Let me just explain more about George A Romero's films and the remakes:
In 1968 Romero created the first film in his 'living dead' series 'Night of the Living Dead' which was co-written by Romero and John. A Russo, after a dissagreement in when the sequels should head the pair split and Russo went on to write books which were later adapted to films but the films where never quite as popular as Romero's 'living dead' series. In 1978 Romero created the film 'Dawn of the Dead' on a budget of just $500,000 but it earned over $55 million, because of it's popularity Romero went on to make 'Day of the Dead' in 1985, 'Land of the Dead' in 2005, 'Diary of the Dead' in 2007 and 'Survival of the Dead' in 2010.
Something that seems strange to me was that while Romero was still making films in his 'living dead' series, remakes of the earlier films where being made, probably because of how popular they where and also the way that they revolutionised Zombie films. Although in 'Night of the Living Dead' Romero never referred to the living dead as zombies he was the first to make Zombies something other than a strange voodoo belief (I think anyway). So the remakes are:
'Night of the Living Dead' in 1990 directed by Tom Savini, 'Dawn of the Dead' in 2004 directed by Zack Snyder, 'Day of the Dead' in 2008 directed by Steve Miner. We are still awaiting the remakes for the other three.
So after having seen the 2008 remake of 'Day of the Dead' I have a few questions and criticisms but I'll start by listing some characteristics of the Zombies:
- They can run
- When people turn their flesh mysteriously changes to green and their skin peels in a strange pattern of circles
- Eyes glaze over to white
- When they come in contact with fire they 'melt' and their heads explode
- They retain some characteristics of the person they where before they turned e.g. a mother recognises her son's voice, a vegetarian becomes a tame zombie and takes commands, he also seems still attracted to the woman which he was attracted to before he turned and he works with the living to fight the dead.
- The virus starts of as air borne, some people are immune to it, but as soon as they are bitten they turn as well
- The virus was created by scientists working for the army who wanted a virus to temporarily paralyse enemy troops so they could take them captive instead of killing them, this virus mutated to create the zombie virus
These are interesting characteristics, in Zombie Land (you probably don't need to be told that this is my absolute favourite Zombie film) zombies that catch on fire just carry on running so I was surprised that the zombies in 'Day of the Dead' were able to be defeated by fire. I wasn't expecting the zombies to be green skinned because I believe that they'd turn pale but not green, but I was more surprised by the fact that their skin looks like they've been injured as soon as they turn.
In the original 'Day of the Dead' the zombies also turn a pale green colour, but they don't have the sores. The story line is very different and although it's not the type of Zombies which I believe will curse us with their apocalypse and end up eating our brains, it is a classic film and any true zombie film addict should have seen at least one (if not all, which is my aim) of the George A. Romero originals from the 'living dead' series.
A similarity between the films are that 'Bub' in the original (shown below) is tamed by a scientist and taught to listen to music and use a phone, eventually he uses a gun on someone. 'Bud' (above) is tame and follows commands given by his superior officers (possibly because he was in the army before the apocalypse and recognises these people as authority figures), a reason that some of the living characters give is that 1) he was a vegetarian and 2) he fancied Sarah (a fellow army member). I think the idea of being able to tame zombies seems appealing but don't count on it children, I think there's a very very small chance that we'd be able to tame a zombie in the apocalypse that we're about to experience and so if your mother/father/brother/boyfriend/friend/neighbour-that-gave-you-sweets-as-a-child do turn, don't try and keep them, they'll only eat your brains.
I hope this hasn't been too long and boring and that you've picked up on the lesson of this (don't keep zombies no matter what you see in films, although we can take tips from films we have to decide what we believe to be true about zombies).
Until next time my friends, sit tight but be ready, the zombies are coming and don't forget Nut up or shut up <3
