Yes. I have a spider phobia, and the end of the original "The Fly" gave me nightmares for weeks. Being trapped in a web as a spider approaches to eat me? Brrrr.Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
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Yes. I have a spider phobia, and the end of the original "The Fly" gave me nightmares for weeks. Being trapped in a web as a spider approaches to eat me? Brrrr.Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
LOL that was a riot. For some reason, as the fly-man degenerated mentally and had to write in bigger and bigger letters on the chalk board to his wife (that was his wife, right? Not a maid?) I got totally creeped out.Quote:
Originally Posted by ']['ear
You remember it better than I. Only that last scene remains. From Saturday afternoons. :D:up:
What about when he has the girl crush him in the press? You have to remember that. I don't know why the big writing sticks with me so much - it must be a neurotic thing because it's not scary by itself. I remember the slurping when he ate with the towel over his head too.Quote:
Originally Posted by ']['ear
If we ever have an argument, I'll have to remember to increase the font size slowly, post by post.Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
:D
Youw and your cats.
Review from NPR's Fresh Air. I'm more excited than ever now! :D
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=130885260
Quote:
http://media.npr.org/assets/artslife...1288276789&s=2 Enlarge AMC From left to right: Humans Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), T-Dog (Robert Singleton), Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) must battle the undead in an apocalyptic future world where zombies roam the Earth.
October 29, 2010
I remember when Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on The WB, and I had to almost beg people not to dismiss it out of hand. The more I described it, the less worthwhile it sounded: "There's this cute high-school girl, and she learns her destiny is to save the world from vampires and other evil demons. It's a vampire show, but not just a vampire show."
So here I am again — this time not with vampires, but with zombies.
The Walking Dead, which premieres Halloween night, is the newest series from the AMC network, which so far has given us Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Rubicon. This new show comes with its own high pedigree: The premiere is written, directed and executive produced by Frank Darabont, of The Shawshank Redemption. Another executive producer is Gale Anne Hurd, whose production credits include The Terminator and Aliens. So she knows a lot about presenting tense, action-packed stories about relentless, seemingly unstoppable killers. And The Walking Dead is based on a long-running series of popular comics by Robert Kirkman. Of course now that I've mentioned zombies and comics, I realize I'm digging my own grave here.
Except in a zombie drama, there are no graves, just dead bodies. Dead bodies with bullets in their heads, or no heads at all. And undead ones — along with the few remaining living people, who have to avoid the walking dead and eventually destroy them.
http://media.npr.org/assets/artslife...1288276790&s=2 Enlarge AMC A zombie epidemic has taken over the world in AMC's The Walking Dead.
AMC A zombie epidemic has taken over the world in AMC's The Walking Dead.
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Zombies: Still Undead, And Suddenly Everywhere July 1, 2009
With sexy vampires all over TV and the movies, zombies are a tougher sell. This new television series makes it work by heightening the realism. There's no creepy horror music upping the emotional ante here. For the most part, there's no music at all, just a quiet, eerie, frightening silence, as we follow one of the few remaining humans as he literally awakens to this scary new world.
Andrew Lincoln stars as Rick Grimes, a deputy sheriff from Kentucky who's been shot in the line of duty. He falls into a coma, and when he wakes up in the hospital weeks later — his body emaciated and with a noticeable growth of beard — things aren't at all how they should be. There are no nurses to answer his calls for help. The clock in the room has stopped. The hospital is deserted and the hallways are messy. He comes across a body with much of its flesh ripped off like a side of beef. And then he sees the padlocked doors with the spray-painted warning, "Don't open. Dead inside"
And we keep following Rick, as he makes his way through the hospital, outside, and back to his home — where his wife and child apparently have packed some things and fled. It's at that point, still very early in this 90-minute pilot, that Rick encounters the first other human survivors — a man and his son who have taken to hiding in a nearby house. When they ascertain that Rick is human, they bring him inside, where the father fills him in on what has happened.
A lot of what makes The Walking Dead so striking a series is how visual it is. It's beautiful and foreboding all at once, with lots of scares too potent to spoil. And whether it's finding terror in the open daylight of a family farm or the familiar setting of a city street, this TV show finds lots of ways to give you the creeps.
The special effects are convincing. The violence, rather than being cartoonishly overdone as in the Spartacus series, is powerful, credible, and often shockingly forceful. (This is not a series for young children.)
But because the characters are invested with such emotion, and the story unspools so empathetically, The Walking Dead is much, much better, and more truly dramatic, than you might expect. You watch this, and there are times when you think, "What would I do if this were happening to me?"
My answer, way too often, is: I'd die. Your results may vary.
David Bianculli is founder and editor of TVWorthWatching.com and teaches TV and film history at Rowan University in New Jersey.
Hmm, wonder if the author had the same difficulty with cylons in BSG. Because for those of us old enough to remember, cylons were the (mostly) laughable robots from the original, one step above "Lost in Space."
PS Why does the black guy have to have a nickname like T-dog? Hackneyed.
The BSG was a SciFi channel program. It was going to have an audience no matter what and fact that it turned out so awesome and got critical recognition was beside the point, I think. This show's on AMC, currently known for some excellant dramas, not for moster-of-the-week movies and space operas. It's a pretty big leap to do a weekly zombie apocalypse drama. Daring.Quote:
Originally Posted by ']['ear
And T-Dog's one of those "rap guys." Clearly. Did you get a good look at him or not? (should have dressed him in those baggy pants. . . . )
I'd argue that BSG succeeded in spite of its venue, not because of it. "SyFy" is a spectacularly bad channel, for the most part, especially anything they make for themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
Wasn't Buffy on Fox? Then again, Firefly was on Fox, and failed. Probably would have succeeded on SciFi.Quote:
This show's on AMC, currently known for some excellant dramas, not for moster-of-the-week movies and space operas. It's a pretty big leap to do a weekly zombie apocalypse drama. Daring.
Fo sho. I bet he speaks ebonics as well.Quote:
And T-Dog's one of those "rap guys." Clearly. Did you get a good look at him or not? (should have dressed him in those baggy pants. . . . )
RE SciFi, I meant to say what you said, but with different words. Also, you calling out that rap guy stereotype has tainted my pure joy of anticipation. They better do him right or I'm going to be irritated.
Review:
It was cool - I'm into it. I liked the realism of firing off his pistol inside the tank. Poor horse.... :( Nice hook at the end.
Anyone else watch it last night.
No, it was just you. You should be ashamed.
Wife won't do horror (probably a good reflection on her), so won't be watching real time. Besides, I hate getting into series. If I watch it, I'll watch it after the fact on my time. I hate being a show slave. Just a personal pet peeve not a judgment. I do it for book series as well, made an exception for George RR Martin, and look where that bum left me. :mad:Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
I DVR'd it but only watched it 20 min delayed. This was the premier episode and very anticipated - by me - so I watched it the night of. Probably I'll watch it at my leisure thereafter. It was good, though - the Father/Son who're hiding out in a house and their mom got bit and is now wandering around outside and dad can't bring himself to shoot her . . . . :(
Bah. Anybody who's ever had to kill an injured animal knows it's a mercy and to just suck it up and do it. If it were my wife, I'd kill zombified her right away and then weep like a little boy afterward.
I watched it. Yeah, poor horse. And that thing dragging her half carcass in the park. And the zombie mom! :(
Are the woman and her son, in the tents with the other sheriff partner, the wife (Laurie) and son (Carl) of the main character (sheriff on the horse)? I didn't catch the sheriff dudes names....
Yeah, that's his wife now smooching his former partner. To be fair, they probably assume he's dead. But still . . . there's going to be drama all over that later on...Quote:
Originally Posted by GGT
I thought it was nice he tracked down the carcass woman and put it down. Should be a good series if this is any indication of the rest.
