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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Dawn of the dead and zombie movies

14:44 / 28.03.04

Saw this last night and found it quite fun. Not fantastic or anything, it doesn't mark a new epoch of zombie movies, but it did knock that other zombie movie the passion of the the christ of the top spot of the US box office so it deserves credit for thatat least.

So I was wondering - anyone else seen it? want to see it or just want to talk zombie films ingeneral - it made me want to dig out my old copy of zombie flesh-eaters, but i have not managed to find it so far...

anyhoo - zombie movies - who's up for 'em?

Haus of Mystery

19:08 / 28.03.04

I'll probably check it, but I'm quite a hardcore Romero fan, and the original is so great I'm sure I'll be that annoying guy tutting in the row behind you. Apparently the new one's stripped of all the consumer satire of the first. Is this the case? I'm sure you've seen the original sleaze, so dish the goods.

Foust is SO authentic

20:29 / 28.03.04

I haven't seen the original since I was but a young lad, and so couldn't comment on how much of the commercial satire has been removed. There is one line in the remake, when the zombies are all heading for the mall, that maybe they are heading there because of "memory".

This movie was a lot of fun, imho. Mindless fun is the best description I can come up with. Very mindless, and very fun.

There are a few problems, however. In at least two situations, characters do very foolish, counterproductive things that endanger human lives for no good reason. I hate it when characters do things like that, just to service the plot.

20:32 / 28.03.04

Its vaguely mentioned as a possibility that, as in the original, the zombies head towards the mall because it has some meaning for them, but it is more heavily implied that that the zombies can just sense their prey and come running towards 'em.

their are nods to a fair few other horror films throughout, the most notable influence seems to be 28 days later, but yeah I didn't expect much from this other than a fun way to spend a saturday afternoon and it was certainly that.

20:39 / 28.03.04

The original trilogy is an absolute classic in my opinion so I would be surprised if I ever would like a remake. I might catch it on dvd, probably the only way it will reach the European continent anyway.

20:51 / 28.03.04

Its out in the UK at this very moment. so i'm guessing its also making its way accross the rest of Europe as we speak...

Haus of Mystery

15:23 / 29.03.04

Just as an aside, I fucking loathed 28 Days Later.

15:28 / 29.03.04

Yeah, I didn't like 28 Days Later either. Especially because I had everyone and their dog telling me it was omigod, like, soooooooooooo scary, and when I finally saw it I didn't find it frightening in the least. It looked pretty but the plot development concerning the demented sex-starved soldiers didn't ring true for me at all.

Haven't seen the new Dawn yet, but I'm looking forward to it. All reports indicate that it's not the original Dawn, but an entertaining zombie movie all the same.

I think Shaun of the Dead looks better, though.

Haus of Mystery

17:53 / 29.03.04

Yeah! Looks like it might bring something new to the zombie party, and I'd trust anything attached to Simon Pegg. 28 Days later and Dog Soldiers were two of the most overhyped pieces of crap I've ever had to sit through, and go to show how fucking impoverished mainstream horror is now.

Locust No longer

18:27 / 29.03.04

I liked Dawn of The Dead. I'm almost phobic about zombies, however. The paranoic vision of a world turned in on itself where all humanity has been drained and replaced with shambling, cannabalistic creatures that never stop hunting you freaks me out. I think the new Dawn did a great job of ratcheting up the fever pitch right away. While the old one mulled on characters this one simply throws you into a world where all you can do is try to stay alive.... all of the time. When I got out of the theater I kept waiting for zombies to come sprinting out from the buildings to eat my face. Obviously, I took it way too seriously.

Haus of Mystery

19:16 / 29.03.04

After watching Dawn (orig) a number of times i started to have a recurring dream of Zombie Apocalypse. I'd always be dimly aware in the dream of the fact that the world WAS ending, but it seemed sort of quiet and gradual. I distinctly remember being chased around my school before ending up in the PE cupboard with no way out, as hordes of the undead fuckers poured in on me...and then I woke up, natch.
They were really vivid and fucked up, and worst of all somewhat convincing.

