Posted on 12/20/2004 9:42:44 AM PST by Warhead W-88
Zombie flicks approach a .500 batting average-- far above any other genre of horror. Is there any other sort of horror movie where you can go into a theater and say, "There's about a 50% chance this is a legitimately good, well-crafted movie"? I don't think so.
Why do they tend to be so good? How do they continue to delight and surprise while working, by and large, within the same basic and narrow parameters established by George Romero's Night of the Living Dead? I think it's a combination of several factors.
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1. Zombies are, essentially, uninteresting monsters. They're scary monsters, to be sure -- make-up effects that realistically simulate the ravages of post-mortem degeneration make them the most gruesome of creatures -- but they're not terribly interesting. They're simple, they're undifferentiated, they're a mob of shambling idiots without personality or charisma.
And this is the strength of the zombie film. Because the monsters themselves aren't compelling as characters, the zombie film forces the writers and directors to put the emphasis on the really interesting stuff in any movie-- actual human characters and human interaction.
Dracula is, I suppose, compelling as a character, but directors become so enamored of his Gothic anti-hero angst there's little room to make the human characters anything more than ciphers and cliches. (Fright Night is a good vampire movie that has human characters more interesting than the monster.) Dracula is effectively a Gothic horror superhero, and vampire films are infected with the childlike power-fantasy tropes of superhero comic books.
Now, most good monsters remain memorable because they serve as metaphors for the human condition -- vampires, sexual obsession and sexual danger; werewolves, the animalistic murderous rage that lurks within all of us; Frankenstein, a similar capacity for violence borne not of rage but of moral innocence or, perhaps, moral insanity.
But still, all that is just metaphor. We may see elements of the human condition in Dracula, but only elements. It's hard to glean much about the human state from his transformation into a pack of rats.
In zombie films, the zombies do also serve as metaphors -- often brilliant ones, about the unthinking violence of the mob, unquestioned conformism, the drudge-heavy routines of our everyday lives, and, famously, rampant consumerism (both literal and metaphorical).
But the focus isn't on zombies-as-metaphors-for-the-human-condition. In zombie pictures, the focus is actually on humans, humans dealing with stress and violence, and humans dealing with each other. The most interesting conflicts in zombie films tend not to come between human and zombie, but between human and human.
This is true of the best horror films of course. Whatever your favorite horror picture is, the moments you remember the most-- and quote the most -- are the parts between people, not the conflicts with the monsters. Sure, Sigorney Weaver's power-loader fight with the alien queen was great stuff, but it's Hudson's "Game over, man! Game over!" that sticks most in the mind. The shark in Jaws was okay, but everyone talks about Quint scratching his fingernails on the blackboard, "Show me the way to go home," the scar-competition, and Quint's chilling description of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Imagine Jaws filmed more like a Dracula movie, with all the emphasis on the shark itself-- not a very intereting movie.
And in my favorite horror movie -- The Thing -- yes, the part with the head-scuttling thing was great, but the best parts involved the panicked and paranoid human characters arguing who ought to have access to the weapons.
Strip away the lurid premise of zombie films, and you often have, at their heart, a fairly serious examination of human characters and human flaws and the violence humans wreak upon each other when animated by anger, greed, jealousy, or simple panic.
More at Ace of Spades HQ.
'I was a middle-aged zombie' (Land of the Dead filming now)
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2004-12-01-zombie_x.htm
28 Days Later is another one. Truly a riveting movie.
(Curious Smiley.)
LOL!
They're busy sending e-mails saying "send us 1000 dollars, we'll let you keep your shoes after we get done emptying your account."
Zombies have that brain diet thing going, and that gets expensive after awhile.
Amen on the original black and white NOTLD being the best zombie movie.....as a young teenager watching it at the drive-in (I date myself) then going home (where we lived right below a very large cemetery) and not having air conditioning and having my bed within "arms reach" of an open window, I couldn't sleep with my back turned towards the open window for weeks !! (cue the burning truck zombie feeding scene...)
They're coming to get you, Barbara !
did someone say zombie?
http://users.myexcel.com/ozechs3/images/zombie.wmv
Bwaaaahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!! snort...snort....
I thought it was fantastic. One of the best remakes I've seen. I love zombie movies!
Zombie movies are always pro-Second Amendment. In the remake, a big part of the movie was getting to Andy's gun store. Of course, all the firepower in the world couldn't save them from thousands of running zombies.
28 Days Later was set in gun-free England. I never understood why they didn't try to go to a police station and acquire some firearms.
Otherwise there would be no suspense.
I mean, how hard is it to blow the heads off of lethargic, brain dead cadavers?
Ping.
Blaire Witch Project. Never saw the "witch". Terrified the viewers.
I had to sleep with the light on. Don't tell anyone please. Doh! Did I just post that on the interenet!?!?
An excellent scene was when Ana's zombified husband is chasing after her as she drives away and he sees some woman standing in her yard, bolts after her and starts chewing her up! Classic!
Zombies movies just provide more action and less thinking than other monsters because there's more of them, more chance of mindlessly blowing away hundreds. Modern Dracula movies suck (sorry) because modern filmmakers are too hung up on the sexual aspects of the story and because the bloodsuckers of Hollywood are a little ambivalent about that good v. evil thing (unless someone makes Dracula a Southern sheriff circa 1966). The key character in Dracula is Van Helsing, and the best Van Helsing by far was the one in the Bela Lugosi film (Edward Van Sloan). Laurence Olivier ruined the Frank Langella version, as did Anthony Hopkins in the one he was in. Weak and vacillating like a shield of butter.
Hopkins is one of my favorite actors.
Though I've never watched any of those dreadful "costume dramas" he's starred in-which are usually Merchant-Ivory productions-almost every motion picture he's been in has been worth watching, in my estimation.
I like that movie as well. I think Ill watch it again tonight
I dont have much to contribute than to say this.
If you have a couple of free hours to kill then go to this site
www.raptorman.us
It's the online journal of a military officer trekking across the country trying to escape the living dead. It is extremely interesting, and pretty good for a first time writer.
It is somewhat engaging, although He quit posting this month for a while to work on the book version of the story.
It is silly, harmless fun.
zombie movies rock!
My favourites include:
Romero's living dead trilogy
Fulci's Zombie (but none of his other zombie films)
Night of the Comet
Zombie Flesh Eaters Two (only for the action scenes)
28 Days Later
Shaun of the Dead
I have about 15 zombie flicks at the moment and am always looking for good ones.
Am getting Manchester morgue and Zombie creeping flesh soon.
Whatever you do do not buy zombie flesh eaters 3 it is god awful and has absolutely no redeeming features.
Does anyone know of any good zombie movies or any to avoid?
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