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Zombie comedy, [1] often called zom com or zomedy, [2] [3] is a film genre that aims to blend zombie horror motifs with slapstick comedy as well as morbid humor.
The earliest roots of the genre can be found in Jean Yarbrough's King of the Zombies (1941) and Gordon Douglas's Zombies on Broadway (1945), though both of these films dealt with Haitian-style zombies. While not comedies, George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985) featured several comedic scenes and satirical commentary on society. An American Werewolf in London (1981) [4] and the Return of the Living Dead series (1985) [5] (especially the first two and the last of the series) can be considered some of the earliest examples of zombie-comedy using the modern zombie. Other early examples include Mr. Vampire (1985), C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (1989), Braindead (1992), and Bio Zombie (1998).
A popular modern zombie comedy is Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead (2004), [6] a self-dubbed romantic zombie comedy, or RomZomCom, [7] with many in-jokes and references to George A. Romero's earlier Dead films, especially Dawn of the Dead . Other popular zombie comedies include Gregg Bishop's Dance of the Dead (2008) and the 2009 film Zombieland .
Andrew Currie's Fido , [8] Matthew Leutwyler's Dead & Breakfast , and Peter Jackson's Braindead are also examples of zombie comedies. [9] Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II , although a more direct horror film, contains some lighthearted and dark comedy elements, and its sequel, Army of Darkness , is even more comedic. The Evil Dead franchise does not, however, feature any traditional-style zombies.
Films that can be considered zombie comedies include:
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent horror film directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by Romero and John Russo, produced by Russell Streiner and Karl Hardman, and starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by reanimated corpses. Although the flesh-eating monsters that appear in the film are referred to as "ghouls", they are credited with popularizing the modern portrayal of zombies in popular culture.
Braindead is a 1992 New Zealand zombie comedy splatter film directed by Peter Jackson, produced by Jim Booth, and written by Stephen Sinclair, Fran Walsh, and Jackson based on an original story idea by Sinclair. It stars Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody and Ian Watkin. The plot follows Lionel, a young man living in South Wellington with his strict mother Vera. After Lionel becomes romantically entangled with a girl named Paquita, Vera is bitten by a hybrid rat-monkey creature and begins to transform into a zombie, while also infecting swathes of the city's populace.
Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer.
Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 romantic zombie comedy film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Simon Pegg. Pegg stars as Shaun, a downtrodden London salesman who is caught alongside his loved ones in a zombie apocalypse. It also stars Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, and Penelope Wilton. It is the first film in Wright and Pegg's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, followed by Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World's End (2013).
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become historically important, and even gain a cult following.
Edgar Howard Wright is an English filmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilisation of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes. He first made independent short films before making his first feature film A Fistful of Fingers in 1995. Wright created and directed the comedy series Asylum in 1996, written with David Walliams. After directing several other television shows, Wright directed the sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which aired for two series and starred frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
Japanese horror is horror fiction derived from popular culture in Japan, generally noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre differing from the traditional Western representation of horror. Japanese horror tends to focus on psychological horror, tension building (suspense), and the supernatural, particularly involving ghosts (yūrei) and poltergeists. Other Japanese horror fiction contains themes of folk religion such as possession, exorcism, shamanism, precognition, and yōkai. Media in which the genre of Japanese horror fiction can be found include artwork, theater, literature, film, anime and video games.
Fido is a 2006 Canadian zombie comedy film directed by Andrew Currie and written by Robert Chomiak, Currie, and Dennis Heaton from an original story by Heaton. It was produced by Blake Corbet, Mary Anne Waterhouse, Trent Carlson and Kevin Eastwood of Anagram Pictures, and released in the United States by Lions Gate Entertainment.
Dead & Breakfast is a 2004 musical zombie comedy film directed by Matthew Leutwyler starring Ever Carradine, Gina Philips, Erik Palladino, Bianca Lawson, Jeremy Sisto and Oz Perkins. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and went on to win over a dozen awards. It was also nominated for a Saturn Award.
Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof." It often crosses over with the black comedy genre. Comedy horror can also parody or subtly spoof horror clichés as its main source of humour or use those elements to take a story in a different direction. Examples of comedy horror films include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), An American Werewolf in London (1981), the Evil Dead franchise (1981–present), Gremlins (1984), Shaun of the Dead (2004), and The Cabin in the Woods (2011).
A zombie is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies are most commonly found in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in which a zombie is a dead body reanimated through various methods, most commonly magical practices in religions like Vodou. Modern media depictions of the reanimation of the dead often do not involve magic but rather science fictional methods such as fungi, radiation, gases, diseases, plants, bacteria, viruses, etc.
Zombie apocalypse is a subgenre of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction in which society collapses due to overwhelming swarms of zombies. Typically only a few individuals or small bands of survivors are left living. In some versions, the reason the dead rise and attack humans is unknown, in others, a parasite or infection is the cause, framing events much like a plague. Some stories have every corpse rise, regardless of the cause of death, whereas others require exposure to the infection.
A zombie film is a film genre. Zombies are fictional creatures usually portrayed as reanimated corpses or virally infected human beings. They are commonly portrayed as cannibalistic in nature. While zombie films generally fall into the horror genre, some cross over into other genres, such as action, comedy, science fiction, thriller, or romance. Distinct subgenres have evolved, such as the "zombie comedy" or the "zombie apocalypse". Zombies are distinct from ghosts, ghouls, mummies, Frankenstein's monsters or vampires, so this article does not include films devoted to these types of undead.
Zombieland is a 2009 American post-apocalyptic zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. It stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and Bill Murray. In the film, Tallahassee (Harrelson), Columbus (Eisenberg), Wichita (Stone), and Little Rock (Breslin) make their way on an extended cross-country road trip to find a sanctuary free from zombies.
The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy is an anthology series of British comedic genre films directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and produced by Nira Park. The series stars Pegg and Nick Frost, with several other actors, including Bill Nighy, Rafe Spall and Martin Freeman, also appearing in all three films. The trilogy consists of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013).
Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings is a 2011 Filipino independent horror comedy film directed by Jade Castro, and starring Martin Escudero. Castro co-wrote the screenplay with Raymond Lee and Michiko Yamamoto. It is the highest-grossing Filipino independent film in 2011.
Zombieland: Double Tap is a 2019 American post-apocalyptic zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and David Callaham. The sequel to Zombieland (2009), it stars an ensemble cast including Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin, Emma Stone, Rosario Dawson, Zoey Deutch, Avan Jogia, Luke Wilson and Thomas Middleditch. In the film, Tallahassee (Harrelson), Columbus (Eisenberg), and Wichita (Stone) face evolved zombies and encounter other survivors as they travel from the White House to Graceland to search for Little Rock (Breslin).