Shaun of the Dead is a Horror Movie

A friend asked me recently what my top three favorite zombies movies are, and I listed Shawn of the Dead among them. The friend immediately said, “No, it has to be horror movies, not a spoof.”

Well, that annoyed me a bit, because Shawn of the Dead is a horror movie. Sure, it has plenty of comedy, sure, but this movie is – at its core – a horror film.

A very good horror film.

Yeah, the stars and director are known for comedy. Yeah, it has a satirical title that plays off Dawn of the Dead.

I don’t care. There are plenty of horror movies that make us laugh. Shawn of the Dead has the heart of a horror movie. An American Werewolf in London makes me laugh just as much as Shawn, and it’s rightfully considered one of the best horror films out there.

So what is it about Shawn that makes the movie a horror movie? Several things, actually.

1. It was written for fans of horror. This movie can only be appreciated if you’re a fan of horror. The references – even the jokes – are for horror fans. For example, if someone hasn’t seen Night of the Living Dead, there’s no way they’ll appreciate the “We’re coming to get you Barbara” line.

2. It has excessive gore. Now, I understand that’s not a requirement for horror, but it’s certainly a common element. In Shawn, people are eaten. Badly. The have their insides ripped out and devoured by hordes of undead. And when it happens in the movie, it’s done in a horrifying way, not a comical way.

3. It has human drama. The human drama in a movie is the reason horror works. If you don’t care about the characters, you don’t care about what happens to them. There are several emotional moments in this movie, but the one that hits me hardest is the scene with Shawn’s mother. I won’t spoil it in case you’ve not seen this movie, but that scene has the emotional resonance that comes with any good horror movie.

4. It’s scary. Now, this movie doesn’t have many traditional scares, but it most definitely captures the hopeless feeling common to all zombie stories. There are multiple moments where this movie is just as tense as any zombie film.

There are other reasons, but those are the four big ones. The reason I wrote this article was because my friend’s comment about Shawn being a spoof made me start to wonder how many fans of horror have passed this movie by just because they thought it was some kind of zany comedy.

Well, I’m here to tell you, it’s a great zombie movie (definitely in my top three). If you’ve skipped Shawn of the Dead because you didn’t think it was a horror film, I highly recommend you give it a shot. It’s got plenty of comedy, but the laughs are for fans of horror. And the rest of the movie is a more traditional zombie film than most of the modern zombie movies out there.

So check it out. You won’t regret it.

Image Source:FanPop.com

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Twixt (NetFlix Review)

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Written by: David Roden

“…and when is this most tragic of melancholy topics most poetical? When it most loosely alludes itself to beauty.”

Here it is, the long awaited return to horror for director Francis Ford Coppola. This is something I have been waiting for since I first saw Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Needless to say, my expectations couldn’t have been higher. The idea of Coppola and Tom Waits working together again was enough for me. At least that’s how I felt before hand.

It was the expectations that ruined this film for me. If it had been from any other director the problems found within wouldn’t have been so glaring. It’s not the cheesy looking CGI that bothered me, it was a problem of story.

While this was marketed as a vampire film, it was the vampire element itself that brought this whole story crashing down. We have a struggling writer who comes across a great story of a priest who isn’t willing to let his children’s souls be damned by the goth kids across the lake, so he does the unthinkable. Here is the best part of all this, through dream sequences he is told this story by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe also teaches him (and us) a thing or two about writing. My question to you is, where do vampires fit in? They don’t.

What I described to you is interesting enough on it’s own, adding vampires to it muddied the waters just a tad too much. I just hope this wasn’t an attempt to capitalize off of recent trends…but if that were the case they would have been zombies.

Enough negativity, there were certain things that worked for me. Poe, for example, was brilliant. When he sits our hero down and explains to him how he wrote The Raven, my jaw hit the floor. This film should have just been Poe, the priest, and our writer. Too high concept, too little attention to story.

You can make up your own mind on how you feel about the look of the dream sequences. That is matter of taste and to me it was delicious. It felt surreal but not ridiculous.

Go see this film for Edgar Allan Poe, not for the vampires. If Hall Baltimore is the “bargain basement Stephen King,” then Twixt is the “bargain basement ‘Salem’s Lot.”


2.5/5

A Horrible Way To Die (NetFlix Review)

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Written by: David Roden

If you are a fan of indie horror and you don’t know who AJ Bowen is, there is a problem. He is easily the strongest actor in the genre these days. From The Signal to Hatchet 2, he delivers every time. The only thing more impressive than his acting chops is his glorious beard. All fanboy aside, this film is a bold, unique take on the “sympathetic psycho.” While Mr. Beardly McPsychopath is the driving force behind this solid genre piece, it is the writing that really made this film for me.

