The neo zombie trend.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has noticed a trend in Zombie movies and literature over the past couple of years whereby there is an attempt to move away from the more traditional plot devices of the genre and make the stories more feasible.

I'm talking about films like 28 Days Later and novels like Stephen Kings Cell which ground the causes of the outbreak in more believabl scenarios, rabies like virus's, EM pulses or chemical/neurotoxins that scramble people's brains and turn them into raving maniacs. Not strictly speaking zombies but as near as damn it. I also think running zombies are ten times more frightening than the old shuffling, dumb type too.

Personally I was never a huge fan of the older zombie movies but the slew of new ones on the way out look really good. The Signal is one I'm looking forward to and this one sounds intriguing to.....

www.shocktillyoudrop.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Dead Air

So which are you, a traditionalist or a modernist?

[edit on 19-4-2007 by ubermunche]

This trend I believe started with Res Evil games, The T virus(I think it's T) started all of those games off and then you start getting the movies calling it a virus or something similar.

Well thats my POV anyway...

Have you seen Land Of the Dead? Not the greatest zombie film but I really like the concept....

I liked George A. Romeros' original movies better. He made them so great. And the only reason why they are slow is because they are decayed, and their joints are stiffining, due to no blood flow.. In 28 DAYS later, it shows just that, towards the end of the movie.. Where a couple of Zombies are under a bridge, they are dying due to lack of human flesh, in other words, "Food".. The older zombies seemed to frighten me alot, knowing that hundreds of slow zombies are walking towards me, which gives me enough time to either sit in shock and have a heart attack, or think of a quick escape.. Also, if you are indeed cornered, you have to wait an extra 45 seconds for your soon to be fate, eaten alive.. The new zombies you frightened for a few second and then BAM.. YouR GONE. What I liked about GAR's zombie movies is that he didn't really explain what caused the monstrosity to occur.. You didn't really know if "the dead walked the earth", due to hell being over filled, or if it were some sort of virus from weapons made for chemical warfare.. Honestly, I would rather see more slow paced zombies than the same running zombies, with lickers jumping from ceiling to wall, and not to mention a zombie used as a weapon to kill certain people.. :shk:

Madseason the zombies or infected in 28 Days Later did starve to death but they didn't eat human flesh. They starved because the virus filled them with a psycotic rage that over rode any other impulse, including the need to find sustenence. One big flaw in the plot that no ones ever mentioned is that they would have died off a lot sooner in reality because of dehydration rather than starvation, especially as they were puking body fluids left right and centre.

Have you read World War Z by Max Brooks, that has a more Romero type sensibility to it and rumour has it is also being made into a movie.

I, too, prefer the Romero style zombie. Looking at it beyond the surface, the zombies in the old-skool style movies are meant to represent society as a greater whole, its moral decay, people shambling along with the masses trying to tear apart anything different than said masses and devouring them. That's why the original Day of the Dead was so poignant -- zombies at the shopping mall. The ultimate statement of derision on today's consumer society.

They also have overtones of the Rabbit and the Hare. Run all you like, eventually slow and steady wins the race -- and the raw liver.

I do indeed like the Resident Evil movies, but to me they were mutant zombies, and not the real deal.

Movies used to be scary as hell without rubbing peoples' noses in gore; I'm thinking Hitchcock here. Now they're over the top and we're becoming desensitized. I personally feel that the slower disintegrating zombies were much more frightening just because they're so implacable.

yeah i dig the older zombie films..i don't dig that zombies are suddenly fast as hell! i want to be a zombie extra i was even practicing "the walk" now i guess i have to practice running

Looks like I will have to stick up for the more athletic zombie type here lol.

Well I've watched both Dawn of the Dead films, the original and the remake, much prefer the remake. The idea of some sprinting screaming maniac coming at me at a rate of knots to eat me will keep the dry cleaning bills coming in very regularly thank you. Then again the neo zombies of 28 Days seem rooted in the British 70's sci-fi/horror of my youth like James Herberts novel The Fog and post apocalyptic drama Survivors, so maybe it's just as much about nostalgia for me too.

Perhaps both types of zombie are simply of their time, reflecting back at us some aspect of ourselves we felt uneasy about at the time. The slow mindless, mall rat materialists of Romeros original, or the mindless rage filled, frenetic terrorists of the modern films.

I've just finished reading World War Z and although it's got a traditional style zombie scenario it's a very original take on the whole genre.

I like both, the older fillms had some good merit, but then the new ones do also. Plus in 28 days they are not zombies, but infected humans.

I also find that I prefer movie zombies to real life mindless zombies, which I see all too often. (Reference to people mindlessly going along with everything they are told to do.)