An occasional lurker who decided to join up.

[supervike]

I totally agree with your assessment about most 'zombie' movies.
I've never been a huge fan of them until more recently...

There are a few, that I feel break the mold however....

Night of the Living Dead: Not great character interaction, but really sets up the 'paranoid' feeling that I think is missing in many more modern zombie flicks.

Shawn of the Dead, great characters, tongue in cheek humor, but still with real thrills and fear.

Dawn of the Dead, the original and the 'remake'. Both focus on how people band together and fight...and ultimately change as people.

There may be a few more, but most of the others just fall into the 'goretastic' category. Some aren't even watchable.

A word about Video Games....Quite frankly, that is where all the most innovative character development, and the best storylines have been found. Video games, to me, are the new Hollywood. Whereas the movie industry seems content with just repackaging old glories, the Video Game industry is really pushing the envelope and making people take notice.