when the end comes !

[Thaurismunths]

I wonder how much truth there is to zombie origins?
http://io9.com/5252549/headless-fire-ant-zombies-are-your-friends
This is just another example of another natural 'zombie'.

[Russell Nash]

Hey, welcome back, you zombie-looking freak.

[Zathras]

How funny is that, my myspace page is zombies_are_your_friends.  Of course there's nothing of interest there, as I only use it to follow other people, but still.

[wakela]

random thoughts inspired by the past handful of posts.  Pardon me if we discussed these TWO YEARS AGO on the same thread.

I think of the shambling zombie movies are more akin to natural disaster movies than horror.  But since you have rotting corpses walking around, eating people you really can't get around them being horror. 

I admit I've never seen the "Return of" movies because I thought they were silly and campy and I was always offended that they sneaked into the cannon by putting "living dead" in their titles.  Furthermore, I'm annoyed that these impostors are responsible for and firmly established that zombies eat human brains.  Every time I head about zombies eating brains I cringe a little.  How would a zombie even get to a brain?

Re: Dawn of the Dead (the original).  I saw it a long time ago, so I've forgotten a lot, but wasn't the social satire pretty transparent?  It's zombies walking around in a shopping mall.  Oh I get it, because we are all like capitalist zombies and stuff.  Is there more to it?  I'd like to give it another watch, but my wife, god bless her, will watch absolutely anything except a zombie movie. 


Back to reality:
Can zombies use tools?
Can zombies climb?

[Talia]

Im not sure zombies qualify as natural disaster, because there's nothing natural about them.

[Russell Nash]

Back to reality:
Can zombies use tools?
Can zombies climb?

Reality???

[Zathras]

Maybe post apocolyptic would be a better term than natural disaster.  The story behind the "Return" series is more intersting than the movies.

I joke about the brains, but yes, zombies eat flesh.  I think the intestine scenes are some of the best examples of that.

Wakela, have you seen Day of the Dead?

[Portrait in Flesh]

Back to reality:
Can zombies use tools?
Can zombies climb?

Reality???

A rejection I received once on a zombie story I'd written was that the editor didn't find it believable because my basic premise would work only on vampires, not on zombies.

I had to laugh.

[wakela]

Im not sure zombies qualify as natural disaster, because there's nothing natural about them.

You're right.  I know it's a bit of a stretch.  But there isn't much natural about The Day After Tomorrow, either, and  you could make a zombie version of that story pretty easily. 

[wakela]

Maybe post apocolyptic would be a better term than natural disaster.  The story behind the "Return" series is more intersting than the movies.

I joke about the brains, but yes, zombies eat flesh.  I think the intestine scenes are some of the best examples of that.

Wakela, have you seen Day of the Dead?

I saw it when it came out in theaters, so it was a long time ago, but I liked it.  I was surprised at jrderigo's comment that the FX weren't very good in it.  At the time I found it completely believable.  IIRC, it was the first one about life going on in a zombified world.  The mine where they lived was set up to be permanent. 

[wakela]

Back to reality:
Can zombies use tools?
Can zombies climb?

Reality???

Russell, are you a zombie denier?!

[Russell Nash]

Back to reality:
Can zombies use tools?
Can zombies climb?

Reality???

Russell, are you a zombie denier?!

It's just like God.  I can't prove they don't exist, but nobody has proved that they do.

[wakela]

Back to reality:
Can zombies use tools?
Can zombies climb?

Reality???

Russell, are you a zombie denier?!

It's just like God.  I can't prove they don't exist, but nobody has proved that they do.

are you crazy?!  By the time the proof is here it will be too late.   The time for talking is over.  Now is the time for action!

[oddpod]

Back to reality:
Can zombies use tools?
Can zombies climb?

Reality???

Russell, are you a zombie denier?!

It's just like God.  I can't prove they don't exist, but nobody has proved that they do.

are you crazy?!  By the time the proof is here it will be too late.   The time for talking is over.  Now is the time for action!

to bloody rite!!!
so do we go for the celler or stay on the ground flour?

[deflective]

wait, flour only works against vampires.  and only if you don't grind it.

[Bdoomed]

wait, flour only works against vampires.  and only if you don't grind it.

you're an asshole

[deflective]

i was just being a jackass there.
to go for full asshole i'd also include: "where's the bloody rite???"

so... now i'm being an asshole.

[Zathras]

Never, never, never go to the cellar.  High ground is better vs zombies.  The problem with elevated locations comes when roving packs of Zorags on cannibalized Prius War Wagons come around and spot you easier.

[Russell Nash]

Never, never, never go to the cellar.  High ground is better vs zombies.  The problem with elevated locations comes when roving packs of Zorags on cannibalized Prius War Wagons come around and spot you easier.

Did you install the smug cannon?

[deflective]

Never, never, never go to the cellar.  High ground is better vs zombies.

this has become conventional wisdom with modern architecture but in rural areas a strong cellar could be your best bet for temporary shelter.  as an example, think back to the original night of the living dead where an irony is that the shrill, antagonistic character was completely right from the start: expel bite victims, seal yourself in the cellar and wait for rescue.

[Zathras]

How long do you think it will take for rescue to come?  What if the zombies manage to start a fire?  Worse yet, what if the "rescuers" decide to just burn the zombie infested building down?  Thank you very much, but I'll take a high ground approach.

Besides, in a rural area you should dispatch zombies before a horde forms.

[deflective]

your tactics need to adapt to the situation, it's all about risk mitigation.  older (and some new) farm houses have multiple windows overlooking the roof.

a well stocked cellar will probably contain more food than you can carry, you can lie low for several days at no cost at all.  if it's early in the outbreak then this will give you time to quietly observe and find out what type of zombie you're dealing with.  it may even be all the time needed to for authorities to contain the outbreak.  even if nothing positive presents itself the cost was nothing but a couple low risk days.

if the population density in your region is high enough to create a horde then you're pretty much guaranteed that if you don't attract attention then something else will.  unless your roof is rock solid safe, taking a rifle to the roof is likely to create a situation you can't control.

zombies starting fires?  gotta admit that it didn't occur to me as a real concern.  chances are that you can turn off the gas & electricity from the cellar.  you'd probably hear human activity around the house before things got to the point that they were burning you too.  depends on the cellar of course, some even have doorways right outside.

[Zathras]

I did not mean that the zombies were smart enough to start fires, but I think you realized that.

The solution is to live in a dome.  I'm going to have one of these.

[Planish]

Ah. Here we go. - http://www.academieduello.com/zombies/zombies.html

[wakela]

rented the remakes of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead last weekend.

First one was lame and pointless.  While the female lead in the original was a bit of a weakling, and I could see how that would not play with modern audiences, they went so far the other way in making her a badass in the remake that she became a clumsy political statement.
***Mild spoiler***
  Also, her comment that we are no better than the they because she saw a group of rednecks lynching zombies was absurd.

Dawn wasn't weak but still entertaining, though it's been a long time since I saw the original.   This one seemed to be more along the lines of what we have been talking about on this thread.  If you are trapped in a mall when the end comes, what do you do?  Before I saw it, I poo-pooed the purists who demand a slow, shambling zed, but I was wrong.  I don't know exactly why, but sprinting zombies just doesn't do it.  It makes them less other-worldly and less scary somehow.