Day of the Dead (2007) - Trailer

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Dawn of the dead - Intro

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Dawn of the Dead - Trailer

Add to My Profile | More Videos

The term zombie refers to a dead person whose body has been revived. Zombie, originates from the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodoun (otherwise known as Voo-Doo in America). These folkloric zombies are humans who have had their "Ti Bon Ange" or soul stolen by supernatural means and shamanic medicine, and are forced to work for their "zombie master" as uncomplaining slaves on isolated plantations. Other more macabre versions of zombies have become a staple of modern horror fiction, where they usually engage in human cannibalism.
(For specific discussion about the use of zombies as a 'thought experiment' about the significance of human consciousness within the philosophy of mind, see the Philosophical zombie entry.)
Zombies in film
Although the depiction of zombies in film has recently become much more varied, they were originally presented in White Zombie (Victor Halperin, 1932) as mindless, unthinking henchmen under the spell of an evil magician/overlord. This depiction continued through the 1930s until they started to move around more of their own accord, as in I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943). There was often a strong sexual component in the depiction of zombies of this era.
In 1968, George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead premiered. Critics initially reacted negatively to its depiction of cannibalism and gore and the movie's pessimistic tone, but the film soon developed a strong following and is now considered a modern classic. Although cannibalism in horror was nothing new at the time, the movie standardised the depiction of zombies eating human flesh, and created new rules still in use in films, such as a severe head injury being the only way to kill a zombie. Zombies being shown staggering around slowly, moaning and in various states of decomposition, can also be traced back to Romero's films. The 1978 sequel, Dawn of the Dead, can be regarded as the precursor to the modern zombie movie subgenre. The third entry in the series was Day of the Dead (1985), followed two decades later by the fourth, Land of the Dead (2005). The original movie made no reference to the creatures as "zombies," but rather as "ghouls", although the word was used once in the sequel. It is quite likely that the term "zombie" was coined in reference to the trance-like stupor of the creatures, not their cannibalistic tendencies. By 2005, the term was accepted by Romero, with the Land of the Dead character Kaufman (Dennis Hopper) exorting "Zombies, man. They creep me out." [1]
Internationally, Dawn of the Dead was released under the name Zombi, just months before Lucio Fulci's Zombi II (1979), which was in fact filmed at the same time as Romero's 'Dawn', despite the popular belief that it was made in order to cash in on the success of 'Dawn'. The only reference to 'Dawn' was the title change to Zombi II. In America, Dan O'Bannon's 1985 movie, Return of the Living Dead, took a more comedic approach to distinguish his movie from George Romero's; it had the zombies hunger specifically for brains instead of all human flesh. 1981's Night of the Zombies was the first film to reference a mutagenic gas as a source of zombie contagion, later echoed by Trioxin in Return of the Living Dead.
After the mid-1980s, the subgenre was mostly relegated to the underground. Although director Peter Jackson made a notable entry with the ultra-gory Braindead (1992) (released as Dead Alive in the US), Bob Balan's comic 1993 film My Boyfriend's Back where a very self aware high school boy returns to profess his love for a girl and his love for human flesh, and Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore (1994) (released as Cemetery Man in the US), it was not until the next decade's box office successes (the Resident Evil movies (2002, 2004), the Dawn of the Dead remake (2004), and the homage/parody Shaun of the Dead (2004) that the zombie subgenre experienced a resurgence. The new interest allowed Romero to create the fourth entry in his zombie series. In 2006 filmmaker Dean Lachiusa made a cinematic sampling of the 1968 Night of the Living Dead called "Neo-Cine." Although critically acclaimed, this redux-version is a source of debate among film purists. Another zomedy is Canadian film Fido.
Around the turn of this century, there have been numerous direct-to-video (or DVD) zombie movies made by extremely low-budget filmmakers using digital video. These can usually be found for sale online from the distributors themselves, rented in video rental stores or released internationally in such places as Thailand.
Jason Voorhees, the titular character from the Friday the 13th series of films, is much like a zombie, having been killed and revived numerous times (sometimes by electricity).
[edit] Zombies on television
Numerous storylines of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel featured zombies in various guises. Some resembled the voodoo model, while others craved human flesh, and had various degrees of autonomy. Other zombie storylines appeared on The X-Files and Charmed.
Michael Jackson's Thriller is a 1983 music video directed by John Landis. One of the most popular music videos of all time, is a horror film parody featuring choreographed zombies performing with Jackson. During the video, Jackson transforms into both a zombie and a werewolf.
In the South Park episode "Pinkeye", zombies overrun the town. In the episode, Chef is turned into a zombie based on the zombie played by Michael Jackson in the Thriller video.
Professional wrestler Tim Arson wrestled as "The Zombie" on the debut of ECW's program on Sci-Fi Channel, losing to Sandman.
The popular animated cartoon The Simpsons contains occasional references to zombies, most notably the Treehouse of Horror episodes.
Futurama, created by Matt Groening of The Simpsons fame, also references zombies, specifically "Zombie Jesus" ("Sweet Zombie Jesus, it's huge!") and "Hanukka Zombie", though they are never seen on screen.
The Borg from various Star Trek incarnations resemble zombies.
From Wikipedia,

Profile modified by:The CricketSoda Myspace Profile Editor