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Simon Pegg on the ills of fast zombies
November 5th 2008 21:32
Simon Pegg is a fanboy-turned-leading man, and though his latest movies may have departed from the sci-fi/comic book genre that the geek industry loves, in his heart, he'll always be one of us.
He came to international attention when "Shaun of the Dead" proved to be an effective homage to the Romero zombie flicks - the film used the backdrop of a zombie epidemic as the setting for a rather quaint romantic comedy. The juxtaposition of those two, usually dissilimar, genres made for highly entertaining viewing.
It's with some confidence, then, that Pegg can write an essay damning fast zombies for the Guardian. Yes, he can.
Fast zombies came around with Zack Synder's remake of "Dawn of the Dead" - fans of the original were tenuous of the remake, but Snyder successfully drew audiences in by ramping up the nitro in the film. Instead of remaking Romero's classic, he took out the subtlety and injected the film with pure, unadulterated adrenaline.
As a result, the modern studios have come to rely on the idea of fast zombies, thinking, perhaps correctly, that young audiences don't have time for the shambling, clumsy undead.
Pegg argues that this actually destroys the effectiveness of the zombie:
"More significantly, the fast zombie is bereft of poetic subtlety. As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster... Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable."
Why is this important? Pegg correctly notes that the zombie is a metaphor for our own death - avoidable, yes, but inevitable. Additionally, zombie movies have benefited from the dim-witted monsters, using them to represent the mindless aspect of our society.
Pegg finishes with the idea that the fast zombie came about
"...likely at the behest of some cigar-chomping, focus-group-happy movie exec desperate to satisfy the MTV generation's demand for quicker everything - quicker food, quicker downloads, quicker dead people. The zombie was ushered on to the mainstream stage, on the proviso that it sprinted up to the mic. The genre was diminished, and I think it's a shame."
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Comment by Nomad
Awesome Food
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Awesome Food
Comment by KylieW
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I really liked the use of the fast zombies in Dawn of the Dead. It was the first time I'd seen that used and it really did get the adrenaline pumping. But now it's become standard that zombies are all fast and it takes the drama out of it.
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Come on, they were pretty zombie-like, even if they weren't quite undead.
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Kylie - I agree... seeing the change in the 2004 "Dawn of the Dead" was a surprise, but now it just leads to standard scares...
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