Comments on: Zombies

By: Emma B

Emma B — Thu, 17 May 2007 00:58:27 +0000

But that should be all of your presentation… Once you get uncomfortably close to the professor, have a classmate stand up and shoot you in the head using his fingers as guns.
Then he can do the presentation…

And Sam, you use the word ‘flick’ too much… As a pretentious cinema major I know things like that…

By: Katie (Jones)

Katie (Jones) — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:14:33 +0000

Patrick! You have to open your presentation with Zombie by the Cranberries! And sing along, of course. And pretend to be a zombie and go slowly towards your professor until you are uncomfortably close! Best presentation ever.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:08:32 +0000

There are are two flicks that are meant as “unofficial” sequels to the romero flicks. There is Zombi, which is an italian flick that is supposed to be a sequel to Dawn, and there is Return of The Living Dead, which is a sequel to night. I don’t think Zombie offers an explanation, but Return claims that the reason for the Zombie attack is a chemical spill that was caused, and then covered up by, the government. The cover up is supposedly why we don’t get an explanation for events in Night. In Return, the chemical is absorbed into the atmosphere, which causes acid rain and then makes the dead rise from their graves. Interestingly enough, the Return zombies survive being beheaded, and they are the first appearance of Zombies that eat brains.

I have to say, I love discussions like this. The 3 most interesting classes I have taken in college are Graphic Novels, Detective Fiction, and Sci-Fi. I think so called ”trash” fiction can be every bit as rich and full of potential analysis as more traditional art. I mean super-hero comics, horror flicks, and crime fiction deal with the same kind of themes that “real” literature do. Sex, death, identity, crime, justice, good and evil. They are just more entertaining in doing so.

By: Katie (Jones)

Katie (Jones) — Wed, 16 May 2007 13:34:30 +0000

Night of the Living Dead mentions something to do with a weird satallite or radioactive material or something, but only briefly (through a tv program) and it never makes it clear why it happened. I’m pretty sure Dawn, Day, and Land never state why the zombies were created either, which in some ways I think is best since the films are much more about how people are dealing with the zombie apocalypse rather than trying to figure out why it happened. At one point in Dawn a guy says that his grandma or something told him that “when there’s no room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth” or something to that effect. I don’t really know what other zombie movies use as explination (except for 28 Days Later which has the infection of the “rage”), but, yeah!

Also, Patrick, I thought your reason as to why zombies are so frightening–the fact that you become one of the multitude and are completely stripped of your individualism–is really true. A fear of zombies isn’t just in the fact that they attack you and eat you and stuff, but also in the after effects of that. (Although the having your intestines pulled out of you while you’re still alive bit is also kind of terrifying.)

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 16 May 2007 12:45:14 +0000

It seems like most movie/video game zombies are created due to a “chemical” right? I mean, wasn’t that the explanation in Night of the Living Dead? The Resident Evil games too, those were the T or G Virus. I think the only movie where it is an act of God was “They Came Back”, which I think the synopsis called it “the thinking man’s zombie movie” or something to that extent. I guess with the Romero film, the origin is never 100% clear, but I seem to remember some part of the movie that mentions a chemical.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:26:06 +0000

Actually, I think zombies were still seen as scary in Haiti/Caribbeans, but just in a different way. Instead of being evil, the zombies were more like slave laborers, and you were afraid of them as much as afraid of becoming one. It was scary cause most of the people living in Haiti were slaves are ex-slaves. Plus all the zombie movies before Romero, were undoubtedly horrors, like the movie White Zombie. At the same time Romero really did fundamentally change the nature of zombies by having them become cannibalistic. He combined the traditional zombie with the Western ghoul. That’s why in Night of the Living Dead, the monsters are called ghouls, I heard (from Tim) that Romero actually still prefers the term ghoul. Regardless, it is definitely Romero who is responsible for the modern zombie.

By: Emma B

Emma B — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:03:09 +0000

I saw this really cool documentary on the history channel once about the real origins of zombies… like people who’d be forced to (or would voluntarily) take powder that induces a zombie-like state, or different trances people can fall under after eating certain roots and things. But zombies were never seen as scary until Romero. It was just a part of a couple different cultures…

By: Brock

Brock — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:58:17 +0000

i enjoy your insight into zombie lore… there is definately an academic vaccuum surrounding them