Geophyrd
01-Nov-2006, 12:03 PM
For things GAR-related, Max Brooks, Dead Rising, etc!
From Daily Southtown (http://www.dailysouthtown.com/entertainment/117557,1ENT1-31.article)
Got zombies?
Books, video games, comics have helped breathe new life into the living dead
October 31, 2006
By George Haas Pop culture writer
On the eve of the traditional Day of the Dead, it's worth noting that zombiedom is alive and flourishing.
Like the flesh-eating legions of walking corpses, zombie projects are everywhere and they just keep coming -- in books, movies, comics and video games.
"It’s horror and the apocalypse, it’s horocalypse, and it plays to our fears in a post-911 world where no one feels safe," says Max Brooks, author of "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War."
Even the History Channel got into the act this past week, airing a special on the history of zombies for an episode of "Fear Files."
Why the fascination with reanimation?
"For me, it's the viral nature of zombies," said author Max Brooks. "It's the idea that they'll come to get you whether you're minding your own business or not. That breaks the cardinal rule of horror."
Most horror films abide by the rule that you're basically being punished for doing something wrong -- you put chemicals in the water, you violated the tomb, you messed with science or whatever.
"Zombies just come to get you. They're like a killer virus and that's terrifying," Brooks said. "That goes to why I think they're so popular now, because the zombie genre cannot exist outside the apocalyptic genre. It's horror and the apocalypse, it's horocalypse, and it plays to our fears in a post-911 world where no one feels safe."
Brooks may be the biggest beneficiary of zombie chic.
He is the author of 2003's "The Zombie Survival Guide," a dead-serious (wink-wink) instruction manual for withstanding a zombie attack, and he found his latest zombie tale the object of a furious bidding war between Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The two actors had obtained advance copies of "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War," Brooks' current best-seller that presupposes a global zombie epidemic, and wanted the film rights for their production companies.
"I was as blown away as anybody," said Brooks of the attention.
The former writer for "Saturday Night Live" and son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft said his phone rang every five minutes with bids and counter-offers. "I literally had to go home to charge my cell because it ran out of juice," he said.
Pitt's company eventually emerged the victor (for an undisclosed sum) with "World War Z" joining the growing list of upcoming zombie movie projects.
They include "The Night of the Living Dead 3-D," "Plane Dead" (zombies on an airliner), "Resident Evil: Extinction" and a remake of zombie meister George Romero's "Day of the Dead," starring Ving Rhames and Mena Suvari.
They come on the heels of recent zombie flicks such as "Land of the Dead," "Shaun of the Dead," "Zombie Honeymoon" and a remake of "Dawn of the Dead."
Brooks also has plenty of company in zombie fiction.
In addition to scads of zombie-themed comic books (even the Fantastic Four battled the ghoulish foes recently), David Wellington's "Monster Island: A Zombie Novel" and Brian Keene's "The Rising" and "City of the Dead" have revolved around rampaging armies of the living dead.
Keene, who was interviewed for the History Channel special, writes a horror-themed blog and is one of many fans of the undead who keep news of all things in zombiedom current at www.allthingszombie.com.For those of you who missed the History Channel special or slept through that college anthropology course (or maybe it was a religion class) on the roots of voodoo, the notion of the walking dead is an ancient concept.
This kind of zombie is not the mindless flesh-chomping horror popularized in movies, but the deep sleep-induced folks who are believed to be dead and then awaken some time later.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote extensively about catalepsy, in which people are perceived to be in a trance-like state, then awaken to find themselves prematurely buried. (It was one of his overriding fears.)
Voodoo practitioners in the Caribbean, especially the island of Haiti, are also said to have mixed drugs and indigenous herbs that can mimic deathlike symptoms. Wes Craven even explored the phenomenon in his 1988 film adaptation of the nonfiction book, "The Serpent and the Rainbow."
While Hollywood introduced zombies to movie audiences way back in 1932, with Bela Lugosi bossing around a bunch of walking stiffs in "White Zombie," it was Romero who drove us screaming from the theaters in 1968.
His low-budget, black-and-white cult classic, "The Night of the Living Dead," presented zombies as people infected by a virus that turned them into bloodsucking cannibals -- after they had died. The only way to stop them was a bullet to the head, decapitation or some other gory means of total destruction.
Romero's inspiration was Richard Matheson's 1954 horror novel, "I am Legend," about the survivor of a pandemic trying to hold his own in a future Los Angeles overrun by rotting corpses that had become reanimated. (The 1971 post-apocalyptic chiller "The Omega Man" with Charton Heston was similarly based on Matheson's work.)
