As 28 Years Later hits cinemas, how zombie films infected pop culture like little else

The Rage Virus is, well, all the rage once more, as the much-anticipated 28 Years Later tears its way into cinemas this week.

In the 23 years since the release of Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, zombies and the infected have invaded pop culture like no one could have predicted.

No one should therefore be surprised the series is back. Certainly not George A. Romero, the director of 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, the grandfather of all zombie movies, which set the template by using horror to explore societal tensions in late-’60s America.

When Romero released Land of the Dead, his fourth zombie film, in 2005, he was no longer alone. Boyle’s 28 Days Later – in which a virus turns victims into rage-fuelled, fast-paced flesh-eaters – became a surprise hit in 2002. The same year, Paul WS Anderson’s Resident Evil – an adaptation of the popular video game – earned US$102 million.

And then there was Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright’s affectionate 2004 homage to Romero’s films. Meanwhile, Dawn of the Dead, Zack Snyder’s visceral remake of Romero’s 1978 sequel to Night of the Living Dead, also landed that year.

Already irked that Boyle and Snyder’s films featured zombies capable of running, Romero was aggrieved that studios had begun to see the profitability in zombie films while he struggled to get Land of the Dead made.

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