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?