An occasional lurker who decided to join up.

[Doctor D]

RandomZombieFan Wrote:Why I don't care for most zombie movies, eh? Well, I guess it boils down to two things:

1: I like character development. Not enough zombie movies have it. In fact, Left 4 Dead has better developed characters than many zombie movies. All things considered, I find that a bit ironic.

2: I'm neutral to gratuitous blood and gore. I don't mind it, but it's not what I watch zombie movies for. A shame, really, because most zombies movies focus on it almost exclusively.

So, really, I suppose this technically boils down to one thing:

1: I watch zombie movies expecting something entirely different from what I usually get.

Truth be told, I like zombies, but I love seeing how people evolve to survive them.

Another obsession that I have that I feel hasn't lived up to its full potential would be roleplaying gamebooks. If you were old enough to be a nerd back in the '80s, you'll probably know what I'm talking about. These books were self-contained, solitaire adventure games, usually in a fantasy vein. Think of Choose Your Own Adventure mixed with Dungeons and Dragons. A few popular examples include Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf. The books were often ridiculously difficult (most had only one "good" ending) and usually had very little actual literary value. I love them anyway, if only for the potential they hold. Most of these books were popular before I was even born, so it's tough for me to get my hands on them, but generally, they all followed the same basic motions and never tried anything new, and that is also my problem with most zombie movies.

In short, what I'm trying to say is that I like it when people try new things. When they're writing movies or books or making games or any sort of art, I think that one of the worst things you can do is just go through the motions and make no effort to try something new in the process.

Here's an example of a zombie I genuinely liked: Fido. Zombies are treated as pets in an idyllic, 50s-style neighborhood. The premise alone kept me entertained through the whole movie. Was it a perfect movie? Not remotely. I honestly felt that the pace was always a little too slow, the movie went on for about 20 minutes too long and the tone at points was just a little bit too light for my taste...but I liked it, because it tried something new and gave its characters some personality. Even Fido, the eponymous pet zombie played by Billy Connolly, had some semblance of a personality.

That's all I want, really. Interesting characters and some innovative ideas. I find it depressing, but zombie movies don't often have these, and gamebooks, being out of style for at least a decade now, most likely never will.

tl;dr: I like innovation and good characterization, and most zombie movies don't have those. Also, gamebooks are cool.

sounds like we agree on about zombies I like watching the ppl deal with zombies not the zombies themselves...