Filed under: me stew, where the sidewalk ends | Tags: apocalypse, movies, things i love, zombies
So I’ve been thinking a lot about zombies lately. Like…more than usual, is what I mean.
My Gentleman Friend really digs on those 28 _____ Later movies, and as I am an ignoramus who had never seen them, we binged them this past weekend. And even though I’m definitely six years late with this: those movies are incredible. Terrifying like a zombie movie should be, but also? Significant ideas are being thrown down here, kids. I recommend these movies to anyone who 1) missed them when they were, y’know, actually new and 2) isn’t my mother.
This second point is important because, as my mom would be quick to tell you, she’s scared of zombies. And only after having watched 28 Days Later (and the other one, but I think I preferred the first) can I say that I wholeheartedly agree: zombies are scarrifying.
I think our fear (and by that, I mean the fear that my mom has along with a lot of movie-goers) of zombies is, as Jeffrey Jerome Cohen would tell you (HOLLA BACK, ENG-495!), a culture-wide fear; the zombie body is a cultural body containing within it all of our anxieties about death and decay. Zombies take our very human desire for some suggestion of life after death and transforms it into something grotesque by telling us that this is it, and bodies rot, and that rotting is a contagion to be feared and destroyed. They’re also pretty uncanny, don’tcha think?
What I’m getting at here is nothing shocking, especially to my fellow Literary Monster-scholars: the monsters we fear say a lot about us and the way we interact with the world. I used to think that vampires were my favorite (read: scariest to me, personally) monster, but I think that the adept way 28 Days Later handles how individuals would likely react to a zombie apocalypse just changed my mind.
Which brings me to the question: what movie monsters do you fear? What does it mean? Leave your thoughts in the comments and I’ll go try to locate my copy of “Monster Culture (Seven Theses).”
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Hmm. Part of me really wants to say the Balrog, but that can’t be the worst out there…if I knew more about zombies, then I might agree with you. As it, my knowledge of zombies mostly comes from a couple of BtVS eps (shocking, I know).
Comment by Caroline August 14, 2008 @ 5:26 pmI fear the Leprechaun movie from the early 90’s — yes, the one with Jennifer Aniston (and no, she’s not the leprechaun…at least not at the beginning muahaha).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107387/
Also, watching it on an early 1990’s projector screen was pretty horrifying as well.
Comment by Jo-El August 14, 2008 @ 7:51 pmIn my defense, zombies eat brainsJ How gross is that?
Comment by Debbie August 14, 2008 @ 9:05 pmI don’t like evil children, ie. Children of the Corn or even the Chucky movies. There’s something really creepy about sweet, little “innocent” kids that kill people or dolls that come to life and kill people. UGH I got goosebumps just thinking about it. Anyway, I love scary movies, but I can’t handle that kind. I don’t even like the scene in Close Encounters where the little girl goes, “They’re heeeeere.”
Comment by Nikki August 14, 2008 @ 9:50 pmIn response to Nikki, evil dolls are also scary as hell. (Except for the dummy in that Buffy episode. I think his name was Sid?) And as a point of clarification, the little girl says, “They’re heeeeere.” in the first Poltergeist movie, not Close Encounters. A common error, considering both flicks feature little blond kids prominently. The Close Encounters kid was a little boy. Great comment, Nikki!
Comment by Debbie August 15, 2008 @ 11:10 amOh, that Buffy episode is _awful_ — that’s one that I will never, ever revisit. Once was one time too many. Dummies and talking dolls creep me out too.
Comment by Caroline August 15, 2008 @ 11:19 am[...] tear its eyes away from that rotting beach carcass. One reason ties quite nicely into what I was babbling about yesterday: “monsters are the world’s troubles made manifest:” What with the economy and [...]
Pingback by Speaking of Monsters (!!!) « Will Think for Food August 15, 2008 @ 1:48 pm@ Caroline: I wonder what fearing the Balrog signifies? A downfall of a hero, perhaps? This all has to be about as fuzzy as dream analysis, but dammit, I love me some Monster Theory.
