Fanaticism for genre cinema does not have the best fame. Many times he ends up framed in bizarre fanaticism, in the accumulation of data by some late, fat and bearded nerd who exhausts his afternoons in the B and Z class continuations. The intellectual pose does not seem to enjoy genre cinema. The intellectual looks at directors (the mere fact of recognizing himself as a fan of, for example, Krzysztof Kieslowski and pronouncing it correctly, gives you an intellectual aura of recognized effectiveness among peers and the family group). Eventually, you can recognize yourself as a fan of an actor (the options are: unknown European; second recurring second; European who did not compromise with industrial cinema - forget about Depardieu -; and some commercial who flirts with auteur cinema - John Malkovich is a recurring example even though he's made monsters like “Con Air” - footnote: are the extensions used by Nicholas Cage in that movie commercialized?). Genre in film seems to be too diffuse a category. At first glance, it does not reflect a critical spirit, not even a minimal selection. The most imprecise that an intellectual is allowed is the gentilicio (preferably, European or in the maximum degree of the exquisiteness the Asian and Arab varieties). Recognizing yourself as a zombie movie fan leads you to a guilty place of intellectual immaturity. However, cinephilia does not only pass through the last and hidden pearl of Iranian cinema or the independent Yankee cinema that has a lot of commercial under this guise. In the middle of the bloodiest gore, between gutted guts and girls with prominent breasts fleeing in front of the camera, one can enable a space for reflection as significant as that suggested in a way, perhaps, more explicitly in auteur cinema. And I'm not talking about the classic examples of metaphors for society that are George Romero's movies or Joe Dante's anti-Bush zombies in "The Homecoming" (2005). The fascination for zombies is the possibility of seeing the little differences that exist between the living dead and the habitual practices of our daily lives. The terror of the return to life without the limit of the law (read "soul" if you want), cannibalism and survival governed by the most elementary logic (kill or die) are an occasion for entertainment but also for criticism. Just look at the opening scenes of Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead" (2004). In the framework of the typical acidity of English humor, two friends face an epidemic of zombies trying to maintain the stupidity, leisure and apathy that rule their lives. Trapped in mechanical and alienating jobs, zombies don't differ much from what they were before they died and were reborn. Check out the ending if not and how useful zombies are for Marley-style entertainment shows, playing game or shoving monkeys in a supermarket. Even in decadent hybrids and jeropas like "Zombie strippers!" (2008) by Jay Lee, you can open the discussion (yes, in a very forced way, but you can) of sexism (with Jenna Jameson as the protagonist, the woman as the object is inevitable); or in more played proposals such as “Deadgirl” (2008) by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel, where sexual exploitation ends up victimizing the zombie and revealing the monstrosity of man (what an uncomfortable movie to watch!). The zombie fascinates and worries. The primary fear of death is enhanced in the figure of the zombie because we discover that the difference is little between being an undead and being a living dead. Behaviors are repeated, the logic of the zombie is multiplied in society and the options for improvement and promotion are often cannibals, which because they are metaphorical, they are still just as cruel. For this reason, the fanatic knows how to recognize the film that respects the genre from the one that uses the elements of the genre to build something essentially different (I'm thinking of the recent “Zombieland” (2009) or the lazy “Resident Evil”, in where many times the game of Play surpasses the action scenes of the movie). And I also have to admit it, the genre is the certainty of being in a familiar field, of avoiding adaptation and uncertainty to get into the story from the first scene, pleasure from beginning to end, without thinking about actors, directors or filmographies. There is "Planet Terror" (2007), as an ideal example and icing on the cake of an afternoon of zombies, directed by Robert Rodríguez and produced by Quentin Tarantino, two who know a lot about this about genres and the possibilities they grant (look if not "From dusk till dawn" (1996), one of vampires who do suck blood and not like those anemic teenagers from "Twilight").