Very good list. Don't know if I consider Life Force, Pet Sematary or The Crow as zombie films.

 

So I gave Colin another shot. Ok, it wasn't as bad as the first few minutes led me to believe. The actor playing "Colin" was actually quite effective, and even sympathetic. And the scene inside the "Undead Documentary" house was surprisingly well done.

My main problem was the quality of the video and the way it was shot. The constant switching between static and shaky cam, as well as some scenes that were nothing but low noises on a black screen ultimately do the flick in. Also, did the ending need to beat me over the head with the fact that

Spoiler

Colin remembered things from his life

? There were subtler ways to go about that.

 

Well in Pet Sematary the soured by the Wendigo burial ground brings the dead back to life as violent creatures. In The Crow Eric was brought back to life by a magic crow as he doesn't get hurt and comes back for revenge.

Do you think Lifeforce is a mix of Succubus, vampire, alien and zombie movie? it's said in the film the aliens are of an ancient race of succubi and vampires who came to Earth eons ago and became the ancestors to the succubus creatures and vampires of legend while the victims became the ancestors to zombie legends. The vampires in the film are different than your traditional vampire as they are not the undead but aliens as they need no fangs and don't suck blood but energy instead similar to the vampires in films like Sleepwalkers, The Keep, Not of this Earth (1957 and 1988), The Dark Crystal (Yes the Skeckis are energy vampires) etc. or on Buck Rogers, they don't burn in the sunlight because they aren't unholy demons and can't be killed by crosses, garlic or any of that crap. The female leader is the origin of succubus legends as Succubui are vampires of sort and the victims of the creatures become zombies to infect London as they did eat flesh and run fast.

 

For me, "zombies", at least in relation to this thread, have to meet these very specific criteria:

- Undead, Mindless or Crazed (any one of the three)
- Feed on human flesh and/or brains
- Victims themselves become zombies

None of the movies you mentioned fit all three of those criteria. So I don't recognize them as zombie films. These don't pertain to "Voodoo/Mind Control Zombies" as that's a whole different beast unto itself.

 

Well, I watched Resident Evil: Afterlife last night, though I truly don't know why. I never watched the 3rd movie in the series, since I thought the 2nd one was a worthless piece of shit, and never had any desire to. I seriously do not understand how these keep getting made; it was absolutely abysmal. Terrible direction, sub-par special effects, horrible, horrible, horrible casting, no suspense, no horror, no dread, no fun. Just pure, unadulterated garbage. If you like this movie, you are not my friend.

 

Joe, I think we have mostly the same thoughts about Colin.
The Undead Documentary house kind of creeped me out.
In regards to the ending,

Spoiler

I did like seeing how Colin got bit.

I'm glad I watched it once, but I'll never watch it again.

Lifeforce has those criteria.
Although it's presented kind of like 'this is also going on'.

 

Do the victims of the hawt naked alien vampire actually feed on flesh, or do they suck the life force out of them? I haven't seen the movie in near 20 years, and I mostly remember thinking "This chick is naked...A lot. I mean a LOT."

 

Resident Evil.  

I saw the first one and shook my head throughout and swore off the rest of the series.

 

They get real close to their faces and then sort of suck the life force out of them via lightning or something equally stupid. Then they're not all shriveled and nasty anymore -until they run out of life force and have to do it to someone else.

Their victims get caught in the same cycle.

You aint kidding...

 

You know what would have been scary? Slow walking, moaning, flesh-eating zombies in a huge, dark, spooky mansion. Zombie dogs crashing through windows when you least expect it, that's scary. You know what's not scary? Stupid slo-mo, bullet time action sequences, and idiotic, unlikeable characters getting killed in ungory, unsuspenseful ways.

 

No eat flesh = not zombies to me.  

Others' definitions may vary.

 

Yeah, I don’t really consider Lifeforce a zombie movie either.
I think it’s funny how the main characters chase the naked chick, and then they get to London and its like, ‘Oh look, everyone is a shriveled up reanimated corpse now. Oh noes! Where’s that nekkid girl?’

In regards to Resident Evil, Tenner you have got to see the third one.
Watch it as a comedy.
They show a time progression that zombies have taken over the world and somehow the T-Virus has dried up huge bodies of water, but then, THEN the leaders of the Umbrella Corporation decide to study the zombies.
Umbrella created the zombies, Umbrella let the zombies spread across the planet, and after all of that the Umbrella guys conduct highly scientific observations to come to the conclusion that the zombies ‘don’t need to eat.’

