Time for another theme post. This time I decided to go with all zombie films. I picked a selection from many different eras to show the different ways zombies have been depicted through the years.
White Zombie (1935)
This was the first full length zombie film. The zombies in this film are created the way most zombies were in films before Night of the Living Dead - voodoo. Bela Lugosi actually plays a roll other than a vampire this time. Instead, he plays an evil plantation owner who is also the zombie master. However, other than his mustache, he pretty much looks and acts like Dracula throughout. He spends the entire film staring menacingly (especially on the scenes where they focus on his eyes to show he us controlling the zombies), but since he is so good at it, I enjoyed it. The rest of the acting in the film was pretty bad, but the film is nice and creepy looking (its very atmospheric, and the use of sets from other Universal horror films give it a nice gothic look).
Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961)
Here the zombies are the result of medical experiments involving a South American poison. However, the zombies don't do much of anything in this movie as most of the plot revolves around the doctor in the title trying to keep his experiments from being discovered. Its actually kind of boring, and not scary or gross or suspenseful at all. Definitely one that can be avoided.
Sugar Hill (1974)
This is one of the few zombies released after Night of the Living Dead that still relied on voodoo for the zombies. Fortunately, this film also has something that very few zombie films (or other horror films for that matter) have - BLAXPLOITATION! That's right - this film is pretty much zombies + Shaft, which means a lot of use of "honky" and all the bad guys are racist. The main character, Sugar Hill, uses zombies raised by Baron Samedi himself to avenge the death of her boyfriend, which was ordered by the standard blaxploitation type white gangster/ ruthless businessman. Its ridiculously over the top, and I enjoyed every crazy second of it.
The Video Dead (1987)
This a low budget, direct to video stinker from the 80's. Its trying for more of a horror-comedy vibe, but doesn't really pull it off. Comedy bits really just come off as cheesy, and not really in an enjoyable way, either. The zombies in this film are of the Romero type - slow, shambling, crawled out of their grave, mindless creatures. The twist in this one is that they are unleashed from a haunted TV (yes, really). Once unleashed, they go on their killing spree, but it is combined to an area around the houses of the main characters (most likely due to budget), so that takes some of the scare out of the zombie threat (one of the main things that is so terrifying about zombies is that they spread and are almost impossible to contain). Extra points to this film for the novel idea on how the zombies are unleashed, but that's about it.
Survival of the Dead (2009)
This the third of George Romero's newer slate of zombie films. I had yet to see any of them, but I had read very mixed reviews of them, and especially no good ones for this film. The reviews were on. This film isn't very good. Like the other Romero films, there really is no explanation for the zombie outbreak - it just happens and the film deals with the fallout. This time around, the action settles around an island of the coast of Delaware where the inhabitants have closed themselves off and have decided to try and rehabilitate the zombies by trying to teach them to not eat humans. Its about as exciting as it sounds. There isn't nearly enough zombie action in this film. Also, there is way too much CGI used for the blood effects. A big disappointment. I also currently have Land of the Dead, Romero's 1st zombie film (as director) after his original trilogy. Hopefully it is better than this one.
White Zombie (1935)
This was the first full length zombie film. The zombies in this film are created the way most zombies were in films before Night of the Living Dead - voodoo. Bela Lugosi actually plays a roll other than a vampire this time. Instead, he plays an evil plantation owner who is also the zombie master. However, other than his mustache, he pretty much looks and acts like Dracula throughout. He spends the entire film staring menacingly (especially on the scenes where they focus on his eyes to show he us controlling the zombies), but since he is so good at it, I enjoyed it. The rest of the acting in the film was pretty bad, but the film is nice and creepy looking (its very atmospheric, and the use of sets from other Universal horror films give it a nice gothic look).
Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961)
Here the zombies are the result of medical experiments involving a South American poison. However, the zombies don't do much of anything in this movie as most of the plot revolves around the doctor in the title trying to keep his experiments from being discovered. Its actually kind of boring, and not scary or gross or suspenseful at all. Definitely one that can be avoided.
Sugar Hill (1974)
This is one of the few zombies released after Night of the Living Dead that still relied on voodoo for the zombies. Fortunately, this film also has something that very few zombie films (or other horror films for that matter) have - BLAXPLOITATION! That's right - this film is pretty much zombies + Shaft, which means a lot of use of "honky" and all the bad guys are racist. The main character, Sugar Hill, uses zombies raised by Baron Samedi himself to avenge the death of her boyfriend, which was ordered by the standard blaxploitation type white gangster/ ruthless businessman. Its ridiculously over the top, and I enjoyed every crazy second of it.
The Video Dead (1987)
This a low budget, direct to video stinker from the 80's. Its trying for more of a horror-comedy vibe, but doesn't really pull it off. Comedy bits really just come off as cheesy, and not really in an enjoyable way, either. The zombies in this film are of the Romero type - slow, shambling, crawled out of their grave, mindless creatures. The twist in this one is that they are unleashed from a haunted TV (yes, really). Once unleashed, they go on their killing spree, but it is combined to an area around the houses of the main characters (most likely due to budget), so that takes some of the scare out of the zombie threat (one of the main things that is so terrifying about zombies is that they spread and are almost impossible to contain). Extra points to this film for the novel idea on how the zombies are unleashed, but that's about it.
Survival of the Dead (2009)
This the third of George Romero's newer slate of zombie films. I had yet to see any of them, but I had read very mixed reviews of them, and especially no good ones for this film. The reviews were on. This film isn't very good. Like the other Romero films, there really is no explanation for the zombie outbreak - it just happens and the film deals with the fallout. This time around, the action settles around an island of the coast of Delaware where the inhabitants have closed themselves off and have decided to try and rehabilitate the zombies by trying to teach them to not eat humans. Its about as exciting as it sounds. There isn't nearly enough zombie action in this film. Also, there is way too much CGI used for the blood effects. A big disappointment. I also currently have Land of the Dead, Romero's 1st zombie film (as director) after his original trilogy. Hopefully it is better than this one.
Did you just watch all these?
ReplyDeleteNo - I have been watching movies continuously all month, but I am behind in writing them up.
ReplyDelete