Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts
The 100 Best Horror Films #3
Cinema is the art of storytelling through motion pictures. Thrill Fiction™ recognises that the movies are mass entertainment storytelling. This in and of itself is not an attempt at art. Then cinema is the art of motion picture storytelling as mass entertainment. Examples are The Watchmen 2009 The Godfather 1972 All Quiet on the Western Front 1930. To wit; movies are entertainment, film is art, cinema is art as entertainment.
Dawn of the Dead 1978 is cinema with all its faults in widescreen. Cineastes with low tolerance for low budget may be resistant to its visuals. Dawn’s stunts, special effects and jump cuts were dated on release; three years prior Jaws 1975 was convincing and one year later Aliens 1979 was mesmeric. Dawn succeeds through narrative. Its story is the star. Its location is its genius.
Due to the nature of this beautiful beast Dawn is episodic in structure yet doesn’t suffer for it. In 1978 the behemoth indoor shopping mall was an American experiment. It was so unfamiliar one of the characters had to ask what it (the Monroeville Mall1) was. This film is divided into two parts; the shopping mall and before the shopping mall.
Gaylen Ross2
“We’re blowing it ourselves.”
Francine
Come the apocalypse and people won’t believe it until they are dead. That mass delusion will be fed by a hysterical mass media. In (England) 1978 I had not seen an American news broadcast whereas in 2010 I can watch Fox News 24 hours a day. What was once a noble profession – the fourth estate – is now a distributor of lies to a gullible audience.
Perhaps this type of television journalism was the norm in 1978 America – if not nationally then perhaps regionally. What George A Romero does is predict the Fox News style badgering of expert witnesses and the downplaying of their salient testimony. This is where Romero recreates his zombie myth; Dr Foster states that the dead are come back to life: all dead – not just those bitten. The journalists erupt in outrage. They need to pander to the dwindling gallery. They insist on false hope. Their audience (American/human) is not mature enough for life and death truths.
This is the start of the film. This is three weeks into the apocalypse.
David Emge3
The film’s first encounter with the zombies is during a police siege. The cops are after Martinez and his crew who have taken refuge in a tenement populated by black and Hispanic citizens. The police attack with zest and glee and impunity.
“Shit man, this is better than what I’ve got.”
Woolley
The massacre is reminiscent of the Symbionese Liberation Army siege4.There are echoes from the ghosts of Attica5. Romero knew this law-enforcement tactic would be used again. In 1993 eigthy-four men women and children were killed in Waco6. 22 of them were British.
Rest in peace.
The siege introduces the two (good) cops – Roger and Peter. They meet on the job. Roger offers Peter a way out; his buddy Stephen has a helicopter. Francine, the journalist, is Stephen’s girlfriend. As befits horror not one of the actors was (or became) a star. The audience doesn’t know which characters will live or die. The two cops rendezvous with the couple at the docks – bang in the middle of a hijack.
In foreshadow of the second trilogy actor Joseph Pilato plays Skipper, the leader of the hijackers – a bunch of renegade cops. Pilato went on to star in the sequel Day of the Dead 1985 as army Captain Rhodes. In the second trilogy actor Allan Van Sprang played Sarge/Captain – the leader of a band of rouge soldiers (as well as Brubaker in Land of the Dead 2005).
Animals in the wild do not fight unless necessary. Skipper calls off the hijacking. It would make no sense for both parties to shoot each other up. The two groups become friendly but in a display of sardonic humour our heroes don’t share their cigarettes. Sans cash that’s the universal currency. The cops head out in a boat for an island – “any island”. The foursome fly off for Canada.
Scott H. Reiniger7
On the ground below rednecks, aided by the army, go on a zombie killing spree. This is a rehash of the climax of Night of the Living Dead 1968. In real life this is the militia in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Nazi Europe, Columbia, name a country. In the United States during Hurricane Katrina the militia8 were so brazen they displayed signs with racist epithets9.
“You are stronger than us. But soon I think we be stronger than you.”
Old Priest
Dawn of the Dead reads more like prophecy than history. This amongst other things lends it to repeated viewings and the discovery of hidden gems. Fans of The Walking Dead would do well to revisit this film and see where their beloved TV show stole its ideas from; plot points such as a lead character being pregnant and fine detail such as the division of labour between the sexes.
