The earliest film that is regarded as a zombie film is White Zombie.

 

White Zombie was the first film to create the horror elements behind a possessed corpse being zombified. To do so, it embodied basic editing techniques. 

 

White Zombie utilized cuts, wipes, and dissolves to add to the elements of horror in the film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scene above shows both cuts and dissolves. There are a few cuts between the bird and Murder to show the connection between the zombies and the animal. The scene also utilizes a dissolve to show a change in time.