Case Study: Survival of the Dead

I did a would-be review of this film a few weeks ago. From there you can already guess my conclusion for this article. But this is not a review this has absolutely nothing to do with my personal opinion on the merits of this film. This is a case study of “Survival of the Dead”. This is about what this movie has done to the genre. First a small summary of the plot and characters.

4 deserting National Guardsmen encounter a boy who claims safety and happiness are located on Plum Island after viewing a video saying that. The guardsmen soon find that the island is home to two feuding clans who differ on opinion of what should be done about the undead.

The characters and a summary of them are next.

Sarge "Nicotine" Crockett: There is no reason to call him Nicotine, he is referred to as Sarge throughout the entire film. He is the "main" focus of the movie and a dull character. He goes through what is supposed to be character growth, but never changes through the entire film. He acts like a selfish jerk when in reality he is supposed to be a soft hearted respectable character.

Kenny: Because the only character worth a full name is Sarge. Kenny is a kind hearted moron. He dies too fast to show any character growth.

Francisco: who throughout the film is only known as "Cisco" is a walking hard-on put in this movie only for comedic relief and to give the next character a chance at character growth.

Tomboy: The female protagonist. She is only there to keep this film form being nothing but men. We are introduced to her masturbating. Yes, she is masturbating the first time we see her. She only really shows emotion when Cisco is killed, her only motivation till then is to walk around and proclaim I'm a lesbian.

Boy: Yes just boy. He is to signify the thought of innocents even though he is just as unlikable as the rest of the characters. He is suppose to embody the hope of the next generation, and he is a failure at that, showing up only when the plot needs him and even then you will forget he exists the second he leaves the screen.

There are more but they go through no growth and mean absolutely nothing to the plot, except to kill the rest of the characters. No names are needed just the O'Flynns and Muldoons. “George A. Romero” was trying to make a western for this hopefully last chapter of the Dead series. He instead remade the story of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, with zombies. We are supposed to choose sides of the feud but both sides accomplish nothing. The O'Flynns want to kill the zombies and the Muldoons say they want to keep them and "fix" them. We don't get to Plum Island until a fourth of the way through the movie. From here we see the Muldoons have lost sight of their goals. Instead killing all the zombies who don't immediately show signs of their former lives and killing all those who come to the island. Including Kenny. While making their way to Plum Island Cisco is bitten and grows worse and worse until being shot.

The movie adds nothing good to the genre, in fact it attempts to break the "rules previously established by the former films. By making the zombies eat animals. The previous films had established that the zombies were only interested in people. There is one moment in the original film that goes against this where a zombie eats a grasshopper but all other films showed clearly that the zombies only wanted humans. Day of the Dead clearly shows zombies walking right past alligators. So this film attempts to go against the "rules" its predecessors set up.

Admittedly the original creator is behind it but I have to look at " The Metroid series" just like "The Dead Series" I feel the creator has lost touch with his own creation. All the previous films were trying to establish something. They had a message that the zombies were metaphorical meaning to other things like consumerism. Mr. Romero works it seems best when a point is attempting to be made, it seems now that he might be just cashing in on the series that rocketed him to fame.

In general I hate to say I wish I had never seen this movie so I could just assume its good, but sadly I bought it and I feel betrayed. If by some chance this reaches your eyes I ask you will all sincerity please don't make any more Dead films Mr. Romero.

This might have seemed like a review but I do not mean it to. This film adds nothing to the genre other than cementing that George A. Romero hasn't made a good film since " Land of the Dead" and that was lacking the punch of the previous films as well.

Also might I add that characters that aren't stupid halfway through the movie shouldn't immediately change and become the stupidest character. Jane O'Flynn is the worst character in any Romero Film.

New Things for the Blog!

Just the other day I activated Ad sense on this here blog! But Google specifically told me I can’t tell you to click them so I will adhere to these rules and tell you that you shouldn’t click these links. For your own benefit I will point them out as they appear. Like the one right over here on the right hand side.

I will repeat myself just so Google can hear me. Don’t click this link, unless you want to use them for information purposes and what not, then by all mean feel free. But I will not give you anything except my love but that is non-refundable and also worthless in monetary standards.

