Necr0sis Magazine Cover

Necr0sis Film Poster

Necr0sis

History of Horror and Zombie Films

Horror films often deal with the viewer's nightmares, hidden fears, revulsion and terror of the unknown. Plots within the horror genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force, event, or personage, commonly of supernatural origin, into the everyday world. Prevalent elements include ghosts, aliens, vampires, werewolves, demons, dragons, gore, torture, vicious animals, evil witches, monsters, zombies, cannibals, and serial killers.Zombies are fictional creatures usually portrayed as reanimated corpses or viral infected human beings. They are commonly enacted as cannibalistic in nature. While zombie films generally fall into the horror genre, some cross over into other genres, such as comedy, science fiction, thriller, or romance. Distinct sub-genres have evolved, such as the "zombie comedy" or the "zombie apocalypse". Zombies are distinct from ghosts, ghouls, mummies, or vampires, so this list does not include films devoted to these types of undead.

Victor Halperin's White Zombie was released in 1932 and is often cited to be the first zombie film.

We used this information for the bass of our trailer, so we knew what to include to make sure that audience members would be able to identify accurately the genre and sub-genre that we have tried to portray and relate to them, enjoying our trailer.

Audience Research

Horror - Zombies.

Horror:  An overwhelming and painful feeling caused by someone frighteningly shocking, terrifying or revolting, a shuddering fear. 

The graph shows the different age categories and the percentage they visit the cinema. As you can see 15-24 year olds have been most likely to attend the cinema, although there has been a little decrease over the years, they still attend it more than the any other age category. Therefore this graph is relevant to my research as it links well with my target audience being the age category of 15-24 year olds.


Why do people choose to watch horror films?
People are likely to choose to watch horror films as it puts them out of their comfort zone, which creates a sense of thrill and adrenaline which people like. They build tension and create fear which scares people which they find as a form as entertainment. All horror films affect people in different ways, for example people like to go and watch zombie films as they believe that the actors in the film could survive the apocalypse, and makes them gain a connection to the actors in the film as they want them to survive. People also find zombie films humorous and funny, so they find it entertaining to go and watch. 

The usual age for a horror/ zombie target audience is between the ages of 15-25 years old

Questionnaire Findings

In the questionnaire that we gave out to people of different ages, we found that majority of people that we asked preferred Zombie films. Action films was also a popular answer to and this helped us decide that we would like to make a film trailer on an Action packed Zombie film. The questionnaire has been very useful in helping us with our decisions and ideas for our trailer. For example we found that the people with ages between 15-18 were the ones who enjoyed watching Horror films the most. This meant that we had to make sure that our trailer would attract the audience of 15 to 18 year olds, and the males were more interested in the zombie horror films then the females.

Our findings also presented to us the setting in the woods and abandoned houses were the two most popular answers. The reason for this is because they both build up tension and the question of 'what is there with them'. Both of these settings could mean they may contain action as they could be joined with something they do not want to be and have to be prepared to defend themselves and they both create a creepy and mysterious feel.

The most popular prop that people would like to be seen the most is either a gun or a knife. The reason for this is because it means there will be some kind of action or murder. These weapons also create a sense of thrill and excitement, with gore to.

Our questionnaire has been very successful to us and helped us come up with some new ideas such as a zombie film trailer.

Costume Research

I did some research on zombie film costumes. I found some pictures from films such as 'Shaun of the dead', 'World War Z' and '28 days later'. The clothes used are mainly casual, which are either ripped or covered in blood. The costumes are pretty simple and are commonly just shirts, jumpers and jeans in most zombie films. The reason for this is because the ' zombie apocalypse' happens unexpectedly so therefore they are not normally prepared, which is shown by some of the weapons they have in the first picture. The weapons normally used in these films are base ball bats or a crowbar, however in the first picture from 'shaun of the dead' they are also using random objects such as umbrellas.  

The zombies, typically are wearing ripped clothing covered in blood. This is to show the audience that they were once a normal human before the apocalypse turned them into a zombie. The face of the zombie is normally pale, dirty and cut or infected to show that they are diseased.

In 'World War Z' the costumes of the other characters that are not zombies are also in their everyday clothes. They are not ripped or dirty yet as it is just the start of the Apocalypse. You also have the costumes of the police officers, and see that they also have guns.



Another picture from 'World War Z' shows a different type of costume. The army are shown, and they are wearing the full kit needed for that type of situation. They are fully prepared unlike the other photos, and have all the equipment such as guns and explosives. They are also seen with protective gear on such as helmets.


In this last photo, the character is in hospital clothes, which is commonly seen in zombie films. You can see that he looks scruffy and dirty, from the stain on his top. The reason for this character to be in these clothes is to suggest that he is either injured, infected or could mean that he is mentally unstable from the situation as the area looks pretty empty, apart from the rubbish seen on the ground.