Throw me a bone here

[undercrypt]

There's a fairly common setting in fantasy stories - books, games, what have you - where a powerful necromancer raises an army of the dead to take over the town/kingdom/world, and it is the job of the main characters to prevent that from happening (which frequently involves a dangerous infiltration of the dark fortress). Really, it's common enough

Comments

[cor_cordivm]

Hm, you're right . . . I'm having trouble thinking of any movies that fit the bill. Armies of 'droids, sure. Clones, yeah (and that would include the orcs in the recent LoTR movies). But undead?

Maybe they've been lurking in the shadows, waiting for the CGI to be right . . .

[undercrypt]

waiting for the CGI to be right

I was wondering that too, but surely we've been there for a bit now and don't need Mr. Harryhausen to pose each one. Time for them to stop lurking, I say, and burst from the shadows like the proper terror-filled horde that they are!

[dyta93]

Some of the zombie b-films can get kinda close. I keep thinking more of the bumbling mad scientist of Frankenstein and Re-animator and the whole range of Necronomicon based movies. Granted they aren't producing mobs of these things. Otherwise I think of scenes from movies like the Scorpion King and such.

[undercrypt]

Yep, some scenes here and there definitely get the idea. Return of the King, too. The zombie apocalypse varieties are close but lack the organization.

Frankenstein... Herbert West... small minded fools! I'll show them, I'll show them all...

[asicath]

Lord of the rings was pretty much that story. The blade franchise has 3 movies I think? In both those the hordes are brainless and endless, are you saying they have to be skeletons?

[undercrypt]

They don't have to be skeletons per se (although that's traditional), zombies or ghosts or somesuch would also do the trick. The key points I think are (a) dead things raised by evil being to fight for them, (b) in numbers great enough for an army, (c) with the intent to rule the world or a portion thereof. Lord of the Rings only hits it briefly in Return of the King - nine wraiths do not an army make.

The Blade movies, and somehow vampires in general, don't quite do it, which I might attribute to vampires being too individualistic. Otherwise, yeah, Blade and Underworld and 30 Days of Night would be right there.

[ilexcassine]

The Black Cauldron is the only one I can think of... the lack of that plot line in movies is an odd thing, you are right.

[undercrypt]

Hmm. I missed that one completely, I'll check it out. Thanks!

[corvuse]

Chronicles of Riddick!

[undercrypt]

...hmm. I intended to see that since I enjoyed the first movie, but somehow missed it. I'll add it to the list, thanks!

[corvuse]

I didn't care for the cartoon which was supposed to stitch the two movies together, but CoR was very much a D&D adventure in space. Very over the top and very fun. There's a collector DVD that has all three movies on it for $16 or so.