The Dead Trilogy is legendary. It is the best trilogy in horror. It is the best trilogy ever filmed. The series consists not of narrative sequels but of thematic ones. There is time and distance between each movie – it’s what makes the trilogy more powerful than all others. Dawn is to be purchased and kept forever in the family library like a copy of Animal Farm. It is the best zombie film ever made.
It is American cinema.
It is American cinema.
Ken Foree10
“When there is no more room in hell the dead shall walk the earth.”
Peter
Read more Thrill Fiction: The 100 Best Horror Films #1
1 The Monroeville Mall Wikipedia
2 Gaylen Ross GR Films
3 David Emge Wikipedia
4 Symbionese Liberation Army Wikipedia
5 Attica National Review
6 The Waco Massacre Serendipity
7 Scott H Reiniger Wikipedia
8 Katrina’s hidden race wars The Nation
9 Millitary.com forums
10 Ken Foree Wikipedia
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The Walking Dead finale 106: TS-19
Richard Desmond is the proprietor of the Daily Star a softcore pornographic tabloid newspaper. He’s also the owner of Channel 5 a terrestrial TV channel and the future UK home of The Walking Dead1.
Trash for the trash.
The pre credit sequence is flashback to (episode 1) Days Gone Bye: The hospital is chaos overrun by zombies and military death squads. Shane examines but fails to find vital signs thus he must abort his rescue of Rick.
This sequence exists to redeem Shane. It’s extemporaneous; the audience didn’t doubt that he thought Rick was dead. Furthermore the audience was willing to accept Rick surviving the apocalypse. We’ve seen the scenes following the Haiti earthquake and the 2004 tsunami. Chosen people do survive. The problem in this show is in the details. Eg how did the comatose Rick survive with no medical attention including (drip) food and water? 2
The writing on The Walking Dead is so bad they fired3 the writers4 despite it being the most successful show (18-49 demo) in cable TV history1. The season 1 writers were puerile at best hacks at worst. My supposition is that Darabont earned the contempt of his peers at dinner parties. He now wants to make great television – as opposed to simply great ratings.
TS-19 does nothing to further the narrative of the characters. They learn that the whole world has gone to pot – something that the audience already knows. We’ve been waiting for these morons to figure it out but they have to be told. Common sense dictates that in such an apocalypse if the US military aren’t all over it then the US military don’t exist anymore – and that includes the capacity to launch nuclear bombs. Likewise the world military. If the Chinese, Russians, French or the Tea Party hadn’t bombed Atlanta then it’s safe to assume they were incapacitated too. With no television, radio, internet (never mentioned) and no airstrikes it should be a safe assumption that this is the end of the world. Once inside the Centre for Disease Control the survivors shower – in a scene already enacted in Days Gone Bye.
This episode introduces a cringing horror/sci-fi cliché: the mad scientist. This is the lone nut job who will attempt to succeed where multinational pharmaceutical companies have not. There is no cure for cancer, AIDS or the common cold but Dr Edwin Jenner will attempt to find a cure for the Walkers. He doesn’t realise there are no patents or Nobel Prizes after the apocalypse. Jenner does have help though. From a voice activated computer that even responds to Rick. It must know he’s the lead character.
Dr Goebbels would have recognised this show. With the exception of episode 5 Wildfire this series has been a love letter to the racist white supremacist fantasist. The most disturbing aspect of this episode is the dénouement. Andrea and Jacqui decide to stay with Jenner in a Jonestown Massacre5 style suicide pact. Dale refuses to allow Andrea her death. He begs her, pleads with her and rescues her.
To hell with Jacqui.
She gazes in supplication at her great Satan the Jim Jones-esque Dr Jenner.
And so they die.
Thrill Fiction exists to support the horror community. It is my intention to critique film and now television in support of the industry. I will expose the fraud. I will laud the worthy. There are talented writers reading this. The Walking Dead is a prime example of another Hollywood failure. It falls to the responsibility of the writer, not the hack/charlatan, to record the human spirit in the art of fiction. This record will last for our future generations and will serve as testament to our present. They will remember us. We are writers.
