Thread: Just some things bothering me as a true horror fan!

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I compleetly agree with ya. Todays horror movies suck overall. Nothing but a bunch af half baked remakes. When i think of zombies I always think of the e.c. comics stile like they had in return of the living dead. When the hell are we ever going to see a zombie as cool as tarman again ?

Gerege romero has a new living dead film coming out soon but i dont have very high hopes for it.

Originally Posted by Baron Samedi

Oh, and incidentally..Zombies are very much a creation of Hollywood. They are virtually unheard of (and certainly never mentioned aloud) in the true Voodu religion.

Haitian Vodou is very much alive with tales of the Bokor, and their use of the Zombi. Both as a "corpse" brought back from the "dead" through a particular potion, and by trapping the "zombi" spirit into a fetish.

Neither of which are represented by the standard people think of "zombie".

LOL @ Skullboy! I'm with you, man!

/AGREE! with all of it!

Originally Posted by Baron Samedi

Oh, and incidentally..Zombies are very much a creation of Hollywood. They are virtually unheard of (and certainly never mentioned aloud) in the true Voodu religion.

Oh, and I come out swingin'! I'm gonna have to disagree, and I can back up my statements.

Before I get started, I'll grant you that zombie (zumbi or nzambi) is a West African word that is used in Vodoun practice and applies to a corpse controlled by a bokor (magician or shaman). Shambling flesh-eaters back from the grave have little in common with these, and we misuse the word all the time in modern society.

To say that zombies are virtually unheard of in Haitian Vodou is not accurate. Papa Doc Duvallier (haitian dictator, 1957-1971) was rumored to have an army of them at his disposal.
There is even a law in Haiti concerning zombies...

"Haitian Penal Code:

Article 249. It shall also be qualified as attempted murder the employment which may be made against any person of substances which, without causing actual death, produce a lethargic coma more or less prolonged. If, after the person had been buried, the act shall be considered murder no matter what result follows."

That said, where did the flesh-eating corpses come from?
Old folklore, which inspired modern authors and film makers.
When Romero made "Night of the Living Dead", the father film of the genre, he was directly inspired by Matheson's novel "I am Legend."
"I am Legend" used the old school vampire, hordes of them, stinking, rotting, shambling about, thirsty for blood and wanting for warmth, the way vampires used to be.
These old vampire legends often state that the dead want for life and the things of life, fresh blood and warm flesh among them, as well as a night with their widowed wives, time at the family dinner table, a sit before the fire and even a good swig of hard liquor, depending on the tale.
Vampires, revenants, ghouls and draugr all sort of blur together the further one goes back in folkloric history.
Older vampires were accused of flesh-eating all the time, and even ate their own grave clothes and chewed on their own arms.

So when Matheson wrote "I am Legend" he set aside the cunning, noble-born vampire of the victorian age and went back to the roots of the legend, and it was so effective, Romero had to make it his own.

So while a lone film maker may have given us the final version of the flesh-eating revenant, the shambling stinkies had forefathers, some almost indistinguishable from themselves.

And the careful observer will note that the word 'zombie' is never uttered in "Night of the Living Dead". In fact, the word 'ghoul' is used, which is also incorrect - a ghoul was never a human being, but a desert demon of Arabic folklore.

"Ghoul" - another word like zombie misused in our time.
Or maybe, as with all words, the meaning is changing, and we purists are more sensitive to it.

Thank you gentlemen. That was very interesting. Can we all be friends now?

Originally Posted by Pumpkin Torture Guy

Thank you gentlemen. That was very interesting. Can we all be friends now?

Uh, yeah.

?

I was having fun with the discussion. If I gave the impression I was upset, I assure you I wasn't.
I love debates and discussions like this.

i love the old vampire flicks, but even though twilight was off on it's own tingent, i must admit i liked twilight. although patterson doesn't do it for me, i just kept thinking -what's up with the hair-i did think he delivered a great performance. the show was with a different twist and i found it refreshing. i think what if it came out first and the old ones were the new ones. then we would be questioning again. i again enjoy the old zombie flicks and some of the new ones. now when you talk about the slasher movies, i'm with anyone who says you won't find them in my house. gore just does not cut it with me.

Give me a good Dario Argento movie anytime, Profondo Rosso (Deep Red) is on of my favourites. Twilight was a bit mushy for me but I imagine it'd appeal to teenage girls more. I prefer more mature themed horror.

I haven't seen a really good horror movie for a long time now, they lack the atmosphere of the older movies. That's one of the reasons I love Argento, he always had atmosphere in his older movies (his newer ones aren't as good). I love the opening sequence of his movie titled Creepers. Lucio Fulci is another of my faves he did some great horrors The Beyond was great.

The recent remakes haven't been that great I wasn't impressed by Halloween or the Friday the 13th remakes.

Originally Posted by Spats

Uh, yeah.

?

I was having fun with the discussion. If I gave the impression I was upset, I assure you I wasn't.
I love debates and discussions like this.

Er...yeah, me too.
No offence taken, I assure you.

Spats and Unorthodox, you are entirely correct.

The mistake was mine..What I meant to convey was that the modern Hollywood version of the undead, flesh munching Zombie is virtually unheard of.

There are, most certainly, claims that certain bokar can create a "zombie" by using drugs or potions to induce a semi-catatonic state in a living person (A la Madge Bellamy in "White Zombie"), Which may give the appearance of a living death, and it is also true that the much feared "Papa Doc" was reported to have a small army of them working alongside the MVSN or Tonton Macoute.

The Haitians are a superstitious people. In my several visits to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which has a large population of Haitians, I have never encountered anybody claiming first hand knowledge or experience of such things.

The general consensus seems to be that such things do exist, but that to discuss them openly is to invite bad luck.