Have We Seen Enough Zombie Movies?

This month George A. Romero released what must be his quadrillionth zombie movie, Diary of the Dead. And though the film proved to be extremely competent and unique in that it followed movies like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield in the cinema verite genre, I couldn't help but think to myself: how many zombie movies can we possibly watch before it gets old?

Now first of all, I love zombies. In fact I think the shark-fight scene in 1964's Zombies is one of the greatest in horror history. But by this point we've seen every single iteration of zombie possible, we've seen remakes of the originals, spoofs of the remakes, and on and on and on. The SciFi Department's Kevin Maher interviewed Romero and asked him what the evolution of the Zombie would be, and Romero said that honestly he saw nowhere else for the zombie to go. Essentially, a zombie is a zombie is a zombie.

So my question is, if there's nowhere else for zombie movies to go, why do filmmakers keep making them and why do we keep watching them? It seems to me that the horror genre in particular is extremely adept at exploiting a trope that "works." That's why we have 20 iterations of each Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers movie. But is that necessary? Are we in danger of quashing fresh ideas, concepts, and themes simply because we know people will line up to watch Freddy Krueger terrorize some child, or a horde of flesh-eating zombies march through town?

Horror vs. Sci-Fi: A Line in the Sand

I love my horror films, I also love Sci-Fi films and many times the two genres cross-polinate. Recently under the subject "Definition of 00's Horror" Clayton brought up a point that neither I Am Legend nor Cloverfield are horror films but rather Sci-Fi and a Monster Movie, respectively. This got me to thinking. I Am Legend is populated with "vampires" while Cloverfield has a giant monster running about destroying Manhattan. Are these two films really that set apart from my beloved genre? What about films like David Cronenberg's The Fly, it has so many horror moments but it's really based in Sci-Fi.

So let's have at it, is there a line in the sand? Should we not mix our peanut butter and chocolate or should we keep them separate when discussing films that fall into both genres?

Definition of '00s Horror

Horror movies have evolved over the years. Each decade can lay claim to its own genre, especially those in recent history. The 1980s were the era of the undead slasher, which actually began in 1978 with Halloween, and went on to include Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child's Play.

In the 1990s, the form morphed yet again. Although slasher flicks were still the way to go, the villain got real. No longer was he a vengeful spirit; now he was a serial killer. Movies like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer adapted the conventions of their predecessors then riffed on them in inventive ways.

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