Thrill Fiction condemns and denounces the racist/terrorist white supremacist propaganda that is The Walking Dead. As a narrative it is riddled with plot holes, inconsistencies, contrivances, bad dialogue, bad acting, a lack of research and contempt for viewer.
Some viewers are worthy of contempt.
You have not been charged for this editorial.
Bourgy.com is my go-to site for entertainment and jibber jabber. I’d like to thank webmaster Steupz for his support. I am indebted. Ricky Sprague writes at Project Child Murdering Robot and When Falls The Collesium. He is the writer Vanity Fair wishes they had. His acknowledgement supersedes Frank Darabont’s ratings. Thank you to Melizmatic. Don’t be a stranger. Hi to Lee at the Houghly Film and Beer Journal. Keep chugging the pints. A special thanks to all who read my editorials on this series. I appreciate your time.
Next time leave a comment.
It waters my ego.
Next time leave a comment.
It waters my ego.
2 TV.com The Walking Dead forum
3 Deadline Hollywood The Walking Dead lets go of writers
4 Time Magazine Walking Dead writer’s not fired say producers
5 Wikipedia The Jonestown Massacre
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The Walking Dead 105: Wildfire
Do not enter the city. It belongs to the dead now.
Rick Grimes
In 1986 Spike Lee made a film about a bed hopping single black female. She’s Gotta Have It was revolutionary at the time: a film with an African-American female lead, a film directed by a black man, a non-accusatory film about (black) female sexuality. Lee incurred the wrath of (white) America with his pertinent Do the Right Thing 1989. He awakened ghosts, frightened the living and had to battle Warner Bros1 with Malcolm X 1992. He is the pre-eminent African-American film director in the history of motion pictures. His films for the most part challenge, provoke, entertain, involve and engage. His films are cinema.
Ernest Dickerson2 made his name during the Spike Lee years (1986-1995) as his director of photography. Having served his apprenticeship he was rewarded with a studio released debut feature Juice 1992 starring Tupac Shakur. At this point Ernest Dickerson was the next big (black) thing3.
A career in the arts is a marathon and not everyone can be Alfred Hitchcock. Dickerson floundered at features. Others have too. Allan Moyle was a notable disappointment. Richard Kelly is a notable disappointment. Television is become a refugee camp for the once promising movie director. Television is what keeps Dickerson in the visual arts.
He used to be a contender.
The pre credit scene is a harbinger. Unlike the preceding three episodes there is a point to it; Andrea now knows how to use a gun – and accepts the leadership of the cops by consent and not coercion. The immediate question raised is the genre’s pièce de résistance: the transformation from dead to walking dead.
The very first sequence after the titles displays the difference of this episode. Morales and Daryl carry a corpse towards the bonfire. Glenn accosts them. He is strident.
Our people go in that row over there. We don’t burn them. We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there.
Glenn
He controls himself. He is insistent. Glenn is a boy. Morales and Daryl are men. They are not chastened but they do not argue. They bury their dead.
For the first time since this series began there is consequence. The characters are to dwell in the aftermath of the machinations of the plot. This is the blitz. On some occasions when Churchill and/or King George VI visited the bombed out districts the crowds would boo them4. They had survived that night. They would have to survive this one.
After catastrophe comes chaos. Daryl declares the massacre as punishment for the camp deserting his brother. Jim begs Jacqui not to out him. She does. Shane considers murder – a sight seen by Dale. Andrea kills her sister’s walker.
Dickerson’s skill as a director is to dwell on the actors. It is the reaction shot. The actors – all of them – raise their game accordingly. The survivor’s register shock, horror, dismay, revulsion and fear at the revelation of a bleeding bite wound on Jim’s stomach. Jim pleads for his life then has to sit and wait as a people’s tribunal decides his fate.
There are bouts of sentimentality – Gale’s soliloquy and Amy’s zombie death – but these are negated by her burial. They are negated by the tribunal arguing to a near point of violence about what direction to take. The camp is to separate. The farewell scene invokes images of Somali refugee camps in Kenya and the blind choices a man must make to save his family. No actor is wasted where they hitherto have been. This is the skill of Dickerson.
