World War Z - Set video shows running zombies?

[Neil]

I'm agreeing with rongravy here; I watched that clip a couple of times and can't seem to shake my confusion. EVEN if the zombies are runners and EVEN if one nibbling bite does a person in, break dancing into a zombie in mere seconds is something I feel is one notch away from retarded. I'll still watch the movie, but I think I'll buy the smaller size popcorn instead of the large. They've clearly decided the infection needs to be turbo charged. The zombies run, bite a person once and then run off to the next person to infect. Meanwhile the bitten individual changes in a few tens of seconds... Does feel wrong doesn't it!

[blind2d]

Movie theater popcorn is nasty, man... I'd rather just buy Snow Caps or something...

[JDFP]

I so could not resist... j.p.

[shootemindehead]

Runners in WWZ?! For fuck's sake! Mind you, the plot sounds so warped from the book anyway ... what's next, flying ragers with rainbows shooting out of their bums? And, of course, let's just re-state the truth - 28 Days Later didn't feature zombies ... they were rage infected human beings who died after a month of being infected ... zombies are dead people, and they don't die of starvation after a month! I really dig that flick, but it's also unleashed running zombies on us - and filmmakers who know fuck all about zombies just watching 28 Days Later and going "oh we'll do that". One of the key points in zombies is that you can get by a couple of them, but they never cease coming, so if you fart around you'll soon find yourself surrounded - and your fight or flight instincts will kick in, or you'll just flat out crumble under the never-ending encroaching pressure of the zombie hoard that simply want to eat you no matter what ... so you get enough of them, and you're royally screwed ... and that's freaking terrifying! A guy in a teddy bear costume running at you screaming like a raptor would be 'scary'... There have been a few flicks with runners in that I've enjoyed, but I'd much prefer that they didn't have runners in them ... and as I said before, when you get a filmmaker who makes a zombie movie but knows nothing about zombies and just watches 28 Days Later (rage infected living humans that die of starvation after a month) and says "that'll do", fucking annoys the shit out of me. I also have to say that I totally disagree with the sentiment that 'now we have runners, we'll have to stick with them because of mainstream audiences' - give people a good product and they'll dig it. The Walking Dead - featuring SHAMBLERS - has been a huge success and flat out proves that shamblers still work like they always did. ... Fuckin' runners man ... *picks nose* ... they piss me off. Bingo. It's not the fact that the "zombies" are moving fast. It's the fact that they are sprinting like crazy, in a fashion that they couldn't do when they were alive. That's what's stupid about the Snyder zombies. It's just thick. It's giving the reanimated corpse a sort of super power. Some fast moving zombies are ok. But they need to be f*cked up and finding difficult to move, you know, as if they were reanimated corpses. The horror of the living dead is their disgusting "otherness", coupled with the fact that they are us. They are not to be underestimated, even in few numbers, but as a horde, they are relentless and lastly the death they promise is a truly terrifying proposition. Carl Lewis zombies are just crap, full stop. The clip in the OP looks rubbish. I know it's a rehearsal but, I don't care. There just so much wrong going on. Anyway, I've long since ceased to care about 'World War Z'. -- -------- Post added at 03:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:41 PM ---------- Running zombies are indicative of a generation of movie goers who want their horror served up to them quickly, and with athletic ability. I don't think it anything to do with the movie-goers, who by and large just take what's given to them. The culprit here are studio suits who have seen relatively recent success and want to repeat, until the formula is dead. The cues here are obviously taken from Snyder's load of shite and 28 Days Later. Money is the interest here. 'World War Z' is just a popular name to make that money. Just like 'Dawn of the Dead' was. At least '28 Days Later' was a relatively original attempt. I.E. not a remake, or a cash in on a popular title. -- -------- Post added at 03:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:02 PM ---------- They've clearly decided the infection needs to be turbo charged. The zombies run, bite a person once and then run off to the next person to infect. Meanwhile the bitten individual changes in a few tens of seconds... Does feel wrong doesn't it! So where's the fear then? I'm thinking fine, I'll get a small bite and I'll wake up in a few seconds and race off into the sunset. It's feckin stupid. Compare that with the slow agonising death that occurs in Romero's universe.

[AcesandEights]

Runners can be done properly, but usually are not. I also agree that they are a sign of lazy storytelling in many cases. Someone mentioned the Morningstar Strain, which, I always felt, was a great way of bridging the gap between sprint-capable infected and undead shamblers. I'm thinking fine, I'll get a small bite and I'll wake up in a few seconds and race off into the sunset.

