Zombiemania



This documentary (above is part 1 and YouTube has all the parts) was on Instant Watch on Netflix and when I had the day off work and it was rainy and chilly, I curled up with my laptop to work on my horror writing but was highly distracted by this documentary about Zombie movies and America’s love of zombies. I put the laptop away and watched it with a big smile on my face!

You get to hear from the famous zombie moviemakers and what inspired them. “I Am Legend” and its vampires inspired George Romero’s zombie movies. For “Night of the Living Dead,” he said he never wanted them to be about vampires, he wanted the creatures to be the dead come back to life and be hungry for living flesh.

The Romero version of a zombie wasn’t directed by a master as old-time zombies, but simply starved to find live food for itself. For $6000 they rented the farmhouse to make the movie. It was a small “guerilla” filmmaking by folks around the Pittsburgh area willing to join in. The lead actor was a friend of theirs who was the best actor amongst their buddies. That he was an African American wasn’t the intention and yet it ended up giving a social statement with the script exactly as it was written without changes. Putting an African American man in the lead in the 60s and acting as leader of the group was revolutionary.

This documentary also discusses “The Zombie Survival Guide” and how people would survive a zombie attack. You hear from zombie actors, makeup artists, and those who participate in zombie walks. A discussion is held about how zombies act out what us us work-a-day “sleepwalking” humans can’t. They also discuss why people love zombies so much.

It was definitely a riveting watch. I suggest you either watch the parts on YouTube or put it in your Instant Watch queue if you have Netflix. Lovers of zombies will totally rejoice!

Comments

  1. That zombie love seems to have picked up lately. Zombie fever seems to be everywhere. Magazines/anthologies are adapting zombie themes. Several forums I visit have threads about something to do with zombies. I even saw a movie on Spike TV called Zombie Strippers with Robert Englund. All this talk about zombies is starting to give me a headache. Like them but ready for a new topic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love Zombie movies.
    Cool post - I will go check it out on YouTube.
    J

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for all the great ideas. I have n'r heard of outer limits. I will definitely try to find them.Whenever i think of the 60's they seem just around the corner but there are stuff like that(like racism, and sexism)that make it seem prehistoric.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andrea;
    I agree. Watching that documentary, I came up with my own variation of zombies that I think would make a cool short story. I'm going to start it today and hopefully soon put it on the blog as a testing site. Juz--go for it--it's awewsome!
    Georgina; I agree about the 60s. I had a fussy old man one day complain it wasn't like the old days and I reminded him that in the old days, a woman couldn't earn a living and leave a bad marriage, black people couldn't work and travel alongside white people, we had no antibiotics for infections, and cancer was the kiss of death every time. We had to be there to get here. So, we have to be here to get to tomorrow. I like that attitude.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, I am so watching this. Thanks for the heads up. Irked me a bit since I was working on a fun zombie post for the blog, and of course me being me, I left the document unsaved and open on the computer. It crashed and I lost my story. Damn! Guess it'll be another week before I post anything again. Grrrrr....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Grim--please please please do more zombie things--we can never get enough of them! I so understand what you mean. The other day, I lost all my writing documents on my laptop and hadn't backed up in months. I started to get hysterical and then had to calm myself down and be logical. I'm using a form of Word I haven't used before so I accidentally dragged the file to another location. I found it and then quickly got my jumpdrive and backed up! Yikes!

    ReplyDelete
  7. My lovely husband rented this one for me. I enjoyed it, but have been really bumbed by my inability to find the Romero film mentioned in it called "Diary of the Dead." Have you had any luck with this one?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Jessica;
    They Diary of the Dead made in 76 is hard to find. You might try ebay actually. I find some bootlegs there sometimes of movies that they haven't put onto DVD yet. The problem is that they're usually poor quality because they record them from VHS. The newer version made in 2008, I believe, has a different sort of plot line than the original. I think the newer one touts itself as a Romero one, but I'm not sure if he had his hand in it or not. That can be found on Amazon and Netflix. I have to admit, I ordered it on Netflix once but I was so busy I never got around to watching it, so I sent it back. I need to take the time to try and see it. I thought the premise was kind of weak--kids making a zombie movie, but hey, if Romero had his hand in it, I might like it, though he had his hands in Land of the Dead and that sucked big-time!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment