Zombiemania

I found this documentary by mere coincidence. I taped it on Cinemax and waited to watch on Sunday midnight.

I learned many little known facts about Romero's mythology in Zombie cinema, great trivia from this sub-genre, and more. Plus, it's always a delight to see what Tom Savini has to say.

The documentary should serve as a homage to those who brought us Zombie cinema.

If you are the kind of audience that prefers footage over information; this also should please you. There are plenty of glorious moments in the sub-genre and great scenes that through one-liners or moments demonstrate the legacy of some movies.

Overall, this is a must see for those who are fans of Zombie cinema. I enjoyed it.

"Zombiemania" is a fun but superficial documentary about the zombie genre. Perhaps I expect too much of these documentaries, given that I've read numerous books on horror movies, but this documentary was basically a paean to George Romero. I would have liked a deeper review of the history of zombies in folklore and history, and a greater examination of zombies in pre-"Night of the Living Dead" films. But the greatest omission was any discussion--heck, any reference--of Italian zombie movies in the 1970s and 1980s. Not every zombie convention came from the mind of George Romero. Still, if you like zombie movies you'll probably enjoy "Zombiemania."

This documentary is contradictory in nature -- on one hand, it is fairly exhaustive as far as the influence of George Romero goes. With Romero himself here, his films individually analyzed, Tom Savini on hand... and even Boyd Banks. It also covers the world of Max Brooks pretty thoroughly.

I have to give them credit for covering zombie walks. I think this film was right on top of that, catching the phenomenon in its early stages, and probably encouraging more walks to sprout up. Appleton, Wisconsin started theirs in 2008, just about the time of this documentary...

But there are also some glaring holes. Why only Romero films? Why not Fulci or others? Why only people from Rue Morgue and not HorrorHound or Fangoria? And what about "The Walking Dead"? I suppose it might not have blown up until after this documentary, but when they mention zombie comics and neglect to mention TWD, there is something wrong.

So, as good as this documentary is, it is not complete... if they re-edited it and threw in maybe 10 or 15 minutes of footage covering the topics they missed, it would be far more worthy of recommendation.

The opportunity to sit down and listen to George Romero, Tom Savini, Max Brooks and others that have been involved in the resurgence of zombies in recent years was golden.

Romero is acknowledge by all to be the grandfather, godfather, whatever kind of father you want of the modern zombie movie. His Night of the Living Dead, was the beginning of the resurgence. The fact that it was a highly political film was discussed and added to the pleasure.

Seeing the different forms of makeup and the gradual changes in makeup was also something that will help us enjoy these movies.

There were many commentators, and, if things go the way Romero says, and the genre dies soon only to reemerge in the future, there are many of us that will continue to watch, and await the next step in the evolving genre.