Why Zombie Movies?

[Jix]

I was gonna reply to another post with this, but I see it's a loaded question so I'll start its own thread.

What's with everybody's obsession with Zombie movies around here? I know this is a horror forum, but there are a lot of horror themes that make much better movies than zombies. Ghosts, monsters, aliens, demons, other dimensions, dreams, supernatural powers, diseases, serial killers, etc., all make better themes, yet I see a lot of people enthralled by zombies.

They don't even deserve their own category of films. I see it like constantly making Jaws-like shark movies. To me zombie movies have reached their pinnacle. They reached it in the 70's when they still made them using real blood and shit. I don't get it. Can somebody explain the appeal to me and why we need more of those type of shark movies?

[syxxpac]

If you want the bare gist of it - zombies just make any movie better by default :D

But if that isn't a succinct explanation, I think it's because A) they're gory, and people have fun writing about zombies getting blown away like rag dolls, because they're not overly difficult to kill, it's more about the human element, B) survival horror stories are fascinating, where we get to see who has what it takes to survive against all odds, and that's a slightly different motivation to the other horrors you mentioned, where mystery, psychological horrors and other such things take precedence over the primitive, bare-bones motivation of something so simple and intriguing as "survival" (ie. vampire stories often have romantic subplots, supernatural thrillers like The Ring have an underlying mystery to dig up, etc. etc.), and/or C) the lowest common denominator of possible interest - because it's the "In Thang" to do.

Also, zombies COULD fit into the "disease" and "monster" categories you mentioned.

[the dead one]

Jix has made a valid point.

Yet, I don't feel that the zombie genre has reached it's pinnacle.

BUT.....I feel that in time the current hub-bub (no pun intended) over zombie films in general will slow some in the coming year. They will always have their fan base, but things do change.

Now, don't get me wrong. I was at "ground zero" back in 1970 when I 1st saw 'Night of the Living Dead' at the now torn down 'Super-130 Drive- In' in New Jersey---I have seen every Romero zombie epic and the imitators that followed.

I love zombie films too, but there are many other subjects worth exploring in the genre of horror---even though the "Living Dead" will always have a place in my grizzly little heart! ;)

[X-Nightcrawler]

I always wondered the same thing, it's funny.

I'm yet to see an actually GREAT horror zombie movie, or even scary (the best would be NOTLD the original), but I've loved a few zombie movies lately.
. . . but they've all been horror comedies.

-Shaun Of The Dead.
-Dead-Alive.
-Return Of The Living Dead.

Best three zombie movies I've seen and they're all comedies.

[the dead one]

Originally posted by X-Nightcrawler
I always wondered the same thing, it's funny.

I'm yet to see an actually GREAT horror zombie movie, or even scary (the best would be NOTLD the original), but I've loved a few zombie movies lately.
. . . but they've all been horror comedies.

-Shaun Of The Dead.
-Dead-Alive.
-Return Of The Living Dead.

Best three zombie movies I've seen and they're all comedies.

I here you X!

Speaking of horror-comedy, if you dig the 3 you metioned above then you have to check out the asian film 'Biozombie'.

It is very cool and very entertaining....with a surprising dark turn in the final moments of the film.

http://www.laserdisken.dk/billeder/forsidealm/23987.jpg

Check it out! :D

[X-Nightcrawler]

I shit you not I've been trying to get my claws on BioZombie for quite a while. Someone had brought it up and the cover alone was enough to buy my ticket.

Just don't know where to get it. Might end up bring out the old eyepatch.

[Runawayrunaway!]

Personally, zombies are just fascinating. Zombies work on the same level as Frankenstein, really, only there's a shitload more of them and they eat flesh. They can be funny, but they're also scary in a very unique way. Zombie movies are also the one-stop shop for extremely graphic splatter when you don't want to feel guilty for watching, like some would watching human on human carnage. On top of the splatter there's an apocalyptic element that's really exhilarating and chilling. (probably the best example of this is the brilliant opening sequence of the Dawn remake)

[the dead one]

Originally posted by X-Nightcrawler
I shit you not I've been trying to get my claws on BioZombie for quite a while. Someone had brought it up and the cover alone was enough to buy my ticket.

