Your average zombie movie from old or new has evolved over the years. For example if you watch older zombie movies you will notice that the zombies move relatively slow with arms stretched mumbling the word brains. Over the years the evolution of zombie movies has become a pop culture and in it most greatest reality zombie movies are no longer part of the horror genre as they stand alone with so many. Between the time of 90s and up is when we notice that zombies in movies alter there thinking and movement of motion to the point where they can run (at human speed) and no longer want just brains, but see humans as food. The movie Land of The Dead suggested that a zombie is in short a human who only thinks of one thing and that is eating; the most basic instinct of any animal. Plus a little research and you can find diseases that actual cause necrosis (the decaying of flesh/body tissue) and most are quite deadly even with medical treatment. However some low budget movies try and do new things as is with the remake of The Day of the Dead the zombies moved with super human like speed and could even run up walls or on ceilings.
In the beginning in the period of time that will call B.R. (Before Romero) the zombie as we know it did not exist. Pre-1968 zombies were something entirely different. These animated corpses were a product of voodoo and the movies portrayed them as such. In films such as White Zombie (1932) and Revenge of the Zombies(1943), lifeless bodies were removed from the grave right after burial and turned into living mindless slaves obeying the biddings of a human master.
Birth of the Modern Zombie in 1968 when the idea of rotting reanimations were about to go the way of an Ed Wood film, along came a man who would revolutionize the horror genre and breath new life (or undeath) into the zombie. A small budget black and white film titled Night of the Living Dead , written and directed by George A. Romero, hit theaters and drive-ins in 1968. The effects of Romero's ground-breaking treatment of the theme are still being felt today. From the moment that we heard "They're coming to get you Barbara", the zombie became fair game again, and the gore effect became a staple of the genre.
The seventies were a decade that consisted of a lot of growing pains for the Zombie genre. Filmmakers were not quite sure how to properly utilize this new tool that had been thrown into the horror toolbox. There were a couple of decent attempts such as Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972) and Garden of the Dead (1972). Though not great, they were not that bad either. The better films of the decade seemed to come from the minds of European film makers. Eurohorror produced such gems as Tombs of the Blind Dead (Tombs of the Blind Dead 1971) and Horror Rises From the Tomb (Horror Rises from the Tomb 1973). In 1978 Romero gave the genre a much needed “fatherly” shove in the right direction with Dawn of the Dead (1978). The first to gather an understanding of where the genre was going was Lucio Fulci who ended the decade with the release of Zombi 2 (1979, 1980 U.S.).
The Roaring 1980s like a child with the training wheels taken off, zombie films took off in the eighties. The list of movies adding to the Zombie Movie History from the 80s is long and includes many of the classics if the genre: Dead and Buried (1981), The Evil Dead (1982), Zombie Island Massacre (1984), Day of the Dead (1985), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Night of the Creeps (1986), Evil Dead II (1987), The Dead Next Door (1988).
It was also during this time that certain rules became staples of the genre, some accepted, some rejected, and others made fun of:
If you didn’t die first, you ain’t a zombie.
Zombies are not cannibals. They do not feed on each other only living flesh.
The only way to stop a zombie is a well placed head shot. (Hammer, ice-pick, gun, axe, etc.)
Intelligence is not a their strong point.
There are other rules that are deemed acceptable to bend if necessary, but these are pretty much untouchable.
In the 1990's Zombie Film Makers lost their way as teenagers, you see, think they know everything and that they are bullet-proof. It is during the teen years that the most mistakes are made.
That is what the nineties were to the zombie film - mistake time. Though there were a few greats, such as Braindead (1992) and Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man 1994), they were hard to spot floating around in the waste water with Dead Men Don't Die (1990), Zombie Rampage 2 (1992), Zombie Holocaust (1995) and Zombie Doom (1999).
Present and the future looks bright because today, it seems as though the zombie genre is moving into responsible adulthood. There have been some good films released so far in this decade, notably Land of the Dead (2005), Dawn of the Dead 2004 (2004), and Shaun of the Dead (2004). There are a few remakes in the works that I am a little hesitant about, but I am very optimistic about what the future holds for zombie fans everywhere. So, just remember...If work is weighing you down, home life is racking your nerves, and nothing seems to be going right, there is nothing more calming than a good healthy dose of gory, human flesh eating, zombie mayhem. Whether you want to blame "the Man" for societies woes, or just like seeing rotted walking flesh rip apart their victims and eat their guts out, a zombie movie marathon will surely cure what ails you.
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