Introducing his upcoming Zone One at BEA this week, novelist Colson Whitehead created a massive list of classic films that influenced his novel.
Oddly enough, this GalleyCat editor has a soft spot in his heart for this particular movie collection. Below, we’ve linked to Netflix streaming movies and YouTube trailers for these classic movies (along with Whitehead’s subtitles). Warning–many of these films contain mature themes.
Here’s more about the book, from Whitehead: “If you are hung up on labels, yes, the book is ‘another genre outing’ for me. Zone One is a zombie novel in the way The Intuitionist is a detective novel. My tutelage in the apocalypse came from movies, as opposed to books. A film festival covering the master texts for Zone One would screen the following…” (Via Maud Newton)
The first Romero Trilogy (Sane Black Man Vs. The Crazy White People)
Night of the Living Dead (Netflix)
Dawn of the Dead (YouTube trailer)
Day of the Dead (YouTube trailer)
John Carpenter’s Urban Blight
Assault on Precinct 13 (Netflix)
Escape from New York (Netflix)
Heston as Last White Guy on Earth
Planet of the Apes (YouTube trailer)
Omega Man (YouTube trailer)
Soylent Green (YouTube trailer)
S.A.V.’s – Sick Armored Vehicles
Damnation Alley (YouTube)
The Road Warrior (YouTube)
My Lover, My Monster: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978 (Netflix)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956 (YouTube trailer)
Mr. Dan O’Bannon
Alien (YouTube trailer)
The Return of the Living Dead (Netflix)
‘70s NY as Crucible of the Soul
Dog Day Afternoon (Netflix)
Taxi Driver (YouTube trailer)
The Warriors (YouTube trailer)