ZOMBIES

All modern horror films bar none have plots that are based around family melodrama. There is always a family with a problem, it's basically Eastenders, but the problem manifests itself in the form of the KILLER DOG or KILLER GRAN etc. But this was later, around the seventies, with the roar of Hollywood and big American pictures, than the first zombie movies.The first zombie movie, THE WHITE ZOMBIE 1932, was about exploitation, slavery and power. It was about a man who brought the dead back to be his slaves. Zombie movies are not totally isolated from the modern family melodrama seen in horrors though as most zombie movies contain romance. I like to call these ROM-ZOMS. And sometimes ROM-ZOM-COM For example in white zombie he brings a woman back to life-ish to perform his every desire, as the poster says.






Now I want to look at a film made by the Germans, and no its not Dead Snow and contains no Nazi zombies. This film is called Nosferatu. It was made in 1921, published 1922, and may be the first ever horror film to be seen in cinemas being born in a period of German Expressionism. This was the benchmark for all later horrors and one of the key elements was its lighting and cinematography. It was silent and in black and white so the heavy shadows and smokey atmosphere played a crucial part in setting the scene. The same kind of cinematography can be seen today in Bladerunner which inherited it off film noir which inherited it off old horrors and voila we are back to Nosferatu and our German friends. I send thanks to you F. W. Murnau and Max Schreck and the producers and everyone else involved in the film for you planted one of the seeds that would later grow into zombie beauty. We would not have 28 Days Later if it wasn't for you lot.