Latest Comments
Online Members
Newest Members
El Diaro Del Macho Borracho
Old school like Aztecs but new in other aspects: horror, video games, wrestling, culture, and nonsense. Also, this is the place to check for new features/updates on the tech side of Bloody Good Horror.
Please Kill the Zombie Subgenre
Submitted by mark on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 14:31.
CREDIT: NYTIMES.COM
Yesterday at work I was shuffling through my RSS feeds when I saw a post on HOWDesign.com entitled Zombie Haiku: The Movie. I thought it was strange and different that a Graphic Design blog was featuring a somewhat genre related thing, so I checked it out. After making it through 2 minutes of the mildly amusing, but mostly obscenely irritating video posted there I had a relapse of a thought that has been rattling around in my brain for a while. I am absolutely, 100% sick of zombies.
Admittedly, I was never a HUGE fan of the subgenre to begin with, although I'm huge a fan of the "Dead" films (the original "Dawn" and "Day" at least) and have always appreciated the super low budget jaunts like "Redneck Zombies," but in the past few years especially, things are getting out of control. The mainstream zombie love was cute and fun at first, but the concept has become so watered down that I now groan at the mere mention of the word. The zombie image, now beyond the point of self parody, is being co-opted for "outbreak" films like the upcoming [REC] remake Quarrantine, and if you ask me, that's a very bad thing. Instead of coming up with original ways to display deterioration and gore, directors are content with just throwing some gray makeup, sores, fake blood, and janky teeth on their antagonists to milk what little fear these formerly terrifying monsters still evoke.
Despite my hopeless title, I'm not suggesting people stop making and/or appreciating zombie movies all together. I'm just generally asking the world at large to find something else to co-opt and ruin, and spare me the pirates vs ninjas vs robots vs chuck norris vs zombies bullshit. If we back off now, we can still look back fondly on our zombie days, and hope and pray that 5-10 years from now, someone makes a visionary zombie film that will blow all of our asses out and make zombies scary again.
Until then, enjoy your zombie yoga you fucking nerds.
- mark's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
Hear! Hear! I am faced with
Hear! Hear! I am faced with nothing but opposition and disgust when I express this opinion. I love zombie movies but I am way tired of the whole thing. Everybody with a little bit of money and a borrowed SL-2 is out there making their own zombie movie because it's fun and it's easy to do but that doesn't necessarily mean that you should, or at least that you should share it with the world.
Honestly, how many god damn zombie movies can you make where ordinary people are suddenly called upon to take up arms and survive in the face of a spreading zombie problem? How many? Seriously!
There is zero innovation left. It's the same Dawn of the Dead style fantasy every god damn time. For fuck's sake! George Romero can't even make a decent zombie movie anymore. How does anybody else expect to?
Agreed
If we could simply get the low/no budget people to concentrate on another sub-genre for awhile and at least just leave the zombies to the big studios, it would be all right. Everything is cyclical though so it should be about ready to die down.
As long as it's not
As long as it's not luchadores, I'm all for it! Though, I shouldn't even say that, someone is probably planning to spite me already.
Zombies are the new vampires
Just give it a couple more years and some other monster will take it's place. Personally I'd be down for a glut of werewolf movies. There aren't really enough of them. Sure most will be crap about you'll get a few goodies out of the group just like we are with zombies now.
"I like it when they lie still like that."
Werewolves
I think you're actually spot on with that call. That's one sub-genre that hasn't had the life squeezed out of it yet. There are only a smattering of good werewolf films, and a couple mediocre ones, but virtually nothing on the real low low end as far as I know. I'd be really interested to see the ass-awful low budget ones with people wearing suits on rent from the costume shop. It would be a fresh change of pace!
Screw werewolves
I'm holding out for Aja bring back the return of KILLER FISH!
killer fish
One could argue that that subgenre never really went away since there's a glut up direct-to-video Killer Fish films out there like the "Shark Attack" series and Corman's "Frankenfish."
"I like it when they lie still like that."
Shark Attack 3
Maybe an overplayed clip, but if someone brings up Killer Fish, it must be played:
lol
I thought you were going to play the other clip from this film, the one where the guy's like "how about I take you home and eat your pussy". This one's a gem too though. That dude on the Jetski gets me laughing every time.
The famous pussy line from
The famous pussy line from that movie was actually a joke the actor threw out as an intentional blooper. he didn't know the director used it until he saw the finished film.
"I like it when they lie still like that."
For bad Werewolf movies:
See "The Howling" 1 through 8.
I agree wholeheartedly that the Zombie needs to retire for a while. I'm not crazy though about just replacing it with some Universal Monster retread that frankly, has not aged that well. The only Werewolf films that are any good in my opinion are the ones that do their best to be completely different. Traditional werewolf films kind of bite the big one.
That's true of any subgenre
That's true of any subgenre though. That's part of the problem with the current zombie trend, they're just milking a familiar concept and not really doing anything new or original with it.
"I like it when they lie still like that."
They movies are really
They movies are really played out no doubt, but the part that really bothers me is the pop culture obsession with zombies. Not only do we have to deal with tons of derivative bullshit from film, but everywhere I turn its "tee hee zombie survival guide" or "lol zombie porn" or "wtf zombie yoga."
pop culture
I think that the current pop culture obsession with zombie goes hand in hand with its strong presence in cinemas right now. The same thing happened when vampires where the hot monster. It'll only get worse though as our media saturation as a society increases.
