What are you still waiting to see in a zombie film?

[Christopher Jon]

What hasn't been done yet that you still want to see?

I'll start.

I'm still waiting for a true military vs. zombies movie. Black Hawk Down with zombies, similar to what Darabont wanted to do with the second season premiere of The Walking Dead.

[rongravy]

I'd say zombie porn, except it's been done in the Maddams Family.

[Christopher Jon]

'd say zombie porn

Let me google that for you. (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=zombie+porn)

[Sammich]

I am hoping for a movie with talking zombie animals directed by Uwe Boll and released by The Asylum.

[krakenslayer]

You know when you're a kid, before you've actually seen any, your conception of a zombie movie is all crumbling tombs, pale moonlight and supernatural horrors? Was that just me? We'll I've never seen THAT kind of film done well. Decent zombie movies tend to be apocalyptic/outbreak style or Fulciesqe nightmares, and if the gothic zombie movie is attempted at all, it's usually with more Evil Dead-esque trappings or it's just terribly inept (Burial Ground, anyone?). The Blind Dead movies come close to pulling off the right sort of vibe, but horse-riding, blind Templar litches make it a different kinda movie. Cemetery Man is probably the closest I've seen any movie come to this.

So yeah, small scale gothic zombie movie. Someone so it!

[shootemindehead]

When I was a kid I wrote a story for school where an 17th Century rural English village was attacked by a horde of zombies from the local cemetery after a witchfinder burns a local priest for his "crimes". Inspired by a combination of 'Witchfinder General', 'The Plague of the Zombies' and 'Night of the Living Dead'. It went down really well with classmates, but my teacher nearly had a fit.

Not saying THAT particular scenario would make a great film or anything, but I've always thought something along the lines would be interesting if done right. Obviously, small scale zombie outbreaks like that would have to be set centuries ago, where isolation was a very real facet of life. Today, if someone farts in Timbuktu, it's on Sky News in an hour.

[kidgloves]

Another vote here for the military v zombies. I thought we were going to get it with WWZ but seeing as they have gone down the fast zombie route it wont be the same

[Neil]

I am hoping for a movie with talking zombie animals directed by Uwe Boll and released by The Asylum.

I just threw up a bit in my mouth!

[bassman]

The military vs zombies is probably the biggest. Also, after seeing Cowboys and Aliens, I would like to see zombies applied to other genres. But only if it's taken seriously like Favreau did with C&A.

[Sammich]

I would like to see a zombie apocalypse from the view of those in government until the problem becomes so overwhelming due to the beaurocratic arrogance and incompetency that it leads to ultimate societal collapse.

Police/military in urban areas confiscating privately owned firearms and forcing "civilians" into rescue centers.

Politicians being true to their psychopathic selves trying to spin the situation in a belief that it will further their careers.

Small town Sherrifs refusing to comply with the feds gun confiscation/"civilian" internment and forming posses in resistance.



IMO the military vs [insert threat here] has been overdone since the 50's monster movies.

[AcesandEights]

You know when you're a kid, before you've actually seen any, your conception of a zombie movie is all crumbling tombs, pale moonlight and supernatural horrors? Was that just me?

Nope, that's exactly what I thought of a zombie movie being for along time as a kid and young teen.


I would like to see a zombie apocalypse from the view of those in government until the problem becomes so overwhelming due to the beaurocratic arrogance and incompetency that it leads to ultimate societal collapse.


Yeah, I've wanted to see it from the point of view of the crew and passengers on board one of the old fleet aircraft that used to be devoted to continuance of government (not airforce one).

[Christopher Jon]

I would like to see a zombie apocalypse from the view of those in government until the problem becomes so overwhelming due to the beaurocratic arrogance and incompetency that it leads to ultimate societal collapse.

Like Contagion (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/) but with Zombies?


Police/military in urban areas confiscating privately owned firearms and forcing "civilians" into rescue centers.

There is actually a reason that is done in disaster situations. It's called safety. Civilians with guns are unpredictable. You don't know who they are or what they will do.


You know when you're a kid, before you've actually seen any, your conception of a zombie movie is all crumbling tombs, pale moonlight and supernatural horrors? Was that just me? We'll I've never seen THAT kind of film done well. Decent zombie movies tend to be apocalyptic/outbreak
Your right.

I think a lot of that has to do with most modern zombie films following in Romero's footsteps. Bites turning victims into zombies which inevitably leads to more and more zombies and eventually a big 'ol zombie apocalypse.

It's been forever since I've seen it but Re-Animator had zombies reanimated through science. I don't think the zombies were able to spread the disease themselves.