Just don't know where to get it. Might end up bring out the old eyepatch.

Yeah, I remember your mentioning wanting too see 'Biozombie' on the horror review threads. I also recommend checking out the 'Blind Dead' series as well.


http://www.sexgoremutants.co.uk/dvd/blinddeadbox.jpg

I have the BOX set...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000AM6MVO.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[BirdsofPreyNut]

Originally posted by X-Nightcrawler
I always wondered the same thing, it's funny.

I'm yet to see an actually GREAT horror zombie movie, or even scary (the best would be NOTLD the original), but I've loved a few zombie movies lately.
. . . but they've all been horror comedies.

-Shaun Of The Dead.
-Dead-Alive.
-Return Of The Living Dead.

Best three zombie movies I've seen and they're all comedies.

If you like Shaun of the Dead may I suggest to you a american take on the zombie horror/comedy in Dead and Breakfast. Its Superior to shaun in a couple different ways and its great all along so I think you would enjoy it.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000A3DGEY.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1123196503_.jpg


Also on the topic. I really don't see what people find in zombie movies either. I liked Shaun and Dead and breakfast as well as the original dawn of the dead and thats about it.

I rather see them make more Werewolf and slasher movies than anything else.

[Kanadian_kev]

I think they're just the easiest to write and make.

A local filmmaker just finished a zombie short called Red Men Rising. It's about communist zombies.

[X-Nightcrawler]

Originally posted by BirdsofPreyNut
If you like Shaun of the Dead may I suggest to you a american take on the zombie horror/comedy in Dead and Breakfast. Its Superior to shaun in a couple different ways and its great all along so I think you would enjoy it. Huh. I was very, very close to buying it when it came out. I might try it though it looks like one of them overrated indie efforts.

[BirdsofPreyNut]

Originally posted by Kanadian_kev
I think they're just the easiest to write and make.

A local filmmaker just finished a zombie short called Red Men Rising. It's about communist zombies.

Yeah they are really easily to write and shoot and some of the easist to do make-up and effects for.

I wrote about 65 pages of a zombie flick for someone, who my friend said he would help shoot, but my friend and I ended up doing most the work and 65 pages in the guy that we were doing it for decided he didn't want to do it after we talked to him about how little he was working on his own project. So I never finished the script. Though it was probably one of the easiest ones I have worked on so far.

[Runawayrunaway!]

I've written multiple zombie flicks. One was basically some combination of From Dusk Till Dawn and The Professional, but taking place in a house surrounded by zombies. I never quite finished that, but I got to the climax. It was definitely Tarantino-derivative, but it had some nice character work. I called it Dead Guy Walking, in an attempt to misdirect the audience into thinking that the protagonists would end up in jail. Later, I found that a direct to video zombie movie had a similar title and was actually set in a prison. Fuck those guys.

I also wrote a screenplay called Zombies Must Die, about immortal warriors sent from Heaven to battle zombies in 33 A.D. They also witness the crucifixion and resurrection of Jeebus, although in the script he resurrected by blowing open the cave, and riding out on a motorcycle with two angels wielding holy chainsaws. I also had the village rabbi carving up zombies with his dick-slicing knives. Parts of that one were good, though eventually it turned into Lord of the Rings with gore and stupid jokes, with some elements remarkably similar to Dogma, which I actually hadn't seen at that point. Initially, my muse was Versus, but then I got off on some Christianity-parody-rewrite tangent that never ended. Zombie scripts are pretty easy to write, though. I always tended to take a scenario that normally wouldn't involve zombies and work zombies into it. That's fun.

[TheDeadWalk]

One thing for me that most other genres and sub-genres don't provide, is that fear of the apocalypse. Zombie films tend to drift into the realm of disaster movies, while keeping true horror elements.

