Thread of the Dead

Yes, a thread dedicated to the decomposing world of the infected zombies, reanimated and undead creatures we all love. Here you can discuss and debate every aspect of the Living Dead, review a film or book, or simply advice others how to survive the zombie apocalypse...

- Background -

- A brief history of the Dead - Braaain! Well, far from every zombie enjoys brains. Only the ones in John Russo's and Dan O'Bannon's universe really do. Russo, who wrote the groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead ( 1968 ) with George A. Romero, had his own "vision of the Dead", so to speak. The infected ones depicted in Russo's fashion were fast, strong and just as intelligent as before they got infected. Also they never die in the normal sense and become reanimated. Death is a gradual and rather smooth, yet painful experience. When fully infected however, they will start to crave brain, lots of brain in order to ease their pain. Romero's zombies are a completely different creature. Everyone who dies with an intact head and brain will become reanimated. If bitten or scratched by a zombie, you too will die and come back. Romero's zombies are not very bright, they're also slow moving and basically falling apart. - Cause of the Dead - When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth... Romero makes it a point to never actually reveal the cause of the reanimations and infection. Maybe it's radiation, possibly from a comet or satellite in space, maybe an unknown virus or maybe it's a punishment from God. O'Bannon's and Russo's zombies however, get infected through a gas called Trioxin. And in the Resident Evil Trilogy, the virus is known as... T-virus.

- Movies -

- Films of the Dead - Maybe they're coming for us? There are, of course, the classic trilogy and their remakes Night of the Living Dead ( 1968 ) And the remake by Tom Savini from 1990. And the 3-D remake by Jeff Broadstreet from 2006. Dawn of the Dead ( 1978 ) And the remake by Zack Snyder from 2004. Day of the Dead ( 1985 ) And the remake ( if anyone can call it that ) by Steve Miner from 2008. Followed by: Land of the Dead ( 2005 ) Diary of the Dead ( 2008 ) And the Living Dead-series: Return of the Living Dead by Dan O'Bannon from 1985. Return of the Living Dead part II by Ken Wiederhorn from 1988. Return of the Living Dead 3 by Brian Yuzna from 1993. Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis by Ellory Elkayem from 2005. Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave by Ellory Elkayem from 2005. And the Lucio Fulci classics: Zombi 2 from 1979 ( Dawn of the Dead being "Zombi 1", which was it's Italian title ). Zombi 3 from 1988. Followed by: Zombie 4: After Death by Claudio Fragasso from 1988. Zombie 5: Killing Birds by Claudio Lattanzi from 1988. And Bruno Mattei's: Hell of the Living Dead from 1981. And of course, the Resident Evil Trilogy: Resident Evil by Paul Anderson from 2002. Resident Evil: Apocalypse by Alexander Witt from 2004. Resident Evil: Extinction by Russell Mulcahy from 2007. Then we have the others in the same sort of genre: 28 days later by Danny Boyle from 2002. 28 weeks later by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo from 2007. Dead Meat by Conor McMahon from 2004. The Zombie Diaries by Kevin Gates & Michael Bartlett from 2006. Flight of the Living Dead by Scott Thomas from 2007. [REC] ( English Teaser Trailer ) and original Spanish Trailer, by Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza from 2007. And the American shot-for-shot remake of [REC], named Quarantine by John Erick Dowdle from 2008. And the zom coms, or even rom zom coms: Shaun of the Dead by Edgar Wright from 2004. Fido by Andrew Currie from 2006.

- Books & Comics -

- Books of the Dead - Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Max Brooks - World War Z - An Oral History of the Zombie War and The Zombie Survival Guide - Complete Protection from the Living Robert Kirkland - The Walking Dead

- Avatars -

- Signature Banners -

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I like the living people more..

Originally Posted by Atlassmurf

I like the living people more..

Thank you for sharing that vital piece of information with the rest of us...:hmmm:

I find Resident Evil series more of a comedy. Had nothing really to do with horror genre at all.

What a good list...I zombies. Until they eat you.

I still haven't seen Diary... yet but I hope it was better Land....

I don't think ol' George is getting better with age.

Here's my favourite zombie in toy form

Originally Posted by Noble Savage

I still haven't seen Diary... yet but I hope it was better Land....

