You may have noticed that I've tried to improve my blog a bit over the last couple of days. I've added fields on the side bar telling friends what music I'm currently listening to, what books I've been reading and what movie I last watched.
You'll notice that today's little update to movies was Resident Evil: Apocalypse. I absolutely love zombie movies. And lately I've been on a big time zombie kick. Unfortunately there aren't very many good ones out there. Oh, there are tons of zombie movies but most of them are hideously bad.
For a zombie movie to be good it has to be well written enough that I care about the characters. And most importantly it has to scare me. Very few are able to accomplish that last part but I at least want to be fearful for the characters.
One of the best writers and directors in the zombie genre is George A. Romero. I love the feel that his movies have. They are claustrophobic and you're constantly afraid for the characters. There are very few moments (if any) in his films where the characters ever truly are safe.
Many Romero fans site Night Of The Living Dead as his best zombie film but for me, it's Dawn Of The Dead. The original 1978 version is what I'm talking about, not the 2004 remake(While the remake is an ok film.) The '78 version of the film has very weak special effects in most parts but it has a realism about it that makes you think this is what it would actually be like if there was a zombie outbreak.
Now, the reason that I like zombies so much is simple. They can scare me. Of all the horror premises I've seen (ghost's, demons, serial killer etc..) zombies are the one that are consistently frightening to me. I think that it may come from the natural fear of death that we all have, but I don't claim to be a psychiatrist. In truth I don't really care why, if I knew that might ruin it for me and that would be a shame.
All I know, is if I really wanna watch something and get a good case of the heebie-geebies, all I gotta do is watch a good zombie movie.
A funny side note. My wife can't stand to watch most horror movies because they scare her to death and give her nightmares, with the exception of zombie movies. She says that they don't scare her in the least!
Sadly, most of what passes for horror these days is just gore. The Saw films are really interesting movies that I enjoy but to me they are in no way horror. They have a lot of blood and guts but nothing really frightens me about them. The same is true for Hostel, lots of gore, not scary.
To me, a movie is scary when the tension builds and the suspense is driving you crazy! These two elements cause your fear to rise and make you afraid even if most or all of the killing is done off screen. If you don't believe me go and watch the original Halloween. I've noticed that there is actually very little blood and/or violence in this movie compared to modern horror movies. But the suspense of when is Michael Meyers gonna pop out of the shadows and get them plays with your nerves and you can't help but jump!
So if any of you know of any lesser known zombie or horror movies that really scared you let me know.
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