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Is free on Hulu for awhile:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/92766/dawn-of-the-dead

Yeah, it's not bad but it has none of the class of Romero's.

Nice they have it up, they need more decent movies on Hulu.

Espy said:

Nice they have it up, they need more decent movies on Hulu.

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The original one, for a start.

It's got the fast zombies. Which is OK. I don't hate on the speedy zombies, like some people do.

I loved the remake, fast zombies can be done well (Dawn of the Dead, 28days/weeks) and it had an awesome vibe of originality mixed with tribute.

I don't hate the speedy zombies at all, I just feel that the speedy zombie phenomenon is a manifestation of hollywood's current tendency to be "BIGGER AND FASTER" without needing to be "smarter".

That's not to say that classic zombie films aren't 95% crap, too, but it's irritating to me that today's remaining 5% decent films are mostly dominated by films like the Dawn re-make which, while quite decent, don't really add to the cultural significance of the genre.

That said, I loved 28 Days Later.

As a generally slow person with a small lung capacity, the idea of fast zombies scares me silly. Really ever since seeing the night of the living dead remake, where the chick just literally walked past them I realized that zombies do need some speed to be scary and not ridiculous.

It's not the speed of the individual zombie that's supposed to be scary. It's the sheer NUMBERS of them and that, no matter where you go, they're EVERYWHERE. Just read World War Z and tell me that that's not fucking scary.

Personally, the scariest idea of zombies isn't the virus or whatever excuse a lot of writers use (including WWZ, unfortunately), it's that the dead, not just ones bitten, coming back. Which means anyone that dies comes back, no matter what. The Walking Dead comic deals with this, particularly.

But, the fast zombies, much like other zombies movies making a statement about something in our culture (Dawn of the Dead about consumerism, Day about the military, Land about corporations, etc), the remake could be seen as a statement about how society needs everything to be faster. The ADD/ADHD society, if you will. It's no good unless you can get it fast.

I should mention that, as a big zombie buff, I liked the remake. Aside from the nitpick of running zombies, I thought it really captured the idea of an infestation. Especially some of the DVD extras, like the news broadcast.

I still prefer slow, dumb zombies. It's why I love Dead Rising so much.

The Dawn of the Dead remake really shouldn't have been called Dawn of the Dead... it's the same general theme, but it completely subverted the message of the movie except in some of the early mall scenes. It's not supposed to be about the Zombies destroying man... it's supposed to be about man destroying itself when it should be dealing with other problems. Land of the Dead seemed more in line with Romero's earlier works and Diary of the Dead is great as an independent style take on the genre.

That being said, it's a good movie in it's own right.

chainsaw scene.

Shegokigo said:

I loved the remake, fast zombies can be done well (Dawn of the Dead, 28days/weeks) and it had an awesome vibe of originality mixed with tribute.

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Me too. I fucking loved this movie. It's still one of my favorites that I can watch over and over and over again.

This movie's got everything. Violence, children becoming zombies, a fat bitch getting her shit ruined with a fireplace poker rod, random titty scenes, a dickhead with a yacht, a badass military loon, a Joe Everyman, and a chick that goes from a 6 to a 9 in hotness as the movie progresses.

It's pretty much got a few steps up on Tremors, which is another movie I hold near and dear to my heart.

The entire fast zombie thing is stupid imho. One of the key weaknesses of zombies is they are slow. I mean you combine their mass amounts plus Olympic running speed and you practically have an unstoppable force. Yea the survivors are always the underdogs with very limited resources and often stuck in one place but damn, ya gotta give them a chance. Slow, shambling zombies is a staple in the zombie mythos. If power houses like Kirkman and Romero still do slow zombies, I think others should follow.

And the ones in the 28 Days/Weeks/Months movies, aren't technically zombies, they are Rage Virus infected humans, they are still alive not undead, thus they can move as humans do, they don't eat brains they just want to kill / infect others. They're behavior is zombie-like but they aren't truly zombies.

