[ SECRET POST #2377 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2377 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 071 secrets from Secret Submission Post #340.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

11. http://oi44.tinypic.com/2morp91.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

...I'm not a big fan of the genre, so I had not realized that there were that many zombie movies with metaphors - I thought they were all pretty much zombies and gore.

[dethtoll]

You'd be surprised. George Romero codified a lot of the modern zombie tropes but he also infused a lot of human drama into his films. Ever since zombies got popular again (they were largely ignored throughout the early 80s and the 90s, only to come back with 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake) it's often considered a mark of distinction to make a zombie thing about people and not the zombies.

[(Anonymous)]

The concern with the survivors/concern about humanity is kind of inherent in the genre, though? Since zombies are pretty much always explained as being the result of a disease, you can't get that without at least addressing how it got that far.

[dethtoll]

You're probably going to have to look through some of the z-grade shitheaps made in the 1970s and 80s, because human drama has been a running theme in modern zombie media since its inception with Night of the Living Dead featuring a black man in 1968 arguing with white people, slapping a white woman to shake her out of a panic attack, basically taking control of the situation, and being the only one who survives 'til morning.

[iceyred]

'Bout to say. Zombie flicks have to have the human element. I can't care if the characters get eaten by the undead unless I care about the characters in the first place.

[(Anonymous)]

I hadn't watched zombie films at all, and a few years ago I saw the original Night of the Living Dead and was really impressed with the human elements of the story line. Like you mentioned, a black man being the most heroic character in the cast? All of the characters really seemed like flawed people, too, not just character A, character B. And that ending was a kick in the gut, even if I did see it coming. So yes, was pleasantly surprised with the film.

[(Anonymous)]

To quote British author M. John Harrison:

"You can hate them without feeling wrong. You can kill them like eating sweets. Then you’re hungry again & you can kill more. They’re fully dehumanised. There’s no off-season, no moral limitation. They’re the enemy. What’s not to love? They’re what we really want. The zombie is the ultimate other in a neoliberal society. They’re a rhetoric we all can use. Zombies aren’t just for the insane Right, or for adolescent boys. They’re for everyone. People who lean Left–who consider themselves adult & multicultural & would never be caught othering–will happily slaughter zombies. Zombies are the ultimate other: the act of othering they represent doesn’t just remain unsaid (as it would with the Right): it remains unthought. The ultimate in deniability. Zombies: motiveless, other, but without any traceable connection to a group in the real world, they will never embarrass you by revealing their humanity. To position themselves as killable, they don’t even have to parrot the twaddle of “evil”. They’re the pinnacle of Hollywood characterisation, actant & action as a single unit. Deeper down, they allow you to refuse rational motivation to your victim, while encouraging you to claim victimhood for yourself. I’m surprised it took so long to make something like World War Z."

[feathercircle]

Now this has me curious- are there any films/franchises which don't dehumanize zombies?

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is I Am Legend, and even then only in the novel and in the film's deleted/alternate ending.

[(Anonymous)]

There's Shaun of the Dead, but it's played for laughs.

[(Anonymous)]

The Omega Man, the 70s Charlton Heston adaptation of I Am Legend, managed to keep a lot of the zombie's humanity, though they're portrayed more as mutants, and they're still the bad guys.

I was really annoyed with the 2007 adaptation for completely missing the point of the novel.

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is two skeletal hands against a blank black background. It might be an X-Ray scan.]

I just want a movie or show about zombies where it doesn't turn out that "Oh no! Humans are the real monsters!". I want more where that isn't the case, where the plot isn't sidelined from bashing out zombie brains to the drama between other survivors like it always seems to be.

I'm just so tired of metaphors. I just want zombies and gore.

[(Anonymous)]

You're tired of metaphors, huh? Because usually when I see someone get way into the KILLIN' ZOMBIES thing, it strikes me as a stand-in for having violent fantasies about keeping certain kinds of people out of their neighborhood, if you get my drift

[ariakas]

It's not that I dislike that theme, either, but I agree with you that it's getting more than a little played out these days (though as are zombies in general).

[kamino_neko]

That's not what a metaphor is. That is addressing the theme in a completely non-metaphorical way. The zombies themselves are often intended as a metaphor, but the conflict between the humans inherently can't be a metaphor for inter-human conflict.

And, for movies, I have no problem with interpersonal conflict...unless it's smart zombies who can think and plan, 'bash the zombies until they stop' is a terribly boring plot. 'Watch the humans trying to deal with each other under the pressure of the zombie attack' is a good one. And if they are smart zombies who can think and plan, it's a totally different type of movie.

What does get me (which mostly exists in games, or random discussions of 'what would you do in a zombie outbreak') is when people completely miss Romero's point and think this is a good thing. Anyone who doesn't kill any human who comes near who isn't already part of the group is wrong. Those roving bands of bandits? Perfectly cool. Anyone who actually tries to work together with any other breathers except for the ones who were in their original core group? Deserve to die.

For these people, zombies clearly aren't a threat - they're an excuse to be the worst people they can be.

[(Anonymous)]

Have you watched Zombieland or Shawn of the Dead?

Alternatively, play Left 4 Dead.

[(Anonymous)]

Terrible film suggestions. Both of those are comedies and focus on the human characters, not gore.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd suggest Italian zombie films. The ones I've seen tend to be higher on the gore and lower on the plot.

[anonlulz]

Watch cheap comedies.

Apply the same for other genres, since the whole point in storytelling is about metaphors so that we learn the lessons.

[fuchsiascreams]

I feel your pain, anon.

[(Anonymous)]

god I had finally hoped we were rid of you

[(Anonymous)]

You're living in a fairyland if you think that the advent of zombies would erase all douchebaggery and general meanness from humanity. The human vs human element is a little bit of realism mixed in with the unrealistic zombies.

[(Anonymous)]

I just want people banding together to fight zombies/rebuild civilization, personally. Over-the-top people vs. people, everyone is an asshole no exceptions, is every other damn show.

[(Anonymous)]

yeah I feel like such an optimist watching zombie movies/shows because I want to see how people get along through all that shit.

ofc the world is more brutal, but not everyone's going to become a complete asshole, and I hate that it's accepted "fact" that everyone will have to be heartless/borderline sociopaths to survive. or that those are the only types of people "worth" surviving.

[(Anonymous)]

SEASON THREE! MORE ZOMBIE KILLING AND GORE! ARE YOU BORED YET?

*slash stab gut*

...

No, really, how the hell is that supposed to be interesting for more than two episodes?