What do you want form a zombie movie? (Page 1 of 2)

1) I'm in a cranky mood.
2) I watched the video, and the plot is nothing unique.
3) I can't figure out what IMDB credits you have after "20 years of making films."
4) You're really treading the thin line on spam right here.

Hey I just me you
And this is crazy
But I want a zombie movie
And this threads spammy

^^^ I agree.  I'm tired of how in zombie movies it's always a group of people holing up in some building somewhere in an effort to wait out the problem or whatever, only for their own personalities to conflict.  It was interesting the first time it was done in Night of the Living Dead, but hundreds of zombie movies later and that premise has been done to death.  Not to mention that the more survivors you have holed up, the less time we the viewers are given to get to know them because there are half a dozen others we have to meet as well. 

This is one of the many reasons why I love AMC's The Walking Dead.  It drops its characters into the middle of a zombie holocaust, then actually allows them to move about in that world rather than just board themselves up somewhere.  And since it's an on-going series, we don't have to learn all there is to learn about a character during his first appearance; we get to learn more about them with each new episode.

One alternative -- the one you seem to have opted for -- would be to make a zombie movie which focuses on one man.  But this can be tricky, as witnessed by the embarassment that was the I Am Leged adaptation starring Will Smith.  There has to be enough going on around him to keep the viewer engaged, to keep the viewer from getting tired of looking at the same mug for ninety minutes straight.  It can be introspective but still have a lot going on in the world around him (like in the superior indie zombie flick Shatter Dead).

As for the drama of transformation, that story actually has been told before, in the low-budget flick I, Zombie.  But that shouldn't deter you.  There's nothing new under the sun, man.  As convinced as you might be that your idea is completely unique and original, I guarantee that idea's been executed before, and likely many, many times. 

Which is why it all comes down to what I mentioned above.  You, as a filmmaker, have one thing that no other filmmaker has: your own unique perspective.  Your goal is to take that familiar storyline and pour it into the sieve that is your perspective, so that what comes out on the other side is distinctly yours.

Last edited by LoudLon (2012-07-16 23:29:01)

I totally get it.. i know nothing reinvents the wheel . We all want to find that certain thing that makes us tell as original story as we know otherwise why try at all... The universe is totally full of movies and although i've seen a lot must leave little to no impression and get that. i watched colin in the last few weeks. Love the idea but it didnt do it for me. My film will be hopefully creating a sense of realism and horror...  Its never an exact science but we think we've done our math correct. 

Any zombie movies you can recommend? Pontypool was interesting hoping that followup comes out son.

THat's easy.... what I want from every single movie I watch... good well-written characters with interesting and relevant dialogue exchanges.

I wanna see a zombie movie from a military response point of view. We always see glimpses at how the military handled a zombie outbreak in several films like The Walking Dead or Day of the Dead but there is never a main focus on this aspect. I realize WWZ does go into detail about it in some of its chapters e.g The Battle of Yonkers but im very apprehensive about the pg13 film. I wanna gritty movie that has this military aspect of its primary focus, perhaps incorporating character within the military from privates to colonels etc. It would be like a Zombie/War movie.

Really scary and savage zombies. I mean really nasty zombies. Zombie movies are never gory enough or savage enough for me. I dunno if it's because I haven't seen enough indie projects where theres a little less self censorship going on. I always expect more from them because of the canabalism and often come away from them thinking, well that was a bit flat

LoudLon, I'm always up for talking shop. Did u happen to attend FrightFest in Louisville a few weeks ago.?i was there with my short film. Crazy town... Lots of awesome people. Bourbon good.

Although I see a fine line to walk with Smart/agile zombies, they make for better adversaries.  Seeing a team of zombie hunters who are well seasoned and prolific zombie killers would rack up the gore count (big must for zombie flicks) and put humans on the offense in the zombie Apocalypse.
I agree that the dramatic slow change of a main character give you a lot of room to flesh out the tension and emotions needed to make us care about the ''good Guys/gals''.

...and brains...lots of brains.

You know what I'd like from a zombie movie? One where instead where the zombie is portrayed as vigilante instead of an antagonist. Sort of like Blade or Ghost Rider, who use their powers to fight the forces that made them that way.

or would he "only eat bad guys"?

I'm interested in undead animals like bears, sharks, wolves, etc.