Is anyone else sick of, fed up with, bored, jaded with the undead? I am. There’s Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, The Walking Dead, World War Z and these are just the ones that rhyme (I’m in the UK so we pronounce it ‘zed’ so the point stands!). There’s also a million videogames, comics and books about the rotten bastards. Now I’ve always loved zombies since I first saw Night of the Living Dead when I was 10 and I’ve spent far too much time planning what I would do in the event of a hypothetical zombie outbreak – the trick is to find a bicycle, it’s light, manoeuvrable and doesn’t need fuel (told you I’ve thought too much about this). However now there’s too many of the stumbling freaks and it’s really dulled any fear or threat they once evoked. Why so many, world? I have a few theories:
– It’s due to all the young George Romero era zombie fans like me growing up and making entertainment based on it. They want to recreate the kind of films they love plus its cheap to have a supporting cast of shambling, groaning extras.
– Zombies have become the bad guys that its OK to kill onscreen. They’re thoughtless, unfeeling cannibals and the general feeling is that they aren’t human anymore so killing them puts them out of their misery. Basically zombies are the new Nazis in films. Or if you want the best of both worlds watch Dead Snow featuring zombie Nazis.
– Zombies are an extremely flexible and easy metaphor for whatever social commentary you want to express. Romero based his whole ‘Dead’ trilogy around this (I refuse to count the later movies). Whether racism or consumerism or just old-fashioned disease, zombies fit the bill perfectly. Look out for my upcoming film where zombies are used to highlight the dangers of overfishing – Prawn of the Dead.
Whatever the reasons, media has become over saturated with them and it would be nice to see some new ideas. Are there any other monsters that deserve a revival. Twilight has pretty much killed off vampires and werewolves and The Mummy seems too primitive. There’s a generation growing up now that have become blasé about the monsters that scared us. It’s a sad state of affairs when vampires are associated with sparkles and romance and not Lost Boys style jeeps with wooden stakes on the bumper and baths full of holy water. So is all hope lost? (short answer no, I just wanted to build up a bit of suspense, is that so wrong?).
Hope comes stomping over the horizon, smashing everything in it’s path. Yes, it’s the return of the giant monster movie! Coming soon, we’ll all be able to watch Guillermo Del Toro’s massive monsters vs robots epic – Pacific Rim and it looks great. Have a look at the trailer below and tell me it doesn’t look like the greatest thing ever. And after that there’s a new Godzilla film being directed by Gareth Edwards the man who brought us Monsters. Who knows, maybe there’s a remake of Pulgasari on the way!
So zombies it looks like your time in the spotlight might be up. Time for you to stagger off and hibernate until we’re ready to shoot you in the heads and hide from you in shopping malls. In the meantime we’ve got a war to fight with some gigantic monsters, they might even leave some scraps for you when they’re finished.
What do you think? Do you still have love for zed? Or do you think they need a rest? Let me know or I’ll eat your brains.
Screenkicker! 
what!? just when I thought I was cool that I started liking zombies, now you’re telling me I’m not. I can’t keep up with you! I want a zombie romance film now twilight is out my life!. . . oh wait isn’t that what the “about a boy” dude has just given me:-)
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what!? just when I thought I was cool that I started liking zombies, now you’re telling me I’m not. I can’t keep up with you! I want a zombie romance film now twilight is out my life! . . . oh wait isn’t that what the “about a boy” dude has just given me:-)
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You just can’t keep up with the cool stuff. Its all about giant robots and monsters now! Not sure how to fit romance into that mix!
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haha it’ll happen don’t you fret!
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Zombies will come and go, like all fictional creatures have. I think its best just to focus on the better offerings and ignoring the sub par ones.
Also, i don’t want to sound mean,but i don’t get the fixation with attaching strict rules to fictional creatures. Like i am not a fan of Twilight either, but that is because it is a generally bad story, not because its vampires are different. Just because you may like your monsters scarier than people are currently writing them ass doesn’t make them bad stories. They are just different interpretations.
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I get your point, I guess I just don’t like the watering down of these monsters. Maybe I’m just protective of my childhood memories! However I’m standing by my point that zombies should be retired for a while! Thanks for your comment
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Exactly. The other aspect that helped to me to want to kill off (please, no more head shots) my viewing of this sub-genre was one of my teens worrying about the coming ‘zombie apocalypse’. “What?”, I said. “Son, if something… anything… reanimates, please let me know ‘cuz dead is dead.” Enjoyable read, Mikey.
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Thanks le0pard, I think it’s time to look elsewhere for different monsters!
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Bring on the zombies! You can never have enough. Good or bad. Great post.
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Haha, in my heart I still love them, at some point I’ll beg them to take me back!
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Yes!!!!! This is how tired I am of them, I read the introductory sentence and went immediately to commenting about my distaste for their kind. At one point they were thrilling subject matter; now they’re making almost more regular appearances in films than Daniel Day-Lewis. No. Check that, they ARE making more regular appearances than he is. Lol. The last great zombie movie I saw (I’ve seen some since, but the last good one) has to be Resident Evil. Since, nothing’s really been done that makes them compelling ideas anymore. They all look alike. And especially now with The Walking Dead, we’re never going to forget what they look like, either. Which is creepy. Haha. Good post
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Thanks Tom! Glad you agree. Hopefully there’ll be some new ideas stop me turning against them completelt
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And I think you’ve struck on a great idea – Daniel Day-Lewis acting as a zombie!
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Only Day-Lewis could turn in an Oscar-worthy zombie performance. haha
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I really like zombie movies, but they just rarely make them good. I like the classic, just love Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil (only first movie), Fido. The thing I am appalled by is “Warm Bodies” when they are trying to make zombies into actual teen romance object.
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I bitched about this on my own blog about the incompetent World War Z. You’ve hit the nail on the head: The media are the real zombies these days, mindlessly munching on the feeble brains that remain in this genre. Someone should make a movie about that.
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Haha I think that would be too clever for Hollywood. They prefer to have Brad Pitt running around with things exploding behind him
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