AMC's 'The Walking Dead' Trailer (Frank Darabont, Gale Anne Hurd)

[Mistral]

Gojirob wrote:

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Brilliant choice of music there. I might have also thought about Skeeter Davis 'The End Of The World', but that's actually a hopeful song if you really listen to it.

I agree-the music makes the trailer two or three times as poignant. This looks like the break-out hit of the new season if the episodes have the quality expressed in the trailer. I can't wait!

[Stone_Cold_Sisko]

Looks pretty good. I'm excited to see Darabont attached to it. The source material (Kirkman's comic series) is rock-solid, so if they just stick to that, the quality is pretty much guaranteed.

The only thing I don't like is the main actor. He looks kind of dopey.

[melancholymecha]

I dunno, Im not a big fan of zombies, I think theyre kinda boring as antagonists. Theyre just things to shoot at.
In the comic do any of the zombies show personality? Id like to see a zombie story were the virus causes the decay/body horror but the infected arent turned into mindless monsters. It would still be pretty horrifiying but also alot more poignant I think.

[scnj]

melancholymecha wrote:

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I dunno, Im not a big fan of zombies, I think theyre kinda boring as antagonists. Theyre just things to shoot at.
In the comic do any of the zombies show personality? Id like to see a zombie story were the virus causes the decay/body horror but the infected arent turned into mindless monsters. It would still be pretty horrifiying but also alot more poignant I think.

No, but the zombies aren't the antagonists in the comic. The story is much more focused on exploring how humans cope in that situation rather than shoving in as many 'cool' zombie deaths as they can.

[RJDiogenes]

I've never read this Comic, but I always wanted to see a Dawn Of The Dead series. I would have preferred to see an anthology, but the preview looks pretty good.

I wonder if we'll ever see good old Voodoo Zombies again. Or if anybody even remembers what Zombies were like for centuries before Romero.

[Zachary Smith]

melancholymecha wrote:

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I dunno, Im not a big fan of zombies, I think theyre kinda boring as antagonists. Theyre just things to shoot at.
In the comic do any of the zombies show personality? Id like to see a zombie story were the virus causes the decay/body horror but the infected arent turned into mindless monsters. It would still be pretty horrifiying but also alot more poignant I think.

BTW, I don't subscribe to the "virus" concept as a source for reanimation of the dead--at least not so far as is concerned in the Romero-verse or any similar depiction. It makes absolutely NO sense from a medical or scientific perspective.

I have, on the other hand, hatched a personal theory on the source of the reanimation of the dead and I'm currently writing a short book/report on the subject. So far, it's been a lot of fun! And, yes, it is TRUE reanimation of an otherwise dead host which is continuing to "function" based on a system other than biochemical reactions.

Anyhow, a virus makes no sense because it requires a functioning metabolism to continue operation. Stop the metabolism and the body dies and so does the virus. Metabolic functions are based on wide ranging inter-related systems working in concert in order to maintain operation or "life". Disrupt ANY one of these systems and the host "dies".

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Zachary Smith wrote:

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I have, on the other hand, hatched a personal theory on the source of the reanimation of the dead and I'm currently writing a short book/report on the subject. So far, it's been a lot of fun! And, yes, it is TRUE reanimation of an otherwise dead host which is continuing to "function" based on a system other than biochemical reactions.

Do you believe that the zombies we typically see onscreen are still conscious?

[Silvercrest]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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I've never read this Comic, but I always wanted to see a Dawn Of The Dead series. I would have preferred to see an anthology, but the preview looks pretty good.

I wonder if we'll ever see good old Voodoo Zombies again. Or if anybody even remembers what Zombies were like for centuries before Romero.

I don't think most people do. A few years ago on this board, someone brought up a book or movie featuring a character with the power to create or command zombies. Another poster just laughed at him. "Everyone knows zombies don't have a master or take orders from anyone!"

Indeed?

