28 Weeks Later

[robin_d_laws]

I wasn’t particularly grooving on the idea of a 28 Days Later sequel without Danny Boyle at the helm, but when the local reviews came in as raves, I got on board and I’m glad I did. Got to give it up for a sequel that takes the world of the original in a new direction, rather than simply trying to revisit all the signature moments of its

Comments

[captain_jester]

Ghosts represent clinging to the past and unwillingness to move forward. Or I think they do.

[fadethecat]

Ghosts I'd slot somewhere in spiritual or generational: the ghost stories I've read have usually been a matter of someone old and dead who won't let go of what they believe is still theirs. Or, conversely, about being cast aside and ignored by the new generation who don't appreciate what you were or had, when the story is from the perspective of the ghosts. The Others does the first fairly well, though the only example I can think of for the latter is Beetlejuice. But overall, I'd call them unease about time, or transition, or something more elegantly worded along those lines.

Hmm

[valmiras]

I never thought of mummies as sexual. Can you elaborate?

Can you elaborate?

[ash1977law]

I'd rather he didn't. Some fetishes are best kept under wraps.

Re: Hmm

[robin_d_laws]

The original Karloff Mummy establishes the trope by borrowing heavily from the stage play/movie Dracula: he comes back to mesmerize and sexually imperil a good woman who reminds him of his lost love. This pattern recurs in most major iterations of the Mummy flick, including the Christopher Lee and Brendan Fraser versions.

Re: Hmm

[valmiras]

Gotcha. Thanks!

I was hoping it didn't involve Abbot and Costello...

[strangedave]

I always thought ghosts were about mortality, pure and simple - the others might have people dieing, but ghost stories make us think about being dead. And the fear of the past.

[madmanofprague]

I think ghosts tap into something we've mostly abandoned, or don't grok very well: the fear of animation by the unseen. My evidence is that while ghost stories are universal, the belief in what they are is not: some of the best stories (as in, personal recollections) I've heard came from Muslims who consider them simply decietful nonhuman spirits. It led me to wonder if the 'ghost' is a rationalized explanation for a category of explanation for something that would seem the ultimate of boundary violations: non-life exhibiting will and action. The evidence of living presence where none should be.

Which, if I'm at least a little bit right, means the modern equivalent would be the A.I. and an infectious control of machinery. I guess it's a little more complicated now because we're achieving more and more animation of the surrounding world. We kind of expect toasters to pop and computers to go ding and phones to ring.

[crazyjane13]

Which, if I'm at least a little bit right, means the modern equivalent would be the A.I. and an infectious control of machinery. I guess it's a little more complicated now because we're achieving more and more animation of the surrounding world. We kind of expect toasters to pop and computers to go ding and phones to ring.

Ghost in the shell, perhaps? ;-)

Actually, this then moves movies like Terminator out of the "Frankenstein" category into "Ghost" ... at least in relation to SkyNet.

Bears thinking about ...

[madmanofprague]

GITS:SAC actually has a few episodes which are the most explicit ghost/a.i./spookily-animate unlife connections I've seen.

Other examples would be Ringu and The Shining. Terminator actually makes me think of werewolves more, as a seemingly-human person is actually just the guise of a sociopathic devourer...