The very first zombie movie, White Zombie, hit the big screens in 1932 and since then the undead, have been among the favorite children of the world of horror. Over the years the zombies have not only taken over horror movies but also have been critical to the central plot of many web series.
Reality Z is one of the latest to join the club of blood, gore, and horror. The web series follows a mysterious pandemic that hits Rio de Janeiro, causing a large portion of the population to turn into zombies.
Blissfully unaware of the army of undead that is slaughtering everything in its way, are the contestants of a popular Brazilian reality series Olympus who are cut off from the rest of the world. However, this peaceful ignorance doesn’t last for long because the studio soon becomes the battlefield where the living fight for their survival against the flesh-eating creatures.
Gross and bloody, Reality Z has been earning positive reviews from viewers all over the world. Keeping the popularity of the show in mind, we bring for you a list of similar web series that will keep you as much engaged as Reality Z did.
Here are the Best Comedy Horror Web Series like Reality Z:
Dead Set
What many consider to be the pre-runner of Reality Z, Dead Set is set in Britain where the citizens are facing a catastrophic situation. The dead are returning to life and attacking those who are alive. Whatsmore is that the people they kill get up and join in the killing spree. The army of the undead thus grows in numbers.
It spreads like wildfire to such an extent that within two days, 80 percent of the population is dead. Not a single soul knows how or where this issue originated or the exact numbers affected by it because all news channels gave ceased to exist.
The only people who have no clue of the impending end of everything alive are the contestants of the reality TV show Big Brother, who as per the rules of the game have no contact with the outside world.
They are cocooned in the safety of the Big Brother house blissfully unaware of the living nightmare until the eviction night when the walking dead descend on the studio.
If you like Reality Z, we can guarantee that you will enjoy Dead Z without further ado add it to your bucket list.
Z-Nation
Z-Nation walks us through the lives of the last survivors of a zombie apocalypse. They are forced to live together and look past their differences in the pursuit of a common goal which is to survive.
The characters are a small group of humans who have to survive by bringing a new meaning to the word codependence. Some are broken, some angered, and some too scared. But they all stick to each other, the best thing about them is that they are so relatable. They are not superheroes but ordinary people who have been forced to rise to the occasion.
The series plays with the importance of human compassion and stupidity. It examines the consequences of loving and hating in a world that has been enveloped with darkness and sorrow.
As the group takes a road trip of sorts to find a cure against the calamity, a sequence of humorous incidents act as a welcome change for the survivors. That’s exactly what makes Z-Nation a different stab at the concept of zombie tv genre. The series balances horror, despair, and comedy in just the right amounts.
With every episode having its own, stand-alone story that adds up to the grand showdown, the series further experiments with the genre.
The Walking Dead
If there is one thing common about most zombie-based plots, it is the mindless killing spree that the undead is on. However, The Walking Dead is not just about killing and re-killing alone.
It is about building a new civilization, even as everything known to human civilization previously, falls apart. The series brings to life the possibility of what kind of life we will be forced to live should an apocalypse caused by zombie befall. It is a representation of what a zombie-strewn would hold for the survivors. Quite interestingly, the most terrifying characters on The Walking Dead are not the dead, but the living.
The web series is a sincere attempt at examining the human psyche. Bonds based on family, friendship and even faith rise and fall almost as frequently as the dead do as the characters see their beloved kiths and kins whom they presumed to be dead shamble towards them.
For all the lovers of gore and blood, The Walking Dead is the right deal for you with dangling intestines, beheadings and rotting flesh.
Zombies to satirize conformity and consumerism; sometimes better than the living. The plot twists and betrayals are what makes sure that you can’t leave your seat. The web series is a treat for all fans of zombies.
iZombie
You all must be well-acquainted with zombies who are mindless flesh-eating machines destroying everything in their way. Well, iZombie took a fresh and comic approach to the genre with an unconventional lead character who also happens to be a zombie.
iZombie is a supernatural procedural crime drama at its heart. The web series follows Liv Moore, who after attending a yacht party, comes in contact with a zombie virus and turns into a zombie.
We soon learn that those infected by the zombie virus have their hair turn snow white, their skin becomes cold and pale, but as long as they manage to eat brains, they remain relatively normal. Liv’s life changes as she has to shift her profession from a doctor to someone who works in a morgue. All this to steal the brains of those who have already died.
Liv ends up adopting characteristics of the people whose brain she consumed, and also receives flashbacks from their lives. Liv decides to use this to help solve murder investigations, by eating the brains of the victims. This fast-paced, entertaining show with a comic twist on the same old tired zombie tropes is a must-watch for everyone.
In the Flesh
In the Flesh is among the coming of age dramas and has taken a relatively fresh and different approach to zombies. The story takes place in Britain. Before the beginning of the series, thousands of dead people rose from their graves, wreaking havoc and causing a virulent anti-zombie backlash. However, soon these
beings, who suffer from ‘partially deceased syndrome’, fall under a government protective order. With the help of new medications, they are being reintroduced into human society. They are provided with contact lenses and makeup to hide their undead status.
Teenager Kieren, whose village, Roarton, is a particular hotbed of anti-zombie sentiment is one of these people. This boy far from being welcomed back faces resistance in his own home. And he is not the only one.
The series intelligently uses PDS as a metaphor for mental illness and/or addiction. The undead symbolizes anyone who does not fit the standards of normal. They are anyone who is deemed ‘less than’ by the people in power. Not only this but also the show deals with sexuality and teenage angst by several living dead teenagers.
As much as In the Flesh is about rampage caused by the living dead, it is about tolerance and intolerance, forgiveness and family. It is a complete deal.
Black Summer
Zombies, as we have known them through movies and television series, are slow-moving creatures. This perception changes with a series based in the Z Nation universe.
Black Summer is set at the onset of the zombie apocalypse in the world and is based on one of the worst waves of zombie attacks. The series follows a woman Rose who is separated from her daughter, Anna and she is willing to risk it all to find her daughter. Alongside a small
group of refugees in North America, she must brave a hostile new world and make brutal decisions.
These zombies are surprisingly fast and dangerous raising the thrill factor of the show by notches. They seem to think for themselves and are so powerful that almost an entire episode is about a single character on the run from a single zombie. Such is the havoc wreaked by them that should one person die in a crowd the entire gathering might turn into an army of undead within moments.
Unlike other web series, it is a fast-paced action drama focusing more on the action and less on the personal drama. Black Summer is not about building relationships or creating a better future. It’s about survival even if it means for a few hours of being alive.
Related: Series Like Black Summer
Fear the Walking Dead
We get to walk through the universe of The Walking Dead again through this spin-off Fear the Walking Dead. The web series follows a dysfunctional, blended family where people from different walks of life join forces with the original family. Thrust together, they must learn to reinvent themselves, adopt new skills, and embrace new perspectives to survive as human civilization collapses around them.
Fear The Walking Dead’s depiction of Los Angeles during the earliest days of the viral zombie outbreak is one of the most horrifying scenes. We see some characters completely ignore what’s happening in front of their eyes as their city burns and their loved ones fall while others were observant enough to go underground.
As society begins to disintegrate, the viewers are chilled to the bones to see the indifference of authorities and the military to the fear and suffering of American families.
The storyline also allows for opportunities to learn more about the cause of the outbreak, along with vital information regarding what the virus is and how it can be defeated.
The spin-off has unlimited potential when it comes to violent, tragic deaths and has plenty of jumps scares to keep viewers engaged throughout.
Glitch
The web series is set in the fictional country town of Yoorana, Victoria, where seven people have returned from the dead in perfect health but with have no memory. There are several questions surrounding the sudden resurrection. No-one in the town knows why. Why have they returned? Can they die again? Are these people really people? In addition to these perplexing questions, they also have to adjust to the new development and make space for these new additions.
In between all this is a love triangle. Sgt. James Hayes’ wife died from breast cancer. He mourned his loss but eventually moved on. Glitch starts several years after that tragic death with James remarried to a very pregnant Sarah. When his ex-wife comes back from the dead, all of that stability and sweetness are thrown out the window.
The confusion starts as the risen characters died in different periods of time. None of them, save for Kate, can remember who they are. But over the course of the series, each character gets to see a glimpse into their past.
In addition to unraveling the mysteries of their pasts, it’s also hilarious to see the Risen interact with each other as they are originally from different time periods. Although not involving the typical brain-eating zombies, Glitch is deeply interesting, surprisingly sweet, and completely binge-worthy.
Freakish
Surviving high school is tough but it increases thousand times fold when you have to deal with mutated flesh-eating zombies who before their death were their school-mates.
The students of Kent High school’s class body gather after school for various reasons when suddenly the local chemical plant experiences a sudden explosion that sends a shockwave through town. The result of the explosion is a spread of green and yellow toxic gas that begins to spread around the town within moments.
Despite being warned not to go out the frightened students leave the safety of the building, running straight into the catastrophe to find their family members, all of whom live around the plant, or work in the plant.
There were a few students who heeded the warning and stay in the school but much to their horror their peers who had fled returned deadly ill, eventually die and re-emerged as zombies.
These young people now have to look past their differences, learn codependency, deal with delirium and paranoia, and convert their school building into a fortress if they want to survive.
With a lot of tension and action, Freakish with its young and vibrant cast is fun, exciting, and gory.
Santa Clarita Diet
Santa Clarita Diet tells the story of the Hammond family. They are real estate brokers Joel, Sheila, and have a teenage daughter, Abby. They seem to be your average loving family with normal problems. However, things go wrong when, while they’re showing around a house one day, something makes Sheila so seriously sick that she dies only to come back to life as an undead.
The web series in its heart belongs to the horror-comedy genre but does not hold back on the gore. There is plenty of blood and guts mixed in with the humor. Since her staple diet is that of zombies now, more often than not Shiela is seen feeding on red smoothies made of human flesh, organs and even snacking on fingers like they’re a pile of carrots.
Sheila and Joel are blindly trying to navigate her metamorphosis, trying to hide her condition from nosy suburban neighbors, find a cure and at the same time be good parents to Abby. The web series is definitely binge-worthy and very realistically deals with a zombie situation in the real world.
Conclusion:
Gore, blood, murder, beheading, the fight for survival, and adapting with the new normal are the basic foundations of zombie series. However, with time new and fresh approaches have been taken by the makers of zombies based series. But we can all agree that the craze for stories of the undead has never dwindled.
So just grab a bowl of popcorn, and tune in to these amazing web series that will give you goosebumps and keep you thoroughly entertained.