Amph The Golden Age of Zombie Entertainment May Be Over

You're probably as worried about this as I am, but I've lost interest in Fear The Walking Dead. This is a clear signal that the Golden Age of Zombie Entertainment is already long over.

The pseudo failure of World War Z, the first $200 million zombie movie, was another signal.

The proliferation of mostly farcical zombie titles like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," Zombeavers, Zoombies, and Little Dead Rotting Hood.

Genre mashups like the zombie romantic comedy Warm Bodies mainstream zombies past the breaking point.

I'd say the absolute peak of the genre was the commercially successful mainstream "Dawn of the Dead" remake with probably at the time the largest production budget ever for a zombie film ($26 million) combined with the first season of The Walking Dead and the most commercially successful zombie farce: "Zombieland."

Zombie Chronology:

Pre-Romero Era
pre-1968

Romero Era
1968-2009

Golden Zombie Era:

2004 - Dawn of the Dead remake (elevation of zombie production budgets)
2008 - Deadgirl (Arthouse Indie Zombie)
2009 - Zombieland (Peak Zombie Comedy)
2010 - Walking Dead (Mainstream TV Zombie)

Postzombie Era

2013 - World War Z (megabudget failed summer blockbuster zombie)
2015 - Fear the Walking Dead (introducing the second-rate spinoff zombie series)
2016 - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (commercially failed zombie genre mashup)

 

The only time this was passingly interesting was "28 Days Later." The first one, because it was mostly a film about something else.

It was a pretty stupid conceit otherwise. Though there are some potentially honorable candidates on that television show, so perhaps it should continue for awhile.

 

Soon I hope, and I definitely should have included 28 Days Later in the Golden Age. More to do with launching the golden age than Dawn of the Dead.

It is by far the dumbest movie genre.

The Golden Age of Zombie video games falls into that Romero/Golden Age as well.

Dead Rising
Dead Island
Left 4 Dead
Resident Evil

 

My only interest in zombies is the The Walking Dead video game series by Telltale. The rest could pretty much go **** itself already. I didn't need World War Z to convince me of that.

 

The absolute peak of the genre is 1985 Return of the Living Dead. Probably the best executed horror comedy of all time in the way it tears itself almost down the middle between scary and droll.

It has all the marks of both a comedy and a horror classic. It sparked a franchise. It's so very very quotable. It elevated its own mythology and embedded itself into all zombie movies to come. Its sequels are unwatchable awful.

 

I should confess that despite fronting as dismissive, I have indeed seen World War Z, Zombieland and 28 Days Later. My dismissiveness is in reality blasé spite. I should watch more zombie comedies. Zomedies.

 

So it's the Zombie Apocalypse Apocalypse?

 

I'd tend to agree with Punk. We're riding a downward cycle, but it's hard to know how long the cycle will last. For now it seems that everything has already been done. The genre has nothing new to offer. Something like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies reeks of desperation and a bankruptcy of ideas. But eventually, someone will crack the code to the next zombie classic.

And I would pay to see Zombieland 2. I don't understand why this hasn't already been released.

 

Ooh! I have an idea! A meta comedy about making a zombie movie. Like Get Shorty or Tropic Thunder. The downward cycle is the perfect time for it.

 

No question I would pay to see this. You'd need a cameo by Spielberg. He has taken on the challenge of giving a zombie movie the full Schindler's List treatment. A movie about the making of a mainstream World War 2 zombie film co-executive produced by Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

 

Comedies are terrible. Most especially when combined with other genres. That's also what drags the MCU down. What's the point of a story if even the characters inside it can't take things seriously?

 

I hate to laugh as much as the next person, but sometimes I'm shocked into enjoying myself despite my best efforts.

 

No one takes the MCU seriously. They're not meant to be taken seriously. Also, are you seriously positing that you don't see the point of comedies?

 

In a word, good. I still enjoy the original Dawn of the Dead and the Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue for their snide winks at social commentary as much for their zombie gore, but I was quickly burnt out on the current zombie craze several years ago. I am not into seeing people at their absolute worst in such conditions day in and day out. Two hours? Okay, once every now and again. As an ongoing comic or series, no thanks.

So, yeah, I'd be pretty happy if pop culture moved on.

 

Wocky, you remind me a bit of brother Jorge of Burgos, the blind monk who'd rather kill his abbey brethren than allow them to read Aristotle's "lost" work about the nature of humor.

I would also pay to see a good medieval zombie movie. Something completely unlike Game of Thrones.

the zombie crimefighting tv show didn't last very long. Was it a full season? I think it's available now on Netflix.

 

I'm glad the zombie genre reached it's peaked the last couple of years as it washed away the teen vampire thing that was going on.

I can't wait until we enter the Silver Age of Zombies and Marvel does Marvel Zombies on Netflix.

 

Rylo Ken, love the timeline! Can you create a Horror thread and create a timeline where Scream revived the mainstream audience in the Horror genre and how it has also slowly declined as well?

 

zombie entertainment reached its peak with that cranberries song, which wasn't even very good.

 

Spoilers.

Wait, I guess if we don't say the book title, it isn't really a spoiler. Good book though.

Back on topic, I just kind of feel like zombies are so one-note. I mean, I get the social commentary element, but Romero kind of did that and left little to say on that ground. I think a zombie movie has to bring something really compelling to the table in order to overcome the tired nature of the genre. 28 Days Later had the intensity of the speed zombies, Shaun of the Dead brought in some unique social commentary and humor, The Walking Dead used the backdrop of zombies to explore characters. Most zombie shows are just "zombies are awesome blood blood gore" and I'm just over that to the degree it was ever a thing I cared about.

Maybe part of the problem is just that . . . well, okay, I know people differ, but I just simply do not find zombies scary at all. Like I said, there are films that have brought other elements, but I'm trying and failing to come up with a zombie book/movie/television show/video game that actually scared me. Can't think of one. They're not scary to me.

Related to that, I'm sure, the zombie story is, by far, my least favorite horror genre. Demons, ghosts, witches, serial killers, monsters, even vampires . . . I'll take any of them over the zombie.

But I'm curious to explore that idea of zombies not being scary. Maybe people could share the zombie films/books/whatevers that actually frightened them. Or is that not actually part of the appeal?

 

I will be really conflicted when that happens.