Famous Zombie Movies

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A zombie is a fictional, revitalized dead body, capable of walking while generally mindless. A zombie is obsessed with eating human flesh particularly the brain of living human beings. Bram Stoker used the term ‘undead’ for his novel Dracula, conveying the modern sense of a zombie. Zombies have been mentioned as early in history as the 18th century B.C. The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest literary works in the recorded history. Cannabilism is an essential characteristic of zombies as mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh wherein the goddess Ishtar warns to send zombies saying;

‘I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld

I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,

And will let the dead go up to eat the living!

And the dead will outnumber the living!’

White Zombie, produced by brothers Victor Halperin and Edward Halperin, is considered the first regular zombie movie. It was released on July 28th, 1932. Wade Davis, a Harvard ethnobotanist wrote, Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). He claimed that a living person can be made a zombie by using a mixture of tetrodotoxin (TTX); a fatal neurotoxin found in puffer fish in combination with Datura extract.

1. Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead is an American horror film directed by George A. Romero and was made at a budget of $114,000.  It premiered on October 1, 1968 at the Fulton Theatre.  Since there was no film rating system, the viewers included children along with the adults. Inspite of the criticism for its explicit content, it was selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as a film regarded ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’ The film is about a Pennsylvanian farmhouse attacked by living dead horrible creatures known as zombies. The story starts with the visit of siblings Barbra and Johnny to their father’s grave where they are attacked by a weird fellow which causes the death of Johnny after falling headlong over a tombstone.

2. A Virgin Among the Living Dead

A Virgin Among the Living Dead
A Virgin Among the Living Dead

A Virgin Among the Living Dead was also titled as Christine, Princess of Eroticism and Christina, Princesse de le Eroticisme. This European horror film was released in 1973 when the mention of a zombie was still not a craze. The role of Christina Benson was played by Christina Von Blanc while Britt Nichols portrayed Britt Nickols, and Rosa Palomar portrayed Aunt Abigail. Other performers included: Ann Libert, Howard Vernon, Paul Muller, Jessus Franco, Nicole Guettard, and Alice Arno. The story is about a woman who visits a castle in England to see her relatives with an aim at seeing her father’s will. She finds that all her relatives are zombies, and her visit turns into a dreaded nightmare.

3. I Was a Zombie for the F.B.I.

I Was a Zombie for the F.B.I.
I Was a Zombie for the F.B.I.

I Was a Zombie for the F.B.I. is an American film produced by Penczner and starring James Raspberry with Larry Raspberry. It was released in 1982. The story is about square-jawed G-men who battle to overcome an extraterrestrial conspiracy to turn mankind into an obsessive cola-consuming race of zombies. Special agents James Raspberry and Larry Raspberry are called to investigate a plane crash. The plane was transporting the notorious Brazzo brothers to prison when it crashed. It was presumed that the Brazzos were dead, but they survived and instigated a hostage situation. They were found working for the extraterrestrials in a human guise.

4. Wanted: Undead or Alive

Wanted: Undead or Alive
Wanted: Undead or Alive

Released on March 15, 2007, Wanted: Undead or Alive is a comedy horror film written and directed by Glasgow Phillips. Its film stars are: Navi Rawat, Chris Kattan, and James Denton. The story is about a man named Geronimo who cursed white men to become zombies. Ben Goodman at a house murders his wife and daughter and eats their brains. Zombies biting continues throughout the film making more zombies. It is all just horrible.

5. I Walked With a Zombie

I Walked With a Zombie
I Walked With a Zombie

I Walked With a Zombie is a horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton. It is starred by James Ellison as Wesley Rand and Frances Dee as Betsy Connell. Betsy is employed as the caretaker for Mrs. Paul Holland, who owns a sugar plantation in Saint Sebastian, a small community comprised of white people and descendants of black slaves. Betsy is inclined towards her employer and tries to win him through curing and taking good care of Jessica. She tries insulin shock to no avail, and then housemaid Alma informs her that a voodoo master treated a similar patient. Betsy, on going into the voodoo master’s hut, is astonished to find that Mrs. Rand is the voodoo priestess. She tells her that Jessica cannot be cured because she was a zombie. The natives stab Jessica in the arm and confirm her being a zombie when no bloods flows out of the cut.

