Zombie comedy

The zombie comedy,^[1] often called zom com or zomedy,^[2][3] is a film genre that aims to blend zombie horror motifs with slapstick comedy as well as morbid humor.

History

The earliest roots of the genre can be found in Jean Yarbrough's King of the Zombies (1941) and Gordon Douglas's Zombies on Broadway (1945), though both of these films dealt with Haitian-style zombies. While not comedies, George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985) featured several comedic scenes and satirical commentary on society. An American Werewolf in London (1981)^[4] and the Return of the Living Dead series (1985)^[5] (especially the first two and the last of the series) can be considered some of the earliest examples of zombie-comedy using the modern zombie. Other early examples include Mr. Vampire, CHUD II: Bud the CHUD (1989), Braindead (1992), and Bio Zombie (1998).

A popular modern zombie comedy is Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead (2004),^[6] a self-dubbed romantic zombie comedy, or RomZomCom,^[7] with many in-jokes and references to George A. Romero's earlier Dead films, especially Dawn of the Dead. Other popular zombie comedies include Gregg Bishop's Dance of the Dead (2008) and the 2009 film Zombieland.

Andrew Currie's Fido,^[8] Matthew Leutwyler's Dead & Breakfast, and Peter Jackson's Braindead are also examples of zombie comedies.^[9] Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II, although a more direct horror film, contains some lighthearted and dark comedy elements, and its sequel, Army of Darkness, is even more comedic. The Evil Dead series does not, however, feature any traditional-style zombies.

List

Films that can be considered zombie comedies include:

• Mr. Vampire (1985)
• Re-Animator (1985)^[10]
• Return of the Living Dead (1985)
• Redneck Zombies (1986)
• Night of the Creeps (1986)
• Dead Heat (1988)
• Army of Darkness (1992)
• Braindead (1992), New Zealand film released in the US as Dead Alive
• My Boyfriend's Back (1993)
• Bio Zombie (1998)
• Idle Hands (1999), starring Devon Sawa and Seth Green
• Stacy: Attack of the Schoolgirl Zombies (2001)
• Shaun of the Dead (2004)
• Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2005)
• Tokyo Zombie (2005)
• Dead and Deader (2006)^[11]
• Fido (2006)
• Dance of the Dead (2008)
• Zombie Strippers (2008)
• Dead Snow (2009)
• Zombieland (2009), starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin
• Juan De Los Muertos (2010), Spanish-Cuban film released in the UK and US as Juan of the Dead
• DeadHeads (2011)
• Cockneys vs Zombies (2012)
• Detention of the Dead (2012)
• ParaNorman (2012)^[10]
• Buck Wild (2013)
• Warm Bodies (2013)
• Go Goa Gone(2013), Indian Film
• Zombie eXs (2013)
• Burying the Ex (2014)^[12]
• Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014), Icelandic-Norwegian
• Life After Beth (2014)^[13]
• Cooties (2014)
• Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
• Night of the Living Deb (2015)
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)^[10]
• One Cut of the Dead (2017), a low-budget Japanese film
• Trip Ubusan: The Lolas vs. Zombies (2017)
• The Dead Don't Die (2019)^[10]
• The Odd Family: Zombie On Sale (2019), a first South Korean zombie comedy film.
• Zomboat! (2019), ITV/Hulu TV show
• Zombieland: Double Tap (2019), sequel to Zombieland
• Little Monsters (the 2019 Hulu Original, not to be confused with the 1989 comedy film starring Fred Savage and Howie Mandel of the same name)
• Zombie Reddy (2021)
• Aquarium of the Dead (2021)
• Zombivli (2022)

See also

• Cannibalism in popular culture
• Comedy horror
• List of comedy horror films
• Zombies in popular culture

References

1. "Night of the Living Dorks". Cinema Blend. Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
2. Bemenderfer, Mark (October 12, 2004). "Zombie Comedy Succeeds In Both Genres". The Observer Online. Archived from the original on December 2, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
3. Gartside, Will (September 30, 2004). "Zombie Comedy Slays Audiences". The Badger Herald. Archived from the original on November 11, 2007. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
4. Nelson, Resa (2004). "Science Fiction Weekly Interview". SciFi Weekly, Issue 388, paragraph 4. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
5. Dellamorte (January 22, 2003). Return of the Living Dead. Classic Horror Review. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
6. Edelstein, David (September 23, 2004). "The Importance of Being Undead: A Zombie Comedy of Manners" . Slate Magazine. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
7. Smith, Kerry L. (2004-09-22). "Shaun Of The Dead: The World's First Rom-Zom-Com (Romantic Zombie Comedy)?". MTV News. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
8. Capt. Xerox (March 16, 2007). "Critics Love the New Zombie Comedy Fido". The Website @ The End Of The Universe. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
9. Frazer, Bryant. Braindead (review) Archived 2013-10-02 at the Wayback Machine. Deep Focus. Retrieved April 9, 2007.
10. Sullivan, Kevin P. (14 June 2019). "8 Great Zombie Comedies (That Aren't The Dead Don't Die)". vulture.com. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
11. "Dead & Deader (2006)". IMDb.
12. Kenny, Glenn (19 June 2015). "Burying the Ex". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
13. Lemire, Christy (15 August 2014). "Life After Beth Movie Review & Film Summary (2014)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved 5 September 2014.