Zombie Cliche Lookout: Drop ‘Em
When something bad happens in a zombie story, it’s often immediately compounded by something even worse. Gene gets shot, and before Barb can even try to assess the wound, the man that shot him (presumably, anyway) is holding everyone up and gunpoint. Things are not going well for them.
As an example, let’s roll out my favorite old chestnut, Night of the Living Dead. The survivors have a plan: fill up the pickup with the gas pump out back, and make a quick escape. At first, everything goes well. They get the truck off to the gas pump, while the survivors in the house fend of zombies with Molotov cocktails. And then, everything goes to hell. The key doesn’t open the tank lock, and in a moment of frustration and desperation, they manage to blow up it, the truck, and two survivors. Just like that, any hope of escape is squashed. The situation doesn’t really improve from there. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
