World War Z: 10 Unforgivable Cuts From The Book

3. Quislings

Quisling If I€™m being honest, I can see why they didn€™t add quislings into the film €“their very existence could probably ramp the rating up to an 18 if their obligatory devoured-by-zombies death scenes didn€™t. But it doesn€™t stop me from being sad about it. To refresh your memory, a quisling €“ named after a Nazi-puppet Norweigan president during World War II €“ is a human whose mental faculties have broken down. Unlike most people in World War Z, they weren€™t able to engage the fight or flight choice when faced with danger. They simply shut down and try to act like zombies, feeling no pain and attempting to bite you on sight. Furthermore, while zombies devour them, they don€™t even react €“ pretty grim stuff. Again, I can see why they didn€™t put them in, but I still think they would€™ve made a worthy addition to the film. World War Z is primarily a horror tale and a lot of that horror comes from what people do, not the zombies themselves. It was George A. Romero who once said that all zombies are is an instrument for change in man €“ as such, if the book was simply about zombies devouring humans it wouldn€™t be a genre classic. But it€™s not just about that, it€™s about different human reactions to that change €“ some people become good, some people become bad and some people become quislings. Yet when the film was given the same chance to implement this more nuanced approach encompassing all human emotions, it spurned it. There were no quislings, and to be honest, the man who tried to rape Gerry€™s wife apart, there weren€™t even many bad people. Frankly, that€™s a colossal misstep in what could€™ve been the definitive film about zombies.
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Contributor

Durham University graduate and qualified sports journalist. Very good at sitting down and watching things. Can multi-task this with playing computer games. Football Manager addict who has taken Shrewsbury Town to the summit of the Premier League. You can follow me at @Ed_OwenUK, if you like ramblings about Newcastle United and A Place in the Sun. If you don't, I don't know what I can do for you.