ZOMBIE HORROR FILMSResearch: Subgenre

Introduction

Throughout this PowerPoint I will be looking at zombie horror films, when the genre was first introduced and how it has developed throughout the years.I will look at a variety of different zombie movies, and what aspects of the films they have kept the same or similar and what they have changed in the different movies.

Horror Films

Horror films intentions are to play on the viewers primal fears, to create tensions and play with their emotions.The scenes played throughout the movie mainly intend to startle the viewer, by using various different methods.

Zombie Horror Films

Zombie: A term to giving to a mindless corpse that has been brought back to life. Originally associated with being brought back to life through magical powers; they are shown to feed off of human flesh.

The themes of zombies now appear in many fictional books, games, comics and films.

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari - 1920

The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari was directed by Robert Wiene. It is a silent horror and considered as one of the best silent horror films to be made in its era.Although this isn’t actually a zombie movie, it’s characters show many behaviours to the viewer that would be associated with the living dead.

White Zombie - 1932

White Zombie was directed and produced by brothers Victor Halperin who is known for his work being based around romance and horror; and Edward Halperin.

It focuses around a man who goes to a witch doctor to get help to lure the women he loves away from her fiancé. In White Zombie the zombies are seen are true voodoo zombies, playing on the original meaning of how zombies were brought back to life.

I walked With A Zombie - 1943

I Walked With A Zombie was directed by Jacques Tourneur and written by Curt Schiodmak who is known for writing horror and science fiction films.The plot of this movie is based on the novel Jane Eyre, this movies still focuses on the classic voodoo zombies, but also brings new aspects of zombies to the viewers attention.

The Last Man On Earth - 1964

The Last Man On Earth was directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, it was filmed in Italy. The film was based on the novel ‘I Am Legend’ by Richard Matheson.In The Last Man On Earth a disease turns everybody into the living dead, this movie shows the theme of the human being a victim of the living dead.

The Plague Of The Zombies - 1966

This film was directed by John Gilling and sticks to the traditional voodoo zombie movies, but is now bringing in new behaviours of zombies which are closer to the behaviours that are used in George A. Romero’s films.

George A. Romero

George A. Romero is a famous film director, screenwriter and editor. Romero made a huge impact on the modern day zombie films, and is well known for his zombie movies.Romero introduced zombies as flesh eating cannibals, changing the zombie film industry, this took zombie films away from voodoo witch doctor zombie movies.

Night Of The Living Dead - 1968

Night of the living dead was directed and written by George A. Romero.It is an American black and white zombie film, a group of survivors are trapped in an old building and there has been an outbreak of zombies putting their lives at risk.This film introduced us to the modern zombie movies, redefining the term ‘zombie’ in movies. Instead of the past voodoo zombies in movies, this was a scientific outbreak of zombies, they were also flesh eating zombies.

Images From Night Of The Living Dead

Dawn Of The Dead - 1978

Dawn Of The Dead was another movie written by George A. RomeroThe world is being taken over by an army of zombies and a group of four survivors stick together to try and stay alive.The Zombies are similar to the ones in Night Of The Dead, they are part of the new modern flesh eating zombies. In The movie the zombies are very violent and has scenes showing flesh. It is also shown in Dawn Of The Dead that the zombies should be attacked in the head to be killed.

Day Of The Dead – 1985

Day Of The Dead is the third movie made by George A. Romero in his ‘Dead’ series of films.Like Night Of The Dead and Dawn Of The Dead, this film portrays zombies as being flesh eating corpses. The film contains scenes which show the zombies eating humans.

80’s

By the 80’s the sub-genre of zombie horror films had been defined. This was the flesh eating living dead, defined in George A. Romero’s movies. Throughout the 80’s it was made clear what zombie movies would have; this was a corpse that ate flesh and once a human was bitten by a zombie they would also become one and to kill them they must have an injury to the head cased.In this decade more gory horror films were released, such as ‘The Beyond’ and ‘Dead and Buried’.

The Beyond - 1981

The Beyond was directed by Lucio Fulci and is an Italian zombie horror film. By fans it was seen as one of the greatest horror films from an Italian director, however it was criticised for it incredibly gory scenes.

90’s

The 90’s were seen as a disappointment to the zombie subgenre compared to the previous triumph of the genre in the 80’s.The 90’s was criticised for poorly made movies, which involved too much gore.

Shaun Of The Dead - 2004

Shaun Of The Dead is a zombie romantic comedy (Zom-Rom-Com) which was released in 2004 and was a very successful zombie comedy movie.It involves the main character winning back his ex-girlfriend and trying to save the people closest to him from the outbreak of zombies. The zombies in this film are shown to be flesh eating zombies, there is a scene in the film where they have a lesson how to appear to be a zombie; describing the zombies as “look at the face, its vacant with a hint of sadness”.

Recent

There has been a range of zombie movies and zom-coms introduced in the 2000’s.

28 Days Lter – 2002 Shaun Of The Dead - 2004 28 Weeks Later – 2007 Zombieland – 2009 ( Zom-Rom-Com)

Conclusion

The Zombie horror movie genre has changed a lot throughout the decades I have looked at (1920’s – present). This has been shown in the way that zombies are shown. Originally zombie movies were based around voodoo magic bringing them back to life. However George A. Romero introduced zombies as flesh eating zombies. In The Plague Of The Zombies we saw the introduction of the behaviours of zombies which were then developed more in Night Of The Living Dead.

Conclusion Contined

Zombies are now seen as Flesh eating corpse They are stupid or not smart To become one you must be bitten by one To defeat one you must cause injury to

the head.