During the Outbreak

Zombie themed stories often take place according to a timeline. There are only a few variations on this, but more often than not they take place following the patterns that we have decided to use to categorize media here in the guide for easier browsing (if you’re a hardcore zombie fan, that is)

Before the Outbreak – These stories take place at the very beginning where we can get a peek of what life is like in that universe before the sh*t hits the fan. Fear the Walking dead is the best example of this category on television.
During the Outbreak – These stories take place in the middle of things we are thrown in the the middle of the zombie pandemic at the peak without any pretense. The Walking Dead, for example, or even the original Night of the Living Dead.
After the Apocalypse – Most zombie outbreaks ARE the end of the world. In fact, it’s rare for humanity to recover completely. However, sometimes civilization can find a way to handle the hordes of the undead like in Fido or Warm Bodies.

This category applies to use of zombies in media specifically, as zombie products are as timeless as the never-rotting corpses they’re made after.

Black Friday (2021)

Black Friday:
Zombies Attack Walmart (or something worse!)

Movie / Dark Action Comedy / SlowZombies

Horror Comedy, the mother of all oxymorons, is very tough to do well… but that doesn’t keep filmmakers from trying. Over and over. And hey, it doesn’t have to be Shaun of the Dead or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil to be worth a look.

So where would we put Black Friday, a 2021 entry in the Comedy Horror Olympics that starts with the all-too-real horror of the ruthlessness, cruelty, and utter madness of shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving, then postulates what happens when those shoppers go full-tilt zombie, thanks to some goo that looks like it came right out of The Stuff, a zombie-adjacent movie that we’ll talk about eventually.

Yeah, it’s funny. Not laugh-out-loud, roll-in-the-produce-aisle hilarious, but on the other hand it has Bruce Campbell – yeah, post-Ash, post-Burn Notice Bruce, at his 2021 doughy best, complete with a bushy mustache and a dickish attitude, teamed up/at odds with Devon Sawa, fresh out of the new Chucky series by way of Final Destination and Idle Hands, the last of which is another zombie-adjacent film we’ll have to cover.

There are some cool swipes at consumerism, corporate callousness, and the death of the American Dream throughout the surprisingly graphic all-night adventure, and though the ending gets a little too Ghostbusters (the first one, the good one) to work entirely well, but it’s a solid piece of comedy horror. It’s no Horrorstor, Grady Hendrix’s amazing book about a haunted/cursed IKEA that has no zombies, but you’ll like it anyway, and… hey! Bruce Campbell! Being a dick!

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Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

Anna and The Apocalypse: A Zombie Musical That's Actually Not Awful

Movie / Musical / Outbreak / Slow Zombies

Musicals and horror movies just go together, don’t they? You’ve got Little Shop of Horrors and Rocky Horror Picture Show, and…

… and…

Okay, Anna and the Apocalypse. And that’s about it.

Of that distinguished trio, Anna is certainly the newest and least known. It’s also the most charming in its own quirky way. You’ve got this typical musical comedy small town, these cute high school kids with a tendency to burst into song… and then you’ve got flesh-eating corpses that won’t stay dead. The plot is achingly familiar: You’ve seen zoms like this plenty of times before; the kids have to get back to their high school to see if their friends and family have survived The Rising (spoiler alert: most haven’t or won’t) … but this time they’re happy to stop along the way for the occasional, increasingly bizarre song-and-dance number. Like this one, with more than a touch of Shawn of the Dead from early on:

It shouldn’t work. At all. And yet… it does, at least for those among us who have a nearly equal love for the shamblers as we do the chorus line. It can be rented or purchased on Amazon, and if you go into it with no expectations, you just might find yourself unexpectedly delighted. (And the lead, the surprisingly British Ella Hunt, has gone on to do interesting work in the Dickinson TV series, the recent racism/horror movie called Master, the newest version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and even some truly remarkable music videos of her own on YouTube. Meanwhile, the director is working on a Lady Macbeth musical (!).

Try it. You just might like it. (Or if you have a musical/horror fan in range – sling it at them.)

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