Zombies: Bringing the past and present back from the grave
Night of the Living Dead. Land of the dead. Both of these movies could be explained in just one word: ZOMBIES! These two flicks, although from different times, they have stood the test of time to come out as great, gorey flicks that inspire and excite the monster in all of us. Whether it is the plot, the gore or simply the zombie makeup, these movies are the basis for all zombie lovers.
Without the horrific genius of Mr. George A Romero, we wouldn’t have zombie movies to begin with. His creativity and eye for detail make his zombies movies the best and are an inspiration for zombie film makers. I find that what makes these movies fantastic are my three criteria for a gorey good time: plot, acting and makeup. So sit back relax and lets take a journey into the zombie filled world.
In the beginning, there was 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. I believe this movie may have had simple yet humble beginings as a monster flick, but it set the standards for future zombie movies. The plot was simple yet horrifying. A group of people flee to a home from the undead. The undead have risen from their graves and death due to radiation from Venus. The dead crave only one thing: flesh. This kind of suspense, not knowing if the main characters would survive the horde of zombies, made NOLD a classic. I think a pivotal scene in the movie was the basement scene. This rocketed the movie into horror history, and gave Mr. Romero his legendary status. As we see the father get shot, he stumbles down the basement stairs and dies. As the mother follows him to see if he was ok, the audience finds their daughter feasting on her fathers innards. As the audience can tell the daughter has become one of the undead. The daughter comes toward her mother, with a garden shovel, and begins to kill her. I love how even the littliest creature could hold such power and kill without any feeling. The only way of killing the zombies were to burn it, shoot it in the head or a massive blow to the head.
When it came to acting for zombies, there really wasnt much to do. Romero gave us the quinticental zombie act. The undead would moan, due to their vocal cords dying off with the rest of their body. They would move very slowly, as if they are walking due to their limbs stiffening after death. They also wouldn’t drag their bodies as they walked. These zombies were the slow moaning type and set a base for which future movie makers could work off of
As for makeup, NOLD zombies were very simple. Since this was a black and white movie, the makeup looked to be no makeup to pale in face with some darkened eyes. Most of the zombies didn’t look to have any decomposition or sign of death. The blood was only seen when the zombies would eat.
Nearly 40 years later, George makes another fantastic zombie flick named Land of the Dead. This takes place in a world full of zombies, never naming as to what caused the zombie outbreak, but simply everyone is surviving the world now. What made this movie stand out for me was that the zombies weren’t just killing. Oh no, they were thinking and uniting together to fight and kill off the humans. This movie is just chuck full of gore, zombies and zombie killing galore. In this movie, compared to NOLD, there were more ways to kill a zombie. Fireworks were used as a distraction so the civilians could get supplies without be ripped to shreads by those lovable zombies. I can name so many ways that the zombies were killed, but there are just way too many. Some of them included shooting off the head, cross bow right through the brain, machete off the head and the good old shot through the head. I think a great scene in this movie was with a nod to Dawn of the Dead, Pillsbury, a huge burly soldier and Riley, the hero who doesn’t want to hear a person’s story, approach a hummer without a roof. As they go for the weapons stashed in the car, Pillsbury flashes his flashlight and they see zombies eating and picking off the flesh of the latest kill. I think this is fantastic how Romero takes scenes from his past movies and reworks them into a brand new way.
As for the zombie acting, Romero does it again! He has evolved his slow moaning zombie into a fast, vicious, thinking zombie. From just being able to move slowly, these zombies are more than that. They begin to unite and think and use what skills they had before they died. Big Daddy, the head zombie, sees the pain and death of his fellow zombies and begins to do something about the onslaught. He unites his fellow zombies, and even communicates with them, to march forth to the city. With weapons in hands, the zombies now are ready to fight off the living. I think that these zombies dont want to bother with anyone, but find there own paradise, as are the humans. In a sense, zombies and humans are looking just for a place to call their own.
With the makeup in this movie, it has far surpassed the makeup of NOLD. From the days of old, where have white makup and blackened out eyes could make you look like a zombie, LOD has evolved the zombie makeup process. Zombies now have contact lenses that vary from a glazed look to red outer rims of the eyes. Zombies now look more medically dead, making the look more realistic, with realistic decompostion. The look isn’t just relied on makeup, but now the look uses latex based scars and wounds called prosthetics. As with NOLD, blood wasn’t used very much on the actor. Now, the blood runs like a river on the actors. Blood is used everywhere from the mouth to inside the wound to even coming out of the head. Makeup has evolved to the artists imagination. No more black and white makeup. The audience craves more blood and gore and cooler looking zombies
So as you can see, these two are rooted in monster movie history as the past and beginning point of zombies to the future point for zombies.
Leave a Comment Go to Post...
Congratulations to Our Legion Winners
Congratulations to everybody who won tickets to the advance screening of Legion last week, and particularly to Nick Hadac, who won a Legion poster signed by members of the cast!
