Zombie Films

Everybody likes a good scare and flesh eating zombies fit the bill for fans seeking horror films that deliver a bite. What can be more frightening then being attack by a horde of cannibalistic human monsters? The popularity of movies about the walking dead has been with us for years. But top “living dead” directors like George A. Romero didn’t create them. Where did it originate from? Is there some truth behind this myth about the dead raising from their graves?

Zombie comes from the Haitian-African folklore of voodoo where a dead person can be resurrected and commanded to do a bokor or sorcerer’s bidding. Zombies have no control of their own and appear as a mindless walking corpse. Mainly avoiding the daylight and creeping around at night in a slow manner. The legend of voodoo’s awesome power over the living and the dead had one American convinced that there was some truth to it.

Wade Davis, a Harvard trained ethnobotantist, which is the study and culture of plants, knew there had to have been a real chemical involved in making a zombie per say. Davis went to Haiti and discovered a link with tetrodotoxin (TTX) poisoning combined with other highly secretive voodoo ingredients to produce zombie-like symptoms. This voodoo powder could cause unconsciousness, paralysis, and death. The film “The Serpent and the Rainbow” are based on two of his books.

How has zombie films evolved over the years? The horror genre has made zombies and ghouls running amuck terrorizing and killing as ordinary, and part of pop culture acceptance. Zombie films have a huge following, harking back to horror filled pages of the almost forgotten Famous Monsters magazine, but Fangoria has taken over to supply hardcore fans of their dose of flesh eaters at conventions, and the bible of coming releases of “undead” films. These particular films make millions at the box office and are practically number one with teenage audiences. But many people of all ages worldwide seem to enjoy these scary and sometimes funny movies.

Which zombie film should you watch? Here is a list of the most popular, from classic to most recent, not in any particular order, but noted for their gore, action, acting, and humor.

1. The White Zombie, 1932. Starring Bela Lugosi as a mysterious character in Haiti who uses his voodoo power to control the natives and newly arrived Americans. Eerily filmed with dark shadows and light, excellent acting, spooky ambience makes this a classic must-see zombie film.

2. Night of the Living Dead, 1968. Director George A. Romero’s famous zombie apocalypse film is about seven people who become isolated in a Pennsylvania farmhouse and they soon here reports that these “living dead” are consuming the flesh of their victims. Bickering and panic ensue as survivors watch the reanimated dead surround the countryside. This film is good and often copied for it’s terrifying and groundbreaking exploitation of gore. Realistic, clever, simple, and horrifying.

3. Shock Waves, 1977. Starring Peter Cushing, Brooke Adams, and John Carradine. On a remote island visitors discover a reclusive and former SS scientist who has been breeding Nazi Zombie soldiers. This low-budget horror film is dark and moody with less gore than other dead films, but still genuinely creepy.

4. Dawn of the Dead, 1978. Written and directed by George A. Romero. An unknown plague has taken over the United States with flesh eating zombies and mass hysteria breaks out. Survivors group together inside a shopping mall. Considered one of the best horror films of all-time, full of bloody gore, violence, and brutality. Even film critics liked this movie. A classic but not for the squeamish.

4. Zombie 2, 1979. Directed by Lucio Fulci. After a yacht drifts into New York Harbor, a reporter starts an investigation that leads him to a tropical island where the dead seem to be coming back to life. Fearing infection the survivors escape but it’s too late, the New York population is already infected and zombies are out in force.

6. The Return of the Living Dead, 1985. Written and directed by Dan O’Bannon. Two employees of a medical supply company contracted by the US Army accidentally release a toxic gas that makes the dead raise up from graves. Soon the unsuspecting town is overrun with flesh-eating zombies that are wise cracking, clever, and strong. This film is full of humor and plenty of brain hungry zombies.

7. Dead Alive, 1993. Directed by Peter Jackson. Before Jackson got really famous with “Lord of the Rings” he made this outlandish, zombie comedy about how the bite of a rare monkey turns the people in an Australian town into a full blown zombie epidemic in 1957. There is tons of gore mixed with laughter.

8. Resident Evil, 2002. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich. This science fiction horror film is based on the popular video game of the same name about an amnesiac who attempts to escape an underground secret facility along with Umbrella Corporation commandos who find themselves overrun with zombies. This film has a lot of action and spawned several sequels as the zombies take over the entire world.

9. 28 Days Later, 2002. Directed by Danny Boyle. This is a British film about a post-apocalyptic disaster from a highly contagious virus and how four survivors try to deal with the bleak situation they now face. These zombie-like victims are very fast and angry for blood. Starring Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris. Some may say the sequel, “28 Weeks Later” is better than the original, but both are equally interesting and entertaining.

10. Shaun of the Dead, 2004. Starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. This horror-comedy concerns a man’s mundane life in London during a breakout of a plague that’s turning the entire community into the walking flesh-eating dead. A witty satire, playing respectable homage to Romero’s “Dead” films, and a commercial and critical success.

11. Quarantine, 2008. Directed by John Erick Dowdle. Starring Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez, and Steve Harris. This horror film is a remake of the Spanish horror film REC and is filmed in documentary style. The story is about a television reporter and her cameraman, trapped inside a building quarantined by the Government, suddenly sealing everybody inside as the residents come down with a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty zombies in Los Angeles.

12. Zombieland, 2009. Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and directed by Ruben Fleischer. A zombie comedy. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. The film begins in a post-apocalyptic world as four survivors drive cross country looking for Twinkies, avoiding zombies, and a place to call home. A well-made, very funny film, and has already received positive reviews from critics.