All Your Zombies Are Belong to Us

Mood:  Snarky

Okay, so I lied about the book review.  Kinda.  This is actually a movie based discussion that ties into a book I'm reading that ties into social commentary.  Got all that?  Good, try to keep up then the associations are going to be fast and I'm not going to pause for you to catch-up.  Disclaimer - I'm playing Devil's Advocate here.  My own opinions I'm keeping to myself as far as the amateur sociology goes, but if this gets you thinking...then great. 

The hook:  the opening this Friday of "Land of the Dead," the fourth film in George Romero's series, which began with the original "Night of the Living Dead." 

  Zombie movies.  What the hell explains their seeming unending appeal.  Why are we obssessed with the shambling masses of undead, many of whom could possibly be former loved ones, friends, etc? 

Last year when I first met the Pidge and several other co-workers, one of our first activities as a group was to see the box office debut of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake.  Leading the charge was one zombie film connoiseur (so to speak) named Z.  To say that Z is a George A. Romero fan would be a huge understatement (as evidenced by Night of the Living Dead desktop, owning three versions of that film, plus the remake), but after the film entertained and scared the living hell out of us, he led us through a dissection (so to speak) of the pros and cons of original versus remake (I've seen most of the original myself - note, I am probably living proof of why parents should actually pay attention to movie ratings and NOT let their 5 or 6 year old watch Rated R horror movies).  As we discussed the two Dawns, one couldn't help but notice the return from the grave (so to speak) of the entire genre...I think you could peg "Resident Evil" (a film whose quality must be put into perspective, "good for a video game movie" translates loosely into a range between "not bad" and "a good B-movie" I think) for regenerating interest (enough people had played the game or just enjoyed the movie, which really isn't a bad film at all), and the "28 Days Later" for actually returning respectability to the genre.  Respectability to a milieu that doesn't even rate _cliches_, the sheer glut of low-budget horror and foreign knockoffs are all, literally, the same damn movie over and over again, but no one seems to mind very much. 

Brief synopsis of almost every zombie flick ever made:  Ordinary people wake up one  day, don't realize that there's dead people walking around chomping on other living people who then get back up and start chomping on other living souls despite a multitude of clues that somethin' ain't right, meet other survivors, survivors learn that shooting zombies in the head or set them on fire is the only way to take them down permanently, run and hide in some seemingly impenetrable safe place, get complacent and argumentive, and then some idiot makes a REALLY BAD CALL (9 times out of 10, homeslice doesn't have the guts to take out his sick and growing sicker buddy who's been anything from SNEEZED on by a zombie to having limbs or large chunks of flesh bitten off) that ends up handing all the survivors right smack into the gaping maws of  the hordes of relentless undead.  Everyone dies, except for like one dude or chick, oh but there's this twist ending, you know?  The end.

Is there anyone, except this one guy we work with who has not seen ANY movies, who doesn't get the joke if you stumble around and mumble "brains, brains!"?  Filmmaker Dario Argento (dad of Asia Argento, who appears in the upcoming "Land of the Dead") at least had the decency to feature the most intensive gore for its time plus the excitement of a zombie fighting a SHARK underwater while copping the music and some actual footage from Dawn of the Dead (got to see bits of this at a White Zombie concert way back in '96).

Between the Night of the Living Dead, House of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Video Dead, Night of the Creeps (technically a zombie film), Night of the Comet (c'mon, it's like Dawn of the Dead only PG-13 and with cuter teens leads), Return of the Living Dead (1-4 now?), Zombi (Italy), Dead Alive, Re-Animator, Evil Dead (including Army of Darkness), Resident Evil, Thriller, Undead, Dawns of the Dead(s?), Day of the Dead, and the bottom-shelf direct to video mess out there, you'd think we'd be sick of it by now.

What's so special about a style and type of movie that inspires even British filmmakers to create an homage to a fundamentally American genre, and a fairly sophisticated comic homage at that (favorite scene: the zombies break into the pub where Shaun and his compatriots are hiding, all to the tune of Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" - scary scene that you end up laughing your arse off throughout.  Brilliant!)

