It seems to me that zombies have gained alot of popularity in the past 10 years. Maybe it was the remake of Dawn of the Dead that showed how horrifying these things can be and not the campy joke they were by the end of Night of the Living Dead 3. Whatever it is, I`m all for it! Here`s some basic education of zombies for those of you who may not be well informed. It would do you well to know this for the coming zombie apocalypse.
The past week has been full of zombie awesomeness. Chunks of my family spent several days north of here at a nice cottage where we played Zombies!!! - a sweet board game that allows you to kill zombies and screw over your fellow players with brain cramps and such. We also watched I am Legend (kinda fauz-zombie movie, same genre I feel)and Mrs. Sollywood sat through it all which impressed me. Then we watched the mini series The Walking Dead and it was awesome too. It took practically all the classic zombie movie cliches (unexplained zombie breakout, protagonist wakes up in empty hospital, lots of guts and humans that can`t be trusted, ect.) and made them fresh and somehow original. Making a cliche original... not easy to pull off. So today I went out and bought the first tpb (trade paper back for al you non-comic book nerds... so all of you) of The Walking Dead that the series is based off of. I haven`t got around to reading it yet since I had some Spiderman and Avengers that took priority. And I`m saving it for tonight. Anyways, there`s a few things that make zombies appealing on various levels. You have the superficial gore fans. Hahaha, that reminds me of my moms face during a particular gross scene in Walking Dead. Wish I had a camera. Absolute transfixed disgust without the ability to look away. HILARIOUS! Then theres the survival aspect. Stories of survival come in many forms and all are exciting and have been around since stories have been around. Hatchet was a good book about a boy surviving in northern Canada. And completely non-zombie but same idea. Surviving against the odds. There`s something about that idea that adds drama and excitement into whatever media we find it in and will continue to search for. Now there`s one deeper level to zombie stories that I find to be the main appeal. For me at least. There`s an interesting contrast that zombie movies can achieve greater than other genre`s that come to mind in this particular area - social commentary. Even good zombies movies are basically ridiculous in premise. But that complete insanity can be contrasted with a very dramatic and serious view of human behaviour. They show us just how messed up humans can be and also how brave and heroic we can be. A contrast within itself. I enjoy any form of media that can get you to ponder the nature of your humanity and can help you explore a range of emotion - positive or negative or both. A good zombie movie will get you to question and ponder the fabric of society. They also take an almost satirical approach to the fears that many have towards the future - chemical warfare. There`s all this hysteria for years now about crazy diseases from SARS to H1N1 and everything inbetween and it`s just making us all into a bunch of zombies. I also like Dawn of the Dead approach to consumerism and having the survivors in a mall surrounded by zombies. Oh and they give you plenty of gory, tongue in cheek excitement. And then there`s this - The Zombie Love Song!
No comments:
Post a Comment