Zombies on the brain
By Edwin McRae - Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
Zombie’s scare the bejesus out of me. I read in a dream book that Zombies represent a disconnection from feelings. If you are feeling numb, depressed, cold inside, or if you are completely consumed by a certain feeling, like hunger or fury, then you are the closest to being a zombie – at least according to dream symbolists. I think the loss of rational thought, that which makes us civilised human beings, is also what makes Zombies a terrifying pros
pect. You’re bog-standard, shambling, ‘brains’ groaning Zombie is a classic example, and made wonderfully chilling in the game, ‘Resident Evil’. The other, and I personally think scarier Zombie, is the ‘Rage Zombie’ portrayed in Danny Boyle’s ’28 Days Later’. That film, and ’28 Weeks Later’, have given me nightmares, and I still half expect when I look up at the glass sliders first thing in the morning, when it’s still twilight, to see a rage zombie, drooling blood, glaring at me with red eyes, just waiting to dive through the glass and eat my spleen.
[Shudder]
Lately I’ve watched Robert Rodriguez’s ‘Terror Planet’ and Johnathan King’s ‘Black Sheep’. Neither of these frightened me – in fact they made me laugh which was the creators’ intention I’m sure. ‘Black Sheep’ was particularly cool as I grew up on a sheep farm and my father always wanted me to write a story about mobs of rabid sheep revolting and running amok. Johnathan King got there before me, and Dad would have loved ‘Black Sheep’ had he lived to see it.
So there’s my thoughts on Zombies. What do you fullas and fullesses think about them?
July 27th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I can’t say that zombies are my favorite subject for films. I tend to like them more if they are either in old classic films or in modern satires (such as that one from England a few years back, I forgot the name). I have yet to see 28 Days Later though, so maybe I should check it out.