Zombie movies. There had to be one. At least.
You see, of all of the horror genre the zombie movie is the most subversive. It’s the most political and, often, it’s the scariest. Zombies eat human flesh not because they need to, but because they want to. But many zombie movies, when done well, are not actually about zombies. Often they’re about what humans do to one another in the face of such a horrible fate for mankind. George A. Romero started this best with Dawn of the Dead [author's note: Night of the Living Dead came first, but it was Dawn that captured America's imagination], the first of a great horror trilogy (Dawn, Day and Night of the Living), but at the heart of Romero’s great movie is that in the face of horrible circumstances people will do unspeakable things to one another. And those who can, will band together, but mostly everyone will die. Dawn of the Dead put a small group of people together in a shopping mall for better or for worse. During their time there they are attacked by people, not zombies, and it all ends very badly. But when you were done not only were you scared out of your gourd, but you also knew that the basic facts of the movie, while inflated and catalyzed, were likely to be true. Much like Mad Max and The Road Warrior, where the circumstances feel just a little too real while set in a completely unrealistic world. It hits us in a place we don’t often want to go.
28 Days Later took the best of what Romero created and built on it. It showed us something new and completely reinvigorated interst in a genre. For that reason alone, I’ve chosen THIS horror movie, from many, to be on my List.
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