The Zombie Movie

[mikejet]

What is your definition of a zombie movie? How do you define zombies?

To me a zombie movie is something like Dawn of the Dead original. Zombies should be slow moving(they're dead), and hunger for human flesh. Movies like 28 Days Later and the Resident Evil series are not zombie movies to me.

Thoughts?

[tacoreed]

Hmmm. I would consider them zombies because they lose cognitive thinking and have a desire to chomp on some human flesh. I think of them more as zombie hybrids as compared to the traditional zombie.

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by mikejet

What is your definition of a zombie movie? How do you define zombies?

To me a zombie movie is something like Dawn of the Dead original. Zombies should be slow moving(they're dead), and hunger for human flesh. Movies like 28 Days Later and the Resident Evil series are not zombie movies to me.

Thoughts?

I've never really accepted the 'slow moving zombies' thing.

If dead people aren't restricted by the fact that they're dead, why should they be restricted by rigor mortis?

To me someone saying "they should be slow moving (they're dead)" is kinda like saying, "well, they shouldn't be moving at all, because they're dead!"

28 days later is just as much a zombie movie as the Romero zombie flicks. To be honest the only thing that doesn't make sense in MOST zombie movies is the fact that zombies chase after the humans but not each other. They stop to munch on a newly dead human, but when there's a ton of newly dead zombies kicking around none of them are attacking each other.

A zombie movie to me, is any movie that has a zombie in it, from Fido to the Romero classics. There are good ones, and incredibly bad ones.

Logan

[BRu-LAy]

Zombies should be dumb enough so that you can get past them by pretending to be one. As long as you do this, they should think you're one of them right?

It worked in Shaun of the Dead.

[GORT]

I love all Zombie movies good and bad the only standard I have is the film must have lots of Gore that what makes a Zombie movie for me.

[Anthony P]

1) 28 X later are not zombie movies, since Zombies are dead and in 28 they are just sick (i.e. it is a form of rabies- and also why in 28 weeks later it was "safe" to go back after they all starved to death), On the other hand I would categorize them as Zombie type movie

2) I think Zombies need to be slow moving, not because dead guys would be slow, but it does not make sense to outrun a dead guy that can run. A zombie film with fast zombies would end in a few minutes because no one can survive. The runner that dashes a 200m race can run faster then someone running 500m , or 1km a live person has live muscles and needs to get oxygen to them and his body cannot go full steam the whole time, a dead person should in theory not have that issue, so he should be able to run a marathon at the exact same speed as a very short dash. Think about it this way, cheetahs are faster then gazelles, if cheetahs could run that fast for longer distances then the gazelle would have zero chance. Zombies are dead, they are not worried about getting hurt, they are dumb and relentless automatons with one goal to eat flesh (at least in zombie movies) how can someone escape from a hoard of them if they can't outrun them.

3) to me it has always been taht zombies detect "life" or to put it an other way, they want the boddy heat, that is why they attack the living (and why I don't think you should be able to fake it) and not other zombies.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Zombies running is too fake for me. How can they run when the medical examiner breaks their bones and embalms them? Perhaps, dead people won't even be able to get up and walk on their own. Its Hollywood magic, so anything's possible

[jadedeath]

Originally Posted by Blu-ray Fanatic

Zombies running is too fake for me. How can they run when the medical examiner breaks their bones and embalms them? Perhaps, dead people won't even be able to get up and walk on their own. Its Hollywood magic, so anything's possible

But someone getting up and walking around trying to eat the living is perfectly within the realm of believable?

Logan

[Anthony P]

But someone getting up and walking around trying to eat the living is perfectly within the realm of believable?

I think that was his point.

[Ex Accountant]

From an earlier thread about zombies & 28 Days/Weeks Later:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...113#post927113

Originally Posted by that guy steveee

While I agree with most of your post this is incorrect. Do you not remember the half-human "waving around" on the ground.. or the brief frames of the infected walking around with their sides blown off??? The guy I mentioned found on the ground (blown in half from just below his ribs) waving his arms around... no one can do that in real life, so by showing it the filmmakers created instant Hollywood zombies

But you don't have to take my word for it..

(pause at 50 seconds exactly and then again at 54) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dlcF-UTSPs Looks like zombies to me

In case, for whatever reason, you can't view the video:



This is 28 weeks later. That is walking. How is this not a zombie?

[Ex Accountant]

My 2 cents from the earlier thread, also discussing the Evil Dead movies:

Originally Posted by Ex Accountant

I debated whether I wanted to actually put any effort into trying to determine for myself what is or isn't a zombie. On one hand, you've got the Romero-induced craze of creatures brought back from the dead who are primarily driven by their craving for human flesh. On another hand, you have the traditional concept of a person being brought back from the dead usually to do the nefarious bidding of his master. On the third hand, you have dictionary.com's definition 2.b that says a zombie is "an eccentric or peculiar person."