Brooks credits Romero as the godfather of all current zombie projects.
"George Romero didn't start the genre," Brooks said. "There were zombie movies before him, but there were space movies before George Lucas, too.
"(Romero) redefined it. His zombie movies are deeply steeped in some kind of social commentary and I think a lot of that has fallen by the wayside. I think a lot of zombie movies are just focused more on heads being blown off."
Brooks' "World War Z" ascribes to Romero's vision as it details the political and social ramifications of a global zombie epidemic and an all-out battle between zombies and humans. There are government cover-ups and catastrophes as well as tales of personal heroism. It's told in a diary-like format that recalls the recent past.
"I think that social commentary is what keeps us coming back to zombies," Brooks said, "because the zombie genre kind of had its zenith in the 1970s. It was a time when we had an unpopular war, political scandals and social unrest. It seemed like things were falling apart around us. Lord knows those days are behind us, right?"
Then, too, there is something to be said about facing our zombie fears -- and blowing their decaying heads off -- virtually, of course.
"Dead Rising," a zombie video game for the Xbox 360, has been one of the fall's best-selling titles. Like the "Resident Evil" games, it lets players become the stars of their own action movies as they face off against waves of zombies. Unlike "Resident Evil," the game is played more for laughs as you try to outsmart the slow-moving ghouls.
"With a zombie video game, the interesting difference from movies is the interactive component," said Keiji Inafune, "Dead Rising's" executive producer. "By providing the players with enough options and freedom, they can create their own unique humorous situations."
It is admittedly dark humor. The hero, Frank, is trapped in a shopping mall with thousands of brain-dead zombies (insert your own social commentary here). Frank can use anything he finds in the mall to stave off his attackers while trying to rescue a few non-infected humans.
Break open the gumball machine and watch the zombies slip and fall. Grab a tennis racket and beat a zombie over the head with it. Heat a frying pan on the stove and smack one in the face. Needless to say, it's not a children's game. But then zombie movies are hardly kiddy fare.
As for the current surge in zombie popularity, Inafune said, "I think the appeal of zombies is that they stir in us a very simple fear, the fear of death. They also help show the dark side of human nature.
"To me, humans are capable of being much scarier than any zombie. With zombies at least, they are usually slow and kind of stupid."
George Haas may be reached at ghaas@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5933.
From Daily Southtown (http://www.dailysouthtown.com/entertainment/117557,1ENT1-31.article)
Got zombies?
Books, video games, comics have helped breathe new life into the living dead
October 31, 2006
By George Haas Pop culture writer
On the eve of the traditional Day of the Dead, it's worth noting that zombiedom is alive and flourishing.
Like the flesh-eating legions of walking corpses, zombie projects are everywhere and they just keep coming -- in books, movies, comics and video games.
"It’s horror and the apocalypse, it’s horocalypse, and it plays to our fears in a post-911 world where no one feels safe," says Max Brooks, author of "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War."
Even the History Channel got into the act this past week, airing a special on the history of zombies for an episode of "Fear Files."
Why the fascination with reanimation?
"For me, it's the viral nature of zombies," said author Max Brooks. "It's the idea that they'll come to get you whether you're minding your own business or not. That breaks the cardinal rule of horror."
Most horror films abide by the rule that you're basically being punished for doing something wrong -- you put chemicals in the water, you violated the tomb, you messed with science or whatever.
"Zombies just come to get you. They're like a killer virus and that's terrifying," Brooks said. "That goes to why I think they're so popular now, because the zombie genre cannot exist outside the apocalyptic genre. It's horror and the apocalypse, it's horocalypse, and it plays to our fears in a post-911 world where no one feels safe."
Brooks may be the biggest beneficiary of zombie chic.
He is the author of 2003's "The Zombie Survival Guide," a dead-serious (wink-wink) instruction manual for withstanding a zombie attack, and he found his latest zombie tale the object of a furious bidding war between Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
The two actors had obtained advance copies of "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War," Brooks' current best-seller that presupposes a global zombie epidemic, and wanted the film rights for their production companies.
"I was as blown away as anybody," said Brooks of the attention.
The former writer for "Saturday Night Live" and son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft said his phone rang every five minutes with bids and counter-offers. "I literally had to go home to charge my cell because it ran out of juice," he said.
Pitt's company eventually emerged the victor (for an undisclosed sum) with "World War Z" joining the growing list of upcoming zombie movie projects.
They include "The Night of the Living Dead 3-D," "Plane Dead" (zombies on an airliner), "Resident Evil: Extinction" and a remake of zombie meister George Romero's "Day of the Dead," starring Ving Rhames and Mena Suvari.
