In honor of the new wave of projects in the Walking Dead universe and on the eve of Halloween, we present a comprehensive guide to zombie movies.
Why did we decide to release a short but comprehensive guide to zombie movies? We have 2 whole reasons for this!
First, this year AMC is launching two spin-offs of the Walking Dead universe: separate stories about Daryl Dixon, as well as about Maggie and Negan. In addition, in 2024, a series about the travels of Rick and Michonne is expected to be released. Almost 15 years ago, in 2010, The Walking Dead became the project that reignited interest in zombies, restoring their honorable place in the horror world.
Second, the scariest holiday of the year is approaching — Halloween. And we decided to combine business with pleasure and remind you where it all began in the zombie world and what the current state of the walking dead universe is.
Reasons for the Appearance of Zombies
- Enchanted dead returned to life
- Consumer society turned into flesh-eating monsters
- Victims of medical experiments
- Victims of epidemics
- Suffering from mental problems
- Those who believed in the wrong gods and prayed to the wrong spirits
- Dead slumbering in the ground until awakened by an oil drill (Jarmusch's dream)
What Can Zombies in the Frame Mean?
- Fear of ugliness
- Fear of old age
- Fear of becoming a stupid shopaholic consumer
- Fear of becoming a scientist's guinea pig
- Fear of the collapse of civilization
- Fear of the threat of nuclear war
- Fear of natural disasters
Types of Zombies
- Slow, upright, drooling, passive-aggressive, digestion works poorly, as do jaws
- Fast-running, aggressive, with a grimace on their face, jaws work quickly and precisely, tear flesh perfectly
- Bounding on all fours, mostly animals and creatures that were once human. Cute in appearance, monsters at heart
Stages of Development of the Zombie Universe
How It All Began
- White Zombie (1932) — the world's first zombie film
- Walking Dead (1936) — an alternative version of the story of Frankenstein and his creation
- I Walked with a Zombie (1943) — when the side job turned out not so great, surrounded by cultists, though it could all be blamed on bad makeup
- I Bury the Living (1958) — it's like the 20th century's Final Destination, when everything is in the hands of a pin
- The Plague of the Zombies (1966) — again zombies appear due to strange cult rituals
- Night of the Living Dead (1968) — the night when all our fears and sins came to life and began to haunt us
The Heyday
- City of the Living Dead (1980) — when you are buried alive, it rains corpse worms, and you are looking for the gates of hell
- The Evil Dead (1981) — don't play, children, with things better left alone, like a book of spells. Sam Raimi before Spider-Man and great responsibility
- The Return of the Living Dead (1984) — when containers with zombie remains are stored in a warehouse, nothing good can be expected
- Day of the Dead (1985) — zombies rule the world, and George Romero invents new metaphors for them
- Re-Animator (1985) — the main rule of this film: if someone dies, don't revive them
- Night of the Living Dead (1990) — this is not George Romero, it's a brother and sister visiting their mother at the cemetery, and they are attacked by zombies
Bright Flash
28 Days Later (2002) — not all macaques are cute, not all people are kind, it's hard being Cillian Murphy (2002) — when Milla Jovovich decided she was Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it's too late to save the world. And she met her husband Dawn of the Dead (2004) — Zack Snyder comments on the zombie invasion in the US Shaun of the Dead (2004) — one of the most heartfelt and funny zombie films Land of the Dead (2005) — George Romero just can't escape zombie films Planet Terror (2007) — when one of the Charmed Ones despaired so much that she decided to go into zombie cinema and shoot from a leg-cannon I Am Legend (2007) — before Will Smith became an alcoholic superhero, he really tried to save our sinful world
This year, the Resident Evil film universe celebrates its 20th anniversary: in 2002, the first film adaptation based on the popular game Resident Evil starring Milla Jovovich was released. Let's remember
Open material
Traditional Flight
(2010-2022) — if Milla Jovovich had woken up not in an elite cottage but in a hospital. And if she were a man Rec (2007) — when you are a journalist who got too carried away and didn't notice how you ended up at the epicenter of a deadly virus outbreak Zombieland (2009) — before Emma Stone met Spider-Man, she was saved by Lex Luthor from Zack Snyder's Superman universe, and she herself solved problems with a shotgun and Woody Harrelson The Crazies (2010) — when you try to make a decent remake of George Romero's film The Crazies, where the virus affected one city, not the whole world World War Z (2013) — before Angelina Jolie sued Brad Pitt, he saved the world from hordes of dead Z Nation (2014-2018) — when one man and his antibodies become the last hope for the whole world Train to Busan (2016) — not only Hollywood wants to save the world, South Korea can also successfully save the universe from a zombie invasion
Today, November 20, 2022, the final episode of the series The Walking Dead airs. In honor of this momentous event, we invite you to recall the full twelve-year journey
Open material
New Metaphors and Contexts
- The Epidemic (2013) — a Franco-Spanish zombie film about how agoraphobia became both a gift and a curse
- Warm Bodies (2014) — almost like When Harry Met Sally, but if the script were written by Shakespeare and his characters were dead
- iZombie (2015-2019) — the main rule you take away from this series: you can't eat other people's brains
- Maggie (2015) — when you've been a bodybuilder, Terminator, governor, action hero, and all that's left is to be a father with a zombie child to keep up with trends
- The Girl with All the Gifts (2016) — when infected kids turn out to be saviors for the surviving people on the planet
- Overlord (2018) — kneading zombies with one hand and guns
- Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2019) — as they say, there's no accounting for taste
- The Dead Don't Die (2019) — Jarmusch continues to condemn modern consumer society, turning us all into zombies. And Tilda Swinton chops off our heads
- The Last of Us (2023-...) — just Pedro Pascal as father of the year
Standing Still, Waiting for Weather by the Sea
- Army of the Dead (2021) — Zack Snyder looks for new superheroes after being excluded from the DC universe, now his heroes fight for peace against zombies
- Deadstream (2022) — when filming a zombie horror turns into a real zombie horror (comedy)
- The Boy from the Other Side (2022) — even the dead need friends and support, and they are sensitive in general
- Evil Dead Rise (2023) — meant well, turned out as usual
- Zombie: From Busan to Gangnam (2023) — in this race of zombie films, Hollywood does (slightly) better than South Korea
New Spin-offs, Old Songs About the Main Thing
- Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) — Kaya Scodelario, having run the whole way in The Maze Runner, decided to run from zombies
- The Walking Dead: World Beyond — a moment of silence
- The Walking Dead: Dead City — hopelessly watching Maggie and Negan try to save something somewhere
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — all hope rests on Norman Reedus and his poker face
- The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live — unclear why, bringing Rick and Michonne back to screens in 2024
The zombie universe continues to actively develop, so far through self-repetition and attempts to reboot old franchises. And we, the viewers, like Daryl Dixon, survive in this stream of cinematic mass production, put up with the decline of imagination in the hope that the best screen future for the living dead is still ahead. And we live on.
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