I watched three zombie movies today. I got home just in time to catch Revenge of the Zombies on Turner Classic Movies. It's part of the current friday night horror series in honor of Halloween. It's a 1943 movie with John Carradine, Mantan Moreland, and Bob Steele, who some of you might remember as the evil Lash Canino in The Big Sleep. The scene where Canino forces Elisha Cook Jr's Harry Jones to drink poison is one of the most chilling scenes I have ever seen. It's so understated. You can really cheer when Canino is gunned down later in the movie. Unfortunately there's nothing very chilling in ROTZ. John Carradine is a doctor who has a dead wife that won't stay in the coffin. Doc's got some zombie workers on his plantation and Mantan supplies the comic relief. After that I watched a couple of episodes of The Saint. I like the 60's Roger Moore action show. I am dubbing the few episodes that I have on tape to DVDR. They are the old black and white ones. Then it was time for movie night.
Planet Terror is Robert Rodriguez's Instant Classic, at least according to it's box. Some super secret toxin gets out and starts turning the people into flesh eating zombies, or something like it. You need to shoot 'em, no matter what they're called. There's a great bunch of characters in this dark and lazy Texas town. There's a stripper, a sheriff, a BBQ chef, a tow truck driver with a past, a bunch of military, lots of creeps, a scientist, some doctors, a couple of fiesty babysitters, bumbling deputies, and several I forgot. Oh, and the infected. They are pretty nasty, all goin' for your throat and all, the pus and flesh dripping off of their bodies. You can read a blow by blow of the story here. I enjoyed it. The movie heaps more and more bad shit on the cast as they fight their way through the zombie horde. The violence, and practically everything else, is pumped up, and it does kind of look like a 70's grindhouse kind of film, but those old films never had so many good actors, nor so many explosions. Everything seems to blow up. It's like that town is made from kerosene. There are lots of jokes and gore and more stuff blowing up. The effects are pretty good. There's a lot of CGI blood. Some of the zombies seem to turn to juice when they are hit by a truck. Even the dog gets run over. Planet Terror was released in the theaters under the Grindhouse title along with several fake trailers and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. The DVD version is a bit longer and only the Machette trailer was included. That's a great trailer. Danny Trejo as a mad machette weilding Mexican bound for revenge. It's got some fun stunts and really sets the mood for Planet Terror.
My third zombie feature was called FIDO and I hadn't heard of it until Greg mentioned it. He'd read about it, something I am lazy about, and picked one up when they came out tuesday. It's a weird 1950's like USA and people are in the middle of a zombie infestation. Space rays are turning dead people into zombies. It happens right away. Fall down dead and seconds later you jump up looking for some flesh to feast on. Kids learn to shoot in grade school, but you have to be 12 for a pistol permit. Timmy's mom gets the family a zombie to keep up with the new neighbors who have 6, and Timmy is scared of him at first. After the zombie saves him from a couple of facist bullies, Timmy warms to him and dubs him Fido. Billy Connolly is Fido and he's pretty darn good at grunting. Zombies can't speak. The neighbor is head of security at Zomcon, a zombie containment and retraining company, and he's got a pipe and a wife and a daughter. He treats the pipe better than his wife and kid. Same goes for Timmy's dad, only he likes his golfing more than his family. He's a real-have-no-feelings kind of jerk. Zombies are sold to the public to use as cheap labor. You don't have to do much with them, and they are your willing slaves. Just real slow at doing anything. They wear a collar that keeps them from killing their human masters/snacks. There's a real mix of themes here and for the most part they blend together fairly well. If you see it you can pick them out for yourselves. Mostly I laughed at the jokes, many of which are rather dark. It even has a happy ending, for all the nicer people, and they are less screwed up at the end. You don't see that enough.
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