Hollywood’s Newest Ticket to Box Office Gold: Zombies

By Linda Orlando

Movie audiences have had a soft spot in their hearts for zombie movies ever since Bela Lugosi’s mad scientists turned hapless honeymooners into the living dead in 1932’s "White Zombie," the first zombie movie ever made. In the early days of zombie movies the villains were not much more than pallid, lumpy, lurching sacks of flesh that were actually pretty easy to get away from. But still there were those pesky boulders people would stumble over, giving the living dead time to stagger over and grab a bite.

For the most part, the first few decades of zombie films weren’t all that frightening, certainly not by today’s standards. And when Ed Wood’s unintentionally hilarious "Plan 9 from Outer Space" hit theaters in 1959, with aliens attacking Earth in hopes of creating a zombie army made from a few dead humans, some thought it sounded the death knell for zombie movies for once and for all. Then came "Night of the Living Dead." Many movie buffs consider this George Romero classic to be the real founding film of the zombie genre, with radiation from outerspace turning the dead into undead who walk the earth craving human flesh. Suddenly zombies were frightening again.

For most of the second half of the 20th century, the most popular movie foils were found in outer space. Since "The Day the Earth Stood Still" all the way through "Aliens" in the ‘80s and "Independence Day" in the ‘90s, the favorite villain to frighten the bejeepers out of movie audiences was the space alien. But since the horrors of 9/11, the American public for some reason has become more enamored of being frightened by the walking dead than by apocalyptic alien invasions. Mike Browne, editor of zombiefreak.com, has a perfect explanation for why movie audiences embrace fictional horror when surrounded by real-life horror: "It kind of explains away that fear that someone is completely snuffed out."

According to The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead by Max Brooks, when a human becomes a zombie, "the brain remains live, but dormant…Once mutation is complete, this new organ reanimates the body into a form that bears little resemblance (psychologically speaking) to the original corpse." So although space aliens can be scary, the reason zombies will always trump little green men in the terror department is that despite the fact that humans are alive and zombies aren’t, they share a physical connection that’s undeniable. "Zombie movies play to one of mankind’s greatest fears: what happens to you after your death," Browne says. "It’s easier to cope with something when you’re surrounded by it in its entertainment form."

Since that terrible day in 2001 when 3,000 people were killed in New York and Washington, zombie movies have steadily increased in popularity and box-office success. Nearly half of the 10 top-grossing zombie movies of all time have been released in the last five years, starting with 2004’s "Dawn of the Dead." In the meantime, space aliens, such as those in M. Night Shyamalan’s "Signs" and even "War of the Worlds,"" have played second fiddle to the graphic terror of frightfests such as "28 Days Later." In that 2003 box-office smash by director Danny Boyle, a coma patient wakes up to a world driven mad by zombies, but the horror has a new dimension to it—the zombies are terrifyingly fast.

Peter Dendle, author of The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, couldn’t be more excited that zombies are enjoying a new resurgence in popularity. In Dendle’s opinion, the appeal of a zombie movie starts with the basic idea of what a zombie is. "A zombie has a timeless simplicity to it," he says. "It’s just a body." Dendle thinks that "28 Days Later" was such a success because it made the zombies so…well, human. "It made the zombie movie surgically precise," he says. "It returns what Romero had, which was vision…it doesn’t undercut its story with humor."

Now it seems like everywhere you turn, you hear news of yet another zombie extravaganza on the horizon. The latest, Robert Rodriguez’s "Grindhouse," offers a zombie army being taken on by a martial-arts master and a woman with a machine-gun leg. And Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto) is taking Danny Boyle’s premise to a new level with "28 Weeks Later," where American troops arrive in England to pick up the pieces, only to discover that the Rage virus wasn’t wiped out, and is again wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting populace.

For talented directors, B-movie enthusiasts, zombie lovers, and even just moviegoers who like a good fright now and then, there’s never been a better time for the zombie movie to find its way back into American popularity. "It’s been a real renaissance," says Dendle. "I’ve been delighted."