Film Zombies have undergone a change over the last thirty years, in some cases becoming slicker and faster but the basics of creating a Zombie have stayed the same.
For films, stage and television Zombie make-up can mean anything from greasepaint to full and realistic prosthetic corpses. The latter are usually made by big model making companies but special effects make-up artists have particular skills and products to exploit for creating great monsters.
What are Zombies?
In make-up terms Zombies are usually walking corpses on the lookout for live humans to bite or gorge on. This means that creating a corpse like dead look and arranging blood effects are usually the two greatest elements of the make-up.
Walking Corpses:
This may involve creating a deathly pallor by taking color out of lips as well as contouring eye sockets and cheek bones. However, there are some make-up ideas which transform them from just regular corpses into real Zombies.
- Zombies might have been roaming around for a few days or even weeks and months, rotting further as they do. Greasepaint is quick and cheap for creating a rotting color palette. Greens, sickly yellow, grays and browns help to give a rotting hue to skin.
- To add texture use latex, wax, silicone or skin plastic and then color with greasepaint or airbrush make-up. These are all good for creating scratches, ripped and hanging skin as well as sundry wounds and attachable prosthetic pieces.
- Make sure that cuts and wounds on Zombies are also pale and rotting. The dead flesh should open and hang easily and have little or no blood oozing from it as a live cut would.
- Oozing or red rimmed eyes add a ghoulish appeal to an otherwise corpse like make-up.
- For classic style Zombies, add plenty of rotten and wrinkly texture to the skin. This can be done using a whole number of products from latex to tissue, wrinkle stipple and bought skin effects.
Blood and Gore:
- Traditionally Zombie films have been quite gory, with an excuse for directors to indulge in blood-fests and feeding frenzies. Examples where this is taken to its ultimate even comic conclusion include Braindead (1992, Peter Jackson ) and Shaun of the Dead (2004, Edgar Wright). The comedy in both these films allows for some fairly extreme special effects make-up in creating bites, guts and brains but does not call for strict realism. In order to make Zombies gory in this way, use the imagination to come up with new recipes for grizzly looking Zombie fodder.
- Make sure to keep lots of edible blood on set for Zombie sessions as despite clumsy rotting teeth they still seem to be strong enough to rip huge chunks of flesh from victims. The drawing of blood is messy; not like precise vampire fangs. Edible blood is fantastic for dressing wounds, spitting, squirting and foaming out of Zombie mouths.
- Beef up non edible blood by adding anything for texture from porridge oats for low budget to silicone or latex strips. These give an excellent full-bodied texture when coated in blood. They are ideal for easy gore.
Useful Kit Products:
- Tooth enamel is handy for creating blackened and rotting teeth. Ben Nye even make a greenish color called Zombie Rot which is particularly useful and available from professional make-up shops like Charles Fox.
- Cheap false nails are easy to come by in bulk and are fantastic for dressing the ends of rotten fingertips, hanging out of the nail bed.
Tips for Beginners:
- Make sure that all Zombie areas of flesh are made up as nothing looks worse than a deathly rotten pallor which stops at the chin. Pay close attention to underneath the jawline, the hairline and hands.
Zombie Design:
This will depend on the overall designs and ideas of the production but there has recently been a newer breed of zombies as seen in 28 Days Later (2002, Danny Boyle). These controversial zombies are faster and slicker than their traditional counterparts, as well as being deathly realistic. Here make-up was more polished, less colorful and theatrical and the corpses were particularly cold and disturbing. This has opened up possibilities of adapting classic Zombie looks for the screen to create something unusual or even futuristic.
Zombie Make-up Research:
- George A Romero Films especially Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985) and Land of the Dead (2005).
- Special Effects Make-up; Janus Vinther, Methuen Drama 2003 - Basic guide to special effects including cheap fake and severed finger effects and a lot of things to do with wax.
- Shaun of The Dead, Dir Edgar Wright (2004), UK - following on in the traditional Zombie make-up fashion to great effect.
- 28 Days Later, Dir Danny Boyle (2002) UK - A slicker zombie.
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