Every October I like to watch a few zombie movies and read at least one classic (or semi-classic) "scary" book.
This year I ended up really Halloweening it up.
I got off to an early start with Boy Eats Girl a few days before the month officially started. This was an Irish zombie movie that was clearly influenced by the Twilight series. The main zombie was cute, young, and love kept him from giving into his zombie urges.
Then I started reading The Island of Doctor Moreau. I saw the film back in 1996. So while I knew the gist of the story, the film's interpretation also kind of lead me in the wrong direction. The book was definitely better. Wells straddled the line between science fiction and horror, and as always, was a bit prophetic.
Towards the middle of the month I watched Bio Zombies. This was another foreign zombie film. The Asian take on zombies, at least in this film, was a bit like Shaggy in Scooby Doo yelling Zikes and running into Scooby. It went from moments of silly and quirky back to serious. And weirdly enough this film also had a zombie whose love kept him from becoming full-on zombie. Although in this case it doesn't work out as well for him.
Cemetery Man was next. An Italian zombie movie that was just all-out strange. How can you have a zombie film where zombies are the least of your problems? The main character was having an existential crisis, a love crisis, and a work crisis. Then he starts either losing his mind or reality starts to come apart. I still have no idea. Think Brazil, mixed with The Thirteenth Floor and a dash of Clockwork Orange. Zombies have little time for more than a cameo.
Then we threw in a little vampire for good measure. Friends have been suggesting we watch True Blood, so we netflixed a couple of episodes. Not sure what to think of it yet. It's dark but somehow quirky as well, the main characters don't really talk to one another in any realistic way, and well, one's a clairvoyant waitress and the other is a vampire from the Civil War era. Strange.
Netherbeast Incorporated was next. It's a vampire movie in a corporate setting with the strangest mix of a cast you'll ever find. Really. You'd just have to see it.
Finally we ended up on Halloween. We got through two final zomibe movies. Neither of which were "true" zombies. The first was The Crazies, a remake of a Romero film. There's plenty of commentary here about small town USA and the American Dream. There are also living zombies and the military neither of which are on the side of the protagonists. One of the most stressful films I've seen in a while. Would have been great if not ruined by the ending.
The last full-length movie of the month was White Zombie. Some say it's the first zombie movie but this one is all about voodoo zombies, not the undead kind. Filmed with the same sets that were used in Dracula and Frankenstein, this one is all but forgotten while the others went on to be iconic. It’s not a masterpiece of film, but it’s worth a view for its historical nature.
The very last movie was an animated short and is about as close as you could get to cute zombies. It's called Tofu the Vegan Zombie. It really is short, so you should watch it here.
