Main Menu

Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 10:07:11 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Zombies

Started by bgmnts, March 04, 2020, 01:42:34 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

magval

Quote from: phantom_power on March 04, 2020, 12:11:23 PM
Dawn of the Dead is one of the only horror films to truly scare me. The sense of dread and overwhelming hopelessness  as well as how well they get across turning into a zombie and losing your humanity stayed with me for a long time and still gives me the chills.

I'm gonna try... not to. I'm gonna try not to come back.

grassbath

I watched Night Of The Living Dead for the first time only recently, having already seen Dawn and Day, and was actually surprised by how... not-tame it was, for its age. Provincial '60s zombies in grainy black and white chowing down on fake intestines on the lawn - terrifying. The concept's never really been developed significantly beyond that film, it's been put in different settings but it was all there in Night - the awful slowness of them, the terrible dragging grip that if you fall into you're fucked, the gradual accumulative force of numbers, grasping hands through barely-adequate barricades, fire, headshots, the race to the vehicle. And though I couldn't call it deep per se, there's social commentary a la Dawn in there somewhere, even without the famous ending. Star-spangled banner flapping over gravestones at the beginning. Postwar consumption, television, mindlessness, isolation something something.

bgmnts

I suppose this is true considering the times. Also having a black lead actor is ace. Romero rocks.

Another plus for Dawn of the Dead is the line "We got this man! We got this by the ass!"

Its a phrase I should definitely use whenever possible.

alan nagsworth

How the fuck's no one mentioned Zombie Flesh Eaters yet? Amazing film, one of my all time favourite old horrors. Shits me up every time I watch it and I could never tire of it. The zombies look genuinely nasty, the soundtrack is brilliant (half sun-bleached calypso and half creeping synth terror) and the sense of dread is huge throughout. The zombie problem kicks off quickly and it just keeps on getting worse, and there's a stifling uncomfortable fever to practically every scene. No social commentary (not that there's anything wrong with that), just absolute hell on earth. The cupboard scene and the infamous shark scene are priceless stuff.

grassbath

I've never seen a Fulci film. Probably should sort that.

Crabwalk

My favourite Fulci film is probably The Beyond (the middle part of his Gates of Hell trilogy). Some absolutely demented zombie shit in that one. Also has one of the best endings of any horror film.

Crabwalk

#36
Oh, and for me the best zombie film of this century is probably Train to Busan. Absolutely thrilling, very funny in places, and pretty devastating.

Although One Cut of the Dead is a must-see too, as others have said - but for different reasons...

purlieu

I've actually got those three films lined up to watch tonight, partially inspired by this thread!

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Crabwalk on March 05, 2020, 10:31:21 AM
My favourite Fulci film is probably The Beyond (the middle part of his Gates of Hell trilogy). Some absolutely demented zombie shit in that one. Also has one of the best endings of any horror film.

Yeah that film is fucking grim. Love it.

dissolute ocelot

Bruce LaBruce's Otto, or Up With Dead People combines my two favourite genres, teen angst and gay porn. Make sure you see the super-explicit version with lots of zombie sex though. Otherwise, it's just a sweet, sensitive, nicely photographed tale of loneliness among the striped-hoodie-wearing emo class, with a bit of film-industry satire mixed in.

In contrast The Girl With All The Gifts is the most mediocre zombie film ever. If you want a zombie Children of Men it's ok, and some bits are really neat, but for me it said zombie films are tiiiiiiired and I am not thinking about them any more unless there's hardcore gay sex.

magval

Quote from: bgmnts on March 04, 2020, 09:23:02 PM
Another plus for Dawn of the Dead is the line "We got this man! We got this by the ass!"

Its a phrase I should definitely use whenever possible.

I do! I'm annoying in real life. I fucking love Roger. Him pulling the sheet down when he DOES come back - that's my best zombie, that is.

My favourite bit of NIGHT that no-one talks about is the notion of Barbara going mental because she's seen the brother die, and then when it's all kicking off and she accepts SHE'S about to die too, there he is, and she's so happy to see him.

Then he gets her. That's true, personal horror, but it's not overloaded, it's presented so confidently and lost in the midst of all the other crazy shit.

