The Fascination With The Zombie Apocalypse
The views expressed here are the express written opinions and observations of Nila N. Brown and are not endorsed by Blogger, Big Foot or Rick Baker. So don't give me any shit over my blog about it. I realize this subject might be sensitive to some.
(Ahem)
When I was a young lass growing up in Tha 'Lou (that's St. Louis to all of you non-St. Louisans), I would sit up night after night after night and weekends watching all the bloodthirsty horror movies of the day. Well, they were bloodthirsty for a kid that was about 7 or 8 years old. Back then, the scariest you could see at the movies without needing a parent, guardian or just plain sneaking into the theater and staying all day were old movies like "Dracula," or "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" at the Loew's State Theater on Washington Avenue, or wait until Saturday's "Creature Feature" on Channel 11. There, you could get "Abbott and Costello Meet Whatever Horror Villain," or "King Kong" from the 30's. "Tarzan" movies were really big too, although by the end of the series and after the fourth or fifth Jane, I could never figure out why Africa was full of Mexican girls in Caribbean-inspired sarongs and bikinis. You could also get a good psychological horror like "Dark Shadows." Frankly, Barnabas Collins scared the crap out of me and in a not-so-good way. Then again, I was just a kid and while adult females saw Barnabas as sexy, I would wrap a scarf around my neck before going to bed. That insane bloodsucker wasn't gonna get me! I could see why Josette didn't want to be brought back from the dead.
Then something miraculous happened, depending on your perspective - "The Exorcist" hit the movie theaters. It was like the horror heavens opened up and brought forth the reign of terror and devastation, the likes of which my fragile little mind had never seen before and never truly recovered from. Suddenly, every horror movie after that had tons of blood, degradation and half naked women running around with their little 70's floppy boobies while trying to evade Leatherface, sharks that made you scared to go in the water, Damien, that "Trilogy of Terror" episode with that tiki doll.
By the way, I'm pretty sure that while some people can't remember the name "Trilogy of Terror," (I had to actually look it up), I know everybody from that era remembers that damn demonic doll.
The gettins' was good and there were body parts that I had never heard of before and the school never taught you about. I honestly didn't know you could play double dutch with the intestines. If you had a particular taste, there was a spongy bloody movie for even the most finicky Type A connoisseur. Chop it up whole, store in it a freezer, dump it in a lake - if meat was to be had, the 70's served it up on a silver platter.
Then Michael Myers, the Alien, Jason, Carole Ann and Freddy changed the game; not necessarily for the good, you understand. While they were outstanding in their own rights, by the mid-80's the market was saturated with the horror that became the sequels; II, III, IV, ghoul vs ghoul, Season of the Witch, The Return of, The Curse of, The Wife of, The Left Baby Toe of...well, you get the idea. Hell, I'm pretty sure that Freddy and Jason's grandchildren will be battling in the near future.
By this time, I was a young woman and my tastes were changing. Remember, it's the 80's! Jheri curl, big fluffy hair, Madonna, Klymaxx, Jody Whatley, Culture Club, Rick James and Teena Marie, MTV, Michael Jackson, I just knew I was gonna grow up and be Jojo from the Mary Jane Girls, and then "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles," "The Princess Bride" and "The Color Purple" happened. You know how you realize that a page has turned? "Night of the Creeps" made me physically ill and by the time that damn Chucky doll was tearing through some shit, I was done. Then Gene Roddenberry recycled "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and just like that I switched genres, becoming a Sci Fi Hunny. Add "Indiana Jones" and I became an Action/Adventure Hunny.
Earlier in this blog, I mentioned "Dracula" and the "Abbott and Costello Meets Whatever Horror Villain" movies. This brings me to the point I was sort of making in my mad ramblings and recollections. Back in the 30's and 40's, these characters frightened their audiences out of their minds but by the time all of these "Meets" movies came out, they were pure camp. After all, you really can't take The Wolfman seriously after Lou Costello locks him in a hotel room, steals one of his oranges and Wolfie only shreds the room instead of busting through, Idunno...a WINDOW or a DOOR! Was that room made of werewolf kryptonite or something? WTF?? Every horror element recycles every generation and in the 21st Century, vamps and werewolves are making a huge resurgence but oddly enough, I don't see as many of these types of movies as I thought I would. Yes there are plenty and many different out of the box ways of making a vamp, killing a vamp, even glow-in-the-sunlight vamps, and werewolves you wouldn't kick out of bed, but not as many as I would have expected to see, beyond the Dawn of the Dead and a few other bucket-o-blood movies. Even "The Mummy" came back...and kept coming back...and should have never been resurrected beyond the second movie. It's kind of sad that, instead of going to the movies like I used to, I just wait for the Redbox. I'd rather pay a buck twenty for a lousy movie than pay damn near $15 for some big budgeted, over-the-top turd that all the eye bleach on Planet Earth can't wash away (i.e., "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"). Whew! Dodged a bullet there...Redbox you da man! *devil horns*
However, what the hell is up with the Zombie Apocalypse? Yes I realize that "The Walking Dead" has taken the world by storm and I was actually excited about it. I watched it the first season for about, oh...five episodes. Then this really strange thing happened to me. I began having nightmares about me and my kid trying to outrun zombies and just as I was about to be faced with the prospect of either killing her because she was bitten or killing myself because I was bitten and wondering if I should just kill the both of us because she couldn't survive without me, I'd wake up and I don't mean some "wake up, scratch my ass and go back to sleep" shit. I mean some "wake up shivering and can't go back to sleep while plotting to load my truck up with gas and food and try to make it to the ocean so we can steal a boat and go to a deserted island" shit. A friend of mine reasoned that, since I'm older and my tastes have changed so drastically, the zombie movie thing is perhaps something that I'm beyond but if that were true, why do I like "Zombieland" so much?
