So You Want To/Write a Zombie Apocalypse: Difference between revisions

== '''Pitfalls''' ==

 

 

Another particular pitfall is that, due to a lapse by the filmmakers, ''Night Of The Living Dead'' is, in fact, in the public domain. This means that it's had wide exposure and has been remade, either in name or not, quite a lot. As such, many zombie movies tend to follow its basic plot -- a bunch of people trapped in a house or other building, with the zombies trying to get in to eat them. This is very familiar -- try and think of a new spin.

Due to George Romero's influence, many zombie apocalypses done today have strong themes of social breakdown. Usually, we see social breakdown happen on a large scale first (i.e., the people we look to for help and protection are [[Police Are Useless|helpless,]] [[Redshirt Army|dead]], [[Ghost Town|unavailable]], or have [[Armies Are Evil|gone crazy in the commotion]]), and then on a small scale within the main cast. Stress makes people bicker and fight, and paranoia spreads. People have [[Triangle Relations|complicated love affairs.]] With no external society to check their actions, normal people may [[Moral Event Horizon|commit heinous acts.]] It is standard for several members of the core group to die -- killed by zombies, or just as often killed by each other.

 

 

=== '''{{smallcaps|Potential Motifs}}''' ===

 

=== '''{{smallcaps|Casting Director}}''' ===

 

=== '''{{smallcaps|Stunt Department}}''' ===

For an example of a zombie movie which takes the "classic" zombie formula and yet does something completely unexpected with it, watch ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'', a [[Romantic Comedy]] which is also a zombie movie (although often described as a parody, the zombies are actually treated entirely seriously for the most part; it's more a homage to Romero than anything). The two genres are put together and, amazingly, work incredibly well -- it's both genuinely funny, genuinely sweet ''and'' genuinely frightening.

 

 

As long as we're on the subject of video games, ''[[Resident Evil]]'' (especially the earlier games) is also a must-play for anybody interested in zombies. Not only is it the [[Trope Codifier]] for the [[Survival Horror]] genre, it is also largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in zombie media in the late '90s and 2000s, as well as popularizing the idea of zombies being created by [[The Virus]]. Every game in the series (other than ''[[Resident Evil 0]]'', the ''[[Resident Evil Gun Survivor|Gun Survivor]]'' games and the ''[[Resident Evil Outbreak|Outbreak]]'' games) is available on [[PS 3]], be it on a disk or through the [[Playstation Network]], so if you own a [[PS 3]] you have no excuse not to play them. A word of caution: starting with ''[[Resident Evil 4|RE4]]'', the series started downplaying both the zombie and horror elements in favor of an action-shooter direction, with the "traditional" zombie enemies replaced with a cross between ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'' and the "sprinters" of modern-day zombie fiction -- a shift that wound up creating a [[Broken Base]] in the ''RE'' fandom. There also exists [[Resident Evil (Film)|a live-action film series]] based on the games, but be warned: it is a classic case of [[Love It or Hate It]].

Other classic zombie films that are worth a watch include ''[[Zombi 2]]'', ''[[Braindead (Film)|Braindead]]'' (known in America as ''[[Dead Alive]]''), and the ''[[Evil Dead (Film)|Evil Dead]]'' trilogy, though the latter are not strictly zombie films.

 

 

For reading, check out ''[[The Zombie Survival Guide]]'' and ''[[World War Z]]'' by Max Brooks for great examples of zombie literature. The former presents a fairly effective set of "rules" for zombies, based largely on Romero's ([[Our Zombies Are Different|with some modifications]]), that many zombie fans, books and movies have since taken as the "standard" for the genre, while the latter gives a uniquely international take on the [[Zombie Apocalypse]].