I have vague recollections of watching a “(something) of the Dead” movie.
The black guy was the only survivor, but he got killed by the Army as it moved in, systematically shooting everything that moved.
Slight hijack, I hear that zombies were inspired by people on PCP, as they have lost all sense pain and keep coming even after taking shotgun blasts to the chest. Is this true?
[QUOTE=dotchan]
I have vague recollections of watching a “(something) of the Dead” movie.
The black guy was the only survivor, but he got killed by the Army as it moved in, systematically shooting everything that moved.
That’s the original Night of the Living Dead.
I have to say I thought this was a pretty good one. The fast zombies didn’t make a huge difference as I saw it, although I think I still prefer the slower ones. In fact I think this was as a good a zombie movie as you can make with fast zombies.
I also think that some of the themes of the original were maintained. No overt attacks on consumerism -just like there weren’t in the original, although they left in a line that they may be drawn there because they remember it, or some such. The Mall frustrated security guard trying to run his own little kingdom was a good element, although I didn’t like his change of heart at the end.
Why? Who is Frank Murphy?
Done. I should have said: “Well, you’re wrong. And please stay the fuck away from my seat in the theatre if you can’t keep quiet.” Better?
I’m guessing there was a scene of the survivors entering one of the mall stores through a window or service door, before throwing the toilet through the window to enter the main mall area – but cut for time.
I just wanted to note that yesterday I saw Jim Carrey’s newest, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and was physically nauseated by the herky-jerky camerawork and occasionally blurred cinematography. Good thing I later went to Dawn of the Dead to help settle my stomach.
I got out to see it on Saturday, and I have to say, I was pleasantly suprised. Of course, I managed to distance this film from the original enough to not sit there and compare throughout the film. As much as I love my slow zombies, these fast buggers were pretty damn effective, but still, the emotion was incredibly different.
I was glad to see they tried to maintain some of the humanity from the original. The scene with the girl’s father slowly dying from the infection and everyone’s hesitance as to what to do with him…not anywhere NEAR as powerful as Roger’s death in the original, but it was nice to have that put in, and I liked their attempts
I, too, had one of those guys who kept making stupid fucking comments during the film. I felt kinda bad, because his first one was really funny (when Ving first shows up pointing the gun at Sarah and say’s “Say something”, this guy shouted out in a very convincing zombie voice “Braaiins.”). After that, though, it was a bunch of frigging Pulp Fiction lines everytime Ving showed up, and that got old fast!
The few things that bothered me, though…everyone’s mentioned the spread of the disease. It just wasn’t possible to move that fast. People claimed it was ludicrous for it to take over that quickly in 28 Days Later, and that took nearly a month for things to get as bad as they were, the disease was a lot easier to spread, worked faster, and even they recognized there was no way it could have spread globaly. So, unless there was some international plan to unleash this plague on the same day, I can’t see how it could feasibly have happened.
One bit noone’s talked about that I thought was just utter shit the zombie baby! Now, the concept of a zombie baby doesn’t bother me…I’ve written a zombie story with one, and overall, the concept is pretty damn scary. But they really dropped the ball with the potential to do something creepy here for a shock value ploy that bombed. I was praying when I saw the previews that the jumbly womb was just part of a nightmare, and the actual thing was just stupid. And then when the baby goes vicious! Again, I think they were trying to make it shocking and horrifying, but all it got from the theater was laughs. It should have been left out.
And the species specific thing bugged me too. I heard in an earlier version of the script, they had zombie dogs that apparently didn’t attack people, just dogs. Oi.
Despite that, though, I really liked the film. In fact, I’m going to go see it again after work! It’s not nearly as impactful as the original, but it was a good zombie film, and I’ll add it to my collection. I just wish they named it something different (I just kept calling it Shopping Maul in my head…not original, but it worked).
Er, well, it cracked me up because I thought it was the name of the guy who became Robocop, but I see per IMDB his name was actually Alex. No wonder no one else laughed.
They might have laughed at you - but silently, because mocking Blue Thunder fans publically is rude.
Ok, just read on various sites that the zombies in the first NotLD were reportedly created by a space probe returning from Venus, exploding in Earth’s atmosphere. That was what was speculated on a news cast anyway.
As far as where did all the zombies in DotD come from, it’s a sequel. They started a few days prior in NotLD.
Because it would be pointless. As many as he could have shot and more would have come. And who knows, maybe he would have needed them some day.
Are we past the need for spoilers yet?
One thing I thought was great was that the leader-guy who shot himself at the end actually got off the easiest of all the characters - he was the only one that everything ended happily ever after for. The other guys had run out of fuel, supplies, got on each other’s nerves and then eaten, but as far as that dude was concerned, everyone was OK.
Ok, a couple of points:
The spread. You are all assuming that this came from one place, or was virus related. It still could have been supernatural, and simply spread through bites.
Bites. For some reason, I got the impression that if you died and had been bitten, so long as your head has intact, you would come back. I guess I assumed this because people with light bites eventually die, but if you got bit, and died of say blood loss, you came back as well.
As for fast zombies, they were way scarier. Slow zombies always made me wonder why people didn’t just jog by them. Fast ones really make them a fearsome foe.
