My partner was gone for a long weekend visiting her family in the Upper Peninsula last week. I took this as an opportunity to watch some of the bloodiest, goriest, goofiest movies either streaming online or sitting patiently in my physical collection. Thus, this weekend was brought to you by Blood Quantum (2019), Return of the Living Dead (1985), Prince of Darkness (1987), and Shaun of the Dead (2004). In hindsight, this was a wonderful array as far as the zombie-horror subgenre is concerned. That said, John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness was included in some four-movie collection DVD I bought at Meijer years ago, featuring actual zombie classics such as Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow, George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead, and Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake (and personal favorite) of Dawn of the Dead. For $10, I could not pass that up. However, after watching Carpenter’s WILD thriller of a group of scholars, professors, scientists, and a horrified priest as they study and eventually succumb to the powers of a mysterious crypt(?), an ancient evil prophesized by Jesus himself(?).
Forgive me if that’s incorrect or doesn’t do the film justice. I did really enjoy the blending of science, religion, and technology, but the movie left me unsatisfied. To cut my rant short, while it was interesting, I would not classify it as a zombie movie. A demonic possession story? Sure, why not.
The other three films were incredible in their own way. Blood Quantum, from writer/director/editor/composer Jeff Barnaby (fuck yeah) was the only zombie film to ever make me cry and leave me feeling as dead as the victims on screen; Return of the Living Dead was the bloody, punk-rock absurdity that I never knew I needed; and Shaun of the Dead is still one of, if not the best horror-comedy I’ve ever seen. After this weekend, I also caught so many references or jabs at other zombie movies in the writing that I somehow missed over the last seventeen years. Getting them now just made me love it even more.
Yes, I absolutely could talk more about my infatuation with the living dead. In fact, I absolutely will. But not just yet. You can sit a while longer before I let you ̶e̶a̶t̶ pick my brain.
There’s that mindless brain-eater I know and love <3