- Began with White Zombie directed by Victor Halperin and released on July 28, 1932
The imminent arrival of 28 Years Later has got me thinking about zombie movies. Sometimes hockey fun and sometimes outright scares and possibly even a romance or two.
Zombie movies have been around since at least. The zombie itself is a staple of the horror genre and in recent years has seen a bit of a resurgence or renaissance though The Walking Dead universe is working to run it into the ground with more branches than the MCU. But that is a different topic.
From The Night of the Living Dead to Warm Bodies to the Christmas oriented A Cadaver Christmas (that’s a real one) with the right creative mind you can do just about anything in the zombie genre. The same can be said for any bit of fiction but the range of options is rather surprising for a concept that focuses around the undead.
There are those like Zombieland that have worked to explain (humorously) how the undead could devastate the world while others have done their best to use it for mindless action such as the Resident Evil series. Both have their plusses and minuses. For me this is a genre that benefits more from style than it does for attempted scares. Presentation is what matters here. Doctor Blood’s Coffin is an enjoyable film because of how they present it.
This is something that as a genre has managed to step beyond being just about the undead and blur the lines a little bit at the very minimum. Dead Space is a videogame series that basically uses science spec mix of science fiction in the supernatural dean create an undead threat that’s a little more than just zombies.
Some like 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later (and now 28 Years Later) have used the elements of the zombie film in technically non-zombie movies. I will die on the hill of it the 28 Days Later movies are not actually zombie films. I keep hearing them being referred to as zombie movies but the infected and those movies are not the undead. It’s a pandemic/epidemic movie.
I haven’t read too much on casting though there appears to be the presence of Cillian Murphy once again. A strength of the first two was each featured a different set of characters. There is no need to acknowledge the events of what came before. If they are going to bring back any characters and they should bring back the kids from the last movie and Rose Byrne’s doctor. The kids had a mother that appeared to have a resistance and Rose Byrne was a doctor that stumbled across it. But like I said, I don’t know because I haven’t read too much about casting. For all, I know they could all be coming back.
The zombie genre is something that can be used in part or in a hole in many ways. There is plenty of life (no pun intended) in it. I hope that this release, if well received, sparks a burst/rebirth of the zombie genre. We need an alternative to what we are getting now.
Warren Watched A Movie 