The undead rumor creeping around Hollywood lately is that zombies are becoming the new vampires—they're on the rise, if you will—and stealing our hearts as the new supernatural pop culture fixation.
Brad Pitt is preparing for the coming zombie onslaught by producing and starring in an adaption of Max Brooks' (son of Mel Brooks) exquisite novel ""World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War"" for Christmas 2012—and he had to outbid Leonardo DiCaprio for the rights to do so.
""Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,"" a literary ‘mashup' of the famous (or perhaps infamous for male audiences) Jane Austen novel with zombies, is also being turned into a movie by Lionsgate.
Even ""Community""—ever the meta-satirical finger on the pulse of pop culture—put out a zombie episode last Halloween, rather than fall back on age-old vampire shtick.
Forever a zombie lover at heart, I cannot wait to usher in an undead renascence of zombie culture. To assure that once zombies go ‘mainstream' you can still attest that you were into them ‘before they were cool', I offer you this look back at the best zombie movies of the last decade:
28 Days Later (2002)
Horror geeks love to debate whether or not the creatures in ""28 Days Later"" are technically zombies, as they aren't actually dead, just infected by a plague. However, the guys pulling the strings behind these sub-humans changed the zombie-film game by breaking away from one of the genre-defining zombie traits—the slow-as-molasses shuffle.
Regardless of your feelings on the ""fast zombie"" debacle, there can be no doubt that ""28 Days Later"" is a well-crafted and at times downright terrifying horror movie that stands a step above the rest of its peers by also interweaving a biting political commentary. Ultimately, its revisionist take on an aging horror icon inspired a decade of zombie movies playing by a new set of rules.
American Zombie (2008)
An odd hybrid of a mocumentary and a zombie horror movie, ""American Zombie"" purports to document and examine Zombie protests in the streets of Los Angeles put together by the Zombie Advocacy Group calling for zombie rights in the wake of an undead uprising.
Director Grace Lee proves once again just how useful the walking dead can be for constructing intelligent political satire, this time taking the media to task as well. Available for streaming on Netflix, ""American Zombie"" is the perfect Halloween flick for the political activist in all of us.
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
This remake of George A. Romero's 1978 zombie masterpiece by the same name, directed by Wisconsin-native Zack Snyder (""300""), picks up with ""fast zombies"" where ""28 Days Later"" left off.
Despite the longstanding Hollywood tradition of remakes failing to justify their own existence, ""Dawn of the Dead"" is actually quite good—and that's because it doesn't try to be the Romero original.
Aside from both being set in a mall, they are completely different films. The original is a creeping character drama that deals with the perils of social isolation as much as it does zombies.
But Zack Snyder's take on zombies-in-a-mall is an unabashedly straight-out horror-thriller. And if you're able to accept that maybe zombies can run, ""Dawn of the Dead"" will surely satisfy your classic zombie cravings.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
I would assert that ""Shaun of the Dead"" is without a doubt the best zombie movie of modern times. The greatest testament to the film's clever craftsmanship is its ability to oscillate between witty satirical comedy and thrilling horror without skipping a beat.
Starring the dynamic English duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (""Hot Fuzz""), ""Shaun of the Dead"" follows two best friends on their quest to reunite with their loved ones and survive the zombie apocalypse.
Director Edgar Wright's position as director of ""Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World""—one of my absolute favorite flicks—did little to inspire my praise. ""Shaun of the Dead"" is an undead masterpiece in its own right and is worth a viewing this coming Halloween.
If you've got questions or comments for David, we promise he won't try to eat your brains. Shoot him an e-mail at dcottrell@wisc.edu