The story follows Garrick Turrell, a serial killer who has broken out of jail and is traveling home to see his wife. We get the distinct pleasure of watching Turrell slaughter his way home. Bowen makes you like his character so much, that it is almost hard to watch him do these horrible things to people but at the same time a secret part of you cheers him on.

There is a scene where we come across a delusional old man. He starts giving advice about what kind of car roofs keep the government out of our heads to our “hero.” In that moment we completely forget that we have been following a man who has murdered innocent people. We only care that this man is obviously crazy. Even Turrell is looking at him like “yeah, ok buddy…”

If there is one complaint about this movie it is the choice to keep the camera moving AT ALL TIMES. They also felt like every scene needed to end with the camera trailing off to one side and going out of focus. I understand this is a style choice, but I felt the film would have been much more strong if they had used more static shots. If they had, this would’ve easily jumped directly into my top current horror films.

Yes, that is a fairly large issue but it wasn’t enough to ruin the film for me. The writing was strong enough to save this movie and then some. I have a lot of respect for this film and I can’t wait to get my Mitts on Adam Wingard’s next film, You’re Next. If you have motion sickness like me, pop some Dramamine and enjoy.

Netflix: 2.6/5
David: 4/5

Living Zombies or Dead Zombies: What do you prefer?

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The most common debate about zombies these days is the “fast zombie vs. slow zombie” debate. I’ve seen this debate last for days in various online forums and groups. People will debate this topic endlessly, but a zombie-related topic I rarely see discussed is whether or not zombies are scarier as supernatural “living dead” creatures or as regular people gone insane.

The Romero-style zombies are obviously the best example of the supernatural undead. In all of his “Living Dead” movies, the zombies are literally the walking dead. They are recently deceased people who have risen from the grave to feast on the flesh of the living. There’s definitely a creepy element to these things. Seeing a person with rotting flesh stammer (or run) toward you would without a doubt be a terrifying experience. It would also be an extremely emotional experience if that zombie is someone you knew and loved in life.

A recent trend, however, has been to do the zombie movie with “living zombies.” 28 Days Later really brought this version to the mainstream audience. These zombies aren’t the walking dead. They are simply people who have been infected with some sort of virus that makes them act like zombies. Some other movies that use this are The Crazies and 28 Weeks Later.

Zombieland is a little vague on this issue. In Zombieland, it’s never quite clear whether these are people driven insane by a virus or literally people who have risen from the dead. I personally lean toward the “they’re alive” angle for this movie.

The scariest thing about the “living zombie” is that it feels far more realistic. There are no supernatural elements that you can shrug off as magic. These are just people who have been infected with a virus and are now trying to kill you. That can be damn scary.

And when you factor in family and friends, it takes it to another level altogether. Your spouse is infected. Should you kill her? What if there’s a cure tomorrow? Without the supernatural element, putting a bullet in your best friend’s head would be far more difficult.

For me, I’m undecided. I don’t know which is scarier. If it were to happen in the real world, I think the risen dead would be far more frightening, just because it would change everything about the way we see the universe. But as a movie, I the “living zombie” might be a little scarier, because it takes place in the real world. It is something that could happen.

So what about you? When you go watch a zombie movie, are you freaked out more by a living person with a “zombie virus” or by the actual walking dead?

French Horror

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Written by: David Roden

Over the last few years I have seen some truly incredible French horror films. Something more than the paint by numbers type films American audiences seem to love so much. I don’t want to watch some tame, formulaic film where the hero wins and the opposing force gets its just desserts. Here are a few that are a must see for horror fans.

1. High Tension (Switchblade Romance)- Alexandre Aja’s first big hit, this movie really caught me off guard. In the beginning of the movie our killer gets head from a severed head. It was here that the film had my attention. This film is violent and shocking. Cicile De France was fantastic…and not just because she is beautiful, she was also a bad ass. When is the last time you saw a woman beat a man’s ass with a piece of wood with barbed wire wrapped around it?

2. Inside- Show me your favorite Home Invasion film and I will top it with Inside. Home Invasion films are always pretty rough, French Home Invasion films are brutal. This one follows a pregnant woman who is due the next day (X-mas) and a very disturbed woman who tries to cut out the unborn child with a very large pair of scissors. If that description alone isn’t enough to make you want to go see this immediately, then you should stop reading now and go watch a Pixar film.

