Different ways to raise the living dead
According to popular cultural, there are several tried & true methods of raising the living dead, i.e. create zombies.
It's interesting how over time, these explanations of where zombies came from changed between (voodoo) magic, evil scientists, demonic curses, nuclear weapons, chemicals and pesticides, aliens, bioweapons, virusses and sicknesses, with the odd case of crashed meteorites or even sheer force of will.
There are also those films who don't supply an explanation at all; i.e. the explanation you get is that people become zombies by getting bitten by zombies (duh) without explaining where the first zombies came from, although these examples are harder to find than you might expect in the zombie genre.
Additions are welcome. I am trying to limit the number of movies with identical explanations and limit it as much as possible to cases that are at least marginally different from other films in some small way.
It's interesting how over time, these explanations of where zombies came from changed between (voodoo) magic, evil scientists, demonic curses, nuclear weapons, chemicals and pesticides, aliens, bioweapons, virusses and sicknesses, with the odd case of crashed meteorites or even sheer force of will.
There are also those films who don't supply an explanation at all; i.e. the explanation you get is that people become zombies by getting bitten by zombies (duh) without explaining where the first zombies came from, although these examples are harder to find than you might expect in the zombie genre.
Additions are welcome. I am trying to limit the number of movies with identical explanations and limit it as much as possible to cases that are at least marginally different from other films in some small way.
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- DirectorJames WhaleStarsColin CliveMae ClarkeBoris KarloffDr Henry Frankenstein is obsessed with assembling a living being from parts of several exhumed corpses.Method: a mad scientist combining different dead body parts to build a new man, bringing it to life with lightning.
Granted, it is arguable whether Frankenstein is a real zombie. He is reanimated of course, and he is also slow, hulky, very strong, and he makes zombie-like noises instead of speaking. But we aren't lead to believe that he is especially hard to kill in the way most zombies are, and he is also more misunderstood than he is malevolent. He doesn't attack people to eat them, and we aren't lead to believe that if he would bite people, that this would have some sort of contaminating effect.
On the other hand he may just be different than modern zombies because this is the oldest film in this list, and it does make sense to see him as a proto-zombie, or the ancestor of all modern zombie stories. - DirectorVictor HalperinStarsBela LugosiMadge BellamyJoseph CawthornA young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.Method: a failed attempt to use magic to win another one's love
- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsRaymond MasseyEdward ChapmanRalph RichardsonThe story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.Method: the 'wandering sickness' causes people to walk slowly and insensibly
- DirectorJacques TourneurStarsFrances DeeTom ConwayJames EllisonA nurse is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island.Method: Voodoo magic
- DirectorJames P. HoganStarsDavid BruceEvelyn AnkersGeorge ZuccoA university chemistry professor experiments with an ancient Mayan gas on a medical student, turning the would-be surgeon into a murdering ghoul.Method: a chemistry professor experimenting with an ancient Mayan gas.
Ehm... 'an ancient Mayan gas', what the heck is that? Sounds like the writers had chemistry and the occult mixed up. :) - DirectorLambert HillyerStarsLewis WilsonDouglas CroftJ. Carrol NaishThe very first serial to adapt the comic book character of the Batman. In it, the Batman is a secret U.S. government agent, attempting to defeat the schemes of Japanese agent Dr. Daka operating in Los Angeles at the height of World War II.A Japanese mad scientist turns people into 'electronic zombies'.
How...? Not really an explanation. - DirectorDel TenneyStarsWilliam JoyceHeather HewittWalter CoyA playboy adventure novelist joins his publisher on an expedition to Voodoo Island in the Caribbean, where a cancer researcher is being forced to turn the tribes-people into zombies.Method: snake venom
- DirectorUbaldo RagonaSidney SalkowStarsVincent PriceFranca BettoiaEmma DanieliWhen a disease turns all of humanity into the living dead, the last man on earth becomes a reluctant vampire hunter.Method: a bacteroid disease (plague)
- DirectorJerry WarrenStarsDon SullivanKatherine VictorSteve ConteA crazed female scientist uses nerve gas to turn local teenagers into her unquestioning slaves.Method: nerve gas
- DirectorEdward D. Wood Jr.StarsGregory WalcottTom KeeneMona McKinnonEvil aliens attack Earth and set their terrible "Plan 9" into action. As the aliens resurrect the dead of the Earth, the lives of the living are in danger.Method: aliens executing 'Plan 9' to prevent humanity from creating a doomsday weapon
- DirectorHans AlbinPeter BerneisStarsMaria PerschyUwe FriedrichsenRobert CunninghamAliens attempt to take over the Earth by taking over the bodies of humans at the moment of their death, and using them as tools for their invasion plans.Method: possession by aliens
- DirectorTed V. MikelsStarsWendell CoreyJohn CarradineTom PaceThe Plan - to build a super human. How? By murdering innocent, convenient victims, and using various bits of them. The result? Creatures on the rampage.Method: a failed attempt to build superhumans from body parts
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsDuane JonesJudith O'DeaKarl HardmanA ragtag group of Pennsylvanians barricade themselves in an old farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls that are ravaging the Northeast of the United States.Method: radiation from a fallen meteorite
- DirectorEugenio MartínStarsChristopher LeePeter CushingAlberto de MendozaWhile on the Trans-Siberian Express, an anthropologist and his rival must contain the threat posed by the former's cargo: a prehistoric ape which is the host for a parasitic life-form.Method: an ancient man found frozen in ice is host to an extragalactic evil presence, that sucks peoples learning and memories out of their brains through their eyes.