Want a shot at winning cool horror stuff in the future? Be sure you’re following @DarkChicago on Twitter, Become a Fan on Facebook, install the Dark Chicago toolbar and check the sites! All the links you need are in those little icons at the top of the page.
Leave a Comment Go to Post...Legion Movie Review
I’m pretty split on thoughts about Legion. While the action scenes were great (kudos to Cinematographer John Lindley), the storyline was somewhat lacking. Legion begins with an impending apocalypse, as we learn God has given up on mankind. In the opening scene, Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) arrives to Earth, brutally cutting off his wings. He steals an arsenal of weapons, fights some beat cops and takes to the open road.
Flash forward to a café in the desolate desert, where we meet an eclectic mix of locals and an obnoxious “city” family stranded due to car problems. The owner, Bob Hanson played by Dennis Quaid, runs the restaurant while his mechanic son Jeep spends time pining for 8-month pregnant waitress Charlie. We’re not provided with a background on who fathered Charlie’s child, nor do we ever learn. One of the many unanswered questions in the story.
The stage is set as patrons and café workers go about their business when a seemingly harmless grandmother walks in. With her arrival, things immediately go south. She turns into a foul-mouthed messenger of the apocalypse, sprouting demon baby-teeth, proclaiming the world is going to burn along with Charlie’s baby. After a physical confrontation, she begins to climb the ceiling. A decent foray into impending doom, with the café’s isolation giving a claustrophobic feel to the cast of characters.
Archangel Michael arrives then, providing context to what just occurred with demon-grandma. God and his angels, led by Archangel Gabriel, are destroying the human race. Michael, acting as outlaw does not agree with their plan. By siding with mankind, he is taking a stand against God to prove humans are in fact, worthy of life. He arms the group with guns, explaining Charlie must be protected until her baby is born, as the child will be humanity’s savior. We see the film leading to a modern spin on Jesus, Mary and Joseph. However, throughout the story, it is never explained who the child will grow to be or how he will save the world. Even if Legion evolves into a sequel, it would be nice to have some sort of teaser. Instead the audience is left wondering, a poor decision considering the reason Michael is fighting against God is for the child’s future.
The action sequences in the film are exciting, with flies and boils representing the Ten Plagues of Egypt, and humans possessed by evil angels. However, I was still expecting more. Between the chaos scenes and quick scares, there were long stretches of dialogue which ventured into the monotonous at times. (Not to mention some major stereotyping with characters.) I understand building anticipation and dread for the final man vs. God battle is necessary, but was hoping to have more than two of the ten plagues interspersed. Give me the locusts, hail and blood to further shake things up. There was definitely a lost opportunity here.
All in all, the movie was slickly produced, and didn’t fail to entertain. However, the glaring plot holes centering on Charlie’s baby should have been filled when the screenplay was produced. Also, (and this may be knit picking), but if God really wanted to destroy all humans, wouldn’t he wipe them out in one fell swoop rather then allow them to battle with machine guns in an overly dramatic James Bond vs. villain scenario? However, if that were the case, there wouldn’t be a movie, so maybe that’s taking the film too seriously. In conclusion, if you’re looking for a standard doom movie with some engrossing action scenes, check this one out. Prepare to suspend your disbelief, and enjoy it for what it is. A mindless action flick that’s not breaking any records yet still keeps you entertained for an hour and a half.
Leave a Comment Go to Post...Wildclaw Theater Presents William Peter Blatty’s LEGION
WildClaw Theatre presents the world premiere adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s “Legion.” With previews March 13th and 14th, and opening Monday, March 15th, 2009, 7:30pm at Chicago’s Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western Ave. Running Thursday thru Sunday until April 18th, 2009. Performance times are Thursday thru Saturday at 7:30pm, and Sunday at 3pm.
Directed by WildClaw company member Anne Adams, and featuring company members Brian Amidei and Scott T. Barsotti, with Len Bajenski, Ariel Brenner, Casey Cunningham, Vic Doylida, Matt Engle, Sasha Gioppo, Lindsay Nance, Benno Nelson, Elaine Robinson, Cheryl Roy, Erika Schmidt, HB Ward and Josh Zagoren.
WildClaw is thrilled to present the World Premiere of William Peter Blatty’s “Legion,” the bestselling sequel to Blatty’s “The Exorcist.” More than a decade after the death of Father Karras, Lieutenant Kinderman is faced with a series of grisly murders resembling the work of a dead serial killer. Kinderman’s investigation brings him face to face with the essence of true evil, and its origin. This terrifying supernatural thriller continues WildClaw theatre’s quest of bringing intelligent and imaginative horror to the Chicago stage.
Anne Adams, who recently directed the critical and commercial hit Scott Barsotti’s “The Revenants,” has once again assembled a remarkable production team for “Legion.” Adapted by WildClaw Artistic Director Charley Sherman, with set design by Nic Dimond, costume design by Allison Greaves, lighting design by Paul Foster, sound design by Mikhail Fiksel and Scott Tallarida, movement design by Karen Tarjan, and special blood effects by Fraser Coffeen.
