There will be no "collapse" the way some of these people think of it. It's not going to be like the movie "Dawn of the Dead" or whatever where one day suddenly shit hits the fan and prices skyrocket and everyone begins to riot and the SS comes marching down the street to kill everyone. There will be no "happening". It's far more insidious than that. Read the poem "The Hollow Men" by TS ELiot and you'll understand.
You'll just notice that every day simple things will become a little more expensive. Everyone's homes and apartments will start to get smaller. your work hours will get longer, but your pay will decrease. You'll see family and friends less, and find that in time you care less about them. Every day you'll find yourself lowering your standards for everything: work, food, relationships, etc. Job security will no longer exist as a concept. You'll notice houses and apartments shrinking. People will start hanging on clothing longer and longer. Less people will get married, even less will have children. People will engross themselves in technological distractions and fantasy while never truly experiencing the real world.
Whatever dream people used to have about what their lives were going to be will become for them a distant memory. The only thing left for them will be the reality of their debt and their poverty. And every minute of every day they will be told: "You are stupid, ugly and weak, but together we are free, prosperous and safe."
That is the collapse. The reduction of the American man into a feudal serf, incapable of feeling love or hate, incapable of seeing the pitiful nature of his situation for what it is or recognizing his own self worth.
Why should they expect a lower return? While I understand that value in being unique, I can't imagine a high quality production of a public work would be damaged that much by low quality productions of a similar work unless it's just profanely overdone. And in that case, why would they have sunk that much money into it?
I mean, every time a zombie film comes out, three cheaper ones come straight to video. The new Dawn of the Dead did fine. And even in copyright, Snakes on a Train was in video stores three days before Snakes on a Plane came to theaters!
Sure, they may have had to think of a unique name to identify their product to fans (even just "Peter Jackson's LotR",) but I'm not convinced that they would've suffered, had lower quality renditions been widely available. It may have made them stand out more.
Renowned, not really though Dawn of the dead might qualify.
But there are a couple I would want to see, and I could imagine that the twitter documentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW2oy9c5NiM) would find a fan base there as well.
In my mind the best zombie films are
- Dawn of the Dead (modern version)
- The first Resident Evil
- 28 Days Later
The common theme in them is they are different and "non cheesy". I hate cheesy horror films (Scream made me laugh so hard ;)).
Dawn of the Dead has fast zombies in (Day of the Dead failed partly because they slowed down :() which is a great idea. The "gritty" camera work also works well with that (the sort of hand camera filmed look) speed as you really get the horror etc.
Resident Evil was just epic full stop. Verged on cheesy but elegantly avoided it. Not particularly scary but the sexy lead kicking ass = good :D Also it was somewhat intelligent - it explained the Zombies fairly logically (and mixed in an acutally good storyline - the memory loss etc.) and crucially kept them locked into one location. None of this "spreading across the world" thing. It could happen :D
28 Days Later is far and away one of the best. The Zombies only make up a small portion of the film and the rest focuses on humanity facing the end of life as they know it. It was an extremely good story (really, very very simple but hugely effective) and didnt push the reality enevlop too far.
So IMO what makes a good zombie flick?
- Realism (as far as possible)
- Good, sensible, logical story (it could happen!)
- No cheese (OMG were all gonna dieeee)
- Hot lead optional
- Gritty (camera work and writing)
Hope that helps :D
EDIT: oh yeh make it logical. Slow zombies are never really a threat - I always hate those films where they fail to avoid lumbering zombies. Please :(
Also, I never thought Shaun of the Dead would count. If it does this pips 28 Days Later as my fav zombie film. The writing/story is pure brilliance and the production is very very good. It nails it's genre perfectly.
28 Days Later is the best Zombie movie I've seen. It could stand up to a film-class analysis, on top of its scariness. The "sequel" was terrible, though.
Runner up, for me, would be Dawn of the Dead (2004). Resident Evil isn't bad, either.