[Wyldwraith]

What I really want and haven't seen yet in a zombie film?
Something urban, with a middling-sized (say 5-8) logically-grouped combatants (Say a couple local PD partners, ditto with a couple detectives, toss in a Sheriff's deputy and maybe if you're going a bit broader scale a couple of halfway competent National Guard reservist survivors from their decimated unit.

Go early enough in the outbreak that it still makes logical sense that people with the skills and weapons to take care of themselves could still be on the streets for rational reasons, in order to meet up with the other characters (Like say, when the SWAT in Dawn are still trying to clear apartment buildings sort of timeframe.)

Alternatively, a single larger unified unit (S.W.A.T, National Guard, police acting in a multi-officer riot-suppression role until they realize its hopeless and its time to fend for themselves)...

The KEY HERE is I want to see actions that make me believe they have the military/law-enforcement training such characters should possess. It doesn't have to be something grandiose. How about a land-based escape from a middling sized city gone utterly to Hell? With things like planning, coordinating their efforts, consistently watching each others backs and not blindly entering the Fatal Funnels of undead aggressors....

Resident Evil 2 had the unit (The S.T.A.Rs holed up in the building with the sniper on the roof), but they just got used as warm-body target practice by the migraine-inducing Nemesis-thing. I'd genuinely like to see a group of competent combatants have to handle issues like securing needed supplies/transportation, dealing with the moral issue of to help or not to help civilians they see along the way even if it increases the risk to them...you get the idea. Maybe throw in a time limit, like an announced leveling of the city by the Air Force at XXXX-hundred hours.

Seems like such a straightforward idea, but NO ONE has even TRIED to pull it off.

[Christopher Jon]

The KEY HERE is I want to see actions that make me believe they have the military/law-enforcement training such characters should possess.
The military always gets screwed when it comes to zombie flicks. Either completely incompetent or out to rape everything with a pulse.

YO, indi film makers, get your actors playing Soldiers to shave off their damn goatee's. Make an effort for realism would ya. :)


How about a land-based escape from a middling sized city gone utterly to Hell?


Seems like such a straightforward idea, but NO ONE has even TRIED to pull it off.
I'm working on something that fits that description. To give you a hint, my inspiration is the last days of the American embassy during the fall of Saigon.

[Thorn]

I second the idea of seeing the fall of man kind from a few different POVs that spread from government to small towns, looking at how leadership responds and deals with the issues in each case differently. You see I love watching the trilogy and seeing news clips about what is going on and seeing people coming more and more unglued.

I would love seeing that on a larger scale but with the decision makes, the aloof leaders who think they are untouchable, shocked when they fall and have nothing left, more shocked when they are staring death in the eye as jets run out of fuel, staff abandons them, and so on. Love the idea of the look at leadership on different scales.

[Christopher Jon]

I would love seeing that on a larger scale but with the decision makes, the aloof leaders who think they are untouchable, shocked when they fall and have nothing left, more shocked when they are staring death in the eye as jets run out of fuel, staff abandons them, and so on. Love the idea of the look at leadership on different scales.
Something like the CDC from the Walking Dead. That would be a cool story. Watching that place fall apart. Could probably even be done as a micro budget film if the right location could be secured.

[EvilNed]

You know when you're a kid, before you've actually seen any, your conception of a zombie movie is all crumbling tombs, pale moonlight and supernatural horrors? Was that just me? We'll I've never seen THAT kind of film done well. Decent zombie movies tend to be apocalyptic/outbreak style or Fulciesqe nightmares, and if the gothic zombie movie is attempted at all, it's usually with more Evil Dead-esque trappings or it's just terribly inept (Burial Ground, anyone?). The Blind Dead movies come close to pulling off the right sort of vibe, but horse-riding, blind Templar litches make it a different kinda movie. Cemetery Man is probably the closest I've seen any movie come to this.

So yeah, small scale gothic zombie movie. Someone so it!

Agreed! This is what I'm waiting for, and this is what I'm missing out on. There are a few good examples that come close, however. "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" comes to mind. But yeah, I get your point. Lots of low key lighting, tombstones, graveyards covered in a thin mist and lightning storms.

There's this great little Tales from the Crypt episode called "The Thing from the Grave" which is also somewhat gothic. It features a zombie rising from the tomb.

Otherwise the old spanish "Tombs of the Blind Dead" are pretty gothic. And Burial Grounds.

[Wyldwraith]

Agreed about the military stereotyping as either hopeless incompetents or rampant barbarians in fatigues.
Even in otherwise EXCELLENT works in various media, like WWZ (novel of course), TWD episode featuring the flashback of Atlanta getting blasted by air units while Shane and Lori watch. Sometimes its not even a matter of higher-quality decision making. Just a lack of realistic depictions of military capabilities. For example, within an operational envelope including Atlanta (meaning fuel to reach Atlanta from where the air-assets are based and fuel to return to homebase) there are at LEAST ***7*** major air bases in the Southeastern U.S with wings of aircraft with the air-to-ground capability to do the job. Forget helicopter gunships, A-10 Warthogs and/or Thunderbolts, only using incendiary-based bombs...up to and including Thermobaric devices could literally burn Atlanta to the ground. Some of the superstructures of the larger buildings might (partially) survive, but they'd be melted hulks when the flashover reached 3,000+ degrees throughout the entire metropolitan area. More than sufficient BY FAR to reduce to ash or blackened split bones all those zombie throngs choking the streets.

And that's just ONE easily executed example of how a VERY small number of air-to-ground-specialized aircraft could almost eliminate 97.5% of the zombies in a major city lost to undead infestation. If matters were so grave as to abandon the CDC in its entirety you can be damned sure the military would have NO compunctions about leveling a city that was already dead.

One of the reasons its such a bitter pill to swallow that the movie WWZ, trilogy or no, is being reduced to runner garbage.

[Christopher Jon]

One of the reasons its such a bitter pill to swallow that the movie WWZ, trilogy or no, is being reduced to runner garbage.
Yeah. It would take something like a 28 days rage virus to overwhelm the military. Zombies, especially slow zombies aren't enough of a threat. Even in a black hawk down situation, only 19 Soldiers were killed and over 1,000 Somali's were killed and the Somali's had guns.

[Eyebiter]

When I was a kid I wrote a story for school where an 17th Century rural English village was attacked by a horde of zombies from the local cemetery after a witchfinder burns a local priest for his "crimes". Inspired by a combination of 'Witchfinder General', 'The Plague of the Zombies' and 'Night of the Living Dead'. It went down really well with classmates, but my teacher nearly had a fit.



Have you seen The Plague of the Zombies (1966)? It's an old school Hammer zombie movie with a plot very similar to what you described, set in the mid 1800's.

[Wyldwraith]

Here's the thing that bugs me specifically about military response in zombie movies/novels,
In the entire spectrum of sci-fi/urban-setting horror, various films/novels have NO trouble depicting the military as flattening anything completely lost to a lethal contagion, and doing it without breaking a sweat. The Andromeda Strain, more made for SyFy and direct-to-DVD movies than I can count, and even a conventional plague-movie (Outbreak) for example. Yet when it comes to zombies and military responses in fiction media, its as if a) The military's capabilities have regressed over 70yrs and b) Military planning seems to be carried out by individuals with the brainpower of a turnip.

I mean c'mon now, how much imagination does it take to rip off the opening Outbreak-movie scene where they deploy the Fuel Air Bomb on the African community? I understand that they're trying to set things up so that their script is viable, but this kind of thing isn't doing the genre any favors. Seeing the military drop the hammer in a big way, with major brute force, and STILL being unable to prevent the zombie infestation from sweeping across the nation is FAR scarier than having the nation swallowed up by the zombie hordes without the military using ONE piece of major modern ordinance.

One of the parts that most of those who've read WWZ love the most is the Battle of Yonkers. Why is that? Answer: Because being immersed in a zombie apocalypse where not even everything and the kitchen sink that the military could throw down on the undead hordes is able to stop the relentlessly, mindlessly driven horde. Depicting hails of semi-auto gunfire failing to stem the putrid tide of undeath is dated, and an unrealistic military response to the single worst plague+riot-type event the world has ever seen.

For crying out loud, even Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem did a vastly better job in this regard, and that's just SAD.

[shootemindehead]

Have you seen The Plague of the Zombies (1966)? It's an old school Hammer zombie movie with a plot very similar to what you described, set in the mid 1800's.

Originally Posted by shootemindehead:
When I was a kid I wrote a story for school where an 17th Century rural English village was attacked by a horde of zombies from the local cemetery after a witchfinder burns a local priest for his "crimes". Inspired by a combination of 'Witchfinder General', 'The Plague of the Zombies' and 'Night of the Living Dead'. It went down really well with classmates, but my teacher nearly had a fit.


Yes.

:D

[Bruiser235]

What hasn't been done yet that you still want to see?

I'll start.

I'm still waiting for a true military vs. zombies movie. Black Hawk Down with zombies, similar to what Darabont wanted to do with the second season premiere of The Walking Dead.