Then again, I haven't watched it since "The Walking Dead."
Hmm.
Anyhoo, it seems like every movie, television show and book that's coming out deals with zombies. It wouldn't bother me so much if the storyline for most of them wasn't along time line of something is in the water/food supply/airborne/science experiment gone horribly wrong and changes everyone into a zombie. Listen, I don't playa hate on what you like and I'm not dissing the genre. If you like/love/adore them, knock yourselves out; I'm all for freedom of speech, bloodthirsty cravings and mashed brains and all - I'm not telling you to stop. However, it would be kind of awesome if someone can write a book about it and give it an entirely new origin. What will we recycle as a viewing audience beyond 2013? You know, because all of the movies like "The Demolition Man" and "Terminator" that showed civilization in the mid 21st Century? It's right around the corner and, uh, the automakers don't look like they're making a flying car and Taco Bell aint winning any franchise war any time soon. That little robot pet isn't gonna take the place of any dogs and cats as long as we have "LOL Cats."
While I'm picking a scab, how come zombies don't die if they don't eat after a long time? I swur fo' gawd some of those zombies in the "Resident Evil" series are in the background reading the paper and watering their gardens when Alice is recycled and/or restored into an even smaller and tighter leather thong short thingy.
By the way, "Shaun of the Dead" was awesome. Now that's out-of-the-box.
Peace out!
nnb
(Ahem)
When I was a young lass growing up in Tha 'Lou (that's St. Louis to all of you non-St. Louisans), I would sit up night after night after night and weekends watching all the bloodthirsty horror movies of the day. Well, they were bloodthirsty for a kid that was about 7 or 8 years old. Back then, the scariest you could see at the movies without needing a parent, guardian or just plain sneaking into the theater and staying all day were old movies like "Dracula," or "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" at the Loew's State Theater on Washington Avenue, or wait until Saturday's "Creature Feature" on Channel 11. There, you could get "Abbott and Costello Meet Whatever Horror Villain," or "King Kong" from the 30's. "Tarzan" movies were really big too, although by the end of the series and after the fourth or fifth Jane, I could never figure out why Africa was full of Mexican girls in Caribbean-inspired sarongs and bikinis. You could also get a good psychological horror like "Dark Shadows." Frankly, Barnabas Collins scared the crap out of me and in a not-so-good way. Then again, I was just a kid and while adult females saw Barnabas as sexy, I would wrap a scarf around my neck before going to bed. That insane bloodsucker wasn't gonna get me! I could see why Josette didn't want to be brought back from the dead.
Then something miraculous happened, depending on your perspective - "The Exorcist" hit the movie theaters. It was like the horror heavens opened up and brought forth the reign of terror and devastation, the likes of which my fragile little mind had never seen before and never truly recovered from. Suddenly, every horror movie after that had tons of blood, degradation and half naked women running around with their little 70's floppy boobies while trying to evade Leatherface, sharks that made you scared to go in the water, Damien, that "Trilogy of Terror" episode with that tiki doll.
By the way, I'm pretty sure that while some people can't remember the name "Trilogy of Terror," (I had to actually look it up), I know everybody from that era remembers that damn demonic doll.
The gettins' was good and there were body parts that I had never heard of before and the school never taught you about. I honestly didn't know you could play double dutch with the intestines. If you had a particular taste, there was a spongy bloody movie for even the most finicky Type A connoisseur. Chop it up whole, store in it a freezer, dump it in a lake - if meat was to be had, the 70's served it up on a silver platter.
Then Michael Myers, the Alien, Jason, Carole Ann and Freddy changed the game; not necessarily for the good, you understand. While they were outstanding in their own rights, by the mid-80's the market was saturated with the horror that became the sequels; II, III, IV, ghoul vs ghoul, Season of the Witch, The Return of, The Curse of, The Wife of, The Left Baby Toe of...well, you get the idea. Hell, I'm pretty sure that Freddy and Jason's grandchildren will be battling in the near future.