For the first time Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori gives a worthy performance. Rick approaches his wife for help. She can’t give it him. She won’t give it him. These are people falling apart. They are frantic, desperate and propelled by fear. The realisation is settling in; they are living in false hope. Rick, Shane and Daryl want to defeat the enemy while Lori and Glen insist on retaining their humanity. It takes all sorts of mechanisms to cope.
Shane is given more motivation. His family are dead. That’s more than enough to tip any man – much less a self believing cop – into the insanity of jealousy. Jacqui has her best scenes yet. Jim’s demise is a good (off screen) death. In a world of 6.5 billion people what’s one more zombie in the scheme of things?
Read more Thrill Fiction: The Walking Dead 104: Vatos
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The Walking Dead 104: Vatos
Vato: The word Mexicans use for homeboy(sic).
The Urban Dictionary
Not to be confused with the Hispanic street gang Vatos Locos.
400 years ago Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. To celebrate his failure the British burn effigies atop bonfires every November 5th. The fires burn at public gatherings and in private backyards to a firework display finale. Bonfire night aside throughout the year people use fireworks to celebrate a myriad of occasions: sporting events, the openings of restaurants, nightclubs, birthdays. Other countries celebrate with fireworks too. The fact is human beings are mesmerised by flashing lights in the night sky. Just like the zombies in George A Romero’s Land of the Dead 2005.
The Walking Dead is a fireworks display: all smoke no mirrors.
Monsters 2010 is an apocalypse-set film in the tradition of Cloverfield 2008. Whereas the latter positions itself in the horror genre the former is set firmly in drama. Monsters tells the story of two Americans stranded in Mexico who attempt to walk their way through the ‘infected zone’ back into the United States. In this apocalyptic world the characters have nothing left but time – and a survivalist’s urgency. It is a time to re-examine themselves. It is time not afforded to us in our world of capitalism and consumerism. There comes a tipping point in that time where the characters realise that this is the end of the world and all hope is gone. At the end of time will people gravitate to each other out of lust or despair?
The Walking Dead attempts to position itself as drama yet after more than three hours of broadcast television it has failed to establish tone. There is not a sense of static time or hopelessness. Rick Grimes’ quest seems to be leading to a point but post Armageddon all points are futile. The show does not convey this. Civilization would have to start over but these characters act like they’re waiting for a rescue. The series balances itself between horror and drama – Atlanta and the campsite – with no equilibrium. The last two episodes have seen the drama fail at camp. This episode sees the horror fail in Atlanta.
The fail is the writing. Time and again the program makers waste the pre credit sequence. Rather than establish the episode they signpost the climax – with a bludgeon rather than a blade; the conversation between two blonde women about fishing tackle is at best inane at worst sentimental. These two characters then expose the series as fraud. Where did that boat come from? Did a refugee carry it on their back whilst fleeing escaping flesh eating zombies? How long have these people been in camp because they act like this is the first time the sisters have caught fish. Yet the girls are lifelong amateur fishermen. They catch a bounty bigger than the Cornwall fishing quota.
Jim wanders off and occupies his time digging holes in the ground. That causes consternation amongst the campers. Apparently he’s scaring Lori’s son and Carol’s daughter. Notably his digging is not scaring Juan’s children. I guess the only time a white man scares them is when he wants to deport them. Nevertheless we must protect the (white) children so Shane handcuffs Jim to a tree.
Do not be deceived. This episode does not deal with the inevitable nervous breakdowns following Armageddon or even the camp dynamics. Jim’s ‘sunstroke’ is a setup for the conclusion. A society can be judged by the way it treats its mentally ill. How would Shane or anyone else treat a liability who screams at night as a beacon for the walkers? Why hasn’t anyone challenged Shane his leadership position especially after Ed’s beating in 103 and now Jim? There should be murmurings and grumblings of a coup d’état most likely from Lori. Alas this show has no interest in human motivation and condition. This is soap opera and General Hospital has been running for 50 years.