The Walking Dead - Zombie Attributes
So to break down the Zombies of The Walking Dead, their attributes appear to be as follows:
Mobility - Starts at below average human and works down from there based on level of decay or physical damage. For instance, they can run, jog, walk, shamble, or crawl, and can navigate in a human like manner. This means that while they can walk around a jumble of cars, try to open doors, or make the connection that they need to crawl under a tank, or on top of it, they won't be running any marathons.
Habits - As if you took a human and put them on autopilot, and only interrupted this with an immediate and indelible desire for warm flesh. If you sat idle on a bus waiting to go to work before you turned, thats what you will do afterward. You'll try to go home, pick up your toys, go on patrols, whatever you did before you'll do after. Except without much thought, and punctuated with chasing people or animals down and brutally eating them alive.
Respond to noise with curiosity, and live prey with pursuit (if possible). Apparently will stop giving chase, or attempting to get at prey after a certain amount of time.
Brainz! - Eats any warm flesh, regardless of species, or organ, not just brains.
To Kill Them - Severe cranial trauma. They'll keep chasing you so long as they have a head and a method of locomotion.
Intelligence - Semi intelligent, but dependent upon your level of intelligence before death. They appear to analyze situations and attempt effective solutions, however if you were a particularly braindead individual before turning, you'll do things like continuously walking into a mesh fence even though it impedes your progress.
Fast zombies or slow zombies?
I have a couple of problems with Zombies. If they are supernatural, all bets are off. But if they are not (virus is the usual explanation), then they are still subject to the usual limitations of an organism. That is, they cannot be half rotten, they cannot walk around on broken legs, etc. Sepsis would be a serious issue, as would nervous system blocking functionality. Finally, they would be just as willing to eat other Zombies as they would a live person; no reason not to.
Am I wrong in this?
But I think an interesting notion would be a virus that eliminated higher brain function. So Zombies would act like, say, dogs. Still very dangerous, but not the silly notion that Zombies would prefer uninfected humans to other Zombies.
The half carcass woman was dragging herself along as she rotted. They don't eat each other, and they're not eating the dead bodies at the hospital. Some memory is retained, that's why the mom keeps coming back home, and that one sheriff came back to the station.
I'm wondering if they'll have the zombies evolve somehow, and they start to scheme and plan together to actually hunt humans.
:popcorn:
These are basically Romero Zombies ala the original Dawn of the Dead. They were sort of on auto-pilot too - whatever they frequently did while alive, they do while dead when they're not trying to eat living flesh. The noise response is right out of WWZ. I can't remember if these guys moan or not. I don't think so - they do make hissing noises...Quote:
Originally Posted by Illusions
I think we haven't really seen differences in smart/dumb zombies; the police-man zombie faculties were clearly muddled by the fact that he saw 3 live human beings on the other side of that mesh fence.
I can imagine rot not mattering for some functions, I can imagine the rot slowing down, I can imagine nerves still working for some reason or other, I can even imagine why they wouldn't eat each other but would eat live things (some sort of scent ability) but what I can't imagine is how the zombie can be animated with no real energy source. Most zombies don't get a meal after the outbreak settles down and most humans are dead. So, weeks later, how can these things still be active? What's their energy source? Even when they do get a meal, their digestive system isn't really working, their circulatory system as often as not is broken open to the bleed out point, their hearts don't pump anyway, and their skin is as cold as the dead. Where's the energy to make those muscles work coming from?Quote:
Originally Posted by ']['ear
Business Suit zombie was pretty smart, for a zombie at least. He kind of hung back and looked to be like he was analyzing the situation that he was being presented with. He didn't unnecessarily expend energy. Once he realized that the guy was going to get away by hiding in the tank, he didn't continue to shamble forth to fruitlessly pound on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hazir
Explained in mobility. They'll move as fast as they need to, at the top speed of a below average human running. Any further slowness is due to either state of decay or physical damage.Quote:
Originally Posted by ']['ear
A few contentions. People are perfectly capable of still being alive when half rotten, walking on broken legs, or dealing with sepsis. The major hurdles are pain and shock, which a common attribute of zombies is that they don't feel pain or go into shock, at least not as much as people do. Also if there is an innate preference to eating warm, undiseased flesh, you're not going to eat other zombies. Other zombie movies and games explain this away by including things like pheremones, or smell, or having the zombie be the result of parasite infection, in which case the zombies don't attack other zombies because they're of the same species, and are already infected.Quote:
I have a couple of problems with Zombies. If they are supernatural, all bets are off. But if they are not (virus is the usual explanation), then they are still subject to the usual limitations of an organism. That is, they cannot be half rotten, they cannot walk around on broken legs, etc. Sepsis would be a serious issue, as would nervous system blocking functionality. Finally, they would be just as willing to eat other Zombies as they would a live person; no reason not to.
You'd probably be most happy with the 28 Days Later "Not-zombies" Infected. They'd eat or kill each other if significantly provoked, and could be killed in a manner similar to humans, although more like a human on PCP or hopped up on adrenalin.
This effecitvely addressed pretty much all zombie issues - they weren't dead - they even starved to death after a while. However, I do have a problem with how fast the disease spread between people. I mean, you get one drop of blood in your eye and 5 seconds later you're a raving lunatic completely out of control. Internal biological transport systems do not work that fast. It wasn't particularly believable. Really, everything in those movies was too fast - I don't like fast zombies. :down:Quote:
Originally Posted by Illusions
That's why I asked "fast or slow." The fast ones scare me more. Look at Zombieland and how easy Zombies are to handle if you're reasonably armed, fit and savvy. Fast Zombies, on the other hand (28 days later, I am legend) are terrifying, and could run down even the best athlete like wolves running down an elk.
Its an entirely different kind of movie. Fast vs. Slow, that is.
That suit zombie shot is too short to draw any conclusions yet about fast/slow zombies. The 'I am legend' creatures were still people, infected and curable.
Though I haven't read the book, in a review it was mentioned the original story called the creatures vampires.
That's right, in the book the creatures are vampires. I suppose they adapted the story for the film as that was centered around finding a cure rather than around survival.Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
That's why I brought it up!Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan
Slow Zombie movies always have the protagonists wander into tight, enclosed spaces (apparently surviving the zombie apocalypse makes you into a moron). Fast zombie movies have the protagonists hiding the whole time, since exposure is death (unless they have the light-sensitive twist, which really helps plot development).
A good slow zombie story has the protagonist have to choose to get into that tight spot to do something important - like save the girl.Quote:
Originally Posted by ']['ear
I like how they did that in Day by day armageddon (?) ; the government was incredibly stupid and detonated nuclear bombs in infested cities. Thus creating millions of dead who were irradiated and because of the way they died both faster and less dumb than their traditional brothers and sisters.
What movie is that??? I've never heard of it.
It's a book :) by J.L. Bourne
Seems like it's slow zombies so far. Though some of them appear to be quite fast at times :)
Yes, so far so good. They seem to have a bit of awareness too - the way they were sniffing for live flesh... :D
Looks like from next week's previews the deputy's going back to get the White Supremecist. That's nice. I wouldn't, though. Yeah, he doesn't deserve to die of thirst on the roof of a zombie infested Atlanta department store, but that's how the cookie crumbles, IMO. Things are tough all over when the world's over-run by zombies. I like how Deputy's former partner's banging his wife now. Nice of them to keep it secret - though I'm not sure why. They have to assume the Deputy's dead, right? They trying to keep from traumatizing junior? Hello, the world's over-run by zombies. What's a little mom's getting nooky going to harm him? Going to be some serious drama when Deputy gets back, though. :):up:
But why is the girl so dumb? Why is anybody so dumb as to go into, say, a storm sewer when zombies are around?Quote:
Originally Posted by EyeKhan