Roamer's Zone

This is a pretty funny conversation I had earlier in the day with a good friend of mine that seemed worthy of repeating.

“I can’t wait. Not sure what I really want to do anymore after though. Still trying to think it out.” - C

“Looked at a few jobs today online.” - L

“Oh yeah. Find anything good?” - C

“A few things, but its like ugh…the real world is calling and I am like man do I have to answer? Ya know?” - L

“I do know. But its gotta come sometime. We can’t stay in school forever…Or could we? Although making money would be nice.” - C

“Ugh money…the necessary evil. You should just work at Hot Topic until you own it.” - L

“Right on. Lets buy our own island and then we won’t have to worry about anything until the glaciers melt…lol.” - C

“True that, and we can choose who we live with there.” - L

“No money worries. I’d just have to start liking fish.” - C

“We can’t live with a**holes. You don’t like fish? Any fish? - L

“Yeah…but we could rotate people we live with. I like shellfish.” - C

“Ok, well as long as it is not like LOST or Lord of the Flies.” - L

“Exactly. If we had the same people all the time war would start.” - C

“How do you buy an island?” - C

“I don’t know, but I can look into it. Also we are going to need more people to go in on this with us.” - L

“Well of course others would have to contribute because unfortunately you and I were not blessed with wealth.” - C

“Spoken very eloquently, and truthfully. If I ever make big money as a writer I will have to give you a call about that island.” - L

“For sure because I sure as hell won’t be earning big bucks.” - C

Current plans after graduation = buying an island.

Children of the Living Dead
Dawn of the Dead (original)
Day of the Dead
Night of the Living Dead 3D (new)
House of the Dead
Zombie High
Re-Animator
Re-Animator 2
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Pet Semetary

Notes - Children are scary zombies. A shower scene with an overhead shot of a dead body will no doubt be included in my movie. Family members that have been turned into zombies make us vulnerable and often the contemplation and hesitation of killing them leads to our own deaths.

Oh Resident Evil Apocalypse (REA); where do I begin with this one? It is a movie with a lot of basis on governmentally controlled weaponry and the effects of chemical warfare gone wrong. I think of the Umbrella Corporation as a very important abstract symbol for the t-virus. Essentially an umbrella is supposed to protect us and shield us from harm, which was the original intention of the virus. If the virus is used as chemical warfare it is supposed to protect us from foreign forces. If it is used to regenerate dead tissue on the human body it is used to reduce aging.

Generally, an umbrella in the literal sense can also span over someone or something to protect them from the conditions. If an umbrella was covering the earth all the time things would begin to die because of a lack of sunlight and the object once used to protect us would then become a threat. Hence what happened when the t-virus was unleashed. An item that we once could have used for good actually turned on us. There are no doubt parallels between the two things.

The t-virus is the cause of this zombie outbreak, similar (but not identical) to the one in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. The virus is what brings the dead back to life, but in the first Resident Evil it was also the cause of their initial demise prior to re-animation because of the Red Queen’s defense systems. It is interesting that the zombies in this film don’t pick apart every last piece of flesh like those in Land of the Dead.

In Raccoon City, the setting of the film, the zombies are fast and actually appear to run, much like in the new version of Dawn of the Dead. As the virus spreads there is mass hysteria (as in all zombie movies). In the film arm and neck bites prove to be most deadly and easily accessible for the zombie assailants. As in many other zombie films the theme of suicide is present. Early on we witness a woman jumping off of a building after she has been bitten.

Both REA and Land of the Dead show how the church fails to offer sanctuary for citizens and is also far from being zombie free. In REA citizens flee to a church in order to keep away the zombies, only to find out that the clergyman’s sister is already a zombie being kept in the church. In Land of the Dead there is mention of people at St…something or other church that were killed by the invading undead.

The most interesting part of the movie is the corporation’s decision to sanitize the city, which is similar to the choice made by the U.S. Army in 28 Weeks Later in regard to London. In this case nuclear warfare is brought into play and a race against the clock begins. There is a definite atom bomb association here. Overall the zombies in this film seem to bite and then move on most of the time. There is not much feeding shown. The bite and run mentality is in play.

The question that remains prominent in my mind is; what happens to those zombies that aren’t feeding? Do they starve and essentially “die” (for lack of a better term)? Or do they simply wither away and continue to roam the earth as bags of bones (almost in skeletal form)? Is there a way to reverse the process of deterioration? I mean in theory they are immortals and if you are turned into a zombie at age 18 wouldn’t you stay 18 forever?

That makes me wonder about the new Dawn of the Dead in which a woman gives birth to a zombie baby. Would the baby grow and evolve like human children or remain trapped in the infantile state. In order to find some semblance of an answer I have to cross genres here with vampires for a moment. I refer to Interview with a Vampire in which the female adolescent vampire never surpasses the age at which she was killed. If this is the theory which zombies follow (which I believe it is) then the child would remain a baby forever.

Notes: (7/14/07) Hand guns that shoot paintballs. Airsoft guns. Look into pricing for mass amounts of fake blood compared to the cost of making my own. Contact lenses. Body hits/bullet holes with makeup or prosthetics. Body parts and possibly a brain set. Good zombie props are on the Nightmare Factory website. Possibly need a heart prop to rip out of someone’s chest and a half mask prosthetic. Consider buying Halloween makeup at close out after holiday prices.

Upon mapping out some of the characters in the film I am writing I was told by my youngest sister that we could not be cast as friends living in an apartment in the movie. When I asked her why she replied, “I don’t know if we can be friends because of the height difference.”