In Atlanta the racist stereotyping continues. The only good Injun is a dead one but these Latinos are good guys. They may come across as gangbangers but they’re really just looking after their grandmothers – for shame. Atlanta is a majority African-American city but in the wonderful world of white fantasy where are all the black zombies?
They’re unemployed.
There is a token black zombie. T-Dog is given a gun. He gets to use it as well. He gets to shoot a zombie. Guess which one.
I’m your worst nightmare.
I’m a n— with a gun badge.
Eddie Murphy
Another 48 Hours
Read more Thrill Fiction: The 100 Best Horror Films #1
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The Walking Dead 103: Tell It to the Frogs
A television serial is an extended form of storytelling. It bears similarity to the novel in that soon after the beginning there has to be a lull in order for the story to catch up to the plot. Tell it to the Frogs attempts to explain the series subplot: why is Rick Grimes’ wife shagging his best friend?
In professional wrestling the maxim is to hide a performer’s weaknesses whilst accentuating his strengths – that way a man like Hulk Hogan becomes an icon. 103 pulls Rick Grimes out of Atlanta (peril) and into the boondocks (the camp). Here the story weaknesses have no zombies to hide behind.
Mythology is open to adaptation so credit to the program makers for their version and expansion of zombie lore. It was established in Days Gone Bye (101) that the walkers are more active at night. Guts (102) stated they are attracted by “sight, sound and smell”. In this episode the camp lights at least two fires (at night). It defies narrative logic.
Alas the plot demands it. The campfire scene introduces new character Ed. It establishes tension between Ed and camp leader Shane. This takes place after Rick Grimes reunites with his family in what has to be the most signposted and underwhelming scene since Colleen forgave Wayne Rooney1.
The script tries to convince the viewer that Rick’s wife Lori is innocent of adultery ie Shane told her Rick was dead. This begs the question which is worse: a whore or a widow who can’t wait to sleep with her recently deceased husband’s best friend and partner? Lori’s actions do not a sympathetic character make yet she is being painted as one.
Lori is played by a Sarah Wayne Callies2. Her chemistry with lead Andrew Lincoln is remote so the blame is hers and her résumé on IMDb explains why. She is not an actor – she’s a line reader. Her career is TV fodder.
There are more new characters introduced in camp. Juan has a wife and two children with nary a line between them. His small children aren’t as worried about him as the adult Amy is about her sister Andrea. To be sure the people of colour serve as tokens and stereotypes. To be fair they’re not the only ones.
How big is this camp? None of the characters say or indicate how many of them there are. They cannot possibly cover all their parameters and Dale’s daytime standing atop the RV is a writer’s feeble attempt at sentry. Moreover what are they feeding on? It can’t be the land. Nor can it be squirrels and tins of baked beans with frog’s legs to look forward to. There is a reason why zombie films take place in cities. Fiction relies on the suspension of disbelief. Despite Shane’s water source this show has jumped the shark.
The token black female Jacqui has established herself as mammy. T-Dog – him with the gangsta name – insists on risking his own life to save the racist who beat him, spat on him and threatened to kill him. He’s a good slave. Ed is another type of TV stereotype. He’s a white man (but we know he’s a bad man because he’s sexist). He dares to hit her in front of witnesses – only on television – and gets a beatdown from Shane for it. Compare his beating with that of Merle’s in 102. Sexism is worse than racism – but only when directed at a white woman.
The dénouement of this episode was telegraphed in its prologue. Three episodes in The Walking Dead is TV writing at its worst. To be fair television is the worst medium of writing. This is not the only piece of shit to be a major hit. At one time everybody watched Baywatch.
Readers of the comics say the walking dead are the survivors not the zombies. I say they’re the people who watch this show and haven’t got the wherewithal to know they’re being laughed at.
Do you think those nitwits out there in zombieland remember anything? It’s junk food for the brain.
Robert Downey Jr (Wayne Gale)
Natural Born Killers 1994
Read more Thrill Fiction: Re/Made Halloween 2
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The Walking Dead 102: Guts
A friend of mine popped by Sunday night but I didn’t hear him knock. As I went into the kitchen for a drink of water I saw him walking off through the window so I gave him a shout.
