 Originally Posted by riddleone
OK, forgive me for going on a Dennis Miller style rant here -- I realize that there is a certain prejudice about the concept of the remakes, mainly due to running zombies and the title. The only thing I didn't like in Dawn 04 was the fact that the infection was spread only by bites. As for running zombies -- well, here's some information that's going to make a lot of slow ghoul fan's heads explode! The very first rendition of zombies came out in Africa way back in the 1830's. Later the Voodoo religion brought it to the southern United States, where the fables and lore grew.
The zombies being written about in newspaper collums and occult books stem from Alabama & New Orleans with direct connections from Haiti. They contend that "Zombies"..and yes that is the word they use --rise from the dead and kill their human prey out of vengeance and witchdoctor control. What makes this odd, is the fact that they attributed speed and cunning to them and never had them pegged as "sluggish walkers". You can check this out yourself by accessing Zombie Fables of the Old World by Illeane Buboise. or checking out A&E's version of Exploring the Undead.
In reality the "popular" idea of sluggish zombies came from an old film starring Vincent Price, which featured some very Romero-esque mutant-vampires. Romero himself readily admited that he got a huge influence for Night of the Living dead from that film. (He did so in "Masters of Horror). The film is called "I am Legend". It features a young Vincent price, trapped in his home during the nightime hours, as sluggish ghouls bang away at his home trying to get in to kill him -- sound familiar? In fact, it resembles Night of Living dead so much, it almost appeard like a spin off, but the flick came out well before Night of the Living dead. In the 70's a sort of remake was made "Based" on it, called Omegaman, starring Charlton Heston.
Personally, I like the idea of both walking and running ghouls. Oddly running ghouls are actually closer to the real zombies of old. If they wer flying zombies or somehtogn, than I'd say hold up, dude -your getting inot "Evil Dead" territory, not zombies. As for Dawn 04 and the new remake, yeah -- it might have been a better idea to have named dawn 04 somehting else, that way they wouldnt be this kind of prejudice expectation behind it. As for dawn 04 being a kiddie flick --thats just obviuso hater's talk and just plain stupid to say. The only reason that was said, is becuase, the director was an MTV video filmstar and the wrieter had wrote for the Scooby doo movies. Dawn 04 has blood squiritng, brain exploding action and definately mature themes. If you can call that a kiddie flick, you'd better register yourself on the child predators list. In short, yes -George Romero's zombie films are the best -I didn't like the idea of "thinking" zombies in Land of the dead, but I'm not out protesting against it either. To me, thinking zombies humanizes them to much and makes them much less scary. What's next, will they be driving cars and talking foul language like Brian Keen's ghouls in "the Rising?" As for now, the original dawn of the dead is my favorite of all zombie flicks, but dawn 04 is still right behind it in my oppinion.
Since someone has to acknowledge this long post, I'll offer my own comments. I'm not necessarily replying to any of your points but just offering my own insight.
I've seen quite a few movies with mummies in them, some of which move fast (the Brendan Frasier movies, among other earlier ones) and some of which move very, very slow. You see the exact same thing with movies featuring werewolves, some of them are fast and others are slow. Wasn't Jack Nicholson's werewolf from Wolf a runner?
One example that often comes to mind is The Blob. The version with Steve McQueen has a fairly slow moving blob and the 1980's remake features a blob that just tore through town like a tidal wave.
I even remember one of the later day Halloween movies which had Michael Myers running after people (or close to it), which is something he never did in any of the other films from the series.
For that reason, I am able to accept running zombies easier than some of the readers here. It doesn't mean I have to like them, though 
I saw all the movies in the order they were actually released, including the Night and Dawn remakes. I never saw any of them in the theater, always on video or dvd after the fact. The original version of Dawn is far better than the remake. However, the 04' version has its merits.
The argument that running zombies shows a complete lack of realism needs to be thrown out the window all together. Just a zombie outbreak alone should be a clear sign you are already watching a work of fiction that could never possibly happen. It doesn't matter whether they are shuffling, running, standing still or sitting around a table playing chess.
|
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks