Hmmm, well right now I think Zombies are being overdone to the point of Vampires, and as a result we're seeing 20 tons of schlock that just shotguns through all the stereotypes, since there are people who will see anything "Zombie" related for the moment... and of course the declining quality, and the popularity of comedies mocking the whole idea, will both lead to the fad dying out and then Zombies being unmentionable as pathetically uncool for a decade to come. 
At any rate, I've seen so many bad zombie movies of late that I have a hard time thinking of many that were good, or did things "right", other than cycling through stereotypes even when they made no sense.
In my mind right now the best "Zombie Movies" were those that didn't use the current "corpse animated by a virus" trope. Despite all the schlock my appreciation for Dario Argento's "Demons" and "Demons 2" has remained, along with the first "Evil Dead" movie which wasn't as comedic as the last two parts of the series. Possessed people/a supernatural explanation, to me works far better than the current techno-horror vibe, even the spin "28 days later" put on it.
To be entirely honest I've been sort of hoping someone would do a decent mid-budget "back to the basics" zombie movie, with the corpses being re-animated by Voodoo or general black magic or something.
I also will be honest in saying that I think the whole "shoot 'em in the head" thing is getting a little overdone, even though a lot of movies are admittedly starting to make fun of that. I'm of the opinion that rather than fast zombies and the like, a greater focus on these things just not staying down (and needing to pretty much dismember them fully) works better for the tension IMO. I think we should see more movies where say shooting a Zombie in the head just results in a zombie with a whole in it's head or maybe no head at all, which of course does little to slow it down.... that's not new, we've seen it before, but I think that approach works better when your trying to do these movies "right" as horror nowadays.
I also think Zombie movies suffer because there is too much reliance on human idiocy, and it gets really unrealistic. In some cases the whole "human drama" was well done and made sense, but in most cases it's too stupid and overlooks the fact that humans are social and adaptable animals.
To me, watching idiots bicker and do stupid things and bring doom on themselves is nowhere near as creepy as when you see realistic responses, with people doing the same kinds of things you'd like to think you would do, and then seeing them ultimatly fail.... rather than coming up with why some dweeb is going to do something astronomically stupid like open the doors, or try and keep their undead girlfriend around somewhere in order to move the plot on.
Such are my thoughts...
At any rate, "Demons" and "Demons 2" are movies you should check out. The actual third movie in the series is called "The Church", ironically not "Demons 3"... this is long enough without me rambling on about why here, but if you look the movies up the tale will probably be told.
... and incidently the last stand in the underground parking garage in "Demons 2" is probably the best doomed zombie fight I've ever seen.
At any rate, I've seen so many bad zombie movies of late that I have a hard time thinking of many that were good, or did things "right", other than cycling through stereotypes even when they made no sense.
In my mind right now the best "Zombie Movies" were those that didn't use the current "corpse animated by a virus" trope. Despite all the schlock my appreciation for Dario Argento's "Demons" and "Demons 2" has remained, along with the first "Evil Dead" movie which wasn't as comedic as the last two parts of the series. Possessed people/a supernatural explanation, to me works far better than the current techno-horror vibe, even the spin "28 days later" put on it.
To be entirely honest I've been sort of hoping someone would do a decent mid-budget "back to the basics" zombie movie, with the corpses being re-animated by Voodoo or general black magic or something.
I also will be honest in saying that I think the whole "shoot 'em in the head" thing is getting a little overdone, even though a lot of movies are admittedly starting to make fun of that. I'm of the opinion that rather than fast zombies and the like, a greater focus on these things just not staying down (and needing to pretty much dismember them fully) works better for the tension IMO. I think we should see more movies where say shooting a Zombie in the head just results in a zombie with a whole in it's head or maybe no head at all, which of course does little to slow it down.... that's not new, we've seen it before, but I think that approach works better when your trying to do these movies "right" as horror nowadays.
I also think Zombie movies suffer because there is too much reliance on human idiocy, and it gets really unrealistic. In some cases the whole "human drama" was well done and made sense, but in most cases it's too stupid and overlooks the fact that humans are social and adaptable animals.
To me, watching idiots bicker and do stupid things and bring doom on themselves is nowhere near as creepy as when you see realistic responses, with people doing the same kinds of things you'd like to think you would do, and then seeing them ultimatly fail.... rather than coming up with why some dweeb is going to do something astronomically stupid like open the doors, or try and keep their undead girlfriend around somewhere in order to move the plot on.
Such are my thoughts...
At any rate, "Demons" and "Demons 2" are movies you should check out. The actual third movie in the series is called "The Church", ironically not "Demons 3"... this is long enough without me rambling on about why here, but if you look the movies up the tale will probably be told.
... and incidently the last stand in the underground parking garage in "Demons 2" is probably the best doomed zombie fight I've ever seen.
