The first step in deciding what are the best zombie movies requires the rather delicate matter of determining what in fact are zombies. The common short hand of calling them the reanimated or walking or living dead isn't quite sufficient. After all, vampires would thereby qualify, too. And them vampires, they ain't no zombies, no way, no how. To determine what qualifies as a zombie, we will need some rules to set the parameters.
Of course it's something of a cliche to observe that rules are made to be broken. That may be so and without question even the rules of zombie movie conventions have not been rigorously observed. Despite this fast and loose playing with the rules, some enduring conventions can be identified. Exercising a little flexibility in discussing them should keep us out of too much conceptual hot water, while allowing us to set some parameters.
In looking at these zombie movie conventions it is useful to distinguish between the pre and the post Romero zombies. We can conclude by identifying, too, some of the standard narrative rules of zombie movies.
The Pre Romero Zombies
1. Following in the Haitian voodoo tradition that gives rise to the zombie idea, the pre-Romero zombies often had a master of some sort who raised them and thereby controlled therm.
2. They were characterized by slow, unbalanced movement,
3. Even before Romero, the convention developed of setting zombies in an apocalyptic nihilistic world.
4. These earlier films also commonly depicted zombiism as the manifestation of a plague.
Romero/post-Romero Zombies
5. No longer under the control of a master-mind, zombies became more like a natural disaster. Sometimes they were interrupted as nature itself striking back for alleged humanly caused harms.
6. They were now driven by an insatiable hunger to eat the living, which had (and apparently required) no further explanation.
7. Under Romero's influence, the zombie attacks were explicitly depicted in graphic and gruesome detail, with emphasis on the gore.
8. Perhaps the most enduringly influential Romero idea was that zombies were only "killed" by a decisive head shot, resulting in brain damage.
9 Though perhaps as enduring as #8 is the premise that the zombie plague, which as we saw predates Romero's vision, was spread through the human population by zombie bites.
Stock ingredients for a zombie movie
10. A generic moron, who out of stupidity, selfishness, cowardice or general inhumanity will prove to be the weak link in the fortifications protecting the straggling survivors against the zombies.
11. Straggling survivors, usually with a rainbow-like ethnic, gender and age mix, who capture in microcosm the hope and futility, dignity and venality, of the humanity that is in all likelihood about to be wiped out.
12. Initial obliviousness to what is actually happening. Apparently, all zombie movies take place in a world in which no public official, nor any other person with any authority, has ever actually seen a zombie movie. Otherwise they'd know, right?
13. Though on the surface, zombie movies are about killing zombies, they are really about human distrust, betrayal and fear. They're not just surviving the zombies, but themselves, and each other.
14. A reliable staple is the sad sap, unable to let go emotionally of some past intimate relation with one of the zombies. They can't quite come to terms with the reality that their former loved one is now a cannibalistic ambulating corpse. You'd think that might be more obvious.
15. A peace maker and implicit leader, who tries to pull everyone together and is usually thanked for the effort by some obnoxious jerk eventually accusingly commenting "who made you leader?"
16. And of course some hot love-interest. Surely the most compelling geek attraction to the zombie movie is the hotties. "They'll have to have sex with me! How else will the human race be repopulated?" Unfortunately, though, that cuts across both genders, so there's always some alpha type to get in your way. But, still at least it gives some hope. How do you survive a zombie apocalypse without some hope?
So, now, when somebody asks you about the best zombie movies , you know what you're talking about!
Of course it's something of a cliche to observe that rules are made to be broken. That may be so and without question even the rules of zombie movie conventions have not been rigorously observed. Despite this fast and loose playing with the rules, some enduring conventions can be identified. Exercising a little flexibility in discussing them should keep us out of too much conceptual hot water, while allowing us to set some parameters.
In looking at these zombie movie conventions it is useful to distinguish between the pre and the post Romero zombies. We can conclude by identifying, too, some of the standard narrative rules of zombie movies.
The Pre Romero Zombies
1. Following in the Haitian voodoo tradition that gives rise to the zombie idea, the pre-Romero zombies often had a master of some sort who raised them and thereby controlled therm.
2. They were characterized by slow, unbalanced movement,
3. Even before Romero, the convention developed of setting zombies in an apocalyptic nihilistic world.
4. These earlier films also commonly depicted zombiism as the manifestation of a plague.
Romero/post-Romero Zombies
5. No longer under the control of a master-mind, zombies became more like a natural disaster. Sometimes they were interrupted as nature itself striking back for alleged humanly caused harms.
6. They were now driven by an insatiable hunger to eat the living, which had (and apparently required) no further explanation.
7. Under Romero's influence, the zombie attacks were explicitly depicted in graphic and gruesome detail, with emphasis on the gore.
8. Perhaps the most enduringly influential Romero idea was that zombies were only "killed" by a decisive head shot, resulting in brain damage.
9 Though perhaps as enduring as #8 is the premise that the zombie plague, which as we saw predates Romero's vision, was spread through the human population by zombie bites.
Stock ingredients for a zombie movie
10. A generic moron, who out of stupidity, selfishness, cowardice or general inhumanity will prove to be the weak link in the fortifications protecting the straggling survivors against the zombies.
11. Straggling survivors, usually with a rainbow-like ethnic, gender and age mix, who capture in microcosm the hope and futility, dignity and venality, of the humanity that is in all likelihood about to be wiped out.
12. Initial obliviousness to what is actually happening. Apparently, all zombie movies take place in a world in which no public official, nor any other person with any authority, has ever actually seen a zombie movie. Otherwise they'd know, right?
13. Though on the surface, zombie movies are about killing zombies, they are really about human distrust, betrayal and fear. They're not just surviving the zombies, but themselves, and each other.
14. A reliable staple is the sad sap, unable to let go emotionally of some past intimate relation with one of the zombies. They can't quite come to terms with the reality that their former loved one is now a cannibalistic ambulating corpse. You'd think that might be more obvious.
15. A peace maker and implicit leader, who tries to pull everyone together and is usually thanked for the effort by some obnoxious jerk eventually accusingly commenting "who made you leader?"
16. And of course some hot love-interest. Surely the most compelling geek attraction to the zombie movie is the hotties. "They'll have to have sex with me! How else will the human race be repopulated?" Unfortunately, though, that cuts across both genders, so there's always some alpha type to get in your way. But, still at least it gives some hope. How do you survive a zombie apocalypse without some hope?
So, now, when somebody asks you about the best zombie movies , you know what you're talking about!
About the Author:
Now that you know what qualifies as a zombie movie, check out Mickey Jhonny's controversial top five list of the all time best zombie movies . Over at the Walking Dead appreciation blog, Pretty Much Dead Already, his article on the Walking Dead fanfiction is a must read for every fan of the zombie genre.
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