Anyone feel like its time for a 'soft reboot' of Romero's series?

[EvilNed]

I'd definitely classify it as one, as do the majority of movie-goers. Everything about the 28 movies clearly says "We're a zombie movie, but with a tiny twist". I stand by my first post. Pretty sure nothing I said in it is inaccurate. Agreed with everything you said. It's a zombie movie in pretty much all aspects and has more things in common with Night of the Living Dead (or Dawn of the Dead) than many other films that are classified as zombie films but come from a different angle. But in the end it all depends on your definition of the genre. However it's clear 28 Days Later belongs to the tradition of zombie films as established by Romero, and not anywhere else.

[BountyHunter]

Yeah, exactly. I get that zombies and infected are two different things, but if it looks like a zombie movie and quacks like a zombie movie, then it's a zombie movie. Technically, yes, it's not one. The point I'm trying to make is that most people consider it a zombie movie because, except for the dead/infected difference, it's the same type of movie.

[JDP]

Yeah, exactly. I get that zombies and infected are two different things, but if it looks like a zombie movie and quacks like a zombie movie, then it's a zombie movie. Technically, yes, it's not one. The point I'm trying to make is that most people consider it a zombie movie because, except for the dead/infected difference, it's the same type of movie. But then again the majority of people aren't very critical. I am sure that to many of them a movie like The Crazies, for example, will also be some kind of "zombie movie", but it in fact isn't, not any more than its "offspring" 28 Days Later is. In the cinematic context, the "zombie genre" is specifically about reanimated cadavers. Accordingly, movies about mummies and the Frankenstein monster (both of them are reanimated cadavers, one through supernatural means, the other through science) have much more to do with the "zombie" genre than movies where living people are infected by something that makes them insane murderers but does not kill them first.

[EvilNed]

Yeah, exactly. I get that zombies and infected are two different things, but if it looks like a zombie movie and quacks like a zombie movie, then it's a zombie movie. Technically, yes, it's not one. The point I'm trying to make is that most people consider it a zombie movie because, except for the dead/infected difference, it's the same type of movie. What people don't seem to understand are that genres are defined by consensus. So if 9 out of 10 people consider X to be a Zombie film, then it's a zombie film and the genre is evolved to encompass that definition. That's how genres are formed. They're not grown artificially in a lab somewhere.

[JDP]

What people don't seem to understand are that genres are defined by consensus. So if 9 out of 10 people consider X to be a Zombie film, then it's a zombie film and the genre is evolved to encompass that definition. That's how genres are formed. They're not grown artificially in a lab somewhere. They are defined by people who actually know what they are talking about. It's like saying that dictionaries are written by the average Joe and whatever he thinks a given word actually means. Nope. They are written by people who actually make it their job to know the subject and understand the proper meaning of words and their use in the proper contexts. And when it comes to "zombie" in the cinematic/literary context, this is what the word refers to: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/...english/zombie (in stories, movies, etc.) A zombie is a dead person brought back to life without the ability to speak or move easily. (in stories) a frightening creature that is a dead person who has been brought back to life, but without human qualities. Zombies are not able to think and they are often shown as attacking and eating human beings: And there is a good reason why the genre is defined by that specific meaning of the word as opposed to more vague and general meanings like "a person who has no energy, seems to act without thinking, and does not notice what is happening"/"someone who moves around as if unconscious and being controlled by someone else", because then many other movies would absurdly also qualify as "zombie movies". You could even include movies featuring people with some mental disabilities as "zombie films". Utterly ridiculous.