ZCSU: What makes a good zombie movie?
EMB: This depends on whether you’re looking for one of those zombie flicks that delve into social commentary and the human condition faced with the insurmountable challenge of an undead apocalypse, or whether you want to see a balls-out, gore-soaked, severed-head gut-muncher. For the former stick to Romero’s works (Dawn of the Dead is probably the first on everyone’s list), but for the latter you have options. You can go for the blood soaked Italian movies that came out in a rush straight after Zombie Flesh Eaters (aka Zombi 2, 1979); or you can catch one of the gore-drenched American comedy horror zombie movies from the mid-’80s instead (Return of the Living Dead and Re-Animator spring to mind). Alternatively there’s a couple of top offerings from Asia if you fancy something different, with Junk (1999), Versus (2000), and Wild Zero (2000) being strong contenders for your time. I doubt if you’ll be disappointed with any of those.
ZCSU: What makes a bad zombie flick?
EMB: What makes a bad zombie movie is even simpler; when there aren’t even any zombies in it. Troma’s god awful Zombie Island Massacre (1984) is one such culprit (they weren’t zombies after all!) but Zombie Aftermath takes the biscuit as Steve Barkett and Sid Haig defend themselves from an undead horde of two that aren’t really undead, they’re more like radioactive mutants. Also stay away from the later Zombie Flesh Eaters movies after Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (aka Zombi 3, 1988) they either feature former porn stars or don’t have any zombies in them, neither of which is good enough.)
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This franchise tells the story of a multinational conglomerate called The Umbrella Corporation that, among other things, messes around with bioweapons technology. Naturally these things always get out of hand, first in the corporation’s underground research complex, The Hive, and then above ground as an infection spreads to the closest large urban center, Raccoon City. Soon the dead are everywhere, along with all sorts of mutant critters.
Unlike most first-person shooter games, Resident Evil was actually very well written and pretty frightening. Terrific high-end graphics caught the right kind of Romeroesque mood, and the sales skyrocketed past 30 million units.
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Eric S. Brown on Writing the Zombie Novel
Zombies II by Eric S. Brown
Cover Art by Donna Burgess
Eric S. Brown is the author of over 300 short stories and the recent novel, Zombie II: Inhuman (Naked Snake Books, 2007). I asked him to comment on the process of crafting zombie stories:
“I started out writing Romero type zombies but in the wake of 28 Days Later and The Rising I began to break away from that type of zombie. I like the idea of the dead being intelligent enough to truly become the Earth’s dominant species and create their own civilization. In my novella, The Queen (Naked Snake Books, 2006), the dead have set up breeding camps to raise their own humans as food and have rediscovered the ability to not use but also manufacture in a limited capacity technologies we take for granted.
“Marvel comics recently did a mini-series called Marvel Zombies which imagines the zombie virus as something that hops from world to world infecting the resident meta-humans and using them as the means to transfer the virus and keep it alive. In my latest book, Zombies II: Inhuman, I blend superheroes with zombies in a totally different way. With the human race facing extinction, it just makes sense that God, nature, or evolution would step in and try to come up with a way for the race to survive. So in my book, you have telepaths, speedsters, and many other types of super powered people who have developed powers in order to survive.”
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The first film in the series was the most effective, with a good cast fleshed out by Michelle Rodriquez at her snarling best, Eric Mabius looking stalwart, a sly and villainous James Purefoy, and a compelling Colin Salmon (underused and killed off too quickly). The movie moves like an Aliens-style bug hunt that turns into a zombie chase flick. Some of the action scenes, particularly in the earliest scenes when the zombies are first introduced, are genuinely creepy and had the film not tried to do so much of the video game plot (as in introducing slimy CGI monsters called “lickers”), it might have become a real classic of zombie cinema.
The story line that links all the films together and amplifies the zombie plot deals with the T-virus, a treatment created to cure a degenerative cell-destroying disease by reactivating the dead cells. That might be fine for those suffering from the disease for which it was intended, a plotline explored in the second film, but when introduced to uninfected humans, it first kills them and then reanimates them as the living dead. One wonders why a treatment used to treat tissue death would cause death before turning the dead into walking (and decaying) corpses. Why the virus works so antithetically is never adequately explored; instead they use those storytelling minutes to have the characters—good and bad, living and dead—kill lots and lots of people.
The virus story line ties the series to the zombie movie genre even though the films tend to use zombies as a setup before veering in the third act into fights with mutant monsters. And there are some zombie inconsistencies, such as the speed of the zombies. Mostly they are the kind of growling, shambling zombies we’ve come to know and love from the Romero films, and it’s established that humans are faster and (it would seem from the fight scenes) a little stronger. However these zombies seem to speed up whenever the plot requires it, as shown with them sprinting up a flight of stairs after a potential victim early in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004). Of course, once the hero arrives to try and save the helpless female victim, the ghouls slow down again so he can kick the asses of a whole bunch of them. If you’re just tuning in for the fun of it, the speed changes don’t seem to matter, but if you’re trying to suspend disbelief so you can make some degree of sense out of the story, these errors jump out. As a result some zombie flick purists dismiss the films. However, whether they fit in as true zombie films or not, they did contribute significantly to the momentum of the genre in the twenty-first century. Without it Shaun of the Dead (2004) might never have been made and probably would never have found the huge audience it did; and the same could be said of the remakes of Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. This, too, has been the subject of extensive debate.
