Many horror film fans consider George A. Romero to be the father of the zombie film.
As it turns out, he might simply be the genre’s most famous offspring.
As detailed by Glenn Kay in the excellent “Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide,” zombie films were first made some 35 years before Romero brought the undead genre to life with his classic “Night of the Living Dead.”
Kay — a Hamilton, Ontario, resident who was a zombie extra in Romero’s 2005 film “Land of the Dead” — gives reviews and insight into more than 300 zombie films covering more than 75 years of cinematic history. With an easy-to-read writing style that interjects sharp wit into his commentary, Kay presents himself as perhaps the world’s foremost zombie movie expert.
Before Romero reinvented the classic movie monster 40 years ago, zombies began to appear in films during the horror movement of the 1930s. Originally part of Haitian culture, zombies were undead beings brought back to life to do the bidding of the person who resurrected them. Debuting in “White Zombie” in 1932, the monsters took a back seat at first, appearing sporadically in the background of many films.
Over the next couple decades, zombies played the straight man to the comedy stylings of Bob Hope (“The Ghost Breakers”), the antagonist to a lucha libre star (”Santo vs. the Zombies”) and the horrific result of nuclear experimentation (“Creature with the Atom Brain”), but it wasn’t until Romero’s treatment that zombies got their due.
Clearly a Romero devotee, Kay devoted the most space to Romero’s films, starting with “Night” — which he said didn’t bother to apply for a rating but would likely have been too gory to even earn an “R” rating. Kay also used a great deal of space to discuss Romero’s other works — including “Dawn of the Dead,” “Day of the Dead” and the most recent “Diary of the Dead” — nearly all of which appear on his personal top 25 list at the end of the book.
The book breaks away from a straight chronology at several other points, interjecting interviews with zombie movie professionals, Kay’s personal diary of his time on the “Land of the Dead” set and a glossary of zombie film terms. He also provides a list of the strangest things he’s seen in zombie films, which ranges from the ridiculous (a zombified gorilla) to the revolting (zombies biting off victims’ nipples).
Even when he’s discussing the dregs of the genre, such as the Joe Piscopo buddy cop film “Dead Heat” in 1988, Kay’s affinity for zombies shines through. His knowledge of the monsters (which primarily became flesh-eating after Romero got done with them) is unsurpassed, and he presents the material in a way that’s easy even for zombie newbies to digest.
Kay devotes a small chapter to the future of the zombie genre, which was revived in the 1990s by the “Resident Evil” video game franchise and delightfully broadened by the comedy “Shaun of the Dead” and the suspenseful “28 Days Later” earlier this decade. Kay expertly details the ebbs and flows of the genre over the years, noting that it’s unlikely to completely drop dead since the genre has grossed more than $1 billion at the box office since the 1970s.
This book is a must-own text written for zombie fans by a zombie fan. If there’s such a thing as a zombie scholar, Kay is the dean of the college that anoints them.
Contact editor Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.
• Visit the Life in the Slow Lane blog for more zombie facts, including the highest-grossing zombie films of all-time and video of zombie appearances elsewhere in pop culture. Life in the Slow Lane
IF YOU READ
• WHAT: “Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide”
• BY: Glenn Kay
• DETAILS: Published by Chicago Review Press, 352 pages
• GRADE: A
•••
IF YOU GO
• WHAT: Presentation and book-signing by Glenn Kay
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