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All we want to do is eat your brains, ZOMBIE lounge
  • maxrmaxr

    Hi there folks

    I find a bit baffling that PV doesn't have a zombie general talk thread :{O
    So I would like to invite all undead lovers to chill out, gather and share some good, tasty grey matter here

    Terminal Press, ZombieBomb!

    wuarghhh ourhh ughrhh!!!

    • • •

    Maybe, as a starting point, I'll ask: is 28 Days Later a zombie flick? Why?

  • 46 Replies sorted by
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @maxr

    I want to ask you different question, Can you tell us history of zombie term and zombies in films?

  • matthewcarrmatthewcarr

    Check out The Serpent and the Rainbow (the book not movie) for some history:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_and_the_Rainbow_(book)

    There are parallels between Zombies and the reincarnation of Christ.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @Vitaliy_Kiselev Article on Zombie origins.

    http://www.halloweencostumes.com/blog/p-441-genre-of-the-dead-infographic.aspx

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    Maybe, as a starting point, I'll ask: is 28 Days Later a zombie flick? Why?

    Functionally, yes. Technically, no. But Technically the undead in Romero and post-Romero zombie films aren't zombies. Historical folklore re: zombies shows they don't eat flesh and aren't made spontaneously but are the result of applied magick. They have a master. Post Romero zombies are more accurately ghouls.

    Functionally Romero changed zombies for pop culture, the way Stoker changed vampires and then later Universal pictures. Pop culture occult is almost all based on film versions of a given baddie which may or may not have been written with any basis in historical folklore. Pop culture only needs the image to seem meaningful, whether it is or not (see: misuse of the pentagram, etc., etc.).

  • jaecjaecjaecjaec

    http://nofilmschool.com/2013/10/infographic-zombie-epidemic-in-pop-culture/

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    Back in the 1970s was a fantastic series called Kolchak, the Night Stalker, about an investigative journalist who encountered all manner of strange things. It's pretty clear that this show was likely a big influence on Chris Carter creating the X-Files. This was one of the first programs to go into standard rotation when the SciFi Channel debuted in the early '90s.

    One of the most memorable episodes, for me, was Kolchak encountering zombies of the voodoo variety.

    ...of course you have the watch it in the context that it is 1970s television.

  • jleojleo

    What makes zombies so popular?

    http://www.diamondbackonline.com/diversions/article_4b1ffefa-313f-11e3-9fac-001a4bcf6878.html

    War May Lead to Increase in Zombie Movie Production

    Zombie stories aren't going away, and our research suggests that more are coming. This chart shows the number of zombie movies that came out in the West each year since 1910. There are definite spikes during certain periods, which always seem to happen eerily close to historical events involving war or social upheaval.

    http://io9.com/research-reveals-that-war-causes-spikes-in-zombie-movie-1258682535

    image

    WARZOMBIESoriginal.jpg
    798 x 432 - 135K
  • jleojleo

    Christopher Knowles is an American comic book artist, writer and blogger who writes on comic books and broader pop culture topics.

    The Culture of Surrender, or Cheeto-Eating Surrender Zombies

    http://secretsunjr.blogspot.ca/2012/12/the-culture-of-surrender-or-cheeto.html

    The Undead Don't Like to Leave Anything Undone

    http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2012/10/The-Undead-Dont-Like-to-Leave-Anything-Undone

    And don't forget the Fist of Jesus, zombie movie...

    Fist of Jesus is an absurd and bloody short film about Jesus battling sentient zombies who can talk, use firearms, and dress like cowboys in ancient Roman times.With campy gore and buckets of blood, this movie is sure to be highly enjoyable to some, and highly offensive to others. We make no judgements either way.

    http://zombieresearchsociety.com/archives/16330

  • larsaruslarsarus

    The podcast Stuff You Should Know has a zombie-related episode.

    http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/tag/zombies/

    Excellent podcast for those not familiar with it...