I second (of third, or forth) that notion. I'd also add I personally would like to see the US military (or any country's military) portrayed in a positive light. They don't have to be the saviours, but to me it gets a little tiresome seeing most or all of them as assholes. I get the leftist politics, and agree with some of that, but not all of it.

[CooperWasRight]

I love all this patriotism... But it doesn't seem very realistic and it also seems to be conflating two issues inappropriately.

1:Some misplaced sanctity of those in the armed forces.
2:This countries ability to respond to disasters militarily.

This country has an obvious issue with emergency response and though I would like to think we have grown past that it would be nothing more then wishful speculation. If you believe anything other this you may have been ignoring the news over the last decade.

The closet comparison of the type of military response (once the issue was actually agreed upon and verified not only politically,socially and scientifically) would be urban warfare... Which check again, this or really any countries track record on this one... Not wars that are really won.

By the time anyone actually has the balls and is desperate enough to bomb the cities (killing thousands of survivors) it is already game over and would really be surprising if the forces necessary were left at this stage in the game.

Without going into what military training does to the human psyche, or the common psychological make up found in most people who willing take positions in the armed forces or law enforcement. Let's just keep it simple... Man is violent. And when there are no more rules... The primitive side of man is more dominant. Ask yourself truly how many people do you REALLY know that are selfless. My guess is at best a few... Those who serve in the armed services are only human. And if you doubt this take a look at recent past in this country and how many abandoned post for arguably just and un just reasons in the case of Katrina.

I have never heard of the governments in case of Zombie outbreak plan... They clearly don't have very effective in case this happens plans for plenty of other things that have happened many times in the past... Why would they effectively be ready to handle zombies?

Man kind is largely a denial based creature. Putting "making the hard choices" off till it's almost or already too late, compound this with politics, public outcry, hubris, and so many other variables and tell me how we would respond with bombing the cities quick enough. and even bombing the cities would be futile as there is the whole population that does not live in the major cities... Are they not vulnerable?

Say what you will about his later films but i'm sorry if the dead start returning Romero has it pretty dead on... "This America always sorts this shit out" is as far as I can see is baseless optimism. Unless you count on random variables of emergence to radically change how mankind, politics, and military works.

Im really not trying to step on anyone who has family, friends or themselves who have served in the armed forces... My hats off to them. But these people are not saviors. ptsd it pretty tough when you are gunning down the enemy... What do think will happen when the enemy is your neighbor?

My 2 cents which im sure many will disagree with... Take it or leave it.

[paranoid101]

The rescue centers at the start of the outbreak, you normally only see them after they have been over run, or the people in the film trying to get to them, can't really remember a film set in them when they were up and running.

Could have bite checks, panicking people trying to get in, deserters leaving the people to defend for themselves etc...

[Christopher Jon]

This country has an obvious issue with emergency response and though I would like to think we have grown past that it would be nothing more then wishful speculation. If you believe anything other this you may have been ignoring the news over the last decade.
The truth is always somewhere in the middle. In any disaster you'll always see the best and worst of people.

Based on the various disasters that have hit over the past 20 years, yes, certain parts of the country are going to fall hard and fast, other parts of the country aren't. It's not a politically correct view but it's what I've seen.

As for what would happen? It really depends on scale and speed.

In the event of the slow moving and slow spreading threat of the Romero world, containment isn't out of the question. If it's fast and widespread then it would probably be a worst case scenario. A constructive discussion would have to include parameters or else we're all shooting off opinions based on different mythologies.

I know that it's popular in most fiction to portray the government as a big bad secretive entity that always does what is best for itself, but that is fiction, that is what sells. It isn't necessarily the truth. Even if that were true in the case of big government it doesn't mean it's true at the state and city level. Governors can activate the National Guard any time they want. I'm sure some of them are giving the order the moment it's confirmed that the dead are coming back to life and attacking the living. Cities have local police and sheriffs departments. The entire country isn't dependent on a couple of suits in Washington.

In the case of the military, base commanders have a lot of authority. The national threat level may not be officially red but that doesn't mean they can't increase security on their own. After that first zombie hits Fort Benning I don't think those soldiers are going to get a lot of down time. Many bases are also not near major population areas which gives them a huge advantage. Bell County TX, Fort Hood and neighboring cities, only has a population of 300,000 which is far more manageable than someplace like Philadelphia with a metro population of nearly five million. With 1st Cav and 3rd Armored I think Fort Hood can hold their own. They got tanks n' stuff. But as Wyldwrith was pointing out, Fort Hood alone could lay down some serious damage. And there is still the Air Force, Navy and Marine to throw into the mix.

