George A. Romero, the cinematic legend and creator of the popular zombie genre insists that despite what you may have seen in the 28 Days/Weeks Later films, the remake of his own Dawn of the Dead and last year’s blockbuster I Am Legend that actually“zombie’s can’t run”.
His reasoning; “Their ankles would break”. Well after all, he did tell us that when there is no more room in hell, the dead will WALK the Earth.
The comments come after Romero’s latest two pictures Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead which feature his typically methodical paced walking dead have clearly not captured the imaginations of the horror geeks and critics quite like the new breed of films from other film-makers. Audiences don’t have the patience these days to be dictated to with zombie films and it’s partly down to Romero’s own fault as he has clearly ran out of new themes to explore in his series and is happy churning out the same old, same old.
Romero’s “dead” flicks are always more concerned with social and political undercurrents than they ever were about jolting and shocking audiences like today’s bunch (although sometimes, especially in his first movie – they sure did, to me at least). Racism, consumerism, media frenzies, fascism and dictatorship make up just a few of the themes that are disguised in his horror movies over the decades but the recent movies in the genre that he hasn’t directed are all about shock and the disaster of the situation and concept itself, which is more akin to today’s audience.
They are no holds barred movies with little time for anything else but characters trying to survive in a messed up situation. It’s this kind of fast paced adrenalin that fans would much rather cue up to see a 28 Months Later than a Diary of the Dead 2.
Only in parody, would modern day movie-goers be happy to see a walking zombie as in the brilliant Shaun of the Dead…
In a great interview you can read HERE – Romero claims that Matheson’s I Am Legend has still not be done properly on film, the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake was the “biggest sin” to the genre because of it’s depiction of running zombies and how he giggles with his good friend Stephen King when they see squeamish audiences watching a horror flick at the theatre.
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15 Comments
Zombies can’t run. Amen.
Ever since seeing the original Dawn of the Dead, I have had zombie nightmares. A constant, slow-moving, unending tide of the dead shambling towards me was always recurring. They symbolized an unstoppable force that would eventually catch up with you. If you slept. If you were hurt. If you were trapped.
The anticipation of what to come was what was terrifying. You KNEW they would eventually get to you no matter what. But you would try to get away and survive for just a little longer.
But ever since the remake…my nightmares have ended. The anticipatory fear…gone.
A zombie sees you…they all get you.
That’s fine. The end will be swift. And I’ll wake from my nightmare. And the movie will end.
Nuff said.
I’m with the righteous Romero. Zombies don’t run, and his Dead trilogy movies, if you want to label them as such (I’ve not seen his recent efforts unfortunately), are more powerful and imaginative than modern, uptempo additions to the zombie genre.
Romero’s zombies are a threat because they are slow; it’s creeping death. The films are comments on the festering forces of consumerism, racism, militarism and other forms of bigoted behaviour. It’s that slow-paced death, like poison, that is truly scary; more so than being swiftly snuffed out speedily. The zombies mirror our unblinking, apathetic society – that’s not achieved if youve got the undead acting as if you’ve injected ‘em with adrenalin.
No offense guys, but I wish people would stop correlating the wrong aspects of movies’ success or otherwise:
“fans would much rather cue up to see a 28 Months Later than a Diary of the Dead 2″
Not really. Diary of The Dead was given VERY limited release – 48 theatres according to boxofficemojo.com, while 28 Weeks Later was released on 2,305. Add to that the fact that 28 Weeks Later was a better film and there’s your answer – it’s got bugger all to do with whether the zombies run or not. Same with Land Of The Dead – it was rushed in and out of cinemas on an August release (summer release for a zombie movie?) to make way for an October DVD release. It was apparently very successful on DVD, just not given a hope at theatres.
You tend to do a decent job of criticising Hollywood when it’s wrong, stop falling into their idiotic thought patterns. This is the kind of dumb thinking that stopped Romero’s Resident Evil from getting greenlit because the studio execs “didn’t want to make a zombie film”.
