Zombies in Movies

A few months ago, I made a post about the different types of time travel movies and had a lot of fun with it. Along the same lines, I wanted to talk about the different types of Zombie movies or "Zomvies". Zombie movies are probably one of the more accessible type of horror movies. They can be done in so many different genres and can be used in a lot of different ways. I have come up with four different categories that Zombie movies fit into each with their own zombie pun-filled name and will share some movie recommendations that fit in each category. With that being said, here are the four major Zombie movie categories. 

The Zom-Com

The Zom-Com or zombie comedy is a grouping of movies where comedy is the main genre and has Zombies as a major component of the plot. These are usually the less scary Zombie movies as the main focus is to make people laugh, not to scare them. One of the most well-known Zom-Coms is Zombieland. This movie stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Emma Stone as they navigate the world of Zombies. This movie is just absolutely hilarious and shows how funny a zombie movie can be. Another big Zom-Com is Shaun of the Dead which follows Simon Pegg as the titular Shaun as he and his best try to survive a zombie outbreak and rescue his girlfriend. Some other examples of the Zom-Com are Anna and the Apocalypse which is a zombie Christmas movie that is also a musical, Return of the Living Dead which is about two bumbling idiots that accidentally release a zombie-creating gas into the air, Army of Darkness which is the third film in the Evil Dead franchise where Ash is transported to 1300AD and must fight a bunch of zombies, Dead Snow, a movie about a group of students who encounter Nazi Zombies on a ski trip, and Night of the Comet, a cheesy 80s movie where a comet turns people into Zombies. This is probably my favorite type of zombie movie as it just takes the idea of zombies and makes them fun. 

The Rom-Zom

The Rom-Zom or romantic zombie movie is another fairly standard zombie category. These are movies where a zombie and a human fall in love. There is usually a bit of comedy in these as well which could maybe make the category The Rom-Zom-Com (The Rom-Com-Zom, The Zom-Rom-Com?) but that is just too much of a mouthful so it all groups into The Rom-Zom. One of the main films in this grouping is Warm Bodies, a Romeo and Julietesque story about a Zombie becoming more human as he falls in love with a girl. A couple of other examples are Corpse Bride, where a man accidentally gets engaged to a Zombie bride, and Lisa Frankenstein, where a girl revives a dead guy to become her boyfriend. There are also a lot of movies about a couple where one of the two slowly starts turning into a zombie such as Zombie Honeymoon or Life After Beth. This type of zombie movie isn't really my thing but others who are into romance may be into them. 

The Zomp

The Zomp or Zombie Romp is a type of movie where the main genre is either action or horror and the plot of the story is to follow the characters through a zombie apocalypse. These movies usually involve a lot of zombie carnage and many scary or action scenes. Some of the standouts here are the classics from George Romero, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and the others in his series as well as Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, which all involve a ragtag group of people baracading themselves against an army of Zombies. There are movies like 28 Days Later and World War Z which follow a group of survivors on the journey to find sanctuary. A few other movies in this genre include Train to Busan which follows a group of passengers as zombies attack a train, Army of the Dead, a Zombie heist film that follows a group of mercenaries as they try to steal money from a casino in a zombie-infested area, and finally I am Legend which follows a man living in the ruins of NYC as he tries to find a cure for a zombie virus. There are also a handful of TV shows that fit this category with the main one being The Walking Dead, which follows a group of survivors trying to stay alive in a zombie-infested world. This is probably the largest and most common type of zombie movie. 

Zombiance 

The last type of movie is the Zombiance movie or movies with a zombie ambiance. These are movies where the zombies are present in the world and show up from time to time but largely have no bearing on the overall story or outcome. The zombies are more a part of the setting than they are a part of the plot. I couldn't come up with many of these movies but I have a few examples. The Maze Runner Trilogy is a good example of this. Zombies show up in parts of the later two films but largely have no bearing on the plot. The main plot is the journey across the desert trying to survive and just happen to encounter zombies along the way. A TV show example is The Last of Us. The main focus of The Last of Us is the journey of Joel and Ellie across the country. The zombies do make an appearance in a few episodes and are the main reason why the country is in ruins but there are large stretches of time where no zombies are encountered or are just seen as a part of the setting. There aren't a lot of examples in this category but the ones that I found are all either decent (Maze Runner) or great (The Last of Us). 

As seen here, there are many different types of zombie movies which allows for a lot of different people to enjoy them. Whether you like action, horror, comedy, or romance, this genre has something for you.