What makes zombies such an effective on screen menace?
- Thread starter Sn0W
- Start date
Recommended Videos
While im not trying to discredit the theory, i just feel the virus would have to be airborne or infect our water for it to spread fast and far enough to pose a serious threat to the entire world's military power. Though i'm by no means an expert :-DSn0W said:
knowing their love of eating brains, and been secure in the knowledge of the fact that because I'm a republican they will never harm me.
Simon Pegg made the very good point that although other movie monsters like vampires or werewolves personify "sex or bestial savagery", zombies, with their decompostion and loss of movement, represent the ultimate human fear: ageing and death.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set
Zombies aren't genereally a potent device for the scaring of an audience, although that has changed somewhat since the release of 28 Days Later, after which all movie zombies that do not directly trace lineage to Romero's work have been fast moving. That said, the real power of the zombie is in its great potential as a social metaphor, zombie films are easy to draw meaning from, and put meaning into.
I think the most threatening part of the zombie apocalypse story is man. I'm surprised more people haven't put this down. The zombie apocalypse strips away the facade of personality that a cozy life affords us and shows a person's true colors. Like Harry, from Night of the Living Dead, who refuses to help Ben reinforce the ground floor and instead goes into the basement (where he and his family die). The inability for both Ben and Harry to comprimise leads to their deaths. This can go on forever, like in Land where the zombie has become a plaything for the survivors, or in the Dawn remake where they play a game consisting of finding zombies who look like famous people and watching the gun store owner, Andy, find and kill them. People selling each other out to live, betraying each other, killing each other.
Ripley from Aliens says it best, "I don't know who's worse, us or them. You don't see them screwing each other over for a half percent." (paraphrase, of course)
I'd be more afraid of betrayal than anything else. I know what the zombies want, what they think. I can't tell what the person next to me thinks. Not even my own brother, or my wife.
Ripley from Aliens says it best, "I don't know who's worse, us or them. You don't see them screwing each other over for a half percent." (paraphrase, of course)
I'd be more afraid of betrayal than anything else. I know what the zombies want, what they think. I can't tell what the person next to me thinks. Not even my own brother, or my wife.
They, unargueably, need to be destroyed, so there are no ethical problems, anyone can become one so there are no ethical problems about killing the gym teacher who laughed because you could only do 2 pullups, Also, for every human they kill, they get a new shambling grotesquery, so they make an incredibly annoying foe, especially since the population of the world has increased incredibly over the last century, and they imply that something happens after death
1) No ethical issues, but all the gory satisfaction of blowing apart a human body.
2) Zombies are stronger and more resilient then normal humans. Therefore, when you defeat a zombie, you outsmarted it. Humans, being weaker then most animals, evolved to really like overcoming obstacles by outsmarting them.
3) Zombie outbreak, attack patterns, and behavior are predictable yet complex patterns. People love breaking predictable yet complex patterns.
2) Zombies are stronger and more resilient then normal humans. Therefore, when you defeat a zombie, you outsmarted it. Humans, being weaker then most animals, evolved to really like overcoming obstacles by outsmarting them.
3) Zombie outbreak, attack patterns, and behavior are predictable yet complex patterns. People love breaking predictable yet complex patterns.
Might be a bit off topic to your question but I read through the article and he was comparing Land of the Dead to the Iraq war. Am I wrong in thinking that Land of the Dead came out first or are my timelines all screwed up?Sn0W said:
I think there is a lot of reasons to fear zombies. A religious person would be afraid since it would be undeniable proof that there is no afterlife, no heaven, and therefore no God.
The whole undead symbiotic nature of a zombie horde of which there is no escape is another valid reason. And even if you do manage to survive long enough to reach a safe spot (like in Day of the Dead) you are just surviving and sooner or later you will lose your mind.
There is also the whole unknown nature of zombies. Some games movies and books tell you this is how everything went down. I find it scarier when you don't know exactly what caused it. When the characters have to speculate on the hows and whys.
And if you can find it you need to check out Underground on the G4 channel. It is hosted by Morgan Webb (that is the reason I watched it lol) and they were interviewing these people who were preparing for the zombie apocolypse. When it first started I thought they were LARPers. I was wrong and they are serious. And a helluva lot scarier than any zombie horde you may encounter.
