BRAINS
In the absence of any other entertainment whilst stuck up here in Gisborne, I've been amusing myself (and abusing my parents' broadband) by watching zombie flicks. Lots of them.
DAY OF THE DEAD
The third film in George Romero's Living Dead series, and possibly the least well regarded. I actually rather enjoyed it. Set in a fenced off underground military facility where the world above ground is blanketed with the living dead, it's full of gore, has rad looking zombies, a storyline which moves beyond the 'run and hide' scenarios of his previous films, and also features - unusually for Romero - a strong(ish) female lead. Good stuff.
WHITE ZOMBIE
Not really a zombie flick in the modern sense, since they're not actually undead and aren't the main antagonists, but nevertheless a good film. Bela Lugosi makes an excellent showing as the evil witch doctor (who is somehow Eastern European, but never mind that). His monobrow is the source of all his power. The entire film has a slightly disjointed, dreamlike quality to it, which I enjoy. Really, it's screaming out for a remake, and I'm surprised that nobody's done it.
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
Eighties-tastic! Jesus Christ, this has got to be one of the rankest pieces of crusty cheese I've ever seen, but nevertheless, it's quite entertaining. Touted (like about 100 other films) as an unofficial 'sequel' to Night of the Living Dead, it actually has nothing to do with it save a passing reference. It has punks, zombies who actually shout "BRAINS!", a crazy naked goth chick (who, of course, becomes a crazy naked goth zombie chick), a big spooky cemetery and a whole lot of very, very bad lines. Unlike most in the genre, the zombies can't be killed by 'removing the head or destroying the brain'. They can only be killed by burning, which has the unfortunate effect of spreading Trioxin (the chemical wot makes the dead want brains) through the air. Eventually a solution is found and it all ends rather abruptly.
DAWN OF THE DEAD
The second in George Romero's Living Dead series, this frequently tops lists of 'Best Zombie Movies Ever'. Contrary as ever, I can't help but disagree - the film is slow paced, the gore is limited, and the zombies look like hobos that have been crawling through a coal shaft for an hour but certainly do NOT look undead. Yeah, I like my zombies to be gross. I suspect that the film's influence on the genre counts against it for the modern viewer, as unless one has been completely insulated from zombie movies one will have seen it all before. The fact that I'd had about three martinis and was half asleep while watching it was probably a factor, also, so I'll have to watch this one again to reevaluate.
Incidentally, it's nothing like the 2004 remake. The only thing they have in common is that they're set in a mall, otherwise they're completely different.
ZOMBIE
Zombie versus Shark.
Best. Ever.
Seriously, this film is just fucking amazing. It does not miss a beat. Ludicrously gory (really). Disgusting zombies. A lead man who looks and sounds so much like Charlton Heston he might as well be Charlton Heston, which is awesome. Lucio Fulci (director) deserves a fucking Nobel Prize for services to awesomeness. That's all I can say.
DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE
Woah. Okay, this isn't really a zombie flick in the traditional sense, but it's possibly the gothest film I've ever seen. It does, indeed, feature a lot of zombies, but they're not really the point of the thing. It revolves around a cemetery caretaker called Francesco Dellamore, who has all sorts of problems with women. Also, the dead in his cemetery keep coming back to life, but he's a pretty good shot with a revolver so that doesn't seem to bother him too much. The film follows Francesco on a twisted personal journey towards homicidal mania. It's brilliantly surreal. I love it. This is by far my favourite film of the lot, even if Zombie is my favourite 'zombie movie'.
Interestingly, it's apparently loosely set in the universe of Dylan Dog, Italy's number one selling comic book series. You wouldn't know it to watch the film, but it does explain some of the weirdnesses of the setting.
THE BEYOND
Umm. This is another one of Lucio Fulci's films. It's regarded as being very good for its 'oneiric incoherence', which I think is just a nice way of saying that it doesn't make any fucking sense.
OK, not making sense isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like David Lynch. But unlike Lynch, the incoherence of this film doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose. Frankly, I'm not at all convinced that the disjointed and arbitrary nature of this film was a deliberate ploy on the part of the director; I suspect the production was just an absolute mess.
At the same time.. it has grown on me since having watched it. And it gave me the heebie jeebies where none of the other films I've watched have. It also ranks pretty high on the gore-o-meter. So I will need to watch this one again. It's a shame that it can't really seem to decide whether it's a haunted house film or a zombie film (would've been better if it'd stuck to the former, frankly). Worth watching, if just for a few nice visuals and a pleasantly creepy sense of foreboding.
LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE
The Brits have a go, and don't do too badly. Beatnik boy from Manchester has a minor motor accident on the way to the Lake District and gets stuck with a posh girl visiting her coke-head sister. A farm nearby are trialling a new machine which uses ultrasonic radiation (wha?) to kill pests and insects, which also has the unfortunate side effect of returning the dead to life (bet they didn't consider THAT possibility in assessing their resource consent application). Cue lots of intestine-eating action. The ultra-conservative Police Inspector doesn't believe the duos' story and convinces himself that they are in fact satanists who are responsible for the killings.
The entire film becomes a strange social commentary about sticking it to the man (and the destructive, zombie summoning potential of intensive farming, or something like that).
As I said, despite the trite eco-moralism, it's not bad. It hits all the right notes and has the requisite amount of gore. The characters and setting are oddly familiar, too; overdub the accents and this could easily be a Kiwi film.
