Zombie Films (in no particular order)
Zombieland
A new release that after one viewing went straight into my top five, this romp through a zombie infested America is fun for the whole family.
The story centres around four survivors who remain nameless, preferring to take the name of places they have travelled from as their chosen monikers to keep from getting attached to each other (Columbus, Wichita, Little Rock and Tallahassee). Heavily armoured with comedy rather than scares Zombieland delivers a much needed rest bite from all the psychological horror and rubbish gore porn (Eli Roth, I’m looking at you) of late, and Woody Harrelson is one of the most bad-ass zombie killers ever. Even if you don’t dig on zombies I still recommend this film (if only for the brilliant cameo by Bi….actually, I’ll leave it till you see it)!
Dawn of the Dead
Ahhh George A Romero, the Granddaddy of the Undead, the Godfather of Zombiedon and one of the true masters of the genre.
It was very hard deciding which of his films to include, but I came to the conclusion of Dawn of the Dead, is it a zombie film? Is it a siege film? Is it a look into the consumer mindset of America? Is it all three and more? Whichever it is it remains one of the best. With more parodies/homage’s than there are zombies in the film, Dawn is the tale of two SWAT Team members and two News Broadcasters as they try to live out the zombie apocalypse inside a mall. With everything they could possible need under one roof they should be smiling, but there’s no time to smile when you’re constantly on the lookout for the re-animated beasties or fighting for survival against a nomadic band of bikers. One of the first and one of the best, this is a must for anyone looking to survive a zombie attack.
Night of the Living Dead (1990 remake)
The 1968 original of Night was a complete George A Romero affair, in the remake however he just re-wrote the screenplay and left the directing to Tom Savini, and Tom did a brilliant job. Starting off quite light hearted with two siblings squabbling about their dislike for the (now dead) mother, Night takes a swift dive into the realm of horror after they are attacked in a graveyard by two zombies, forcing the sister Barbara to take refuge in an old farmhouse with other survivors, with no knowledge of what is causing the carnage outside they are forced to overcome their distrust and help each other. One of the reasons I put this film in is for one scene that perfectly shows zombies, Barbara walks through a zombie infested field, instead of running she calmly walks, holding a pistol to the heads of each zombie she passes and eventually sobbingly begs an undead woman to leave her alone while pushing her away only for her to stumble back an try to take a bite. Possibly the only one of this list to go into my top 10 best films list (watch this space for that one) Night of the Living Dead is the perfect zombie film.
Brain Dead
I mentioned Gore Porn earlier in this article. I’m not a big fan of movies that contain gore for gores sake but before showing us the wonders of Middle Earth, peter Jackson gave us gore as it should be, with full ladle helpings of tongue in cheek humour. In essence, Brain Dead is a rather sweet tale of a young man trying to impress the girl he’s fallen desperately in love with, unfortunately his attempts to woo her are hampered by his over bearing mother who, after being bitten by a Sumatran Rat-Monkey and zombiefied, he has to keep locked in the basement along with all the other people her bite has transformed. Blood, guts, puss and limbs fly as Jackson uses excellent puppetry and even better dialogue (‘Your mother ate my dog’ ‘…not all of it’). After seeing Brain Dead you’ll never look at your lawn-mower the same way again.
28 Days Later
This was a tough movie to include, you see, there’s mindless people attacking the rest of us, but their not dead and their not eating flesh for sustenance. It’s the most annoying zombie film because it doesn’t have any zombies…just a hell of a lot of ‘Infected’ who have been contaminated with a Rage Virus, of course you can argue that actual cases of zombification haven’t included death and re-animation but that’s an entirely different world from movies so I’m ignoring it.
It’s absolutely safe to say that 28 Days is the scariest film in this list, from the eerie wide angle shots of an absolutely empty London (anyone who grew up here will understand) to the claustrophobic intensity of not being able to escape an ‘infected’ filled house until you can fill yourself with the same rage that has infected most of the country (deep much?), although there are some genuinely heart warming moments of burgeoning friendship and the heart breaking ending of a family unit. 28 Days Later is a film about friendship, loss and above all trust in a world where it’s every man, woman and child for themselves. And in fear of sounding to grown up at the end of this article let me remind you if you’ve seen it and warn you if you haven’t….thumbs + eyes = wince factor 11.