6. Children of the Living Dead

Children of the Living Dead
Children of the Living Dead

Children of the Living Dead is an American zombie movie written by Karen L. Wolf, directed by Tor Ramsey, and produced by John A. Russo. The film is criticized as a bad sequel to Night of the Living Dead: 30th Anniversary Edition. The story is about Abbot Hayes, a serial murderer, who after his sudden disappearance becomes a leader of the zombies who attack his hometown. A business man finds dead bodies after 14 years and relocates in order to curb the menace but unknowingly prompts a renewed wave of zombie attacks.

7. Chopper Chicks in Zombietown

Chopper Chicks in Zombietown
Chopper Chicks in Zombietown

Chopper Chicks in Zombietown is a zombie movie written as well as directed by Dan Hoskins and produced by James Hardy. It is about a female motorcycle gang who wandered into the isolated town of Zariah just for fun. They find a scientist who was a sadist and had been killing people along with his long-suffering dwarf assistant. His argument was, ‘If God wanted you to do normal things, he would have made you look normal.’ After killing, he turned the dead into zombies in order to work in an abandoned mine. The mine was abandoned on account of intense radioactivity after an underground nuclear explosion test. A child, merely out of curiosity, opens the gate of the mine consequently liberating the zombies and becoming the first victim in their hands.

8. Zombie Strippers

Zombie Strippers
Zombie Strippers

Zombie Strippers is an American zombie film released in 2008. It was written and directed by Jay Lee. Robert Englund and Jenna Jameson starred it. The film is inspired by Eugene Lonesco’s Classic drama Rhinoceros. The story is perceived to be in the near future when George Bush has been elected for a fourth term, Congress has been disbanded, and the U.S. has been entangled in wars with France, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Venezuela, and Canada causing a shortage of  marines. A secret laboratory is set up in the fictional place of Sartre in Nebraska. They develop a virus to prepare zombies in order to revitalize the dead and send them into battlefields. Some marines are infected and escape into a strip club and attack a dancer who becomes a zombie and performs better. All the dancers follow and become zombies.

9. Tokyo Zombie

Tokyo ZombieTokyo Zombie was initially Japanese converted later on into a film in 2005. It was written and directed by Sakichi, starring Tadanobu, Show Aikawa, and Erik Okuda. The film revolves around two workers Fujio and Mitsuo who work in a fire extinguishing factory and train during their lunch hour ambitiously to become juitsu champions. One day they murder the factory owner and dispose of his body in a toxic waste dump whereupon a wave of zombies comes out and attacks them.

10. Schoolgirl Apocalypse

Schoolgirl Apocalypse
Schoolgirl Apocalypse

Schoolgirl Apocalypse is a Japanese zombie film written and directed by John Cairns. It was presented at the Puchion International Fantastic Film Festival in 2011. Sakura is a little school girl who finds that all the inhabitants of her town had become zombies and were involved in a mass murder. She has nothing to defend herself, and her only possession is a bow and a few English books. A vision of a redheaded boy, Billy, from one of her books, appears to her and drives her crazy. She comes across a woman who is better equipped and can fight zombies, but she is dangerous. The little girl is perplexed and does not know which way to go to follow her or to leave her and die.

Conclusion:

Zombie movies belong to the genre of horror movies, and their producers aim to elicit the primordial fear of the viewers through surprising appearances of the unknown, horrible things and events. Watching a horror movie is a virtual experience of facing fear without being practically hurt. H.P. Lovecraft opined about fear, ‘The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is the fear of the unknown.’

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