I need MOAR. Any recommendations?
DAY OF THE DEAD
The third film in George Romero's Living Dead series, and possibly the least well regarded. I actually rather enjoyed it. Set in a fenced off underground military facility where the world above ground is blanketed with the living dead, it's full of gore, has rad looking zombies, a storyline which moves beyond the 'run and hide' scenarios of his previous films, and also features - unusually for Romero - a strong(ish) female lead. Good stuff.
WHITE ZOMBIE
Not really a zombie flick in the modern sense, since they're not actually undead and aren't the main antagonists, but nevertheless a good film. Bela Lugosi makes an excellent showing as the evil witch doctor (who is somehow Eastern European, but never mind that). His monobrow is the source of all his power. The entire film has a slightly disjointed, dreamlike quality to it, which I enjoy. Really, it's screaming out for a remake, and I'm surprised that nobody's done it.
RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
Eighties-tastic! Jesus Christ, this has got to be one of the rankest pieces of crusty cheese I've ever seen, but nevertheless, it's quite entertaining. Touted (like about 100 other films) as an unofficial 'sequel' to Night of the Living Dead, it actually has nothing to do with it save a passing reference. It has punks, zombies who actually shout "BRAINS!", a crazy naked goth chick (who, of course, becomes a crazy naked goth zombie chick), a big spooky cemetery and a whole lot of very, very bad lines. Unlike most in the genre, the zombies can't be killed by 'removing the head or destroying the brain'. They can only be killed by burning, which has the unfortunate effect of spreading Trioxin (the chemical wot makes the dead want brains) through the air. Eventually a solution is found and it all ends rather abruptly.
DAWN OF THE DEAD
The second in George Romero's Living Dead series, this frequently tops lists of 'Best Zombie Movies Ever'. Contrary as ever, I can't help but disagree - the film is slow paced, the gore is limited, and the zombies look like hobos that have been crawling through a coal shaft for an hour but certainly do NOT look undead. Yeah, I like my zombies to be gross. I suspect that the film's influence on the genre counts against it for the modern viewer, as unless one has been completely insulated from zombie movies one will have seen it all before. The fact that I'd had about three martinis and was half asleep while watching it was probably a factor, also, so I'll have to watch this one again to reevaluate.
Incidentally, it's nothing like the 2004 remake. The only thing they have in common is that they're set in a mall, otherwise they're completely different.
ZOMBIE
Zombie versus Shark.
Best. Ever.
Seriously, this film is just fucking amazing. It does not miss a beat. Ludicrously gory (really). Disgusting zombies. A lead man who looks and sounds so much like Charlton Heston he might as well be Charlton Heston, which is awesome. Lucio Fulci (director) deserves a fucking Nobel Prize for services to awesomeness. That's all I can say.
DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE
Woah. Okay, this isn't really a zombie flick in the traditional sense, but it's possibly the gothest film I've ever seen. It does, indeed, feature a lot of zombies, but they're not really the point of the thing. It revolves around a cemetery caretaker called Francesco Dellamore, who has all sorts of problems with women. Also, the dead in his cemetery keep coming back to life, but he's a pretty good shot with a revolver so that doesn't seem to bother him too much. The film follows Francesco on a twisted personal journey towards homicidal mania. It's brilliantly surreal. I love it. This is by far my favourite film of the lot, even if Zombie is my favourite 'zombie movie'.
Interestingly, it's apparently loosely set in the universe of Dylan Dog, Italy's number one selling comic book series. You wouldn't know it to watch the film, but it does explain some of the weirdnesses of the setting.
THE BEYOND
Umm. This is another one of Lucio Fulci's films. It's regarded as being very good for its 'oneiric incoherence', which I think is just a nice way of saying that it doesn't make any fucking sense.
OK, not making sense isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like David Lynch. But unlike Lynch, the incoherence of this film doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose. Frankly, I'm not at all convinced that the disjointed and arbitrary nature of this film was a deliberate ploy on the part of the director; I suspect the production was just an absolute mess.
At the same time.. it has grown on me since having watched it. And it gave me the heebie jeebies where none of the other films I've watched have. It also ranks pretty high on the gore-o-meter. So I will need to watch this one again. It's a shame that it can't really seem to decide whether it's a haunted house film or a zombie film (would've been better if it'd stuck to the former, frankly). Worth watching, if just for a few nice visuals and a pleasantly creepy sense of foreboding.
LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE
The Brits have a go, and don't do too badly. Beatnik boy from Manchester has a minor motor accident on the way to the Lake District and gets stuck with a posh girl visiting her coke-head sister. A farm nearby are trialling a new machine which uses ultrasonic radiation (wha?) to kill pests and insects, which also has the unfortunate side effect of returning the dead to life (bet they didn't consider THAT possibility in assessing their resource consent application). Cue lots of intestine-eating action. The ultra-conservative Police Inspector doesn't believe the duos' story and convinces himself that they are in fact satanists who are responsible for the killings.
The entire film becomes a strange social commentary about sticking it to the man (and the destructive, zombie summoning potential of intensive farming, or something like that).
As I said, despite the trite eco-moralism, it's not bad. It hits all the right notes and has the requisite amount of gore. The characters and setting are oddly familiar, too; overdub the accents and this could easily be a Kiwi film.
I need MOAR. Any recommendations?