PEOPLE IN ZOMBIE MOVIES LIVE UNDER ROCKS
This post is less about scientific inquiry, and more about a personal gripe I have with filmmakers in Hollywood and across the globe.
Have you ever noticed that people in movies don’t watch movies? They have no cinematic reference at all, as if they’d never seen a single film in their entire lives.
This may not seem so strange at first, but imagine if the characters in a contemporary movie didn’t know what televisions were, or had never heard a radio. Imagine if, at a crucial moment in the plot, they couldn’t warn their loved ones that the bad guys were on the way – not because they weren’t getting any reception – but because cell phones just didn’t exist. I submit that audiences would throw up their hands in disgust.
In fact, filmmakers go to great lengths to reflect contemporary culture in their stories. They make sure the right cars are used, the right slang, the right clothes. But still, not a single person in the film has ever seen a film. Of course there are exceptions, mainly in comedies (Throw Mama From The Train) or plots that turn on specific film references or knowledge (Scream). But these are the rare exceptions that prove the rule, and it drives me crazy.
Just once I would like characters on screen to see a Zombie walking towards them and yell out, “Holy, crap! That’s a Zombie! We gotta get outta here before it bites us, and then we turn into Zombies too!” I know that’s the first thing I’d say.
To get a better feeling for all the Zombie movies that people in film have never seen, check out my review of The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia.
This is the best blog ever!
Finally someone who “gets” zombies and the cinematic frustration I feel when watching most of the hack-job pieces of celluloid out there. I think you are spot on – why do they act like as though they have no cinematic reference for the situations they find themselves in, but can quote other movies/tv shows for levity when the situation arises? It lacks continuity.
I have to agree with Rens, where’s the Corey Feldman character [Lost Boys 2 reference *grins*] who’s been reading comic books, studying movies, and pouring over Max Brooks’ “Zombie Survival Guide” in anticipation of this very day? You just know there’s someone out there with a bomb shelter full of weapons who spends his days building tunnels to the grocery and video stores, going to local gun shows and stocking up on ammunition, and figuring out how to keep chickens alive in the bomb shelter as a source of food [and probably companionship].
Ah well, that just means there’s a movie script you should be writing. *laughs*
Hey man, thanks, I’ll make sure to send you a link to ZOMG! whenever it ends up online! Oddly enough, the film is about people who don’t live under rocks encountering a single zombie.
I’m in love with the amount of zombie blogs I have just stumbled upon.
This has always bothered me too.
I think Shaun of the Dead addressed it best. Shaun was not unaware of the zombie threat as depicted by films, but rather was reluctant to admit that a zombie situation may actually be happening. His avoidance of the term ‘zombie’ in his conversation with Ed, reflects this hesitation.
Still, in a movie I would like to see at least one zombie survivalist character. A character, that when the necropalypse happens, says, “Don’t worry, I’ve been preparing my whole life for this”