I also adore the radio spot for the film, voiced by Karl Hardman, the film's Harry Cooper. Quote this frequently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkWyFSVgocI


Egyptian Feast

Dellamorte Dellamore (AKA Cemetery Man) is only partially a zombie film, but it's one of my favourites. It has a strong premise - Rupert Everett is the caretaker of a cemetery where the dead rise after a few days - established in the opening scenes, after which the movie goes off on a number of odd digressions, getting progressively stranger up to its headscratcher of an ending. Clearly the best film Everett has ever been involved with, so obviously he's disowned it.

Crabwalk

^ I think it's on amazon prime at the moment too. Absolutely nuts film. Nothing else quite like it.

Quote from: purlieu on March 05, 2020, 11:44:20 AM
I've actually got those three films lined up to watch tonight, partially inspired by this thread!

That's an amazing triple bill. I'd watch them in this order: The Beyond>Train>One Cut

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: alan nagsworth on March 04, 2020, 09:27:35 PM
How the fuck's no one mentioned Zombie Flesh Eaters yet? Amazing film, one of my all time favourite old horrors. Shits me up every time I watch it and I could never tire of it. The zombies look genuinely nasty, the soundtrack is brilliant (half sun-bleached calypso and half creeping synth terror) and the sense of dread is huge throughout. The zombie problem kicks off quickly and it just keeps on getting worse, and there's a stifling uncomfortable fever to practically every scene. No social commentary (not that there's anything wrong with that), just absolute hell on earth. The cupboard scene and the infamous shark scene are priceless stuff.
Absolutely brilliant film, almost as good as "Dawn" I reckon (which I think is the best of the lot).

I'll give some love to Nights Of Terror. Or Burial Ground, as it might be better known. It's the one that's famous-ish for having a creepy-looking 30 year old midget playing a child, who likes his mum a bit too much, but the rest of it is fucking great too.

Mister Six

Quote from: Crabwalk on March 05, 2020, 10:36:02 AM
Oh, and for me the best zombie film of this century is probably Train to Busan. Absolutely thrilling, very funny in places, and pretty devastating.

Really don't get the love for this one. Seemed to me like an utterly generic low-budget zombie movie that goes through all the same old tropes, only with Asians (and a train). The zombies are really inconsistent over how clever and fast they are, everyone constantly has to act like idiots in order for there to be any tension, the grandma who's clearly a 30-year-old woman in a grey wig is absurd, and it's all bloodless and bland. The only bit that would have surprised me is
Spoiler alert
blue coat dad (I can't remember anyone's name) getting killed
[close]
, but
Spoiler alert
Mrs Six, who is Chinese, called that right at the start, because the noble dad dying for his child is a hoary old cliche in Asian cinema
[close]
.

Shaun of the Dead shits all over it for both scares and thrills, and it's funny. Best zombie film of the century! Pah!

purlieu

Quote from: Crabwalk on March 05, 2020, 07:03:26 PM
That's an amazing triple bill. I'd watch them in this order: The Beyond>Train>One Cut
That's the order I've gone with.

The Beyond was bonkers. Like David Lynch directing an '80s horror B-movie. Some really fucking gruesome bits for 1981. Plus, a scene where
Spoiler alert
a man is eaten alive by tarantulas to the soundtrack of some '80s jazz fusion!
[close]
. Lots of fun, great stuff!

Now to see whether I side with Crabwalk or Mister Six on this train-based film.

Sin Agog

Quote from: Crabwalk on March 05, 2020, 07:03:26 PM
^ I think it%u2019s on amazon prime at the moment too. Absolutely nuts film. Nothing else quite like it.

That%u2019s an amazing triple bill. I%u2019d watch them in this order: The Beyond>Train>One Cut

The Beyond's probably my favourite horror, but I just watched Train to Busan and I really dug the anti-capitalist schweinhunden message, plus the genuine emotion in a few scenes.  The IMDB reviews are fucking depressing, though.  Not because they're negative, which they generally aren't, but because they're all written by a bunch of leering zombies of another kind.  None of them shut up about some cheerleader character in it, someone who isn't particularly objectified in the movie, and isn't even that major of a character.  It's genuinely weird.

One random example:

"I Hope There Is A Korean Sequel but Not An American Remake
donald-haschel22 January 2020
Hollywood will ruin it but a South Korean follow-up would be great.

