I hate zombies. Even more than I hate vampires. They’re a stupid, derivative and over-used monster that has come to prominence because it’s been embraced by people who watch cheesy 70s Euro-horror films ironically and film-nerds who remember reading an essay once about how the zombies in Dawn of the Dead “were a metaphor for consumerism, maaaan…”
That being said, there are a small number of zombie films I enjoy. Shaun of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Brain Dead and this Australian film. Of course, the three things those films have in common is that they treat the subject matter with all the reverence it deserves. That is to say, none.
Undead is another one of those horror films that’s a bit short on plot, but makes up for it in other ways. Most of the characters are one-note, but drawn well and fairly archetypal (power tripping authority figure, bitchy beauty queen, useless boyfriend, terrified rookie). On the surface level, it’s just the story of a woman trying to get out of her stifling small town to start a new life, and the zombie apocalypse that gets in her way. But it’s the complications to that basic plot that make the film interesting, combined with a certain black humor and zeal for the self-consciously “awesome” in a way that Chris Sims would approve of the word. See, it’s not just enough that, following a meteor shower, townspeople start turning into flesh-eating zombies. No, then the caustic rains start to fall. Followed by the alien abductions. And the giant thorny wall that materializes around the town, cutting off all contact with the outside world. And then our farm girl turned reluctant beauty queen turns to a hillbilly gun-nut who knows gun-fu to mentor her in the ways of the zombie fighter.
It’s all just over the top enough to work.
Zombies have become the convenient cypher for horror fiction and films in recent years, a catch-all metaphor for whatever social movement or concern at hand, and this film is no exception. Their use here is actually a bit heavy-handed in that regard, especially when coupled with the giant wall around the town. Our heroine wants nothing more than to escape her old life, but she’s literally trapped, and all the townspeople who were holding her back now literally want a piece of her. And, as she’s reminded by her bitchy beauty-queen rival, taking care of the town’s needs is her responsibility, a point driven home in the now apparently mandatory ironic ending.
But aside from all that, there’s another element of the film that I enjoy, and one well worth mentioning, though it borders on the spoilerish. The zombie massacre, where our heroes rack up an impressive number of zombie killings, is a staple of modern zombie films. It’s expected by the audience. The neat trick pulled here is the dawning awareness in both the characters and the audience that indiscriminately killing zombies is exactly the wrong tactic to take in the long run. It’s the sort of response that people who don’t know what they’re doing and don’t know the nature of the situation they’ve found themselves in would take, because it’s the sort of thing they think they’re supposed to do. It’s the sort of thing that people who watch zombie movies would do, and it only ends up making things worse.
Entries (RSS)
“indiscriminately killing zombies is exactly the wrong tactic to take in the long run.”
You mean in this film or in all zombie films?
If the latter, why is that? I’m not following you. If it’s saving yourself, than I see fighting them working, at least in the short term. The actual causes may not be so easy for most folks to fight – for example the virus in the 28 series…
I can’t claim to be the first person to make this observation, but it’s kind of weird how the success of Romero’s franchise pretty much redefined the whole idea of zombies for the last forty years. “Zombie” now means “zombie plague.” What about the old-school zombie – not the mindless, tragicomic flesh eater but the spooky, implacable undead revenant? When was the last time anyone did a movie about old-school zombies – last I can remember was Serpent & the Rainbow, but admittedly I’m not as much of a horror buff as some, so I may have missed a film or two.
The problem with claiming zombies as “over-used” is that they weren’t, until very, very recently. I remember when Undead came out, for instance, and there was still novelty in the concept. It was only when Shaun of the Dead (a brilliant movie that I have a hard time watching these days, for reasons stated below) started hitting Comedy Central, and every obnoxious geek and pseudo-geek on Earth decided zombies = teh awesome, that the concept really started to become overdone. Unfortunately, the zombie genre–like the vampire genre before it, and like every annoying ninja-pirate-monkey meme that internet geeks latch onto like a hagfish–has been pretty much driven into the grave. It’s at the point where things like Zombieland–a movie that, 4 years ago, I would’ve been eagerly awaiting–inspires nothing but apathy.
Thank Christ most people still don’t know about Return of the Living Dead, a movie that’s frankly as good, if not better, than Shaun.
I’d say it’s been going either for 5 years, starting with the DAWN remake, or 6 if we go back to 28 DAYS LATER.
I like zombies well enough as movie monsters, but the cycle’s pretty much run its course for the time being.