Are there situation where the military could fall apart or lose control? Yeah. But I'm saving my ideas on that for what I'm currently writing. :)

[CooperWasRight]

The rescue centers at the start of the outbreak, you normally only see them after they have been over run, or the people in the film trying to get to them, can't really remember a film set in them when they were up and running.

Could have bite checks, panicking people trying to get in, deserters leaving the people to defend for themselves etc...

I agree... I was loosely involved in a play about this very idea... I have written an arc about this very thing in a project i'm working on.

-- -------- Post added at 07:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:59 AM ----------


The truth is always somewhere in the middle. In any disaster you'll always see the best and worst of people.

Based on the various disasters that have hit over the past 20 years, yes, certain parts of the country are going to fall hard and fast, other parts of the country aren't. It's not a politically correct view but it's what I've seen.

As for what would happen? It really depends on scale and speed.

In the event of the slow moving and slow spreading threat of the Romero world, containment isn't out of the question. If it's fast and widespread then it would probably be a worst case scenario. A constructive discussion would have to include parameters or else we're all shooting off opinions based on different mythologies.

I know that it's popular in most fiction to portray the government as a big bad secretive entity that always does what is best for itself, but that is fiction, that is what sells. It isn't necessarily the truth. Even if that were true in the case of big government it doesn't mean it's true at the state and city level. Governors can activate the National Guard any time they want. I'm sure some of them are giving the order the moment it's confirmed that the dead are coming back to life and attacking the living. Cities have local police and sheriffs departments. The entire country isn't dependent on a couple of suits in Washington.

In the case of the military, base commanders have a lot of authority. The national threat level may not be officially red but that doesn't mean they can't increase security on their own. After that first zombie hits Fort Benning I don't think those soldiers are going to get a lot of down time. Many bases are also not near major population areas which gives them a huge advantage. Bell County TX, Fort Hood and neighboring cities, only has a population of 300,000 which is far more manageable than someplace like Philadelphia with a metro population of nearly five million. With 1st Cav and 3rd Armored I think Fort Hood can hold their own. They got tanks n' stuff. But as Wyldwrith was pointing out, Fort Hood alone could lay down some serious damage. And there is still the Air Force, Navy and Marine to throw into the mix.

Are there situation where the military could fall apart or lose control? Yeah. But I'm saving my ideas on that for what I'm currently writing. :)

I thought about writing more extensively about the parameters but I thought my post was already pretty long so thats what I was getting at with the "If the dead start returning"... Good points... If we change the variables such as biological attack (localized) or something more on a grand scale and universal as in the Romeroverse the out comes and rate of spreading would vary greatly... I still think likely in most cases the outcome would be the same.

[Christopher Jon]

I thought about writing more extensively about the parameters but I thought my post was already pretty long so thats what I was getting at with the "If the dead start returning"... Good points... If we change the variables such as biological attack (localized) or something more on a grand scale and universal as in the Romeroverse the out comes and rate of spreading would vary greatly... I still think likely in most cases the outcome would be the same.
Yeah, it's a big what if and who knows scenario.

I just like bouncing off ideas with others, it helps me with my writing. Fresh perspectives and ideas are always a good thing. You guys are gonna love Intergalactic Ninja Rape Zombies when I'm finished with it.

[Bruiser235]

I love all this patriotism... But it doesn't seem very realistic and it also seems to be conflating two issues inappropriately.

1:Some misplaced sanctity of those in the armed forces.
2:This countries ability to respond to disasters militarily.

This country has an obvious issue with emergency response and though I would like to think we have grown past that it would be nothing more then wishful speculation. If you believe anything other this you may have been ignoring the news over the last decade.

The closet comparison of the type of military response (once the issue was actually agreed upon and verified not only politically,socially and scientifically) would be urban warfare... Which check again, this or really any countries track record on this one... Not wars that are really won.

By the time anyone actually has the balls and is desperate enough to bomb the cities (killing thousands of survivors) it is already game over and would really be surprising if the forces necessary were left at this stage in the game.

Without going into what military training does to the human psyche, or the common psychological make up found in most people who willing take positions in the armed forces or law enforcement. Let's just keep it simple... Man is violent. And when there are no more rules... The primitive side of man is more dominant. Ask yourself truly how many people do you REALLY know that are selfless. My guess is at best a few... Those who serve in the armed services are only human. And if you doubt this take a look at recent past in this country and how many abandoned post for arguably just and un just reasons in the case of Katrina.

I have never heard of the governments in case of Zombie outbreak plan... They clearly don't have very effective in case this happens plans for plenty of other things that have happened many times in the past... Why would they effectively be ready to handle zombies?