This is really just my way of letting my all of one fans know that I am now trying to make money. I say all of 1 but that doesn’t diminish the love for you guys…Pave your awesome!

Now I can’t remember all of the rules for this ad sense thing but a few of the big ones are:

1. I can’t tell you to click the links!

2. I can’t click the links.

3. I can’t offer you a cut of any profit from the links.

Past that I’m not quite sure of the rest of the rules just don’t fuck with Google and don’t put porn on my blog, which kind of makes me sad. I would love to distribute porn but I really I wish I could. Well I guess that will be a side project for a different blog.

So apart from announcing the fact I’m poor, I did want to update because I felt like it. I really would love to do this kind of thing just for a job, it is always much more fun than actually being on a paper. Way too many rules and necessary things to add with mention of people, films and locations. I would love to review movies but most cinema now a day’s blows. With a few exceptions…Green Hornet, Go see it now!

I will give these things a try eventually but as for now my recordings will not turn out well because our damn heater is loud, my living in the basement isn’t helpful either. But I am working on a few more Case Studies and scripts for things so hopefully those will turn out well. The reason I do Case Studies is the love of zombies and the fact that…

So till then I hope you enjoy the blogs and please have a good day!

Seriously don't click them, unless you want to.

A Lesson Was Learned

I seem to have sold my proverbial soul by joining Facebook. I held off for so long on joining the social network for a very small reason, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to join for reasons like my mother is on Facebook. Why would I want to join that? She would watch my profile and act oddly to weird things I say. I’ve asked questions to Twitter like “How long would peanut butter hold a dismembered limb?” and she might take that as an odd thing and start to worry and that is just annoying.

But there are other reasons I never wanted to. I used to never want to join twitter, but now I’m there to and I post around 5 times a day. It’s more the fact that life begins to meld with the cyber life and that is a bit of info I don’t like having. Admittedly I’m a lazy bastard, but I don’t want my life to consist o nothing but the internet. So I guess I leave it down to will power that I won’t.

But then again there are more self center motivations for me to get both of them. I would love to not have a job and have money. To do that I guess I have to find something to do that is fun and get paid to do it. So I made a twitter to inform friends and any fans I could possibly get and the face book is for 2 separate reasons. One is to listen to a good friend’s radio program in Australia and make request. And just for the fun of it here is a link. My friend AussieRoth’s radio program can be heard on Thursday Nights/Friday Mornings at 1 in the morning, it can be found here David J.G. Doyle (keep in mind this is American time so I can’t tell you everywhere) so I guess not all the reasons are self centered.

Also since its creation I have learned that fame can be overrated, and I didn’t even get any. Just have fun on the internet, it’s the you everywhere you can’t be.

Also I’m going to attempt to film episode 2 of Undeaducation again, because it could be fun.

Undeaducation Episode 1

This is the first and to date only episode of Undeaducation. A series I was and am still trying to do.

Premise

Undeaducation was meant to be a zombie education series. Hosted by basically myself, if not a more twisted version. The series was meant to help make people aware of the common dangers of zombies as well as easy ways to keep yourself alive. It was meant to be a comedy series and the few who have seen this did give positive feedback. So I hope you enjoy the series.

The opening theme for Undeaducation is called: The Undeaducation Theme was written and performed by LimitDrive. You can find their work here: LimitDrive

Please support them!

Until I can get my own living space sadly this series is on hiatus. Please visit my Blog at: Undeaducation Blog for more updates on everything zombie/Zombifaction.

Have a great day!

Dead Rising Zombie Case Study

August 8, 2009 All of America was introduced to a game that was innovative, fun and new in just about every way except the story. Developed by Capcom and produced by Keiji Inafune. Dead Rising took the country by storm, it can now (not) be found in the “Platinum Hits” lineup. I will state right now that this is in no way a review of the game itself and the previous not is in my own experience of not finding this game anywhere in Indiana. Having played both of the actual games but leaving out any extra versions such as phone and even the Wii version (Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop) I will attempt to the best of my ability to access the impact it has had on the zombie culture.