- DirectorAmando de OssorioStarsLone FlemingCésar BurnerMaría Elena ArpónMedieval knights executed for their black magic rituals come back as zombies to torment a group of vacationing college kids.Method: presumably drinking human blood and making sacrifices to the gods.
Knights templar who drank human blood and made sacrifices in the 13th century questing for eternal life were subsequently punished to death for their crimes, and are now ressurected. It is a bit unclear whether in the end it was their blood drinking and sacrificing that was succesful after all, or the punishment that they got for that, or another factor altogether that brought about their resurrection. - DirectorArmando CrispinoStarsAlex CordSamantha EggarJohn MarleyA photographer on an archaeological expedition digging up Etruscan ruins in Italy begins to suspect that not all the Etruscans buried there are actually dead.Method: presumably people getting burried underneath ancient ruins
In other words: no real explanation is given. - DirectorDon SharpStarsGeorge SandersBeryl ReidNicky HensonAn amiable, psychopathic leader of a violent teen motorbike gang is spurred by his mother, a Satan-worshiping spiritual medium, into committing suicide and returning to life as an "undead".Method: a pact with the devil to return yourself as a living dead
- DirectorLeón KlimovskyStarsPaul NaschyRomyMirta MillerAn Indian mystic uses magical chants to raise women from the dead, then sends them out to perform revenge killings for him.Method: an Indian mystic reciting magical chants
- DirectorJorge GrauStarsCristina GalbóRay LovelockArthur KennedyA cop chases two hippies suspected of a series of Manson family-like murders; unbeknownst to him, the real culprits are the living dead, brought to life with a hunger for human flesh by ultrasonic radiation being used for pest control.Method: pesticides used by local farmers
- DirectorJean RollinStarsMarie-Georges PascalFélix MartenSerge MarquandA young woman discovers that the pesticide being sprayed on vineyards is turning people into killer zombies.Method: pesticides
- DirectorGeorge A. RomeroStarsDavid EmgeKen ForeeScott H. ReinigerDuring an escalating zombie epidemic, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter and his TV executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.Method: no explanation at all, i.e. the zombies were just there to begin with.
Arguably, this is a sequel to the Night of The Living Dead, so the explanation is still the crashed meteorite from that film, although it recieves no mention in this film. - DirectorLucio FulciStarsChristopher GeorgeCatriona MacCollCarlo De MejoA reporter and a psychic race to close the Gates of Hell after the suicide of a clergyman caused them to open, allowing the dead to rise from their graves.Method: opening the gates of hell
- DirectorCharles McCrannStarsCharles McCrannBeverly ShapiroDennis HelfendMarijuana growers deep in the woods are hit with a new toxic herbicide, and they turn into mindless cannibals killing everyone they come into contact with.Method: weed-killing chemicals
- DirectorSam RaimiStarsBruce CampbellEllen SandweissRichard DeManincorFive friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.Method: demonic possession
- DirectorShan HuaStarsBilly ChongLau ChanChung-You ChangA criminal comes to town in order to kill Billy Chong over a past dispute. But instead of getting his own hands dirty, he hires a Taoist wizard to animate some zombies to do the job for him. The plan goes horribly awry, and the bad guy ends up getting killed in his own trap. This pisses off the villain's spirit and he forces the priest to reincarnate him - only they can't find a suitable body. Meanwhile, an undead fiend of sorts comes to town to kill Billy's father over some other past dispute. This is where all of Billy's kung fu training comes in handy, and he manages to kill the attacker. With this, the other bad guy finally has a body to use, but the reincarnation goes wrong and the corpse is reborn as a vampire.Method: Tao magic