Written by Melissa Allen, who you can follow on Twitter at @melissajournal
The zombie film genre has been around since FOREVER, and includes pure horror classics such as Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the recent I Am Legend (2007). They're beloved by many, but not just in the horror genre; the zombie genre can be mixed and matched with almost every other!
Comedy, such as Shaun of the Dead back in 2004 is a brilliant combination of horror and wit, drawn up by the brilliant Edgar Wright. Zombies have even been known to been represented in romantic ways, such as in Warm Bodies (2013) staring Nicholas Hoult. The genre of the zombie can essentially please everyone from adults to children, as even some kid's films with the walking dead involved can be cute and delightfully creepy – such as Frankenweenie (2012), when a young boy brings his dog back to life.
The mixture of genres with the foundations of zombies raises a question of if one genre combines better than another. When we look at the comedy-zombie flicks we've seen, it seems we never get anything short of gold. Shaun of the Dead stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who prove themselves to be a comedy pairing made in Heaven. Throw zombies into the mix and you’ve got one of the best comedy-horrors ever made due to its hilarity, great casting and ridiculous attitude to the zombie outbreak.
Another comedy flick worth a mention is 2009's Zombieland. The combination of fourth wall-breaking and the character of Columbus (whose rules for surviving Zombieland are outright ridiculous) is where the comedy comes from. Again, as with Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland’s cast is perfect - with Woody Harrelson’s cold demeanor crossing with Jesse Eisenberg’s annoyingly-precise character, the film utilises the idea of zombies and the end of the world to bring characters together in comedic ways.
Zombie movies obviously also dabble in the realistic ways the outbreak would affect the world; World War Z is perhaps the best example. Brad Pitt stars as Gerry Lane - a father trying to protect his family by travelling across the world to find out why the outbreak occurred. Putting family values and realistic zombies together in crisis situations is a brilliant way to convey the panic and worry we would all likely feel if this event did actually occur, as we feel for Gerry and his family, just as we felt for Will Smith and his dog Sam in I Am Legend. The realism and family units in both of these films, despite the unrealistic scenarios, stick with us as an audience and make those films as grounded as they are.
Essentially, the zombie genre is flexible and can work with anything – but have they now been done too many times?
There are countless numbers of zombie films, from those such as the Resident Evil franchise (2002-2016) to Netflix’s Cargo (2017). It looks as though this type of film could go on being made forever and no one would complain!
Zombies are also used in a multitude of video games such as the incredible The Last of Us and even the Call of Duty games, which offer a multiplayer Zombies mode. The zombie is a very, very versatile character as we’ve seen throughout cinematic and gaming history; the majority being something we enjoy and would watch or play time and time again. There are of course some exceptions! Land of the Dead (2005) had a rather basic plot, for example, along with questionable dialogue, and a string of zombies who were smarter than usual, ill-fitting with the rest of the film.
Despite the zombie character being spread across the whole piece of bread we can still say that zombie films, games and even TV shows can never get old, since we can combine the idea with almost anything else. The zombie isn’t better suited to game nor film as it has existed in both and done really well on both platforms. The multitude of zombie-related films and games might make it seems pointless to check out the latest release, but there is always a new spin and a new direction it can take.
Fundamentally, the zombie film (and the odd game) have been done to death – but this does not mean they cannot be done over and over once again. The paths to take with zombies are endless, counting remakes, sequels, and the crossovers of genres, people will always want to get involved. With the films and games we’ve mentioned setting the bar for the zombie genre, it’s no wonder there are a million ways to see a zombie, and a million people wanting to see it.
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