Dead Island "Backwards" Trailer Redone As Live-Action Video

[Andy Chalk]

Dead Island "Backwards" Trailer Redone As Live-Action Video

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The Dead Island trailer that tugged on our heartstrings in 2011 has been remade, shot-for-shot, in live action.

You remember that great Dead Island trailer that made such a splash [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107826-Dead-Island-The-Best-Zombie-Game-Trailer-Ever] back in early 2011, right? The one where everything happened in slow-motion, set to achingly melancholy music, and that plays out almost entirely in reverse, from the dead little girl to the happy moment of arrival at the tropical island paradise? It was a great trailer, no doubt about it, even if it had virtually nothing to do with the actual game and inflated expectations to the point that there was a certain degree of backlash against Dead Island when it launched.

Still, it was a great bit of game-inspired cinema, and now it's been remade almost entirely in live action: same music, same sound effects, but with real actors running around, fighting and getting chewed on by the ravenous undead. The only part missing is at the very end, when the child is flung out the window and onto the ground several stories below, which is probably against child labor laws or something.

It's cool, and it's a great job of faithfully recreating the original trailer, but at the same time it just doesn't hit me in quite the same way. Having seen the trailer as many times as I have no doubt lessens the impact, but there's also something about it that's vaguely akin to seeing real people dressed like superheroes: No matter how well done the costume may be, it just never feels exactly right. That's just me, though, and whether or not it feels right, there are still plenty of "feels" to be had.

Source: Machinima (YouTube) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUksUq1EzMM]


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[SecondPrize]

Why do people persist in this fiction that ads are supposed to inform us about the product? Ads are meant sell product and the Dead Island trailer did very well in that regard. This video is bang on and pretty good.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I dunno...I was expecting it to be total rubbish, but they did a very good job. Helps they had the original music, though.

For me, the main point of the trailer is that it captures what zombies were supposed to be all about, which is ordinary people who get killed by their family.

Zombies as monsters aren't scary. Zombies as the thing that makes you have to bludgeon your children to bits without much warning...that's a different matter.

 

[Covarr]

I like how all the themes explored in the Dead Island trailer came to fruition in games like The Last of Us and The Walking Dead... but not Dead Island.

P.S. Thanks

P.P.S. Seriously, the Captcha ads are fine, but stop pretending they're anything but ads. I've been a member for long enough and posted enough without being a bot that I doubt I'm a high risk for suddenly becoming one.

 

[A_Parked_Car]

That was a really good live-action take on that trailer.

 

[CharrHearted]

Oh great, the "lets hate dead island game" thread again. The trailer was epic, the game was good (not bad, not great) and it was fun! Riptide... was worse, i can understand it being hated like hell, for not really updating anything.

 

[AntiChrist]

Why do people persist in this fiction that ads are supposed to inform us about the product? Ads are meant sell product and the Dead Island trailer did very well in that regard. This video is bang on and pretty good.

You're talking about advertising as if it's some sort of force of nature on par with gravity. Instisting that ads inform us about the product they advertise, isn't in defiance of God's divine will, or the natural order of things - it's the rejection of a man made convention.

 

[SecondPrize]

Why do people persist in this fiction that ads are supposed to inform us about the product? Ads are meant sell product and the Dead Island trailer did very well in that regard. This video is bang on and pretty good.

You're talking about advertising as if it's some sort of force of nature on par with gravity. Instisting that ads inform us about the product they advertise, isn't in defiance of God's divine will, or the natural order of things - it's the rejection of a man made convention.

Actually, I'm talking about advertising as it is. Advertising is there to sell products. That's what it's for. It does not serve consumers, it serves advertisers.

 

[AntiChrist]

Why do people persist in this fiction that ads are supposed to inform us about the product? Ads are meant sell product and the Dead Island trailer did very well in that regard. This video is bang on and pretty good.

You're talking about advertising as if it's some sort of force of nature on par with gravity. Instisting that ads inform us about the product they advertise, isn't in defiance of God's divine will, or the natural order of things - it's the rejection of a man made convention.

Actually, I'm talking about advertising as it is. Advertising is there to sell products. That's what it's for. It does not serve consumers, it serves advertisers.

Well yeah, that's a given. I think most people are aware of that. If not, I pity them.

I thought your comment was meant as a rejection of the people not being content with advertisement's current practises. It seems that we were talking past each other.

 

[Covarr]

Oh great, the "lets hate dead island game" thread again. The trailer was epic, the game was good (not bad, not great) and it was fun! Riptide... was worse, i can understand it being hated like hell, for not really updating anything.

Except it wasn't very good. Within about 45 minutes, you've experienced just about everything the game has to offer. The combat is shallow, the story is boring, and the the vast majority of the game is filler. Even without that trailer, I think people would've been disappointed, just maybe less so since not as many people would've played it to begin with.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Thaluikhain]

I think the very thing that makes people like zombies (done well, not stupid mowing down shit) is that it's a monster that is both fight-able to gain some level of temporary victory for viewers, but you cannot beat, as well as being specifically designed to cause infighting and difficult choices. It's very easy to write things like that into a zombies plot because of that, so when you have a good writer come around, they don't have to spend ages finding contrived reasons, while still being able to have their own unique twist.

Personally, I'm not so sure if there is anything inherently that good about zombies, or that they just had some talented people doing zombie stuff back in the day, and everyone thinks they can do as well.

For example, "The Day of the Triffids" back in the 60s had a very zombie movie feel to it, only they were plant monsters. Civilisation has collapsed, wandering hordes of monsters, survivors bottled up or scattered around fighting amongst themselves, and so on.

 

[CharrHearted]

it was okay, but by no means anything memorable (for me anyway)

That's what I mean by good! It's Okay! just because i said it's good doesn't mean it's OMG orgasmal XD i just mean, it's good/average not solid but not liquid as jim would say.