If we are to go by Romero, I agree that The Evil Dead films are not zombie movies. They are instead demon movies. If we go by the traditional viewpoint, however, you have a valid argument that they are indeed zombie movies. As for 28 days/weeks later, I just don't remember whether or not the angry ones were killed by the virus and/or assailants and then re-animated or if they were merely transformed. Sorry, my memory isn't all it should be. If they are in fact killed and then brought back, they would not be zombies in the Romero universe. They would be zombies, however, under the traditional idealogy. If they were never killed to begin with, they would be zombies by neither of these definitions.

If we all want to get along, 2.b is the definition to use since I think it covers all of our examples thus far.

[zombieking]

I like the idea of a recently deceased human coming back as a zombie(for whatever reason) to move quickly when the body is still in its undead infancy, and eventually slow down and deteriorate if the creature is starving or deteriorating from the infection. Yet its urge to feed is so strong the zombie drags its decomposed extremities in attempt to catch you, its jaw clacking with hunger when it sees you walk by. Always has that desire to feed.

[Psychonaut]

I love the running zombies. When they can only walk slow, you just have to run to get away. When they can run, NOW you have a bit of urgency and need to rethink escape.

[Chupacabra]

Simple formula:
The fresher the zombie= the faster the zombie

needless to say, we can argue all day, the important thing is that WE NEED TO BE PREPARED!!!

[mikejet]

The main thing about 28 Days is that in the end, the infected all died of starvation while in Romero's movie the zombies will walk the earth forever until physically stopped by something.

[Ex Accountant]

Originally Posted by mikejet

...the Resident Evil series are not zombie movies to me.

Thoughts?

I've heard people debate about whether or not 28 Days Later is a zombie movie but never a debate about Resident Evil. Doesn't Resident Evil adhere to the Romeroesque rules of zombiedom? Victims die, reanimate and crave human flesh?

Do zombies still decompose? I used to think not, but I've heard different viewpoints that make me question this. Some of Romero's zombies seem way out there (Dr. Tongue, anyone?) whereas some seem relatively fresh. I'm pretty sure all or most of the zombies from the original Dawn of the Dead were green, which suggests that they did indeed decompose at least somewhat (either that or they all died of a weird skin ailment). Otherwise, they would be human color, but with chunks of flesh bitten out of them.

[mikejet]

Originally Posted by Ex Accountant

I've heard people debate about whether or not 28 Days Later is a zombie movie but never a debate about Resident Evil. Doesn't Resident Evil adhere to the Romeroesque rules of zombiedom? Victims die, reanimate and crave human flesh?

Do zombies still decompose? I used to think not, but I've heard different viewpoints that make me question this. Some of Romero's zombies seem way out there (Dr. Tongue, anyone?) whereas some seem relatively fresh. I'm pretty sure all or most of the zombies from the original Dawn of the Dead were green, which suggests that they did indeed decompose at least somewhat (either that or they all died of a weird skin ailment). Otherwise, they would be human color, but with chunks of flesh bitten out of them.

But in RE it's a specific virus that can infect other things besides Humans. Plus they have that huge Nemesis which for sure not a zombie. Plus what's her name is infected but looks fine and has psychic powers?!?!

[Ex Accountant]

Originally Posted by mikejet

But in RE it's a specific virus that can infect other things besides Humans. Plus they have that huge Nemesis which for sure not a zombie. Plus what's her name is infected but looks fine and has psychic powers?!?!

Granted, RE has a extravaganza of interesting creatures thrown our way.
Alice is a mutant, not a zombie.
Nemesis is...Well, we see him mutating, which is why he is put into the Nemesis program, but we do not see him die at that point. Without further review, I would catagorize him as a mutant.
The dogs I think died and then became zombies, but I have no evidence to support this. They may just be mutants.
Those weird things that can crawl on walls - I don't know what the hell they are. Probably just mutants.
The majority of the residents of Raccoon City are zombies. The fact that the virus kills and/or mutates animals other than humans has no bearing on this truth.

And for the record, Alice doesn't look fine. She looks AWESOME!!!

[Peaky]

I've never really thought about the "28" movies being about zombies, more of them being infected with "The Rage". Now I have only seen both movies 1 time, and that was a while ago, but from what i remember, they hunger to kill, rather than hunger to eat. Would that be fair comment?. I seem to remember the scene in the 2nd movie, when the husband becomes infected, and he beats the crap out of the wife and kills her, rather than munching down on her, like she was supper. Is that a fair comment? That was the difference between the "living dead" movies, and the 28 days/weeks movies.

[Ex Accountant]

Originally Posted by Peaky

I've never really thought about the "28" movies being about zombies, more of them being infected with "The Rage". Now I have only seen both movies 1 time, and that was a while ago, but from what i remember, they hunger to kill, rather than hunger to eat. Would that be fair comment?. I seem to remember the scene in the 2nd movie, when the husband becomes infected, and he beats the crap out of the wife and kills her, rather than munching down on her, like she was supper. Is that a fair comment? That was the difference between the "living dead" movies, and the 28 days/weeks movies.

Agreed, although you don't need to crave human flesh to be a zombie. The flesh eating thing is popular since Night of the Living Dead (and fun might I add), but not a necessity. Technically, even in the Return of the Living Dead series, they did not crave flesh but rather brains.