5 Great Zombie Movies That Revolutionized The Genre (& 5 That Ripped Them Off) – Screen Rant

Zombies have been shambling around the horror genre for decades - but which are the true originals, and which are really ripoffs?

Zombie movies have been made and enjoyed for decades, in some form or another. In the pre-Romero age, they were typically portrayed as some type of voodoo monster. After Romero, they were often portrayed much as they are today - mindless, shambling corpses hellbent on eating flesh.

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There have been many fantastic and massively influential zombie films throughout the years. And as is often the case, there have been numerous rip-offs as well. Some rip-offs are actually quite good. Others are cheap, quickly-assembled films that were forgotten just as quickly as they were made. These are but a few.

White Zombie is often considered the very first mainstream zombie movie. Directed by Victor Halperin and inspired by a 1929 novel called The Magic Island, White Zombie concerns a woman who is turned into a zombie via voodoo. The movie is notable not just for introducing voodoo zombies to the mainstream, but for starring Bela Lugosi as voodoo master "Murder" Legendre. While the acting certainly leaves a lot to be desired, White Zombie is prominent within the zombie genre, and its influence is simply undeniable.

In fact, its influence is so extraordinary and massive that countless rip-offs stemmed from its success. It served as the archetype for many following movies, most of which "borrowed" heavily from White Zombie's style and elements, which included elements of voodoo, brain-dead zombies, manual labor-performing zombies, and the eerie banging of voodoo drums. Some of its more prominent rip-offs include 1940's The Ghost Breakers, 1941's King of the Zombies, 1943's I Walked With a Zombie, and 1966's Plague of the Zombies. White Zombie started a phenomenon.

Night of the Living Dead may very well be the most influential zombie film ever made. Made by George A. Romero for just $114,000 (about $850,000 today), Night was a different sort of zombie movie. Out were the cheesy voodoo zombie movies of the '40s, '50s, and '60s, in were the bloodthirsty walking corpses. While it's insinuated that the zombie plague is the result of some type of space radiation, that's not really important. Night of the Living Deadwas a genuinely terrifying film that not only changed how zombies were portrayed, it changed how the entire genre was made.

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5 Great Zombie Movies That Revolutionized The Genre (& 5 That Ripped Them Off) - Screen Rant

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Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero
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