Here’s a Japanese contribution to the genre. VERSUS is a zombie flick with the proverbial samurai works thrown in. Set in modern times (or at least the year 2000), this revolves around a group of gangsters who, unwittingly, are positioned right by the portal in the woods where all hell was about to break loose.
And it did…
The dead buried in the woods come alive to seek revenge. Swords and bullets galore!
To complicate the already grave situation, one of the gangsters had used the ground as a dumping station for all the doomed individuals whom he had killed.
Bad move… Now the buried are alive and smacking their rotten lips for revenge…
Okay… this next movie, 28 Days Later, may have the zombie purists gagging since it does not exactly fit the classical zombie mold. With the dead coming back alive that is. Instead a biological virus starts the transformation of the living into the dreaded gruesome monsters. Further, a different take on the classical zombie rule… These suckers move fast.
28 Days Later almost set the precedence for fast moving zombies. Maybe someone finally asked the question “Why can’t these folks get away from such slow-moving sloths in rotting human form?”
Good question… and I guess someone listened.
We can’t finish today’s blog without giving some credit to one of the newest zombie flick which I thought is a classic. ZOMBIELAND threw in the comedic dust in the gory storyline and the constant mixture of laughter and pursing of the lips with disgust was a unique experience. Again, it relies on some virus that transforms the living into the flesh-craving hellspawns.
Throw in Woody Harrelson, the Twinkie-craving modern-day Cowboy, and how can you go wrong! Hilarity to the hilt!
And the final battleground inside the amusement park is the perfect zombie-killing playground!
The page today will be dedicated to zombie movies from across the Atlantic.
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The next movie to be discussed is VIRUS. A European make, directed by Bruno Mattei, this movie has a message within its story, unlike most of the zombie movies. Just to put out the summary of all summaries out there… a chemical leak turns the staff and employees of an organization in Papua New Guinea into flesh-craving zombies. Of course, the mishap spreads like a virus and before you know it… you have an island full of hungry zombies…
Oh yea… the message here was that if you don’t take care of the 3rd World countries, they will take care of you…
We can’t talk about zombie movies without talking about LUCIO FULCI – the Italian horror maestro and his classics. One of Fulci’s classic is CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka GATES OF HELL).
After a priest hangs himself in the cemetery, he opens the doorway for the living dead to be revived and cause havoc on this terrestrial plane. What makes these zombies unique is that they can teleport and levitate too!
Supernatural Zombies!
A psychic and a journalist realize that this was just the beginning of the prophecy of the Book of Enoch and that it is up to them to plug the Hell’s portal by All Saint’s Day before the spirits of the dead take over the living…
Okay… you probably will deduce that I like Fulci when I bring up this next movie…
ZOMBI 2
ZOMBI 2 actually catapulted Fulci to a throne in the Horror Movie Kingdom. The gore and violence in the movie was too much for the then Conservative British Parliament.
An abandoned yacht drifting into the New York Harbor. The problem was that the yacht was not exactly empty…
Here’s the trailer for the movie.
There are two unforgettable scenes in the movie. A zombie fighting a tiger shark! First one at that.
And an eyeball being gouged out by a splintered wood…
Yes… you are correct. This blog vent will be devoted to Zombies. Specifically, Zombies in movies. I have to concede to the fact that the discussion can only be done in 2 parts. We start with Part 1.
Before we start… a disclaimer. Due to the fact that there are tons of zombie movies out there and covering even 50% of them will yield a 2-inch thick book, we are not able to cover all of them for obvious reasons.
And I would like to start with the Grand Pooba of them all… WHITE ZOMBIE. That’s right. Before I Walked With A Zombie. Before 28 Days Later. Before Lucio Fulci’s Zombie… And yes, even before Night Of The Living Dead… there was WHITE ZOMBIE.
Starring the legendary Bela Lugosi, this 1932 classic indeed set the foundation for future efforts. The zombies were actually scary (considering this was made in the 30s). And, most importantly, WHITE ZOMBIE set the rule that you can’t kill a zombie by shooting him/her (or it) in the chest. The movie also inspired the creation of a rock band!
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943). Just a little deviation from the stereotypical flesh-and-bone-gnawing monsters. Christine Gordon stars as the one of the most beautiful “zombies” on the silverscreen. She does not gnash her teeth or walk around with a blood-smeared face. Darby Jones stars as a convincing zombie slave. Not just pure gore. Penned by Curt Simak (the screenplay author of the original “Wolfman”), the movie features intrigue and suspense.
