Zombies are a hot item.  The recent resurgence of the Zombie film seems to stem from 2004 when we were graced with both Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake and Edgar Wright's instant classic Shaun of the Dead.  Somehow George A. Romero got back in the game with a series of new (and lukewarmly received) pictures Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and his newest that will be out soon, Survival of the Dead.  We got a French arthouse zombie film in They Came Back and Danny Boyle's psuedo-zombie movie 28 Days Later, and there's a new crop of low-budget zombie flicks hitting festivals now.  Zombie comics became a craze with Walking Dead, Marvel Zombies, DC's Blackest Night, and Zombie books are on the rise too, (and being optioned for movies like Max Brooks' World War Z) so it doesn't look like this is going to slow down any time soon.  Even though each director has a different take on the genre, the basic story gets pretty old so Zombieland needed to be kind of special to rise above the crop.

In a lot of ways, it is.  Zombieland is the most approachable, fun, and action-packed take on the zombie film that we've seen lately.  It has more laughs than kills, but when it has kills they are pretty great.  Zack Snyder's film was fun and populist, but it was still a little too gory and horror-centric to draw in people who usually don't go for blood-splatter movies.  Shaun of the Dead was funny and had a perfect balance of character work and horror and humor, but it will probably always be more of a cult movie aimed at folks who understand some of the references and appreciate that sardonic British humor.  On the other hand, Zombieland is the bigger budget, mainstream-skewing version of the zombie horror comedy and it does a great job of filling that niche.

If there was one thing about the movie that failed to connect for me, it was the attempt at honest emotion.  When the movie is running in fast forward with zombie kills and a nerdy running commentary, it's great fun.  But when it slows down to talk about families and love and that sort of thing--well that is so little of the movie that those moments just don't ring very true.  Shaun of the Dead  did this perfectly and actually wound up being a movie about characters and relationships in the midst of a zombie invasion.  For Zombieland  the movie is never about the characters--it's about what crazy shit they are going to do or put up with next, and that works for me.  The film never outstays its welcome with lingering character development.  There's very little set up, but when we do get a glimpse of the narrator's backstory, it works to further cement what we already know about him. 

I wonder if this movie is going to cause the zombie trend to jump the shark?  Some would say we've already been there, but I think this film is proof that there's still entertainment to be mined from stories about the carnivorous undead.  I hope that the hardcore horror fans will appreciate this and have fun with it, but that it will also open to wider audiences.  It's the kind of movie that has the potential to be really big, but any movie like that is usually met with the thumbing of noses by the people who should be championing it.  After this weekend, we'll see.