Thread: Zombie Movies, sorting through the chronology

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I love zombie movies, but I admit I haven't seen them all. I recently watched a short documentary, Zombiemania (available streaming via Netflix) and it talked about George A.Romero being the "grandfather" of the modern Zombie movie with his original, 1968 release of "Night of the Living Dead".

George A. Romero then went on to make Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1988), and his latest contribution, Diary of the Dead, in 2007.

So, that's the original series by George A. Romero. Each film was released about 10 years apart, and loosely continues the storyline of a zombie attack/plague, but follows different groups of people. (I haven't seen Diary of the Dead yet, but I have it in my Netflix queue.)

Now, it would seem that Hollywood has remade each of George A. Romero's films, starting with Tom Savini's shot-by-shot remake of Night of the Living Dead in 1990. Then Dawn of the Dead in 2004, and Day of the Dead in 2008. Funny to note that Ving Rhames was in both Dawn and Day, but played completely different characters. Also, Tom Savini has been in many zombie movies, but the only zombie movie he's directed is the Night of... remake.

There are a slew of other zombie movies, of course, but the genre definitely seems to follow the Romero pattern for it's growth over the past four decades. Romero set the ground rules for slow moving, flesh eating, walking dead, and established the "shoot the head" method of zombie killing.

The only series I can find that really follows the same character(s) from one movie to the next is the Resident Evil films.

There also seems to be a growing divide between zombie horror and zombie humor. Look at films like Shawn of the Dead, Fido, etc. for humor.

So, with that introduction, please provide your two cents on the Zombie genre, including favorites, or movies that just missed the mark.

One dividing line I like to bring up is zombie speed. I'm not a huge fan of fast zombies. Something about a slow, but relentless, attack I find interesting. Maybe because it gives the victim some hope of escape, but if you turn your back they will be there.

Humor, as you mention, is another key ingredient. Zombieland (one of my favorites) just cracks me up. I made the wife watch it and even she thought it was good. Shaun of the Dead is great as is Fido.

The remakes of the original George A Romero's movies seem to have lost some of the entertainment value, excluding Dawn of the Dead 2004 which was done well. I think it again comes back to humor.

Wow, I just ran a Wiki search on zombie movies. There is like a hundred! I guess I better start checking some of these out.

You're right. The fast versus slow debate for zombies is much like the great taste, less filling debate. Some people really like the speed, while others feel that zombies should be slow, but numerous.

I really like the way The Walking Dead is portraying the zombies. So far, I think they're hitting all the good points, with none of the "over-the-top" stuff you sometimes get in other movies.

I recently rented "Dead Snow" and thought it was a fantastic zombie movie. It took me a while to find it to rent (Hastings has it), but it was so good I might go buy it now!! These zombies are "Nazi Zombies" and I thought it was well put together. Also, the soundtrack is pretty good too if you like hard rock.

Dead Snow was pretty good. A bit slow at first, and definitely the classic, "stuck out in the woods" sorta story. It had some really dark humor and was fun to watch.

Someone asked me once, about Dead Snow, "Are they Nazi zombies or zombie Nazis?"

Think about it for a minute.

Really, there was a spate of zombie flicks in the 40s, but those were more voodoo zombies, I Walked With A Zombie, The Mad Ghoul, & a few others, they weren't the flesh eating zombies of today.

Romero is the Alpha when it comes to the zombies we know today. Even Fulci has said his zombie flicks were straight rip-offs of Romero.

I forgot about Dead Snow. I'm going to try and find it now. Thanks Creature.

--- Update ----

Netflix has it available instantly!

If it does not have Romero involved, I think twice about it. His original three will always be the holy grail of zombie horror. With that said, onward:

*Dawn of the Dead remake: Missed with me. Instead of a tightly-knit group of people you cared about, we get a bunch of snarky, irritable and really unlikeable people cooped up in a mall with "Don't Worry, Be Happy" playing. Ugh. I cared about none of those people. Although I will say the opening title sequence may be the most awesome of any horror film anywhere. I am old-school and prefer non-running zombies.

*Day of the Dead remake: somewhat better.

*A recent like: Zombie Diaries. Really liked that.

*Walking Dead: Was getting into it when we lost access to that channel. Will eventually plow through it on DVD, much as I am with "Breaking Bad" at the moment. [Another pretty horrific scenario, but I digress...]

*Zombieland: Hated it.

Romero zombie flicks are my picks of choice. Slow, large numbers, "stuck in the woods" and the terror of what lurks outside and inside.

Romero seems to capture the human element of people in a chaotic world all attempting to survive, but revealing the nature of people in dire situations. It contrasts with the driving relentlessness of the instinct for zombies to act only on survival. It seems the humans in these movies need to think beyond their own personal survival, and attempt to maintain social morals and pack reliance.

Was that too wordy? I think I'm going too deep into this, but, it's what I like the most about zombie movies. I generally like zombie movies more when the depiction of the people is realistic, and lack the stupidity some slasher characters posses.

I liked Zombieland, but it barely was a zombie movie to me. They weren't very terrified of their environment, it was more like expressing loneliness and trust in real life by using a zombie world as the medium.

Sean of the Dead surprised me because it has some realism between the characters, and I liked the comedy.

I liked 28 Days Later because of the realism, though I preferred the happy ending.

Resident Evil was awesome, but as the series went on things got weird. Things got weird in the sequels, but I still liked it as more then just a zombie movie, showing the characters as heroes. When, near the end, they tried to introduce vulnerable characters to develop the movie into a traditional zombie movie, I thought it was lame.

I'm a big fan of the survival, shut-in movies like Evil Dead or Night of the Living Dead, and likely my favorite Dawn of the Dead.

Something like Return of the Living Dead had that realism that I really liked, and poured on some extra gore. It seems like after this movie they started making the movies more about the gore, and characters started becoming the slasher stereotypes.

I'm often cautious to watch any zombie movie fearing it will be just this gory slasher. I'll take a chance it will be funny like Dead Alive, but expect any attempt at a serious zombie movie to fall short of my expectations.

Had to search for my thread. Someone sure likes to move these discussions around.

Maybe there should be a whole section dedicated to horror movies, so it would be easier to find?