Pop 5: Favorite Zombie Movies

do not enter, the dead are in here …

Pop-Break loves zombies. We love them so much we’ve dedicated an entire week to them. And with The Walking Dead returning to AMC this Sunday, we thought we’d look at the movies that the acclaimed series takes cues from — some of our favorite zombie/undead movies of all-time. Featured writers in this “Pop 5” are our resident horror expert Ann Hale, our movie editor Daniel Cohen, senior writer Jason Stives, editor-in-chief Bill Bodkin and our first international guest blogger, Marcey Papandrea, who runs the Aussie-based pop culture blog SuperMarcey.com. So enjoy and make sure you have all your zombie apocalypse provisions ready!

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Marcey Papandrea

I enjoy the zombie sub-genre as much as the next guy, but today it seems so over polluted and it is rare to find something that challenges the perception of it. When I look back, while Romero offered the fantastic Of The Dead trilogy, there was a young New Zealand filmmaker on the loose. I speak of Peter Jackson, of course, and way before he took on the task of adapting Lord Of The Rings, he was the man behind one of the craziest and goriest films I personally have ever seen (and trust me, I have seen a lot).

Braindead (or Dead Alive) is the crowing achievement from his earlier filmmaking years, both hilarious and a gorefest this is one heck of a good time. The story centers on Lionel, lives with his mother, lusts after Paquita and well is kind of a push over. That is until one day a rat monkey (yes you read that correctly) bites his mother, she gets sick, dies and comes back as a zombie. She starts to cause chaos, and Lionel is in the middle of it all. Throw in a zombie baby, and you’ve got yourselves a bloody (literally) good time.

The film cleverly mixes humour with the gore; it isn’t one to take seriously, no sir not at all. As the events get more chaotic in the film, the blood and gore increases, which leaves to a fantastic finishing. Ever wanted to see a man decapitate zombies with a lawnmower? Oh, you will! The make up effects were fantastic, considering this was relatively low budget Jackson and his crew did an outstanding job. Not only does it look realistic, it will make even the strongest squirm.

One of the best horror films, and one of the best comedies, this for me is a flawless film. Hard to believe that the same man behind this would one day become an Oscar winner. If you haven’t seen this yet, add it to the stop of the pile, and if you have, watch it again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnCfUpw-i7A

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Daniel Cohen

I Am Legend … otherwise known as Will Smith Vs Zombies, yeeeeeeeeee-haw! Well, kind of. The zombie factor is fairly low, and I’m not sure if these things are in fact zombies. In any case, the purpose of I Am Legend is to showcase Will Smith’s acting ability.

Much like Castaway or 127 Hours, this is a one-man show. The fact that Will Smith was not nominated for an Oscar here is just ridiculous. There are some truly gut-wrenching and depressing moments in this film, and Smith delivers on all of them. Granted I haven’t seen the Pursuit of Happyness, but for me, this is his best performance to date.

The direction by Francis Lawrence is also pretty stellar. The opening scene in which Smith’s character Robert Neville is driving down a pack of deer in the heart of a desolate and empty New York is thrilling. He also directs great scenes of tension, like when Neville enters a dark warehouse where the monsters could jump out at any moment. The tension in these scenes is dragged out a little much at times, however. The quick flashbacks are interspersed very nicely though.

Unfortunately, the last act is a little weak. Once they introduce a couple new characters late in the game, it drags. There’s also an annoying God vs. Science debate that is really unnecessary. You do get to see a big zombie attack though. And there’s even sort of a leader zombie who wears a tattered leather vest, so you obviously know he’s in charge. [Editor’s Note: He’s voiced by Faith No More and Mr. Bungle lead singer Mike Patton].

I Am Legend is a solid picture, and shows us why Will Smith is one of our better actors. The zombies/monsters are used perfectly, not over exposed at all.

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Jason Stives

With all due respect to American horror masters, there is something very perverse about the works of Italian horror directors. The Dario Argentos of the world seem to have a grasp on just being plain wrong and shocking more than being frightening. The 1979 film Zombie (entitled Zombi 2 in America) was a late-’70s piece of horror glamorized by intensely disturbing depictions of human mutilation.

You know that game Dead Island that came out recently? It borrows its plot from this movie, but is slicker in design than the very cheap yet visually exhilarating aspects this film showcased. Zombie is known for two notorious scenes in particular, both easily memorable and ridiculous. One involves an underwater scene in which a zombie literally fights and bites a tiger shark and the other involves one of the main character’s eyes being stabbed by a disintegrating door. It sounds insane, but it’s quite memorable and influenced the minds of Guillermo Del Toro various other modern horror visionaries.

