Is Gore Neccessary for Zombie Movies?
I’ve been spending a lot of my off hours recently thumbing through the excellent Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide by Glenn Kay and one thing that keeps appearing in each review is a quick blurb about the gore content. In the book, there’s quite a lot of side discussion directed to the gore hound which made me consider other reviews which of course, follow a similar format.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but gore is a staple of the genre. I remember watching Shaun of the Dead for the first time upon seeing one of the characters pulled apart by a zombie mob, the zombie gore lover inside of me felt satiated. Had that scene not been in the film, I think some part of me would have been disappointed.
Yet, I am not a gore hound. Not in the least so it’s a strange dichotomy which leads to the question … is gore necessary for zombie movies? Would you be disappointed in the next Romero zombie film were rated PG-13, or even PG?
Further, when a zombie movie ends, do you find yourself thinking of the gore? I certainly do not. In fact, my mind kind erases it from my mental map unless something about it catches my interest in some macabre way. For instance, when I saw Day of the Dead, the nastiest image that stayed with me was the dissected zombie on the autopsy table as opposed to any of the characters getting munched. I usually think about the characters, some of their interesting dilemmas, and what I’d do in the same circumstance.
For me, I don’t think gore matters too much but at the same time, I think I would be disappointed in a PG zombie film. So what do you think? Is it necessary for a zombie film and could you watch a sanitized one?
One can maintain suspense without violence. So, it’s possible.
Of course, I don’t enjoy zombie movies, anyway.
I certainly think it’s possible to do zombies without gore. And, in some ways, the gore can detract when shots are set up as gore ‘gags’ as in Survival Of The Dead. That’s a spiral that leads to the worst of the Nightmare On Elm Street movies.
But zombies and gore really go hand in hand. It does serve a purpose more than just shock value or horror. It shows a level of depravity, animal-like instinct, that the dead are left with. And, similarly, it shows how humans, when killing zombies, will descend to that same level.
I think that’s important.
But one thing I have often wondered is if the concept of zombies, one of the big draw for certain parts of the audience (just like some of the characters we’ve seen, certainly a comment made in Romero’s Night), is that they provide a means for guilt-free murder shots. To take pleasure in the kill, but it’s okay because they’re zombies.
That’s something Romero, even with his ‘gag’ deaths, recognised in Night and is still a part of Survival.
[...] zombie blogger asks if gore is necessary to make a good zombie film. (A World on [...]
[...] Is gore necessary to make a good zombie film? [...]
Give me $5 million and I will make the scariest, non-gory zombie film ever made.
Kidding.
I don’t think zombie movies need a lot of gore. Some minor gore needs to be present (since zombies are dead people, after all, and that means blood and the like), but I would love to see more zombie films that focus on the mood rather than the gore…
If the literature is any gauge, no. Much of the zombie literature is far more philosophical or psychological, which is the heart of a good zombie story, and folds nicely into other post-apocalyptic fiction such as Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD. I think this is why Max Brooks’ WORLD WAR Z was such a huge success, given its documentary style focusing on the people and their stories. And now there’s even a new teen/female genre breaking out. Check out Carrie Ryan’s THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH and THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES.
I think that most zombie movies have failed in large part because the gore is emphasized too much over the philosophical and psychological aspects that create the real story. There was no gore in Night of the Living Dead, but it is the granddaddy of all zombie movies. Dawn of the Dead had some, but it was still primarily a psychological story. Day of the Dead, along with the bulk of other zombie movies such as the Return of Living Dead, Dead Alive, House of the Dead, and the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, had plenty of gore and were all unremarkable. Where we’ve seen some impressive work is 28 days later, I am Legend, and to a lesser extent Quarantine, none of which truly qualify as “zombie” movies but all focus on psychological aspects and lack the traditional gore-fest emphasized in traditional zombie movies.
Zombie Movies and Gore Movies were mostly an product of former US Soldiers, that fought in Vietnam and saw cruel things. But the Government won´t let them show US-Soldiers getten torn to pieces by a Vietcong, so they needed something else. Voilá You got Zombie and Gore ;P
the act of being eaten alive and fighting for your life at the same time is not situation a suspense movie has, but a zombie movie,yes, how clean a death would you leave behind?