Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema [Paperback]

Jamie Russell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2005

A full-on history of the zombie's on-screen evolution from Caribbean bogeyman to flesh-eating corpse. Spanning seven decades of horror movie history with hundreds of stills, artwork, and an exhaustive filmography, this is the complete, long-awaited history of one of horror cinema's most enduring genres. Charting the entire ghoulish history of zombie cinema, from its origins in Haitian voodoo to its cinematic debut in 1932's White Zombie, are hundreds of zombie films from America, Europe and Asia, including Bela Lugosi B movies, Italian gore films, Nazi zombies, porno zombies, and blind monk zombies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jamie Russell is a freelance film journalist, author and broadcaster with a PhD from London University in English Literature. His reviews and features have appeared in numerous film publications and on radio and TV. He also writes DVD film notes.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Few horror movie monsters are as maligned as the zombie. While vampires, werewolves and even serial killers command respect, the zombie is never treated as anything other than a buffoon who stumbles around in the cultural hinterlands messily decaying. There are no aristocrats, blue bloods or celebrities among zombies, no big name stars or instantly recognizable faces, just low-rent, anonymous monsters who usually can’t talk, can barely walk and spend most of their energy trying to hold their decomposing bodies together. Zombies are the great unwashed of horror cinema, soulless creatures that wander around without personality or purpose - a grotesque parody of the end that awaits us all. For all their lack of finesse or style, though, the living dead have been a constant presence in horror films since the 1930s. In the many ways it has been deployed in western popular culture, the zombie has slowly been transformed, signifying something much more complex that just the fear of death. Bound up with a wide range of cultural anxieties - from American imperialism to domestic racial tensions, Depression era fears about unemployment, Cold War paranoia about brainwashing, post-1960s political disenfranchisement and AIDS era body horror - the zombie has become, as we will see, a potent symbol of the apocalypse. It’s a monster whose appearance always threatens to challenge mankind’s faith in the order of the universe. Forever poised in the space between the traditional Western understandings of white/black, civilized/savage, life/death, the zombie is a harbinger of doom. Its very existence hints at the possibility of a world that cannot be contained within the limits of human understanding, a world in which these binary oppositions no longer stand fixed. Trampling over our cherished certain certainties, the zombie is, above all else, a symbol of our ordered universe turned upside down as death becomes life and life becomes death. In the chapters that follow, this book hopes to explain the allure of such a catastrophic occurrence, placing the development of the zombie in its socio-historical context in an attempt to understand why it is that, after all these years, we are still so fascinated with the dead that walk.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: FAB Press (April 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903254337
• ISBN-13: 978-1903254332
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jamie Russell is a journalist and author based in the UK. He is a contributing editor on Total Film magazine and freelances for Edge magazine, the world's most respected videogames publication. In over a decade of work as a freelance journalist he has written for the BBC Radio Times, BBC Movies, Channel 4 Film, Sight & Sound, FHM, and BAFTA. He's happiest writing about zombies, first person shooters and William S. Burroughs. One day he hopes to combine all three obsessions in a single feature...

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars COMPLETE, March 24, 2006

By 

MartinD1 "Martin The One" (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema (Paperback)

This book is 100% PERFECT.
Mummies aren't zombies, if you're a mummy you're not a zombie, sorry.

Now, some info about this book you might find interesting:

Contents:

Introduction. Dead Men Walking

Chapter One. Caribbean Terrors

Tracking the Walking Dead
The Origins of the Zombie
The Zombie in the West

Chapter Two. The Zombie Goes to Hollywood

Horror Hits the Stage
Cultural Anxieties: Haiti, the Depression and Race
The Zombies Are Revolting

Chapter Three. Down and Out on Poverty Row

Horror Comedy on Black Island
The Poverty Row Years
Val Lewton: A Touch of Class

Chapter Four. Atomic Interlude

Sci-Fi Horrors
Voodoo's Last Gasps
The Mass Destruction of Men's Minds

Chapter Five. Bringing It All Back Home

Keeping It in the Family
Stiff Upper Lips and the Walking Dead
South of the Border
Back on American Soil: Night of the Living Dead

Chapter Six. Dawn of the Dead

Romero's Children
The Ghouls Can't Help It
Destructive Tendencies
Sex, Death and Amando de Ossorio's Templars
By the Dawn's Early Light

Chapter Seven. Splatter Horror

The Italians Are Coming!
The Apocalypse of Narrative: Fulci's Zombie Trilogy
The Return to the Caribbean
Splatter House of Horrors

Chapter Eight. Twilight of the Dead

Night of the Living Dead Redux
Poverty Row for the MTV Generation (Or, Children Shouldn't Play with Camcorders)
Of Death, Of Love: An Interlude
The Resident Evil Effect
Big-Budget Ghouls
Rebirth of the Dead

7 decades of horror movie history with hundreds of stills - including an incredible 64 pages of blood-drenched full colour photos and rare international poster art.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As complete as inhumanly possible, February 23, 2006

By 

Bob Fingerman (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema (Paperback)

Jamie Russell has done a remarkable job with his "Book of the Dead", a thoroughly engrossing history and critical overview of zombie cinema. His writing is sharp and his observations astute. It's as up-to-date as books on an ongoing subject can be (I would relish updated supplements, as needed), including recent zombie fare and even some titles that have yet to be released. In addition to the excellent text are many color and B&W photos and posters from all over the world. It's the best book of its type I've ever encountered. Buy it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, April 29, 2007

By 

Patrick S. Dorazio "Author of The Dark Trilogy" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema (Paperback)

Other reviewers have pointed out how detailed this work is. I can only really say that I concur-this book has a fantastic level of detail for anyone who would like to explore all things zombie.

The book is a chronology of zombie events. It serves as a history guide to undead cinema but goes even further back to the origins of voodoo, discussing the written works of Lafcadio Hearn and William Seabrook. We are treated to a comprehensive review of what I would have to guess is every movie ever done all the way up to the latest installment from Romero and every other movie that has come up in the past few years.

An exhaustive filmography is another treat at the end of the book with a brief synopsis of each film. Excellent pictures and detailed analysis of every significant movie and pretty solid details on lesser movies make this tome absolutely essential for any fan.

Jamie Russell has made a reference work that for me will give me a chance to look at some lesser known but high quality films such as 'The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue' and 'Shockwaves' which I was unfortunately unaware of and also serves as a reminder of how incredible the works of Fulci were. I think any fan will find something new and intriguing to pour over in this fantastic book.