The first step in deciding what are the best zombie movies requires the rather delicate matter of determining what in fact are zombies. The common short hand of calling them the reanimated or walking or living dead isn't quite sufficient. After all, vampires would thereby qualify, too. And them vampires, they ain't no zombies, no way, no how. To determine what qualifies as a zombie, we will need some rules to set the parameters.
Of course it's something of a cliche to observe that rules are made to be broken. That may be so and without question even the rules of zombie movie conventions have not been rigorously observed. Despite this fast and loose playing with the rules, some enduring conventions can be identified. Exercising a little flexibility in discussing them should keep us out of too much conceptual hot water, while allowing us to set some parameters.
For purposes then of these reflections on the rules there is benefit in distinguishing between the pre and the post Romero zombies. There are both notable differences and similarities. The discussion wraps up with some consideration to standard narrative rules of the zombie movie as a predictable genre.
The Pre Romero Zombies
1. The original idea of zombies comes from notions of Haitian voodoo and the pre-Romero movies often followed this archetype so that such zombies would have a master that controlled them as a function of having raised them from the grave.
2. These early zombies usually had slow, unbalanced movement,
3. Even before Romero, the convention developed of setting zombies in an apocalyptic nihilistic world.
4. These earlier films also commonly depicted zombiism as the manifestation of a plague.
Romero/post-Romero Zombies
5. Among Romero's enduring changes was that the zombies ceased to be in the control of some master-mind. Instead, now, zombies more closely resembled an act of god or natural disaster. It has become common currency that in fact the rise of zombies constituted some kind of retribution by nature against some alleged ecological evil of human action.
6. They were now driven by an insatiable hunger to eat the living, which had (and apparently required) no further explanation.
7. Romero's zombie attacks took on a different cinematic flavor, depicted in gruesome and graphic detail. There was now a premium on the re-creation of lifelike blood and gore.
8. Perhaps the most enduringly influential Romero idea was that zombies were only "killed" by a decisive head shot, resulting in brain damage.
9 Though perhaps as enduring as #8 is the premise that the zombie plague, which as we saw predates Romero's vision, was spread through the human population by zombie bites.
Stock ingredients for a zombie movie
10. Pretty much every zombie movie, it seems, has to have the loser character that, whether out of stupidity, selfishness, cowardice or general inhumanity screws everything up for everyone else. Their anti-group disposition causes a break in the fortifications holding the zombies out of the safe space. So the last shred of human society, the straggling survivors, is smote by the social outcast. (There is very much a kind of communitarian conservatism to most of these movies.)
11. Straggling survivors, who just gotta stick together to survive. Frequently, they are composed of a solid PC diversity across ethnic, gender and age lines. All this seems intent upon representing a microcosm of human hope and futility, dignity and venality.
12. And of course one of the most stock of stock story devices, is the initial incomprehension and denial about what's actually going down. Interestingly, despite all the zombie movies in the world, no zombie movie itself ever takes place in a world that has zombie movies. Or, at the very least, no public official, nor any other person with any authority, it would appear has ever seen such a movie. Because they sure are slow on the uptake.
13. Though on the surface, zombie movies are about killing zombies, they are really about human distrust, betrayal and fear. They're not just surviving the zombies, but themselves, and each other.
14. A reliable staple is the sad sap, unable to let go emotionally of some past intimate relation with one of the zombies. They can't quite come to terms with the reality that their former loved one is now a cannibalistic ambulating corpse. You'd think that might be more obvious.
15. Then of course there's the leader, who could have been and maybe will be, but never has quite the followers required. Usually a male, he tries against hope to pull everyone together, always explaining that solidarity is their only chance of surviving. His thanks in return is some obnoxious jerk accusingly questioning: "who made you the boss?"
16. And, last, but far from least, we need some hotties -- from both sides of the gender divide. Call it "love interests" if you'd like. Personally, I suspect these are secretly the main attraction of major zombie movie geeks, who can finally credibly think, "Those babes will have to have sex with me, now! How else will the human race be repopulated?" The problem of course is, as mentioned above, the hotties are usually represented by both genders. So, in fact, poor geek, there's still some alpha type getting in the way of your apocalyptic fantasy. But, at least it gives them hope. What's the real point of a zombie apocalypse if you can't have a little hope of making it with a hottie?
So, there you go; there's our 16 rules for identifying zombies and their movies. Now, next time you're asked about the best zombie movies , you know what you're talking about!
