As everything is careering Hell-wards in a selection of hand baskets,I have decided to ignore oncoming economic ruin, and worry about the forthcoming and inevitable Zombie Apocalypse instead. This is partly because I don't understand the Euro sufficiently to know what it is doing, and need distraction, partly as a result of a ferocious and recent addiction to a television drama on this very topic. "The Walking Dead" is a well-made and involving American soap opera with a topping of extra zombies. Zombies used to be rather sedate;they were seen from time to time in black-and-white movies about Voodoo in Haiti, stumbling in a blank-faced manner looking for all the world like a tardy cinema-goer seeking his seat in a darkened auditorium, but marginally less sinister. Then a Mr George Romero got his hands on them, and they acquired some unpleasant habits. According to horror convention and classification, they are actually ghouls. Ghouls hang about in churchyards, eating the dead and bothering the living, should any pop round. Traditional zombies did not gallop around demanding brains and decaying in a rapid and distressing manner. They only started that moving quickly caper quite recently, reaching alarming speeds in modern post-apocalyptic films like "28 Days /Weeks Later". The "Walkers" in "The Walking Dead" revert to stalking about slowly, and they are recognisably human. This assists in one of the major themes of TWD, which examines through considerable debate and discussion, the nature of what it is to be a living person. The characterisation and relationships within the survivors are given as much attention as the prosthetics and special effects. Apart from the female characters.Apparently it is much easier to write Undead characters than it is to bring a female protagonist to life. The women are annoying, whiny, and are either weeping or over-analysing everyone's motives. Oh, and one of them is pregnant with a baby who is destined to be a light snack. If there is one situation in which a baby should not be on board, it is a Zombie Apocalypse. You often have to keep very quiet and hide under cars. There is a lot of running. Babies are troublesome at the best of times, one of which this is clearly not. This mite will be doubly so , as our heroine has little clue as to which of the two main chaps is the father. There's also a Victorian fairytale quality to the plotting; people think that their loved ones have perished, but they are miraculously or horribly restored, children are lost in the woods, and moral fibre is tested until it twangs several times a day. There is an interesting schism going on just now between a farmer who believes that the flesh-munching growlers are just sick, and consequently is keeping twenty or so in a barn and feeding them on chickens, in the hope that a cure will be found; and the more pragmatic element who are now seeking shelter on his farm. They are of the mind,as a result of several dismaying experiences,that the Walkers are now far removed from humanity,and the best course of action is a swift and thorough dispatch. This can be achieved only with the time-honoured decapitation or head shot method,and is not as easy as all that. They all spend a great deal of time practising,though.Sometimes on each other.It is not wise to yawn or to slacken one's pace in their company.
So I am going to have to brush up on a few survival skills currently not in my repertoire. I have been a keen zombie studier since childhood, and have picked up a few wrinkles. I know, for instance, not to take advantage of the inevitable breakdown of law and order and head off to the nearest shopping mall.This would normally be most awfully tempting, as I have not been shopping properly since the Credit Crunch. However I also know that I share a love of hanging around shops with the Undead ( in addition to slow un-coordinated movements). Wafting round Marks in a stunned condition is what I do. However, after Z-Day, there would be a better than average chance of being bitten before you reach the self-service till. "Unexpected item in bagging area" indeed.
American Zombies are easily recognisable, due to their pallor and staggering gait. Over here, people would just assume that they were very drunk. In fact "Shaun of the Dead", a sprightly British comedy, riffs amusingly on this idea. In it, Crouch End is being overrun by the walking dead, but since the plague starts on a Sunday morning, no-one notices for a few hours. When I lived there, a ghastly-faced man shuffling towards you in his pyjamas was an unremarkable feature of a weekend trip to Budgen's.
It was all about vampires for the last few years, but that vein is now exhausted, what with "True Blood", "The Vampire Diaries",and the tedious teenagers of the "Twilight" franchise. Since "American Werewolf In London" , there hasn't been a good film about werewolves, and besides, in the UK we are a bit too soppy about dogs to find a slavering hairy beast particularly frightening.
We are evidently intrigued, as a species, by the idea of our loved and familiar fellows turning into something from which all vestiges of humanity have disappeared, and we are constantly examining the idea of afterlife;the persistence of the essential essence on some form or other, and the nature of revivification. The Zombie notion is just another in an ancient tradition of stories we tell ourselves about death and personhood. "The Walking Dead" differs from other explorations of these themes in that it looks at them overtly and discussed them openly. And the zombie effects are tremendous;the people playing the Walkers are obviously having a marvellous time, and I have to keep watching it because there are some characters I really do want to see survive, and several others whom I wish to bite the dust, or vice versa. Sadly, the series is "on a break", an irksome feature of American TV scheduling, apparently, so I shall have to wait until Valentine's Day to see sub-human critters preying upon each other in slow-motion. Unless I go out over New Year, that is.
So I am going to have to brush up on a few survival skills currently not in my repertoire. I have been a keen zombie studier since childhood, and have picked up a few wrinkles. I know, for instance, not to take advantage of the inevitable breakdown of law and order and head off to the nearest shopping mall.This would normally be most awfully tempting, as I have not been shopping properly since the Credit Crunch. However I also know that I share a love of hanging around shops with the Undead ( in addition to slow un-coordinated movements). Wafting round Marks in a stunned condition is what I do. However, after Z-Day, there would be a better than average chance of being bitten before you reach the self-service till. "Unexpected item in bagging area" indeed.
American Zombies are easily recognisable, due to their pallor and staggering gait. Over here, people would just assume that they were very drunk. In fact "Shaun of the Dead", a sprightly British comedy, riffs amusingly on this idea. In it, Crouch End is being overrun by the walking dead, but since the plague starts on a Sunday morning, no-one notices for a few hours. When I lived there, a ghastly-faced man shuffling towards you in his pyjamas was an unremarkable feature of a weekend trip to Budgen's.
It was all about vampires for the last few years, but that vein is now exhausted, what with "True Blood", "The Vampire Diaries",and the tedious teenagers of the "Twilight" franchise. Since "American Werewolf In London" , there hasn't been a good film about werewolves, and besides, in the UK we are a bit too soppy about dogs to find a slavering hairy beast particularly frightening.
We are evidently intrigued, as a species, by the idea of our loved and familiar fellows turning into something from which all vestiges of humanity have disappeared, and we are constantly examining the idea of afterlife;the persistence of the essential essence on some form or other, and the nature of revivification. The Zombie notion is just another in an ancient tradition of stories we tell ourselves about death and personhood. "The Walking Dead" differs from other explorations of these themes in that it looks at them overtly and discussed them openly. And the zombie effects are tremendous;the people playing the Walkers are obviously having a marvellous time, and I have to keep watching it because there are some characters I really do want to see survive, and several others whom I wish to bite the dust, or vice versa. Sadly, the series is "on a break", an irksome feature of American TV scheduling, apparently, so I shall have to wait until Valentine's Day to see sub-human critters preying upon each other in slow-motion. Unless I go out over New Year, that is.
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