"I like it when they lie still like that."
Pop Zombies
I don't have much of a problem with the deluge of zombie-ness but it's definitely strange to walk into Barnes & Noble and come face to face with their Zombie Survival Guide display (even though I enjoyed the book).
World War Z was quality, plus Max Brooks is such a nice guy; let's not place undue blame there.
Amen on the zombie/pirate/robot crapstravaganzas though. Which, aside from Ashley Wood's output, are clearly relying on those memes as their only real draw for attention.
Also, just because Chuck Norris jokes are over, I'm still allowed to think that Braddock biting that rat's head off is awesome, right?
Good Zombies
So I definitely understand the feeling that zombies are sort of over-exposed right now, but as foodcore points out with Brooks specifically, there are some really good things going on with zombies if you know where to look. I'd call "World War Z" a must read for any horror fan, and really, just for anyone who's interested in non-traditional fiction. Although I didn't LOVE it as much as some, I also thought the Walking Dead comics were pretty solid.
And if you want to talk movies, I don't really think anyone should be complaining about the "28 ____ Later" films. Obviously the first could probably be pointed to as a reason for the recent zombie explosion, but I thought the second (which is only a year or two old) was still really solid. I'd also throw out "The Signal," which I thought I reviewed but can't find the link. It's not explicitly a zombie movie, but it's in the same neighborhood, and definitely draws heavily from zombie movies past. Hell, I even enjoyed "Zombie Strippers." So yeah, there might be some zombie garbage out there, but there's some wheat among the chaff, if you're willing to do the separating.
Bad zombies
There's always good in a subgenre if you know where to look. I think the problem right now is that the bad far outweights the good as we've gotten to the point where a lot of the films are only about cashing in on the current obsession rather than making good films. For every one "28 Days Later" (personally, I couldn't stand "28 weeks later") we now have five "Flight of the Dead."
"I like it when they lie still like that."
Yeah. Zombies suck.
Yeah. Zombies suck. Totally. Anything zombie themed is ultra lame. Super lame. Wait. Crap.
www.drunkenzombie.com
agree ish
zombie movies are best when they aren't really about the zombie (that's one of the reasons the walking dead books work really well). i have been a huge fan of the genre, and although i do agree with the saturation and the inevitable suckage of a portion of it, i still view it as valuable subject matter. when done well zombie films can work as a mirror of humanity. they can also be a powerful metaphorical devices. blah blah blah zombie opinions, blah blah. long story short, zombie flicks can be an effective way to tell a story, but are easy to mess up.
I think I should have been
I think I should have been more clear in saying that I'm more irritated with the mainstream use of zombies for kitsch purposes rather than the rehashing of the zombie concept in film. I do think that they have a direct correlation, but the mainstream love is more in your face and obnoxious.
That being said, Drunken Zombies are just fine ;)
no ish
i agree totally with the new, fine tuned, statement of irritation. Zombies as kitsch cheapens them.
I dunno...
I think that there have been some creative ways to evaluate the zombie phenomenon within the last few years. Shaun of the Dead, Fido, etc., are different takes on the same types of movies that we've seen for years, and they are interesting, too. Some of the lower budget movies are at least taking chances with new ideas on an old topic (Zombie Honeymoon, Zombies Anonymous, American Zombie.)
The issue is that the remake craze is killing some of the enthusiasm that I have within this genre. Of the Romero remakes, Dawn of the Dead was the only one that stood out as being entertaining and good. Yea, I saw Day of the Dead; ugh. It's not like Savini's remake was much better, though...
"I'm hooked on gin and tonic like yo momma's hooked on phonics."
-Tha ALkaholiks
Remakes
After thinking about throwing together a post on Romero's "The Crazies," I found out that (surprise) there's a remake in the works. I'll be very interested to see how 2008-ified it is, especially considering how "Diary of the Dead" turned out. Despite not being in the same stratosphere as the dead films in terms of quality, "Crazies" still stands as one of my cult favorites, and I'm worried about what it will look like when its remade. Hopefully it is Nick Cannon free.
The Crazies remakes
Is being directed by Breck Eisner, who's only film credit is "Sahara" and recently directed the first episode of "Fear Itself." He's also doing the remake of "Creature from the Black Lagoon." Take that as you will.
Personally, I always thought "the Crazies" was ripe for a remake since it had some interesting ideas what wasn't a very good film.
"I like it when they lie still like that."
It's true
The Zombie genre and remake genre needs to take a really long break.
On a slightly related note I happened to have a zombie dream last night. I was trying to out run a zombie invasion here in New York City, it was all quite harrowing. ^_^
-Tanya
Believe Again | 7/25/08
BUHHHH
And my life comes full circle...
Vegan Zombie
Give it time
Everybody has made a great point. That he zombie genre is going overboard. I would also like to see some werewolf movies. Maybe when Universal's The Wolf Man comes out it will be the new monster in down. But does Zombie's really count as monsters. It bring back the chessy 50's aliens want to eat us them could be a nice turn around.