Jamie Russell, author of Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema and an outspoken critic on the zombie genre, sees a link between the zombie pop culture and the larger world culture. “I think the recent resurgence in zombie movies definitely has something to do with the way in which we’ve become a more secular society. Once upon a time people went to church, they believed in heaven and hell, the soul and an afterlife. These days, especially in the West, we’re less certain about such things and I think zombie movies are an expression of that. The zombie as a monster, as a reanimated corpse poses all kinds of questions about God, the afterlife and the soul. Are the living just zombies with brains, or are zombies the living without souls?”
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The Worst Zombie Films of All Time, Part 3
Nudist Colony of the Dead (1991): How could you possibly bore an audience with zombies and nudity? One answer: put all the nude actors into body stockings! Sheesh.
One Dark Night (1982): Meg Tilly, a haunted house, Carrie-like telekinetic powers, and floating zombies. Just as silly as it sounds and not as much fun as it should have been.
The People Who Own the Dark (1976): A mishmash inspired by The Omega Man that has a bunch of blind people laying siege to a house in which sighted people are holed up. Clearly nobody thought that through.
Shadow: Dead Riot (2005): Love Tony Todd, hate the movie. Plot’s not even worth talking about.
Nights of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Terror (1991): Looks like it was shot on a dare. And lost.
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The rise of the new zombie auteurs, Zack Snyder, Edgar Wright, Danny Boyle, and others raises the question as to whether the living dead torch has officially been passed.
/> “Romero will always be king,” insists horror film critic Jim Dolan. “No matter how big someone else’s films get, Romero’s vision is the official vision of zombie cinema. Without him there wouldn’t even be a genre.”
Russell agrees. “For me, Romero is the Don of the Dead. It’s his vision of social apocalypse that I think is the crux of what makes the zombie genre so frightening, really. That claustrophobic, there’s-nowhere-to-run feeling that his films instill in the audience is one of the things I find most terrifying about zombies. It’s a stark nihilism—a secular End of Days that suggests there isn’t a God or an afterlife…We’re all just hunks of meat.”
ZOMBIE COMICS
Zombie comics have been hot for the last few years. I asked a few folks in that industry to comment on the upsurge of these illustrated zombie stories.
“Since the 1940’s, some of the best American monster stories have appeared in comic books,” says Trevor Strunk, comics expert and freelance writer. “Frankenstein was done first and best by Dick Briefer for Prize Publications in 1946; Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan defined the comic book vampire in their 1970’s series Tomb of Dracula; and Werewolf by Night, by Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog translated the werewolf myth into the universe of the flawed Marvel Comics superhero. The zombie, however, one of the most popular monsters, has had a very limited presence in comic books.”
Why so?
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New Monster Paradigm
“Stephen King calls zombies a new monster paradigm. Do I agree? Hey, if Stephen King said the sun rose in the west, I’d agree. He’s Stephen King and I think, by now, he’s earned the right to be right about everything.”—Max Brooks, author of World War Z
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“The incidental nature of zombies in comics could be attributed to a couple causes,” Strunk explains. “First, the Golden Age of horror comics of the 1940’s and 50’s came long before George Romero popularized zombies with his Night of the Living Dead films. Secondly, the Comics Code, a watchdog organization that limited violence, gore, and profanity, could not have looked kindly on the concept of a reanimated corpse, especially one that devours still-living flesh. There were a few zombie-related series during Marvel Comics’ 1970’s horror revival—Tales of the Zombie, for instance, was published in magazine format and focused solely on the zombie—but the zombie comic has only recently recovered from its footnote status.”
So, who is driving the new zombie comic genre?
Strunk doesn’t hesitate: “Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s Walking Dead, published by Image Comics, is a serious, large-scale zombie series, and Kirkman and Sean Phillip’s Marvel Zombies, a tongue-in-cheek look at superheroes as zombies, has made the living dead more popular than ever in comic books. With high popular interest and more lax censorship standards, the comic book zombie’s future has never been brighter.”
I contacted Robert Kirkman and Bob Fingerman to see what they had to say about creating zombie comics. First thing I asked them was: Why zombies?
“Because, generally, they’re a universal problem,” says Fingerman. “They’re the roach of the monster world; if you’ve seen one, you know there are thousands more where it came from. Also, they’re scary because they can’t be reasoned with. They’re worse than children. But seriously, their lack of reasoning and their pure need-driven motivation are what make them frightening. That and the fact that they’ll tear you limb from limb and devour all your soft tissue. Individually they’re just gross and unsettling, but they always come in mobs and mobs are by nature terrifying.”