Plus, they started dying out from hunger at the beginning of 28 Weeks Later. I agree that they had zombie-like behaviour (and in many ways, essentially WERE zombies), but they weren't the same kind.

Also, goddamn, I gotta watch Tremors again sometime. I love 'dem graboids!

The fast zombies in Dawn of the Dead do make sense. A recently reanimated body wouldn't be prone to rigormortis yet. The zombies do slow down as time wears on. I watched the commentary and Zach Snyder did this intentionally as he believed there was no reason for zombies to be stiff and slow when they're newly dead. That explination makes perfect sense to me.

Mav said:

The entire fast zombie thing is stupid imho. One of the key weaknesses of zombies is they are slow. I mean you combine their mass amounts plus Olympic running speed and you practically have an unstoppable force. Yea the survivors are always the underdogs with very limited resources and often stuck in one place but damn, ya gotta give them a chance. Slow, shambling zombies is a staple in the zombie mythos. If power houses like Kirkman and Romero still do slow zombies, I think others should follow.

And the ones in the 28 Days/Weeks/Months movies, aren't technically zombies, they are Rage Virus infected humans, they are still alive not undead, thus they can move as humans do, they don't eat brains they just want to kill / infect others. They're behavior is zombie-like but they aren't truly zombies.

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I disagree with that first part. I think if you want to keep the zombie genera fresh (ba' dum ching?) then it has to evolve and change and be open to new interpretations. This is why I really enjoyed 28 days/weeks later because, while not zombies they acted basically the same. It was a new twist which was greatly apprechiated, at least by me.

Even Romero evolved his zombies. They got smarter as the series progressed and by the end weren't exactly like the zombies from Night.

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Bowielee said:

The fast zombies in Dawn of the Dead do make sense. A recently reanimated body wouldn't be prone to rigormortis yet. The zombies do slow down as time wears on. I watched the commentary and Zach Snyder did this intentionally as he believed there was no reason for zombies to be stiff and slow when they're newly dead. That explination makes perfect sense to me.

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Also, once I've suspended my disbeliefe enough to accept the dead coming to life again and eating the living, the exact mechanics of how they move don't exactly matter to me.

I prefer the slower moving zombies myself, but I'm not too bothered by the fast ones as long as it fits in the movie as a whole.

I don't mind fast zombies, I HATED the new DOTD when it first came out, but it's grown on me, I just went into it expecting something more intelligent when it's just a dumb but fun movie.
28 Days later was brilliant, but yes, not technically zombies. Close enough though.

Wouldn't mind seeing it again. It was a good movie, better than I expected.

One thing I really liked from the DVD was the special feature showing Andy's last days. That was rad.

I originally picked this up in a dual DVD set with Land of the Dead, it was a great twofer.

I remember being kind of angry at the ending, at first. It felt like..well, a happy ending. Or as happy an ending as one can get for a horror movie. And I thought "What the hell kind of zombie movie is this!?"

Then I kept watching during the credits and it was all good.

Totally agree on the DVD features. My fave, as I mentioned, was the news report with the reporter getting progressively more dishelved.

This movie is the reason I'm afraid of zombies. It was also the first zombie move I saw though, so that's not saying much. I remember for the first month or two after seeing this I had weekly zombie dreams.

I'm a complete wimp though. I turn away from certain scenes in Shaun of the Dead 'cause they bother me.

lafftaff.

watch any of the movies about Ed Gein, and zombie movies will feel like Dora The Explorer.

I watched Romero's commentary on the remake. He hated the fast zombies. Said basically it made it difficult to take the movie seriously. The slowness had a message. It was about the plodding inevitability of death. Speed represented life. If you make the zombies fast, it makes them alive, and it removes a lot of their zombieness.

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All that being said, the remake was scary as hell. Especially the opening scenes. Still prefer the original, though.

Fast Zombie movies are fine... but not when they appear in an franchise steeped in symbolism like The Dead series.

fade said:

All that being said, the remake was scary as hell. Especially the opening scenes. Still prefer the original, though.

