big e

I've been asking myself this question for a while now and decided to post it here. Until a few years ago, zombies were relegated to B-grade horror movies and now they are everywhere. Personally, I'm baffled. How did zombies go from B-grade villains to having their own TV show? It's like zombies have now become the general public's generic villain that they're putting everywhere. What do you guys think?



(Another question: how come in every zombie movie as soon as a few zombies show up, the military's rendered useless and the government collapses? I think the military would be able to handle a zombie outbreak and even if they couldn't, wouldn't the zombies decay to the point of immobility in a couple days/weeks?)

PopcornTreeCt

Zombies are so 2010.

Solid Snake

Zombies have been popular for a very long time. All it takes is quality material to keep them and remember them by....even the bad flicks are interesting cuz Zombies are interesting.

also...it's not just a few. You the viewer may encounter just those few but usually....it's a much more expansive situation that you're not involved in. Yes, they would die at some point...but...why use logic for something that's so much fun to just have around?

further note: I love killing zombies in Call of Duty. Nazi Zombies! The perfect villain. You hate Nazis but love to kill them cuz they're evil! Zombies want your brains so you have to kill them! NAZI ZOMBIES! The perfect bullet whore for you and me!

Charlie Goose

I'd like to think that the gub'mint could handle a zombie uprising too. As for the decaying part, perhaps the same virus/radiation that creates said zombie also strengthens the flesh. That would be pretty unfair.

RocShemp

Except they always seem to be more susceptible to blunt force trauma than your average human.

Rockmjd23

The resurgence of the zombie film traces back to the first Resident Evil game. In the late 90s, zombie movies came back in Asia because of the games and then Capcom made an American adaptation which was a hit, so Fox decided to gamble on 28 Days Later and it paid off. Then came the Dawn of the Dead remake and Shaun of the Dead in 2004 and the zombie was back in full swing.

NEUMANN

because zombies are us

DRG

I blame The Cranberries.

Gunde

Because they are awesome. It's really that simple.

rexinnih

Enjoy ZOmbie movies but the decaying part always stuck in the back of my mind.
Liked how 28 Days Later had that part at the end with the infected I guess "starving out."

jfoobar

Pretty much.

By the way, if you ever want to buy an AR-15 or "AK" or some other form of "assault rifle" and someone asks you why one earth you would want to own such a thing, simply answer, "Zombies, duh."

It's impossible to argue with that logic.

Red Dog

I'm always baffled by the popularity of the vampire, zombie, etc genre (except when the Simpsons have parodied it in Halloween eps).

islandclaws

A zombie apocalypse has been my fantasy since I was in grade school. Sure, the whole "society gone forever" thing would be inconvenient, but the thought of driving around in a big truck, blasting zombies away and living Dawn of the Dead style always appealed to me.

jfoobar

It would suck to live without DVDTalk though. What would be cool is if there was a zombie apocalypse and we could still post on DVDTalk in the new "Zombie Apocalypse Talk" sub-forum.

We could have cool threads like "How many zombies did you cap today?" and "Red Dog got eaten, RIP". Lemmy could brag about all the hot female zombies he'd nailed...

islandclaws

I need this to happen.

RichC2

Same question, change out for Justin Bieber. Please help me understand!

jfoobar

I would stand in line for two hours and pay $200 to have one chance to kill a Justin Bieber zombie.

jfoobar

Old, but amusing...and topical!

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IoXgRtDysLY" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

rw2516

Yep. When the Star Wars of video games involves zombies and machine guns it's bound to spill over into other mediums.

statcat

This is a good answer. Resident Evil is what got me into George Romero etc. when I was a teenager. I'm not so much a fan of 28 days later, dawn remake, shaun of the dead etc. though.

Trout

As long as zombies don't sparkle, they will always be awesome.

big e

What American adaptation are you talking about? The Resident Evil movie? Didn't it just barley make back it's budget? I wouldn't necessarily call that a hit.

But why? Why the fascination with zombies? IMO they are the most boring and generic villain one could put in a horror movie.

DaveyJoe

I actually agree with this. The reason that I like the idea of zombie flicks is because they have great potential for social commentary. Not all zombie flicks try to scratch under the surface and say anything interesting, but films like the original Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later have pulled it off. You can get pretty satisfying results by combining interesting themes like consumerism/sheep mentality and the savagery of human nature with the sheer entertainment gained from watching zombies lit up with machine guns.

Zombies make for great antagonists because they are humanoids, but monstrous enough to be able to enjoy their slaughter without guilt. Movies like The Matrix and Inception go out of their way to include dialogue about why it's okay to kill these characters that look just like humans. None of that in Zombie flicks, you can lock and load without the audience thinking twice. Zombies lack all of the humanity that elicits empathy from the audience, and don't make for characters you can relate to... With a few notable exceptions.

lamphorn

Probably because through a mistake in filing paperwork, "Night of the Living Dead" is actually in the public domain, so every fly-by-night writer or filmmaker can rip off the premise and ideas of that film and make a quick buck.

It's also the reason for an even more infuriating trend- taking classic novels that are now in the public domain, inserting the word "zombie" or "vampire slayer" on the cover and selling it as your own. Another venue for failed novelists to grab some cash before having to settle for a career bagging groceries.

Trout

But if done right, death by zombie can be the goriest thing ever put on screen.