(Celebrity gets up off couch and thanks Barbelith for his latest session...)

20:25 / 29.03.04

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

Great title, not much else - directed by the fellow that directed Porky's and Murder By Decree. Group of film students on an island accidentally resurrect the dead whilst goofing about. Zombicity ensues.

The Killing Box

I've been trying to find this for a few years now. Director George Hickenlooper's early 90s Civil War epic about Union and Rebel troops forced to work together to defeat a voodoo spirit turning dead soldiers into its own personal zombie army.

20:27 / 29.03.04

Oh yes, and I've heard the possible sequel to Shaun of the Dead will be called....

From Dusk 'til Shaun....

Heee!!

21:43 / 29.03.04

I saw the killing box and wasn't particularly impressed - i'm all for doing interesting things with the zombie movie such as shoving them into period dramas (especially if it a merchant/ivory production) but i just didn't enjoy it in the killing box

12:18 / 31.03.04

In mentioning zombie flicks, I feel inclined to bring up Return of the Living Dead. Punkers, smart zombies (they actually call in more paramedics and police), and these creatures were runnning around like crazy well before 28 Days Later was even a THC laden creation. Of course, the soundtrack alone is quite cool with The Cramps, The Damned, Roky Erickson, and TSOL to name a few. Ok, I'm done whoring this film.

Haus of Mystery

14:46 / 31.03.04

And one of the best endings ever.

20:06 / 31.03.04

More brains!

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

Great title, not much else - directed by the fellow that directed Porky's and Murder By Decree. Group of film students on an island accidentally resurrect the dead whilst goofing about. Zombicity ensues.

I just saw this over the weekend. It's PG rated, and deserves it. The director also did A Christmas Story (only thing weirder is Brian Yuzna's career trajectory).
The last five minutes are kind of chilling -- I like the one shot of Orville sitting on the bed. And the slo mo as that horde of zombies break in, topped by the freaky grinning blue face of the last one through the hole.

I was thinking about this since -- it's interesting in that the zombies here are kind of unmotivated, or, well, not *hungry* really. They may be vengeful. Hard to say. I bet a souped up remake could rock.

Haus of Mystery

20:17 / 31.03.04

Anyone seen 'The Dead Next Door'? It kind of sucks, but is endearingly cheap and enthusiastic. Main character's called Raimi. Ho ho.

13:43 / 01.04.04

Want to see the new DOTD this weekend. I saw the original trilogy a few weeks ago and they rocked! I hadn't seen them for a while but I notcied that 'Dawn' and 'Day' both have a kind of 'whistling wind' moaning sound effect that runs through them. I think it's this that always scared me as a kid.

The thing I heard about new one though, is running zombies. Running? The fact that they moved by relentlessly shambling along is part of what gave them a creepy effect. There's nothing like the beginning of 'Day' when they all amble out of the shops.

Fine with a few, but when they burst through in numbers....

14:24 / 01.04.04

I saw the remake last weekend. It was kind of cool, but running zombies just don't cut it. They provide more shocks, as they are faster and can leap out of places, but they just don't provoke the sustained, relentless terror that shambling zombies do. Also I felt that as they were so fast they didn't appear so dead, if that makes sense; they could have been alive but crazy, while in Romero's trilogy, there was no doubt that these things were the re-animated corpses of your friends and neighbours. Much scarier.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:55 / 02.04.04

Just came back from seeing it...

I think I would have enjoyed it more if the people behind me had SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!

Liked the ending. Where were the Hell's Angels? Why was the "zombie birth" scene so shit when it had been set up to be so good???

Not a bad movie. Not a good remake, however.

Oh, and "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" has also been released under the name "Zombie Graveyard". At which point it didn't even have a good name. I dunno, though... there may be no zombies until the very end, but by then you're just PRAYING for someone to come and eat those fuckers' brains.

