The 1960s was a great time for horror movies, as you could still find many great classics from the decade enjoyable and relevant today such Psycho and Hitchcock's classic The Birds. However, the decade seen very few quality creature flicks that didn't feature angry birds or one overgrown, green lizard going on a city wide rampage. It seemed as though reanimated corpses were a thing of the past, as interest in mummies and Frankenstein's monster quickly dwindled, but now, we know that this opened the door for the greatest walking corpse in cinema history--the zombie. Although much of zombies' heritage surely derived in some part to the classic movie monsters, zombies held key qualities that made them the monster that would slowly shamble its way into epic monster status. For starters, zombies always come in large quantities.
This means you can't simply outrun, outwit, kill or otherwise escape a single monster and still be safe. Zombies also possess the skill to multiply by infecting healthy humans through bites, scratches or exchange of bodily fluids. The zombie transformation is still to this day one of the most frightening scenarios, since it is a fate worse than death. This made them a very intimidating abomination, because if you are in grabbing distance, you're probably as good as dead. The convenient utilization of zombies extended beyond their marketability however. Unlike many other horror subgenres, zombie movies could still appear realistic even before the introduction of CGI and other advanced special effects. Rather than spending a large portion of a movie's budget on elaborate costumes or, then, high end special effects that ultimately weren't very believable, zombies simply called for a little makeup and limp, shambling like movements and groans from actors to appear like true living dead. Zombies soon became a mainstay in the horror movie genre, and the abundance of zombie films released every year has been very steady since the 1970s.
The original Night of the Living Dead saw the movie's protagonists try to survive the zombie apocalypse by holding out in an old farmhouse. Although the group fought hard to survive, they all ultimately perished within or near their stronghold. This of course brings up the question of what you would do to survive the zombie apocalypse and if any area could really ever be considered safe in this environment. If you attempt to hold out in a city, you'll have all the supplies you could want nearby, but you'll quickly be overrun by an undead army. Stay in a lightly populated area and supplies will be limited, and a horde may still swarm the area and consume every living creature within the vicinity including you. Of course in 1978, Romero gave us even more to consider when he added a new variable to the mix in hostile survivors. Now, not only do you have to deal with flesh hungry zombies, but you have to worry about desperate humans who want to take away everything you've managed to scavenge during the outbreak. Zombies have been utilized many times in every form of media over the years. During this time, the rules for how to deal with zombies and other survivors has adapted and evolved much like the characteristics and abilities of the carnivorous cadavers. And whether you love or hate the new look zombies, everyone can agree that having a group of ghouls slowly surround you and freeze you from a sense of claustrophobia and paralyzing fear is nowhere you want to be.