This is a draft for a little write up I did. Would like some input and thoughts. I'm not 100% comfortable with this version. See any errors? Sound good? Let me know.
Zombie Genre History: Looking Back
In 1968 George A. Romero brought us the birth of the zombie genre with the classic Night of the Living Dead. He was soon labeled the Godfather of zombie movies following the 1978 release of Dawn of the Dead and 1985’s Day of the Dead. As the years past, Romero became a horror genre legend. Every zombie film made since was a result of Romero’s vision and pioneering of this horror sub-genre. The Holy Trilogy it was now labeled. The Holy Grail, if you will, to zombie fans around the world. A new monster, the zombie, was created.
Then there became a great void in this new horror sub-genre and for twenty years the fans waited for another Romero film or a film equal to it. Nothing came. The fans were forced into watching lesser manifestations of their beloved new genre that got released ever so often. But, they remained loyal and patient for Romero, waiting for his return. And for twenty years this continued.
Lucio Fulci's 1978 Italian "Zombie” who many claim ripped off Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and exploited international sales with questionable marketing techniques was really the only film relativity good that had been released. With just Fulci’s releasing series of squeals with moderate success the Return of the Living Dead series, a comedic parody of Romero’s films, soon rose up to also try to fill the void in the genre.
Though as time passed Fulci’s “Zombie” squeals had become ridiculous and rejected by the majority of the genre’s fans. The same happened with latter films in the Return of the Living Dead series. Both series had been reduced to poor acting; bad camera work and slap stick antics making the zombie out to be a mere joke. No longer was the zombie the feared monster of Romero’s vision.
It wasn’t until 1990 that makeup artist and friend of Romero, Tom Savini, announced his remake of Night of the Living Dead that any film made some waves in the genre. However, despite all the wonderful things about the remake, it would not stand against the original and many fans balked at it when the film hit theaters. The fans wanted and waited for Romero. Everything else was sub-par.
It wasn’t really until 2004 that a young little know first time director named Zack Snyder busted on to the scene that everything changed. The zombie genre would soon be thrown once again into the spot light, but with a cost. After the success of the sci-fi zombie film Resident Evil in 2002 the “zombie genre” as Hollywood seen it was now considered a potential money maker for studios. Though considered a sub-genre of zombie films it was well received by older fans for the most part. However, the real driving force of its success was this whole new generation of zombie fans who grew up playing video games. They bought into the genre and rejoiced to Resident Evil.
It was then that Snyder cleverly announced he was going to remake the cult classic 1978 Dawn of the Dead. This decision would later lead him down the path of becoming a very sucessful director with other films like The Watchmen and 300.
When many fans of the zombie genre had first heard of a remake of Dawn of the Dead, there was an out cry of both negative and positive support. More so than with Savini’s remake of Night of the Living Dead. You have to consider that the majority of older zombie fans didn’t even catch on until 1978 after Dawn of the Dead was released. Even with the new generation of fans, Dawn of the Dead is by far considered amongst the majority as the absolute best of Romero’s films and the most favored. This is a true horror classic with one of the biggest cult followings in horror film history. And now they hear an unknown director is doing a remake of this cult classic? This was a huge risk for both fans and the zombie genre.
Several months went by after the announcement and production soon began on the remake. Fans flooded message boards with their opinions and dozens of now very popular zombie related websites sprang up almost over night.
Then out of no where George A. Romero himself made a historic announcement. He would make his come back. A 4th movie in the “of the Dead” series entitled, “Land of the Dead”. Not only would he be directing it, Hollywood was also going to give him the largest budget he’d ever received to do so. What followed was the beginning of an ongoing controversy and large division among zombie fans that continues even to this day.
So, in 2003 - 2004 Romero was back in the saddle and the buzz was everywhere. We have two of Romero’s films that are now scheduled to be made. One of them was going to be a remake and the other would be an original Romero film.
Now, at the same time this was all going on the producers of the first Resident Evil film also announced a part two called, “Apocalypse.” And we also had long time fan Simon Pegg announce he was releasing “Shaun of the Dead.” In 2003-2005 four major zombie films would be released and all the roosters were coming home to roost. Following the success of all these films there ended up being a rapid flood of zombie films released. One after another films like 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Deadlands, House of the Dead, Zombie Diaries and even a new 5th Romero film called Diary of the Dead came out. Not to mention slew of B-Side zombie films on the independent scene unlike the genre had ever saw. It was the time of the stenches. Zombie had arrived to mainstream marketability. There was even a freaking NECA Night of the Living Dead lunchbox released along with a large series of zombie action figures that continued to come out every year. A giant list of zombie memorabilia is now even on website Archives of the Dead, solely dedicated to collecting and cataloging it all. www.archivesofthedead.com.
What many began to realize is the great division that had risen as a result of all of this happening in the genre. Large groups of fans came out in support of all these new films and just as large groups came out against them. The biggest controversy came especially from Snyder’s remake and of course Romero’s Land of the Dead. When Romero loyalists caught the first sneak peak at the trailers of Land of the Dead and then Snyder’s Dawn remake the flames became bigger. Running zombies? Thinking zombies? Big Daddy? CGI Effects?
Romero and Snyder had now both contributed to changing the way people looked at their beloved zombie genre. With the help of the 20 year void and the release of the popular Sony Playstation game, Resident Evil, anyone who released a zombie film over the next 10 years or so was able to find success at the box office. The genre was getting bigger and it was changing.
After nearly two decades of next to nothing, it was now getting an extreme make over. The Blue Collar Monster was now eating the hearts of horror fans and getting bigger with every bite. Zombies have become the new Vampire.
The question now is, where will it all go from here?
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Originally Posted by sandrock74
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