  • maxrmaxr

    @matt_gh2 , @matthewcarr , @BurnetRhoades , @jaecjaec , @jleo , @larsarus
    Wow guys, great feed, it really surpassed any expectations I may have had!!!
    Though I'll need some time to go through all this incredibly interesting material, at a first quick glance it seams obvious that human civilization can be explained/exposed just talking, examining and watching zombie flicks :P

    @jleo can't even begin to explain the shock and shame of not knowing a Zombie Research Society exists... seems such a cool thing to be part of, no irony here, well I don't know any more... who is reading? It would always be cool if any zombie researcher girls

    @BurnetRhoades

    Pop culture occult is almost all based on film versions of a given baddie which may or may not have been written with any basis in historical folklore. Pop culture only needs the image to seem meaningful, whether it is or not (see: misuse of the pentagram, etc., etc.).

    Nice! Seems to me any given cultural output needs a frame of reference... even to detach itself from it. This pop culture is becoming an accumulative tautologic and anthropophagic creature that will pop an ultraresounding fart, je je then zombies will be 4 real

    Keep them coming guys, this is truly superb level of info and thought :D

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    I think it has such an enduring quality as well because the evolution of culture and science has proven the myths of vampires and werewolves and the like are not real or ever likely to be real but the zombie, if you allow a liberal definition, becomes more and more believable. Beyond its plastic narrative metaphor abilities.

  • jleojleo

    Parasites that turn victims into mindless, zombie-like slaves are fairly common in nature. There's one called toxoplasmosa gondii that seems to devote its entire existence to being terrifying.

    5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen

    Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-scientific-reasons-zombie-apocalypse-could-actually-happen.html#ixzz2heFKhO57

    There are zombies among us

    Forget free will – many of us could be taking orders from the parasites inside our brains, reports Jerome Burne

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/9953571/There-are-zombies-among-us.html

  • maxrmaxr
    I think it has such an enduring quality as well because the evolution of culture and science has proven the myths of vampires and werewolves and the like are not real or ever likely to be real but the zombie, if you allow a liberal definition, becomes more and more believable.

    Couldn't agree more. Also they're naked... meaning low budget, most of them; nothing to prove as - you said it well - they haven't a story of art to be contextualized within and, once again important technicality, being the money and resources spent so low in comparison with other productions, expectations aren't as high and some directors managed to slip some really interesting ideas/critiques (Romero mostly) and absolutely wonderful (not a remark judging quality alone, I'll say soul/heart) craftmanship. Which is, sorry if I may be sugar blowing (?), the inverse path you were talking before, now, they provided the context... in such a powerful way (cinema greatly helps) that even our perception of "historic folkrore" may shift... year 2176 Xombie president admits occasionally watching Fellini :P

    @jleo
    • brain parasites no way josé... unless earth is scratching us out
    • neurotoxins, ja ja ja don't you already feel the hisssssssssshhhh
    • the real rage virus that's a good name for a song... about ... IRS
    • neurogenesis very interesting :-); zombologists? give me a break
    • nanobots, abosutely plausible apocalypsis in 8K and dolby 107.1

    If ten years ago they started fusing silicone chips to slug cells, where are they now, for real? and where wil they be in 10 years from now? I'll tell you, killed by a rotten horde of zombiofbitches!!!

    from your second article these great comments

    • Patriotism is a parasitic notion.
      But you can get rid of it through 'reading'.

    • Quote from the Houses of Parliament: "There are humans among us!"
      Cue utter panic, and strict vetting of visitors.

    • This is astonishing. A friend of mine committed suicide last year and these symptoms describe him compltely. Thank you for this article, his wife will be so relieved if it turns out his suicide was out of his control.

