Zombies . . . Again

 

We finally got around to seeing Warm Bodies yesterday. It was a good movie, a little slow at times, but a sweet love story . . . after you get over the fact that the hero is a zombie and ate the brains of his love interest's boyfriend.

There were some chuckle moments, mostly due to the droll writing and narrative of the main character played by Nicholas Hoult--I have to say that I can't wait until Jack The Giant Slayer comes out, as this actor is Jack. He has a very impressive list of credits for a young man (22), with many movies in pre- or post-production.

Back to the movie, I'm not much of a zombie person, but I liked this one. Maybe it was due to the hubs playing Zombie U so much that it's allowed me to get past the fact that they are walking corpses. In fact, many scenes were computer generated that I felt I was in the middle of the hubs video game!

Because this movie was classed with horror movies, we were treated to some very creepy movie previews that I have no intention of listing here.

I don't DO horror. Comedic horror, yes. Scary horror, no.

Anyhoo, one of the previews was . . . interesting. So interesting that the hubs had a look of total confusion on his face, as there were fast, creepy people building bridges with their bodies to get to the other people. The movie was called World War Z, hubs still looked confused, so I had to whisper, "Zombie movie." Maybe it was because the graphics of the movie logo that it was difficult to see the Z. This movie looks to be different in the fact that zombies move like the 'bonies' in Warm Bodies--super fast. Oh, yeah, it has Brad Pitt in it, so if you're a fan of his you might want to put it on your calendar.

After we get out of the movie, hubs asked me, "Why didn't you start writing about zombies a few years ago. You could be making lots of money by now."

I simply gave him the "look".

I don't write zombies. I don't get the zombie thing. I might enjoy the occasional zombie movie, but I don't write zombies.

It's not my 'thang'.

I have all day to write today, well, with the exception of walking, going to the store, picking up the kidlet from school, and eventually taking her to swim. I need to get some serious wordage on the paper today, so. . .

Later, Peeps!

Zombie Apocalypse

We had a nice lazy weekend for a change. The previous two weekends involved swim meets, so it was nice to kick back and plan nothing except clean house.

Which leaves us with the title of this blog.

Hubs has been a Walking Dead fan for quite awhile. I am not.

I don't get the whole zombie thing. . . though I must confess that the previews of Warm Bodies seems like a lot of fun. And I really did like Zombieland. *double tap* Maybe it's just the horror zombie movies I have a problem with, throw a little comedy into the mix and I'm there.

Anyway, we bought . . . er, let me clarify this, "SANTA" bought a new Wii U along with a few games. But he bought a special ZombieU game for hubs.

This game is seriously creepy. The creep factor is upped due to the fact it's in London with all the added fog, it's dark,  there're screams in the background, the sounds the zombies make when they spot fresh food--er, YOU, and the blood and gore when you whack them with your cricket bat until you knock their heads off.

At first, I couldn't watch it. The kidlet definitely didn't want to watch it.

It was painful to see hub's character die, again and again.

And then he asked me to find some cheat codes. So I hop on the Internet and found one site that was AWESOME! They aren't cheat codes, per se, but simply walked you through the missions. That was also part of the problem with this game, it was tough to get your bearings.

So I printed off something like 9 sheets of paper that described various parts of the character's assignments. Though it tells you what happens in an area--you still have to live through it. And when you die, you become one of the fallen--but carrying around all the goodies you found in human life, which means you have to go back and kill your previous character to loot it.

Now when hubs plays, I crochet and the kidlet helps him spot various things on the TV screen while he is checking out info on the gaming console. He's better at playing. His character has new toys--machine gun, flares, etc. He's figured out how to take out helmeted zombies, spitter zombies, scuba zombies, and ones that are wired to explode when you whack them.

I'm still not a fan of this game as I'd prefer watching Mario Galaxy or Ray Man as I enjoy the graphics and music more from these games.

Come to think of it, Ray Man Legends should be released soon. I like that thought. Until then, I guess I'll have to deal with the Zombie Apocalypse.

Later, Peeps!

Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies... Oh, my!

I tried. I did. Honestly.
I really tried to listen to the sermon in church last Sunday, but the priest had such a heavy accent that he lost me when he was trying to relate a parable to tigers in India. I don't know why he used this comparison.
So, I went to my happy place to figure out how to kill a zombie.
Yeah, when I told hubby. He responded that I'm going to fry. But I already knew that considering I'm writing a story involving demons.

Zombies: Hubby flipped the TV to Resident Evil the other night. I don't usually watch horror flicks, but this one had me wondering how you would go about killing a zombie. He informed me that these creatures weren't zombies, rather humans infected by 'something' making them undead. Okay, so what? It's all semantics. They are rotting corpses with chunks falling off as they groan and moan walking stiff-legged toward healthy human food. Uh, zombies.

He told me that a bullet in the head kills these things. This got me to thinking. Their brains are rotting as fast as their bodies, why are they still moving? What or who is the power behind the zombie? Wouldn't a zombie keep heading toward its target against all odds? I'm thinking along the lines of the first Mummy movie here in the tomb scene at the end.

So, wouldn't a zombie collapse if its animator dies? But if you don't know who the animator is or if you can't get him, how do you kill the zombie? Personally, I don't think shooting it would work, and it's too simple. Drown it? No, zombie would walk out--no need to breath. Chemicals? only if they can immobilize it, like hardened cement. Acid/bases would take too long to dissolve it. Fire? It gets my vote. Incinerate the thing until it's a crispy critter and crumbles when it walks.
But be sure to hold your nose, 'cause there's nuthin' worse than the stench of burning flesh.
--uh, don't ask. Which leads me to the next header. . .

Weres: I don't really have as strong of opinions about weres. I'm lumping all sorts of were's in this group. If you call it a were make sure it changes with the full moon, pleeze! Don't have a were shape-shifting when ever he feels like it UNLESS you set it up that way. Jim Butcher did this in FOOL MOON as Bob, Dresden's air element, tells him the difference between shape shifter weres, true weres, and a loup-garou. Remember, readers will believe anything as long as it is presented in a logical manner.

Vamps: I was weaned on reading Bram Stoker's Dracula. This is the gold standard for vamps. Personally, I think vamps are evil blood suckers. If they are nice, then they want something from you, usually your blood. So, if you make you vamp a day walker, you better have a damn good reason he can do this. The movie Blade is a good example of this. Blade has to inject serum daily to allow him to walk outside in the sunlight. Butcher writes his vamps very well also. When he intros his vamps, he pays tribute to Stoker by keeping his Red Court and Black Court vamps true to Stoker. He even mentions how the book, Dracula, almost killed out the entire Black Court at the turn of the century. By using what most people know as 'true', he sets up his own world by drawing upon the reader's knowledge base.

Wrapping up: Use the knowledge most readers consider to be true and manipulate it to fit your story, but you better have a good reason for your were to survive a silver bullet to the head, or a vamp bleeding to death or seeing himself in the mirror.

Because if you don't write it well, readers won't believe you. I know, I've judged more than my share of contests where the writer didn't provide enough information for their character. Don't make this mistake.

What is your pet peeve when writers get it wrong?

Write on!