I don’t believe in coincidence. I’m Pentecostal Christian (lapsed). I believe in divine providence. The secularists, like the Chinese, believe in chance; existence as coincidence. In fiction everything happens – is written – by design.
There is neither chance nor coincidence.
The pre credit scene is tense excitement – until the reveal. The series-makers drop their first blatant con: it’s a bait and switch and doesn’t add anything already established in 101. If the program format demands a four minute precursor the writers had best optimise the time not waste it. Alas this is television – the worst form of storytelling.
The creativity dips from there.
Lennie James guest starred the premiere. Michael Rooker guest stars this sophomore. In his first scene he utters the n-word in demonic glee for its intended audience. Rooker next bestows a beating to (black male) IronE Singleton. It is one sided and sustained. He then spits on him.
This scene sets the tone for episode 102 and brands the whole series. One upon a time someone recommended I watch The Shield. There was a similar scene in that except the white (cop) coup de grâce was to urinate on a black (civilian). The Shield was a “critically acclaimed” hit and ran for seven seasons. The Walking Dead 102: Guts serves as an assurance and reminder during these Obama years – the black man will learn his place or it will be beaten into him.
RIP Oscar Grant1.
We are the walking dead.
To Kill a Mockingbird
The theme is filmed and the writers scramble to deceive. They want to present themselves as good guys – like Nazis solving the Jewish problem. They present this episode as anti-racist so their target audience can couch potato back in the audio nectar of the repetitive use of the n-word. There is faux balance. Rooker calls a white woman “sugar tits”2. Once. He calls the latino a “taco bender”. Once.
(Balance would be to call the white woman the c-word. However why should the producers upset white females and be made to apologise when they can insult black people scot free?)
Lead character Rick Grimes fist flies in because the black character T-Dog can’t defend himself. Grimes chastises Rooker by calling him “white trash”. Once. Jeryl Prescott plays the token black female. Later she tells Grimes “next time let the cracker beat his (T-Dog) ass”.
For every white supremacist there’s a white hero on a white horse riding in to save the day because these poor coloured folk don’t have the ability or acuity to save themselves. Even so there are those who would rather not be saved. It is the white man’s burden.
Home Cinema
The bigger the television the better for the 21st century living room be it projection, plasma, liquid crystal or a 20th century tube. Production companies will have to bar raise their dramas to meet the new technology. The Walking Dead attempts to do this – and succeeds – in scope.
The set pieces are cinematic to a fault. The extended escape scenes lift from Dawn of the Dead 1978 and its 2004 remake. Regardless the sequence delivers what cinema does on its best day; exhilaration and payoff. However unlike best cinema this show is afraid to pull the trigger.
Having been beaten to a pulp and humiliated by the Michael Rooker character T-Dog now tries to save him (like a good eunuch). He fails to do so via the dramatic ploy of accident. He apologises for his bumbling inadequacy and leaves Rooker to his fate: death by zombie (or helicopter rescue).
In fiction there is neither coincidence nor accident.
The only growth in this episode is the introduction of Glen. He’s the best character to date. He’s played by Steven Yeun and brings much needed brevity in the form of incidental humour along with the daredevil of youth. He’s also the only non-white spared racist epithets. It’s not surprising. The Chinese rule the world and the Americans know this.
Ultraviolet3 is a British made television series from 1998. It starred Jack Davenport whose breakthrough was alongside Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) in This Life. Ultraviolet is a masterpiece of television horror. The Walking Dead is self aware, self important and portentous. It is mutton dressed as lamb and racist propaganda.
Of course it’s going to be a hit.
Sometime I felt like we were being forced to carry out slavery in a tuxedo.
Demond Wilson4
(Sanford and Son)
Read more Thrill Fiction: La Horde
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The Walking Dead 102 sneak peek
The cliffhanger from the weekend premiere was the message radioed into the tank. Who is this zombie (above) and why did the camera linger on him?
If he’s the one who sent the message then this opens dramatic parameters. The rules of the living dead are not set in blood. In this story can humans mimic the walkers thereby avoiding detection? The readers of the comics already know this. The rest of us shall see.