They come on the heels of recent zombie flicks such as "Land of the Dead," "Shaun of the Dead," "Zombie Honeymoon" and a remake of "Dawn of the Dead."
Brooks also has plenty of company in zombie fiction.
In addition to scads of zombie-themed comic books (even the Fantastic Four battled the ghoulish foes recently), David Wellington's "Monster Island: A Zombie Novel" and Brian Keene's "The Rising" and "City of the Dead" have revolved around rampaging armies of the living dead.
Keene, who was interviewed for the History Channel special, writes a horror-themed blog and is one of many fans of the undead who keep news of all things in zombiedom current at www.allthingszombie.com.For those of you who missed the History Channel special or slept through that college anthropology course (or maybe it was a religion class) on the roots of voodoo, the notion of the walking dead is an ancient concept.
This kind of zombie is not the mindless flesh-chomping horror popularized in movies, but the deep sleep-induced folks who are believed to be dead and then awaken some time later.
Edgar Allen Poe wrote extensively about catalepsy, in which people are perceived to be in a trance-like state, then awaken to find themselves prematurely buried. (It was one of his overriding fears.)
Voodoo practitioners in the Caribbean, especially the island of Haiti, are also said to have mixed drugs and indigenous herbs that can mimic deathlike symptoms. Wes Craven even explored the phenomenon in his 1988 film adaptation of the nonfiction book, "The Serpent and the Rainbow."
While Hollywood introduced zombies to movie audiences way back in 1932, with Bela Lugosi bossing around a bunch of walking stiffs in "White Zombie," it was Romero who drove us screaming from the theaters in 1968.
His low-budget, black-and-white cult classic, "The Night of the Living Dead," presented zombies as people infected by a virus that turned them into bloodsucking cannibals -- after they had died. The only way to stop them was a bullet to the head, decapitation or some other gory means of total destruction.
Romero's inspiration was Richard Matheson's 1954 horror novel, "I am Legend," about the survivor of a pandemic trying to hold his own in a future Los Angeles overrun by rotting corpses that had become reanimated. (The 1971 post-apocalyptic chiller "The Omega Man" with Charton Heston was similarly based on Matheson's work.)
Brooks credits Romero as the godfather of all current zombie projects.
"George Romero didn't start the genre," Brooks said. "There were zombie movies before him, but there were space movies before George Lucas, too.
"(Romero) redefined it. His zombie movies are deeply steeped in some kind of social commentary and I think a lot of that has fallen by the wayside. I think a lot of zombie movies are just focused more on heads being blown off."
Brooks' "World War Z" ascribes to Romero's vision as it details the political and social ramifications of a global zombie epidemic and an all-out battle between zombies and humans. There are government cover-ups and catastrophes as well as tales of personal heroism. It's told in a diary-like format that recalls the recent past.
"I think that social commentary is what keeps us coming back to zombies," Brooks said, "because the zombie genre kind of had its zenith in the 1970s. It was a time when we had an unpopular war, political scandals and social unrest. It seemed like things were falling apart around us. Lord knows those days are behind us, right?"
Then, too, there is something to be said about facing our zombie fears -- and blowing their decaying heads off -- virtually, of course.
"Dead Rising," a zombie video game for the Xbox 360, has been one of the fall's best-selling titles. Like the "Resident Evil" games, it lets players become the stars of their own action movies as they face off against waves of zombies. Unlike "Resident Evil," the game is played more for laughs as you try to outsmart the slow-moving ghouls.
"With a zombie video game, the interesting difference from movies is the interactive component," said Keiji Inafune, "Dead Rising's" executive producer. "By providing the players with enough options and freedom, they can create their own unique humorous situations."
It is admittedly dark humor. The hero, Frank, is trapped in a shopping mall with thousands of brain-dead zombies (insert your own social commentary here). Frank can use anything he finds in the mall to stave off his attackers while trying to rescue a few non-infected humans.
Break open the gumball machine and watch the zombies slip and fall. Grab a tennis racket and beat a zombie over the head with it. Heat a frying pan on the stove and smack one in the face. Needless to say, it's not a children's game. But then zombie movies are hardly kiddy fare.
As for the current surge in zombie popularity, Inafune said, "I think the appeal of zombies is that they stir in us a very simple fear, the fear of death. They also help show the dark side of human nature.
"To me, humans are capable of being much scarier than any zombie. With zombies at least, they are usually slow and kind of stupid."
George Haas may be reached at ghaas@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5933.