Alex Walsh quite simply declares the zombie genre dead! Please let us know your thoughts no Alex’s diagnosis and what you think of the health of the zombie genre in the comments below.
2012 is a landmark year in a number of ways. It’s the year that hokey Mayan prophecies most definitely don’t come true, it’s the Queen’s diamond jubilee, but it’s also the 80th anniversary of the first feature length zombie movie, White Zombie.
White Zombie didn’t open to great critical success, which perhaps foreshadows what was to come for what is a well established horror sub genre.
It took until George Romaro’s low budget masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead in 1969, for the zombie film to move into popular mainstream and away from its roots in voodoo and Haitian culture and many of the “rules” that defined the genre were contained within this film. Rules that by and large remained in place until the turn of the century.
When zombies moved from superstition to more mundane origins, be it nuclear waste, chemical spills or biological weapons, the mystery and supernatural element really vanished. The 70s generally saw a rise in gore in horror, with zombie films at the forefront. Fulci brought the genre to a peak with a particularly gory Italian splatter film called Zombie Flesheaters (aka Zombi 2 in his native Italy), a film that culminated in a fight between a zombie and a shark. Yes, it’s as bizarre as it sounds and shows the genre has never really taken itself that seriously.
But the zombie film is in near terminal decline. Romaro’s recent efforts haven’t furthered the genre at all and there has even been a remake of his first film, a sure sign that ideas are at an all time low.
True, the cable network adaptation of The Walking Dead comic book series has been met with approval, its success even resulting in additional episodes added to the third series, but at its heart zombies become less and less relevant to The Walking Dead. It’s a soap opera about the evil in mankind. It’s a clever metaphor that the real monsters aren’t the zombies, something that Romaro played with to great success in his “Dead” series but it is a theme that has been played out endlessly. It only seems fresh due to the glut of gore that has blighted the genre for so long.
It’s 8 years since Shaun of the Dead did something a little different. 8 years, in which nothing has changed, the blip has been smoothed over and it is business as usual. Shambling? Shambolic more like.
The zombie is dead this time, and no amount of chemical spill, nuclear material or good old fashioned voodoo can pump life into its withered veins. Not that a list of forthcoming zombie films would give that indication of course. Zach Snyder is directing one, Ving Rhames is in another, the dogged Resident Evil franchise continues ever onwards but let’s face it, the only real innovation that has occurred in the zombie film over the last twenty years is making them faster than the shambling wrecks Romaro brought to the screen.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is slated for a 2013 release, and with that the final nail in the coffin will have resolutely been hammered.
I’m reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies at the moment – am only a few chapters in but the joke has worn thin already.
Zombieland was a good recent zombie film but aside from Night of the Living Dead I think my fave zombie film is I Walked With A Zombie – not really a zombie film as such but beautifully atmospheric, gorgeous black and white cinematography and a brilliant minimal pounding soundtrack.
Though I agree the Romero’s style of Zombie is in decline, I think to say the genre is dead is a little bold.
It’s so easy to assimilate Zombies with almost any political activity, so there is always a wealth to draw from, even if the results aren’t always interesting.
What could potentially be the way forward for the zombie flick, would be to revert to their Voodoo origins or to explore their more mystical African heritage.
What with the rise of the fantasy/folklore/fairy tale genre, it might be the perfect climate to resurrect the original living dead.
28 days later?
i am legend?
That’s my point really, both 28 Days Later and I am Legend have fast zombies, that’s about the only innovation!
I honestly think such a high concept like the zombie genre will never go away and nor should it; in my opinion it will always be interesting. The zombies have long since been the second tier of the narrative in favour of some allegorical message. Where zombie narratives have failed actually, is when that’s all they are. Not comments on consumerism, racism, McCarthyism or anything else, just zombie films. This is too dull for a genre that you have rightly pointed out is tired.
But then using what is a very accessible and simple template, to paint a picture of something more complex will always be interesting. Romero’s Diary of the Dead for instance, may not have been the greatest zombie film, but it was still addressing something poignant: a then still developing Youtube culture, and its consequences on compulsive voyeurism.
Zombies in my opinion are really only a vessel for adding tension to another layer of meaning. In this respect they are both useful, yet still ancillary to the more interesting sub-text.
The problem comes when the allegorical message becomes as tired as it has. In a sense it’s more formulaic to have a subcontext than not now days 🙂
I’m a big fan of the Walking Dead (comics). I think the genuinely most disturbing thing in the whole series is Rick knowing he’s having a breakdown and not caring when he’s carrying the old fashioned phone around and talking to his dead wife on it. The zombies just get in the way. That’s why The Stand is such a great read 🙂
I unashamedly LOVED the dawn of the dead remake, thought it very chilling and well done. It doesnt help that a lot of people making Zombie films love to pay homage to the element of trashy humour thats always been in the genre, but is this a bad thing? I’d perhaps say its the comedy within Zombie movies that needs shaking up, not the idea of zombies themselves. If you havent read World War Z, then do! Its amazing. The movie is coming out in 2013, think Lord of the Rings epic-ness meets gritty, modern zombie apocalpyse.
While I agree that the zombie genre is totally played out (I’m really, really sick of zombie stories), it’s hard to take a writer seriously when they make factual errors and misspell names.
Romero, not Romaro
and NOTLD was released in 1968, not 1969.
This is the problem with “articles” online. Do some fact checking as you’re writing, bro.