Personally, I’m with Romero on this one. When fast zombies are done well (DotD remake or 28 weeks/days), they can be effective but nothing quite beats a slow-moving horde. Remember the other thing about Romero’s zombie movies – the characters were more dangerous than the zombies. It was man’s inability to overcome its hubris and petty issues in the face of terrible adversity that undid them. The fact that the apocalypse was brought by a swarm of flesh-eating ghouls was less important.
What does it say about modern audiences when they just want something filled with action and little susbtance?
The masses are stupid.
It depends on the “zombie.” Virulent strains produce a *living* human who’s gone mad. They indeed could run fast.
Shuffling corpses? Sure, they’re going to be slow. And we should all hope when Z-Day comes this is what we have to deal with. But realistically, the “zombie” hordes aren’t going to be magically-animated dead- they’ll be alive- either by chemical or viral means- and they’ll be capable of moving much like a human.
I completely agree zombies don’t run!
@ Gendo Ikari
“It depends on the ‘Zombie.’ Virulent strains produce a *living* human who’s gone mad.”
Thats just stupid. Notice, you said “living” if their alive they were not zombies in the first place my friend. What you seem to be talking about is something like a dog and rabies. If we are going to talk about zombies they are going to be dead, not alive. So if they day does come, people die, come back, and start eating brains. They’ll be slow, stupid, and they certainly can’t run.
Consider this.
The very first zombie we see in a Romero film runs. He actively chases Barbara and is smart enough to use a rock to smash the window of her car.
Fair enough all the zombies shuffle after this but there is no denying the first one is a bit of a sprinter.
As for people preferring the 28 Days/weeks zombies over Land/Dawn, I think it has more to do with the fact that the last 2 Romero films were truly terrible. Shaun of the Dead was a film with a decent story, so people didn’t care about the slow zombies.
I don’t mind if they shuffle or run, as long as there is some sort of coherent story line, it’s all good however I would like to see more slow zombies.
“@ Gendo Ikari
“It depends on the ‘Zombie.’ Virulent strains produce a *living* human who’s gone mad.”
Thats just stupid. Notice, you said “living” if their alive they were not zombies in the first place my friend….”
It isn’t stupid, that’s what they are in 28 Days/Weeks. Not zombies. Never were and shouldn’t be called that. If anything it is stupid for Romero to comment on them as zombies. He (or the person asking) should know better.
I commented and then noticed you said the same. I’m glad I’m not the only one to call him out on this.
The very first zombie in the very first Romero film was a runner. DEAL WITH IT.
The same goes for the “zombies” in I Am Legend. In no version, I Am Legend, Last Man on Earth or Omega Man, have these been “zombies,” and Romero and others are incorrect to classify them as such. They have always been living (and curable), never dead.
Why the ankles on the “living dead” would break is beyond me, but suffice it to say that in the movies that are being criticized (28 Days Later/I Am Legend), we aren’t talking about zombies, the undead, the living dead, or any other sort of dead. The criticism is silly.
“I Am Legend” is supposed to be about vampires, not zombies.
In Soviet Russia zombie is on screen, in the United States zombie watches screen!
Vampires cannot come out in the day light, zombies cannot run. If it runs it is not a zombie, the dawn of the dead remake was not a zombie movie. The dawn of the dead remake was about the victims of African Rabies.
Zombies CANT RUN
its physicaly impossable
1. zombies lack cordanation
2. newly made zombies would have rigimortis
3. older zombies would of had most of their mucles rotted away
[...] gain so much popularity that it became its own genre? In search of an answer, I read a little article about the creator of the Zombie, George A. Romero. In it, he explained a basic function of the [...]
Then why did the VERY FIRST zombie Romero put on screen– the Cemetery Ghoul in “Night of the Living Dead”– have the ability to jog after Barbara?
He very definitely ran. Watch it again, George. You set the standard, and your first ghoul was a runner.