Trin
24-May-2010, 06:00 PM
Alright, I have tons of questions and lines of thought on Survival and this is one of them.
What part does the horse eating play in the whole thing?
Looking back at the movies we have a lot of attention given to zombie eating practices, either around when/how they eat humans or attempts to get them to eat other things.
Examples:
- Zombie eats bugs in Night (probably inconsequential given it was the first)
- Fischer attempting to feed "beef treat" to zombies to get them to accept a substitute food source in Day
- Bub ignoring the instinct to feed on humans in Day (whether trained or simply his nature)
- Big Daddy ignoring eating humans in Land, and convincing other zombies to do the same
- A general lack of attention to zombies naturally eating animals throughout the series
Now we add in Survival.
- A zombie is shown to ignore a pig for what we assume to be an extended period of time. We are also led to believe this was not the first attempt and that all zombies thus far had ignored the alternate food sources available.
- Zombie sister takes a bite out of living sister.
- Zombie sister eventually takes a bite out of the horse, and then the zombies descend on the horse en masse.
What can we draw from all this?
Will a zombie eat an animal? Sometimes.
Will a zombie choose animal over human? Seems not, or at least in a very slim case.
My biggest question - why a horse? It doesn't make sense for Muldoon to think the dead girl would even consider eating a horse. Horses are not generally considered food sources, and in this case the girl would be particularly predisposed against eating a horse. She loved horses. If he were trying to create the best environment for her to eat an alternative this seems an awful choice.
Unless... what if the whole point is that the dead girl attacked and bit something she loved? What if that's what we're really supposed to glean from it all? She bit her sister... she bit her horse. Maybe Muldoon was at wits end and decided to see if she'd eat something she loved?
It's almost genius on GAR's part. Yes, zombies can be shown to eat alternative food sources. But in this case it's almost worse than what we had before. She only gave in when it was something beloved. So it proves Muldoon's argument but doesn't help the situation at all.
Another observation on the topic. Did anyone else notice that any zombie that was restrained was not lunging at the end of their chains whenever a human was near? They all but ignored humans in close proximity. But as soon as they were released they became agitated and aggressive? I thought that was interesting. By and large the zombies were more docile than Bub, who to this point was considered an aberration. I'm not sure what to make of that.
And, finally, what does the whole horse eating subplot have to do with the social commentary? Is there social commentary in that? Beyond the tie-in with the O'Flynn/Muldoon rivalry, that is.
Incidentally, I'm hoping to avoid discussion about the fact that she rode the horse in this thread. There's already a thread to discuss that aspect of the movie.
What part does the horse eating play in the whole thing?
Looking back at the movies we have a lot of attention given to zombie eating practices, either around when/how they eat humans or attempts to get them to eat other things.
Examples:
- Zombie eats bugs in Night (probably inconsequential given it was the first)
- Fischer attempting to feed "beef treat" to zombies to get them to accept a substitute food source in Day
- Bub ignoring the instinct to feed on humans in Day (whether trained or simply his nature)
- Big Daddy ignoring eating humans in Land, and convincing other zombies to do the same
- A general lack of attention to zombies naturally eating animals throughout the series
Now we add in Survival.
- A zombie is shown to ignore a pig for what we assume to be an extended period of time. We are also led to believe this was not the first attempt and that all zombies thus far had ignored the alternate food sources available.
- Zombie sister takes a bite out of living sister.
- Zombie sister eventually takes a bite out of the horse, and then the zombies descend on the horse en masse.
What can we draw from all this?
Will a zombie eat an animal? Sometimes.
Will a zombie choose animal over human? Seems not, or at least in a very slim case.
My biggest question - why a horse? It doesn't make sense for Muldoon to think the dead girl would even consider eating a horse. Horses are not generally considered food sources, and in this case the girl would be particularly predisposed against eating a horse. She loved horses. If he were trying to create the best environment for her to eat an alternative this seems an awful choice.
Unless... what if the whole point is that the dead girl attacked and bit something she loved? What if that's what we're really supposed to glean from it all? She bit her sister... she bit her horse. Maybe Muldoon was at wits end and decided to see if she'd eat something she loved?
It's almost genius on GAR's part. Yes, zombies can be shown to eat alternative food sources. But in this case it's almost worse than what we had before. She only gave in when it was something beloved. So it proves Muldoon's argument but doesn't help the situation at all.
Another observation on the topic. Did anyone else notice that any zombie that was restrained was not lunging at the end of their chains whenever a human was near? They all but ignored humans in close proximity. But as soon as they were released they became agitated and aggressive? I thought that was interesting. By and large the zombies were more docile than Bub, who to this point was considered an aberration. I'm not sure what to make of that.
And, finally, what does the whole horse eating subplot have to do with the social commentary? Is there social commentary in that? Beyond the tie-in with the O'Flynn/Muldoon rivalry, that is.
Incidentally, I'm hoping to avoid discussion about the fact that she rode the horse in this thread. There's already a thread to discuss that aspect of the movie.