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Friday, July 20, 2007

Zombie movies

Normally I don't go for horror movies, but recently I have taken to watching a few zombie flicks. Last year I watched "Resident Evil" with Milla Jovovich, a very pretty woman. Not much of a film, it was adapted from a video game, for Pete's sake, but entertaining enough. Recently I rented "Shawn of the Dead", a "Romantic Comedy, with Zombies". It starts out with Shawn getting up in the morning and going to work, and most of the people he encounters look like zombies, even though nothing has happened yet. Overnight the zombie virus attacks, and the next morning finds Shawn stumbling through his morning routine completely oblivious to the fact that the people acting like zombies, which is their normal mode of behavior, really are Zombies! It was great fun. Ross has taken a great interest in film, which eventually brought him around to Zombie movies. We watched "Dawn of the Dead" the other day, and last night Johnny and I watched "Night of the Living Dead", the original from which all others have been drawn, as near as I can tell anyway.

One of the things that always bugged me about horror films is the stupid people doing stupid things, not taking care of business, and getting whacked for their carelessness. That always bothered me. I like James Bond movies, where the hero always does what needs to be done just at the right time. No stupid moves, even the bad guys are cunning. They are fantasies, and I enjoy them. Horror movies are more like real life, full of stupid people doing stupid things. People who are afraid, people who are paralyzed with fear, people who make bad decisions under pressure. Some horror movies are based on real, very horrific, events. This may be why I enjoy Zombie movies, they are not real, except possible in an allegorical way. They are fantasies, grisly, horrific, but with no real basis.

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