Zombies are humans, animals or any part thereof who have died and have since been reanimated through any of several methods. They have been referred to as the Undead or the Walking Dead. Traditionally, when a human being dies and is resurrected as a zombie, they are no longer a sentient being and lack any semblance of a conscious mind. These creatures are typically driven by pure instinct or an innate primal desire such as hunger or the need to kill. Zombies are often susceptible to psychological suggestion and may be easily manipulated or controlled by those responsible for their reanimation. This is not always the case however, and many zombies have rebelled against their creator over the years.
Becoming a zombie[]
The creation of a zombie may be conducted through a variety of ways. The earliest methods of zombie creation stem all the way back to ancient Egypt in the form of mummies. Egyptians who had earned the enmity of the Pharaoh or the gods would find themselves executed. Their bodies were wrapped in linen upon death and placed inside of a tomb. In place of the traditional Egyptian prayer ceremonies however, these mummies were instead cursed to return to life as a shambling monster with no other desire but to kill. It was common for Egyptian tomb builders to place a warning upon the sarcophagus, indicating to others what might happen should the tomb of the mummy be disturbed. While mummies may lie inert in their coffins for centuries, it was not uncommon for a thief or archaeologist to discover their remains and, ignoring the warnings, inadvertently bring the mummy back to life, usually at the cost of their own lives.
For the past several centuries, one of the more noted methods of zombie creation stems from the religious voodoo sects of the West Indies as well as some regions of the Southeastern United States. Many zombie creation rites originate from the island of Haiti. In the tenets of the Voodoo religion, a Voodoo priest, known as a Bokor, performs a ritual that brings the body of the recently deceased back to life. Like most zombies, this individual no longer has a will of their own and is submissive to the instruction of the Bokor.
Zombies in film[]
Zombies as film villains did not reach the same popularity as vampires or werewolves and they usually took the form of mummies or some variation of the Frankenstein Monster.
One of the earliest representations of zombies in horror films is the 1932 movie White Zombie starring Bela Lugosi. Lugosi played a character named Murder Legendre who owned a sugar mill run by a zombie labor force. At the behest of a colleague named Charles Beaumont, he produced a serum that could turn the living into zombies. Beaumont intended to use Legendre's serum on a woman he desired named Madeleine Short.
Although White Zombie is considered a respected staple in horror film history, it did little to boost the popularity of zombies in modern culture. 1943 helped to provide more zombie exposure in the RKO Productions feature I Walked With a Zombie. By the 1950s, zombies were seldom used for anything other than b-movie fodder such as the critically-panned Ed Wood movie Plan 9 from Outer Space.
It wasn't until 1968 that a director named George Romero created a franchise that would forever change the face of zombie culture in cinema -- Night of the Living Dead. Romero's zombies were not the product of voodoo practitioners, but rather, were the result of some contagion. These shambling monstrosities sought out human victims, consumed parts of their flesh thus transmitting the virus, transforming their victims into zombies. Romero's mythology established that a zombie could only be killed through severe trauma to the head. This method has since become the de facto means of execution against zombie in nearly every medium from this point onward. Romero's Night of the Living Dead spawned several sequels and remakes including Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead. The first three films have all received the remake treatment.
As Romero's franchise grew in popularity, other film makers borrowed a page from Romero's play book and produced their own crop of zombie-related horror films such as the Return of the Living Dead franchise, The Dead Hate the Living, Shaun of the Dead, Dance of the Dead and so on.
Another zombie-related franchise that grew out of the new millennium was the Resident Evil series of films. Inspired by a series of popular video games developed by Capcom, the franchise has, to date, produced three full-length feature films, one computer animated direct-to-DVD film as well as a series of comic books and novels based on the video games. The films feature actress Milla Jovovich in the role of Alice, a former employee of the evil Umbrella Corporation who now fights against hordes of zombies produced by Umbrella's T-Virus. All of the films to date have been written by Paul W.S. Anderson, who also directed the first Resident Evil film.
Films with zombies[]
- Burying the Ex
- Chanbara Beauty: The Movie Vortex
- Dawn of the Dead (1978)
- Dawn of the Dead (2004)
- Dead Heat
- Graveyard Alive
- Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
- Monster Brawl
- Night of the Living Dead
- Nightmare in Wax
- Oneechanbara: The Movie
- Resident Evil
- Resident Evil: Apocalypse
- Return of the Living Dead
- Return of the Living Dead Part II
- Shaun of the Dead
- Shock Waves
- Stalled
- Sole Survivor
- Zombieland
- Zombies vs. Strippers
- Zone of the Dead