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.

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 minutes, 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 that introduced the flesh-eating ghouls that would become synonymous with the term "zombie". The story follows seven people trapped in a farmhouse in rural Pennsylvania, under assault by reanimated corpses. The movie was directed, photographed, and edited by George A. Romero, written by Romero and John Russo, and produced by Russell Streiner and Karl Hardman. It stars Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea.

Resident Evil, or Biohazard in Japan and Southeast Asia, is a Japanese horror game 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 frightening creatures. The franchise has expanded into other media, including a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audio dramas 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.

<i>28 Days Later</i> 2002 UK horror film by Danny Boyle

28 Days Later is a 2002 British post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. It stars Cillian Murphy as a bicycle courier who awakens from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus has caused the breakdown of society. Naomie Harris, Christopher Eccleston, Megan Burns, and Brendan Gleeson appear in supporting roles.

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

George Andrew Romero was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His Night of the Living Dead series of films about an imagined 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). Aside from this series, his works include The Crazies (1973), Martin (1977), Knightriders (1981), Creepshow (1982), Monkey Shines (1988), The Dark Half (1993), and Bruiser (2000). He also created and executive-produced the television series Tales from the Darkside from 1983 to 1988.

<i>Dawn of the Dead</i> (2004 film) 2004 film by Zack Snyder

Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 action horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut, with a screenplay by James Gunn. A remake of George A. Romero's 1978 horror film of the same name, it stars an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer. Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film also make cameo appearances. Set in Milwaukee, the film follows a group of survivors who take refuge in an upscale suburban shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse.

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

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.

<i>Land of the Dead</i> 2005 post-apocalyptic horror film by George A. Romero

Land of the Dead is a 2005 post-apocalyptic horror film written and directed by George A. Romero; the fourth of Romero's six Living Dead movies, it is preceded by Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, and succeeded by Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. It was released in 2005, with a budget of $15–19 million, the highest in Romero's Dead series, and has grossed $46 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese horror</span> Horror fiction with Japanese themes

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.

Living Dead is a blanket term for the loosely connected horror franchise that originated from the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The film, written by George A. Romero and John A. Russo, primarily focuses on a group of people gathering at a farmhouse to survive from an onslaught of zombies in rural Pennsylvania. It is known to have inspired the modern interpretation of zombies as reanimated human corpses that feast on the flesh and/or brains of the living.

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

The House of the Dead, also referred to as Curien Mansion, is a horror-themed light gun shooter video game franchise created by Sega in 1996. Originally released in arcades, it utilizes a light gun on the platform, but can be played with standard controllers on consoles and a mouse or keyboard on home computers. For the PlayStation Network releases of III and 4, they can also be played using the PlayStation Move controller.

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

The zombie comedy, often called zom com or zomedy, is a film genre that aims to blend zombie horror motifs with slapstick comedy as well as morbid humor.

<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 and fantasy 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 carriers, fungi, radiation, mental diseases, vectors, pathogens, parasites, scientific accidents, etc.

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

Zombie apocalypse is a genre of 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.

<i>Messiah of Evil</i> 1973 horror film by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck

Messiah of Evil is a 1974 American supernatural horror film co-written, co-produced, and co-directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, and starring Marianna Hill, Michael Greer, Anitra Ford, Royal Dano, and Elisha Cook Jr. Its plot follows a woman who travels to a remote coastal town in California to find her missing artist father; upon arrival, she finds herself in the midst of a series of bizarre incidents.

Chinese horror include films from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan that are part of the stream of Asian horror films. Like Korean and Japanese horror as well as other Asian horror films, many focus on ghosts, supernatural environments, and suffering. Perhaps one of the best films for C-horror is The Eye directed by the Pang brothers which was later remade.

Night of the Living Dead is a zombie horror media franchise created by George A. Romero beginning with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, directed by Romero and cowritten with John A. Russo. The franchise predominantly centers on different groups of people attempting to survive during the outbreak and evolution of a zombie apocalypse. The latest installment of the series, Survival of the Dead, was released in 2009, with a sequel, Twilight of the Dead, in development. This would be the first film in the series not directed by George Romero, who died on July 16, 2017.

Jiangshi fiction, or goeng-si fiction in Cantonese, is a literary and cinematic genre of horror based on the jiangshi of Chinese folklore, a reanimated corpse controlled by Taoist priests that resembles the zombies and vampires of Western fiction. The genre first appeared in the literature of the Qing dynasty and the jiangshi film is a staple of the modern Hong Kong film industry. Hong Kong jiangshi films like Mr. Vampire and Encounters of the Spooky Kind follow a formula of mixing horror with comedy and kung fu.

A horror game is a video game genre centered on horror fiction and typically designed to scare the player. The term may also be used to describe tabletop games with horror fiction elements.

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.

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