This film is action packed and gruesome. There is a very clear theme of anti greed and corporatism on display. I hope they have ten times the schoolgirls in it and they are all as hot as the one in this film. I think South Korea has clean, pretty, thin, untattooed girls left so let's see them.

This is readily available on DVD here so get it.
27 out of 31 found this helpful. Was this review helpful?"

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5700672/reviews?ref_=tt_urv

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: purlieu on March 05, 2020, 09:31:54 PM
*spoiler text*

The crapness of the FX just makes that scene all the better. I love the shonky gore effects in Fulci's movies. Ropey gore is often much more disgusting than more realistic effects.

Crabwalk

I love how slowly that scene moves. It lasts as long as the lifespan of a real tarantula. Amazing.

purlieu

Oh definitely, it was wonderful. And as someone who's squeamish about eyes, it really was the cream of a fairly abundant crop of "fuck I can't watch this" moments.

Train to Busan was great. Not really much to add to the zombie pantheon in terms of development, but it was pacey, exciting, and managed to be frequently funny and, when required, very moving. The actress who played the daughter was absolutely fantastic, and the performances overall were very good. The anti-capitalist subtext was good and more effective - if less entertaining - than that of Dawn of the Dead. Great stuff.

Quote from: Sin Agog on March 05, 2020, 10:04:44 PM
"I Hope There Is A Korean Sequel but Not An American Remake
donald-haschel22 January 2020
Hollywood will ruin it but a South Korean follow-up would be great.

This film is action packed and gruesome. There is a very clear theme of anti greed and corporatism on display. I hope they have ten times the schoolgirls in it and they are all as hot as the one in this film. I think South Korea has clean, pretty, thin, untattooed girls left so let's see them.
Christ, that's depressing. You can't put a pretty girl in a short skirt without this kind of bullshit, fucks sake.

bgmnts

Really glad Train to Busan is getting good feedback here. I quite want to watch it, hopefully it is available on Netflix or amazon prime soon.

Kryton

The night eats the world

Better than I expected but not brilliant. One guy trapped in an apartment complex dealing with limited resources and boredom.

Rec 1 and 2

Enjoyable low budget horror, eventually remade into a shit American version. Great zombies and probably the scariest of the lot. I haven't seen the 3rd one.


bgmnts

Definitely wanted to ask if Rec is good but i've already seen the ending as I assume everyone on earth has but is it worth it for a full watch even if you have seen the ending?

Kryton

#53
Oh and don't forget Tom Savini's remake of NOTLD which made Barbara a stronger character. More or less identical in plotting but had some fresh ideas and is great entertainment if you like this kind of thing. Pulls the rug out from some scenes with good twists. Some good practical effects too. My fave being the zombie with the broken spine.


Slow moaning zombies are far scarier than hissing, fast zombies.

Kryton

Quote from: bgmnts on March 06, 2020, 12:07:27 AM
Definitely wanted to ask if Rec is good but i've already seen the ending as I assume everyone on earth has but is it worth it for a full watch even if you have seen the ending?

Defo. The ending isn't that great. The first half is tense.

Kryton

Can't remember the name of it, but there's one set in Germany (possibly Berlin). Several people trapped in apartments watching their neighbours die in voyeuristic fashion. Low budget but quite inventive. From what I recall.

Might have been Siege of the dead???

Kryton

Cargo Martin Freeman plays a doomed Father in the Australian outback trying to save his baby before he turns. Based on a short film (which I preferred).

Sin Agog

Quote from: bgmnts on March 06, 2020, 12:05:39 AM
Really glad Train to Busan is getting good feedback here. I quite want to watch it, hopefully it is available on Netflix or amazon prime soon.

I watched it on American Netflix just in case you've got a 'puter and a region changer like Hola.

purlieu

Quote from: bgmnts on March 06, 2020, 12:07:27 AM
Definitely wanted to ask if Rec is good but i've already seen the ending as I assume everyone on earth has but is it worth it for a full watch even if you have seen the ending?
Oh yes, definitely worth watching. A really intense and brilliantly paced film.

One Cut of the Dead was fucking great. I shan't say anymore as, as previously mentioned, it needs to be watched without any information up front. But definitely worth a go.

bgmnts

Def will check it out then.

Currently watching The Night Eats the World which reminded me of another French effort Ravenous on Netflix, that was quite good.