“Dead End” / “Dead End”, 2008
In 2020, at the height of the global coronavirus epidemic, it turned out that the participants of the German reality show Big Brother were still unaware of what was going on. The producers of the series reserved a separate section for this, and the whole country watched as the heroes of the project, which was confined to a limited area, tried to understand the unexpected news with horror.
In 2008, the British only partially predicted this epidemic narrative through the lens of a zombie apocalypse. According to the plot of the mini-series “Dead end”, the participants of the show “Big Brother” have been in isolation for two months without suspecting that the world has been taken over by the walking dead. The only survivors were the stars of the screens and now they have to face the zombies.
In the British tradition, horror coexists with drama and dark humor. Not as sarcastic as in “Zombie Named Shaw” but with a similar tone. Indeed, one of the most interesting representatives of the genre, disturbingly known to a small number of viewers.
“In Meat” / “In Meat”, 2013-2014
The protagonist of the series, Kieren Walker, is half zombie half human suffering from partial death syndrome. After a short stay in the other world, Kiren was revived and turned into a walking dead.
But for Kieren, returning to her hometown is more terrifying than partial death. In his home town of Roarton, a real frenzy is growing: an aggressive priest assembles an aggressive priest against rebels from the other world. Volunteer detachments patrol the streets of the city, catching the resurrected dead for their own amusement and profit – and in general, residents show all kinds of intolerance towards the ancient dead.
The writers of In the Flesh have used the genre as the cover for a serious social drama that raises complex and important questions not only about life and death, but what it means to be human.
“To the Call of Sorrow” / “Les Revenants”, 2012-2015
French adaptation of Robin Campillo’s 2004 film of the same name. The action of the series takes place in a small mountain town. Due to the collapse of a dam in 1977, the old settlement was flooded and hundreds of people became victims of the disaster. And the rare inhabitants who managed to survive died under strange circumstances in the following years.
35 years later, new mystical events begin to occur in the city. For example, 15-year-old Camille, who died four years ago, and 23-year-old Simon, who died ten years ago, return. The resurrection of the dead does not end there, and other victims of murder and disasters continue to come to the city. The newcomers, like the locals, do not understand what has happened to them, but they are trying to return to their old lives. But not everyone is happy with the resurrected townspeople.
“I am a zombie” / “I am a Zombie”, 2015-2019
Moderately absurd and flamboyant series of the mid-10s, based on the comic book series of the same name. The project was developed by Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas and Diana Ruggiero, producers of another popular TV series about life and death.
Ordinatorka Olivia Moore enjoyed her arranged personal and professional life, but that’s exactly until she turned into a zombie at one of the parties. Olivia takes a job at a morgue to access the brains of the dead, but every brain she eats from a murder victim gives her the characteristics of the deceased and memories that help her find the perpetrators of the crimes.
“Zombolodka” / “Zombot!”, 2019
Escaped from the invasion of the undead to Birmingham, brothers Kat and Joe find themselves on a Grand Union boat with their random companions Sunny and Amar. Escape from a terrifying reality turns into an unpleasant realization for random comrades: now they must forget about their normal life forever.
A satirical zombie series with a modest budget and little-known cast proved that big money and stars are never necessary in the credits with a great idea. The project consists of six 20-minute episodes and all events fit into two calendar days, during which the characters have time to go through a series of incredible adventures.
“Ash vs Evil Dead” / “Ash vs Evil Dead”, 2015-2018
Serial episode of the massive movie series “Evil Dead”. The show takes place 30 years after the end of the Evil Dead trilogy. All this time Ash tried to live a normal life and not go back to past events. Over the years, he has changed a lot: from a hero who saved humanity from terrible monsters, he turned into a lazy layman. However, this continues until he decides to impress his girlfriend by reading a passage from the Book of the Dead, thereby accidentally causing a new zombie invasion.
Ash vs Evil Dead has become a reference horror series where the funny and the spooky exist inextricably. The writers of the show have achieved a lot: both rethinking the usual script tropes of the genre and reducing its serious intonation due to sarcasm and self-irony.
“Survive After”, 2013-2016
A local variation of the zombie apocalypse theme that aired on screens in the early tenth years. 11 random strangers are trapped in an underground bunker. The heroes do not remember how they were locked up, but gradually it turns out that they are participants in the mysterious experiment of the Apex Corporation. Its authors aimed to create a virus that they wanted to spawn a new race of superhumans. But things don’t go as planned when a dangerous virus unleashes and turns Moscow residents into zombies.
Survive After is a kind of prequel to “Epidemic”, which managed to predict a global pandemic and its dire consequences.