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Ann Hale

Until 1968, with George A. Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead, the world knew zombies to be like the somnambulist of The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. Zombies were simply people who were under a sort of spell and did the bidding of others. Romero introduced the world to the new zombie order, raised from the dead with a hunger for warm human flesh and brains. From there, the zombie story became more elaborate, teaching us that a person need only be bitten by a zombie to become one. Soon, a simple drop of zombie blood could turn a human. Eventually, it was voodoo, then a virus, then rage. Each zombie film that has been released since Night Of The Living Dead has had many similarities in their stories, with the exception of one: Pet Sematary. Based on a novel by Stephen King, Pet Sematary is a movie far from the traditional walking dead films you may have seen in the past. These zombies look and act like normal people, only far more evil.

The Creed family — Louis, Rachel, Ellie and Gage — move to a remote town in the state of Maine. Shortly after settling, the family’s cat, Church, is hit by a truck. Jud, the Creed’s new neighbor, takes Louis to an ancient Indian burial ground where he tells him to bury the cat. Later, Church arrives home, dirty and stinking of decay. He is healed of all of his wounds but is no longer the friendly cat that Louis remembers. Soon, Louis and Rachel’s youngest child, Gage, is also hit by a truck during a picnic. Rachel and Ellie leave town, distraught, leaving Louis behind. When Louis tries to take Gage to the burial ground, Jud warns him not to, as they never come back right. He tells him the story of a soldier who died in World War II and was taken to the burial ground by his father. The soldier came back to life and terrorized the town. Both father and son ended up burning to death in a botched rescue attempt by Jud and some friends. Naturally, Louis doesn’t listen and buries Gage before going home to rest. When Gage rises, he viciously murders Jud with a scalpel. Rachel soon returns home after being unable to reach neither Jud nor Louis and finds Gage. So overcome with joy at seeing her son, she doesn’t even question why he is alive.

If I said any more, there would be no reason for you to watch it and, believe me, you should watch it. What I can tell you is that Gage is one terrifying little kid and, personally, I think this kind of undead is far scarier than the slow moving brain-cravers. You have to ask yourself, “Would I bring my toddler back to life, even if I knew they would come back wrong? And would I have the courage and strength to kill them again if I had to?” Watch Pet Sematary and then ask yourself again…See if you get the same answer.

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Bill Bodkin

Zombieland is set in the not too distant future where the earth has been ravaged by a zombie apocalypse, which was caused by a mad-cow-disease-infected gas-station hamburger. We follow a rag-tag group of survivors — the overly neurotic Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), the hyper-violent, Twinkie-obsessed Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), the precocious Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) and the requisite love interest with enough sass to last a lifetime, Wichita (Emma Stone).

The four are on a mission — headed towards an amusement park in California that is supposedly the only zombie-free area left in the U.S. Countless zombie corpses, a hilarious cameo by a comedy icon and a film full of clever dialogue come along for a fun, escapist thrill ride.

What separates Zombieland from its undead contemporaries, is that it’s really a fun movie. Most zombie flicks are serious to the point of absurdity, causing them to become unintentionally hilarious [e.g., a zombie shooting an M-16 in George Romero’s Land Of The Dead]. However, Zombieland wisely takes a major cue from Shaun Of The Dead. It focuses on the interaction between the survivors and less about the impending doom that surrounds them. Sure there are some scary moments, sure there are some moments of sorrow — Woody Harrelson’s back story is near tear-inducing — but this film is more of a rock ‘n’ roll action flicks meets a buddy road movie … with zombies.

The buddy movie aspect is actually the best part of the film. The interaction between Eisenberg and Harrelson is sheer genius. Their natural chemistry and extremely opposite personalities are perfect for this film. Think John Wayne and Woody Allen as a team. Eisenberg, who prior to The Social Network couldn’t dodge the Michael Cera comparisons, is in top OCD form here and his “rules to surviving zombies” that appear throughout the film are just brilliant … and something we’ve all thought about. As for Harrelson, not since Ocean’s 11, has their been an actor having more fun captured on celluloid. And it’s character that embodies the spirit of the film — fun and freewheeling yet outwardly brutal and subtly serious.

For those not into the gore of the traditional zombie flick or for those of you trying to work up your horror movie nerve this month, this is a great place to start. It’s scary and gory, but still fun and highly rewatchable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071KqJu7WVo