I love zombies. Absolutely love them. 28 Days Later is, in my opinion, the best movie ever made by man. I mean, Danny Boyle directed it. Danny Boyle, the man who brought us Slumdog Millionaire, gave the world the best movie ever. It is not just a zombie movie- it is a work of art. He uses unique filming techniques and an unusual selection of music. It's incredible. It's my idea of a romantic movie- I mean, come on, only a man who really, truly loves you will kill the undead with his bare hands for you.
Zombies are the greatest. Anthropologically, it's the ultimate "us" versus "other" situation. Psychologically, it embodies our fears of death and the afterlife with the mental dilemma of whether or not reanimated corpses still contain some fragment of the person we knew. Entertainment-wise, there's nothing better than adrenaline-fueled sequences of gore and screaming.
And then there are the masters of zombie fiction. George A. Romero, for starters, who brought us Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (and it's remake), and all of its subsequent sequels. He gave us The Crazies, a film not necessarily about zombies, but pretty damn close. Just for good measure, he remade that one, too. You know a director is dedicated to his genre when he's the one remaking his movies.
And then there's Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. I own the former, and it's fantastic. The latter, however, is a true masterpiece. Brooks uses it to critique various governments and the different cultures that span our globe. I love it. Zombie infection is a global problem, and he depicts localized responses to it.
Finally, there are all of the independent and B-list movies. Bad filming, low budget costumes and effects, and cliched scripts are a huge part of what makes this genre. The fake blood, the unrealistic wounds, the well-known roles characters must fill- the weak one, the leader, the person with alterior motives, the dumb one who does as he's told, and the dumb one who's stubborn and is eventually eaten.
Zombie stories are the best medium for examining humanity, in my opinion. A bad zombie movie is simply a festival of gore, which itself can be entertaining, but a good zombie movie can explore everything from gun control, to functionality of government, to xenophobia. In Land of the Dead, zombies are learning how to use tools and weapons. It begs the question, are they really so different from us? Or are they simply doing to us as we did to the Neanderthals?
Like I've said, I love zombie stories. I've written a few of my own. I have an emergency "In Case of Zombie" plan. My friend has a blog devoted to zombies. Obsessed? Well, yes I am. I've loved zombie movies ever since the 7th grade. There's just something undeniably satisfying about them. There's a Facebook group called "Some Days I Wish I Could Just Go Kill Zombies." I am totally zombie-crazed, but that's okay. It could be a lot worse. I could be obsessed with dressing up like comic book characters. Worse still, I could be obsessed with Twilight.
Nope, I'm okay with being zombie crazed. It's not like I'm out of touch with reality or anything. I know zombies aren't real.
But if they are, you know I'll be the first one to say, "I told you so."
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