The first poster wasn't even talking about voodoo, but the point was still made. How quickly we forget.

They weren't actually called zombies in the original "Night of the Living Dead", were they?

[Zachary Smith]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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Do you believe that the zombies we typically see onscreen are still conscious?

I'll assume you're referring to the zombies of the Romero-universe, in which case I would say no. There is no consciousness, self-awareness or concept of identity. Personality, intellect and memory are gone, though certain behaviors and habits "hard-wired" by long-term rote repetition may manifest. Their behavior is "instinctive", for lack of a better term and they react and respond to stimuli rather than act with reason, consideration or deliberation. The complex neural structures which compose the frame-work for consciousness, mind and identity are physically too fragile to survive the transition from the "living" to the "undead" state and are mostly or completely destroyed (varies to a slight degree in some circumstances--temperature of environment being one variable) by the time the reanimation process occurs. When the brain stops getting oxygenated blood, the neurons of the cerebral cortex immediately begin to deteriorate and they and their synaptic connections are physically disrupted, thus rendering consciousness and higher brain function impossible. Even if those structures were somehow able to remain physically intact through the period of transition, the energy level in the reanimated state is a fraction of the energy generated by normal biochemical processes of living systems and at a threshold below the demands of higher brain function. This low energy state also is, in large part, why the reanimation process must be considered at best incomplete and why the Walking Dead are generally slow moving, physically weaker and somewhat clumsier in their movements than the living.

And, while they ARE "reanimated" the Walking Dead are not returned to any kind of "living" state because the living state is dependent upon a complex series of interactions among biological systems that result in metabolic activity producing biochemical energy via the intake of nutrients and the excretion of wastes.

In the case of the Walking Dead, continued physical activity of the organism is not "system-dependent" but each individual cell of the the body is reactivated and powered by an alternative source of energy different from biochemical processes and not based in any way on metabolic activity. Yet, neither can these cells be considered "alive" BECAUSE of the fact that the process and method of their continued function are no longer depended on metabolic activity, the intake of nutrients and the excretion of waste product or the use of biochemical energy--which are among the defining traits of a living organism. For the Walking Dead, heart, lungs, liver, circulatory system etc upon which the survival of the systems which create and sustain the metabolic actions thus manufacturing the biochemical energy are irrelevant.

A lot more details will appear in my short book, which I hope to have finished by mid-to-late September. I'm not sure if yet if I'll self-publish it or seek a publisher but I'm having a lot of fun working on it!

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I think the closest the Romero-verse ever got to an explanation for the zombies was the line "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth." I kind of like the mystery, as it's consistent with the themes of chaos and collapse. Other zombie universes may differ, of course....

Silvercrest wrote:

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I don't think most people do. A few years ago on this board, someone brought up a book or movie featuring a character with the power to create or command zombies. Another poster just laughed at him. "Everyone knows zombies don't have a master or take orders from anyone!"

Indeed?

The first poster wasn't even talking about voodoo, but the point was still made. How quickly we forget.

It's kind of amazing how that one idea has taken over. George Romero should sue everybody who has ever used the cannibalistic plague zombie idea.

They weren't actually called zombies in the original "Night of the Living Dead", were they?

No, nor in Dawn Of The Dead. I'm not sure about later movies.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Zachary Smith wrote:

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I'll assume you're referring to the zombies of the Romero-universe, in which case I would say no. There is no consciousness, self-awareness or concept of identity.

What I was really after was, are they still aware *at all*? Or is it literally just the body moving around by itself, kind of like a leaf being blown by the wind?

To put it another way: When a person dies in a Romeroverse movie, do they actually come back, from their own POV, as a zombie, or do they go on to their final reward (i.e. their soul) whereas their body is just left?

In some of those movies (and in the 2004 remake), we see characters express fear at becoming a zombie. But if my suspicion is correct, they have nothing to be afraid of, for once they're dead, their consciousness or 'soul' moves on, and their body is all that's left - strictly on autopilot. They don't have to deal with "becoming" zombies, because the actual person is not there anymore - the zombie has no more consciousness than a piece of firewood. Get my drift?

