This document summarizes the history and evolution of the zombie genre in cinema. It begins with early influential films from the 1920s-1940s that helped establish tropes of the genre. George Romero is credited with beginning the modern zombie film with Night of the Living Dead in 1968, setting conventions like flesh-eating zombies and survival in an enclosed space. The genre then expanded with Italian zombie films and comedic takes in the 2000s, as well as fictional depictions of "real" zombies.

1. GENRE RESEARCH
ZOMBIE MOVIES

2. THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI 1920
• Although not a true zombie the sonambulist, Cesare
embodies many of the behaviours viewers would
come to associate with the Living Dead.

3. WHITE ZOMBIE 1932
• Possibly the first depiction of zombies in cinema.
The zombies in White Zombies are true voodoo
zombies: an undead army controlled by a High
Priest, Murder Legendre.

4. I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE 1943
• Based loosely on Jane Eyre, this film still packs a
punch with its scenes of Voodoo rituals and the
gigantic zombie, Carrefour.

5. THE LAST MAN ON EARTH 1964
• Remade twice as The Omega Man (1973) and I Am
Legend (2008), this Italian shot movies is closer to
the novel in which the antagonists are more
zombie-like than vampiric.

6. THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES 1966
• This film shows the traditional voodoo zombies as
being more predatory and violent and was a major
influence on George A Romero, as was The Last
Man on Earth.

7. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
• This movie begins the modern zombie movie and sets in
place the characteristics of the zombie movie:
• A group of survivors trapped in an enclosed space.
• The survivors becoming more of a threat to each other
than the Living Dead.
• The flesh eating zombie.
• The down beat ending.
• The term, “The Dead”.
• An scientific cause of the zombie outbreak rather than
a magical cause.
• The shambling, moaning zombie.
• Romero’s trademark of black actors taking lead roles.

8. ROMERO
Followed Night of the Living Dead with:
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Survival of the Dead (2009)

9. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD

10. ITALIAN ZOMBIES
Europe saw an explosion in Zombie Movies. Notable
titles are:
• Zombie Flesh Eaters
• The Gates of Hell
• Beyond
• The House by the Cemetery

11. NOT QUITE ZOMBIES
• Pontypool
Language carries an infection. The only way to avoid
infection is to speak in a foreign language. If infected, the
only way to avoid exploding is to infect others by biting
them.
• 28 Days Franchise
Human beings become infected by a rage virus.

12. COMEDY ZOMBIES
• Shaun of the Dead
• Zombieland
• Fido
• Ozombie

13. “REAL” ZOMBIES
• Harold’s Going Stiff
• Torchwood: Miracle Day
A relatively new sub genre
which imagines a world in
which zombies, or something
like them, are real but not
supernatural or flesh eating.
These films emphasise the
tragedy of the condition.