10/05/2007

Our Days Might Be Numbered

Here’s a pre-Halloween treat for all you gore fans shambling sloppily on the Web. Raise the roof for the walking dead! There’s something about zombies that hits a chilling nerve with me. I’m hooked. The whole idea of the dead coming back to create hell on Earth by dismembering the living and eating them alive--especially when converted into social commentary--is at once ridiculous and compelling. On the one hand, zombies are hardly the stuff of political insight, meant only to provoke fear by way of unnatural grotesque (no matter how sucky your day has been, at least your dead uncle isn't munching away at your face, right?). On the flip side--I wonder how much zombies accurately reflect where we stand as a society. Are we surrounded by a social poison that turns thinking men into mindless walking drones? Either way, I find the undead viscerally fascinating.

Anyway, I digress... Back to the main point of this post! In celebration of all things horror (and honoring the fact that it’s a weekend), here are the top four zombie movies I’ve seen of late that I enthusiastically endorse. Check out the clips—nothing beats pints of blood wildly splattering unchecked over rotting minions of undead:

4. Resident Evil 3—So you think you can domesticate zombies? Think again! And who knew the undead didn’t even need human flesh to survive? They just crave carnage, apparently. Click for the trailer here.

3. 28 Weeks Later—Because the Dad turns zombie and still manages to skillfully open doors with his all-access pass. And what about the two-second microscopic glimpse we get at infected blood? Awesome!

2. Dawn of the Dead—The remake. There’s nothing more terrifying than that little girl at the beginning of the movie who everyone thinks is Sarah Polley’s daughter creepily jolting up into place and then charging at the bedroom hungry for flesh.

1. 28 Days Later—Slice up your friends no-mercy style! Who cares if there’s a chance they might not be infected? Now here’s a movie that gets it. I know, I know, they’re not really zombies, as they haven’t technically died yet. Whatever. The infected in this film still own any other zombies out there.

I heart zombies. Do you have any films to recommend? Let me know… and long live the undead!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I relate to the fact that zombies can reflect with our society nowadays...it´s scary to see people who have been part of our country´s growth as citizens,act and influence ignorant people to believe in what´s best for them and not for the people´s own sake. It´s even scarier, that 2 days from now, that we are experiencing probably the most important decision as a whole, not for a few groups, literally zombie-like behaviors are carving our own doom. This, most likely, isn´t the point of your article JP, but at least as I said before, i can relate to it, and share with you something that is bothering my mind. A crucial day is upon us,a day that will lead us either to the side of opportunities and growth...or to dark and unknown path, where these POS "zombies" are trying to take us, with their cheap beliefs

Unknown said...

shawn of the dead comes to mind. It does a great job of showing how can zombies go about unnoticed as regular folk =)

Unknown said...

PS

I'm gonna kick your zombie moguls ass !!!!

alf said...

CAFTA rants on a zombie post?

Hell, get over it already! And keep the socio-political discussions where they belong!