Kirkman agrees. “Why not zombies? They’re a mighty easy way to get things good and screwed up in a fictional world, and that leaves for some pretty interesting character development.”
I asked what kind of feedback they’ve gotten about their books.
Fingerman says, “What I got was uniformly positive.”
Kirkman, who slaughters all of Marvel’s favorite superheroes (some get zombified, some get eaten), agrees. “Overwhelmingly positive response to be honest. And the formula was pretty damn easy: It was pretty easy. Zombie bites superhero, Superhero turns into zombie, bites more superheroes. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.”
Kirkman says that the readers often form strong emotional connections to the characters in zombie comics. “Every now and then someone will get upset about something I did to a character in The Walking Dead—but that really just means I’m doing my job. If they care about the fake people in the book—what I’m doing works.”
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Essential Zombie Comics—Trevor Strunk
Essential Tales of the Zombie, various authors. This new black-and-white collection from Marvel continues their tradition of cheap reprints under their Essentials line, but this time with zombies. This is a perfect collection if you want to understand the very beginnings of the comic book zombie as we know it.
The Walking Dead, Book One, Robert Kirkman, writer; Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, and Cliff Rathburn, artists. This hardcover collection includes the first twelve issues of Image Comics’ premiere zombie series. Kirkman’s writing is reminiscent of a Romero film, and the art, whether by Moore, Adlard, or Rathburn, is atmospheric and chilling. This is a great example of the modern zombie story in a sequentially progressive form.
Recess Pieces, Bob Fingerman, writer and artist. Recess Pieces (Dark Horse) is an interpretation of the zombie myth from a much more independent, and a much more offbeat position. Set in an elementary school overrun with zombies, Fingerman’s art complements the unsettling nature of the narrative. This is recommended for people who love zombies, but want their comic book reading done in one session.
Marvel Zombies, Robert Kirkman, writer; Sean Phillips, artist. Marvel Zombies focuses on Marvel superheroes who also happen to be zombies. If that description has failed to sell the book for you, this might not be the zombie comic for you, but if you like your comics in the superheroic vein, then you’ll certainly appreciate this tongue-in-cheek, violent meditation on zombies.
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And he summed it up for both of them by saying, “We’re lucky enough to be working in very zombie-friendly times.”
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Art of the Dead—Collin Burton
Twilight Years of the Dead
“George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was showing on a late-night, local TV show called Shock Theater when I was nine years old. I remember not being able to watch past the point where they find the corpse on the stairs. A few years later I watched the whole thing and I’ve been drawn to zombies more than any other monster type ever since.”
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ZOMBIE MUSIC
Horror is a very popular theme in music—and has been for a long time. C’mon—you remember singing “Monster Mash” and “Purple People Eater,” don’t you?
Over the last thirty years a few subgenres of zombie-themed music have emerged from the music world, all sorts of styles like rock, pop, R&B, horror punk, death metal, dub, electro, indus, techno indus, blues, funk, industrial, gothic, and even hip hop. There’s even an emerging fusion style called zombie country. The undisputed king of all zombie music is the master himself, Rob Zombie, who always incorporated living-dead themes into his music. But before Rob there was Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Harry and the Undertakers, Goblin, and scores of others.
I asked a few people who are really into zombie music for their opinions on why this subgenre is so strong and getting stronger all the time.
I asked author David F. Kramer,13 a long-time devotee of horror music, to explain why zombie music is so popular. He said, “I’m quick to fall back on the words of Anton S. LaVey14—the Devil has always written the best tunes. Whether or not one believes in the diabolic nature of the devil’s chord (tritone), the fact is—it’s representative of dissonance—and that’s really what the darkness is all about. So—“evil” music has really never gone out of style—at least not for the last few hundred years or so—and I hope it never will!”
So, wh
at then makes for a great zombie song? Kramer says, “The best songs about zombies encompass all of the things for which zombies are known and loved—messily tearing through their graves to the surface to feast on the entrails and brains of slow witted (and moving) hapless human prey. Whether one is a fan of Goblin—the jazzy ensemble that’s scored more than a few gutchomping films since the 1970’s; old school 1920’s Southern Bluesmens’ tales of the restless dead; or if you’re just a death-grind-crust fanatic—the message remains pretty much the same. And that message is BRAINS! Why split hairs when you could be splitting intestines?”
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Art of the Dead—Kevin Bias
Zombie Blues
“I think it’s somewhat trendy to like zombies these days. I’m not sure why. There’s Night of the Living Dead shirts at every Hot Topic store, and I just recently watched a TV commercial where laundry chased people like zombies. Maybe mankind is subconsciously aware of the imminent zombie apocalypse!”