Dead-ology

[abisai]

There was a thread once about the Dead series but I think it was moved. Anyhow, I have recently watched the original Dawn and Day of Dead and can participate in silly arguments about their deeper meanings.

For the record, I've owned the original Night of The Living Dead since college and consider that a classic film and great stuff. My take is it was a straight horror masterpiece without any intention for a larger meaning than dead people attacking living people. The relation to Communism I doubt very much was in their minds when the were filming. I have to watch this one again to see if I can pull out evidence either way.

Dawn of the Dead was a goofy, quirky movie. I can see why people would not like it, since it is really not that good. In fact, it is largely a bad film. But it grew on me and I took some appreciation for it. Larry is in this one as the blond militant who dies in the end. Way to go Larry. To me, this one has too much said and shown to not intentionally be trying to make a commentary. My take is that after people said first was about Communism Romero figures, fuck it, let's try and do that there and see how it would work if I did try and use symbolism. At the beginning the dead almost entirely minorities. There are lines about how they eat to stay alive, they can use clubs, and they walk the mall because that is what they know to do. This sounds like straight class depiction of lower classes. What we see is the living slaughtering them for self-preservation, culminating in them running the mall by themselves safely - which ends up a hallow and lonely victory for the rich (living) since there are no poor (dead) to compare themselves to. Then there is the attack from the other ruling body, the motorcycle gang. They are ruthless, use the dead (poor) to their advantage, and they all ride bikes together as peers. That sounds like... dum dum dum Commies. The core unit opposes these usurpers with guns. They consider allowing them to take resources so that they will leave, similar to Cold War arms race instead of battle or detente in eastern Europe. In the end, the black dude nearly gives up to join the dead, but decides that he can't. Why? He's a pig-headed elitist fuck that's why. He'd rather be rich (living) than join the poor (dead) even though he knows at this point the end is emminent, so he clings to life.

Day of Dead was horrible. There was some potential with the plots and I loved Frankenstein and Bubb. The monsters and make-up were given a serious haul in this one and I get the vibe that it was a return to a straight adventure-styled horror movie. Larry preached about the budget being cleaved from Romero after filming started and given the complete deterioration of the plot to chasing dead in caves and shooting them certainly speaks to that. I wish they were able to do something better, anything. Whatever. Yeah, there are still elements that point to a symbolic representation of military versus science, but either the movie got away from all that when it went to shit or it never wanted to. I am guessing the later. The best part of this one was Bubb to me, that was cool and brings up the following:

What are the dead and why do they walk? They eat not for nourishment, for they have no digestion. They eat humans and I don't recall seeing them eat other dead or animals. So it's people the dead are after. This begs for an Apocalyptical explanation from one of the religions, but I am assuming that this was never something that was an intention. After all, there are no depictions of life post-dead for example. Bubb was interesting because they talked about this being the core of the brain living, implying that all the dead are are the basest emotion driving onward. How do they walk and why to they kill then? Why don't they eat other dead? Is there an electro-magnetic phenomenon affecting the brains? Is it a virus? Is there really an extraterrestrial influence?

What say you men?

[Rob G]

Hey if you liked them you should definatly check out the new dawn of the dead. That was totally a good movie. For sure though the new Dawn was action horror. Still strong chracters and all atrround good shit. Including as kicking soundtrack with Johnny Cash and a slow upbeat remake of Disturbed's "Down with the Sickness". I highly recommend the new dawn of the dead for all.

I beleive in the first film they said that a satellite had fallen to earth and brought back extra-spaceial radiation that was causing this.

That makes me think of some radiation affecting the body on a super complex cellular level. So that the body survives without the normal living process. Oxygen and food and all that. The fact that the zombies clearly have some brain functions and that head shots kill them leads me not to classify them as dead. In some way or another they are still partially alive. Its true they dont eart animals which is very very weird. To the virtually mindless meat is meat. It would seem for me any mammal atleast would suffice.

And this makes me think. You know they do actually eat the bodies. Should they take you down they stop and consume you. But their stomachs cant be working right. You would atleast need a pulse for that. They must regergitate. But then everything they bite become sinfected with the radiation thus affecting it too on the cellular level. Perhaps it breaks down this way. So its not flesh they need its more radiated matter. As humans are the only couriers it would seem that only humans will suffice. But how would the zombies know that. Perhaps some profound basic rationalization of the primitive brain.

Thats as far as my thinking takes me. As always i'm going scienece over spirituality.

[abisai]

OK, just watched original Night again.

You're 100% right, there was a satellite to Venus that NASA thought it had destroyed in space. However immense radiation returned and they realized the direct relationship. The scientists interviewed on the street answers were interrupted by military. They said mutations kept occuring with the increases in radiation, bringing the recently deceased back to life.

In the movie this radiation also interrupted the radio/television signals. Quite a large, bizarre dose of radiation to affect the entire globe that way.

