Scream Factory takes us back to school with the release of 1987’s Zombie High. Director Ron Link helms a the horror / comedy written by Tim Doyle (Big Bang Theory), Independent Spirit Award Nominee Aziz Ghazal, and Elizabeth Passarelli. Actress Virginia Madsen (Candyman, The Haunting in Connecticut) and Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart) are joined by Paul Feig, who went on to make a name for himself by directing Bridesmaids and the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot.
In Zombie High, it seems to Andrea Miller (Virginia Madsen) that the upperclassmen of her prestigious boarding school act like robots. They’re the perfect students: dedicated, involved and loyal. Their clothes are perfectly pressed and their hair is perfectly styled. It seems
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that the teachers have something to do with this ingratiating behavior. And when Andrea, the new kid at school, sees her friends turning into clones, she starts to suspect the worst. The “zombies” in the movie resemble the unfortunate folks in The Stepford Wives and Disturbing Behavior more than the lumbering walking dead we associate with the use of the descriptive name.
We don’t see anything resembling a zombie until the third act. Even then, the “monsters” aren’t mindless brain eaters. They’re just decomposing at an accelerated rate.
The biggest surprise for me was seeing Kay E. Kuter in Zombie High. After doing some research on the actor, I realize he was in quite a few genre films over the span of his career like Star Trek, Warlock, Charmed, and more. However, I’ll always remember him as the alien leader Enduran in one of my favorite sci-fi films of the 1980s, The Last Starfighter.
I was a bit disappointed in the lack of bonus material for Scream Factory’s blu-ray release of Zombie High. I’m so used to every one of their releases being packed full of bonus material, that when it doesn’t happen it’s a big letdown. All we get here is a theatrical trailer for the film.
Zombie High is rated R for violence, gore, profanity, sex-related dialogue, adult situations, smoking and drinking, and frightening and intense scenes. Surprisingly for a genre movie from the 1980s, no nudity or sex is found. Even the violence and gore is minimal. There are a few sequences where zombielike individuals decompose in an accelerated manner on screen and there’s some visual ooze and
goo. Although the title is a bit misleading, Zombie High is a fun trip back in time to the late 1980s. All the cheese and camp you could ever want in a cult classic horror film from the era is found here. It’s also a cautionary tale warning youth to avoid becoming one of the mindless consumers and taking your life into your own hands. There’s a lot more to the movie than what we get on the surface.
She can highlight the traits between white-collar and blue collar in the apocalypse to give more meaning towards why workers of that status should be afraid. “ our white-collar skills become worthless not through technical advance but through total system collapse”norton field guild to writing with readings and handbook 653. Bosch states that white-collar workers lack technical skills which are necessary in any apocalypse environment. One good quote she used was from Max Brooks that boils down to being a white collar worker you hire a plumber to fix you toilet so you do not have to fix it yourself and you can focus on work to make more money. The more money you make the more people you can hire so that you can focus more on work and be less distracted. What if one day it got turned upside down where your employees become your teacher. Bosch highlights that white-collar workers are useless in a topsy-turvy world, where as blue-collar workers have skills to survive and they become the top of the new social order. “skills in auto maintenance, farming, plumbing, and electrical work- not to mention marksmanship- land blue collar folks at the top”norton field guild to writing with readings and handbook 653. This gives the outlook that blue-collar workers are strong and resourceful. Bosch portrays the class of zombies as a terrifying threat. “Zombies however, never stop, so danger persists past the initial past the initial cataclysm” norton field guild to writing with readings and handbook 654. Bosch talks about zombies being a different type of disaster even though the white-collar worker will still have trouble surviving any disaster, zombies are the only kind of disaster that persist. This gives zombies a truly horrifying look and are overall portrayed as the best horror monster there is. Zombies will give these two working classes a reason to watch zombie films. It gives a positive message to blue-collar
In the article "Movies that Rose from the Grave" by Max Brooks, he delves deeper into the reasoning of where, why, and when zombie horror flicks