It makes Land look like the Dawn of the Dead remake (which imo was the best of the entire series and ironic since Romero had little to do with it).

I don't think ol' George is getting better with age.

Yeah definitely isnt...his high point was the original Dawn of the Dead and that is pretty much it. The fact is he just isnt a good story teller and was more of being in the right place, at the right time with the right idea rather then a good film maker.

I actually liked Flight of the Living Dead, it was a bit campy but for a B-movie pretty enjoyable. Shaun, 28 etc were all good as well. Toss in Dead/Alive as well.

I just my pants with joy upon this thread.

I love you Joar...I truly do.

EDIT: I would say Romero is pretty much the only one capable of making a decent Zombie flick....except for Shaun of the Dead...that was superb.

About Land of the Dead....the reason it wasn't "that" good, was it was set in POST apocalyptic times. Years after the outbreak. Obviously things are going to be drastically different, and those movies always suck. there is little recognizable of our world, so everything in that movie seemed far fetched. However, I still enjoyed the movie...except for the ending...LAME.

Originally Posted by André Masséna

I just my pants with joy upon this thread.

I love you Joar...I truly do.

EDIT: I would say Romero is pretty much the only one capable of making a decent Zombie flick....except for Shaun of the Dead...that was superb.

About Land of the Dead....the reason it wasn't "that" good, was it was set in POST apocalyptic times. Years after the outbreak. Obviously things are going to be drastically different, and those movies always suck. there is little recognizable of our world, so everything in that movie seemed far fetched. However, I still enjoyed the movie...except for the ending...LAME.

Well one of the problems with Land of the Dead is that it is pretty much Brian Keane's City of the Dead....the basic plot is amazingly similiar. Post apoc zombie should be a very interesting setting...check out the fantastic comic book The Walking Dead for an example of that but Land of the Dead just doesnt even come close. It is like Romero tried really, really hard to make his social view fit into the movie and it comes off really flat compared to past films. Yeah though the ending of Land of the Dead made me want to throw something at the screen, it was the most idiotic, self serving nonsense Ive ever seen...it ranked up there with Rodney King's cant we all just get along thing. Man and zombie vs the real enemy...the rich white man!

Add a bad cast and a terrible script.

BUT I did enjoy the layout of everything. The way people were dressed was pretty neat, like the raiders wearing leather and in one case chain mail. I wish they did more raids rather than have a social uprising against whitey, it would have been far more interesting. Good gore though, good action for the most part.

If only the zombies could have looked this way in previous Romero movies, instead of it being "attack of the blue men"

I rather new movie has climbed very far up on my list of all time favorite zombie films. And that's the Spanish [REC]. Even though I consider myself to be a pretty hardened gore hound who's not easy to scare, that movie really creeped me out. Especially the ending was among the best I've ever seen. A fantastic movie.

I'm looking forward to the American remake, but I fear it will contain a lot of "Oh, my God!" all the time, just like Flight of the Living Dead. That line should be banned from horror movies.

The worst zombie film I've ever seen must be the so called "remake" of my favorite, Day of the Dead. It's braindead in a bad way. Steve Miner should be sent to prison for that one. Or at least be heavily fined. And not be allowed to do movies anymore.

Originally Posted by Joar

I rather new movie has climbed very far up on my list of all time favorite zombie films. And that's the Spanish [REC]. Even though I consider myself to be a pretty hardened gore hound who's not easy to scare, that movie really creeped me out. Especially the ending was among the best I've ever seen. A fantastic movie.

I'm looking forward to the American remake, but I fear it will contain a lot of "Oh, my God!" all the time, just like Flight of the Living Dead. That line should be banned from horror movies.

The worst zombie film I've ever seen must be the so called "remake" of my favorite, Day of the Dead. It's braindead in a bad way. Steve Miner should be sent to prison for that one. Or at least be heavily fined. And not be allowed to do movies anymore.

Oh man whoever green lighted the Day of the Dead remake should be shot...it is probably one of the worst movies Ive ever seen. It had little to no bearing on the entire series. Problem with [REC] (and undoubtly with Quarantine when it comes out) is the whole camera thing has gotten old and annoying. Honestly I wish someone would make a horror movie that could scare me again but Ive seen hundreds upon hundreds of them I just dont think anything can scare (or even gross) me out. Ill settle for well made horror flicks that atleast have a good plotline over the crap like Day of the Dead remake.

