History Of The Zombie Movie
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Zombie films are one of the most well-known subgenres of horror films. This is probably thanks to their constant popularity through the decades and the popularity of zombie shows like The Walking Dead. Many people think that zombie films are actually creature features, but they are actually their own subgenre entirely. For the fourth installment of my “history of” series, we are going to dive into the history of the zombie film. Make sure you check out parts one, two, and three of the series!
To start, let’s define what a zombie movie is and why they are not considered creature features. A zombie film features reanimated or infected humans who attack and eat other humans. This is the true modern definition of the subgenre, and we will explore the original definition in just a second. The reason that a zombie movie is not considered a creature feature is because the zombies are not the main antagonist of the film. In zombie films, the main antagonist is either an infection/virus, person, magic, curse, or organization that created the zombies. For them to be considered a creature feature, the zombies would have to be the main antagonist for the entire film.
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The original zombie films had nothing to do with gore or the consumption of human beings. The rules for the original zombie films can be traced back to Henry Francis Downing’s Voodoo from 1914. There were four rules that every single zombie film followed.
Rule 1: The film is set in an exotic, tropical location.
Rule 2: It must have a voo-doo-conscious population that is predominately black.
Rule 3: The plot must involve a sorcerer who is skilled in voodoo.
Rule 4: It must also involve the enslavement of corpses.
Countless films followed these rules, but the most popular is White Zombie from 1932 which starred Bela Lugosi. This film further defined the above rules and was used as the blueprint for zombie films that would follow. During World War II, zombies were brought to mainstream media through zombie comedies. These films followed the four rules laid out above, and had no gore. The most stylistic zombie film to come out of this time was I Walked with a Zombie which was released in 1943 and leaned away from the rules just a little bit. The film still leaned into the supernatural beliefs held by those native to the Caribbean, but there were no deaths due to zombies. It would not be until George Romero entered the conversation that we would see zombie films change forever.
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Romero’s 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead changed zombie films in a way that he never intended. He actually did not consider his film to be a zombie movie because it did not follow the four rules that were still believed to be necessary. He actually called his creatures “ghouls” and said that he was inspired by Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend which features plague-created vampires as the antagonists and not zombies. Romero’s “ghouls” were human, but they were reanimated beings that attacked and ate other humans.
This was something that hadn’t really been seen in cinema at this point and took a while for Romero to finally lean into the idea that he had created a zombie film. His new version of zombies removed the horribly racist rules that had been followed for so long. No longer were zombies slaves to white masters, but instead they were humans of all races that were enslaved by infections or unseen forces. Romero’s new zombies have continued to evolve over time and have allowed directors, writers, actors, and makeup artists to explore and create all kinds of new zombies. Zombie films and shows have leaned away from religious undertones and explored topics such as racism, consumerism, government corruption, and overcrowding just to name a few. Without Romero’s reimagining of the zombie, we would not have The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, Zom 100, or any of the other modern-day zombie films, games, or shows.
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