Zombies – Undead and Scary
March 21st, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized — Movie Critic
A shambling mess of decaying flesh stumbles from a graveyard and reaches towards a screaming victim. The telltale signs are there: the eye falling from its socket, the broken jaw with protruding teeth, and the rotting clothes barely hanging off of the creature’s body. It’s a zombie!
Zombies are one of the most popular movie monsters in modern cinema. They have been the subject of movies for several decades ever since the prophetic George A. Romero made them famous in “Night of the Living Dead” where the template for the modern zombie was introduced.
Zombies are re-animated corpses that feed off of human brains. But brains are not the sole target of zombie rage as entire bodies can be decimated by a zombie’s hunger. Zombies tear and rip at the flesh they deem to be so delicious. One thing all zombies have in common is their keen sense to detect humans and relentlessly pursue them.
While always scary, zombies have also been spoofed in television and movies – a sign of their immense popularity.
Zombies can come back to life for a number of reasons. Sometimes the phenomenon is not explained at all and this can be terrifyingly left to the audiences’ imagination. Other times the presence of zombies can be due to such things as curses, experiments, toxic chemicals, or viruses. Zombies can be killed using a variety methods but it isn’t easy. The main focus of attack should be the head and more specifically the brain. Damaging any other part on its body will slow down a zombie, but as long as its own brain is intact, its body will continue to function.
Zombies have always been terrifying but over the years their portrayal in movies has evolved. Where they were once slow and plodding, zombies have been given the ability to run at super-human speeds in movies like “28 Days later”. Sometimes, they are even given the talent of reasoning where they can outsmart their prey as a collective or individually. As CGI and special effects continue to improve, it is certain that zombies will similarly evolve to maximize the scare factor. Whatever the case, we have come to love the entertainment value of zombies as the eternally hungry undead.
