January's featured "Home Fry-ed Movie" is The Last Man on Earth (1964), based on the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, about a world-wide vampirism plague. The two best known remakes, The Omega Man (1971) with Charlton Heston and I Am Legend (2007) with Will Smith, both drop the vampirism angle but keep the idea of a worldwide plague. Movies about plagues and disease have been popular in the science fiction and horror genres since that time, especially zombie movies.
It seems, however, that disease movies are spreading lately. In addition to remakes of George Romero's Living Dead movies, there are 28 Days Later (2003) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), Cabin Fever (2003), the parodies Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Slither (2006), the "Planet Terror" segment from Grindhouse (2007), Quarantine (2008), Zombieland (2009) and most recently, Daybreakers (2010), which harkens back to Last Man on Earth, with a plague of vampirism.
So is fear of H1N1, SARS and all the other nasty ailments running rampant out there making these "diseased" movies more popular than ever? Is it just a reflection of our fears? Or do we just love zombies, despite their lack of personality and bad table manners?
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I love your show, my fiancee and I stumbled upon it while we were snowed in.
ReplyDeleteI think that zombie movies are not so much about a fear of disease, but a fear of social change. The rise of the zombie movie came at a time of social change: the civil rights movement, hippe counterculture, Vietnam,etc.
The survivors are unable/ unwilling to adapt, and in the end they either become zombies or die. What I love about this movie is that the hero is the real monster. The end of the film reminded me of when the towns people come to destroy the monster in FRANKENSTEIN, he calls them all freeks as he dies but the reality is that he is the freek because he was unable to adapt to the changed society.
Anyway I'll stop rambling and just say that I can't wait for the next show.