Must the zombie fad die?

[trashcanman]

Here's an article worthy of discussion:

www.toplessrobot.com/2013/07/9_reasons_the_zombie_fad_must_die.php


There are some really great points there, as mainstream zombie appreciation has clearly watered down zombie fiction and made zombies something your hip mom makes jokes about. But on the other hand, the author here is kind of a fucktard in that he not only assaults the fadiness of it, but the entire genre a a whole. Zombies aren't scary? Bitch, please.



If you walked in on this scene with your own child eating your significant other before advancing, dead-eyed, upon you, BULLSHIT you wouldn't be freaked. And the idea was that the disease spreads amongst humans. The first zombies just look like people from a distance and by the time you see something is wrong, someone is bitten....someone who then dies and rises to bite somebody else and so on. That shit is scary. And the question of whether you could smash a loved one's brains in to save your own life? Anyone?

And the idea that something isn't scary if it takes lots of them is just plain dumb. Contagion is a very basic human fear. Are you not frightened by the thought of getting Ebola? Cancer? AIDS? Well, it's the accumulations of viruses and cells that create the problem there. Zombies are civilization's equivalent. And in the best zombie movies the undead aren't even the biggest threat. It's the way people react to it. Yeah, a zombie or two isn't a huge danger, but the question is can mankind put their own selfish interests aside and work together for the common good to eradicate the problem? Only if you consider Independence Day a masterpiece of conceptual sci-fi.

So go fuck yourself, buddy. This "fad" has been around since the 60's and just because mainstream idiots adopted it doesn't mean it was never any good.

[The Curmudgeon]

It's all about the movies themselves. How they're written, who directs them, who's cast.. there's just too many zombie films out now, so it can all get a little bit stale (no pun intended). I think we need a bit of a break from them, but in no way is it a "fad" and the guy can eat shit if he thinks zombies can't be scary.

While we're on the subject; was it ever covered or explained how, in Night of the Living Dead, there's a zombie who's got more brains than any other zombie in history? The very first one, the "look! There's one of them now!" guy. He picks up a rock to smash in a window! When has THAT ever happened before?

[trashcanman]

That always kind of bugged me too. Since it was an indie production, I think Romero and his people may have been coming up with a lot of stuff off the cuff and that led to the first zombie's performance being inconsistent. It's still scary as fuck, though. I'm sure this is addressed in some special feature somewhere, but I bought a crummy edition in the early days of DVD so I've never gotten to watch the docs and hear the commentaries and all that.