Nathan Tyree: Zombie Scotch
Last night I watched The Thing (The John Carpenter version). I enjoy watching that film when it gets cold out. Normally I wait longer in the year, but I decided that it was time. It turns out that I have a horror movie schedule. Every year on the 4th of July I watch Jaws (“You’ve got a panic on your hands on the 4th of Julyâ€Â); every Christmas I watch The Shinning, which is my favorite holiday movie; when winter comes I watch The Thing. Maybe I’m weird.
My favorite sort of Horror movie is the zombie movie.
The "Zombie" genre has been around for quite some time. To be fair, "Zombie" movies are really a sub-genre, of a sub-genre. Horror is the genre, Vampires make up a sub-genre, and what is a zombie but another type of vampire? (maybe it's the other way around: what is a vampire but a sort of zombie?). My reasons for this conclusion are: Zombies are Re-animated Dead humans; they feed on the living; their victims are converted to zombies. Sounds a lot like vampires to me.
Anyway, the genre really got going with George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Romero saw the zombies as a metaphor for us, and used the fright film structure to satirize American Society.
Romero took the satire even further with Dawn of the Dead, which pitted consumerist zombies against consumerist survivors in a modern shopping mall.
The Dead Series spawned a third film, Day of the Dead, then a fourth (Land of the Dead) and soon a fifth (Diary of the Dead) and the parody Return of the Living Dead, and its sequels.
Dario Argento (who had a connection with Dawn of the Dead) made many low budget, extremely gory zombie flicks in Italy. He passed his mantle to Lucio Fulci who made such ultra-violent zombie flicks as City of the Dead and House by the Cemetery.
Along the way many films have imitated Both Romero and Argento. I contend that movies like Halloween, and Friday the 13th (and their sequels) are members of the zombie community. Think about it, undying, slow moving, implaccable, remorseless killers stagger about and hunt hapless human victims. (I suppose by my logic Jaws also fits, but perhaps that's taking it a bit far).
Speaking of that, there is some contention about what is and isn’t a zombie movie. Some say that 28 Days later doesn’t count, because it’s Zombies aren’t dead, but rather merely infected with rage. Evil Dead (as well as ED2 and Army of Darkness) are controversial as well. The undead in those films can think and come in may forms. And, what about The Dead Hate the Living? In that the zombies are brought back by a sort of magic. Then there’s Undead, which has something to do with aliens.
That gets us back where we started: The Thing. The Thing is tough to kill, it hunts humans and when it gets one the victim becomes a thing as well. I know, it’s an intelligent alien, not a re-animated human, so it doesn’t count at all.
In other news: Last night I wanted a glass of Scotch. I walked into the kitchen, where my bottle of Glenlivet had been, and stood next to the table (where, as I said, the bottle had been). I reached out and found no scotch. “Woman,†I bellowed, “where’s my scotch!â€Â
Sarah, my lovely young wife, called back: “You left it on the buffet, dumbass.â€Â
“Oh… Yeah,†I replied.
So, having been reminded, I walked to the buffet. Sitting there was my bottle of Glenlivet. Next to it was a Laphroaig bottle, which I had believed to be empty. Looking at it then I discovered that I had been wrong. There was, in fact, about an ounce and a half of the fine and lovely Laphroaig.
Thus, I discovered unknown scotch. The joy was nearly unbearable.
And, as always:
Last night I watched The Thing (The John Carpenter version). I enjoy watching that film when it gets cold out. Normally I wait longer in the year, but I decided that it was time. It turns out that I have a horror movie schedule. Every year on the 4th of July I watch Jaws (“You’ve got a panic on your hands on the 4th of Julyâ€Â); every Christmas I watch The Shinning, which is my favorite holiday movie; when winter comes I watch The Thing. Maybe I’m weird.
My favorite sort of Horror movie is the zombie movie.
The "Zombie" genre has been around for quite some time. To be fair, "Zombie" movies are really a sub-genre, of a sub-genre. Horror is the genre, Vampires make up a sub-genre, and what is a zombie but another type of vampire? (maybe it's the other way around: what is a vampire but a sort of zombie?). My reasons for this conclusion are: Zombies are Re-animated Dead humans; they feed on the living; their victims are converted to zombies. Sounds a lot like vampires to me.
Anyway, the genre really got going with George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Romero saw the zombies as a metaphor for us, and used the fright film structure to satirize American Society.
Romero took the satire even further with Dawn of the Dead, which pitted consumerist zombies against consumerist survivors in a modern shopping mall.
The Dead Series spawned a third film, Day of the Dead, then a fourth (Land of the Dead) and soon a fifth (Diary of the Dead) and the parody Return of the Living Dead, and its sequels.
Dario Argento (who had a connection with Dawn of the Dead) made many low budget, extremely gory zombie flicks in Italy. He passed his mantle to Lucio Fulci who made such ultra-violent zombie flicks as City of the Dead and House by the Cemetery.
Along the way many films have imitated Both Romero and Argento. I contend that movies like Halloween, and Friday the 13th (and their sequels) are members of the zombie community. Think about it, undying, slow moving, implaccable, remorseless killers stagger about and hunt hapless human victims. (I suppose by my logic Jaws also fits, but perhaps that's taking it a bit far).
Speaking of that, there is some contention about what is and isn’t a zombie movie. Some say that 28 Days later doesn’t count, because it’s Zombies aren’t dead, but rather merely infected with rage. Evil Dead (as well as ED2 and Army of Darkness) are controversial as well. The undead in those films can think and come in may forms. And, what about The Dead Hate the Living? In that the zombies are brought back by a sort of magic. Then there’s Undead, which has something to do with aliens.
That gets us back where we started: The Thing. The Thing is tough to kill, it hunts humans and when it gets one the victim becomes a thing as well. I know, it’s an intelligent alien, not a re-animated human, so it doesn’t count at all.
In other news: Last night I wanted a glass of Scotch. I walked into the kitchen, where my bottle of Glenlivet had been, and stood next to the table (where, as I said, the bottle had been). I reached out and found no scotch. “Woman,†I bellowed, “where’s my scotch!â€Â
Sarah, my lovely young wife, called back: “You left it on the buffet, dumbass.â€Â
“Oh… Yeah,†I replied.
So, having been reminded, I walked to the buffet. Sitting there was my bottle of Glenlivet. Next to it was a Laphroaig bottle, which I had believed to be empty. Looking at it then I discovered that I had been wrong. There was, in fact, about an ounce and a half of the fine and lovely Laphroaig.
Thus, I discovered unknown scotch. The joy was nearly unbearable.
And, as always:
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