Death Of The Dead?

Out of all the different types of Horror movie that there are, zombie films have always been my favourite. Films like the groundbreaking '...of the Dead' films by George A. Romero showed that it didn't have to be all flesh munching carnage, a political or social commentary could be covered too, without compromising any zombie action.

And we all could have a laugh too, thanks to films like Return Of The Living Dead, and later films like Shaun Of The Dead and Zombieland (although I do contest that these aren't strictly zombie films, more comedies - and very good comedies at that - that happen to have zombies in them.)

But recently, nothing has inspired me. Romero's most recent picture, Survival Of The Dead was decidedly average to put it mildly, and before that Diary Of The Dead took several viewings for me to enjoy. And if the master of the sub-genre can't get it right, shouldn't everyone else take a step back?

The main reason I'm writing this piece is because of The Walking Dead. The first season started well enough, a solid story and some great zombie carnage, but things started to crumble near the end. But this second season for me has been so melodramatic and slow, I'm one episode away from throwing in the towel. It's akin to an episode of Eastenders, but with the undead showing up to eat some faces off now and again.

I'd waited so long for a zombie TV show to appear. And when it did, all it gave us was a cast that got more unlikable by the episode (I honestly didn't mind them at first, but now I can barely even stand to look at them) and storylines like "Where did the little girl vanish to?" and "Oh no this little kid got shot". Now, I can barely tolerate the main cast, but the kids who barely got any dialogue? And it's been dragged out for 3 episodes at the start of the season? Argh! And I'm not even mentioning the fact they don't even call them zombies!

But it's stuff like that, and the fact that no really good zombie film has come along recently (with the possible exception of French film La Horde, which was fun but totally unoriginal) that makes me wonder whether people should just take a very un-zombie like breath and...well, just not make any zombie films for a while?

This will never happen, of course. Not now. Zombies are up there with Justin Bieber and whoever is popular on X Factor this year in the cultural coolness stakes. Zombies are "in". Any scumbag lad can roll into his favourite club in fancy dress as a zombie, regardless of the fact that they have passed their creative high point.

Just one look on Google images for 'zombie', shows bunches of utter morons doing zombie flashmobs (possibly the worst thing to happen to civilization since World War II), artwork of people being zombies, or stills from 'ironic' zombie films and not a sign of any of the undead from Romero's films (nor anyone elses for that matter.)

And The Walking Dead, for all it's soap opera moments, and occasional zombies, is currently insanely popular, with a third season awarded, and other TV networks scrambling for ideas (such as a mooted Zombieland TV show at Fox, which will be shitcanned when the fad has passed) to jump on the bandwagon.

All we can do is just cling onto the fact that audiences are fickle. Today it's zombies, tomorrow it will be a different creature feature altogether. Maybe vampires!

No wait, the Twilight books have already ruined them, never mind.