was common on the brutal French enslavers’ plantations, the enslaved feared suicide would leave them trapped in their bodies — and on the plantations — forever.

Post-slavery and colonization in Haiti, the zombie myth became a part of the Haitian Vodou religion, evolving into corpses that bokors (Haitian vodou sorcerers) would exhume, reanimate, and exploit for the purpose of free labor. No rest for the weary, no peace for the dead — not when there is money to be made.

Last week, just in time for Halloween, the estate of legendary singer Whitney Houston exhumed her likeness for a six-month Las Vegas residency at Harrah’s called An Evening With Whitney: The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour. 

With no sense of irony, Base Hologram and the Houston estate describe the event as a “boundary-breaking hologram concert spectacle.” The 3D projection of Houston is accompanied by a live band, backup singers, dancers and “cinematic special effects.”

“You’ll swear Houston is actually on the stage,” raved Las Vegas Magazine. Houston, who tragically died almost a decade ago, will obviously not be on stage. Hundreds of years after the end of slavery, Whitney is a corpse reanimated, to sing and dance for our entertainment.