Next in line is an European offer – LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (1974). AKA LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE. This movie has it all. Cops. Hippies. Dangers of Pesticides. And of course… dead people rejuvenating as Zombies! This movie, as I see it, has got one of the longest flesh-gnawing sequence in celluloid. Pretty graphic… if you are into that kinda stuff.
Okay… I confess… this is not truly a vampire story but a vampire is involved. My memory of this incident started tripping back after I saw a couple of neatly-dressed kids doing the God’s work, knocking door after another.
And my memory raced to that day, way back in time, when I was back in college, when I had an unusual experience with the Bible-carrying evangelists. Yep, back in the good ol’ days when a crisis was defined as trying to get the term paper completed the night before D-Day.
I was living in an apartment then and I was also lucky enough to land up with an apartment mate who shared my interest of science fiction and horror movies and books. See… back then, as I am today, science fiction and horror revolved around my passion.
We had books that reflected our passion. Stephen King, Ben Bova, Isaac Asimov, Poe, Daniel Koontz, and tons of others. Being college students, with limited funds, we had fashioned our own version of a bookshelf. Planks of wood separated by cinder blocks. We had constructed our book shelf in the living room, next to the television and had even decorated it with 2 black candles which were fashioned as bookends.
One afternoon, it was the Halloween season if I remember right, my apartment mate and I were done with our college chores and were relaxing watching television. The TBS Channel was going full force with horror movies to align with the season. Both of us were thrilled and it reached a crescendo when we realized that “Salem’s Lot”, one of our all-time favorite was showing. This was the rerun of the old, classical version. With David Soul, James Mason, and other actors of the late 70s. By the way, I still love that version.
Anyway, we were deeply involved with the movie, with our eyeballs transfixed to the small screen in front of us. We had ample chocolate cookies and milk on the coffee table.
We were prepared.
No need to take any food break during the long movie.
Though we both had watched that movie several times before, we always anticipated the scene when Barlow first appears on the screen. Now, this was a vampire who scared the hell out of you. Nothing remotely good looking about him. And no romance involved, except for his only passion of self-preservation and the selfish want of turning the town of Salem’s Lot into a horde of blood-sucking freaks.
We were just minutes away from that much-awaited scene when there was a couple of knocks on the door!
No… not now.
We both set on the couch, still staring at the TV screen, hoping against all hopes that we had imagined those knocks. As if to dash our hopes, the knocks came again.
We looked at each other and since I was the closest one to the evil-looking door, I got up and walked towards the door, grumbling obscene comments under my breath. The knocks were more desperate-sounding now.
“Alright… I’m coming… I’m coming…” I yelled. I finally reached the door which had seemed like it was a mile away, even though it was only a few steps away from the couch in our crunched-up living room. I opened the door and there they were…
Two neatly-dressed teenagers holding bibles in their hands. All of a sudden, the smiles on their faces melted away as their eyes widened. Widened to the point that their eyeballs seemed to be popping out of their sockets! That sudden transition, actually startled me.
We stood there looking at one another for a few seconds and finally the boys broke the silence. “We…we… will be back… later… Sorry to have bothered you… Sorry…” said one of the,. Without missing a beat, both of them did an about-turn in unison and marched away hastily.
“What was that all about?!” my inner voice questioned me, as I closed the door. I turned around and it suddenly occurred to me. We had scared the boys away! The horror books displayed. The black candles that guarded them. The Vampire Barlow showing up with his grisly fangs on the TV Screen at the moment I opened the door, and lastly that cruel look on my face must have been too much for them.
They had high-tailed out of there, probably scared out of their wits. They had probably decided that we were lost boys – who will never have the chance of redeeming our souls. Upon realizing what had happened, my apartment mate and I started laughing until we were both holding our abdomens, rolling on the carpeted. The startled look on the boys faces flashed before us over and over again. What a precious vision!
Even, sinister-looking Barlow was forgotten for the moment.
We never did see them in our neighborhood after that incident. Hope we had not scared them away from their spiritual task forever.
I remember that unusual experience every time I see a couple of well-dressed young men with bibles in their hands. And I wonder if they will come across a house with a book shelf lined with horror books. With black candles. And a horror movie on TV…
For those not familiar with the classic version of made-for-TV movie…
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