Man kind is largely a denial based creature. Putting "making the hard choices" off till it's almost or already too late, compound this with politics, public outcry, hubris, and so many other variables and tell me how we would respond with bombing the cities quick enough. and even bombing the cities would be futile as there is the whole population that does not live in the major cities... Are they not vulnerable?

Say what you will about his later films but i'm sorry if the dead start returning Romero has it pretty dead on... "This America always sorts this shit out" is as far as I can see is baseless optimism. Unless you count on random variables of emergence to radically change how mankind, politics, and military works.

Im really not trying to step on anyone who has family, friends or themselves who have served in the armed forces... My hats off to them. But these people are not saviors. ptsd it pretty tough when you are gunning down the enemy... What do think will happen when the enemy is your neighbor?

My 2 cents which im sure many will disagree with... Take it or leave it.

Ok I was wrong. Sorry.

[AcesandEights]

Ok I was wrong. Sorry.

I don't know that you're wrong, per se. I don't agree with all of your points, but there's certainly a fair number of people on the boards--from what I've seen--who agree with a lot of your opinions. And no need to apologize for disagreeing with someone over the particulars of zombie-oriented fictions & theories :)

[CooperWasRight]

Ok I was wrong. Sorry.

No need for an apology... Just sharing counterpoints and different views. If you don't share my outlook thats cool... If I did share something that changed your mind thats cool too.

That's the great thing about forums, people sharing differing insights and sometimes it makes us think of things we haven't thought of and sometimes nothing changes.

[Mike70]

eddie vedder saving the world with an acoustic guitar by hitting notes that literally cause zombies to implode.

the idea of a language becoming infected like was explored in "pontypool." only done on a much larger scale.

[krakenslayer]

There's this great little Tales from the Crypt episode called "The Thing from the Grave" which is also somewhat gothic. It features a zombie rising from the tomb.


Cool! I've never really watched much of the Tales from the Crypt TV show, and this sounds like a good place to start. I'll have a hunt for it.

[carpetbeggar]

Right now I'd love to see an epic style zombie film take place during the height of the Roman Empire. Maybe during the the 1rst century AD. Have the outbreak start in Africa somewhere and spreads to Egypt where the zombies lay siege to Alexandria, then the Empire trying to keep it contained there and keep from spreading across the Mediterranean into the heart of Rome.

Also a movie set in current times, but not have it become a global problem. Have it based in some "far off" country like Afghanistan and just go into detail about how the outbreak is affecting the rest of the world with embargo's and travel restrictions. How it affects families in America when their sons and daughters are drafted into military service to go off and fight the zombies. Maybe have the POV of journalists who are embedded with the military who are fighting the outbreak. Basically it would be like Iraq and Afghanistan except the insurgents aren't living.

[Christopher Jon]

How it affects families in America when their sons and daughters are drafted into military service
The US Military is a 100% volunteer force. There is no draft.

[CooperWasRight]

The US Military is a 100% volunteer force. There is no draft.

There have been many times were a draft has been talked about being reinstated... So it's by no means out of the realm of possibility if the dead return the draft would come back... assuming it take more then a couple of weeks for the world to end.

[Rancid Carcass]

One thing I'd like to see is that moment (after they've realised there is nothing they can do to stop it), when the president or the prime minister sits down to address the nation... Something along the lines of Deep Impact would be pretty cool, but with a much worse outcome.

[Thorn]

The US Military is a 100% volunteer force. There is no draft.

I can assure you as numbers of active military men dwindled the US would reinstate the draft and pull back into active service men and women who were no longer active.

Now how many would report would be an interesting story to follow.

[paranoid101]

Battle of yonkers done right.

[Wyldwraith]

I'm not so sure a military draft would be the immediate outcome of a major undead infestation in a non-1st World-nation. Stop-Loss policies to suspend the discharges of soldiers whose tours are up, certainly. We've already seen that happen under G.W Bush's administration with Iraq, and to some extent under Obama as well as they struggle to maintain the status quo in Iraq & Afghanistan while drawing-down the number of boots on the ground over there. An event of not only military concern to the International Community, but also a potentially catastrophic and global pandemic-infestation with a Class 4 Bio-Hazard as the root cause would have the binding U.N resolutions flying and the World Health Organization (at the BARE MINIMUM) from the medical sector up in arms.

