Zombies!

AS Film – relating to 28DL

Defining the Zombie

White Zombie (1932) is considered to be the first

First Zombie films

White Zombie (1932) is considered to be the first zombie film

Early zombies were very human-like and were associated with Voodoo culture

Universal Studios

Universal Studios was one if the ‘big 5’ and was most famous for producing horror films.

1968 – Night of the Living Dead George Romero’s film revolutionised the zombie movie

making the zombies more scary and not essentially tying them to voodoo

The film also started the generic narrative conventions of the characters finding a place to hide and then fending off multiple zombies.

The film also made clear the link between destroying the brain as the only option to eradicate zombies

1978 - Dawn of the Dead

Romero’s second zombie feature took these principles even further and made the genre more gory. Romero also introduced a more political element suggesting commercialism was turning people into zombies. Although quite funny now the film was considered very shocking

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3-g5wu3bSg

Evil Dead + Braindead

Evil Dead re-kindled the idea the turning into a zombie could be a consequence of dabbling with dark arts. Sam Raimi made this film even more gory and started a trend of gore-splatter zombie films that ended in the late 80s with Braindead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbOmCUWm25w

Modern Zombies

The zombie genre has become fashionable in the late 90s and 00s and this has caused the genre to update itself to attract a new audience

Movies such as Zombieland, 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead have created sub-genres to help diversify the genre

Zom-coms

Zombies are now often the stars of more comedy films with Shaun of the Dead using an audiences previous knowledge to create comedy.

(31.42)http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01czdvm/Film_2012_with_Claudia_Winkleman_Episode_8/

Zombies and the Apocalypse

Now films and TV shows are cashing in on the theme of an apocalypse caused by Zombies or disease and there is a hark back to the more traditional slower zombies

Survival

Surviving a zombie attack has become such a cult activity many film fans make their own films regarding the rules

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiJRybxfm54&feature=related

Activity Your activity is to carefully analyse the rules of how to

survive a zombie attack and create your own Zombie survival guide

Consider: - You can take 2 people with you or save - Weapon - What skills you need - Shelter - Where will you get food - Types of zombies - Medical care - Fight or hide? - Is it possible for you to

defeat them and if so how?

This will be handed in after lunch or for homework

Themes of Zombie films

Think about 28 Days later but also other zombie films you have seen:

- What are the main themes of these films? - Who manages to survive and why? - Are these films trying to tell us something

about humanity or the world?