Let’s discuss the first game to begin. The original Dead Rising sets up a roving photographer Frank West as he enters a military quarantined fictional town known as Willamette, Colorado. The trouble starts immediately as he sees scene of what is mistaken as rioting town people. Soon the helicopter he is taking is spotted by the military and chased out of town. Frank abandons the chopper with an understanding that the chopper will return in 72 hours. Right off the bat the game introduces our villain and the man behind the zombie outbreak, Carlito Keyes. Carlito orchestrated the plan to release a mutated wasp creature that has the ability to lay its eggs with a sting and when the eggs hatch in the brainstem they kill the host and reanimate them as mutant zombies. That’s right mutant zombies, as if regular mutants or regular zombies aren’t bad enough. These mutant zombies can infect with a bite so the wasps aren’t the only threat, these aren’t “Re-Animator” zombies although they are similar. Carlito’s reasons for the outbreak stem from feelings of revenge for a similar event that took place in his childhood home of Santa Cabeza where an accidental release of a queen wasp caused the slaughter of Carlito’s parent, friends and the entire town except for himself and his sister Isabela. As Frank searches for a way to stop the outbreak he runs across something that was never brought up in zombie games until Dead Rising. The Concept of “Psychopaths”.

“Psychopaths” are Survivors of the outbreak who have lost their minds and no longer care about helping anyone else or even making it out of town they just kill everyone they come across, it just so happens that Frank comes across them. Until Dead Rising the main antagonist or bosses of zombie games are the zombies, with Dead Rising the zombies are what drive the main plot while the psychopaths are the boss battles. Throughout the game you will find a large array of psychos such as a Vietnam Vet (seriously), a lesbian rapist Mall cop , a psychopathic chainsaw wielding clown and a cannibalistic overweight Chinese butcher and many, many more. This doesn’t mean the zombies are useless in fact when night falls in the game the zombies become super mutant zombies. The zombie in Dead Rising usually aren’t very interested in you that doesn’t mean you can just walk by them but the A.I. for the zombies just kind of wander around until you get so close to them and then they come right after you. Once night falls the zombie proactively search for you. Some might think this mechanic is odd but it truly does work well, it captures the mindset of a zombie, roam until food is found. After the original 3 day game play there are 2 more modes to play.

In the second mode, it would appear that Frank is infected. Most people would think this will either lead to you losing the game with Frank’s death or a cure which is the worst possible thing you can do to a zombie story, without having the zombies run. But as opposed to curing Frank we are only given a medicine that will only hold off the zombification process for 24 hours which plays a major part in Dead Rising 2. Dead Rising ends with a possible open ending the world being overtaken by zombies and Frank’s death or multiple other ending.

With Dead Rising 2 we learn that Frank did indeed survive but we have no actual knowledge of where he is or what he is doing. But we see that the human race has not only survived the zombie outbreak which is also proven to have spread. But have learned how to live with the zombies, to a certain extent. But this is also where we see that with zombies still existing people have turned them into a cause to bitch about. The rise of an activist group called "Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality
(CURE)" I would like to state right now. Fuck these People!

The plot of Dead Rising 2 is our new protagonist Check Greene is competing in a “controversial” reality series known as “Terror is Reality” in the new Fortune City. In the games the contestants much kill zombies on chainsaw mounted motorcycles. Following the show a bomb is set off and Chuck has to save is infected daughter by taking her to a safe house. To make sure his daughter doesn’t turn while they wait to be rescued Chuck has to use the air vents to leave and bring back Zombrex the medicine created by Frank and Isabela Keyes in the first game. Chuck is framed for the bombing and soon the rescue is called off this makes Chuck attempt to not only clear his name but keep a steady supply of Zombrex to save is daughter Katie.

The Reaction to this game has caused both negative and positive feedback from the zombie community as well as the gaming community. Having to work around a time clock to keep your daughter medicated will cause a lot of problems for everyone. The Zombrex can only be administered when absolutely needed because if you give her too much, such as even an hour before she runs out she will turn and you will lose. There is absolutely no ending will your daughter dying and Chuck just getting over it. This is why Chuck is a terrible protagonist. He gives up the second anything happens to his daughter, it could be argued that his daughter drives him harder but that is a lame excuse. With Dead Rising 2 we get not only Mutant Super Zombies when night falls but when a new chemical is added we get “Super Angry Mutant Super Zombies” which are an even bigger threat.