It must be a combination of things, really.  First of all, it's a easy film to make isn't it?  You don't exactly require tons of acting talent to stumble, groan and look completely out of it (just try your local college on Monday morning after rush week). 

Second, let's look at some psychological factors:  Survivor fantasy, empowerment, wish fulfillment.  Who hasn't ever felt the desire to just flush everything, pack up, and run away?  In today's rat race, this must be a very powerful part of the zeitgeist - I say this because of a book I'm reading called "Toxic Success" by Dr. Paul Pearsall which describes symptons of the chronically burned out, attention deficit modern work force, which seems to be digging itself into ever deeper bouts of personal isolation, feelings of emotional and spiritual detachment.  We've found that rampant consumerism and materialism doesn't feed our emotional needs as people either (Dawn of the Dead - original version).

If we look at the zombie film (or literature, there are surprisingly few horror WRITERS who delve into this genre) as an expose` of societal worries of isolation, alienation, or even racism (like the original Night of the Living Dead and it's black hero), in its original incarnation, we can look at it now, in a post-modern "okay we know its only a movie context" as "hey, this scenario wouldn't suck so bad, because I can literally say fuck it and leave it all behind.  Even better, I don't have any choice but to do that for survival, so, no guilt!  Oh, and I can get away with killing my boss, and anybody else I don't like, BONUS.  It's definitely got a working class blue collar appeal, Romero even called the zombie "a blue collar monster" - a few minutes, hours, or days ago, this was just some dude, now, for whatever reason, not even a plausible or good one really, he and millions others like him, are out to get _you_.  Death is a great equalizer, isn't it?

The survivor/hero myth must be alive and well as far as Jungian archetypes go - let's face it, Ash, when he's not taking out Deadites, is just plain old "Ash, Housewares" at S-Mart isn't he?   I wonder sometimes if the popularity of violent video games, pen and paper RPGs, movies and other forms of supposedly less than savory entertainment are merely methods of compensating for a life made too serene, boring, and sedentary sitting in front of computers in cubicles, when we're still physically and mentally WIRED by biology for the fight or flight reflexes essential for getting us here in the first place? (Again, Pearsall's book offers some interesting comments on this too).

The appeal must tap something very primal, otherwise, we might have already noticed that we've been watching the same damn so-so movie over again for years and years.  In the past 2-3 years, we've had no less than 5 major zombie films released, and that's not including video games, graphic novels (here's where I hit my fringe sociology obligation - I can name off half a dozen zombie-related comic books series off the top of my head right now), and even the good old fashioned pen and paper D&D nerds getting into the act - ref "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" - my only question there is, what took that particular crowd so long, I figured they would have jumped on the bandwagon years ago...

Oh well.  Are we any closer to an answer?  No I don't think so, but it sure beats the hell out of watching a damn "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" remake.  Fuckin' oompah loompahs.

Mmmm... BRAINS!!!

Comments

[BigKilla]

It's all about the fear of eternal imprisonment in a decaying material body. Like voodoo shit. If you're bad, they drug you, kill you, bury you, raise you from the dead. Then they put you to WORK. That would suck. I would be trying to eat brains too, if only to try to absorb some sweet, sweet grey matter.

[Bob]

Personally, I've found these movies pretty boring and I think this theme has already been beaten to death!

I would much prefer to watch something like Batman Begins, which I've enjoyed playing too, on PS2! Check out my review if you're a Batman fan.

On movies, I'm a big fan of Carpenter films and he's done some really great work - 'The Thing' was one movie I particularly liked.

[TheDarkerSideOfLight]

I think the fascination with zombie films roots from the inexplainable fascination and uneasiness with the dead. Seriously, who hasn't gone to a funeral and imagine the deceased standing up and doing an Irish jig in the middle of his eulogy? I don't watch zombie movies for an intriguing plot. I just watch for a bit of fun, and maybe a clever line or two. I think inevitably, we're just intended to relate to the characters and ask ourselves "If that were me, what the hell would I do?"