The Eighteenth Painting-- The People It Kills Get Up And Kill!

So... I mentioned in one of my earlier posts the Criterion Collection.  Well, I'm going to take this quick chance to post the horror films that are available from The Criterion Collection... just for shits and giggles...

Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
The Blob (Irvin S. Yeaworth)
Blood for Dracula (Paul Morrissey)
Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey)
Corridors of Blood (Robert Day)
Cronos (Guillermo del Toro)
Diabolique (Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Empire of Passion (Nagisa Oshima)
Equinox (Jack Woods)
Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju)
Fiend Without a Face (Arthur Crabtree)
Flesh for Frankenstein (Paul Morrissey)
The Haunted Strangler (Robert Day)
Haxan (Benjamin Christensen)
House (Nobuhiko Obayashi)
Jigoku (Nobuo Nakagawa)
Kwaidan (Masaki Kobayashi)
The Night of The Hunter (Charles Laughton)
Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo)
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell)
Repulsion (Roman Polanski)
The Silence of The Lambs (Jonathan Demme)
Sisters (Brian de Palma)
Vampyr (Carl Th. Dreyer)
The Vanishing (Geroge Sluizer)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
White Dog (Samuel Fuller)

I've finally watched the AMC series The Walking Dead, and I must say I'm quite impressed and addicted (it's too bad the first season only has six episodes).  I had already liked the little bit of the comic I had read and the show does a great job with the story.  Thus I am here, watching this show re-interested me in all things zombie and I'll be discussing all things zombie in my newest blog here (that's right, branching out beyond the realms of film).

Trivia Question: Who is known as the Godfather of all Zombies? The answer is George A. Romero.

 
Romero is a Canadian-American film director and probably one of the most important figures in the zombie world. He has an unbelievable record for classic zombie flicks and really set the standard for zombie lore in popular culture.  He started with 1968's Night of the Living Dead, and after that all zombie films changed.  Romero is such a influential figure in horror that there would be no zombies as we know them without him.  Zombies would still be the voodoo, witch doctor controlled minions and not the massive, swarming, undead army that we've come to expect. I'm almost certain that nothing I can say about the man can truly express his contribution to horror and the modern zombie.

Now, what's funny about these forms of horror monsters is the fact that, in our present day, in the year 2011, the monsters are challenging each other.  Zombies and Vampires are in a competition for supremacy in popular media.  Vampires are huge, Twilight, the vampire books, the vampire TV shows, there are vampires all over the place today.  However, zombies are ALSO infiltrating popular media.  The Walking Dead, Left 4 Dead and other zombie games, zombie comics, zombies are also all over the place.  So who wins huuh? which classic horror staple wins this proliferation into popular media? it's really just a matter of personal preference.  For me, it's the zombie apocalypse that wins the day.  Zombies retained their brutality unlike the current portrayals of vampires, who have become shining love story playboys (but if you're into that, more power to you).  Really, the battle between zombies and vampires can't BE won, people like what they like and there will always be brutal and lame depictions of both, so I must say, I'm a fan of monsters, and if you're doing a good job, keep doing it.  There's also one thing EVERYONE agrees with... no one cares about werewolves (poor werewolves).

Back to the zombies!

Chances are you've played video games too... well, if you're a zombie fan you've probably played Left 4 Dead, and probably Dead Rising also.  Now, I thought Left 4 Dead was a good zombie game, it had everything you need in a game like that, and urban setting, a muti-player aspect, a four man team and enough zombies with enough variety to keep you going.  It didn't really have the lonely, direness of others but it DID provide some jumps and the 4 person coop play was excellent.  Now, as for Dead Rising, I always thought that it could have been really good.  It had the loneliness aspect and the psychotic characters that you'd expect to show up in a zombie apocalypse.  It had the mall setting that felt like you just stepped straight into a Romero film.  It had the ability to pick up nearly anything and use it as a weapon in a fairly open ended map.  Sounds fun huuh?  What did it for me though was the 3 day story line time limit and the fact that if you didn't finish the story quests in time you would lose.  It cuts down on the extra story quests and the fun of mowing down zombies.  Overall Left 4 Dead had a more escape the city, Walking Dead, zombie apocalypse feel and Dead Rising had a more Romero, zombie onslaught, stuck in an mall with asylum inmates feel.  Both were cool, but Dead Rising lost too many points in my book.

But there it is, my zombie post, sorry it was short and not too in depth.  I promise you better next time ladies and germs.

Stay classy San Diego!