Episode 330: Panic?!

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Dave

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Zombie Cliche Lookout: Keep Calm and Kill Some Zeds

It’s generally a lot easier to win a fight if you keep a cool head, and that applies to arguments with a coworkers all the way up to a life and death struggle with zombies. Losing your temper or giving into panic puts you at a serious disadvantage, especially when your opponent remains calm. And zombies have a nasty tendency to remain completely emotionally unattached. They’re just, you know, hungry.

About this Episode:

I think we’ve had a lot of night time scenes an interiors in the comic, so it’s kind of a nice to do this sunny, outdoor scene. It’s not really in keeping with the classic horror look of Night of the Living Dead and the like, but I think it makes for a fun juxtaposition. Dead Island pulls this off pretty well; especially in its first act. Okay, so it’s not scary per se, but still.

Other News:

I have to make a minor change with comments. Effective yesterday, I’m going to be closing comments on all articles older than two weeks. I don’t think this will affect a lot, but I wanted to give everyone a head’s up.

Discussion Question: Social Statements in Zombie Stories

Ever since George A. Romero cast a black man in the lead role of Night of the Living Dead, zombie stories have gotten a reputation for making social statements in addition to entertaining and horrifying. The question is, what do you think of this?

Personally, I’m not really a fan. It’s okay when the statement emerges naturally out of the story, but they usually just feel tacked on and clumsy. Land of the Dead, for instance, was so heavy handed and over-the-top with it’s us versus them message that it torpedoed a movie that was already running on fumes.

19 thoughts on “Episode 330: Panic?!”

  1. Its funny how the crazy outdoorsman is now the voice of reason 😛

    • He’s happy to be safe; probably looking to pay it back.

    • Typo; forgot to put full stop in 4th panel, last sentence.

      • Good catch. Fixing it now.

  2. If someone wants to use zombies as a vehicle for some kind of social commentary, I’m okay with it but it’s a very, very delicate balancing act to pull off – it’s very easy to let the message overwhelm the zombies (which are going to be the main draw of the movie), or to let the analogy the zombies are filling in for get lost in the carnage of the zombie apocalypse. A good example of both is Zombieland – the first half was strong with the message, but it sometimes made the zombies take a backseat, which can be frustrating and boring for people who just want to see zed heads explode. The second half dropped most of the message in favor of the action, and felt somewhat emptier of an experience for it.

    • Ok, I admit it, if there was a message in Zombieland other then “Dont get upstaged by Bill Murray” then I missed it.

      • The message I got from Zombieland is that family matters and it worth fighting for, and that family is the people you care about, and who care about you. Not necessarily blood, but just as good. Not a bad message, all in all.

        • Oh that………..Guess its kinda hard to miss the message when the protagonist sums it up in a 30sec monolog to wrap up the film. (Doing my best Chris Farley) Stupid (smack) Stupid (smack) Stupid (smack).

        • Hah

  3. I dont really care for messages in my movies period. Frankly I get a little sick of the condescending Hollywood BS that leads certain writers or directors to feel that they need to share thier enlightenment with the world and help us poor dumb hicks to understand how the world works. I particularly detest the whole “zombies as a metaphor for mindless consumerism” thing that you see in Dawn of the Dead. It just rings of freaking hypocrisy. Its even worse whey you see zed films which portray an upper social class living on the back of the lower one. Exactly how the heck would that work in a world where money had essentially become worthless.

    • Like all things, I think it can be done well and done poorly, and it’s usually done really, really poorly. Romero is infamous for his heavy-handed commentary. Shaun of the Dead made a lot of statements too, but no one complains about those.

      • Oh that………..Guess its kinda hard to miss the message when the protagonist sums it up in a 30sec monolog to wrap up the film. (Doing my best Chris Farley) Stupid (smack) Stupid (smack) Stupid (smack).

        • How did I post this twice?

        • Under two different original comments to boot.

      • Thats because everything sounds really deep and intelligent when said with a British accent.

        • Hah, although it depends on what sort of British accent.

  4. FYI – I had to retire the recent comments sidebar for the time being. The site is hammering the server right now.

  5. Three episodes, how did I miss those?

    I just love that minifigure head for the second panel and the comment “who’s panicking?”

    • Thanks Fox! I love being able to do all these close-ups. It’s a lot of fun playing around with the framing and shot composition.