Zombie Jamboree

I honestly hadn't planned on a zombie film fest, but these just came off of Short Wait at the same time, so...

28 Days Later (2002) sort of revived (heh) the zombie genre by making them fast, not just shuffling shamblers. It starts with some animal rights activists releasing some monkeys from a lab, not realizing that they were infected with the rage virus. Kind of like the start of The Hunger, but not vampires. 

Twenty-eight days later, Cillian Murphy wakes up naked in a hospital bed - you know, for the ladies. He finds the hospital and the entire city to be deserted, until suddenly, a mob of zombies is attacking and a couple of humans hustle him into the shelter of a little shop. They explain the situation to him, and we think, "don't get too attached to these guys." And indeed, after a trip to his Murphy's home to see that his parents have killed themselves peacefully, we lose one of the two. He gets infected and the other, Naomi Harris, kills him.

These two find more survivors: father Brendan Gleeson and his daughter Megan Burns. They have heard a radio broadcast of a military presence up north, and want to form a party to try and get there. So off we go.

They mostly make it, but when they get there they discover that humans may be a worse threat than zombies. And that becoming a zombie might keep you human.

Director Danny Boyle (yes, Yesterday's Danny Boyle) made this the first major feature "filmed" digitally. This gives it an interesting look - the stuttering effect in action or slo-mo is pretty common now. But we kind of wondered if our Blu-ray player wasn't working right for some sections. A field of flowers, for instance, was completely posterized, with serious banding where there should have been smooth gradations. Maybe the effect was intended, maybe a limit of the technology, maybe a malfunction of our old player. Anyway, it has a surprisingly upbeat ending (tacked on, I understand). It looks like the sequel has a different cast and director. Should we watch?

Train to Busan (2016) starts with busy finance exec Gong Yoo trying to relate to his young daughter, Kim Su-an. She just wants to see her mom in Busan. Gong doesn't feel like he has time for the trip, but finally agrees to take her. 

As the train leaves the station, we catch a glimpse of an odd mob. Also, there is a tramp locked in a train toilet, muttering that everyone is dead. But mostly it's just regular people: a high-school baseball team and a cheerleader, a chubby tough guy with a turned up collar and a pregnant wife, some nice old ladies, and maybe a zombie.

That zombie bites someone and pretty soon whole cars are infected. These zombies are fast like in 28 Days, but also dumb. If they don't see humans, they just mill around - and they can't work locks. So the survivors have to keep them locked out of the cars where the uninfected are hiding, and maybe they can make it to Busan. The main question is: Can Gong Yoo protect his daughter?

There isn't as much visual flair in this one, but the action scenes are well done. It's fun to see them worked out in the narrow confines of a train (Snowpiercer, anyone?). Although they did neglect to lock doors a  bit too often. But the fast zombies obviously owe something to 28 Days.

So two zombie films, one that kicked off the current rev of the genre (although it wasn't clear that 28 Days Later zombies were undead - they were just mindless), one that is a recent entry. And we aren't even big zombie movie fans. But at least it helped us get the jokes in Zombieland.