[LouCipherr]

It's not running zombies that are bad. It's adapting WWZ plot to work with running zombies. You can't force running zombies into the WWZ concept. It's just a bad fit at every conceivable level. If they're going that route their best bet is to completely divorced themselves from the source material. And if they do that it could turn out to be a fantastic movie with running zombies. But if that's the case it WON'T be the WWZ portrayed in the book. This. I have no problems with runners (not "track star runners" but faster-moving zombies than shamblers) as it's always been my philosophy that when you're a fresh kill and rigor mortis hasn't set in (and you weren't completely devoured.. ), you have the ability to move quicker than a zombie with severe necrosis... That being said, if you're going to base the film off the book, then at least follow the goddamn original plot. If this was called anything else other than WWZ, it had a chance.. at this point, this is the equivilent of making Stephen King's "The Shining" into a movie - and putting UFO's and aliens in it. Instant undead? GTFO. Yeah, this too. It's annoying, and it might as well be called 28 Months Later if this is the route they're going.

[MinionZombie]

I do find that in the mainstream runners are indeed used as an excuse for lazy plotting - it's piss easy to write a shambler/'Hinzman Hobbler' scenario that works (The Walking Dead has proven that in spades), but I feel that some of these 'runner movies' are coming from an angle where the zombies are the most important thing in the movie ... when the best zombie content focuses more on the humans than the zombies. Also, with zombies, one of the creepiest things about them is that they somewhat recognise that they were once human - and now they find themselves in this horrific condition and they're totally unable to control their bodies as they once did. There's an underlying frustration and confusion to zombies - to shamblers - that makes them both sympathetic and terrifying once-human monsters. Runners trample rough-shod over any meaning that zombies represent ... it becomes end-of-the-world-porn (Yawn04 was a big example of that - a bunch of nameless idiots (literally introduced by the truck load, and some are literally never named in the movie) farting around a teeny bopper mall, throwing toilets through windows, shooting running raptors in slow motion, reloading in extreme close-up, cutting away to random boobage, then making the most moronic decisions whilst putting everyone's lives in extreme jeopardy because of a fucking dog called Chips ... and that's just the basics of that turd-fest ). /rant

[Ragnarr]

I never got a chance to read WWZ like most of this list has. From your collective posts, I'm deducing that the book's zombies are not runners. I'm wondering though; how did the zombie apocalypse spread in the book? It wasn't the one nibble = one Michael Jackson dance zombie creation that I see in that clip, right? btw, MinionZombie's "Fuckin' runners man ... *picks nose* ... they piss me off" is the type of awesomeness that keeps me coming back to this forum again and again. You guys rock!

[Rancid Carcass]

I'm wondering though; how did the zombie apocalypse spread in the book? Ripped this from Wikipedia: Although the origin of the zombie pandemic is unknown, the story begins in China after a zombie bites a young boy. The Chinese government attempts to contain the infection and concocts a crisis involving Taiwan to mask their activities. The infection is spread to other countries by the black market organ trade and by refugees; an outbreak in South Africa finally brings the plague to public attention. The book goes into a lot of detail about, well, pretty much everything, it's an amazing read - It's probably the most comprehensive and important zombie work since that chap, George Whats-his-face decided to make a low budget black and white horror film back in the 60's. You really need to read it - it's your moral duty citizen!

[MinionZombie]

btw, MinionZombie's "Fuckin' runners man ... *picks nose* ... they piss me off" is the type of awesomeness that keeps me coming back to this forum again and again. You guys rock! I'm glad you enjoy your time here at HPOTD, Ragnarr. Also - get a copy of WWZ and give it a read. It's well worth it.

[Neil]

Now shooting in London - http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=82250

[grungerocker]

The fact the zombies run ruins the thought of this being a zombie movie to begin with. Bit by bit, every time another zombie movie is released, there is always some kind of change. It's not that hard to keep the same image going. They already ruined the way I look at vampires. Don't take this away from us! Oh, the next person that refers to 28 Days Later as a zombie movie...honestly doesn't know their ass from a fresh dug hole in the ground.

[AcesandEights]

the next person that refers to 28 Days Later as a zombie movie...honestly doesn't know their ass from a fresh dug hole in the ground.

[Sammich]

Oh, the next person that refers to 28 Days Later as a zombie movie...honestly doesn't know their ass from a fresh dug hole in the ground. I find that just as irritating as when people say all zombies want to do is eat brains.

[kidgloves]

Thats no way to welcome a new member