Comment by Rachel August 15, 2008 @ 1:53 pm@ Joel: I demand you pick a cooler monster. YOU WERE IN THE CLASS I’M TALKING ABOUT, C’MON, MAN!
Comment by Rachel August 15, 2008 @ 1:53 pm@ Nikki: Ooooh, GOOD ONE. Evil children! Isn’t The Omen like that? Vampire kids? Willies officially gotten.
Comment by Rachel August 15, 2008 @ 1:55 pm@ Mom & Caroline: YES. Dummies! Inanimate objects are terrifying because I think we all secretly fear that they come to life at night. And not in a delightful Toy Story way.
Comment by Rachel August 15, 2008 @ 1:56 pm@Rachel — Er, I thought more about this (though I did get to sit in on the Beowulf lecture in that Monsters seminar, I was wildly jealous of those who had the entire experience), and I’ve come to a conclusion.
What monsters/creatures scare me most are distortions or manipulations of humanoid figures. I can’t believe I’m admitting this, but the transfiguration of the prisoners in the first Spy Kids movie still gives me the wiggins. It’s the exaggerated alteration that makes it terrible; even the worst nightmares I’ve experienced have people who have become disfigured in some way.
This is me resisting the need to bring in Freud and dream theory (from Medieval Visionary Lit last semester, natch).
Comment by Caroline August 15, 2008 @ 4:07 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRdUKkxYzXk
“It’s out. It’s out of the crate.”
Comment by Jo-El August 15, 2008 @ 4:34 pmJapanese ghosts. Just the Japanese ones. The difference between Japanese ghosts and all other ghosts??
Japanese ghosts can’t be reasoned with. They’re don’t want to teach you a lesson, they don’t want to seek revenge on those who wronged them.
They just want you to die. No matter who you are.
Comment by Megs August 15, 2008 @ 10:56 pmUntil I moved to North Carolina (until age 8 or so) I was scared of the personified version of death. Specifically, the version that popped up when I died in “Shadowgate” for the NES. Playing that game at night was one of the few things that ever scared me (as for monsters under the bed, the only one I ever feared was Satan). I think my innate cockiness has made it really hard for fictional things to scare me – I have a terrible time suspending disbelief. Shadowgate was one of the few things that felt truly “immersive” as we would say in the Video Games class. Horror movies? Less so. But the Terminator from the original movie scared me …
Comment by Sierra A. Mike August 16, 2008 @ 1:15 amoh god, clownsclownsclowns and dolls coming to life. I used to have nightmares that Cabbage Patch Kids walked around and I could only avoid them by being very still on my bed.
Also, “It.” Only when people told me about it, not when I actually saw it (on the ABC Family Channel, no less). Cause it’s a little over-the-top and the child actors are waaay better than the adults, who have the tremendous challenge of acting like they’re afraid of animate fortune cookies.
Comment by Anna August 26, 2008 @ 11:44 pm[...] Dear Blog, I promise not to abandon you for so long ever again and to write more about zombies and less about Meg Ryan’s lips. xoxo, [...]
Pingback by Regarding Meg Ryan « Will Think for Food September 9, 2008 @ 3:46 pm[...] So the pressure, it compounds, not only to suck less and finally post, but to post something INTERESTING and ENGAGING and possibly involving ZOMBIES. [...]
Pingback by Mea Culpa « Will Think for Food January 27, 2009 @ 5:42 pm[...] As you may recall (and I’m sure you do, since I’ve been linking it to hell for ages now), I’m afraid of zombies, and WWZ is doing nothing to quell these fears. It’s speculative fiction at its finest and most zombietastic: what would the zombie apocalypse look like on a global scale? Could we win? And if we did, how and at what cost? [...]
Pingback by The End is Near…or Here? « Will Think for Food January 30, 2009 @ 10:33 am[...] check out the new design, let me know what you think, and catch up on prior zombie ruminations from the days of yore. Set a course for (zombie) adventure! 0 Comments No Comments [...]
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