The preview for episode 102 is a thriller/horror sequence. It is well delivered – dramatically and thematically. This early in The Walking Dead has already established its action and thriller credentials. It is the soft spots – those scenes of human drama – which flailed in 101.
Whereas most of the internet is praising Caesar I say lend me your ears. The dramatic arc of this series seems to be the hero’s quest: to walk on broken glass to reunite with family. It is simplistic, condescending in a nation with a 40% divorce rate and trite.
Despite the disappointment of 101 I reserve judgment on 102 but I am not deceived. Like the trailer for the premiere this preview looks great.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
William Shakespeare
Read more Thrill Fiction: The 20 Best Horror Films
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead is based on the eponymous comic book series first published in 2003. Full disclosure; I have not read any of them. Nor had I heard of the title prior to the publicity for this TV show. I don’t read graphic novels (other than Frank Miller). I’m not part of that milieu.
I have heard of producer Gale Ann Hurd. She made the Terminators and Aliens 1986 before during and after she was married to James Cameron – a kind of action chick Debra Hill. Frank Darabont is most famous for the beloved Shawshank Redemption 1994 but his oeuvre reveals a deeper track record in both cinematic adaptations and horror (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors 1987, The Green Mile 1999, The Mist 2007).
A 120,000 word novel will take at least five hours to read. A motion picture is 90 minutes long. The graphic novel series Sin City (pub. 1991) and its sequels took over 5 years to tell and spanned 30 issues. It was adapted into a two hour movie. Logistics alone meant the baby was thrown out with the bath water. Television may well be the best medium for adaptation and more so in the case of a comic book series.
TV has a history of horror – or what television describes as horror. The famous ones – The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits were more fantasy/sci-fi. Buffy (excluding series 1) and Angel were never about horror. Bona fide horror on TV – Masters of Horror, Fear Itself – failed to engross. They were valiant attempts with for the most part lacklustre stories. True Blood is for gays.
Television is in its 2nd golden age. This is the age of HBO and High Definition and Widescreen. It is time for television to adapt horror as genre. Gale Ann Hurd and Frank Darabont have the curriculum vitae to deliver. Zombies are the perfect conduit in this post 9/11 post banking crash century. The Waking Dead is based on an award winning critically acclaimed comic book.
It premieres on AMC during Halloween.
What we need is a story that starts with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax.
Sam Goldwyn
Pre credits: a cop walks into a dead zone of abandoned vehicles hunting for gasoline. He stumbles into our first zombie – a little girl in a housecoat with a caked blood jaw.
He shoots her in the head.
What follows is flashback. Momentum is halted.
Within the boundaries of art as entertainment when is it permissible to depict child homicide? Regardless of the original text as a writer I know that scene was written for shock value and serves no other purpose. It could and should have been filmed without the child killing.
Television is a medium of talking heads. In a typical 45 minute broadcast that’s a lot of talking. It drowns the action but at least not the visuals. Granted this is the first of six parts but the set up and exposition are dreary. Worse the start of a concurrent subplot is soap opera hokum.
The worse sequence involves British actor Lennie James. I can’t say how good his American accent is but he sounds like something from Gone with the Wind 1939 as does his behaviour. He rescues the main character – a white – and nurses him back to health with not so much as a thank you. At one point I thought Lennie was going to call him “massah”. He didn’t. That privilege was left to his son.
James Cameron’s depiction of black people has always been exemplary. I must have assumed Gale shared his humanity. However it is Frank Darabont who is the credited writer of this episode as well as being director and producer. That black people are still being portrayed in this manner by a white owned media is astonishing – though it shouldn’t be. It is through television one can see into the psyche of the continuing white fantasy of master race. Darabont is a disappointment. It’s time to re-evaluate my opinion of Shawshank.
One in three black men will be arrested charged and convicted of a felony in today’s United States. Lennie James’ role is that of the noble savage. He bends over backwards to help a member of a police force that terrorised him before the apocalypse. It would have been more dramatic to throw the copper out to the zombies once he revealed himself.