[watermelony2k]

melancholymecha wrote:

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I dunno, Im not a big fan of zombies, I think theyre kinda boring as antagonists. Theyre just things to shoot at.
In the comic do any of the zombies show personality? Id like to see a zombie story were the virus causes the decay/body horror but the infected arent turned into mindless monsters. It would still be pretty horrifiying but also alot more poignant I think.

in the comics it becomes clear that humans in the absence of law and order can become more dangerous than the zombies themselves

[Zachary Smith]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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What I was really after was, are they still aware *at all*? Or is it literally just the body moving around by itself, kind of like a leaf being blown by the wind?

To put it another way: When a person dies in a Romeroverse movie, do they actually come back, from their own POV, as a zombie, or do they go on to their final reward (i.e. their soul) whereas their body is just left?

In some of those movies (and in the 2004 remake), we see characters express fear at becoming a zombie. But if my suspicion is correct, they have nothing to be afraid of, for once they're dead, their consciousness or 'soul' moves on, and their body is all that's left - strictly on autopilot. They don't have to deal with "becoming" zombies, because the actual person is not there anymore - the zombie has no more consciousness than a piece of firewood. Get my drift?

Hmmm . . . It becomes an interesting philosophical conundrum. In my interpretation of the means by which the Undead become reanimated, there is no possibility for self-awareness, mind or consciousness. At the same time, if one assumes the existence of the "soul", it could be viewed as possible that the "soul" might remain tethered to the body, trapped as it were, and unable to "move on" in a parallel to the idea held by some that brain-dead person is not "really dead" until the body stops functioning also.

In my vision, the body HAS ceased to function as a living organism in every definable category. But it does open the possibility that some may see the "soul" as trapped in the body and "earth-bound" until it is released by destruction of the brain.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Zachary Smith wrote:

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and unable to "move on" in a parallel to the idea held by some that brain-dead person is not "really dead" until the body stops functioning also.

But in a very real sense, these zombies are exactly that. Their bodies HAVE stopped functioning.

A brain-dead person is still alive, because their bodies - brain included - are. There is no real such thing as "brain dead" and still being alive, because if the brain IS dead, it cannot sustain the body, and thus the body will die.

I admit my views on this are colored by my faith. The soul is not permanently attached to the body - somebody dies, they go to either Heaven or Hell, end of story. I would like to think that when we see these zombies in a movie, that still applies. It's not like somebody's attacked/bitten, then all they want to do is go rrarrarrararrr and eat brainz. There is no consciousness OR soul in the zombie. The person dies, they go to one place or the other, and that's it - a zombie is not controlled by anything at all, just like my example of a leaf floating around. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[FluffyUnbound]

Mr. Laser Beam wrote:

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But in a very real sense, these zombies are exactly that. Their bodies HAVE stopped functioning.

A brain-dead person is still alive, because their bodies - brain included - are. There is no real such thing as "brain dead" and still being alive, because if the brain IS dead, it cannot sustain the body, and thus the body will die.

I admit my views on this are colored by my faith. The soul is not permanently attached to the body - somebody dies, they go to either Heaven or Hell, end of story. I would like to think that when we see these zombies in a movie, that still applies. It's not like somebody's attacked/bitten, then all they want to do is go rrarrarrararrr and eat brainz. There is no consciousness OR soul in the zombie. The person dies, they go to one place or the other, and that's it - a zombie is not controlled by anything at all, just like my example of a leaf floating around. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Once we bring spirituality and the supernatural into it, it's much easier to explain zombies by saying the reverse:

That the body has died [taking the higher functions of the brain with it] but the "soul" is somehow stuck and can't leave, and is carrying the body around like a puppet or marionette.

And since these are damned souls we're talking about, they aren't in good moods.