Zombies in Film
An overview of zombie films through the decades.
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
Director: Ed Wood, Jr.
Synopsis: "Can your heart stand the shocking facts about Graverobbers from Outer Space?" That's the question on the lips of the narrator of this tale about flying saucers, zombies and cardboard tombstones. A pair of aliens, angered by the "stupid minds" of planet Earth, set up shop in a California cemetery. Their plan: to animate an army of the dead to march on the capitals of the world. (The fact that they have only managed to resurrect three zombies to date has not discouraged them.) An intrepid airline pilot living near the cemetery must rescue his wife from this low-budget terror. "Can you prove it didn't happen?"
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1961)
Director: Ray Dennis Steckler
Synopsis: SEE: the dancing girls of the carnival murdered by the incredible night creatures of the midway! SEE: the hunchback of the midway fight a duel of death with the mixed up zombies! SEE: the world's first monster musical!
Carnival of Souls (1964)
Director: Herk Harvey
Synopsis: Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around in a car with two friends. When challenged to a drag, the women accept, but are forced off of a bridge. It appears that all are drowned, until Mary, quite some time later, amazingly emerges from the river. After recovering, Mary accepts a job in a new town as a church organist, only to be dogged by a mysterious phantom figure that seems to reside in an old run-down pavilion. It is here that Mary must confront the personal demons of her spiritual insouciance.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Director: George A. Romero
Synopsis: The dead come back to life and eat the living in this low budget, black and white film. Several people barricade themselves inside a rural house in an attempt to survive the night. Outside are hordes of relentless, shambling zombies who can only be killed by a head blow.
Evil Dead II: Army of Darkness (1992)
Director: Sam Raimi
Synopsis: Trapped in time. Surrounded by evil. Low on gas...In this sequel to the Evil Dead films, a discount-store employee ("Name's Ash. Housewares.") is time-warped to a medieval castle beset by monstrous forces. Initially mistaken for an enemy, he is soon revealed as the prophecised savior who can quest for the Necronomicon, a book which can dispel the evil. Unfortunately, he screws up the magic words while collecting the tome, and releases an army of skeletons, led by his own Deadite counterpart. What follows is a thrilling, yet tongue-in-cheek battle between Ash's 20th Century tactics and the minions of darkness
28 Days Later (2003)
Director: Danny Boyle
Synopsis:Three activists invade a laboratory with the intention of releasing some monkeys and chimps. What they do not know is that these animals are under experience, infected by the virus of rage. The activists are immediately killed and the animals escape. Twenty-eight days later, Jim wakes up from a comma alone in a abandoned hospital. He leaves the place and finds out that London is desert, apparently without a living soul. Then, he meets Selena and her friend Mark and he is informed that all the population died. People got infected by the monkeys, and the infected ones attacked the survivals. Jim decides to go home with the new friends and see what might have happened with his parents. Then, they are rescued by Frank and his daughter Hannah. They listen to a broadcast message from Manchester and they decide to go to the place guided by the broadcasting. Lots of action happens with the group while trying to escape from mutant zombies.
Planet Terror (2007)
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Synopsis: After an experimental bio-nerve gas is accidentally released at a remote U.S. military base in Texas, those exposed to the gas turn into flesh-eating, mutating zombies out to kill. An assortment of various people who include stripper Cherry, her shady mechanic ex-boyfriend Wray, a strong-willed doctor, the local sheriff, and an assortment of various people must join forces to survive the night as the so-called "sickos" threaten to take over the whole town and the world.