The 9 Zombie Movies That May Show Us How to Get Through the Pandemic

Updated 4/22/21

While a zombie apocalypse is quite a different thing from a viral pandemic (one is real and the other is fictional), a few zombie movie staples (people turning on each other, food shortages, weapons stockpiling) have already taken place since the global coronavirus shutdown was implemented. So maybe we should study zombie flicks in order to learn what we should and shouldn't do for the duration of the COVID-19 quarantine. You should start with these:





9. Seoul Station

8. Night of the Living Dead

Night of the Living Dead defined the modern zombie story. It's the template for nearly every walking dead movie that followed. And don't be dismayed by the fact that it was released way back in 1968. It's extra creepy.

7. Maggie

I suppose Arnold Schwarzenegger is to Hollywood what Shaq was to the NBA -- a gigantic crowd-pleaser who just can't seem to get a handle on one fundamental component of his profession. In Shaq's case it was free-throws, in Arnold's it's foreign accents.

Buttloads of British and Australian actors portray Americans every year (Idris Elba, Hugh Jackman, Tom Wilkinson, Naomi Watts and on and on and on) and vice versa. But Arnold has a strong Germanic accent every single time -- even when the writer doesn't excuse it by giving his character German or Austrian ancestry.

But otherwise, and as strange as it may sound, his apparently formidable acting talents are on full display in Maggie. Even stranger -- Maggie is Arnold's most realistic film (not counting Pumping Iron, of course). Probably because it's among his lowest-budgeted projects (only $4.5 million). And because it's not an action movie. Maggie is a drama -- with a pace as slow as a , well, you know. But that unhurried speed is necessary. 

While most, in not all, zombie stories center on an undead outbreak's effect on a small group of people, Maggie is scaled-down even further to one family and how the dynamics within are altered by a plague that gives irrepressible cannabilistic urges to ordinary people. 

After finally finding his daughter, the titular Maggie, after a long search, Wade Vogel (the former governor), learns that she's been afflicted with the virulent contagion that's been ravaging the country. Scientists have identified it as the necroamulist virus. There is no cure nor even effective treatment. The infected are routinely quarantined and euthanised. Despite the danger to his wife and his other two children, Wade insists on bringing his oldest daughter home. As a consequence, he has to witness her disturbing and inexorable transition. Needless to say, this has quite an impact on his entire family.

Let me be clear: Arnold's performance isn't merely good considering it was executed by a former bodybuilder. It's just damn good -- without qualification.

Arnold excels at portraying androids -- literal killing-machines. He's finally proven that he can do a pretty good job of acting like a human being too.









6. Shaun of the Dead

There's nothing funny about deceased people attacking the living and feasting on their flesh. On the other hand, there's an exception to every rule. 

Hollywood has made several attempts to showcase the humorous side of zombies and failed miserably every single time -- almost. Writers Edward Wright and Simon Pegg cracked the code. Pegg may have ruined Star Trek and Mission: Impossible but he's in his element in straight-up comedies. This may just be his best.









5. 28 Weeks Later

28 Weeks Later is not the least bit uplifting. It is likely the bleakest film of 2007. And that was a year that included a movie about the last man on Earth (I Am Legend); a film about 299 warriors who never return from a suicide mission (300); and a film in which no one is safe from a hired killer, including a Vietnam veteran, a sheriff's deputy, a seasoned bounty hunter and other sicarios (No Country for Old Men). You may wanna watch a Pixar feature afterwards just to restore your sense of hope.

28 Days Later ended on an optimistic note and accordingly, the ensuing seven months have yielded a return of a measure of order to Great Britain. And then the trouble starts...







 

4. 28 Days Later

Not many people are aware that The Walking Dead television show is merely an adaptation of a comic book series. Even fewer people realize that the comic book, in turn, was inspired by this film that made Naomie Harris a star. 

28 Days Later was the first film to provide a plausible explanation for the existence of zombies. It did for zombies what Batman Begins did for Bruce Wayne. Actually, the mindless killers in 28 Days aren't dead -- they're living people infected with an aggression-inducing virus, sort of like rabies on steroids. As such, they don't trudge around slowly on decomposing leg muscles. They sprint after their prey -- a stark departure from previous zombie movies. The film also differs from most of the zombie fare that preceded it in that it depicts the root of the epidemic.  

The trouble begins with a group of animal rights activists who've snuck into a London lab in which experiments are being conducted on chimpanzees. In an effort to strike a blow against animal cruelty, they free the apes from their cages. The chimps, who have been injected with the virus, immediately attack and bite the activists, who, in turn, are immediately infected and attack the scientists working at the lab. How's that for cruel irony?