If the situation persisted, and especially if it spread beyond the initial Military Cordon/Quarantine Zone, the next move in America would be the calling up of those Reserve units and National Guard yet to be deployed overseas, in tandem with reactivating the still service-fit members of the various Special Forces organizations on their Inactive Reserve lists to have them retrain "Regulars" from the rank-and-file units of the various Armed Forces branches due to their expertise in unorthodox operations. You'd be talking about the same sort of Military-wide retraining depicted happening in WWZ when the U.S and its allies began preparing to retake the "White Zones" (Ie: Those regions completely overrun by the undead). It would be a major undertaking in and of itself to train huge numbers of soldiers, many career military with many years of extensive experience to unlearn conventional military doctrine and retrain them in such a way as to render them combat-effective against an entirely new yet unnervingly familiar-SEEMING enemy whose strengths and weaknesses are completely counter-intuitive to most of your servicepeople. Everything from erasing the muscle-memory of things as basic as the conventional Failure to Stop drill. Two rounds to the center mass, pause, then one round if necessary to the head will get huge numbers of fighters killed or infected = dead men/women walking, waste 2/3 of ammunition expended when engaging the Undead and also serve to demoralize your combatants even after they begin to adapt to the enemy's nature through hard-won experience (those lucky enough to last long enough to acquire said experience, that is). One of the tidbits I absolutely loved about the Battle of Yonkers was the soldiers panicking and screaming about "HEADSHOTS DONT KILL THEM!!!"....when in reality what was happening was they were wrongly assuming that a shot to the head would do the job, when in actuality you needed a much more dialed-in shot to penetrate the brain. The sight of zombies with a crater where their nose and upper lip used to be that are still coming would demoralize many if not trained extensively to combat exactly that sort of thinking.

Only when things began to spiral out of control and all hope of confining the Undead Infestation to the geographical region in which it originated was gone, and after a major expenditure of ordinance in extensive bombing campaigns failed to stop the hordes (if insufficient force is deployed against them. I'm a firm believer that the militaries of the 1st World have the weapons to fry any Undead Infestation. Its just a matter of the politicians untying their hands and accepting that sacrifices like major metropolitan areas of major cities being leveled must be made. If the politicians either never come to that determination (as happened during Vietnam with limiting U.S forces from pursuing the enemy north of the 38th Parallel and into Cambodia where their staging areas and much of their infrastructure was located), or come to the realization too late, thats when a zombie apocalypse truly begins. Not because the military lacked the means to effectively combat it, but because the civilian oversight responsible for making policy prevent the military from doing what needs to be done, on the scale it needs to be done.

If events get that out of hand, a draft would be immaterial. Not even forming militia units en masse from armed civilians would provide the manpower to fight back effectively if the politicians were to allow the undead ranks to swell with the populations of major cities like NYC, Chicago, Miami, L.A etc.

Just my .02

[Ragnarr]

I wrote a story module for a science fiction role-playing game sometime back. The main characters travel to an asteroid mining colony to investigate the disappearance of a corporate officer only to discover that the mining base has been attacked by a virus that... yes you guessed it... turns its victims into flesh eating undead. There's little gravity within the structures and tunnels of the base, so the characters are floating about with their advanced weaponry shooting a hordes of also floating ghouls. Can see how it plays out in my head, but not sure how kool it would be on the big screen.

[Arco]

I remember when I first played Resident Evil 2. There was a part in the game when you had to play Sherry Birkin, the little girl. It was stressful because she had no weapons and you had to run past zombies or avoid zombie dogs. I became so immersed in that game, that when I was playing Claire or Leon, I would kind of feel like I was looking into a real universe where these things were happening. I wondered what that kid was doing while I was plugging zombies or solving puzzles. It creeped me out.

Several years later, I saw some Left for Dead fan art that showed a group of kids fighting off child zombies, making their stand on top of a playground jungle gym. I always thought a zombie movie from a kid's point of view would be compelling, not to mention nerve-rattling.

Like a Goonies meets NOTLD.

[rongravy]

I wrote a story module for a science fiction role-playing game sometime back. The main characters travel to an asteroid mining colony to investigate the disappearance of a corporate officer only to discover that the mining base has been attacked by a virus that... yes you guessed it... turns its victims into flesh eating undead. There's little gravity within the structures and tunnels of the base, so the characters are floating about with their advanced weaponry shooting a hordes of also floating ghouls. Can see how it plays out in my head, but not sure how kool it would be on the big screen.
So are they smart enough to push off to get at the people, or do they just float around in hopes someone comes within reach?

[parky86]

Hi everyone i'm new to the site,
I'm part of the British army and get a bit pissed when i constantly see soldiers in zombie films portrayed as the bad guys or are really incompetent.