Originally Posted by danzig

Problem with [REC] (and undoubtly with Quarantine when it comes out) is the whole camera thing has gotten old and annoying. Honestly I wish someone would make a horror movie that could scare me again but Ive seen hundreds upon hundreds of them I just dont think anything can scare (or even gross) me out. Ill settle for well made horror flicks that atleast have a good plotline over the crap like Day of the Dead remake.

I personally don't think that the documentary format is old, it just depens on how well executed it is. A lot of the movies have one major problem, and that is: why in h*ll do they keep filming when friends and loved ones are dying around them and their own life is clearly in danger!? That makes no sense, of course. A normal person with a normal sense of self preservation would have thrown the camera away a long time ago. But in [REC] there's a very acceptable reason why they hold on to the camera; they're journalists and are trained to document what goes on around them, especially in such a unique situation as develops in [REC]. It's not at any time hard to believe why they insist on keeping the camera on. And Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza does it so well when they keep the movie short, intense and realistic ( sometimes shutting the camera off and skip through events ). They also don't use the things that ruined Diary of the Dead, namely music and a narrator.

Well, [REC] scared the out of me, especially the ending.

And another thing: how do you watch horror movies? I would never dream of watching them in a theatre with other people. I always watch them at home, at night and all alone. Winter/fall is also the best time of year to do it. Setting is everything. Watching a horron movie in daylight with a couple of friends is like watching porn with your parents.

Originally Posted by TB666

I didn't like the Dawn of the Dead remake.
I didn't think it was really scary since the whole concept of running zombies makes no sense and isn't scary either.

I was very skeptical when I heard that it would feature running, fast zombies. But I must admit I was pleasently surprised.

And when you think about it, running zombies aren't really that "unrealistic" either. If reanimated shortly, or instantly, after the moment of death, there would be no rigor mortis to speak of.

Originally Posted by Joar

And when you think about it, running zombies aren't really that "unrealistic" either. If reanimated shortly, or instantly, after the moment of death, there would be no rigor mortis to speak of.

No problem with zombies running shortly after being reanimated.
But Rigor Mortis kicks in just a few hours after death.
Most of the zombies however if not all of them has been dead for days, months even.
They all should be stiff as a lamp post.
Of course just running could cripple them since they don't have that much muscles left(the blood isn't circulating after all).
If you look at other movies you can see that they have very little strength left and usually have to use what's left of their body weight to hold a victim down or use their extreme numbers.

Originally Posted by Joar

And another thing: how do you watch horror movies? I would never dream of watching them in a theatre with other people. I always watch them at home, at night and all alone. Winter/fall is also the best time of year to do it. Setting is everything. Watching a horron movie in daylight with a couple of friends is like watching porn with your parents.

My cousin and I use to rent a bunch of horror flicks each weekend and end up watching them all night. It was always alot of fun, alot of them were really bad horror movies but still Sadly dont have that luxury anymore now Im all grown up with wife and kid so its basically I watch them whenever I can now. Yeah setting is everything and horror movies in theatre never seemed to have the same effect as they do at home, with all the lights out.

I was very skeptical when I heard that it would feature running, fast zombies. But I must admit I was pleasently surprised.

Yeah but fast zombies and more disturbing zombies who can think dont provide much in the way of horror. There is no realistic way that such a creature can be defeated, for one there are billions of them. They just dont seem dead when they are capable of doing that....it turns more into a bunch of Jason in hockey masks running around but instead of hacking you with a machete they eat you. They just lose the unique nature of this thing was once dead and now it wants to eat me that the whole zombie thing provides. Dawn of the Dead remake did it ok mainly because the number of "fast" zombies were limited to the recently dead, there was still alot of shuffling around.

Awesome thread, a big zombie movie fans.
Romero's movies and Zombie 2(or Zombie flesh eater as it is also called) are my favorites. And of course Shaun of the Dead.
I didn't like the Dawn of the Dead remake.
I didn't think it was really scary since the whole concept of running zombies makes no sense and isn't scary either.

Remember Zombieland, highest grossing zombie film of all time.

Not if World War Z is done right.

Can I post hot pics of real dead chicks?

Nah, it's TWC, I think not!

Max Brooks is great, yet to get the survival guide. There's a new zombie film out now.