Zombies on E4 tonight

[JT]

Zombie fans - Don't forget that Charlie Brooker's Dead Set starts on E4 tonight at 10pm.

http://www.e4.com/deadset/

[andygates]

Duly added!

[andygates]

Zombie Davina!   

[Deano]

I reckon I would've enjoyed that more if I watched Big Brother and gave a fuck about what happened in that show.

Plus, whoever decided that really shaky camerawork was the best medium for this bollocks should be throttled with rusty barbed wire. 

However, the annoying northern bloke getting horribly mauled did make me smile.

[Rhys W]

Excellent stuff!

Even though it's written by the thinking man's misanthrope, I wasn't expecting too much from it. Pleasantly surprised, I am. Scary and bleak. Looking forward to tomorrow's episode now.

[mattc]

Do all modern Zombie movies use the same rules?
i.e.
- they only die from head-shots,
- get bitten and you catch the disease.(think this extends to any blood contact, if 28 Weeks ... is a guide)
?

If so, where do all the 'dead' bodies lying about come from, if the zombies just gorge on each other, and never bother to smash another zombie's head in?

[Jacomus]

Has to be a good headshout though...

[domesticated ape]

(click to show/hide)

That pic ^^^ is pretty similar to the last shots of last nights episode, thanks to the heroine taking a fire extinguisher to a zombie! I was wondering about the bodies lying around too, I suppose maybe some people are immune a la 28 Weeks Later?

Just switched the tv on to a newsreader finishing a sentence with '...in the grip of violence.' Eek!

[padbeat]

Or they had the requisite bits of brain removed by the infecting zombie?

Horror/humour greatness.

[andygates]

Mmm, squishy.  I loved the end-credits shot...

[TimO]

Bugger, so I've managed to miss every episode of this.   I know someone who played a Zombie in it, although I don't think they got given scripts.

[andygates]

Movie-length cut is on E4 tonight, I think.

[JT]

I only watched the first two. It was a bit annoying what with everything being so dark (in terms of light, not subject matter) and all the shaky camera work.

And I know you shouldn't pick holes in the plots of this sort of thing but why couldn't the zombies climb fences, break windows or even open doors?

[TimO]

Well, they were out boogieing last night!

[Captain Zep]

Well I enjoyed it but I am a bit of a zombie / end of civilization fan.

I felt it was more a homage to zombie films / books rather than an entirely new story.  I thought that there were so many bits taken wholesale from Romero's films / 28 Days Later / World War Z that it was almost a montage of 'best bits' .  Then again I watch read anything about zombies I can find.

One thing about zombie films:  all the "normals" always start from a point of ignorance about zombies.  Why doesn't anyone ever say "What we need to do is x, y, z, like on "Dawn of the Dead", or in "World War Z".  Conversely they always make the same stupid mistakes: someone should say, "Don't try that, so-and-so tried that in x film, and they got eaten by a zombie".  One of the characters was obviously aware of the original version of "Night of the Living Dead" as he quoted, "They're coming to get you Barbara" (sic).

I've thought about this too much, but I did enjoy it.

[TimO]

Movie-length cut is on E4 tonight, I think.

It's on E4 from 1000 to 1245, so I guess that's a movie length version.  My TV aerial is still buggered, but luckily E4 is one of the handful of channels you can watch online with TVCatchUp.com, so that's solved.

(Watching it on Channel 4's "Free Catchup" doesn't work, since it'll only works on a Windoze PC, which this Eee isn't. )

[Wascally Weasel]

Simon Pegg on Dead Set and the 'fast zombies':

         Simon Pegg on why the undead should never be allowed to run |
            Film |
            The Guardian
   

[TimO]

Simon Pegg on Dead Set and the 'fast zombies':

         Simon Pegg on why the undead should never be allowed to run |
            Film |
            The Guardian
   

It's interesting that he mentions Day of the Triffids, since I also thought of that whilst watching Dead Set, although this sort of scenario must be common to many Zombie movies.  Maybe it was being set in the UK that made be combine the two concepts, most Zombie movies I've seen have been set in the US or Japan, whereas I always think of Triffids as being a UK monster (and always think of them whenever I see a "Heavy Plant Crossing" sign on the roads!)

I wasn't excessively impressed by Dead Set, the merger with Big Brother was clever, but ultimately didn't seem to be used, beyond the bit where all the contestants thought it was just part of the programme.  I'm sure they could have done something a bit more original to extend the idea.

Everyone pretty much being killed off, and the characters that we have become accustomed to, finally being seen as Zombies, was almost a cliché for this sort of genre.