Hacker Cinema
5 comments on Hacker News
Old prediction from 2013:
There will be no "collapse" the way some of these people think of it. It's not going to be like the movie "Dawn of the Dead" or whatever where one day suddenly shit hits the fan and prices skyrocket and everyone begins to riot and the SS comes marching down the street to kill everyone. There will be no "happening". It's far more insidious than that. Read the poem "The Hollow Men" by TS ELiot and you'll understand.
You'll just notice that every day simple things will become a little more expensive. Everyone's homes and apartments will start to get smaller. your work hours will get longer, but your pay will decrease. You'll see family and friends less, and find that in time you care less about them. Every day you'll find yourself lowering your standards for everything: work, food, relationships, etc. Job security will no longer exist as a concept. You'll notice houses and apartments shrinking. People will start hanging on clothing longer and longer. Less people will get married, even less will have children. People will engross themselves in technological distractions and fantasy while never truly experiencing the real world.
Whatever dream people used to have about what their lives were going to be will become for them a distant memory. The only thing left for them will be the reality of their debt and their poverty. And every minute of every day they will be told: "You are stupid, ugly and weak, but together we are free, prosperous and safe."
That is the collapse. The reduction of the American man into a feudal serf, incapable of feeling love or hate, incapable of seeing the pitiful nature of his situation for what it is or recognizing his own self worth.
Why should they expect a lower return? While I understand that value in being unique, I can't imagine a high quality production of a public work would be damaged that much by low quality productions of a similar work unless it's just profanely overdone. And in that case, why would they have sunk that much money into it?
I mean, every time a zombie film comes out, three cheaper ones come straight to video. The new Dawn of the Dead did fine. And even in copyright, Snakes on a Train was in video stores three days before Snakes on a Plane came to theaters!
Sure, they may have had to think of a unique name to identify their product to fans (even just "Peter Jackson's LotR",) but I'm not convinced that they would've suffered, had lower quality renditions been widely available. It may have made them stand out more.
Renowned, not really though Dawn of the dead might qualify.
But there are a couple I would want to see, and I could imagine that the twitter documentary (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW2oy9c5NiM) would find a fan base there as well.
In my mind the best zombie films are - Dawn of the Dead (modern version) - The first Resident Evil - 28 Days Later
The common theme in them is they are different and "non cheesy". I hate cheesy horror films (Scream made me laugh so hard ;)).
Dawn of the Dead has fast zombies in (Day of the Dead failed partly because they slowed down :() which is a great idea. The "gritty" camera work also works well with that (the sort of hand camera filmed look) speed as you really get the horror etc.
Resident Evil was just epic full stop. Verged on cheesy but elegantly avoided it. Not particularly scary but the sexy lead kicking ass = good :D Also it was somewhat intelligent - it explained the Zombies fairly logically (and mixed in an acutally good storyline - the memory loss etc.) and crucially kept them locked into one location. None of this "spreading across the world" thing. It could happen :D
28 Days Later is far and away one of the best. The Zombies only make up a small portion of the film and the rest focuses on humanity facing the end of life as they know it. It was an extremely good story (really, very very simple but hugely effective) and didnt push the reality enevlop too far.
So IMO what makes a good zombie flick?
- Realism (as far as possible)
- Good, sensible, logical story (it could happen!)
- No cheese (OMG were all gonna dieeee)
- Hot lead optional
- Gritty (camera work and writing)
Hope that helps :D
EDIT: oh yeh make it logical. Slow zombies are never really a threat - I always hate those films where they fail to avoid lumbering zombies. Please :(
Also, I never thought Shaun of the Dead would count. If it does this pips 28 Days Later as my fav zombie film. The writing/story is pure brilliance and the production is very very good. It nails it's genre perfectly.
28 Days Later is the best Zombie movie I've seen. It could stand up to a film-class analysis, on top of its scariness. The "sequel" was terrible, though.
Runner up, for me, would be Dawn of the Dead (2004). Resident Evil isn't bad, either.