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Especially the transformation of the "suburb" from day to day. I loved how they showed the tranquil side before releasing hell.

AshburnerX said:

Fast Zombie movies are fine... but not when they appear in an franchise steeped in symbolism like The Dead series.

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I'll point you to the original movie. It was a remake, and Zach Snyder did what he did with it for better or for worse. That doesn't mean that the original goes away.

My favorite Dead movie is actually Day of the Dead. It bludgeoned you with the "man is the real monster" motif till you were a broken and bloody pulp on the floor. Why is it my favorite of the Dead movies, you may ask?

Ahh Bub... Patron Saint of Zombies. Before Big Daddy, he was the first zombie to kill a man with a gun!

fade said:

I watched Romero's commentary on the remake. He hated the fast zombies. Said basically it made it difficult to take the movie seriously. The slowness had a message. It was about the plodding inevitability of death. Speed represented life. If you make the zombies fast, it makes them alive, and it removes a lot of their zombieness.

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All that being said, the remake was scary as hell. Especially the opening scenes. Still prefer the original, though.

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This (your first point). As I said, what makes them scary isn't their ability, but their sheer numbers and unescapability (is that a word?). You can't escape death, it's everywhere and it's very patient.

But, like I said, fast zombies aside, I still liked the remake because it really dove into the concept of a zombie infestation, both in the movie and the extra features. The world that they presented was great and horrifying.

Man, I think I'm gonna watch this tomorrow, after I come home from class.

Isn't the original Night of the Living Dead public domain/free to watch almost anywhere? I seem to vaguely remember that. It's my favorite of the Romeros.

Night of the Living Dead is still my favorite zombie movie of all time. It is terrifying and brilliant.
My top five, all time, favorite zombie movies are as follows:
1) Night of the Living Dead
2) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
3) Dawn of the Dead (The original)
4) 28 Days Later
5) Dead Alive
and the HONORABLE MENTION goes to: Shaun of the Dead

Espy said:

Night of the Living Dead is still my favorite zombie movie of all time. It is terrifying and brilliant.
My top five, all time, favorite zombie movies are as follows:
1) Night of the Living Dead
2) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
3) Dawn of the Dead (The original)
4) 28 Days Later
5) Dead Alive
and the HONORABLE MENTION goes to: Shaun of the Dead

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I would place Dawn of the Dead above Night, otherwise I agree with this list. And the honorable mention. I might even place it on the actual list above Dead Alive.

Charlie Dont Surf said:

Isn't the original Night of the Living Dead public domain/free to watch almost anywhere? I seem to vaguely remember that. It's my favorite of the Romeros.

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Yes, I believe it is. I actually have it on a big multi-movie DVD full of such films somewhere. Got it at CVS for like 5 bucks.

TeKeo;254066][quote=Espy said:

Night of the Living Dead is still my favorite zombie movie of all time. It is terrifying and brilliant.
My top five, all time, favorite zombie movies are as follows:
1) Night of the Living Dead
2) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
3) Dawn of the Dead (The original)
4) 28 Days Later
5) Dead Alive
and the HONORABLE MENTION goes to: Shaun of the Dead

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I would place Dawn of the Dead above Night, otherwise I agree with this list. And the honorable mention. I might even place it on the actual list above Dead Alive.[/QUOTE]

See, to me, Night is the quintessential Zombie HORROR film. Dawn is great, don't get me wrong, but it's so focused on it's societal implications that it loses focus of the horror aspect. Still a great film mind you, but Night deals its societal allegory in a very subtle way, then hitting you with a sledgehammer at the end. NOTLD is really, an almost perfect movie.
As for Shaun, it's hard to not have it in there, but I decided, Dead Alive was a more important film in the end.

Have you guys heard about Romero's new one? Island of the Dead or...someting like that? It's another "...of the Dead" title.

