5 Zombie Movie Tropes That Are Immortal (& 5 That Are Braindead) – Screen Rant

Say whatever you want, but we all love at least one zombie flick.They vary wildly in quality but one of them at some point will grab you. Whether it's uncommonly stupid protagonists, ingenious escapes, actually doing the logical thing, pulling a cool weapon, or just because there are some awesomely gross effects, there's going to be something that gets you invested.

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Among the many ways they grab you, there are also whiplash variations in quality to vie with, and as often as not, the terrible examples give you some sort of enjoyment for sheer absurdity as the good ones do for quality reasons. Even the same series can reach the highest of highs and the lowest of lows depending on how they treat the central aspects of the zombie genre. As such, this has led to tropes for the genre that are completely played out and groan-worthy, while others stand the test of time and live to see the dawn.

The stock-standard zombie variety has several inherent dangers that make them perfect for suspense and horror. A persistent, never-ending, slow wave of death provides just the right element for a solid 90 minutes of tension with dramatic spikes throughout. They provide avenues for escape and ingenuity as well as the obvious advantages of only staying down from specific methods, depending on the movie. They offer close escapes, last-minute leaps of faith, and the opportunity for humans to show their best in a crisis, even if most don't. They are the timeless, genius element that keeps us returning to these stories.

It may seem on the surface like a danger upgrade but it actually causes too many logic problems and a scare scarcity. Turning shambling, dead corpses into sprinting terrors reduces the ways our heroes can escape, deal with their situation, or believably survive.You also can't have them run away from these things for the length of a feature without massive leaps in logic, like World War Z's carnage except for these guys' problems. High-octane sprints are appealing in short burstsbut overall the zombie franchises with legs, shuffle slowly onward instead.

The best zombie stories are really about the humans put into that constant life-threatening situation. The Walking Dead, Night Of The Living Dead, Shawn Of The Dead, even. The crucible of pressure reveals the real person you're standing next to when things couldn't possibly be worse. Who is the coward, who is the hero, who is pragmatic, who is selfless, who wins the Darwin Award, all imminently to be answered. Will your best friend seize the opportunity to push you to your death and steal your girlfriend? Will your husband leave you and the kids to die? Who will stretch out their hand in the crucial moment? These are the untouchable hooks that compel us over and over.

For creatures afflicted with no brain power or stealth tactics they sure can sneak up on you. One of the dumbest things in every lesser zombie flick involves someone being taken unawares by something that would've needed a soundproof muzzle and soft slippers to achieve. Sometimes it doesn't even make the smallest amount of sense.

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Why was that zombie silent until it appeared onscreen? Does that girl have zero peripheral vision, cause that Walker was an inch to the left. Did that one teleport into that corner cause who the hell knows how it got your neck into its maw before we heard anything? The cheapest trick and as brainless as they are.

This one stings every time. Whether the bite is hidden or revealed immediately, the group suddenly has a whole extra turmoil to sort out with no happy answers. Infinitely distressing because it always happens to the kid with a future, the mother with a kid, the coward who can't rationalize his practical death. So many other permutations on top of those all combine into the worst situation imaginable. Moral questions arise, practical ones, and all while someone has to stand there and hear strangers or their loved ones talk about them like they're already dead. The clock is ticking, and everyone watching is riveted. The zombie version of Hitchcock's 'bomb under the table'.

Follow the rules and Double Tap! That pregnant pause when a character takes that premature sigh of relief while the entire audience is yelling at the screen to watch out! Relying on this trope is a sign of the most basic zombie set up and you should lower expectations when it pops up.

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At this point, the entire planet is fully aware of what to do when confronted with bitey dead things and the first rule should be not to stop until it's super-mega-dead for sure. If the character you like is dumb enough to stand with bare ankles next to a twitching, not quite dead flesh-eater, feel free to rescind your liking status.

Any self-respecting zombie movie has a signature badass weapon. Usually, a few already badass things combined with the ever-reliable duct-tape. Expect the hero to stand silhouetted in a doorway carrying this bad boy, looking damn near majestic. From katana-dynamites, to shotgun-shovels, to chainsaw-molotov cocktails, to high-heel-bowie knives, to pool cue-morning stars, anything-plus-anything-else kicks butt. If your favorite survivor finds the 'awesome combo of weapons' cupboard, expect things to get multiplied by awesome.

This is the dumb cousin of the Slow Burn Turn. Keeping a fully turned zombified child, lover, parent, friend, pet, or Pokmon on hand and blithely complaining to your group that they're 'gonna be okay smacks of idiocy and denial (unless that's the point). When zombies are bashing down your door and you're holding another one's hand, you've got issues about being alone.

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Since you just can't let go, you're almost certainly causing someone else to be dinner. When this crops up everyone knows there's only going to be dumbness for the next few minutes until things resolve, obviously for the worse.

The only thing more dramatic and fueled with intensity than deciding if you need to kill someone whose been bitten is whether you can risk separating a bitten limb and hoping for a miracle. More often than not an arm or hand, but legs can happen too, those precious moments between infection and controlling the spread with a saw or an ax can hinge everyone's survival on them. Under threat from outside, and now potentially from the inside, what would you do? What could you do to someone else? Don't think long, cause someone's tum-tum might begin a-rumblin'...

The impossible escape that you just can't buy. Now and then a hero we've come to love will find themselves in a situation where there really is no way out. You see the walls closing in, the flailing arms and snapping jaws, and you brace yourself for the inevitable. And then, they're gone. You saw them fall down into the pile, or to the ground, and there was blood and screaming and everything. It's over. They got got. They have ceased to be. They are an ex-protagonist.

Except they didn't because they hid under another body, or a panel in the floor swallowed them to safety, or they merely 'thought they were a goner' when they turn up three scenes later as a jump-scare fakeout with little-to-zero explanation. If the goal is to make an audience yell "Oh, come on!" in frustration at the screen, then, by all means, keep digging up this DOA cliche.

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5 Zombie Movie Tropes That Are Immortal (& 5 That Are Braindead) - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero