For years, China’s government has been waging a covert war against the undead. Thanks to obscure Communist party censorship guidelines that prohibit “promoting cults or superstition”, foreign films featuring zombies, vampires, werewolves, mummies and ghosts have almost uniformly been banned by the censors.
Last year Sony Pictures’ Ghostbusters was denied a release in the mainland, while Train to Busan, an acclaimed South Korean film about a zombie apocalypse, was not shown in Chinese theatres — but shot to popularity as a download.
But this year, the dead have had their revenge, at least in cinemas. First came the February release of post-apocalyptic thriller Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which made Rmb1bn ($145m) in 13 days. Although Chinese censors cut seven minutes from the film, the wholesale machine-gunning of lurching zombies remained largely undisturbed.