Posted on March 6, 2010 by Darren
The best part of The Walking Dead is the premise, brilliantly summed up by Robert Kirkman in his afterword: why do zombie movies end? The answer is quite logical, as he concedes, in that people don’t want to spend their life in a cinema watching 24-hour zombie movies. Okay, most people don’t want to do that. Somewhat forshadowing the recent announcement we’d be getting a Walking Dead television series (from Frank Darabont, director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Mist, no less), Kirkman argues that comics and television are the only media that can truly support a longterm continuous narrative. What happens after your favourite zombie film ends? It’s an interesting premise to be sure. It’s just a shame that the initial twelve issues of the series don’t quite live up to it.
Better off red?
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Filed under: Comics | Tagged: black and white, Comics, end of the workld, frank darbont, image comics, review, robert kirkman, sexism, the walking dead, zombie apocalypse, zombies | 4 Comments »
Posted on March 4, 2010 by Darren
It takes a certain mindset to enjoy Zombieland. Not everyone can laugh at the fact that a zombie clown’s nose squeaks as you bash its head with a mallet. Fortunately, I discovered, I can.
Tallahassee goes to bat...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: films, jesse eisenberg, Movie, non-review review, review, tallahassee, the undead, woody harrelson, zombieland, zombies | 7 Comments »
Posted on December 3, 2009 by Darren
Well, I guess Twilight: New Moon was ahead of the curve in at least one regard. Perhaps horror tastes are cyclical, as it seems that werewolves have cycled back into public consciousness after a few hundred years. Disregarding the aforementioned sequel, we have the release of The Wolfman coming up next year. That the werewolf has been chosen to spearhead the planned relaunch of classic Universal horror properties is perhaps a large vote of confidence in the beasts, and perhaps a long overdue one. How come, for all the cheesy B-movies they’ve been featured in, werewolves have never pierced popular culture in the same way that vampires, zombies or even plain old ghosts have?
Benecio del Toro looks only slightly hairier than usual...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: an american werewolf in paris, creatures, films, horror, Movies, teenwolf, the wolfman, twilight: new moon, vampires, werewolf, werewolves, wolf, zombies | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 27, 2009 by Darren
They say that horror movies and (before that) ghost stories reflect the unconscious fears of the time. So, for example, vampires allayed the fear of burying members of the community alive – if there were scratch marks on the inside of their coffins, it was because they were monsters, not because your doctor made a mistake. Or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was a cautionary tale for a society just on the cusp of the age of reason – a warning not to dive too far into that pool labelled ‘scientific progress’. Monster stories and ghost stories allow us to put aside our fears even for a moment by expressing them in their most ridiculous forms – I don’t think that facet of human nature has disappeared over the past century or so. If we accept this line of reasoning, are zombies the current expression of our deeply buried fears? And, if so, of what?
At least they are taking good care of their teeth...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cinema, fears, film, horror, horror movies, individuality, metaphor, monster movies, monsters, Movies, screen scare week, subconscious, zombie, zombieland, zombies | Leave a comment »
Posted on October 7, 2009 by Darren
So last week we had the box office dominance of Zombieland, a post-apocalyptic comedy. Over the weekend we had the simultaneous broadcast across US network television of five minutes of Emmerich’s newest disaster flick 2012. We also may have the first post-apocalyptic Oscar-nominee in The Road this year. And that’s just in the last three months of the year. Looking back over the last decade alone there have been a million-and-one end-of-the-world thrillers, chillers, comedies and dramas. That’s a lot of apocalypse for a relatively small planet. So, what gives? is there a greater reason for the zeitgeist’s fascination with the end of the world?
Darth Vader offers an example of what the end of the world might just look like...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012, apocalypse, doomsday, dr. strangelove, film, film genres, i am legend, Movies, post-apocalyptic, teotwawki, the day after tomorrow, the end of the world, the road, waterworld, zombie apocalypse, zombieland, zombies | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 22, 2009 by Darren
I Am Legend was always going to be a tough film to adapt, so it’s a surprise that it works as well as it does for as long as it does. Anchored in a fantastic lead performance, the film manages to be a very subtle, thoughtful and occasionally insightful action movie for the first two-thirds of its runtime. The ending falls down a bit, but it’s an enjoyable journey getting there.
It's a jungle out there...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: apocalypse, horror, i am legend, Movie, new york, non-review review, review, richard matheson, sci-fi, will smith, zombies | 3 Comments »
Posted on June 27, 2009 by Darren
I watched Quarantine with my aunt, uncle and brother last night. It was fairly okay – it did pretty much exactly what it promised on the tin, nothing more nothing less – but it was undermined by a fine third that revealed to us (and the characters) the reason for said outbreak. The reason wasn’t particularly smart or original – it was really exactly what you’d expect, which isn’t what you’re looking for in the final twenty minutes of a horror film. It got me thinking, are these horror films scarier the less we know about the beasts lurking in the darkness?
Hangovers were worse than usual at the office Christmas Party - no one could remember where they parked...
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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: films, george a. romero, horror, horror films, horror genre, horror movies, Movies, night of the living dead, quarantine, the revolution will not be televised, undead, world war z, zombie apocalypse, zombies | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 26, 2009 by Darren
We all caught Quarantine last night (which is a remake of the Spanish horror [rec]), and we were – for the most part – impressed as a family of horror buffs. Somewhat less irritating than most films shot on handheld cameras (it’s trick that is growing increasingly passé in horror, to be fair) it delivers more than its fair share of jump-in-your-seat shock moments. Still I’m not entirely won over. It’s a movie that does what it says on the tin, but nothing more, and falls apart in the third act.
I'd love to see the B-Roll...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: horror, Movies, non-review review, quarantine, remake, review, zombies, [rec] | 3 Comments »
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