Zombie movies have changed the media and the world to a more apocalyptic view ever since the first zombie movie came out in 1985, by the name of White Zombie. By asking staff and students about their favorite zombie movies we can learn more about the Harwood community and specifically their thoughts on an apocalyptic world where the dead come to life. Highlanders embrace the zombie genre and discuss what their favorite zombie movies are.
What is a zombie movie?
Zombie movies are a type of Dystopian movie which bring out general fears and worries of a population. Zombie movies have done just that from the beginning and have adapted as we have.
The first zombie movie White Zombie was released in 1985 by Edward Halperin. IMDB summarizes the movie by saying, “A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.” The woman was later described as “brain dead” which is where the idea of the dead coming back to life came from.
Now zombie movies have gotten more unique and have differed from the original script of voodoo and have fallen to a more apocalyptic view which can be seen in more recent movies and series such as 28 Days Later (2003), and The Last of Us (2023). This is because of the cultural differences between 1980s and 2020s back then society was heavily influenced by religion and recently went through the Satanic Panic the movies used to pull on the fear of people actually using “voodoo practices”. Now society is more concerned about the earth’s condition and how advanced human beings have become, causing more fear of the end of the world or human inventions turning against the humans that created them.
The movies have also gotten more unique with settings and characters, for example Train to Busan which is set on a train and World War Z which shows the political struggles with an outbreak of an unknown virus. Having said all of this there are some expected tropes and characters. The digital art teacher and Harwood Nathanial Furlong quickly put it as, “you need Grotesque gore, and ridiculous scenarios.”
What does Harwood look for in a zombie movie?
When talking to the community there were many trends that started to show. One being that people preferred a more manic zombie. “One that hurls themselves off cliffs, doesn’t care about safety, doesn’t feel pain, are the best ones,” said Junior Savannah Pursul after bringing up the newer series The Last Of Us which came out in 2023. Senior Theo Ritter agreed with this point and also added that those Zombies “felt real,” and that it was “more exciting to watch a movie that felt like it could truly happen.” Freshman Trinity Mazzilli paints the picture of “Very ragged clothes with blood and messed up fingers,” saying that the zombies have to “look dead” to make them seem truly possible.
However when asked what the best zombie movie was, Harwood had a very contradicting answer to wanting manic crazy zombies. The most common favorite zombie movie was none other than: Zombieland.
A theoretical answer for why these two answers are so polar opposite is because it’s fun to watch a realistic movie about zombies, But when it comes down to it, if an apocalypse does happen anybody would hope for it to be comical and not a true threat.
“My favorite are the slow zombies, because otherwise it’s way too scary,” exclaimed Junior Indigo Leese when asked about their favorite movie zombies. They also mentioned the movie Warm Bodies saying they like the plot of two people falling in love rather than fighting to their death. Junior Antonia Mazzilli had similar thoughts saying, “If I was in a zombie movie I’d hope for it to turn out more like Zombieland rather than a scary one.”
In the end, if the dead do rise, Harwood wants it to be a comedy and not a horror.