By this time, I was a young woman and my tastes were changing. Remember, it's the 80's! Jheri curl, big fluffy hair, Madonna, Klymaxx, Jody Whatley, Culture Club, Rick James and Teena Marie, MTV, Michael Jackson, I just knew I was gonna grow up and be Jojo from the Mary Jane Girls, and then "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles," "The Princess Bride" and "The Color Purple" happened. You know how you realize that a page has turned? "Night of the Creeps" made me physically ill and by the time that damn Chucky doll was tearing through some shit, I was done. Then Gene Roddenberry recycled "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and just like that I switched genres, becoming a Sci Fi Hunny. Add "Indiana Jones" and I became an Action/Adventure Hunny.
Earlier in this blog, I mentioned "Dracula" and the "Abbott and Costello Meets Whatever Horror Villain" movies. This brings me to the point I was sort of making in my mad ramblings and recollections. Back in the 30's and 40's, these characters frightened their audiences out of their minds but by the time all of these "Meets" movies came out, they were pure camp. After all, you really can't take The Wolfman seriously after Lou Costello locks him in a hotel room, steals one of his oranges and Wolfie only shreds the room instead of busting through, Idunno...a WINDOW or a DOOR! Was that room made of werewolf kryptonite or something? WTF?? Every horror element recycles every generation and in the 21st Century, vamps and werewolves are making a huge resurgence but oddly enough, I don't see as many of these types of movies as I thought I would. Yes there are plenty and many different out of the box ways of making a vamp, killing a vamp, even glow-in-the-sunlight vamps, and werewolves you wouldn't kick out of bed, but not as many as I would have expected to see, beyond the Dawn of the Dead and a few other bucket-o-blood movies. Even "The Mummy" came back...and kept coming back...and should have never been resurrected beyond the second movie. It's kind of sad that, instead of going to the movies like I used to, I just wait for the Redbox. I'd rather pay a buck twenty for a lousy movie than pay damn near $15 for some big budgeted, over-the-top turd that all the eye bleach on Planet Earth can't wash away (i.e., "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"). Whew! Dodged a bullet there...Redbox you da man! *devil horns*
However, what the hell is up with the Zombie Apocalypse? Yes I realize that "The Walking Dead" has taken the world by storm and I was actually excited about it. I watched it the first season for about, oh...five episodes. Then this really strange thing happened to me. I began having nightmares about me and my kid trying to outrun zombies and just as I was about to be faced with the prospect of either killing her because she was bitten or killing myself because I was bitten and wondering if I should just kill the both of us because she couldn't survive without me, I'd wake up and I don't mean some "wake up, scratch my ass and go back to sleep" shit. I mean some "wake up shivering and can't go back to sleep while plotting to load my truck up with gas and food and try to make it to the ocean so we can steal a boat and go to a deserted island" shit. A friend of mine reasoned that, since I'm older and my tastes have changed so drastically, the zombie movie thing is perhaps something that I'm beyond but if that were true, why do I like "Zombieland" so much?
Then again, I haven't watched it since "The Walking Dead."
Hmm.
Anyhoo, it seems like every movie, television show and book that's coming out deals with zombies. It wouldn't bother me so much if the storyline for most of them wasn't along time line of something is in the water/food supply/airborne/science experiment gone horribly wrong and changes everyone into a zombie. Listen, I don't playa hate on what you like and I'm not dissing the genre. If you like/love/adore them, knock yourselves out; I'm all for freedom of speech, bloodthirsty cravings and mashed brains and all - I'm not telling you to stop. However, it would be kind of awesome if someone can write a book about it and give it an entirely new origin. What will we recycle as a viewing audience beyond 2013? You know, because all of the movies like "The Demolition Man" and "Terminator" that showed civilization in the mid 21st Century? It's right around the corner and, uh, the automakers don't look like they're making a flying car and Taco Bell aint winning any franchise war any time soon. That little robot pet isn't gonna take the place of any dogs and cats as long as we have "LOL Cats."
While I'm picking a scab, how come zombies don't die if they don't eat after a long time? I swur fo' gawd some of those zombies in the "Resident Evil" series are in the background reading the paper and watering their gardens when Alice is recycled and/or restored into an even smaller and tighter leather thong short thingy.
By the way, "Shaun of the Dead" was awesome. Now that's out-of-the-box.
Peace out!
nnb
LMAO... Awesome reading!!! Love the perspective, especially as one who grew up in about the same era. I never did get into the blood/gore/guts stuff, horror movies just weren't my thing. Jaws scared me so bad, I had to sleep with one leg outside the covers cuz I'd wake in the night and freak from the covers touching my leg!
ReplyDeleteMy kids are all about the whole zombie thang. Complete with plans for the zombie apocalypse and all. Srsly. If/when it happens, we're just gonna take off for the north woods and hunker down, living off the land or some shit. At least, that's what I've been told, lol.
Still, not my genre... I'll take the demon/fantasy thing any day, thank you so much. And I do mean, THANK YOU SO MUCH... you feed my soul, so to speak!!
And, yeah, Shaun of the Dead... cool as hell.
;D
~~me~~
I like the zombie genre. The original Night of the Living Dead is a classic. Zombie movies have gone down since then. There have been bright spots, like Zombieland, but most of them are the same. I haven't seen the Walking Dead yet (it's in my Netflix queue), but I've heard good things about it.
ReplyDelete