Any way id really like to see a film about a platoon sized group of soldiers defending an under equipped outpost on the outskirts of a major city for survivors to fall back to.
Id like the first half of the film to be quite slow and focus on the day to day struggles of the soldiers, like disposing of zombie bodies, looking after survivors, random attacks etc.

Towards the mid point id like it to turn into something like Zulu dawn where swarms of zombies try to overrun the outpost soldiers start running out of ammo are forced to used melee weapons and slowly being pushed back. By the end it should be like the american embassy siege in Saigon where helicopters come to save the day. As the last helicopter fly's off, a radio in the outpost is sending out a pre recorded message telling survivors to head to the outpost if they want to survive.
I did think that instead of helicopters coming, everyone gets killed and the radio message is played at the end, but i do get sick of films with endings where everyone dies.

probably sounds rubbish to everyone else, but what do you think?

[Mike70]

Hi everyone i'm new to the site,
I'm part of the British army and get a bit pissed when i constantly see soldiers in zombie films portrayed as the bad guys or are really incompetent.

Any way id really like to see a film about a platoon sized group of soldiers defending an under equipped outpost on the outskirts of a major city for survivors to fall back to.
Id like the first half of the film to be quite slow and focus on the day to day struggles of the soldiers, like disposing of zombie bodies, looking after survivors, random attacks etc.

Towards the mid point id like it to turn into something like Zulu dawn where swarms of zombies try to overrun the outpost soldiers start running out of ammo are forced to used melee weapons and slowly being pushed back. By the end it should be like the american embassy siege in Saigon where helicopters come to save the day. As the last helicopter fly's off, a radio in the outpost is sending out a pre recorded message telling survivors to head to the outpost if they want to survive.
I did think that instead of helicopters coming, everyone gets killed and the radio message is played at the end, but i do get sick of films with endings where everyone dies.

probably sounds rubbish to everyone else, but what do you think?

first off - welcome to HPOTD. there are a lot of good folks and interesting discussions/arguments. i hope you decide to stick around.

your idea of a zulu dawn type flick is what i've always wanted to see. sort of a rorke's drift with zombies involved. a huge, grand, epic, last stand of a movie with michael ironside playing a dude so bad that his very scowl incinerates zombies in their tracks.


by the way: if i read your introduction right, you are on active duty in the British Army. thank you for your service and sacrifice. i am a vet of the US Army - i got out in 1994 though.

anyhoo, welcome to this madhouse. it is always nice to have new blood.

[Neil]

first off - welcome to HPOTD. there are a lot of good folks and interesting discussions/arguments. i hope you decide to stick around.

your idea of a zulu dawn type flick is what i've always wanted to see. sort of a rorke's drift with zombies involved. a huge, grand, epic, last stand of a movie with michael ironside playing a dude so bad that his very scowl incinerates zombies in their tracks.
Maybe get to see this in Yonkers in the World Way Z movie? Although it does appear we're getting runners rather than shamblers :(

Can you imagine how expensive that part of the film will be? Might they omit it because of that?

http://masochismet.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/world-war-z-movie.jpg

[Mike70]

Maybe get to see this in Yonkers in the World Way Z movie? Although it does appear we're getting runners rather than shamblers :(

Can you imagine how expensive that part of the film will be? Might they omit it because of that?

we can hope neil, we can hope. it still won't have michael ironside incinerating zombies with his scowl though.:D

and yeah, if they did yonkers like it is depicted in the book, it would cost a mint and a half to pull off.

[Neil]

we can hope neil, we can hope. it still won't have michael ironside incinerating zombies with his scowl though.:D

and yeah, if they did yonkers like it is depicted in the book, it would cost a mint and a half to pull off.

Mind you, if you see the effects reals for The Walking Dead, you can see even a TV show can throw in background CGI zombies that are hard to tell from the real thing. So maybe it wouldn't be as hard we might imagine?

[Mike70]

Mind you, if you see the effects reals for The Walking Dead, you can see even a TV show can throw in background CGI zombies that are hard to tell from the real thing. So maybe it wouldn't be as hard we might imagine?

good point. only the ones shown up close need be totally "tricked out" in makeup. you could use something like the program employed in "the lord of the rings" films to generate massive armies that look completely convincing from a distance.

though at the rate this film has progressed (granted i've not been following the latest news on it closely), we might be at our kids' high school graduations before this thing finally comes out. or is it closer to completion than it seems?d

[krisvds]

Zombie jesus.
The saviour comes back. He's hungry.

That or a sequel to The Dead done by the same team with a bigger budget.

[Mike70]

Zombie jesus.
The saviour comes back. He's hungry.

:lol:

tagline: jesus is coming. this time with a taste for liver - your liver.