Meanwhile, a guy is hospitalized in grave condition. After waking from a coma nearly a month later, he finds the hospital showing signs of destruction, but deserted. After roaming the equally deserted streets in confusion, he eventually meets a machete-wielding African-American woman who conveys that the entire country has been overrun by the infected. Sound familiar? FYI, 28 Days Later premiered on November 1, 2002. The first issue of The Walking Dead hit shelves 11 months later.









3. Quarantine

Quarantine brings zombies into the found-footage genre and leap-frogs way over The Blair Witch Project. After an outbreak of a weaponized version of rabies, an entire Los Angeles apartment building is placed under quarantine while the residents and first-responders fall victim one-by-one. And a local reporter and cameraman are there to document it all.









2. #Alive

A zombie apocalypse would naturally consist of hotspots throughout the globe. We've already gotten great movies about walking corpses (or in some cases, humans suffering from weaponized rabies) in locations as diverse as Manhattan (I Am Legend), Los Angeles (Quarantine), London, Manchester (28 Days Later), Philadelphia, Jerusalem and Wales (World War Z). Now we have an idea of what an undead outbreak would look like in South Korea.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, movie lovers have compared it to zombie apocalypse fiction, what with the global spread of a lethal virus and mass quarantining. Well, #Alive makes that argument better than any film that's come before. Many zombie films feature worldwide infections and some even focus on the isolation of the survivors but #Alive is the first to so acutely examine the struggles of protagonists voluntarily confined to their respective homes.

During a live stream, other players alert avid gamer Oh Joon-woo to troubling news reports of people behaving strangely in South Korea. After hearing an explosion, he takes a look outside of his apartment window only to witness what initially appears to be rioting on the street down below. When Joon-woo notices a young girl savagely attack and subsequently eat her own mother, he locks his front door. However, a neighbor tricks him into taking a peek outside, at which time the stranger forces his way in and begs for sanctuary. Realizing that the guy's been bitten by one of the infected and informed of the danger this poses by news reports, Joon-woo wants him out immediately. But before he can carry out the eviction, he witnesses the stranger transform from a rational person to a mindless killing machine right before his eyes.


SPOILER ALERT


After forcing his former neighbor into the hallway, Joon-woo is faced with another challenge: worrying about his family, who'd all left for the day prior to the outbreak. Realizing that he has little-to-no cellphone reception, he inventories what little food is in the apartment (Joon-woo failed to heed his mother's advice to go grocery shopping earlier in the day) and resigns himself to life inside his bubble.

Eventually, and through much effort, Joon-woo learns that his family has been attacked -- and likely killed -- at his father's office. Out of food and mourning his family, a despondent Joon-woo attempts to hang himself. But with his head in the noose he learns that another neighbor has survived. Joon-woo and a young woman directly across from his building, Kim Yoo-bin, instantly bond and share resources. And while Kim calls Joon-woo an idiot for attempting suicide, she fails to disclose that she'd tried to hang herself as well, only surviving because the rope snapped.

Don't worry. It's not all sharing food and walkie-talkie conversations. The action kicks in before you know it when Kim is forced to abandon her apartment and Joon-woo has to charge into the middle of Zombievania in order to save her from certain death.

Though you might expect Joon-woo's considerable experience playing first-person-shooters to be adequate preparation for peeling actual caps when necessary, he balks, then outright refuses to squeeze the trigger when he gets his hands on a revolver. But he's highly resourceful, employing his drone as a delivery system and turning his cell into a radio.

As in most great zombie thrillers, the marauding "creatures", as they're called by Kim Yoo-bin, are never actually referred to as "zombies" during the movie. These particularly dangerous biters are capable of quick movement and also retain minimal rational thought, which allows them to accomplish impressive feats like turning door knobs.

Though 2020 has seen murder hornets, global unrest, the return of the bubonic plague and a viral pandemic, nothing resembling a zombie has been spotted -- yet. And it still may be a good idea to follow Joon-woo's lead: keep an eye on the news and stay home as much as possible.

If you wanna see a South Korean thriller that's even better than Best Picture Oscar-winner Parasite then #Alive is for you. And no fan of zombie flicks should miss it.

1. World War Z 

World War Z is completely unlike the book on which it's based. The book is more of a detached, unemotional log of the events leading up to, and transpiring during, a zombie holocaust. The film is a harrowing story of one man's globe-trotting attempt to keep his family safe by helping scientists to solve the mystery of worst plague in human history. You will not believe your eyes when you see the course of action he decides to take during an airline flight -- think Die Hard. And oh yeah, these zombies can run -- fast.





Originally Posted 10/31/16


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