I keep wanting to think of it like a virus out of Andromeda Strain. But it affects only the dead. Anything transmitted from the dead to the living is understandable once you get to what is affecting the dead. This is suggesting that the body and its muscular structure can be used by activating the core of the brain. Is this space mites? "Mutations" seems unlikely since the living are fine and dandy as are the animal kingdom and plant kingdom.

I thought it would be cool if there were an intelligent entity operating from the satellite in space, controlling the globe in an aggressive manner. Reminds me of a military attack on par with the absurdity of nuclear weaponry or biological warfare. Reminds me of Mission to Mars (?) where they found that tomb that unleashed the spirits of the dead warrior society. That's the only reason I see it affecting mankind, if it were general radiation sources, there should be an abundance of that all over. Yup, at the moment, my prevailing theory is Venus attacked with unknown weaponry beyond our sensibility. How and all that is beyond me. I keep thinking of a virus structure or perhaps micromachinery. It has to travel space and spread across the planet without being seen. Micromachinery is an interesting idea. They might be able to generate their own source of power and energy... eh?

[abisai]

Off topic: I had a dream last night that I was in one of these films. I was Mathew Borderick in CT trying to get away from the coast right after first dead risings. I rushed to an airport ASAP. They flew me from Hartford, CT to New Haven and I shit a brick and lied about having to get back to my office in Chicago ASAP. They flew me back to Hartford where by that time they had grounded all flights. I tried to talked to a few people and then set out on my own. I went down a corridor to a tunnel where cars were driving under water to get away from the scene. I turned just in time to escape being locked in the tunnel as a dude was cutting it off. I rushed to a subway where by this time there was an abundance of dead stalking slowly and limbs twitching all over the place. I ran like mad. And I heard a voiceover stating something about how they kill because they want and the more they want the more susceptible they are to killing. I awoke thinking that the the whole series is a morbis commentary on the fact that humans are the only species to kill to kill for no reason - murder. AS if that is all we are, a breed of murderers. The dream was bad, but the summary I concluded was no picnic either.

[Rob G]

Thats weird,

Larry has been having those dreams for decades

[Rob G]

Thats weird,

Larry has been having those dreams for decades

[Ken]

That's weird.

Larry has been having those dreams for decades.

[Ken]

That's weird.

Larry has been having those dreams for decades.

[Ken]

That's weird.

This same post has been posted for decades.

[abisai]

While in NY I read a magazine article that stated that certain viruses are literally capable of reviving dead cells. They rebuild the structure within in it and get it to functioning like a living cell and they do what viruses do. This is a far cry from animating dead bodies, but still very crazy and somehow related to this thread someway. Someday I will research this further and find out what the hell a virus is doing with a dead cell.

[Rob G]

Ken said:

That's weird.

This same post has been posted for decades.

This shit had me laughing uncontrolably,

-------------
DKB, you will post anythign you find on this or i will send the dead to claim your soul

[abisai]

Land of the Dead trailer was a nice teaser. Looks a ton like a Hollywood movie and a wide gap between that and the old Romero films. I read this has the living in highrises and other secluded parts of society. With the rest being the dead. Sounds a lot like the old commercialism interpretation. He should put something in the movie to confirm or deny these theories. Like a wiseguy who spouts his interpretation of the dead who gets his head ripped off a second later if he hates people doing that with his work. Or a cryptic clue, like dialogue indicating something is there to it all. I can't wait until the dead gain intelligence, these movies could be made forever.

[Rob G]

I agree this mvoies could be made forever. The dead make such a good threat that needs almost no explaination. They are zombies, they are dead, they have one goal. Kill the living. The best part is watching regular folks deal with the threat.

LAnd of the dead:
I know a little more about the film. The original title was supposed to be Twillight of the dead. Fitting perfectly into the Night-Dawn-Day thing. But Romeros first script for the film was calle dead reckoning. The deal is the dead have been arround for decades now. they are everywhere, Humans exist in walled fortified cities which keep them safe from the dead. But sometimes they must venture out and then they use the war machine built for such effort, that which they call The Dead Reckoning. Suposedly the film continues the plot poiint indicated in day of the dead where the dead were revealed to maintain some intelligence. Uh OH, now they smart. It sounds to me like within the walled cities there are those who live in the skyscrapers and those who live like dogs in the street. I imagine the metaphor is classism. Probably filled the concepts of people making choices not for their benefit. We shall see. I just wanna watch some folks run arround and kill some undead.

[abisai]

I was checking out IMDB threads for the Land of the Dead. Some guy came up with one for asking people where they would head to in a time of worldwide zombie infestation. People responded and all that. Anyhow, they are idiots and we are geniuses. I nominate Bannerman's Island as a source of separation from zombie fiends. There is a source of fish all around and we know some dude staches loads of water bottles there. Maybe he was merely preparing for the inevitable Doomsday scenario that creates the living dead.

[Ken]

I'm down with that, Bannermann's Island is where I will head too. Hope to see you all there, alive, that is. ;D ;D