I also think many of you are over analyzing both movies. Most people I know didn’t come away from the original thinking it was some kind of deep comentary or anything. It was a zombie movie. Those are whom this movie is catering. The people that want survival horror. And for the entire audience I saw it with, and every person who saw it where I work, it suceeded in spades.
I’m not knocking you opinions, simply pointing out that the magority of movie go-ers don’t put their films under the microscope that people here at the SDMB do 
I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to prove with your points. We all know it’s spread by the bites, tha was expressly stated. And although it didn’t happen, it’s probably safe to assume that if one were bitten, then shot in the chest, they’d come back because once bitten, you’re infected. The point of the new one is that, unless you are bitten, you won’t come back, which is where the confusion comes from. With that explaination, already dead corpses don’t get up, they stay dead. Therefore, it had to start with someone living who became infected, died, and was ressurrected. Okay, fine…but if it started with one person, or even a few other people, how the hell could it spread worldwide in the course of one day?
I admit, the fast zombies were really effective, but still, they’re not quite as scary. With the exception of the NotLD remake, pretty much everytime someone tried to “just jog past them”, they ended up surrounded by a huge swarm of the things and became lunch (or brunch, it is still dawn). That’s the problem with the slow ones…they seem pretty much harmless, but you let yourself become over confident, and you’re screwed.
One thing I didn’t quite get with these new zombies…why didn’t any of them think of picking up a rock, stick, chunk of metal and smashing the glass? Even the freshly dead in the original Night knew enough instinctively to use basic tools. [SPOILER]the legless zombie in the garage knew enough to use the pipes along the ceiling to climb around, you’d think any of the other hundreds outside the glass doors of the mall would have picked up on the whole “rock breaks glass” principle. I know it’s shatterproof, but that doesn’t mean once it’s splintered it’s going to hold, and those zombies were a persistant bunch.
In the original, yes, but this new movie isn’t a sequel, it’s a stand alone movie independant of Night of the Living Dead.
I would like to see this. It may just stay a “like to see” though, because if there are any truly horrific moments they’ll stay with me for ages.
I really enjoyed 28 Days Later, it was good to see Day of the Triffids finally make it to the screen with something scary in place of the triffids! Anyway there was a genuine sense of apocalypse about that film, all the attempted evacuations and all, and the fast moving was so shocking that it really caught me by surprise. Not sure it’ll work again, hope it will of course.
Which reminds me… um… how come the infected in 28 Days Later didn’t just immediately kill each other? Because they weren’t dead, were they, they were possessed of an unstoppable psychotic rage if I remember rightly, so really they should have been killing one another, not all hanging around in tunnels waiting for normal people to come along.
Ah, it’s another film, I’ll just go search instead, it’s probably already been answered.
Ah, see, but since I do take it as a sequel to the NotLD remake, I have no problem with the bite paradox To me it happened a few days after Night…not enough time for the world to know about the outbreak, but enough time for it to start down the chain reaction path.
But the two contradict each other too much. One’s got slow moving, one’s got fast. In one, all the dead rise, in the other, only those killed/bitten by zombies ressurect Remember in the remake, the black guy (can’t believe I forgot his name) died from a gunshot wound to the stomach and became a zombie…there, people who die from any means become zombies. And even in Night of the Living Dead, it only took that one night before people started banding together and hunting the dead down…the characters in Dawn would have been knowledgeable to what’s going on had this movie taken place a couple of days later. If it’s supposed to be the very next day, I can see where it would work, but still…the contradictions are a bit much.
Now, onto this little gem:
There’s another thread a few months old about this, but basically the reason’s as follows:
zombies don’t attack other zombies! It’s just a standard given in zombie films. The whole swarm tactic wouldn’t work if they did. Basically, whatever it is that causes the mutation in people to become zombies (or infected in the case of 28 Days Later) can recognize other infected/mutated, recognize it as a member of it’s own “species” and recognize it as a “friend”. Therefore, no attacking others of their kind. Check out the thread on Suspension of Disbelief, and someone’s got a link to it there if you want to hear more arguing about it.
lalalalalalalalalalalalalala not listening lalalalalalalalalalalala…
Ok, ok, yes the movie doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Sigh.
I tried. Looks like it’s going to be up to fanfic to supply the backstory.
Just saw it, and agree with the general consensus here. It’s good, but inferior to the original and 28 Days Later.
I mention 28DL not only because it was a recent zombie flick, but because this movie really was more similar to that picture than the original Romero. rather than satire present culture it was about survival, and the ethics of survival, in an apocolypse sceneario. However, 28DL was both scarier and better written in that regard.
We pretty much knew who was what here. We had the mall cops on a power trip. We had the yuppie who was guranteed to drop the ball at some crucial point, and the family man who couldn’t be trusted to put his wife and child down when he had to. Too many broad charicatures.
In 28DL, in contrast the soldiers were more terrifying, partially because they were soliders, not rent-a-cops, but also because there plan actually was terrifying. However, in a sick way, it also made sense. Ditto for Serena’s utter lack of compassion and Jim’s rampage at the end. The answer were less easy than in the new DotD.
I was wondering why they didn’t just go hide in the bomb shelter he had in Tremors.