It’s fair to criticize a comic book character come to TV life as acting like a comic book character. Actor Andrew Lincoln is another Brit. His portrayal of deputy Rick Grimes is that of the American stereotype the Stoic. Given the chance to change his clothes he would rather wear a cop uniform complete with alboum hat then ride off into the sunrise looking for his wife. This show is not without sentimentality; Grimes apologises to a legless zombie before he offs her.
There is no attempt to hide the plagiarism; the hospital scene is identikit to 28 Days Later 2002. The radio broadcast is stolen from the Mark Protosevich I Am Legend script. Yet this being horror such violations can be overlooked. Goodwill is generated by the visual gravitas of the hospital walkout scene and especially the Atlanta climax. The screen is bereft of people and movement. The empty spaces and roads are eerie and oppressing. The effects and stunts are cinematic. These zombies are of the Romero protocol.
It is well made.
Despite the ponderous pace of this premiere and Lennie James’ character there are enough visuals and zombies to garner interest in episode 2. I look forward to allegory and insight but I am afraid all I’ll get is a stereotype and his wife.
Read more Thrill Fiction: Halloween
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La Horde
Full disclosure: I’m a 2nd generation Briton of West African descent. I am 100% Yoruba. Following the Holocaust of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade our diaspora is stretched across the New World: the United States , Puerto Rico , Cuba , Brazil , Colombia Haiti
(Nigerian) Yoruba are majority Christian minority Muslim but the old ways are still believed. To wit should you worship Christ or Allah you believe the devil exists. The weak spirited will look for short cuts. The ones with evil intent will approach sorcery. In Haiti
The zombie film is distinct in its two sub genres; the allegorical and the action/thriller. The respective yardsticks are the ingenuity of George A Romero and the bombastic gluttony of Lucio Fulci. There is a further (undefined) division – that of foreign zombies (the exemplar being Danny Boyle). La Horde 2009 is a French action/thriller zombie flick. Its raison d’être is to kill as kill can but every movie has subtext – intentional or otherwise.
The premise is grand larceny of the crumbs from the mouth of [Rec] 2007. Be that as it may there remains mileage in an undead siege of a tower block. La Horde has two factions at war; the cops and the robbers they have come to kill. After the initial shootout the survivors of both teams must band together to fight off the horde.
Alas the moment is lost.
What should become an exploration of friend and foe whilst under death stress instead descends into a shouting match. In zombie films the characters typically do not have backstory. It is their actions and decisions that define them and induce our empathy-sympathy. The actions and decisions of the characters in La Horde render them irritating, idiotic and – yes – ultimately boring. Ergo who cares who dies?
There is incoherent editing during hand to hand combat scenes. Since the focus of this film is action that decision is baffling. The movie also fails to follow its own logic. In one scene a zombie has super human strength. In another a mass of zombies have no strength. Then there is the usual time lapse inconsistency between bite and infection found in all zombie flicks.
Yet at one point it seemed this story was going to go beyond the films that had come before it: A female zombie is being tortured. Her shirt is removed. Her body is beautiful. The filmmakers step back from the rape. It’s a missed opportunity to register the reaction of the survivors. How much humanity they have left and how the dynamic would change from cops and robbers to rapists vs righteous. Alas this film had already made the decision to abandon character/audience challenges.
There is a theme in this film I will challenge. It is something as pervasive in Western cinema as to be almost invisible. Two of the crooks are called Ade and Bola. Them’s Yoruba names. They talk ofNigeria Abuja
There is a theme in this film I will challenge. It is something as pervasive in Western cinema as to be almost invisible. Two of the crooks are called Ade and Bola. Them’s Yoruba names. They talk of
Other films have pulled this dirty trick; X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2009 depicted Lagos Nigeria Abuja Nigeria
Yet this is how we’re treated.
This is how the West would like to see us –torn apart by war. This is the wishful thinking of the Hollywood hate mongers. This is the disinformation constructed and consumed by their willing audience. It is an eye opener for all Nigerians at home and abroad. Be careful who your friends are: the West wants us dead.
Special mention to the South African made District 9 2009. It portrayed Nigerians as savages showing that the Afrikaner has learnt nothing and appreciates less. It also shows that the African should be more temperate in forgiveness. District 9 scored a 91% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Nazis had their great filmmakers too.
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