1. Return Of The Living Dead
The Movie: I've covered this series earlier by talking about the far astray third sequel, Necropolis. The original, however, is a beast of a different nature. It was one of those rarest of movies that had the perfect mix of crappy acting, poor effects, absurd writing, bad execution, and cult appeal that made it absolutely awful, but simultaneously irresistible. RotLD follows a group of young punk rockers who go to visit their friend at his new job at the medical supply warehouse. At the warehouse a young James Karen releases chemicals from a government experiment that starts animating the dead both in the lab and in the neighboring cemetery. RotLD wouldn't be all that different from the other Romero knock offs of the day if not for one or two major changes to the execution. 1) zombies can never be killed, either by bomb or gun or axe in the face. They just never die. 2) Zombies are capable of speech in a level that allows them to beg for brains logically. 3) Rather than a psychological thriller or suspense movie about being trapped and waiting to die, RotLD feels like a chase movie/comedy playing out through a series of ridiculous hijinks . Also, in this one, the good guys win by nuking the town. Take that, citizens of Anywhereville, America.
Where it Gets Awful: This movie is so unoriginal in its material that they flat out say, "Have you ever seen the movie Night of the Living Dead" during a conversation, as if it wasn't obvious enough that they were ripping off the concept. Remember, this is before zombie movies got released every season. Other than that, though, it's really just hard to place your finger on what makes it so bad. In some ways it's actually quite impressive. The zombie make up was without a doubt the best around all the way up until the Dawn of the Dead remake that inspired a generation of zombie flicks. The dialogue is quite well written. And, the no name actors do a surprising job of keeping you in the movie, despite most of their acting credits being limited to infomercials and porn. Yet, somehow, someway, it's impossible to shake the feeling that you are watching a low budget turd of a movie.
The Game: Hold on to your butts, because this is going to be epic in a way that can only be conveyed by reading the rest of this description using a Samuel L. Jackson voice in your head. Are you ready? You better be, mother f***er? Yeah, now you've got the voice. Zombie games have traditionally followed one of the following formats: A) Resident Evil style survival horror in which you must avoid zombies and solve puzzles. B) Dead Rising style straight up action, run and gun, blood and guts. I propose a break from the norm. Recent games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and to a lesser extent Clyve Barker's Undying and Call of Cthulu have highlighted a style of gaming that still really hasn't been capitalized on, helpless protagonist. Being the invincible Kratos from God of War is fun an all, if power fantasy is your thing, but it was the suspense created by not being as strong as your enemies that really made gaming great for the hardcore fans of games like Cowboys or Resident Evil. I'm suggesting a horror game that capitalizes on just that one thing, horror. There are no weapons. There are no health kits or secret Kung-Fu moves to save you. There is only the invincible horde of zombies following your wits. You'd choose your doomed punk rocker from the cast and be thrown into the mix, being helplessly chased across a series of increasingly difficult scenarios until, eventually, you'd corner yourself. Maybe you might not make it out of the graveyard. Maybe you'd make it all the way to the edge of the city. But dude, you can't escape a horde of undead super zombies forever. And now that we have things like "game directors", AI programs which modify the game in real time to keep the difficulty in tune with your ability, the levels you play in could be totally randomly generated, meaning it would be a different chase every time. Maybe the first time you play you take a left at the graveyard and it's a dead end. The second time it might be a fence with a hole in it that slows the zombies down, giving you an edge. Somebody make this game.