Fellow Zombiephiles, you understand, like we do, that the Zombie as a modern cultural object is derived almost in its entirety from the Zombie Movie, that classic, George Romero-esque horror movie archetype.

You’ve seen them. Probably more of them than you would like. We’ve all seen them.

But seeing zombie movies isn’t enough. Sometimes you just have to blaze out on your own and write a zombie movie. That’s where the Zombiephiles step in. You see, we’ve isolated five easy steps you can quickly take to create your very own zombie movie.

How to Write a Zombie Movie (In Five Easy Steps):

Step 1: Think up a plot for your zombie movie.

Sure, it sounds hard at first, but consider this: most zombie movies fall into one of three categories:

The Survivalism Zombie Movie

Most of the modern zombie classics are, in fact, zombie survivalism movies. Think Night of the Living Dead. What’s the plot? Zombies eat some chick’s brother and she takes refuge in a farmhouse with a bunch of random people. Zombies attack and eventually everyone dies. Simple. Elegant.

The Zombie Escape Movie

With more and more frequency we’re seeing the Zombie Escape Movie archetype - instead of simple survivalism, which usually brings with it necessary social criticism, the Zombie Escape Movie is a far simpler creature. Think 28 Weeks Later. Plot: some people become zombies and kill lots of other people. The main characters try to escape. Again, fairly simple plot design.

The Zombies-Aren’t-As-Bad-As-Humans Movie

This one’s really coming into its own. Movies like Fido and The Zombie Diaries tap into the basic premise that as terrible as the living dead may be, they’re got nothing on the kind of horror that human beings inflict on each other. If you’re short on zombies for your cast, you might want to consider this one.

Step 2: Secure Resources

Make like you’re in a zombie movie and scavenge for every available resource you can acquire. If your budget is particularly small, (like most of ours are), you’ll want to consider going for a single camera, low-production “documentary” style, as seen in the recent UK Zombie movie, The Zombie Diaries. Recruit friends, coworkers, family member, and homeless people - the latter require a far smaller makeup budget but pose a higher risk of actual infection. Once you’ve got a camera or two and a small handful of world-be zombie food (and a couple of zombies too, of course), you’re ready for step 3.

Pages: Next page

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 11:37 pm . Filed under Eat My Brains. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.