This document provides a history of zombie horror films from the 1920s to present day. It begins with the 1922 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, considered the first zombie film. In the 1960s, Night of the Living Dead established the modern zombie as a flesh-eating creature. Dawn of the Dead in 1978 made zombies and their violence a mainstream success. Zombie films flourished in the 1980s with classics like Return of the Living Dead. The 2000s saw remakes like Dawn of the Dead and comedic zombie films like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, which blended horror and comedy.

1. Zo m b i e H o r ro r
Charlotte Brown

2. Zombie-
‘A term used to represent a corpse which has been brought back to life, the term describes a
hypnotized , unconscious and unaware creature however someone who is able to respond to its
surroundings.’
Horror-
‘Something which is set out to frighten its readers/viewers, this includes feelings of horror and
terror. An eerie atmosphere is normally created. Horror can be both supernatural or non-
supernatural’

3. T h e C a b i n e t o f D r. C a l i g a r i
This was the first ever zombie film to
be shown on screens. some of the characteristics from the cabinet of dr. Caligari resembles the
present ‘living dead’ possess.
The zombie had no hunger for human flesh, as this was not what zombies were originally used
for. George A Romero created the ‘living dead’ we all know now, that need human flesh to
survive.

4. Dawn of the Dead
1978
Written by George A Romero, dawn of the dead was the follow up to the successful ‘Night of the living dead’.
Romero managed to change the whole view of zombies, the movie was made more violent by showing
scenes of he changed the whole view of zombies. Making the movie violent, by showing scenes of the
zombies feasting on the human flesh.
• Shows a larger scale of zombie epidemics.
• Heavy gore content.
• The films contains a film of unknown dead species preying on living flesh.
• This causes mass hysteria.
• The film was shot over four months in late 1977 – early 1978.
• The films was filmed in the Pennsylvania cities of Pittsburgh and Monroeville.

5. Dawn of the Dead
2004
The remake of Dawn of the dead was directed by Zack Snyder. The storyline was slightly altered and had a
higher gore content.
• The film focuses on a group of human survivors living and hiding in a shopping mall in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin.
• The film grossed over $102 million worldwide.
• The zombies in the remake are a lot faster and agile compared to the original zombies.
• The cast was a lot smaller in the original film.

6. 28 Days Later
• 2002 British zombie horror film.
• Directed by Danny Boyle.
• Screenplay written by Alex Garland.
• Focuses on four survivors trying to rebuild their life after it was ruined by the highly
contagious "rage" virus.
• The film is widely recognised for images of a deserted London.
• Set in normally bustling parts of London such as Westminster Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, Horse
Guards Parade, and Oxford Street.
• In order for these locations to look desolate, the film crew closed off sections of street for
minutes at a time, usually in early morning to minimise disruption.
• Budget of about £5 million.
• In the UK, it took in £6.1 million, while in the US it became a surprise hit, taking over $45
million.
• Earned $82.7 million worldwide.

7. 2 8 We e ks L ate r
• 2007 British/Spanish film.
• Sequel to 2002 hit ‘28 days later’.
• directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.
• Focuses on flesh eating zombies who are contagious with the virus ‘rage’.
• Spread over the course of twenty-eight weeks after the outbreak.
• Gained generally positive reviews.
• The film made $9.8 million in its opening weekend, coming in second place at the box office,
behind Spider-Man 3
• Made an overall profit of $64.2 million.

8. Night of the Living Dead
Was created in 1968 by the famous director George A. Romero. The films was an
American independent zombie film. The storyline is of a typical zombie film , it
contains seven humans trapped in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania trying to escape from
the corpses outside.
Night of the living dead turned out to be very controversial as many claimed it had
taken delightfully scary to a new level and it had now became ‘unexpectedly
terrifying’.

9. Return of the living dead
Return of the living dead is a zombie film with comic relief. The film was released in
1985. The hit was written and directed by Dan O'Bannon.
Night of the living dead introduces the concept of zombies being brain eaters rather
than just flesh eaters. In this film three men and a group of teenage punks accidentally
release the brain hungry monsters on to their unexpected town.

