New Zombie Flick!

ristow · **Posted:** Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:13 pm

I was at the movies with my wife to see "blades of glory" (funny!) and I saw a poster for 28 Weeks Later....that's got to rock..

deusExMachina · **Joined:** Sun Jan 14, 2007 12:34 pm **Posts:** 546

I think the trailer came out just this week. It's up at www.quicktime.com and iTunes.

Cesar

ristow · **Posted:** Sat Mar 31, 2007 10:55 pm

That looks as good as the first one.

Hellstorm · **Joined:** Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:59 am **Posts:** 165

Matt Cowan · **Posted:** Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:13 am

Here's another instance where I'm going to be all by myself in this oppionion. I never watch zombie movies. I've seen a couple and I just can't get into the whole zombie thing. I know that it is huge now, and everyone loves them, but I'm just not into that whole, 'the world is being overrun my mindless brain eaters' thing. I like for my monsters to be intellegent, to be able to sceme and plan, etc. I stay away from anything that mentions zombies, and really vampiers too (in their case because, I don't think that there is anything new to add to their story anymore. It seems done to death). To be honest, I'm curious what it is that has drawn all the recent interest in zombies.

Hellstorm · **Joined:** Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:59 am **Posts:** 165

I've had "ongoing discussions" in a comic forum about the "flood" of zombie comics coming out, so rather than re-write what I've already written, I'm just going to re-post 2 of my recent responses to suggestions that zombie stories are "overdone" or "cliché".

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If you feel that zombie comics seem to be getting a little overplayed, with maybe 3 or 4 titles coming out from various publishers in a given month, then what does that say about superhero comics, which push nearly all of the non-capes & tights books out of Diamond Distributor's top 100 shipping titles every month?

Or perhaps you'd like to comment on Steve (30 Days of Night) Niles opinion from his recent Wordballoon interview at: http://www.wordballoon.blogspot.com/

"WB: There's a lot of zombie material out there right now...

SN: ... It's very funny to me, because people always do this to me. They're always like, "There's a lot of zombie comics out there, it seems like everyone's doing horror now." And I'm like, "You been to a comic store? Because all I'm seeing is a bunch of people in tights."

There's still a very small percentage of comics that aren't superheroes, and yet people are worried that there's four zombie comics out there..."

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I don't know that horror in general, or zombie stories in particular, are any more clichéd than any other genre.

There's only one superhero story - superheroes fight supervillians (with the now clichéd Marvel variant - superheroes fight superheroes).

... and one horror story - someone/thing kills people until that someone/thing is killed

... and one crime/mystery story - someone commits a criminal act, and someone else tries to bring them to justice

... and one romance story - boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl, etc.

It's been my opinion for a while now that, because nearly anything that's ever been published, recorded, or performed is being digitally archived for future reference, the public's hyper-awareness of history makes it hard to come up with something "original".

Remakes or re-imaginings of older stories are old news. The Iliad, The Odyssey, many stories from The Bible, The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron, and many of Shakespeare's plays, were 'remakes' or re-tellings of older stories.

It's just like when they remade the Maltese Falcon for the 3rd time.

After the original in 1931, and the remake (titled Satan Met A Lady, with Bette Davis) in 1936, why'd John Huston have to make it again with Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet?

What a waste of film. They should have stuck with the original, starring Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade (instead of Bogart) - right?

And there were 3 Radio play adaptations too.

Of course, these are all unnecessary remakes of Dashiell Hammett's pulp novel, originally serialized in Black Mask magazine, along with a bunch of other clichéd stories about hard-boiled detectives and femme fatales.

ristow · **Posted:** Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:56 pm

I think the whole zombie thing rests on a couple of things, but I can only speak for myself. Nothing is more dramatic then endtimes narrative. More importantly, the zombie film, as I've seen it, has always been a vehicle of social criticism. They reflect the time that we live in, basically. George Romero's films were literally crammed with critiques on racism and consumer culture -- not to mention science versus the common good.

Remember, good horror can also speak towards our own inner fears, giving us a sense of cleansing and cartharsis. Basically, if you take the Aristotle's idea about dramatic tragedy, and apply to horror, it fits. Tragedy, is, of course, a type of horror. Tragedy, when well done, gives ways to understand our own lives to an extent.

Anyhow, remember the 28 Days Later came out right after 911, and in england, right after a series of biological scares from the likes of Mad Cow Disease and some other stuff. We're always hearing about "Bird Flu" or whatever new disease, and so directors like Danny Boyle take it and run with it.

I've always been fond of saying, "the best way to comment on reality is to step outside of it." That's what good Zombie films do for me. There's something deeper than just crazed people eating each other. Not all zombie films are good. But to illustrate my thinking, here's a list of zombie features that I think are worthwhile for what they're trying to say... Basically, it all comes back to metaphor...

1. Night of the Living Dead
2. Dawn of the Dead (The original...not the stupid remake)
3. Dead Alive (Peter Jackson before LOTR Fame! It's hilarious and disgusting at the same time!)
4. 28 Days Later
5. Land of the Dead
6. Reanimator (Technically, it's a zombie film mixed in with lovecraft)

Those six come off the top of my head. Notice that I'm leaving out Resident Evil. I must shamefully confess that I haven't seen many Fulchi movies.

One last thought. In many cases, it's not just the Zombies that are the monsters in these types of films, many of the perfectly human people are too.

Kreep · **Joined:** Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:19 pm **Posts:** 237

I loved the first one. Not sure the sequel will measure up. Looks a little too "grand."

oldmanmike · **Posted:** Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:49 pm

Fangoria has a feature in the current issue. I'll go see it.

New Zombie Flick!

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