Zombie film

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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. I am Legend and World War Z are the highest grossing zombies movies of all time.

Contents

History

Victor Halperin's White Zombie was released in 1932 and is often cited as the first zombie film. [1] [2] [3] A number of zombie films were produced in the late 1930s and 1940s, including I Walked with a Zombie (1943).

Inspired by the zombie of Haitian folklore, the modern zombie emerged in popular culture during the latter half of the twentieth century, with George A. Romero's seminal film Night of the Living Dead (1968). [4] The film received a sequel, Dawn of the Dead (1978), which was the most commercially successful zombie film at the time. It received another sequel, Day of the Dead (1985), and inspired numerous works such as Zombi 2 (1979) and The Return of the Living Dead (1985). However, zombie films that followed in the 1980s and 1990s were not as commercially successful as Dawn of the Dead in the late 1970s. [5]

In the 1980s Hong Kong cinema, the Chinese jiangshi, a zombie-like creature dating back to Qing dynasty era jiangshi fiction of the 18th and 19th centuries, was featured in a wave of jiangshi films, popularised by Mr. Vampire (1985). Hong Kong jiangshi films became popular in the Far East during the mid-1980s to early 1990s. Another American zombie film, The Serpent and the Rainbow , was released in 1988.

A zombie revival later began in the Far East during the late 1990s, inspired by the 1996 Japanese zombie video games Resident Evil and The House of the Dead , which led to a wave of low-budget Asian zombie films, such as the Hong Kong zombie comedy film Bio Zombie (1998) and Japanese zombie-action film Versus (2000). [6] The zombie film revival later went global, as the worldwide success of zombie games such as Resident Evil and The House of the Dead inspired a new wave of Western zombie films in the early 2000s, [6] including the Resident Evil film series, the British film 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), House of the Dead (2003), a 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake and the British parody movie Shaun of the Dead (2004). [7] [8] [9] The success of these films led to the zombie genre reaching a new peak of commercial success not seen since the 1970s. [5]

Zombie films created in the 2000s have featured zombies that are more agile, vicious, intelligent, and stronger than the traditional zombie. [10] [11] These new fast running zombies have origins in video games, including Resident Evil's running zombie dogs and particularly The House of the Dead's running human zombies. [10]

In the late 2010s, zombie films began declining in the Western world. [12] In Japan, on the other hand, the low-budget Japanese zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead (2017) became a sleeper hit, making box office history by earning over a thousand times its budget. [13]

Different types of zombies

Characteristics of zombies vary from film to film. Each filmmaker gives their zombies a unique set of qualities for the universe of that film. While zombies are often portrayed as slow-moving, such as in Night of the Living Dead, other films such as World War Z (2013) depict fast-moving zombies that can run.

The zombie outbreak can also be caused by a variety of sources. Many films have zombies that are people infected with a zombie virus, while other films give different causes for the zombie outbreak. It's unknown what causes the dead to attack the living in Night of the Living Dead, though hypotheses are provided such as an irradiated space probe. [14] In Train to Busan (2016), the zombie outbreak is caused by a chemical leak. [15] In The Girl with All the Gifts (2016), the zombie disease is caused by a fungus. [16]

The transformation from human to zombie is also different from film to film. The transformation process can take only seconds, such as in World War Z, or it can take several hours, such as in Night of the Living Dead.

In Friend of the World (2020), zombies can morph their bodies to merge with people. [17] [18]

Zombies also have different weaknesses in different films. In most films, zombies can only be killed by destroying the brain, often by gunshot to the head. However, in Night of the Living Dead, the zombies are also repelled by fire.

A few films also portray zombies as sentient beings. Warm Bodies (2013) is a zombie romantic comedy about zombies who are still conscious in their bodies and wish they could be alive again. In The Girl with All the Gifts, there are human-zombie hybrid children that act like normal children, except when they're hungry.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Night of the Living Dead</i> 1968 American horror film

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.

Resident Evil, known as Biohazard in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments inhabited by zombies and other mutated creatures. The franchise has expanded into other media, including a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audiobooks, and merchandise. Resident Evil is the highest-grossing horror franchise.

<i>Dawn of the Dead</i> (1978 film) 1978 zombie horror film by George A. Romero

Dawn of the Dead  is a 1978 zombie horror film written, directed, and edited by George A. Romero, and produced by Richard P. Rubinstein. An American-Italian international co-production, it is the second film in Romero's series of zombie films, and though it contains no characters or settings from the preceding film Night of the Living Dead (1968), it shows the larger-scale effects of a zombie apocalypse on society. In the film, a phenomenon of unidentified origin has caused the reanimation of the dead, who prey on human flesh. David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Gaylen Ross star as survivors of the outbreak who barricade themselves inside a suburban shopping mall amid mass hysteria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jiangshi</span> Type of creature from Chinese legend and folklore

A jiāngshī, also known as a Chinese hopping vampire, is a type of undead creature or reanimated corpse in Chinese legends and folklore. Due to the influence of Hong Kong cinema, it is typically depicted in modern popular culture as a stiff corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing dynasty. Although the pronunciation of jiangshi varies in different East Asian countries, all of them refer to the Chinese version of vampire.

