Thursday, October 7, 2010

Scary Scenes Made of Awesome - Zombie

Seven days into October and I'm finally getting with the program! I hope to do *something* spooktacular each day this month - probably not all (or even many) reviews, because those usually turn out to be quite time-consuming - but something.

Today, I offer one of the most awesome scenes in all of horror. For simplicity's sake, we'll call this film Zombie (though it goes by several others). This is an Italian horror film, made by one of the handful of great artists of gore to come out of Italia, Lucio Fulci. More specifically, though, this is an Italian zombie film, and those are a particular breed. Where most zombies are blue-faced or bloody or whatever, Italian zombies really give you the impression of having rotted in the earth a while. They're all oatmeal-faced and you can almost smell them coming. I mean, just look at this guy on the poster.


EWWWWW, I SAY!


Italian horror films are also known for going all out in the departments that horror is best known for - blood & guts and T&A. Like almost all zombie films, including Italian ones, the plot of Zombie is incidental. People trapped in a blahblahblah, zombies come out of the ground and eat them, the end. Even Romero's zombie flicks, while rich in social subtext, follow this simple, fool-proof formula.

What sets zombie flicks apart from one another are the kills. It's amazing how creative filmmakers can get with a genre that could so easily be a one-note snorefest. Some of the best kills in the horror genre come from zombie flicks, and Zombie has two great ones. One is the famous splinter-meets-eyeball scene. The other is a zombie fighting a shark.

Yes, you read that right - ZOMBIE VS. SHARK. This is one of the most awesome things ever committed to celluloid. If you love Jaws and you love zombies, this scene is greater than anything else in the world, the end. Even if you don't love either of those things, it's still pretty awesome. You know what would make Shark Week the best thing ever? ZOMBIES.




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