Of course it's something of a cliche to observe that rules are made to be broken. That may be so and without question even the rules of zombie movie conventions have not been rigorously observed. Despite this fast and loose playing with the rules, some enduring conventions can be identified. Exercising a little flexibility in discussing them should keep us out of too much conceptual hot water, while allowing us to set some parameters.
For purposes then of these reflections on the rules there is benefit in distinguishing between the pre and the post Romero zombies. There are both notable differences and similarities. The discussion wraps up with some consideration to standard narrative rules of the zombie movie as a predictable genre.
The Pre Romero Zombies
1. The original idea of zombies comes from notions of Haitian voodoo and the pre-Romero movies often followed this archetype so that such zombies would have a master that controlled them as a function of having raised them from the grave.
2. These early zombies usually had slow, unbalanced movement,
3. Even before Romero, the convention developed of setting zombies in an apocalyptic nihilistic world.
4. These earlier films also commonly depicted zombiism as the manifestation of a plague.
Romero/post-Romero Zombies
5. Among Romero's enduring changes was that the zombies ceased to be in the control of some master-mind. Instead, now, zombies more closely resembled an act of god or natural disaster. It has become common currency that in fact the rise of zombies constituted some kind of retribution by nature against some alleged ecological evil of human action.
6. They were now driven by an insatiable hunger to eat the living, which had (and apparently required) no further explanation.
7. Romero's zombie attacks took on a different cinematic flavor, depicted in gruesome and graphic detail. There was now a premium on the re-creation of lifelike blood and gore.
8. Perhaps the most enduringly influential Romero idea was that zombies were only "killed" by a decisive head shot, resulting in brain damage.
9 Though perhaps as enduring as #8 is the premise that the zombie plague, which as we saw predates Romero's vision, was spread through the human population by zombie bites.
Stock ingredients for a zombie movie
10. Pretty much every zombie movie, it seems, has to have the loser character that, whether out of stupidity, selfishness, cowardice or general inhumanity screws everything up for everyone else. Their anti-group disposition causes a break in the fortifications holding the zombies out of the safe space. So the last shred of human society, the straggling survivors, is smote by the social outcast. (There is very much a kind of communitarian conservatism to most of these movies.)
11. Straggling survivors, who just gotta stick together to survive. Frequently, they are composed of a solid PC diversity across ethnic, gender and age lines. All this seems intent upon representing a microcosm of human hope and futility, dignity and venality.
12. And of course one of the most stock of stock story devices, is the initial incomprehension and denial about what's actually going down. Interestingly, despite all the zombie movies in the world, no zombie movie itself ever takes place in a world that has zombie movies. Or, at the very least, no public official, nor any other person with any authority, it would appear has ever seen such a movie. Because they sure are slow on the uptake.
13. Though on the surface, zombie movies are about killing zombies, they are really about human distrust, betrayal and fear. They're not just surviving the zombies, but themselves, and each other.
14. A reliable staple is the sad sap, unable to let go emotionally of some past intimate relation with one of the zombies. They can't quite come to terms with the reality that their former loved one is now a cannibalistic ambulating corpse. You'd think that might be more obvious.
15. Then of course there's the leader, who could have been and maybe will be, but never has quite the followers required. Usually a male, he tries against hope to pull everyone together, always explaining that solidarity is their only chance of surviving. His thanks in return is some obnoxious jerk accusingly questioning: "who made you the boss?"
16. And, last, but far from least, we need some hotties -- from both sides of the gender divide. Call it "love interests" if you'd like. Personally, I suspect these are secretly the main attraction of major zombie movie geeks, who can finally credibly think, "Those babes will have to have sex with me, now! How else will the human race be repopulated?" The problem of course is, as mentioned above, the hotties are usually represented by both genders. So, in fact, poor geek, there's still some alpha type getting in the way of your apocalyptic fantasy. But, at least it gives them hope. What's the real point of a zombie apocalypse if you can't have a little hope of making it with a hottie?
So, there you go; there's our 16 rules for identifying zombies and their movies. Now, next time you're asked about the best zombie movies , you know what you're talking about!
About the Author:
Now that you know what makes the grade as a zombie movie, check out Mickey Jhonny's controversial top five list of the all time best zombie movies . Over at the Walking Dead celebration blog, Pretty Much Dead Already, his article on the Walking Dead fanfiction is a must read for all aficionados of the zombie genre.
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