Return of the Living Dead is a zombie comedy film series that consists of five films beginning with the 1985 film The Return of the Living Dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George A. Romero</span> American filmmaker (1940–2017)

George Andrew Romero Jr. was an American-Canadian film director, writer, editor and actor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about a zombie apocalypse began with the original Night of the Living Dead (1968) and is considered a major contributor to the image of the zombie in modern culture. Other films in the series include Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exploitation film</span> Informal film genre

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<i>Resident Evil</i> (1996 video game) Survival horror game

Resident Evil is a 1996 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation. It is the first game in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. Set in the fictional Arklay mountain region in the Midwest, players control Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, members of the elite task force S.T.A.R.S., who must escape a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters.

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<i>The House of the Dead</i> Video game series

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zombie comedy</span> Film and television genre

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zombie</span> Undead creature from Haitian folklore

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zombie apocalypse</span> Subgenre of apocalyptic fiction

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Zombies in <i>Resident Evil</i> Video game antagonists

Zombies are recurring antagonists within the fictional universe of Japanese video game company Capcom's multimedia franchise Resident Evil, known in Japan as Biohazard. First appearing in the 1996 video game Resident Evil, they are mutated creatures with cannibalistic urges and severe epidermal necrosis, and their origins are explained from a scientific perspective. In contrast to zombies in other horror and fantasy genre works where they are traditionally presented as corporeal revenants with mythological and supernatural origins, zombies in the Resident Evil series are usually created through the use of biological weaponry, genetic manipulation and/or parasitic symbiosis. Subsequent sequels have featured other types of zombies as well as related creatures which are presented as more agile, vicious, and intelligent opponents.

References

  1. ↑ Roberts, Lee (August 6, 2012). "White Zombie is regarded as the first zombie film". Best Horror Movies. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  2. ↑ Haddon, Cole (May 10, 2007). "Daze of the Dead". Orlando Weekly . Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  3. ↑ Silver, Alain; Ursini, James (2014). The Zombie Film: From White Zombie to World War Z . Hal Leonard. pp. 28–36. ISBN   978-0-87910-887-8.
  4. ↑ Maçek III, J.C. (15 June 2012). "The Zombification Family Tree: Legacy of the Living Dead". PopMatters .
  5. 1 2 Booker, M. Keith (2010). Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels [2 volumes]: [Two Volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 662. ISBN   9780313357473.
  6. 1 2 Newman, Kim (2011). Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s. A&C Black. p. 559. ISBN   9781408805039.
  7. ↑ Barber, Nicholas (21 October 2014). "Why are zombies still so popular?". BBC . Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  8. ↑ Hasan, Zaki (April 10, 2015). "Interview: Director Alex Garland on Ex Machina". Huffington Post . Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  9. ↑ Newby, Richard (29 June 2018). "How '28 Days Later' Changed the Horror Genre". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  10. 1 2 Levin, Josh (2007-12-19). "How did movie zombies get so fast?". Slate. Retrieved 2013-11-05.
  11. ↑ Levin, Josh (24 March 2004). "Dead Run". Slate . Retrieved 4 December 2008.
  12. ↑ "How '28 Days Later' Changed the Horror Genre". The Hollywood Reporter . 29 June 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  13. ↑ Nguyen, Hanh (31 December 2018). "'One Cut of the Dead': A Bootleg of the Japanese Zombie Comedy Mysteriously Appeared on Amazon". IndieWire . Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  14. ↑ Romero, George (February 2014). "George A Romero: the Sight & Sound Interview". Sight and Sound (Interview). Interviewed by James Blackford. Sight and Sound. Retrieved 17 October 2023. I mean, we don't know. It could be voodoo, or God's punishment… I never wanted it to be a returning satellite [laughs]
  15. ↑ Wilhelmi, Jack (2019-11-30). "Train To Busan Zombies: Origin & Virus Explained". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  16. ↑ Bachman, Mara (2020-04-12). "The Girl With All The Gifts: Fungal Infection & Hungries Explained". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  17. ↑ Harris, Mark H. (2 October 2020). "Friend of the World (2020)". Black Horror Movies. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
  18. ↑ Yurei, Dante (24 July 2021). "Review: Friend of the World". 10th Circle. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
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