[UPDATE] Dead Island Trailer Buzz Ensures Movie Deal

[DanDeFool]

You know what we need? A zombie movie where the zombies aren't murderous, ravenous monsters, but mindless servitors who submit to their master's will. You know, like what you think of when you call someone a "zombie" in real life?

A 1932 film called White Zombie was like that. It's not a gory movie; the zombies are pretty much a metaphor for an exploited working class.

What I'd like to see is zombie who are creatures of pain and despair, rather than mindless hunger and aggression. You could still do the same thing about they killing people, but the apparent reason would be different. I think it would be pretty creepy to have zombies who are screaming in pain or weeping. Return of the Living Dead flirted with the idea, telling us that zombies ate brains because it was the only thing that soothed their constant agony, but the zombies usually acted in more typical fashion, even though they could speak.

The zombies in Half Life 2 do that, only backwards for some reason. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhD-vd7PXY4

I agree, and I had the White Zombie reference in mind when I posted, although I didn't remember the title of the movie.

Bottom line, if zombies are going to remain interesting, we need to do something different with zombies other than just mindless, violent, flesh-eating monsters.

Or, we could just do something besides zombies for a change. Just saying.

 

[rsvp42]

Final Thought: You know what we need? A zombie movie where the zombies aren't murderous, ravenous monsters, but mindless servitors who submit to their master's will. You know, like what you think of when you call someone a "zombie" in real life?

Like Fido? There was still a wasteland of murderous zombies, but in the protected town, zombies were controlled as servants and laborers. It was certainly a different kind of zombie movie, but the territory you're talking about has been trod before.

I absolutely love zombie stuff, but it's mainly because of the apocalyptic situations that go along with them. I like stories about surviving in an apocalypse and zombies are an understandable and easy-to-hate foe that add an extra layer of danger to what would already be a deadly situation (surviving the collapse of society and infrastructure). The stories and unique situations within a zombie apocalypse are what keep the genre alive (heh), not the zombies in and of themselves. Glancing at a new zombie production and saying "oh great, not zombies again" is like glancing at a trailer for a cop movie and saying, "oh great, cops again." I realize "cop" is a bit less specific and more versatile than "zombie," but it doesn't change that you'd be judging a book by it's cover.

And let's be honest, "zombie" is just one variation of what is actually a larger trope, that of humans transforming into mindless beasts, or even just mindless beast hordes in general. You could take the generic "people holding out in post-apocalyptia against hordes of zombies" plot and replace zombies with any manner of slavering mindless beasts. It's just that zombies usually take less exposition than their possible variants and are more conducive to an action-centric film.

 

[AvsJoe]

A zombie movie with a Memento-style twist? I am absolutely in! Someone get Chris Nolan on the phone, this movie needs to get made!