Zombies: A Living History
Zombies: A Living History DVD (History)
I’m a sucker for zombie films. Not the blood variety with the pointy fangs, cloaks and Eastern European accents, no sir, not me, I’m more the traditional type of sucker, the mark, the guy who has to have and has to watch any and all zombie related product. Which is kind of strange as I don’t like blood and I’m not particularly keen on seeing people eaten in different and interesting ways, and I’m not exactly a fan of the apocalypse scenario, a theme that seems to intrinsically linked to every other zombie film released in the last decade. What I like is being scared, and the idea of the Zombie, the unrelenting, unthinking monster devoid of humanity, trapped by the eternity of living death, driven by a hunger for flesh that can never be sated terrifies me, and it’s good to make a friend of fear, so I ended up becoming best buddies with zombie films in all their gory glory and blood soaked facets. However, after having spent a couple of days with, and multiple repeat viewings of ‘A Living History’, what was once a hang out, watch and enjoy relationship with undead shockers, has now become a little more intense, as all the ideas that fuelled, and gave a reason for the existence of the protagonists existence in, just about every zombie film are explored, explained and examined over in great detail, whilst the history behind zombies, fictional, historical and social is also scrutinised in relation to the modern love affair with the shambling brain munchers. Informative, clever and amusing (the occasional vignettes that pop up detailing Zombie combat and how to take on the undead in hand-to-hand combat are worth the ticket price alone), ‘Zombies: A Living History’ is an alternative look at the horror that Hollywood has taken for granted, that delivers a step-by-step guide to surviving a potential zombie holocaust. Which is unlikely to happen. Well, okay, maybe not unlikely, but it probably won’t happen according to ‘A Living History’. So, until probably becomes definitely (which is almost always does), kick back and indulge in the social and cultural history for splatter-heads on offer, and who knows, you might just learn how to avoid becoming an entrée in the inevitable undead banquet. That’s got to be worth an hour and a half of anyone’s time right? Tim Mass Movement