James Parker essay “Our Zombies, Ourselves,” informs readers that the zombie has almost outranked the vampire, and why they’re so popular. This undead monster originated from a Caribbean folk nightmare and was adapted over time by, the Halperin brothers, William Seabrook and George Romero and numerous others. Much like the vampire, zombies owe their fame to the progressiveness of technology, allowing them to consistently invade various media forms. The zombie has infested countless tv shows, movies, video games, and books, throughout the 21st century. Zombies themselves are soulless corpses who were regurgitated back into the world of the living. This making them rejects from the underworld, this presents the zombie as rejected yet inexpungable. What makes the zombie so popular, however, is that symbolizes everything that is rejected by humanity. “Much can be made of him, because he makes so little of himself. He comes back, He comes back, feebly but unstoppably” (Parker). The zombie represents humanity itself as well as what is rejected by humanity. Much like individuals today, the zombie is burdened by life’s demands, converting to nothing but a rotting, groaning human shell that stumbles through life without a purpose. The zombie is symbolizer of the real world, and all things irrepressible, whereas the vampire is a symbol of an alternate world and all things
As said in the previous discussion regarding the second chapter of Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human, zombies and their culture are examined and broke down in order to understand their motives for the progression of zombies globally. Through different perspectives from individuals based around the world, the discussion of the zombie culture debates over the idea that zombies have not just evolved within the narratives that have brought them to life, but they have evolved in such a way that ultimately transforms the narrative itself. However, in this specific chapter, “They are not men…they are dead bodies!”: From Cannibal to Zombie and Back Again, Chera Kee breaks down the introduction of zombies into mainstream consciousness,
The zombie race is very different. It doesn't not have many abilities and is not advanced like humans. Their behavior patterns are different. They cannot stand cold or winter weather. Their behavior is very different and difficult to calculate. They usually stand around lingering and waiting to attack when they hear something. They follow noises.Some abilities that they do have is that they have excellent hearing and can walk but aren't blind.The also can smell human blood. Zombies are generally weak but don’t underestimate what they can do to a human.
“Torture porn” developed the horror movies not by attracting so many audiences, but also by proving to be commercially successful, with some of the movies becoming the highest earning in the horror genre. I have already talked about the Saw(2004) movie. It is one of those movies to set the record for highest earning horror film, earning the growth collection of more than $100 million worldwide. After this movie got so successful, they made another squeal of this movie. They titled it Saw II and it actually earned more than $147 million. Similarly, they made it up to seven parts so far and as far as I know there is the last part or the final chapter; Saw VIII too, which is uncertainly going to be released in the summer of 2016. So far the total box office collected globally from all seven parts of Saw are above $800 million. Hostel sequels are the other movies to set the record on high grossing horror film. Its clearly stated in the Forbes,“Roth made Hostel for $4.5 million, and the film was released in January 2006. Hostel grossed a total $80 million worldwide in theaters, plus DVD sales of $21 million.” This is a total worldwide collection of just one part of this film. There are up to 3 sequels. They aren't bad at all. They are already higher than the Bollywood highest grossed film. I have
Some would say watching horror movies and being scared out of your wits is a fun way to spend their hard earned money. They go see these movies on average once a week, each time choosing a newer version of a trilogy like “Chucky” or “The evil Dead”. Film making has come a long way over the last few decades, the graphic...
From here we moved on to the witchcraft and the undead such Peeping Tom (1960) and The Night of Dead (????) . New films brought with them new conventions. Zombie films trapped the audience, claustrophobic attack scenes when the zombies came closer towards the camera. Horror finally became horror with the slasher movie era. They became realistic but also they became more stylised. Based on a real life tragic such as, Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978) and Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) screens where awash with blood. This is where we see male psycho, the unwilling hero and teenage trouble. There are also soul survivors that carry the seque...
Rothman, Solomon. "Cult Classic Rob Zombie Horror Movies: House of 1000 Corpses & The Devils Rejects." Yahoo Contributor Network. Yahoo! Voices, 18 Sept. 2005. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.
