Thursday, January 28, 2010

Evolution After Death




Torture, gore and death are the three elements that are required in order to produce a high-quality, bloodcurdling scary movie. My whole life I have enjoyed watching horror movies, although I will admit that I am terrified of zombies!!!! My name is Jackie and I am a student at the University of St. Francis. In my blogs I will give my opinion as well as little known facts on various scary movies, both new and old.
The flesh eating undead is the one element in a horror movie that will never cease to attract attention. George A. Romero's "Land of The Dead" (2005) is a zombie movie that shows how life would be after years have passed for both the zombies and the survivors. The movie opens up on a town that was overrun by the undead. The living from a nearby city have entered this town in order to try and find food and supplies for those that have made Fiddler's Green their new home. Like any good movie, in desperate times someone has found a way to extort money from those who are lucky enough to be blessed with it. Those who have the money are placed in a beautiful building containing not only their immaculate homes, but also shopping malls and restaurants. Those who are not so fortunate are placed on the outskirts of the city, facing hunger, poverty, illness and zombies. Although it is believed that the town is safe because it is surrounded by water and an electric bridge that was placed and left up, evolution happened and the zombies regained the ability to organize groups and to also use weapons. They were smart enough to find their way to the city, even realizing that water could not keep them away. The head zombie called Big Daddy (Eugene Clark) is the one that made it possible. He was the only zombie that was able to withstand the temptation of the "flowers", which were just simply fireworks that for some reason seemed to captivate the attention of the undead. In the end, they reach their destination and receive much needed nourishment.
I enjoy all the classic zombie movies made by George A. Romero because they show how the zombies should really act. A zombie (keep in mind that this is a dead person) should not have the ability to have super human strength. The whole point in his movies is that they are dead and just want to fulfill the most basic necessity: the need for food and to eat. A zombie was so slow that you could run right past them in order to make your escape.
This movie was awesome in the way that it showed how evolution works, The opening scene shows a band trying to play it's instruments, a gas attendant responding to his bell, and a couple walking hand and hand that are all zombies!!! They settled and started doing what they remembered from their previous lives before being transformed into flesh devouring monsters. They had even found a way to communicate with each other. Evolution can be a beautiful thing despite the circumstances.

The cast includes several familiar faces, including Dennis Hopper (Kaufman), Simon Baker (Riley) and my favorite John Leguizamo (Cholo). He is such a handsome man!!!

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