Doc Of The Dead

This Doc is for all those who always wanted to know everything about zombies but were afraid to ask! Featuring contributions from experts, industry insiders and last but not least fans of the genre, Doc Of The Dead provides an interesting and occasionally tongue-in-cheek insight into the world of the Walking Dead.

While many of us are under the impression that the zombie craze started in 1968 with Georg A. Romero’s ground-breaking Night Of The Living Dead, the truth is that the genre has been in existence for much longer! In fact, the first zombie flick was the 1932 Bela Lugosi vehicle White Zombie directed by the Halperin Brothers, followed in 1943 by the Jacques Tourneur directed and Val Lewton produced I Walked With A Zombie. The 1950’s gave us the dubious pleasure of Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space, and in the mid-60’s it was Hammer Horror’s fairly classy Plague Of The Zombies that arguably were amongst the most influential films. However, it was the aforementioned Night Of The Living Dead that brought the zombie craze to live!

Contributors like the man himself, by that I mean George A. Romero, special effects legend Tom Savini, horror icon Sid Haig, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkmann, obviously Bruce Campbell, director Brian Yuzna, director Alex Cox, and Shaun Of The Dead’s Simon Pegg all contribute and offer their opinions. Of course, just as important are snippets from various podium discussions at Film Conventions, complete with highly imaginatively dressed audience members (watch out, Mr. Savini!).
Romero makes a fair point when he equates the increasingly popular zombie cult with the 70’s punk movement, i.e. people being fed up with authority and convention… and doing something different for kicks. It’s also nice to see Night Of The Living Dead actress Judith O’Dea, who played the part of ‘Barbra Hamilton’, in an interview.

It gets slightly barmier as we are introduced to the increasingly popular ‘Zombie Walks’ during which members of the public do their damned best to get the zombie look and the zombie gait off to a tee. Yes it could catch on!

As informative as this documentary is, a few omissions ought to be pointed out. I mean, how can you make a documentary about the zombie genre and not mention the Hammer classic Plague Of The Zombies with its memorable dream sequence. Also, Spanish director Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead films had considerable influence.
All in all though, Doc Of The Dead is an entertaining slice of gore-drenched fun!