When Did Zombies Learn How to Run?
by Steven Clark
They’re coming to eat your brains. But are they running or lurching? Does it matter? Very much.
2004. That’s when zombies learned how to run. And the horror movie industry has benefited greatly from it. The remade version of Dawn of the Dead appeared in theaters in the spring of 2004 without much fanfare. After all, no horror movie had resonated with audiences since Scream in 1995. In the intermittent decade, movie attendees were graced with Scream sequels, Scream rip-offs, and updated Japanese horror movies remade for US audiences. Though Dawn of the Dead redid George Romero’s classic from 1978, it modernized the original—by allowing the undead to run. Romero’s film featured slow-moving zombies that tended to move in packs and overwhelmed the living by steadily lumbering closer when the living were distracted. For nearly 30 years, this exemplified zombies. The 2004 remake takes Romero’s archetypal elements of everyday America and social unity and combines them with the evolutionary leap of running zombies. The remake modernized the horror genre and the movie achieved the same amount of fan fervor as its predecessor, and plowed a path for future movies to follow.
The new Dawn of the Dead used the same tools as its progenitor and used them equally effectively: the graphic violence, the shopping mall setting, and a small band of survivors are all commonalities, as was the commercial success of both movies. The remake essentially jump-started the zombie apocalypse subgenre and simultaneously catapulted it into a frenzy. Its success allowed studios to produce more compatibles like Shaun of the Dead, Land of the Dead, and Slither. Independent horror even saw success with several movies achieving cult status, prompting independent horror movies-makers to take their newfound exposure and, in 2006, use it to begin the After Dark HorrorFest—a week-long festival of horror films that was the first of its kind and has since become the largest film festival in the world. It welcomes zombie movies but also features thrillers and supernatural films. (This year’s festival began on January 29—no doubt you had a scary costume ready for the occasion.)
Major label studios are also enjoying success, evidenced by a continuing trend of late 1970s-era horror films receiving makeovers, just as Dawn of the Dead did. In addition to the recent Halloween and Friday the 13th remakes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Hellraiser have both been scheduled for updates.
However, it does take a small leap of faith to credit Dawn of the Dead with revolutionizing zombies and reigniting an influx of horror movies. 28 Days Later was released in 2002 and featured agile “zombies”—creatures that could run and jump two years before Dawn of the Dead’s could. But the hordes of “zombies” in 28 Days Later were actually humans infected with a virus, i.e. living creatures that contracted a disease concocted by scientists. Zombies are reanimated corpses, sentenced to roam the earth when hell is full. Technically, zombies are undead and therefore different than the infected. Additionally, 1985’s Return of the Living Dead featured fast-moving zombies but they moved at more of a jog than a sprint.
By contrast, from the very first act of the 2004 Dawn of the Dead, the audience received notice that zombies were now 100-meter sprinters and not marathon runners. You may recall the initial scene (because I certainly do), that features a young girl (a zombie) who wanders into a neighbor’s house and meanders slowly down the hallway. At this point, the audience is fooled into complacency by the dawdling pace usually set by the zombie. But then our protagonist knocks the girl back several feet and onto the ground. The miniature zombie chooses that moment to reveal her incredible speed as she pops back up and dashes towards the closing door of the heroine. Zombies alone are somewhat creepy but combining a zombie with a child to result in a zombie child and allowing it to run like a gazelle has caused me to remain wary of daycare centers and Gymboree since watching that scene.
Ergo, we have arrived at a bit of a Renaissance for horror films: No longer a topic that only Goth kids are passionate about, horror movies have catapulted themselves from a niche, B-grade market into the limelight as bonafide entertainment. Horror movies exert their pull over people because they provide the excitement and terror of being in a life-threatening situation without any of the risk of actually being in a life-threatening situation. Thanks to Dawn of the Dead, movie audiences have been offered an expanding selection of horror movies to choose from—and every zombie movie I’ve seen since 2004 has featured the aggressive, well-conditioned zombie that Dawn of the Dead presented. Zombieland and Paranormal Activity cemented the genre as profitable, which ensures a stream of new releases for us to anticipate. The next step? I’m not entirely sure, but George Romero’s 1973 flick titled The Crazies reached theatres in February 2010. It might not feature fast-moving zombies but, without the sprinting zombies from Dawn of the Dead, we wouldn’t even be getting the chance to know what The Crazies holds.
