{"id":4545,"date":"2009-09-27T08:29:10","date_gmt":"2009-09-26T23:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=4545"},"modified":"2009-09-27T08:29:10","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T23:29:10","slug":"sunday-tangent-sapporo-source-debito-column-on-zombie-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=4545","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Tangent: SAPPORO SOURCE DEBITO Column on Zombie Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Handbook<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"Foreign<\/a>\"\\\"<\/a>\"\u300c\u30b8\u30e3\u30d1\u30cb\u30fc\u30ba\u30fb\u30aa\u30f3\u30ea\u30fc\u3000\u5c0f\u6a3d\u5165\u6d74\u62d2\u5426\u554f\u984c\u3068\u4eba\u7a2e\u5dee\u5225\u300d\uff08\u660e\u77f3\u66f8\u5e97\uff09\"<\/a>\"JAPANESE<\/a>\"sourstrawberriesavatar\"<\/a>
\nUPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Blog. \u00a0After a week of the Otaru Onsens Case (thanks to KMCheese for YouTubing all the videos on his channel<\/a>), it’s time for something lighter. \u00a0My most recent column for freepaper SAPPORO SOURCE. <\/span><\/p>\n

Halloween special. \u00a0On Zombie Movies. \u00a0Yes, I’m a big fan. \u00a0See why below. \u00a0Download the entire issue of SAPPORO SOURCE<\/a> here in pdf format. \u00a0Cover, scanned page, and text of the article follows. \u00a0Arudou Debito in Sapporo<\/span><\/p>\n

(Click on images to expand in your browser)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Text:<\/p>\n

DEBITO
\nA Halloween defense of the Zombie Movie
\nColumn four for the SAPPORO SOURCE Debito Column
\nSubmitted August 1, 2009, to be published in the October Issue
\nDRAFT FOUR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although I am a fan of a good chilling book or movie, I wouldn’t call myself an aficionado of horror flicks. Most boil down to the same old thing: something off -camera stalks people we’ve gotten to know and inflicts shock-horror. Although sometimes interesting in execution, most horror shares something with one-note genres like porno — characters in a hurry to do the same thing over and over again.<\/p>\n

But one segment of the genre enjoying a deserved revival is the Zombie Movie. It is far more chilling because it goes beyond the lurking lunatic in the shadows. It offers us a view of society itself.<\/p>\n

Zombies as a concept did start off one-note. Combining the undead and reanimated elements of vampire and monster flicks, our first golems were shambolic — basically shuffling assistants with arms outstretched, commanded to absorb bullets and carry the fainted girl.<\/p>\n

They were also limited in scope. Run fast enough, or just “don’t go into that dark place” (be it graveyard, haunted house, chamber of horrors, or room with creaky door), and you could escape the horror. The threat did not affect society in general.<\/p>\n

That changed somewhat with the first prototype of modern zombies: Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/strong> (1956). Famous for its allegory of infiltrating communism, people were being stealthily replaced by soulless copies. What made it scary was no one controlled them. All they had to do was keep increasing their ranks, and there would be no escape. (That is, until they were found out and were stopped; after all, this was Hollywood under the Hays Code.)<\/p>\n

But then came the classic and groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead<\/strong> (1968), taking all the elements of hitherto horror (invulnerable male leads rescuing screaming girl at the last minute, resolved endings) and turning them on their head. All our characters made mistakes, followed the wrong advice, and met gruesome ends — with a lot of gore camouflaged by black and white photography. The most chilling thing: an ending where humanity might not be able to save itself.<\/p>\n

The next notable was the full-color Dawn of the Dead<\/strong> (1978), giving us more of what we now expected (creative ways to blow up and rend body parts) with an actual plot: We hid in a safe haven of plenty (a mall) and waited for the storm to pass. Except that it doesn’t.<\/p>\n

This is where the genre was brought full circle: The zombie movie as a vision of the Apocalypse. Human society was as fragile as the next panic, breaking down as easily as a person could revert to an animalistic state, dooming others with an infectious idea, or bite. It offered the vision of dystopia as clear as any threat or fear of nuclear annihilation.<\/p>\n

I of course didn’t think this deeply about zombies as a teen. I was just there to hide my eyes through split fingers and hope to be put off my popcorn. But as the years passed, I realized that the Zombie Movie infiltrated my dreams like no other.<\/p>\n

I found myself scoping out any living quarters for escape routes, in case of possible maniac attack. It was pretty simple: There were places you could hide from Michael Myers. You could wake up from Freddie. You could ward off a vampire with two pencils crossed, or even use garlic salt. In any case, as soon as the sun rose, you were safe from most monsters.<\/p>\n

But not from zombies: the enemy was time, and sheer numbers of infected. And the more you thought about it, the more zombies chilled and inspired your imagination.<\/p>\n

The next quantum leap in the zombie universe (after years of crappy copies) was 28 Days Later<\/strong> (2002). Here the new and improved zombies did not walk with their shoulders. They ran. At you. In broad daylight. And once infected, you didn’t take a while to wither and die: You joined their ranks in seconds and could decimate a safe haven in minutes.<\/p>\n

That was ramped up even further in a (rare) worthy sequel: 28 Weeks Later<\/strong> (2007). Then we got a great remake with Dawn of the Dead<\/strong> (2004). All movies ended with the ultimate horror — the lack of hope.<\/p>\n

Back to Halloween. If you want to give the genre a try and see how profoundly they creep into your nightmares, here’s Uncle Debito’s Guide to the Best Zombie Flicks<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Night of the Living Dead<\/strong> (1968 — avoid the 25th Anniversary version), Dawn of the Dead (<\/strong>1978), 28 Days Later<\/strong> (2002), 28 Weeks Later<\/strong> (2007), Dawn of the Dead<\/strong> (2004), Evil Dead<\/strong> (1981) and its silly splatstick remake Evil Dead II<\/strong> (1987).<\/p>\n

Then watch the genre parody itself: Shaun of the Dead<\/strong> (2004), From Dusk ‘Til Dawn<\/strong> (1996, technically a vampire movie, but geeky about monster countermeasures), Fido<\/strong> (2006, aka Zombino<\/strong> in Japan), Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s queasy Braindead<\/strong> (1992 aka Dead\/Alive<\/strong>), and finally Re-Animator<\/strong> (1985). Then sink your teeth into the fiction book World War Z<\/strong>, a diary about the Zombie Wars that engulfed earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See them unflinchingly and uncompromisingly in this order. I dare ya.
\n855 words
\nENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a week of the Otaru Onsens Case (thanks to KMCheese for YouTubing all the videos on his channel), it’s time for something lighter. My most recent column for freepaper SAPPORO SOURCE.<\/p>\n

On Zombie Movies. Yes, I’m a big fan. See why below. Download the entire issue of SAPPORO SOURCE here in pdf format. Cover, scanned page, and text of the article follows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tangents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}