Tickets $10 – $20, with student discounts available. For more information, please visit www.wildclawtheatre.com
Leave a Comment Go to Post...After Dark Horrorfest 4 at the Muvico Theater in Rosemont
After Dark Films’ HORRORFEST : 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR comes to the Muvico Theater in Rosemont on January 29th to terrify you for a week:
DREAD
Red-hot young star Jackson Rathbone, fresh from the smash film TWILIGHT SAGA and the upcoming THE LAST AIRBENDER, stars in the stylish horror/thriller DREAD. Stephen (RATHBONE) and Cheryl (Laura Donnelly, INSATIABLE) are college students making a documentary about what people dread in life. But they have no idea that their partner Quaid (Shaun Evans, BOY A, TELSTAR), witnessed his parents being murdered by an axe-wielding lunatic and wants to make others experience his own personal horror. The three set out to document people revealing their life’s most terrifying moments. But Quaid quickly grows bored with mere interviews and decides to take the study to a much more visceral level, causing all three to become vulnerable as they reveal their fears in front of the camera…
HIDDEN
HIDDEN is the story about a young man, Kai Koss (aka KK,) who unwillingly returns to the small town he ran from 19 years ago. His cruel mother has recently died, and left him the house he grew up in. He means to leave as soon as he has made all the necessary arrangements, but with his heritage comes dark and deadly secrets, and KK soon finds himself tangled up in a series of event that seem beyond anyone’s control…
KILL THEORY
Are you capable of the unthinkable? That’s the question seven college students face when they visit a secluded vacation home to celebrate graduation and are put to a horrific test by a mysterious killer. By 6 am the following morning, only one of them can remain alive. Whoever that person is will be allowed to walk away with his or her life.
However, if morning comes and more than one is still breathing, everyone dies. Trapped in a deadly game, they’re forced to kill one another in order to survive. Friends and couples must test their trust, and as the clock ticks away: alliances form, tension escalates, and hope begins to fade. Some will fight for love, some to survive, but all will change. Because deep down… we’re all killers.
LAKE MUNGO
In Lake Mungo, sixteen-year-old Alice Palmer drowns while swimming in the local dam. When her body is recovered and a verdict of accidental death returned, her grieving family buries her. The family then experiences a series of strange and inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Profoundly unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of psychic and parapsychologist, Ray Kemeny. Ray discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. A series of clues lead the family to Lake Mungo where Alice’s secret past emerges.
THE FINAL
In the scenic and remote country of Rocky Branch, Texas, the Workley ranch house would become the infamous scene known internationally on the internet as “The Final.”
Dane, an awkward student with a deadly vendetta and suicidal tendencies, leads a group of outcasts who plot to avenge the years of humiliation they faced by the popular students at Hohn High School. Employing ideas inspired both from their classes as well as from horror films they watched, the outcast turn the tables on the popular students who made sport of them.
After receiving a lake-house granted to him in his uncle’s will, Dane and his friends, Jack, Ravi, Andy and Emily prepare for a single night that will leave their tormentors scarred for life…physically and emotionally.
THE GRAVES
On their last weekend together, Megan and Abby Graves are lost in a remote part of the Arizona desert where they are lured to Skull City Mine, an abandoned mine town. But they soon learn Skull City is anything but abandoned — and there’s no way out. The sisters are now prey, forced to unleash their most primitive instincts in a desperate, all-out battle for survival against unspeakable horrors — both human and supernatural. Can they unlock the terrifying secrets of Skull City in time to save themselves or will they become the latest in a long line of victims?
THE REEDS
In THE REEDS, a weekend boating trip through the Norfolk Broads becomes a terrifying, deadly ordeal for six 20-something year old friends. Aboard the Corsair Star, a small cruiser rented from Mr. Croker, the local marina operator, the boating party loses its bearings and cuts through the vast reedy tidewater in search of the main channel. After the first casualty by a freak accident, the boat runs aground. Every effort to preserve themselves and find a way out fails, as one by one the friends are terrorized by young punks and killed by a hooded man with a gun. There is no escaping this vast waterway, a place of endless return, presided over by Croker who killed a group of young people decades before and initiated the hellish curse which traps all who take passage on the Corsair Star.
ZOMBIES OF MASS DESTRUCTION
In ZMD, a conservative island community is under attack! Port Gamble, Washington is being overrun with braineaters, and the people seem powerless to stave them off. A rag tag band of rebels led by Frida (Janette Armand), an Iranian college student suspected of being an Iraqi terrorist, and Tom (Doug Fahl), a gay business man who has returned to town with his partner to come out to his mother, tries to turn the tide and push the invading hoards of undead back.
Leave a Comment Go to Post...