12:35 / 10.04.04

well im not even gona pretend it was any good coz it was shite. i disliked all of the character, they were all stereotyped to the rafters. i think the first thing that black dude said was 'wha u talkin bout muthafuker'. it strips away all that romero achived in the orig, so all were left with is pap! BOLLOCK!
i liked the way they ripped off flesh eaters at the end. fulci prolly spinning in his grave!

what does everyone think bout braindead. i rekon its one of the best!

16:38 / 10.04.04

And soon we'll have Flight of The Dead.

Lions Gate Films is fast-tracking a new zombie film, Flight of the Dead, for a September start date.

The film follows the tale of two zombies being shipped back to their homeland after they are captured. But when the deadly creatures come unexpectedly to life aboard an airplane, the begin to wreak high-altitude havoc.

13:16 / 20.04.04

Yup. More fun than a box of Stanley knives...

The Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, which wraps up tomorrow, had its infamous Night O' Terror last Saturday night, so I saw not one, but *two*, zombie films back to back!

(They also showed Haute Tension, a Belgian chainsaw movie and the remake of Toolbox Murders, but I skipped the latter.)

Dawn of the Dead (remake) was not as much fun as the original, which would be impossible, but it was worth watching. True, there were no bikers, but Andy the gunshop owner was a good character and plot. I'm not a zombie purist, so I wasn't bothered about fast zombies. I thought the US flag in the shot at the end a bit overdone and not as effective as its Australian counterpart in...

Undead! Zombies and alien invasion, with a weird and downbeat ending. I think it had to do with fishing, but I'm not sure. Check it out if you can find it. From 2003, I think. It's on imdb, and reviews were mixed. I liked it, though I probably missed a lot of the movies the detractors say it ripped off.

14:00 / 20.04.04

I'm going to see DOTD tomorrow (anything to kill time and stop me from being near alcohol). I love zombie films, the originals were great, even despite the acting, so I'm hoping it'll be fun at least. Although I must say, from the trailers, the whole zombie baby thing looked a bit pony - I couldn't help thinking of that crap lizard baby in 'V'.

28 days later was a rip off of Day of the Triffids, and it was crap as well...

15:19 / 20.04.04

Well, I've been to see it and I really liked it!

Tried hard not to, but it was good. It might have been something to do woth watching it in a tiny South London cinema with a screen so big you needed bug eyes to see it all. And man was it loud.

The first fifteen minutes are about the best - I think they did the armageddon thing really well. It would probably have been a better film if they had just travelled around watching what was happening to various people rather than even bothering to imitate the original.

I know what you mean, Bub, about the character stereotypes, but its a fast paced film and isn't trying to make any points. Just sit back and enjoy. As my old mom used to say:

Ving Rhames + zombies + chainsaws = sexy time. Yeah.

The baby scene was a big disappointment though. It'd been building up to it the whole film and then.. well, nothing really.

Did everyone watch the closing credits with the camera on the boat? I quite liked that too. I must be getting soft in my old age.

Still, I don't care, I've just bought Zombie Flesh Eaters for £3.99 from Blockbuster on DVD. Shark anyone?

15:52 / 20.04.04

HMV's current sale has a lot of good zombie movies at cheap prices. Being the sucker I am, I'm now completely overwhelmed by zombies, having bought City of the Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 and Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue for a total of £15..

10:44 / 21.04.04

You've got the same idea as me Riz - I'm bulding up me zombie library.

I've got: 28 Days later, Braindead, Zombie Flesh Eaters, Night/Dawn/Day of the Dead and I eat your skin, at present (unless Carnival of souls counts?).

Anyone got any recommendations of must have zombies flicks?

11:45 / 21.04.04

if you haven't seen evil dead 2 you MUST do so...

12:04 / 21.04.04

Return of the Living Dead, of course!

I know you're in there! I can smell your brains!!