Recently, I watched the movie "Warm Bodies", the latest of the zombie craze movies. And while I really enjoyed it, and thought it brought something new to the genera, I wonder if it represents a tipping point in this current fad.
I've said before that I think we're about to reach our saturation point with zombie movies. We've already seen it happen with vampire movies, hitting its nexus with the Twilight series. Again, its not that I think the movie was bad: it was a basic retelling of the "Romeo and Juliet" story, the movie even going so far as to name the main characters "Julie" and "R", and just in case subtlety isn't your thing, "R's" best friend, played by Rob Cordry, was named "Marcus". The cinematography was quite stunning, and the two leads delivered admirable performances.
But, this film really went out of its way to play it safe. (Spoilers) Everyone, including "R's" best friend "Marcus" survived to the end. For a zombie movie, it never felt like the stakes were ever that high, not nearly "post-apocalypses" high, in any case. But, never the less, the film makers pulled this off without making the film taste overly saccharine. It really played as a movie about alienation, and resolved itself leaving you with a feeling of hope.
It was a zombie movie that just happened to hit a "main-stream" vibe. But now that that box has been opened, it gives the green-light for more of its ilk, a prettied-up vision of the undead, to be made, and made without heart. And that's when you know you've come to the end of a cycle, when the rawness is completely forsaken for things that are pretty and unoffensive, when the risk of alienating anyone with things that are too dark or too scary is replaced by things that are lukewarm and average.
I want to say again, I really liked warm bodies. It was a movie with heart and soul. And perhaps if it had been released a bit earlier in this generation of zombie films, I might not see it as the prophesier of doom for the genre itself. But we've been heading here for a while. I think the undead still have a few more chances to bring us some bite this cycle. I would compare this one to the "Underworld" series in terms of timing: marking only the beginning of the end, which, as you know, in Hollywood time can be stretched out for quite some time.
I love me some zombie flicks, and even if this cycle is about to return to the underground, I know it will be back someday. After all, isn't that what being a zombie is all about?
Cody Hobbs
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