3. Martyrs- The crown jewel of French horror as far as I am concerned. This film will take you on a journey that transcends the torture porn genre and takes you to places you never thought you’d go. It is almost impossible to pinpoint what I liked most about this film because it is everything I have ever wanted in a horror film minus a sense of humor. If you are laughing during this for any reason other than how shocked or uncomfortable you are, seek help. This film is much more than just violence for the sake of violence, it’s all purpose-driven. It all means something and that brings this film straight to the next level. Don’t turn your brain off for this one, you’re going to need it.

Don’t get me wrong, Americans do produce great horror films but few of them have the balls to go where these guys took me. I will forever be a fan of French cinema.

Why Zombies Will Never Die

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Written By:
Brandon Hale

Are you tired of the zombie craze yet? Are you looking forward to seeing this fad pass on by? If so, I’m afraid I have some bad news for you… It’s not going to die.

Sure, we may think the craze is dead from time to time, but it always comes back from the grave, just like the zombies the movies are about.

Since George Romero brought the modern ghoul to a mainstream audience back in the late 60’s, people have never completely escaped them. They go away for a while, but they always come back. They come back because people always welcome them back.

Modern audiences will always be fascinated by the living dead because that genre has managed something unique. It has successfully blended the supernatural with the feeling that “it could happen.” For most movies, that is an either/or scenario. You can have the supernatural or you can do something that feels like it could happen in the real world.
Zombies have managed to do both.

People are drawn to zombie movies because the idea of a virus we can’t control feels possible, and that makes it scary. The fact that they’re “living dead” has become secondary to the idea that a plague could wipe out human civilization. People seem less interested in the zombie and more interested in the apocalypse. That’s why movies like 28 Day Later and The Crazies were so popular. These “zombies” were very much alive… just homicidal.




And, of course, once something feels possible, we can easily put ourselves in that situation. It takes some effort to imagine what you’d do if a werewolf started stalking your hometown. But it’s not hard at all to imagine what you’d do if the entire world just went to hell. Many people have developed their own zombie survival plan. There are books about it. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) even did an article about it. I’ve never seen the CDC do anything about protecting yourself from a vampire, but they jumped right on the zombie apocalypse craze.

They did this because zombie survival is very similar to surviving any major catastrophe, so preparing for a zombie apocalypse actually prepares you for most emergencies. That is precisely what makes a zombie movie exciting to the movie going public. With a zombie movie, you’re not just watching other people survive a horrible ordeal. You’re surviving it with them. When a character has to shoot his zombified mother, you’re asking yourself if you could do it.

Yeah, the popularity of zombie movies is finally going down, but it won’t be down for long. The Walking Dead is coming back for another season. Another network is actually developing a Zombieland series. “Zombie walks” are growing in popularity across the country (I’ve been in two myself). Zombies are now horror icons. They’re right there with vampires, werewolves, ghosts, Frankenstein, and masked mass murderers.

So I hope you enjoy a good zombie story because they’re a permanent fixture on the horror landscape now. I suspect zombie apocalypse movies will be around until…

Well…

Until the apocalypse happens.

Mum And Dad (NetFlix Review)

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Written by: David Roden

So here’s a fun one, Mum and Dad is the story of a young woman who has been kidnapped by a sadistic family. We really get the full range of shock and disgust with this one. There were parts that were done well and many parts that weren’t.

Right out of the gate I was bored and a little annoyed by how hard it was to understand them. That might be the American in me. I really wasn’t expecting much and I was surprised. This is not what I would call a good movie but it did creep me out.

I always have respect for a film that can shock me, but there is so much more to filmmaking than that. So they nailed that part of it, what about the rest?

My first issue was something I’ve seen way too many times: victim gets knocked out and the scene fades out as she loses consciousness, the next scene starts when she wakes up. Is there no other way to film this? Maybe follow the assailant around a bit to see some more nastiness, just a thought.

Secondly, they kept showing us footage of planes leaving from a close by airport. In fact, they showed it so frequently I was just about convinced she would be escaping by plane. I get the symbolism, but honestly it was too much. We get it.

On the positive side of things, there was one character interesting enough to keep me watching. The father was by far the most foul and vile of the group, but I enjoyed almost every moment of him on screen. Something about him reminded me of Bob Hoskins only much more sinister.

The rest of the family just didn’t do it for me. The daughter was a brat and more than annoying, the mom wasn’t too bad but still lacking, and the slow son made decisions that just didn’t really make sense to me. As for our survivor girl, if she had just played the game things would have come out much better for her. I understand panic, but I don’t understand not thinking at all the entire time.

If you want to see what your gross-out limit is, go for it. If you want something more than shock cinema, go watch The Woman. Here’s to hoping this director will give us a more mature product on his next try.

Netflix: 3.1/5

David: 2.5/5