Zombie films truly allow you to ask yourself "What would you do in the situation?" with your life, and not just whether or not you would run up the stairs or out the front door. Hell, just looking at some of the zombies speak a thousand words. In Day of the Dead there is a bride zombie, and a clown zombie. Just seeing the two of them make you wonder about their last moments, especially the bride on her wedding day, when she was probably held down and feasted upon.

The gore in these films can be nice, and the kills can become very creative, not just hack-and-slash jobs. One scene idea I had in a zombie film was of a little girl standing in a dressing room while her zombified mother beat on the flimsy saloon-esque door until her hands broke through, taking her daughter into her arms, and pulling her out into the hallway while she covered her ears and screamed the whole time.

Zombie films also tend to focus evil within core characters, and create claustrophobic elements like one would find in JC's "The Thing". People can sometimes overreact or show their true colors when in the situation, sometimes showing that what's clawing away on the outside isn't very much better than what you're standing next to inside.

Metaphoric devices also play a nice part in many zombie films, they can speak volumes for the time period. (Communism, consumerism, cold war, terrorism; Romero) It's sometimes nice to have an enthralling horror picture that focuses on life, or trying to live through catastrophe. Not just swim to shore or shoot the shark, which you compared the zombie films to.

[Kanadian_kev]

Also, the idea that a loved one is suddenly turned into something else and you have to kill him/her never gets old for me. This sort of scene is typical zombie movie fun.

[X-Nightcrawler]

Originally posted by Kanadian_kev
Also, the idea that a loved one is suddenly turned into something else and you have to kill him/her never gets old for me. One of my favorite horror movie clichés. They ALWAYS get me excited.

[CHANCE]

I'm reading a lott of posts about how easy it is to write zombie scripts and zombie make-up, et all making zombie movies is easy...

I can not believe these comments...script writing is hard, even more so in the horror/fantasy genre cuz you have to give some logical hint/explaination for your "Threat", in this case zombies...

I've watched a lot of zero-budget zombie flicks, all of them suck...because people thought it would be easy (Meat market is but one of the maggots out of the zero-budget zombie crap pile...)
Most zombie "scripts" are just Romero or Fulci rehashes...

As for effects...the zombie flicks that look half way decent...?You can count them on 2 hands...

Anatomical correct make up is on of the hardest niches in effects make up bussines, it makes or breacks your film...We see people everyday and can watch the most sickeming things humanity do to each other...we are so used to real gore and the sight of dead/decomposing people on the news, that it is harder to create a realistic zombie look that does not look fabricated.

It seems that most people love zombie movies because it's "fun and cheap"...Instead of what can be done with the material...
If you want to keep horror in the slums, go a head...I don't watch horror because i like cheap movies...I like fear, gore, the supernatural and most of all well made movies!

Romero is still the only one who ads to the zombie lore...
If it's so easy to make a zombie flick, where are the masterpieces from our script writers on the board?

[Kanadian_kev]

I didn't say all easy/cheap zombie movies were excellent to the point of actually 'adding to the genre.' But to me,the majority of them are still a lot of fun.

[CHANCE]

Originally posted by Kanadian_kev
I didn't say all easy/cheap zombie movies were excellent to the point of actually 'adding to the genre.' But to me,the majority of them are still a lot of fun.

If you love cheap horror flicks, that's your taste...

I was reffering to the posts sbout zombie scripts/movies/effects are easier to create than other sub-genre's...

I have a weakness to for certain "cheap thrills", but making any kind of competent movie is damn hard, regardless of the genre...

Look how many "acomplished" directors spew forth the most repelent of movies on a huge budget...If it was that easy to make a good flick, most of us would not be complaining about most flicks that are being made...

[Jix]

I think Zombie movies at least give people the opportunity to make them cheap, whereas Space movies, for instance, don't. You can't make a cheap Star Wars type movie because of the Special Effects, but Zombies, yes, because you can make it all makeup if you want to.

