Night and Day

I've seen these movies multiple times in the past but it's always good to take another look at them. I noticed a lot of things that I cannot put in the essay so I'll mention it here. First, Ben's recounting of the zombies pulling a truck driver out of his car and eating him alive is eerily similar to what happened to Reginald Denny's beating during the LA riots.

Dawn of the dead is a whole lot funnier than I remember watching it the first time. There are times when genuine slapstick was introduced and Romero also makes fun of the people for their extravagances.

Day is often forgotten when it comes to Romero's zombie films but I say this movie makes the most poignant message out of the dead series. Romero divides his band of people into 3, the soldiers, the scientists, and the survivors. In the end by giving up on the old world the remaining survivors watch the world get reborn.

White Zombie

I forgot to mention in earlier posts that I have of course been watching my share of zombie movies. I decided to get the grand daddy of them all and I know some of you may think that is Night of the Living Dead, but that is not the case. The first Zombie movie actually came around the same time as Dracula did in 1931. it actually starred Bela Legosi as the zombie master. The movie in question is called White Zombie. It's a about a young white couple that decides to get married in Haiti as guests of a wealthy landowner. The wealthy guy in question is actually in love with the woman and wants to make her his wife but she refuses. Thats when the wealthy man decides to use Bela Legosi's zombie powers to make the woman into a zombie. Suffer from necrophilia much? Well the young woman does indeed turn into a zombie but the wealthy man realizes that the woman has no appeal without a soul ( I could have told him that). Everything turns out alright in the end though. Zombie master and wealthy guy bite it in the end (no pun intended) and the young woman turns out to not be dead after all.

The really interesting thing about this film is how the zombies are used as servants. They are a perfect example of colonialism's stamp on a society. There's even a delicious scene in which zombies are used to grind sugar cane but a zombie accidentally falls into the grinder. The zombies, of course, take no heed in their fallen comrade and continues to work without a second thought. This if course is a perfect example of slave labor getting crushed into the very product they are forced to make. Love it.

Gospel of the Dead

Another great find from the interlibrary loan. Gospel of the Dead by Kim Paffenroth covers the Romero zombie films pretty much. He does a fantastic job of summarizing all the movies and relating them to Dante's Circles of Hell. I found a lot of revolutionary readings for these films that I found fascinating. Paffenroth seems to be happy to find the societal messages in Romero's films and even the Dawn of the Dead remake. It actually added more depth to the remake than I had seen. For instance the optimistic view of the strength of love; a theme that is often missing in the Romero films. He also reminded me of futile attempt to domesticate the zombie in Day of the dead, which I think will support my argument very nicely.

BTW I made a bibliography, even though I haven't written the thing yet. I had to make it for the proposal to the ICFA. I hope it gets accepted. I really feel like I know my zombie stuff now.

Book of the Dead

During my researching I've found a few useful journals and material that I found I could use for my upcoming essay. But nothing will effect my essay more than a book I found called Book of the Dead. It is hands down the most complete zombie movie book I have ever seen. Imagine a guy spent 10 years of his life to watch all the zombie movies in history. I'm not just talking about all the American zombie movies but every one from Italy, to France, to Japan. He even went so far as to watch the erotic zombie films, ie the porn movies. I found this book to be so useful because I now can take into consideration all the major cultural zombie contributions. I really feel like I found a gold mine and I even went so far as to order the book because I want to keep this book should I ever want to teach a Zombie class.

We're Dead!

The first book I asked from the school's interlibrary loan system, Annalee, Newitz's pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture, came in and I have to say that I am pretty pleased. The book covers just about every horror movie villain from serial killers to robots. Newitz makes some interesting statements in her writing about society and the use of undead. She explains that the undead are often used to explore race relations in our society. She speaks specifically of Night of the Living Dead, which features a middle class black man, Ben, as the level-headed leader of a group of humans surrounded by flesh-eating zombies. It was rare at the time for a movie to feature a protagonist black male and Night may very well have become the precursor for the 70's era blaxploitation films. Unfortunately, Ben is killed in an ironic death, by white men who think him to be a zombie. These men, wrangling up the dead as if they were hunting prey, conjures the racist white mob like the KKK.

Newitz also makes an interesting relationship between brains and economic wealth. It is true that brains or intelligence often equates to economic freedom and prosperity. A perfect example would be any major Bond villain. They are not feared for muscle, but intelligence and the wealth of men and technology that the villain controls. Yes it seems that intelligence and wealth go hand in hand so what does that mean when zombies crave brains for food? I'll answer that in my research paper but I'll say it has something to do with class and the need for wealth.

It's Alive

My zombie research blog is up and kicking. This will be a place I can blog about the things I discovered and the thoughts I had about my discoveries while doing research for my zombie research article.