With the Dead Rising series we learn a number of things about the zombies and a few old lessons are re-enforced for zombie survival situations.

1. Zombies can tell you from other zombies either by smell or appearance, in Dead Rising its smell.
2. The Government is going to kill you if they get the chance. You are to them cannon fodder at best.
3. The government will not own up to its own mistakes but will hide it from you all the way till you are being chewed on.
4. Mutant Zombies are a terrible idea, Super Mutant zombies are a worse idea and Super Angry Mutant Super Zombies are the worst idea yet.
5. Fuck the old lady and her dog, it will kill you all.

I have looked over the series to the best of my knowledge and hopefully it was either entertaining or enlightening to you. If I skimmed over something or missed it completely please mention it. I think this has turned out well. Or at least better than the remake of “Dawn of the Dead”.

"Romero" Zombie Case Study

The man who brought zombies to popularity is George A. Romero. There was another who helped with this feat that no one ever remembers his name is John A. Russo, and for the very first “Romero” zombies I would like to extend a thank you to both of these men. After the release of “Night of the Living Dead” the two split over difference in vision. George A. Romero went on to created the “Dead Series” and Mr. Russo went on to create the “Return of the Living Dead Series” for this I would like to slap him, but that is a difference in opinion. And none of that is necessary I just want to make the record clear of the origins of the “Romero” zombies. Now I will go on to describe the “Romero” zombies and there relation as well as difference from other zombies as well as its impact on the zombie world.

In 1968 “Night of the Living Dead” was released and the world was changed forever. By no means was it the first zombie movie however it was the first to reach the general public as a hit movie. Other films tried to reach these heights but none were ever as popular and most zombies films from earlier were about more voodoo like zombies. So the thought of flesh eating ghouls roaming the country side was now in the public mind. Taken as purely pop culture, no one would think these creatures real. But years later George A. Romero released “Dawn of the Dead” this brought back the thought of zombie to the general public. At this point we learned a little bit more about the "Romero" zombies.

1. They didn’t just want to eat humans. They would eat anything but each other.
2. They were capable of using basic tools such as rocks to bludgeon.
3. They were afraid of fire for unknown reasons possible the instinct to “survive”.
4. They could learn over long periods of time. As shown by the zombie trying to use guns.
5. They retained something of their former selves as seen by coming back to the mall.

With “Dawn of the Dead” we learned of the possibility of people turning on each other. Though touched upon in the first one it was just brought on by a need for survival as opposed to just pure mental breakdown or even exploiting a situation. With “Dawn of the Dead” we saw people willfully take advantage of others and murder not only for personal gain but entertainment. This brings to mind the thought of psychopaths, which will be further investigated with the “Dead Rising” case study.

With the later release of “Day of the Dead" we see that the zombies have changed even further as the crushing grip of a government instillation. Martial law was in state and the laboratory became a military zone. But we also see the possibly domestication of the undead as well as what appeared to be genuine emotion from the undead subject known as “Bub”. Bub is a very special case of zombie advancement. He was able to remember things from his former life as well as the ability to learn and retain the new as well as old knowledge. But during all these revelations we also see more of the way the zombie apocalypse could and will affect people both in negative as well as positive ways. The sacrifice of one of the military crew turned from a mutually assured destruction end to a cleansing of the laboratory. Bub the now educated zombie was free to spread his lessons to his fellow zombies and Captain Rhodes was eradicated.

Later Romero films would touch on subjects such as living in an undead world where the undead population vastly outnumbers the living and where becoming a zombie is not only common place but inevitability. In “Land of the Dead” we see that the undead are no longer searching for the living but are really just trying to “live” peacefully and find their place in the world. With “Diary of the Dead” as opposed to seeing the “life” of the undead we see more of the ways the undead put a strain on personal life for people just trying to survive. We see not only elements of wanting to help the species but a sickening look in ourselves to see that we are all just looking for more and more gruesome entertainments. As of this date I have yet to have a chance to analyze the latest of the “Dead series” titled "Survival of the Dead" so until I do I cannot give a full explanation of what I have seen in it but, the director has stated that all the others have had deeper meanings to them and that this one is… “a western.”