In 1999, thanks to Billy Clinton, I was able to take the month of October off to spend time getting to know my son, Jacob. During the feedings and naps he took, I was able to reaquaint myself to some of my favorite movies - 15 minutes at a time. I borrowed the George Romero zombie trilogy, Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), and Day of the Dead (1985), from a student of mine and revisited the twisted world where a reanimated human being can enjoy the flesh of another human being without much receiving much flak from anyone, and where women and African-American characters are the heroes.
On June 24, Land of the Dead, the final installment of Romero's Zombie epics will be released nationwide, and because of my current home situation, I will probably not be able to make it to the theaters to see it. No matter, though. As much fun as those movies are, they scare the bejeezus out of me, so the late-night feedings might become jumpier than they already are, and I definitely do not want to put Karen through that. I am such a puss.
There is something that zombie-related horror films have that other recent ghost-story films do not: the legitimate entertainment factor. In Dawn of the Dead, the zombies travel, by instinct, to the local mall; in Night of the Living Dead, there is the redneck hoedown roundup shooting gallery scene at the end of the film; Day of the Dead had Bub (possibly the namesake for the Bubba Keg? - See June 10, 2005), the saluting zombie house boy. All the movies have strong female characters (with the exception of Bah-ba-rah, the one for whom they are coming to get, from NOTLD) and minority characters who take charge of the situation and at least make it to the final scene.
The trailers show Dennis Hopper as the villain and give a small sound clip that goes something like "Zombies. They creep me out." And, it's got Asia Argento, daughter of infamous Italian horror movie director, Dario Argento. She appears to be quite a looker, or at least thats how the trailers and movie stills are trying to portray her - as a buff, heavily-armed hottie. So, that's a plus. And it has slow moving zombies. That's good. The fast moving ones from 28 Days Later and the updated version of Dawn of the Dead were too much for me to handle. Blood, flesh sliding off the bone, and sprinting should not be a combination for these movies. I like the impending, creeping doom effect much better.
Where am I going with this? I don't know. See the movie for me. I can't convince my wife to see it with me, and my boys are way too young.
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