[X-Nightcrawler]

Originally posted by Jix
I think Zombie movies at least give people the opportunity to make them cheap, whereas Space movies, for instance, don't. You can't make a cheap Star Wars type movie because of the Special Effects, but Zombies, yes, because you can make it all makeup if you want to.
"Dude, let's make a movie."
"Hell yeah! What should we make it about?"
"Hello?? A global thriller!"
"No, a space creature feature!"
"No way, those are too expensive."
"Yeah well global thrillers are expensive too."
"Actually . . . We don't have any money! We'll have to do a zombie movie."
"But . . . I hate zombie movies!"
"Me too. But there's no other choice."

I sincerely doubt that's a primary reason. Seems like just a little extra plus incentive. I don't see zombie movies being cheaper to do than . . . what, slashers. Or them psychological thrillers where there's no prosthetics involved.

[CHANCE]

Originally posted by X-Nightcrawler
"Dude, let's make a movie."
"Hell yeah! What should we make it about?"
"Hello?? A global thriller!"
"No, a space creature feature!"
"No way, those are too expensive."
"Yeah well global thrillers are expensive too."
"Actually . . . We don't have any money! We'll have to do a zombie movie."
"But . . . I hate zombie movies!"
"Me too. But there's no other choice."

I sincerely doubt that's a primary reason. Seems like just a little extra plus incentive. I don't see zombie movies being cheaper to do than . . . what, slashers. Or them psychological thrillers where there's no prosthetics involved.

Good point...there are more slasher flicks made than zombie movies, back in the 80s most zombie flicks were not American made...It's only recently that we have a zombie"boom".

[Jix]

Originally posted by X-Nightcrawler
[B]"Dude, let's make a movie."
"Hell yeah! What should we make it about?"
"Hello?? A global thriller!"
"No, a space creature feature!"
"No way, those are too expensive."
"Yeah well global thrillers are expensive too."
"Actually . . . We don't have any money! We'll have to do a zombie movie."
"But . . . I hate zombie movies!"
"Me too. But there's no other choice."

And look at how many cheap slasher movies are out there... The price of production DOES influence what kind of movie amateurs will shoot as well as the complexity of the plot and sets. It obviously doesn't play out the way you describe it but probably sounds something like this:

"Let's shoot a movie"
"Ok, what will it be about?"
"Well let's see, me and you suck at writing, and we only have 10K on hand."
"Let's try and get everybody we know to pitch in... If everybody puts in 100$, we can have a decent budget."
"Yeah, but they'll all probably want roles in the movie."
"Ok, so simple plot, plenty of extras, a budget of maybe 20K if we find 100 people to chip in, and no fancy special effects and sets. And we probably won't be able to shoot during the day in town"
"So it will either be a Slasher movie or a Zombie movie. A Slasher and psychological thriller plot is harder to write than a Zombie movie, and we'll have a harder time keeping all the extras happy with all the different roles. Let's make a Zombie movie, that way everybody gets to be a Zombie and we can shoot it in the middle of the night without pissing off the authorities, nice, clean and simple."
"Sounds good, let's do it!"

[X-Nightcrawler]

I always thought "indie" filmmakers shot what they wanted to shoot and not feel that their idea/theme should be changed due to lack of money or experience. Yes, money influences but I think it's much less important than anyone's passion to write any other story.

[Misery]

I'm actually planning a zombie/comedy/musical right now.

One of the main reasons I wanted to make a zombie movie is as a homage. I love zombies and I want to create my own.

[the dead one]

Originally posted by X-Nightcrawler

"Dude, let's make a movie."

"Hell yeah! What should we make it about?"

"Hello?? A global thriller!"

"No, a space creature feature!"

"No way, those are too expensive."

"Yeah well global thrillers are expensive too."

"Actually . . . We don't have any money!



This conversation sounds like a typical day at 'Brain Damage Films'---those loads who made 'Zombie Chronicles'. :rolleyes: