Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

A horror movie about making a horror movie? When I first heard about this, it sounded halfway comical, yet it clearly wasn't played for laughs. When I learned the focus more precisely much later, I became mildly intrigued.

In an assuredly alternate 1921, F.W. Murnau (John Malkovich again) is beginning to direct the classic Dracula knockoff Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror. Many of the people involved had expected him to be highly controlling but are perplexed by his secrecy, followed by his unusual process for dealing with the vampire's actor, Max Schreck (Willem Dafoe, in the role that got him into Spider-Man), whom they never heard of before. Schreck is creepily eccentric, but that just means he's an ahead-of-his-time method actor, right? ...Right?

Warm Bodies (2013)

See the pattern in my reviews of late? I've gone from a straightforward zombie movie to a semi-comedic one to an even less serious, if not more comedic, one. I'd been putting this off not simply because of the subgenre and some, eheh, lukewarm reviews but because the trailer seemed to give away everything. But maybe seven years after watching that trailer once, I could find it fresh enough.

The premises herein deviate from the norm to the point that "zombie" is almost misleading. Well into an outbreak, the protagonist (Nicholas Hoult) is a young adult shambler who can remember no more about his past life than his first initial, R, but still retains some semblance of personality for the nonce, as by collecting and playing vinyl records in a plane he inhabits alone. He feels bad about eating people, tho not so bad that he'd rather starve to a more complete death, and he dreads the day he'll embrace this identity in full. Also, eating brains both prevents the rise of a new zombie and allows him access to the memories contained therein. But apparently even before doing that to a certain Perry (Dave Franco), he takes a special interest in Perry's girlfriend, Julie (Teresa Palmer), and impulsively decides to help her survive. By and by, Julie can't help, y'know, warming up to him too.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

OK, I had another reason that I didn't previously specify for watching Dawn of the Dead: to prepare myself for this. On that score, however, I needn't have bothered. SotD makes no specific reference to DotD beyond the title. I'm not sure it directly parodies anything in particular.

From the beginning, thirty-something Shaun (Simon Pegg) has not led a good life. He has a dead-end job; acquaintances keep urging him to do something about his irresponsible best bud, Ed (Nick Frost); he can hardly bring himself to care for mother Barbara (Penelope Wilton), because it means interacting with harsh stepfather Philip (Bill Nighy); and his relationship with girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield) is on the rocks. Preoccupied with his own troubles, he pays little attention to the many signs that London in general has much bigger problems. (In fairness, the first bunch aren't exactly bloody messes.) When Shaun and Ed finally catch on, they plan to rescue everyone they care about and hole up in...a pub. Not much of a fortress, but nobody in the party has a better idea. Besides, the rifle on the wall might still be functional, and there aren't a whole lot of guns in modern England....

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

When I watched Night of the Living Dead as a teen, I thought it was the worst movie I'd ever seen. Since then, I've built up a bit more tolerance for the subject. It helped that [REC] proved to be a genuinely scary example of the subgenre. And hey, maybe better, more modern production values would go a long way. That's one reason I chose this remake over the '78 George A. Romero cult classic. That and I thought I ought to see at least one thing directed by Zack Snyder.

The story, set in the Milwaukee area, gets off to a quiet start, with Nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) having only the slightest clue that anything's wrong when a bite victim awaits a head scan. True to the title, only in the morning does she become aware that a lot of people in the neighborhood, well, just aren't themselves anymore. Her escapade leads her to fellow normals equally aware of the problem, starting with a cop (Ving Rhames). Together, they seek refuge in a recently mostly abandoned mall, but this is hardly a long-term solution, and the number of enemies right outside keeps growing....

Under the Shadow (2016)

Hmm, a purportedly feminist mid-2010s horror-drama in Farsi, with a director who's part Iranian and part British, faring moderately on IMDb and extremely well on Rotten Tomatoes. I saw one of those about five years ago. But this one has a plot less like that and more like The Babadook.

Life is scary enough for anyone in Tehran during the War of the Cities in the mid-'80s. Shideh (Narges Rashidi) may have it harder than most: She can't finish her medical education thanks to her prior political involvement, her husband (Bobby Naderi) is assigned to a doctoral post in a dangerous zone, and she's left alone to take care of their maybe five-year-old daughter, Dorsa (Avin Manshadi). But the real scares come only after the dust settles from an Iraqi missile hitting their apartment building. As things make less and less sense, Shideh finds it hard to continue denying the rumor, held by Dorsa and certain neighbors, that the missile brought one or more jinni.