They’ll figure it out.

Over at Alex on Film I’ve just completed the second round of my notes on zombie cinema, taking the genre from 1990 to the present day (with the ’90s being a rather thin decade, just before the twenty-first century take off). Purists can complain all they want about what constitutes a proper zombie film, but I allow for any virus with zombie-like symptoms, and so include films like 28 Days Later and The Crazies. I also include my notes on The Purge, because even though that isn’t a zombie or zombie-virus movie it shares the same structure.

For the most part, these movies aren’t very good. Indeed, going over the list I can only see a handful of films that I would recommend seeing: Rec, Pontypool, The Horde, and Shaun of the Dead. None of these are American productions. I’m not sure if that means anything.

I suggest that 2007 may have been the year of “peak zombie,” as what we’re getting now tend to be domesticated, overblown, or parodic zombie films. The genre feels played out to me, but will likely keep going for a while based on how well it seems to suit the zeitgeist. You can see Part One of the Zombie Chronicles here.

Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Return of the Living Dead III (1993)
28 Days Later (2002)
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005)
Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005)
Fido (2006)
Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006)
Diary of the Dead (2007)
I Am Legend (2007)
Rec (2007)
28 Weeks Later (2007)
I Sell the Dead (2008)
Quarantine (2008)
The Horde (2009)
Pontypool (2009)
Rec 2 (2009)
Survival of the Dead (2009)
Zombieland (2009)
The Crazies (2010)
Exit Humanity (2011)
Juan of the Dead (2011)
Rec 3 (2012)
The Purge (2013)
World War Z (2013)
Zombies (2014)
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
Dawn of the Deaf (2016)
The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
The Night Eats the World (2018)
The Dead Don’t Die (2019)
Little Monsters (2019)
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)