7. Death Becomes Her
The twist: A Hollywood career is the zombie! I may be going out on a limb here, as it were, but here's the evidence. Love rivals Madeleine (Meryl Streep) and Helen (Goldie Hawn) are both killed around halfway through the film- yet here they are, duking it out 'til the closing credits. Despite suffering, respectively, a broken neck and both barrels to the belly, the two patch up their feud (along with their peeling skin) on the path to immortality. The elixir that once promised eternal youth, as well as preserving their professions, has reached the end of its supply. Now the pair are forced to preen each other for ever, like the last remaining vultures. So...are they zombies? Not in the conventional sense, but they inhabit a darkly satirical swipe at a system where actors can rise, fall and return from the dead. The message, of course, being that Hollywood has little use for its female stars once they reach middle-age.Given that Streep is one of only a select few (alongside the British triumvirate of Dames Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren) to debunk this unspoken rule, the Mephistophelean concept of selling your soul for a few more years in the limelight no longer seems quite so far-fetched...