There’s also some parts of the film that are lifted straight from Day of the Dead.

 

I'll only watch it if they add it to the Instant Watch. But yeah, I wouldn't mind slogging my way through that if only for the lulz. Seriously, though; who actually likes those movies and thinks they're good? It can't be fans of the game. Can they be deported to the sun?

 

Yeah, there's some lulz to be had.
Not the least of which is the fact that every time there is a close up of Mila her face is all glowing and they put filters on to make her look glamorous, but they're supposed to be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
Another thing that I find funny about the Resident Evil movies is the way they will just randomly include a character, but give that character a name from someone in the games.
It doesn't matter that he or she acts nothing like their namesake, he or she is 'in the movie'.

I did a little searching and was surprised to see that the most terrifying zombie story ever is on the YouTube. Watch at your own peril.
YouTube - ‪purple smurfs‬‏

 

Well in some parts of the film the victims of the space vampires don't just suck energy but everyone in london turned into zombies and long ago when the space vampires visited Earth many times, it's said that zombie legends come from those dried victims as much as vampire and succubui lore came from those aliens. And there were zombies that did eat flesh in breif parts. Would you also say Lifeforce is a true vampire movie compared to Twilight? in terms of showing vampires that are different than traditional vampires smasher. Vampires that need no fangs and suck energy instead of blood similar to those same space vampires from Buck Rogers or the energy suckers of Sleepwalkers, The Keep, Dark crystal's Skeckis etc. and not all vampires are the same stereotype but it doesn't mean the alien vampires sparkle.

So Pet Sematary 1 & 2 are half-zombie movies right? there was the kid, the wife, Timmy Batterman (He was shown eating a human leg), the sheriff, those teen punks and the wife of the movie star were all resurrected and violent corpses.

 

I watched Resident Evil Afterlife last night.
I like explosions. I love pretty girls.

But when your zombie movie is just pretty girls and explosions then why have zombies at all?

I won’t talk about continuity errors or plot holes the size of Alaska.
But I did find it oddly noteworthy that there were some really good CG special effects used for desolate cities and whole scale destruction, but the movie had the worst slow motion bullets ever.
The big cartoon bullets were painfully bad to watch.
Over.
And over.
And over…

I don’t remember that.
Maybe I’ll watch the movie again.
I wonder how nostalgia will compare to reality.

If someone asked I would say it’s a true vampire film in spirit, but there are some deviations from the norm.
The space vampires are very powerful, they can change form, and they kill without a thought of consequence.

The Twilight vampires? I’d rather not get into it. I understand why some people like it, but it’s not for me.
Also, Buck Rogers Space Vampires FTW!!

 

I hope I had some influence in you watching this, lol. Yes, the fucking CGI matrix bullets were absolutely terrible. Even if they didn't look so poor, those scenes still would have been trite and shitty as hell.

If you want to make an action movie, make a damn action movie. If you want to make a Resident Evil movie, make a fucking horror movie, plz. You know what? Never mind. Asking for a decent horror movie based on a video game is pretty naive. Then again, I did enjoy Silent Hill...

 

I watched Blood Creek last night. Netflix categorized it as zombie movie. It does have reanimated corpses in it, but it doesn’t have the shambling flesh eaters as Joe described above.
While I wouldn’t call it a zombie movie, I definitely recommend it.

I liked Silent Hill, too. It seems a lot of people did not though.

 

Silent Hill's two main problems were editing and budget. Editing, because the movie was just too damn long. There were tons of areas that should have been trimmed completely out of the film. Especially early on. And the budget was too low or the production aimed too high. CG really hurt this film in spots. However, the films stars one of my genre faves in Laurie Holden and she does a great job.

It's an enjoyable movie, but one that has too many slow spots for my liking.

 

So, World War Z is gearing up something fierce. Apparently Matthew Fox and Ed Harris are set to join the cast. Brad Pitt has already been cast, as well as a few others. From the sounds of it, it's going to be very loosely based on the book. Nothing I've heard, none of the characters sound like they are directly based on the books characters (except for Brad Pitt as the interviewer).

If you have yet to read this book, you are to leave the internet until you have. Or at the very least, procure a copy of the astounding audio book version (which features a full cast of A-Listers).