 Originally Posted by MoonSylver
In some ways, it's too late. In others it's NEVER too late (if that makes sense).
Makes perfect sense.
Originally Posted by MoonSylver
Even though vampires have been reduced to a joke in recent years the genre is still wide open for someone to do something totally different, take them back to their roots, whatever, & make a kickass book/movie...just takes the imagination & will to do so (& a publisher or studio who wants something other than the same ol' crap.)
Absolutely agree.
There are even a few exceptions that have pretty recently slipped through the cracks and avoided the Hollywood Sensitive Vampire label. The Vampires in 30 Days of Night come to mind. Even the Vlads in John Carpenter's Vampires had potential. (The lead vamp was clearly leaning toward Hollywood Sensitive, but the first hoarde the slayers encounted were fairly primal.)
It's solely my opinion, but I don't think vampires get a fair shake among horror fans for this reason: Vampires originate in Europe. Most big budget horror films are filmed in Hollywood. Americans are generally ignorant of European culture. And rather than subvert the differences, Hollywood exagerates them and we're always presented with a vampire that seems foppish. 
Originally Posted by MoonSylver
Zombies are the same IMO. Despite the proliferation of sub par entries into the genre in recent years, the genre ITSELF is still fertile ground, rife with possibilities.
Sort of agree.
Everything zombie will always be held to the standards of one man for fans of the genre. If it doesn't conform to the Romero Dungeon Master's Guide, First Edition Rules, it probably will only receive DVD-style attention from zombie fans.
So, the genre is only semi-fertile. To be honest, my opinion has always been that it took us 20 years to get Land, because Romero had painted himself in a corner. After Day, he spent 20 years trying to figure out what happened next that really wasn't just another survival story. While Land will never be my favorite, I look on it appreciatively for that reason. At least George made every attempt to keep it interesting and not mass-produced something or just represented the same shit we'd already seen in a new locale.
Dawn 04 is probably the most hated movie on this board for the simple fact that it slapped a Romero movie title on a zombie that was very non-Romero. It will never be fertile ground until fans can accept changes to the mythos.
Shaun of the Dead showed you could still do something new with a Romero zombie and be interesting. But, it was a zomedy. To do something new & interesting with a zombie tht follows the standard set... Listen, real-life apocalypse with Romero zombies is gonna be scary, but I think we would wipe them out in almost no time and recover without losing much. Toward the end of Night 90, Barbara keeps saying "They're so slow. We could just walk out of here." And, she's right. They're only treatening in large numbers, but they can't really organize. We can.
The problem is that Hollywood always wants to present zombies in a horror genre. But, really good zombie stories are designed to make you think, not for just a cheep scare.
Originally Posted by MoonSylver
Now, perception in the general public? Yeah, the damage may have LONG been done with both & possibly irreparable in both cases. But then again, the GP usually has a somewhat skewed perspective on what horror movies are,what they mean, what they're capable of, etc.
Despite the damage to both, I would wager that vampires could make a quicker recovery than zombies. Again, this is because the general populcae have come to terms with the fact that every vampire story brings it's own interpretation of the creature. Can you imagine killing a vampire to the Stoker standards? It would take all damn day to kill a vampire. So, you're still presented with the problem of creating something original with a zombie that can be frightening enough to be marketed as horror, deep enough to pull in fans (and a lot of guys that think they're Les Stroudt), and hasn't already been done to death. You can only see 'X' amount of people barricade themselves in a location, finally get out numbered enough that they realize they have to leave, develop a half-assed escape plan and meet a grisly end before it becomes routine.
Zombie fans expect something original from something that isn't allowed to change. Thats a pretty rough obstacle.
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