Night of the Living Dead

Wanted: Undead or Alive

The first horror movie I ever saw was a 1968 film about corpses that came back to life. It was a life changing event for me. I was horrified and an anxious wreck, but I loved every minute of it. When I watched Night of the Living Dead that first time, my love affair with horror movies was born!

Every Halloween season, I break out the ol' Night of the Living Dead dvd. This nostalgic tradition almost always reflares my passion for horror. For over an hour I am an eleven year old kid again, horrified, as I watch ghouls eat bits and pieces of human flesh. Yum!

I could not recommend this movie to everyone. Not even all fans of horror would like this. Not even all fans of the zombie subgenre would like this. I've known many who find NOTLD to be dated and boring. But horror fans that have a particular taste for independent films or classic films should enjoy this. In fact, I'm sure that most horror fans have seen this already. If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for, the dead to rise?

My Rating

ABOVE AVERAGE

Dead Alive

Schlock and Awe

In ancient Rome, gladiators fighting to the death drew huge masses of spectators. In the old west, public hangings were huge events and drew large crowds. Now that such public carnage is no longer around, where can people go to sate there need for viewing carnage? "Dead Alive" can fill the gore void.

I would venture to guess that the average movie-goer knows Peter Jackson as the director of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. But most don't know about his sordid past as a horror/comedy director. "Dead Alive" was Jackson's third feature, and he didn't have any studio execs looking over his shoulder, so he was able to include all the excess of extreme gore that he wanted.

The gore may have been excessive, but it was presented in a humorous way, so it was far less disturbing than it could have been if it was presented in a realistic manner. The humor in this horror/comedy was not conventional-movie-comedy. Instead of humorous situations, one-liners, and sight gags; "Dead Alive" has loads of gross-out gags. I'll give one non-spoiler example: A woman, who is turning into a zombie, is having custard with guests. While they are eating, pus shoots out of the woman's arm and into her guest's custard. He, of course, proceeds to eat the pus-laden custard. Funny stuff, I know.

Jackson packs so much gore into this movie that it seems like an addiction. Jackson reminds me of a small child that learned how to make a noise on an electronic toy. All afternoon, that same electronic noise is played over and over again until you just want to smash the toy against the wall. But Jackson directs with such glee that it is hard to be annoyed while you are watching all the fun being had.

--Average

Diary Of The Dead

Return of the Living Legend

George Romero has been making zombie movies since his 1968 release of "Night Of The Living Dead." I can remember watching NotLD when I was around twelve years old. The experience made a lasting impression on me; I was horrified and had to turn it off right at the scene in which the zombies were munching on Tom and Judy's toasty carcasses.

Now that I am at the ripe old age of 24, and I have seen lots of onscreen munching, the scares are not as effective on me. However, the new George Romero film,"Diary Of The Dead," was more than just scares and setups for scares. The social commentary contained in "Diary Of The Dead" was obviously just as important to Romero as the gore.

Just as Romero saw racism and violence as a problem in the sixties when he made "Night", he now sees the importance of technology and the media as a problem and has infused that message into "Diary." One of the most powerful moments in the movie is a scene in which a young woman pleaded for a man with a video camera to put down the camera and come save her from the undead, and, of course, he just keeps on shooting instead of helping.

One of the main problems I have with "Diary Of The Dead" is the use of computer graphics. Call me old fashioned, but I consider squibs and other practical effects to be much more visually believable than cgi. Computer graphics, to me, are only believable if they are used minimally and professionally. "Diary" had too low of a budget to pull off the big gory computer graphics.

Legendary George Romero may still be putting powerful social commentary in his zombie movies, but, for me, the scares and the effects fall flat.

--Average