OH: Zombie Horror Genre

Zombie Horror

Zombie film is a sub-genre of horror film that portrays mindless human beings who are raised from the dead. These films often include a Zombie invasion, and center around Zombies feasting on human flesh. The plot of a Zombie film then revolves around the struggle between the living, and the living-dead. Zombie film not only falls into the horror genre, but Sci-Fi, Thriller, and Comedy as well, which makes it a very dynamic genre.

Examples of Zombie Horror

SHAUN OF THE DEAD (WRIGHT, 2004)-
A man decides to turn his dull life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living. The story follows the main actor Shaun (Simon Pegg) and his even more tragic best friend Ed (Nick Frost), the dynamic duo try to save their home town.


ZOMBIELAND (FLEISCHER, 2009)-
A cowardly shut-in named Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is forced to join up with a seasoned zombie slayer named Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) in order to survive the zombie apocalypse. As Tallahassee sets out on a mission to find the last Twinkie on Earth, the duo meets up with Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), two young girls who have resorted to some rather unorthodox methods to survive amidst the chaos. The group attempt to challenge the apocalypse single handily. Zombieland directed by Ruben Fleischer, is serious proof that the zombie sub-genre isn't dead.

Conventions of Zombie Horror-

• Zombie have appeared as early as 1919, many say that George A. Romero with setting the standard for modern zombies however with his film, "Night of Living Dead".
• From Romero's concept of zombies they've been depicted to be: newly dead corpses, reanimated by radiation chemicals, viruses, sorcery and acts of God.
• In most modern zombie portrayals, zombism is contagious, and people bitten by zombies become zombies themselves, which means the 'virus' spreads a lot more rapidly.
• Films like "28 Days Later" depict more intelligent zombies, which are faster and more gruesome.
• In general most Zombie films end with either: Cliff-hangers, Everyone dies and/either the zombies are killed.
• Most of the time the cast contains the leader, children, betrayer, human sacrifice, eye candy and the nerd.
• The weapons/props used in most zombie-genre movies tend to be quite make shift, such as baseball bats, however movies such as Zombieland challenges this ideology about the zombie genre.
• As you can see from the photos most of the pictures, a lot are shot with high quality cameras, creating a sense of realism and verisimilitude to the films.
• Not only this but all of the films are shot in very popular locations, such as the centre of London or New York City, allowing the audience to create a connection to the film.
• Also films such as Zombieland include blockbuster actors to attract a wider audience with a different motive to watch the film, not just for the content but to watch the actor too.