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Very few movie monsters have endured in the same way as the zombie, giving us a movie history spanning more than 70 years without a single one of them becoming famous in their own right. Vampires have Dracula, slashers have Jason or Michael Myers, monsters have King Kong, Lychanthropes have The Wolf Man, who do zombies have…Bub! (See right) But that doesn’t mean they havn’t brought us some of the most memorable movies to scare us silly.

The zombie made its first notable appearance in 1932 with “White Zombie”, starring Bela Lugosi. Set in Haiti, the early living dead were mainly portrayed as slaves and born out of a fear of the voodoo religion, considered a dark art in those days. It was followed by a sequel, “Revolt of the Zombies”, four years later, both movies playing on the early horror theme that the threat was far away from American society and not a bout to overspill onto their values. 1943’s “I Walked With a Zombie”, directed by Jacques Turner from the Val Lewton stable of horror movies carried on that theme. A re-working of sorts of “Jane Eyre” it featured the first infamous zombie as 6ft 7” Darby Jones played the terrifying looking but placid ‘Carrefour’. Wonderfully executed, it’s a classic to this day.

Very little action in the 50’s as invasion fears and the threat of Communism saw Sci-fi flicks flourish but it was us Brits who produced the next notable entry in Hammer’s “Plague of the Zombies”. Very spooky and atmospheric it still portrayed the living dead as objects of control who strangled their victims, we didn’t see any flesh eating until George A. Romero sat down in the directing chair.

Seminal Zombie mayhem

“Night of the Living Dead” was a watershed in horror in general, not just as a zombie flick, when it was released in 1968. Very few horror flicks featured on-screen gore, let alone the sight of a young girl eating her father before killing her mum with a garden tool! It raised deep questions of how to deal with the dead and many social issues including racism, the threat of scientific advancements and the belief that man will contribute to his own downfall. It can be viewed as an anti-war movie, if ever there was a warning to stop the killing, it’s the fear they’ll come back to life and eat us whole! Horrific sights were also becoming more common due to the televised coverage of the Vietnam conflict.

More on that movie at another time, it was a surprise that, barring a few Spanish movies, most notably “Tombs of the Blind Dead” that I must do a piece on and “The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue”, it took “Night’s” sequel “Dawn of the Dead” to inspire a host of cash-ins from the Italian market. Lucio Fulci was the main culprit who created his Zombie Quartet of “Zombie Flesh Eaters”, “The Beyond” “House by the Cemetery” and “City of the Living Dead”. All quite different in their own way and varying in quality (steer well clear of “City”, it’s crap!), “House” is worth a mention as featuring a single zombie, Dr Freudstein, using the blood of the living to keep his rotting corpse alive. Some outrageous gore scenes and a surprisingly complex but coherent plot (surprising if you’ve seen “The Beyond” that is!) this really is worth tracking down.

The Italian’s carried on the trend with Bruno Matthei’s “Zombie Creeping Flesh”, Andrea Bianchi’s “Nights of Terror” and Marino Girolami’s insane “Zombie Holocaust” that featured a pitch battle between zombies and cannibals just to up the gore content! They’ve even had a go at merging genres with “Dawn of the Mummy”, avoid that one, please!

The rotting ones had a quiet time of it in America with notable entries from Sam Raimi, George A. Romero and a spoof in the “Return of the Living Dead” series as the zombie took a back seat to werewolves, serial killers and vampires for the latter half of the 80’s. That changed with Peter Jackson bringing them back in the 90’s with a vengeance with the utterly outrageous “Braindead”. If you think you’ve seen gore films, you’ve not seen any until you’ve seen this splatter-fest that goes for Monty-Python style laughs rather than scares. Going down the “Evil Dead” route of total bodily dismemberment rather than Romero’s “Shoot ‘em in the head” method, you get it all here. Beheadings, entrails, zombie sex, gnomes in the head, vicars who “Kick arse for the lord” and a two minute scene involving a lawnmower and a room full of zombies that has to be seen to be believed.

It brings us back to Romero, allowed a fourth bite at the cherry with “Land of the Dead” thanks to the “Dawn” remake, Dawn inspired “28 Days Later” and “Shaun of the Dead” and a decent script. Where next for the zombie? Judging by the sight of a port chop coming to life in 1988 buddy/horror movie hybrid, anywhere!

Recommended viewing: Romero’s zombie quartet, “Evil Dead 1+2”, “House by the Cemetery”, “Braindead”, “Tombs of the/Return of the Blind Dead”, “Demons”.

Avoid!: “”Nights of Terror”, “Dawn of the Mummy”, “Raiders of the Living Dead”, “The Supernaturals”, “Zombie Island Massacre” (not even a zombie movie!), “Redneck Zombies”, “Mutant”, “Oasis of the Zombies”, “City of the Living Dead”.

“Beware the moon and stay on the path…”