    • Mmm. I smell a Christian fundamentalist trying to introduce "irreducible complexity" through the backdoor (by trying to sound like a reasonable human being). It's very easily debunked. Here's a link to a fairly short explanation. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/1/l_011_01.html

    • The worrying aspect is that of those zombies aged between 20 -40 years i.e. those educated under the GCSE system, 60% have 5+ GCSEs and 16% are graduates. This compares with those zombies over 40 i.e. educated under the O-Level system where 15% achieved 5+ O-Level passes and 3.8% are graduate! This 20-40 group of zombies, so under educated but over qualified, now sit in the lower and middle management segment of both public and private enterprises which explains a lot of our current problems.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    If you want to watch a funny movie, check out Return of the Living Dead. Great stuff.

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    If you haven't seen it, check out the BBC miniseries In the Flesh. It's one of the most thought provoking twists on the sub-genre that I've seen. When it premiered on BBC-America it was hailed as "the thinking man's Walking Dead":

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    @matt_gh2

    If you want to watch a funny movie, check out Return of the Living Dead. Great stuff.

    Written and directed by Dan "Pinback" O'Bannon, who also penned the screenplay for Alien, Blue Thunder, Lifeforce and the original Total Recall, among others.

    A buddy of mine that I used to work with was a puppeteer, monster and make up guy before he transitioned to digital animation and effects. One of his favorite moments across a career that included work in 2010 and Ghostbusters, T2 and Jurassic Park was being the guy that brushed and poured the cast material onto Linnea Quigley for the flesh colored latex "shorts" that she wore as her character "Trash". They were totally invisible on film and made you think you were looking at hot full-frontal nudity when she was really only topless.

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @BurnetRhoades Very cool.

    Here's the trailer for anyone interested for Return of the Living Dead.

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    Love, love, love the "Tarman".

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @BurnetRhoades In The Flesh looks good - thanks for heads up on that!

  • BurnetRhoadesBurnetRhoades

    I read it's getting a second season. It's really good. Hope you like!

  • maxrmaxr

    @matt_gh2 , @BurnetRhoades great funny film indeed, unforgettable moments. I'll try to get some undead state so I manage to have a watch at the series In the Flesh... though must admit that these days have hard time connecting with series, grown up spam attention deficit? Though a bit later, I find Peter Jackson's Braindead equally funny; the lawnmower, the priest kicking ass and the family dinner scenes. "Your mother ate my dog!!!" I wish could say that more often

  • matt_gh2matt_gh2

    @maxr Priest kicking ass?...I'm in! Will definitely be checking out Braindead. Thanks for heads up!

  • flabloflablo

    Great thread. Following the awesome Braindead and Return of the living dead suggestions, I'd like to point out other zombie comedies that are really worth:

    Shaun of the dead (of course)

    Dead snow (Norwegian low budget very funny)

    Cockneys vs Zombies (not bad)

    Zombies and Cigarettes (Spanish short very cute)

    Night of the Living Jews (very sick and funny short)

    Zombie Movie (great New Zealand short)

    got other titles but I don't mean to flood the thread :)

  • maxrmaxr
    Priest kicking ass?...I'm in! Will definitely be checking out Braindead.

    @matt_gh2 not only... once destitude of his humanness, doing naughty and very funny things, the kind of extravaganza reserved to zombies only XD

    @flablo Shaun of the dead, yes. Cockneys vs Zombies, yes but zombritish Dead Set is unsurpassed :D
    Zombies and Cigarettes, though a blatant copy of Romero's Dawn of the Dead a must watch IMHO. The other 2 shorts I haven't seen, adding them to my watchlist, thanks. Dead Snow... for years had been listening about this film so when I finally watched I felt somehow disappointed, still a must in nazi zombie sub-genre

    If you want a very recent, funny and explosive mix, from Cuba with love Juan de los Muertos best ever tropical zombies apocalyse. Specially recommended to our powerhost @Vitaliy_Kiselev ;-)

    Embed one zombie flick at a time please. It is more zombiecratic and from a functional POV the page is lighter making it faster to load. Thank you, guys

  • jpbturbojpbturbo

    Ghost Breakers from 1940 starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard features an original style voodoo zombie.

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmt9w5_the-ghost-breakers_shortfilms

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