![]() And two - a few moments later he does make efforts to save someone else when he's in a safer position to do so than he was before. One - going to protect her would have likely resulted in both of their deaths anyway, as the infected had already made quick work of just about everyone else in the house (again, this is where the fast > slow argument has some merit - there's precious little chance of escape, especially in an enclosed area). A coward's move, sure, but there are two things to consider. I've seen a million assholes taking advantage of the situation and turning on his fellow humans in these things, but it's not too often you see a moment like Robert Carlyle realizing he can escape if he shuts a door with his wife on the other side of it. ![]() Personally, I'm much more interested in seeing what we did at the beginning of this film - makeshift "families" holing up, trying to have a normal day to day existence, and making tough choices when confronted with certain death. "That's what would happen!" its defenders will say, because they are experts on what the human mind will think about when confronted with monsters. Days mighta won me over if it didn't resort to the same "the bigger threat is your fellow man!" elements that made up the bulk of the 3rd act, complete with an attempted gang-rape. Regular zombie movies always have hundreds of anonymous zombies walking around - it's rare you actually get to SEE such a mob getting formed.Īnother thing that I appreciated about Weeks' approach is that there weren't any typical evil humans. These scenes (and the similar ones in the original) are what benefits most from the concept of the "rage" virus I prefer slow zombies myself, but there's something quite terrifying about seeing a room full of perfectly fine people become a drooling mob within seconds, as the infected make more infected en masse. ![]() It's also kind of heartbreaking to see how quickly it all comes undone - one infected person gets into the city and within minutes of the first transfer it's back to the total chaos that they spent the last few months repairing. Sure, we know all hell will break loose again, but for the first act it's kind of fascinating to see how this process might work in reality - clearing areas, sending survivors into new homes there while the cleanup process continues in the next zone, etc. For starters, as someone who has seen ( * checks Horror Movie A Day* ) 201+ zombie movies, I can speak with some authority that not nearly enough of them show a world that has the outbreak contained and on its way out. Weeks, however, speaks more to my sensibilities, and does so without hurting my eyes. I revisited it a couple years ago for a Chiller special I was in, and my opinion didn't change much - perfectly decent way to kill some time and nothing more. I loved the opening and a few standalone sequences (the tunnel!) but it just never really pulled me in like my favorite zombie films did, and I rarely thought about it since. I had no real problem with the first film beyond the hideous digital video (thanks for paving the way to RUIN CINEMA, Boyle!*) they cribbed a bit too much from Romero's films for my liking (that grocery store scene in particular was lifted right out of Dawn, and the finale is basically Day of the Dead's but above ground instead of below it) but that's almost a given in zombie movies** anyway, so you just sort of have to live with it at this point. That would be 28 Weeks Later, a much more satisfying movie to me than Danny Boyle's original 28 Days Later. ![]() One such exception gets me yelled at on occasion, however. Otherwise, you won't find me defending too many sequels over their original. Among the big franchises, Friday the 13th ( 2, 4, and 6) are preferred to the original in my house, and if you count them as sequels to one another than Dawn just barely surpasses Night as my favorite Romero Dead film. Not much of a surprise there popular opinion is that Halloween's sequels only ruined the mystique, and you'd have to be insane to think any of the Exorcist sequels improved on Friedkin's original. There are exceptions ( Fast Five and the last couple X-Men movies), but they're fairly rare, and there are even fewer in the horror genre that I can say improved on their originals by adding a number. I am not a guy to prefer a lot of sequels - Godfather 1 and Episode IV are the best of those series, not their immediate followups, and the Lord of the Rings series may have improved its grosses (and Oscar glory) as it went on, but for me it never got better than our introduction in Fellowship of the Ring.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |