American zombie films seem to have de-evolved

[MinionZombie]

I return to my frequent sentiment that only if someone can add something new and interesting to an old film, should it even be considered for remake - but more central than that, I think sh*t movies should be remade - like Drive-In Massacre, which is f*cking awful, but you could easily make a decent film out of it. Hell, if someone stumped up the cash I'd gladly give it a bash. Yawn04 didn't stand out whatsoever. I was thinking about this whilst gritting my teeth through the Rubinstein commentary when he was on about the remake...Dawn - the original & best - knocked people's socks off when it came out. People hadn't seen anything like it, it stood out big style. Yawn04 - doesn't stand out at all. It's just another MTV saturated action-gore flick. At least Ghey08 stands out ... but for all the wrong reasons. Ghey08...my GAR it's bad.

[Mutineer]

I've said a hundred time on this site; in a land of really bad zombie films, it is refreshing to get a good zombie film when DAY, RotLD and Savini's Night were the last good ones (That I can think of); Dawn04, Shaun, 28 Days/Weeks. These are about the only ones worth mentioning these days. Bland, Ghey08, the Resident Evil franchise, the Return sequels; sucktitude. Dawn04 may have been an actionfest, but can't it be appreciated for that ? It did nothing new to the genre (so what), but it did give us something that no other Zombie film had done to date and that is bring it into the streets. Instead of lumbering shots of the undead in a field we got mass chaos on the street. Finally ! My only complaint is wanting to see more in the street stuff. It was superbly directed with a competent cast. Action, w/ comedy relief. I could have done without the Zombie Baby plot, but so what. Bland, in contrast did nothing but practically kill the genre with asinine ideas, piss poor directing, lame ass characters, a budget sucking Dead Reckoning vehicle (lame) and attrocious acting. The only reason the orginal Dawn knocked peoples socks off was the gore level; a level that hadn't been seen in film before. A great classic, but hardly epic sans for the gore level. Watching that film today is akin to watching a B movie. I still love it, but the filmmaking prose GAR had then isn't anything to write home about. Dawn04 has 45,000 IMDB ratings of 7.4 Bland has 26,000 at 6.5 I know that isn't the gospel, but it does say something. Dawn04 Domestic: $59,020,957 57.7%+ Foreign: $43,335,424 42.3%= Worldwide: $102,356,381 Bland Domestic: $20,700,082 44.3%+ Foreign: $26,070,520 55.7%= Worldwide: $46,770,602 ========= In a world where White Chicks can gross $100,000,000, it's hard to put much faith in box office, but when a remake (even if for namesake) can out do a marquee film headlined by GEORGE A ROMERO, it comes down to a reality check. Bland sucked. Dawn04 did not. Take off the GAR goggles.

[bd2999]

Bland sucked. Dawn04 did not. Possible, but as you even notes box office means next to nothing and you have to consider that it is more of a video game movie than anything else and that sort of conforms to what we have recently been getting. Lots of terrible movies do well and good movies do badly, and every other possibility. Not to mention that you have people who think the statement you made is reversed. Land was not the greatest zombie film ever but at the same time I don't think any movie Romero has made has been an overwhelming cash cow.

[Doc]

Bland sucked. Dawn04 did not. Nah Bland didn't suck, but it wasn't that good either, Yawn '04 wasn't that great. Zombie baby? Wtf? I mean what was the whole point of that? But I want to know why do people hate runners? People can run.....so why not the undead?

[MinionZombie]

I don't think any movie Romero has made has been an overwhelming cash cow. Most at least, and not straight off the bat anyway. Creepshow was his biggest success though, that did rather well. As for action, I've seen way better action. I wasn't excited by Yawn's action at all. Now Rambo - that's a f*cking action movie (yeah, it's not a horror hybrid, but it was a damn sight more horrifying than Yawn04). If you're gonna do horror - do it properly. If you're gonna do action - do it properly. Yawn04 - in my opinion at the very least - tried to mash both together and didn't do either properly. It was so numbingly average, like I said - didn't stick out from the pack at all. Any thunder it might have had, in my opinion, was snatched beforehand by 28 Days Later - and that's not even a zombie movie, it's a plague film.

[Mutineer]

I'll be the first to admit Dawn04 was an actionfest / popcorn experience. I can accept that.

[MinionZombie]

People can run.....so why not the undead? A zombie is basically a drunk toddler. Zombies can't speak, they can't read, they can barely comprehend or understand the basic shreds of our society. Meanwhile, running is a complex and co-ordinated movement. Staggering around, shambling, is not. That's just moving your legs just in time before you fall over forwards. That's do-able. Just think about when you're completely sh*tfaced on booze, your co-ordination is shot. Now take a virus that's capable of resurrecting a - dead body - and then make it run like a track star while it screams like a velociraptor? pfft... Interestingly, I'm helping a friend do an acting course practical where he has to show off his presenting skills, and he's devised a little 'show' set during the start of an apocalypse, and myself and his brother play scientist/beaurocrat/politician type people squabbling about whether they really are zombies or not because the infected individuals in this outbreak can run - so it should be interesting, and I'm already putting my little arguments together - such as that. Should be doing that thing on Tuesday, hopefully he'll get a copy of it so I can make a copy, but we'll see.

[Mutineer]

My zombies (if I can ever make my epic) will have the fresh factor; the fresher the undead, the faster, the older, the slower.

[Doc]

My zombies (if I can ever make my epic) will have the fresh factor; the fresher the undead, the faster, the older, the slower. That would certainly please fans of both zombies. Man Mr. MinionZombie you really don't like runners do you?

[bassman]

My zombies (if I can ever make my epic) will have the fresh factor; the fresher the undead, the faster, the older, the slower. I believe DjfunkmasterG's "Deadlands" used that same logic.

[Trin]

I wonder what the discussions would be like if the evolvling zombies in Land had "learned" to run. Whereas the typical shambler in Night/Dawn/Day were mentally constrained, as MZ points out, it seems to me to be within the mental grasp of Land zombies given the other skills they relearned. I little trial and error picking up their feet and they'd be jogging. It also seems to me that it is within their physical grasp as well. The butcher zombie was moving his arm pretty fast chopping at the plywood. That was a complex set of motions involving strength, speed, and balance.

[Griff]

I always perceived that the act of dying would be like having a stroke or something. When you regain consciousness, the desire might be there but your brain has forgotten some of the basics and you have to learn the simple things again. Its not all about rigor mortis, rotting and what not. Turning into a zombie must be a very traumatic thing for the brain and body to deal with and no doubt re-animation would have the nervous system misfiring and sh*t. Zombies should move slowly. That's a very natural assumption, something you don't even have to think about or rationalize to the person next to you. And its probably the reason why they didn't run until 2004*. *They were some kinda infected in NIGHTMARE CITY and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD was a comedy that deliberately tried to do the opposite of Romero.