Sounds really interesting, kind of similar to an early Walking Dead story. There's two groups of people that have split because some feel that the zombies, most of which are family and loved ones, should be kept alive; the other half feels they should be destroyed because, you know, they're undead monsters.

I always liked that aspect of the Walking Dead story and can't wait to see a whole movie explore the notion. I get the feeling Romero (who's a fan of the comic series) got the idea from it.

I heard about it but to be honest, I thought Land of the Dead was so terrible that I have zero interest in seeing anything he's done since.
It's like U2. I'd rather remember them as a great band than hear anything after Pop.

Espy;254091][quote=TeKeo;254066][quote=Espy said:

Night of the Living Dead is still my favorite zombie movie of all time. It is terrifying and brilliant.
My top five, all time, favorite zombie movies are as follows:
1) Night of the Living Dead
2) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
3) Dawn of the Dead (The original)
4) 28 Days Later
5) Dead Alive
and the HONORABLE MENTION goes to: Shaun of the Dead

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I would place Dawn of the Dead above Night, otherwise I agree with this list. And the honorable mention. I might even place it on the actual list above Dead Alive.[/QUOTE]

See, to me, Night is the quintessential Zombie HORROR film. Dawn is great, don't get me wrong, but it's so focused on it's societal implications that it loses focus of the horror aspect. Still a great film mind you, but Night deals its societal allegory in a very subtle way, then hitting you with a sledgehammer at the end. NOTLD is really, an almost perfect movie.
As for Shaun, it's hard to not have it in there, but I decided, Dead Alive was a more important film in the end.[/QUOTE]

I agree on Night. I think people watch Night in one of two ways: an old movie with old movie special fx (which may be interesting, mind you) or as a terrifying documentary of a fictional happening. I love it. I've said it before, but Night is very realistic. It captures that sense of not knowing. Of being trapped by the dead and the night in a place full of strangers while even the man on the TV cannot tell you what is going on.

ThatNickGuy said:

Have you guys heard about Romero's new one? Island of the Dead or...someting like that? It's another "...of the Dead" title.

Sounds really interesting, kind of similar to an early Walking Dead story. There's two groups of people that have split because some feel that the zombies, most of which are family and loved ones, should be kept alive; the other half feels they should be destroyed because, you know, they're undead monsters.

I always liked that aspect of the Walking Dead story and can't wait to see a whole movie explore the notion. I get the feeling Romero (who's a fan of the comic series) got the idea from it.

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Island of the Dead was originally supposed to be a direct sequel to the Dawn of the Dead remake, with the guy who played the cop playing as his missing brother. I'm not sure if it's going to be good or not, but I remember that there WAS a game being developed alongside it... but that was years ago.

EDIT: It's going to be called Survival of the Dead and it's premiering this month at one of the big film festivals.

fade said:

I agree on Night. I think people watch Night in one of two ways: an old movie with old movie special fx (which may be interesting, mind you) or as a terrifying documentary of a fictional happening. I love it. I've said it before, but Night is very realistic. It captures that sense of not knowing. Of being trapped by the dead and the night in a place full of strangers while even the man on the TV cannot tell you what is going on.

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I will never forget the opening, that tall, dark man shambling through the cemetery... ugh, it's such a terrifying scene...

I know that I'm in the minority, but I really liked the 90s remake of Night of the Living Dead. The only change I didn't like was Ben being a zombie in the end. I did like Barbara being a stronger character, though.

I've never seen the original Night, so I have nothing to compare it to. Thus, I really liked Night of the Living Dead. A lot. I think you'll find a number of people did like it, Bowie. It helps that special effects zombie guru, Tom Savini, directed it.

ThatNickGuy said:

I've never seen the original Night, so I have nothing to compare it to. Thus, I really liked Night of the Living Dead. A lot. I think you'll find a number of people did like it, Bowie. It helps that special effects zombie guru, Tom Savini, directed it.

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There you go, enjoy.

"Their coming to get you Barbara!"

AshburnerX said:

"Their coming to get you Barbara!"

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I use that quote on almost a daily basis.