10. History
• 1920’s
Zombie films first appeared.
• It began with the classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
• 1968
zombies impoved.
A small budget black and white film was released called ‘Night of the living dead’
• 1978
The release of ‘Dawn of the dead’ pushed zombie films in the right direction, they became
increasingly popular
• 1980’s
• Films were released such as ‘Dead and Buried’ , ‘The Return of the Living Dead’ and ‘The
Dead Next Door’ were realised in this decade.

11. History
• 1990’s - Zombie films began to lose their way in the nineties, this resulted in few successful
films being created.
• 2000’s - This decade produced many successful zombie horrors such as ‘Land of the dead’
and a remake of ‘Dawn of the dead’.

12. 1920’
horror films first appeared in the 1890’s to early 1900’s. the sub genre of zombie
horror began in 1920’s with the rise of cinemas. It began with the classic The Cabinet
of Dr. Caligari.
At this time zombies did not prey on human flesh, they were summand by voodoo.

13. 1960’
The 1960’ was the birth of the modern zombie , a small budget film called ‘night of the
living dead’ was released in 1968. Zombie films became a lot more gory, zombies
would be increasingly violent. They would appear to have missing limbs and big
wounds.

14. 1980’
The zombie genre was fully established in the 80’s and became a success. This was
down to many fantastic writer s and directors. Many well known zombie films were
creates in the 80’s e.g. ‘return of the living dead’. Zombies had now changed from
slaves to flesh eating monsters.
The 80’s also defined the rules of zombie horror , these rules included things such as;
• - Zombies must have died to be a full zombie.
- Zombies are not cannibals, they do not feed off each other only living flesh.
- The only way to kill a zombie is to hit it on the head with weapons such as
hammers.
- Intelligence is not zombies strong point.
- Only when humans are bitten by zombies do they become zombies themselves.

15. 1990’
In the 90’ zombie movies didn’t live up to the standard of the previous decade, this
was due to lots of film makers wanting in on the zombie success. Many zombie movies
were created however none of them were successful. ‘Slasher’ films became popular
in this decade with films such as scream being released.

16. 2000’
After the fall of the 90’s the 2000’s looked promising with hit zombie films being
released such as resident evil , quarantine and zombieland. The 2000’s introduced
more of a comedy aspect to zombie films with films such as Shaun of the dead being
released.

17. Zom-Coms
The first signs of the genre zombie comedy was back in 1941 with kings of zombies,
however zomcoms did not become successful until the 2000’s . Films such as
‘zombieland’ and ‘shaun of the dead’.
These films were hugely popular as they still had a slight sense of horror and violence
however the comedy aspect outweighed that, this made this films more suitable to a
younger audience.

18. Zombieland
Zombieland is a successful 2009 zomcom hit. The film has the basic criteria of a zombie
film however its storyline is based around ‘mad cow disease’. This disease causes an
outbreak of cannibalistic humans hunting for living flesh. The film follows a main
character with a comedy aspect as he is a ‘loner’, searching to find out whether his
parents have survived.

19. Shaun of the dead
Shaun of the dead is a 2004 British zomcom. The film stars Britain's popular comedy
duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Simon Peggs character (Shaun) is having life trouble
and is a joke to everyone around him, Nick frosts character (Ed) lives on a couch and
deals cannabis. Over night the town they live in becomes overruled by the dead
however the duo are unaware as they are to wrapped up in their personal problems.
Shaun of the dead has a high comedy aspect as well as violent and gory scenes.

20. Conclusion
To conclude this PowerPoint it is obvious that the sub genre of zombie horror has
changed a lot over the past 90 years.
Zombie films have adapted from voodoo and magic to disease and virus. Gore and
violence has been the main aspect to adapt, as originally zombies would just appear
dead with torn clothing to a modern day zombie which would have wounds and
missing limbs.
George A Romero has been the most influential writer and director in the zombie
scene. Romero is responsible for the real outburst and success of zombies.
George A Romero