He believed early on that he wanted to be more than one thing and did not understand the concept of being one thing in particular. That is refreshing and honest. Rob also knew that his transition from music to filmmaking was inevitable. The trends of another generation would be an inspiration. The love of horror would still weigh heavy on the plot of his scripts. Rob said this when he was hired to make his first film, “To be on the Universal lot, eating my dinner on the front steps of the Munster’s house, ready to go back to work…. I didn’t want the days to end.” Zombie experimented with a lot of skeptical and horrific ideas that many would detour from. He knew the way he wanted things to go with his writing and the more true to his art form that he was, the less likely they could mainstream it into a high school horror movie. Zombie ultimately demonstrates how critical discourses of horror auteurism had been diverted by studios and
Zombies have become very popular due to their depictions of being easy to kill and being communal. Zombie apocalypses are also very relatable due to the fact that they are set in lives similar to our society and seem easy to overcome. Zombies, themselves, can be identified with because we see ourselves when we look at a zombie. Zombies drudge on through the same task of finding human flesh to consume every day just like we drag ourselves to either class or our job in order to sit through another boring lecture or perform the same menial task every day. Just like the zombie, R, in the book, Warm Bodies, said, “I am Dead, but it’s not so bad. I’ve learned to live with it,” we have learned to succumb to our daily routines and just live with
Avery Wells Professor Wilkenfeld English 102 02/08/14 “All Men and Women Are Created Equal” On July 4, 1776 it was said that all men are created equal. What the Declaration of Independence failed to mention was women. This seemed to be a common theme throughout the history of America and is still a problem to this day. Men are constantly being held up on a pedestal, while women are forced to assume the position of looking up to them. Zombieland (2009) tends to take these “old school” ways and sheds a new light on the fact that women too can be equal, if not better than some men.
A zombie apocalypse is absolutely a possibility. When take a closer look there are many possibilities to which an apocalypse could happen. All though it may not be as Hollywood or video games have led us all to believe. The whole lumbering, brain-dead corpse thing has become a little overrated now-a-days, at least for me anyway. Today when we think about a zombie apocalypse we think of popular video games or movies released by some truly sick and demented people, who by the way probably have way too much time on their hands. There are many possibilities to where a human can be turned into a “zombie”. Disease, disease has been with humans as long as humans have lived in this Earth. When we look all throughout history we can see the evolution of disease. In England during the Middle Ages the Bubonic Plague is a perfect example. It hit the British pretty hard, took them absolutely by surprise. They had never seen anything like that in the past, there was never any way to treat the disease, you just avoided it, and as soon as you were infected, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, you were already dead. Egypt, another good example, there has been recently discovered hieroglyphs revealing a depiction of what appeared to be a horde of zombies. The scribes wrote it describing them as possessed and ferocious. Some people say zombies, while others say the product of an overactive imagination. Let’s take a look at today’s possible “zombie” diseases.
I also love these movies for the butt-kicking leaders of the movie .The first horror movies I watched ever was Resident Evil It was playing in my parent’s room as I was walking through, probably doing some random 6 year old stuff. Then the movie caught my attention because it just started. There wasn’t much at first, especially at the time I didn't understand much in general; so I was about to leave the room. Then “bang” out of nowhere and zombies start popping out, and this one chick in the movie is kicking all the zombie butts. It’s pretty much movie about zombies that is like on steroids, and the main character, Alice, is immune to the virus; so then she uses that advantage and her fighting skills to save others from the apocalypse. Alice is just running and flying around everywhere blasting zombie guts everywhere. Those kind of scenes fire me up inside and makes my hype! King says that “ horror movies, like roller coasters, have always been the special province of the young” (King 358). It's very true that after a while you decline of horror movies are being watched by the increase of age pass 40. The movie The Final Destination, the fourth one in it’s series, just came out on DVD. My whole family was set to watch it; 20 minutes in the movie, just pass the catastrophic speedway death scene my parents said “ Nope, Nope
MTV Networks' NextMovie.com named him one of its "Breakout Stars to Watch For" in 2011.[17] In August 2011, Franco starred in the 3D horror comedy film Fright Night alongside Colin Farrell and Toni Collette. The film is a remake of the 1985 film of the same name and follows a teenage boy who finds out his neighbor is a vampire. Franco played the role of popular high school student Mark. The film received positive reviews from critics and went on to make over $41 million worldwide.