With the release of rom-zom-com Life After Beth, you might be feeling the need to brush up on your zombie movie knowledge. So it’s just as well we’ve got a handy zombie A-Z for you!
A – Apocalypse
Because if there’s zombies running about you can almost bet it’s going to be an Apocalypse. Which does beg the question; would you rather be a brainless zombie or live without the internet. Thought so.
B – Beth
Eponymous zombie of Life After Beth. Played by the internet’s favourite person, Aubrey Plaza, and also fairly intent on trying to eat her ex-boyfriend in the film, Dane Dehaan. Poor him!
C – Chemical Hypothesis
In 1983 Wade Davis, a Harvard ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in a paper. He claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being introduced into the blood stream (usually via a wound).
D – Dane DeHann
Dane stars opposite Aubrey Plaza as Zach Orfman in Life After Beth. Dane recently starred in The Amazing Spiderman 2 and will be play the iconic James Dean in the upcoming Life.
E – Eating
It’s fairly common knowledge that Zombies like to eat people, as depicted by various films in the genre over the years.
F – Forest of the Dead
A 2007 film, directed by Brian Singleton. A group of friends go camping and are transformed into bloodthirsty cannibalistic zombies that eat each other.
G – Gore
The Zombie genre has delivered its fair share of gore over the years, everything from blood, guts, wounds and pus has been exposed. The use of prosthetics have helped bring a realistic feel, more recently the use of CGI has helped bring gore to the next level.
H – House of the Dead
A first person shooter video game, released in 1996 by Sega originally in arcades and later on the PC.
I – I Am Legend
This take on the Zombie genre saw Will Smith take the lead and star pretty much on his own for the entire film. He plays an army Lieutenant and one of the only survivors left in New York Coty following the outbreak of a virus causing animals and humans to become infected.
J – Juan of the Dead
A Spanish-Cuban zom-com shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.
K – King of the Zombies
A 1941 horror comedy set during the Second World War. The film spawned a sequel in 1943 called Revenge of the Zombies.
L – Land of the Dead
Released in 2005, this was the third sequel to George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.
M – Magic Island
Time Magazine credits William Seabrook’s 1929 novel Magic Island with introducing the word Zombi into U.S. speech.
N – Nemesis
If zombie fans were jumping in their seats in 1999, it wasn’t because of Zombie! vs. Mardi Gras. It was because the Nemesis monster had just come crashing through the wall in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
O – Ozone
A 1995 horror film where a street drug called Ozone transforms addicts into powerful zombies. We’re sure there’s a metaphor here somewhere but we can’t see it.
P – Pentagon’s Anti-Zombie Plan
Believe it or not is a real thing. Also called CONPLAN 888 and written in 2011 as a training exercise, it covers everything from Pathogenic Zombies to Space Zombies then to Chicken Zombies!
Q – Quarantine
A 2008 remake of the 2007 Spanish film REC where the tenants of an apartment are locked in and slowly start to become infected. If they thought they were all bad neighbours before just wait till they start biting each other.
R – Romero
The zombie master, the grandfather of the undead, call him what you like, George A. Romero’s contribution to the zombie genre is still being felt in film’s being made today. Classics like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead have captured our terrified imaginations for years.
S – Shaun of the Dead
Released in 2004, followed Simon Pegg and co fending off zombies in an already apocalyptic looking borough of London and was the first film in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy.
T – The Last Man On Earth
A 1964 science fiction horror film starring Vincent Price based on Richard Matheson 1954 novel I Am Legend. Later again adapted into a movie starring Will Smith.
U – Umbrella Corporation
The mysterious company behind the nefarious experiments in genetic engineering and biological weaponry (aka zombies) in the iconic Resident Evil videogames and movies.
V – Victor Halperin
Director of White Zombie, considered to be the first legitimate zombie film ever made and introducing the concept to the wider world.
W – Walking Dead
Regarding something that is organically dead but somehow still animated and moving. If you see one and need to look up the definition though, you’re probably already having your leg chewed on. Also quite a popular TV series.
X – Xidachane
In the South American cultures Sotho & Tsongo the concept of physical zombie-like creatures is present where they are called xidachane .
Y – Yoroi Samurai Zombie
Just when you thought the idea of a flesh-craving, death-rattling, undead minion wasn’t terrifying enough in Yoroi Samurai Zombie he gets the training and weaponry of a Samurai, goody!
Z – Zeds, Zed Heads, Zoms, Z’s
Not nicknames for taking a nap. If you hear these words the best course of action is to run.
Life After Beth is in UK cinemas on 1 October. Keep up with the latest zombie news with SciFiNow.
