Bring Out Yer Dead!

After having my fill of traditional horror movies and the apocalypse, I decided that the next natural step is to move on to zombies. In a way, the zombie flick is the perfect complement as they combine the gore and suspense of horror movies with the doom and destruction of post-apocalyptic films. And I wasn't fully depressed about the state of the world yet, so why not add to my pessimism about our fate as human beings?

I actually kind of love movies about the undead. I can't say why, but ever since I saw Night of the Living Dead, I became a fan of the genre in a way that I could never embrace mainstream horror or slasher movies. Mainly, it's that zombie films seem to be a little smarter, a little better crafted and usually have a larger message about humanity or some other theme that transcends pure blood and guts (though there's always plenty of that to satisfy fans of gore). It's a bit ironic I suppose that movies about post-mortem human beings that have been reanimated by infected brains could be smarter than the average Hollywood film, but let's just say the bar isn't always set too high.

George Romero put zombies (or ghouls as he called them) on the map back in the 1960s with Night of the Living Dead. He's since added to the mystique of these grotesque and frightening creatures with subsequent updates including Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, and Land of the Dead, among others. These trailblazing films created a whole new genre and paved the way for future zombie filmmakers. I've recently become enamored with the new series on AMC that premiered on Halloween called The Walking Dead. It's a TV series unlike most of what's on television currently. First of all, it's among the grossest, bloodiest zombie related thing I've ever laid eyes on. The zombies are not only horribly disfigured, but in some cases, rotting to the bone or missing vital parts, like say legs, torsos or pieces of their head. But more than the gross out factor, it's very much focused on the still living characters and their plight to survive the epidemic of "walkers" as they're called in the show. The characters have more dimension than we're used to seeing in this genre, and as a viewer, I find myself so drawn in to what they're going through, I sometimes forget about the zombie part of it until the walkers rear their ugly heads every now and again, and boy are they ugly.

The show centers around a likely hero, a sheriff's deputy in a small Georgia town who is shot in the line of duty, before the undead begin to take over the territory. He spends several days, possibly weeks in a coma (it's unclear just how long), only to wake up and discover a deserted hospital, trashed beyond recognition by some sort of cataclysmic event. In a daze, he wanders out to discover the rest of this brave new world that has emerged while he slumbered. And that's only the first fifteen minutes or so of the first episode. From there it just gets better, and creepier. Although the hero may be a likely choice, most everything else, is quite unlikely, and unexpected. As many times as the genre has been replayed in new incarnations, this show is as fresh as anything out there. The only question I really had after episode one ended was, how are they going to sustain this plot over a season, let alone multiple seasons. Well, as the first season winds down, I have to say, they've not only sustained it, they've added some swagger that other installments have lacked.

My other foray into the recent developments in the zombie arena was the Danny Boyle film from 2002 called 28 Days Later. I've always been a fan of Boyle, from his early days with Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, made overseas before he made the move to Hollywood. His more recent films made stateside, or at least with major studio backing, have an entirely different feel. In some ways they are flashier and more polished, but they also lack some of the raw energy and imagination of the earlier work. Sure, Slumdog Millionaire may have earned him an Oscar, but in my mind it doesn't compare to the gritty bravado of Trainspotting. Nonetheless, Boyle is still a filmmaker that I admire, and I always find just about anything he does worth watching. 28 Days Later is no exception to this rule.

The film starts quite similarly to The Walking Dead. There is a brief scene that shows a lab full of caged monkeys pounding on the glass that encases them, some that are dead, one that is infected with some sort of disease that has transformed it into a frenzied, bloodthirsty monster. This is the origin of the disease that will envelope all of London, and possibly the world quite soon. Cut to a hospital, where our main character wakes to find a desolate building, with destruction all around, and outside in the streets a similar scene. I can't help but think that the producers of The Walking Dead watched this film during the process of working on their series and used it as a jumping off point.

One of the main differences in this film from other zombie movies is the zombies themselves. These are not slow, plodding figures stooped over feebly pursuing their victims from a distance. They move with the speed of an olympic sprinter and the rage of 10 disgruntled postal workers. It's surprising and terrifying to witness at first since I'm so conditioned to seeing the more typical, slow-footed zombie. It's the one saving grace when you're trying to outrun the undead. They may outnumber you and possess a strong determination to snack on your flesh, but at least you can count on being quicker and more agile. This virus is also much more virulent, taking only contact with contaminated blood to be infected, with the gruesome transformation happening in mere seconds rather than days or hours.

Like most other stories in the genre, this one follows a fairly conventional plot line otherwise. A motley group of individuals are thrown together and must stick together to survive. Along the way there are some casualties, and a rather unlikely love story. The real twist comes toward the end, when the group seems to have found a safe haven, but as it turns out, they've encountered a danger of a different kind. In the end, it isn't the zombies or infection that is the most threatening foe, it is humanity itself, or the lack of it in the people that are left behind.

I suppose this is part of the draw of movies and shows like these, as with the post-apocalyptic films. We all want to know how it's going to end, and of course, though we have our beliefs to guide us, none of us will really know exactly how or when it will happen until the end actually comes. But in the process of looking into the dark corners of this world, we can perhaps learn something about ourselves and make life a bit better in the process.