Zombie tropes

For little money — many low-budget horror movies have gone on to make millions at the box office. Paranormal Activity, for example, was made on a budget of $15,000. The film went on to gross over $100 million in the United States alone. For Get Out, the budget was $4.5 million and at the box office, it earned $250 million.Keep your script low-budget by thinking about ways to cut costs as you write it. If your film requires say, a monster to destroy an entire city like in Godzilla, it may be difficult to get a producer interested.Put a New Spin on an Old ConceptHorror is a genre with tropes we see again and again: The band of survivors who come together after the apocalypse, the creepy kid who may or may not be possessed or demonic, the toy that comes to life and devastates the family. It’s okay to use these tropes, but think about new ways you can tell the story. For example, The Lost Boys was a new spin on vampire mythology, with vampires who were super cool like rock stars. Warm Bodies subverted the zombie mythology by making it a romantic comedy. Use well-established tropes, but give audiences something they’ve never seen before.Use Existing Intellectual PropertyThere are plenty of well-known characters and stories in the horror universe that are public domain. For example, most of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft’s stories are in the public domain, as are stories by Edgar Allan Poe. An internet search will

On the surreal, “The Beyond” is one of the nastiest and most purely enjoyable zombie films around. —WC 15. “ParaNorman” (Sam Fell and Chris Butler, 2012) Image Credit: Laika Though ostensibly a family film about ghosts, seeing as how the title character communicates with those beyond the grave who have unfinished business, the second entry in Laika’s oeuvre (after the equally impressive “Coraline”) also contains a zombie plot that is simultaneously terrifying and touching. The stop-motion walking dead, rendered beautifully by Laika’s animators, serve as a cautionary tale about the errors of mob rule and fear-based judgments — an homage, perhaps, to Romero’s utilization of zombies as stand-ins for societal ills. Bolstered by an outstanding voice cast (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Casey Affleck, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, John Goodman) and a script imbued with humor that subverts staid zombie tropes, “ParaNorman” is not just a gorgeous exercise in stop-motion, but the rare substantive zombie movie that can be enjoyed by the whole family. —LAG 14. “The Girl with All the Gifts” (Colm McCarthy, 2016) Image Credit: Saban Films The story is set in a future where humanity is being destroyed by a disease that turns its victims into flesh-eating “hungries,” as they are called in the film. Only a small group of children seem immune to its effects, and they are therefore subject to study and experimentation to understand why, as.a vital resource in the search for a cure. Although one of them, a 10-year-old girl

Take her to her mother in Busan via train from Seoul to Busan. But a meant-to-be-simple father-daughter journey turns into the ride from hell, as a virus of unknown origin rapidly spreads on the train, transforming victims into zombies in swift and hideous ways.Cinematographer Hyung-deok Lee (2010’s “The Housemaid”) crams us into chaotic train cars, with balletic choreography as Seok-woo and a pack of passengers try to survive — yet turn on each other. The film arrives at a heartbreakingly human conclusion that, despite the nasty blood bath it bookends, would make Bong Joon-ho proud. —RL 7. “Shaun of the Dead” (Edgar Wright, 2004) Image Credit: Shutterstock Give it credit for having the single best Queen needle-drop ever in a film: “Don’t Stop Me Now” accompanies a showdown between a group of feckless Londoners and a zombie hoard inside a cozy pub. And give it credit for presenting a genuine worldview: Wright presents his hero Shaun, like most of the Londoners we meet, as being so caught up in 21st century distractions, so living in their own little bubbles that he and his friends don’t even notice that the zombie apocalypse is unfolding around them. At least, not until it’s almost too late. The first half of “Shaun of the Dead” is unclassifiably brilliant: calling it a “parody” feels too glib, and it certainly isn’t a standard horror movie. By the end, it adheres to more traditional zombie tropes. But even then, it’s an exceptional example of the genre. —CB

American remake “Quarantine,” this claustrophobic Spanish found-footage effort brought a fresh dose of claustrophobia and terror to the zombie genre. A TV reporter and her cameraman are conducting a routine interview at a local fire station when an emergency call comes in. Accompanying the firefighters to a nearby apartment, the news team begins recording the blood-curdling screams coming from inside an elderly woman’s unit. After authorities seal off the building to contain the threat, the news crew, firefighters and residents are stuck facing a lethal terror inside. With the camera running, survival for everyone involved seems unlikely. “REC” is quite unsettling as it moves at a restless clip, using the found footage device to inject a new kind of immediacy to the zombie concept.The plot is simple enough, and the cast is populated by stock characters, but the film overcomes the shackles of its tropes with pure energy and execution, including the absence of any music on the soundtrack until the end; it often really does feel like you’re watching a horrific document (one that continues with the same breathless momentum in the sequel). And as the unpredictability of the scares ratchets up from one act to the next, it’s impossible not to watch the movie with the lights off. —TO 4. “Rabid” (David Cronenberg, 1977) Image Credit: Cinema Enterprises/Kobal/Shutterstock To choose between “Shivers” or “Rabid” as a Cronenberg title for a Best Zombie Films list: what a difficult task. Cronenberg’s early Canadian B-movie creepers are both great – it’s

Ironic lotto ticket. Worms make good fishing bait. Where's Daryl Dixon when you need him? Fat Zombie Crawl. The music is right up my alley. I wish N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton was included to mix with with this awesomely awesome alternative indie rock laced soundtrack. A gigantic teddy bear that Andy Summers will need when he starts his Hoop-Tober challenge. The picture on the mirror that's worth a lifetime of words and memories. You should… Set in a zombie apocalyptic time The Battery is more of a hangout movie, exploring the characters of our two leads than sticking to genre traits of blood, gore and senseless killings which is there because it's Hollywood, after all, 😂 but it still pretty original and refreshing.Gardner chose the less travelled road of proper character development over slaughterhouse mediocrity that is loved by most in the zombie genre and pretty much nailed it, with good humour weaved into the narrative that didn't feel forced and great performances by both our leads with only one flaw or maybe not 😂 I would have loved it even more if they've explored the arc of The Orchid, but still it was a pretty chill movie that is even better on a rewatch.And ya Gardner imo is an underrated actor, one of my favourite beardo 😂. Film #165 of Make me watch your favourite.Recommended by Carlos Alexandre.The Battery understands that making an original genre film often works best when you try to avoid tropes and approach it from