First I must say: WOW... This film was disgusting!!!! But I also think the writer played it smart too. Zombie films seem to be only be about one day or week where the main characters try to live through that time. Usually everyone dies at some point and that's where it ends. This film changed that. In this film the characters try to find a place where the dead aren't walking around and a place where they continue their lives in peace. Of course that isn't how it works out and the characters have to overcome the obstacles in their way. Romero changed the idea of the zombie film by giving the living a real goal to reach. Instead of just surviving through the night they try to find a peaceful place to live.
The story gets a little twisted when two families collide on their ideas on the undead and how they should be "treated". While one family wants to just kill them all, the other wants them to be "trained" to be like the living. The head of that family feels that it's his duty to conform brainless dead people to act like smart living people. The feud pulls the story off track a little along with one of the man's daughter. Her twin sister, who is a zombie is the first to conform to the living's ways by biting a horse. A question is brought up of why is it the twins that change what we think zombies should act? There isn't any real background on why she is the one to start the chain of events except that her and her sister are in the middle of the family feud.
Because this film is low budget of course the effects are not going to be the greatest ever seen and it shows. The spikes of heads is clearly CGI constructed. When a zombie bites part of the face off, the skin around the bite doesn't tug like one would expect it to do. One would also suspect that there would be blood pouring out of the body since the veins are exposed which also does not happen in this film. Instead of making all the effects equally constructed, some parts are extravagant and lots got much less attention. Some of the effects go to the high extreme and many go to the low extreme.
I am so glad that the zombie week is over with, I don't like them at all.
Next week: Werewolves.
What do you think Romero is trying to say about having these two families as such polar opposites on this issue? Is he making a larger point about the sanctity of life...all life? Or is he just pushing our buttons?
ReplyDeleteWhy do YOU think the twins are the ones who change the way we think zombies should act? What is Romero doing there?
I think the families represent the changing of ideas for zombie movies. While it used to be that they were about killing all the undead, Romero has brought this new idea of them living among us.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what to think about the twins, besides the fact that twins in general are said to have that super special connection between them. Maybe that has something to do with it. But I really don't know what to make of that.