Simon Pegg on why Zombies shouldnt run

CptStern

CptStern

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Simon Pegg said:
More significantly, the fast zombie is bereft of poetic subtlety. As monsters from the id, zombies win out over vampires and werewolves when it comes to the title of Most Potent Metaphorical Monster. Where their pointy-toothed cousins are all about sex and bestial savagery, the zombie trumps all by personifying our deepest fear: death. Zombies are our destiny writ large. Slow and steady in their approach, weak, clumsy, often absurd, the zombie relentlessly closes in, unstoppable, intractable.
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surprisingly enough he makes some good points

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/04/television-simon-pegg-dead-set
 
tl;dr :|


Seemed pretty good though....even though I didn't read it... :dozey:
 
But, slow zombies are boring!
 
but his reasoning is spot on ...fast moving zombies shouldnt be fast moving
 
It still makes me laugh how people get hung up on this, like the movies are factual or somthing.
 
CptStern said:
but his reasoning is spot on ...fast moving zombies shouldnt be fast moving
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I don't see why not. His reasoning is his opinion. I can understand and respect that, but won't change that I've never been frightened by a slow-moving carcass.
 
but carcasses couldnt be fast moving ..their flesh is falling off, their muscles cant be working correctly, I dont see how they could possibly run fast when a large portion of their entrails are hanging out or there's a small amount of flesh hanging from their dry bones etc ..the same goes for strength, they should have none ..you should be able to rip one to shreads because they're rotting ...they should only be good in large numbers ...now this only applies to the living dead ..if zombie-ism is brought about by dsease (not dead just hungry for brains) then that would be something entirely different
 
Excellent article. Simon Pegg, telling it like it is!

Also, apart from Stern's points about their damaged bodies, it also takes a fair bit of coordination to run, most zombies are shown to have very little higher brain functions left, which is why they have that unsteady walk most of the time; Even walking slowly is kinda hard for them.
John Romero/Max Brooks-style zombies ftw.
 
I actually thought up a way to please both crowds. Newly (un)dead zombies can run with surprising agility, as long as their hosts were in relatively good condition. However, the virus quickly eats away at the brain stem, destroying these functions. Eventually all fast zombies would turn into shamblers. This would also help with the original idea that if all zombies were slow moving, chances are they wouldn't propogate in todays society, purely because people can and would run away. So at the start, they're as agile as humans, allowing them to 'breed', and then they wither.

Eating brains prevents the virus destroying their own brain stem by making it focus on the brains of the people they're eating, which is also why zombies just won't attack each other--what's the point in eating an already infected brain?

But other than that, I completely agree with Pegg. Shamblers are far creepier mentally than fast movers, who all just seem to be about the adrenaline rush.
 
Hah, dek is a boob with his posts.

Pegg is certainly one with experience to discuss the matter. It was a good read.
 
Eh, there's room for both. More movies need to start taking the Half-Life head humper approach to zombification.
 
dekstar said:
I actually thought up a way to please both crowds. Newly (un)dead zombies can run with surprising agility, as long as their hosts were in relatively good condition. However, the virus quickly eats away at the brain stem, destroying these functions. Eventually all fast zombies would turn into shamblers. This would also help with the original idea that if all zombies were slow moving, chances are they wouldn't propogate in todays society, purely because people can and would run away. So at the start, they're as agile as humans, allowing them to 'breed', and then they wither.
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I always thought this as well. Makes more sense.
 
CptStern said:
but carcasses couldnt be fast moving ..
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They shouldn't be moving at all. Let's not get bogged down in semantics when the whole things is so blatantly made up :)

Anyways, everyone knows it's the dark magic keeping them in a state of living death that gives them their speed and super strength.
 
The fatty should be called Simon Pegg, every time I hear that name I think of him.
And Simon Pegg should be called Nick Frost.
 
I bought Shaun of the Dead on Saturday.

I will watch it.
 
Warbie said:
They shouldn't be moving at all. Let's not get bogged down in semantics when the whole things is so blatantly made up :)

Anyways, everyone knows it's the dark magic keeping them in a state of living death that gives them their speed and super strength.
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I'm more of a tranditionalist when it comes to zombies ..the fear is being torn to shreads by groups of zombies, being overrun when your shotgun jams for the very last time, dragged to the floor by hungry shambling horrors ..call me old school but I'd like a fair chance, monsters are always superpowered ..let me do some damage before I'm inevitably ripped to shreds


you youth of today, always in a hurry, never enough time to slow down and reflect on the finer things in life


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4Ooz95ulU&feature=related







oh and lol @ people who somehow think this is a serious discussion on zombies
 
Max Brooks would say that zombies cannot run as well. As much as id like to think they had the ability, simple logic (i know, we're talking about zombies) would suggest that they lack the ability to move quickly.

but christ i wanna be chased in l4d, bring it.
 
not a fan of modern zombies ...I prefer the camp of return of the living dead or shaun of the dead over 28 days or L4Dead (as a concept (fast strong zombies), not as a game). 28 days and l4dead (again the concept not the game, the concept works perfectly for the game) bring too much reality into the genre. I mean half the attraction of a movie like Return of the Living dead was that it was fun and completely implausible ..28 days isnt fun and entirely possible (not zombieism but rather an endemic that causes social chaos and unrest)
 
I see zombie as a fairly generic term, like assassin for example. You can have one that is stealthy and
shit, and another one that blows the shit out of everything. Weather or not you use slow or fast zombies
depends more on what you are going after. Hell do the people who made 28 days later and all the other
movies with fast zombies even call them zombies or where they just the infected or undead or whatever.
In any case I really wouldn't want petty definitions to bog down creativity.
 
slow zombies in vast numbers ftw fast zombies ftl
 
Fast zombies in vast numbers?

That scares the shit out of me!

I do like the old shuffling zombies too, RE stylee. Zombies - in any form - are all good :)
 
I prefer slow zombies, scary and cannot be stopped in their vast tides of undeath, but if you keep your wits and are a fast walker you might just survive.
 
Warbie said:
Fast zombies in vast numbers?

That scares the shit out of me!
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you wont have time to be scared cuz you're dead ..very very quickly ..at least with slow zombies you can look on in horror .***n 20 feet away and look on again in horror for a few minutes then run another 20 feet and ...so on
 
I'm more of a tranditionalist when it comes to zombies ..the fear is being torn to shreads by groups of zombies, being overrun when your shotgun jams for the very last time, dragged to the floor by hungry shambling horrors ..call me old school but I'd like a fair chance, monsters are always superpowered ..let me do some damage before I'm inevitably ripped to shreds
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That would only happen if you're retarded and you let yourself get cornered by them (the only way you would ever be caught).

In the article, Simon even says he buys fast zombies when they are due to a virus, he's mostly talking about the undead: walking corpses. And yeah, it wouldn't be very credible for them to run, but honestly, is there a movie or a piece of media with fast moving undead? Only thing I can think of are the Undead in WoW..

I don't think what makes a zombie scary is it being dead and a metaphor for death or something. What makes a zombie scary is their human appearance but a complete absence of anything human. Combined with the actual threat of a fast zombie, it creates good horror, whereas slow zombies are only good for comedy.
 
^ Dawn of the Dead remake? Only one I can think of.
 
Oh, eating.

I knew I'd forgotten something.

12 hours of L4D for the something. I don't know whether it's good or bad because I'm about to slowly fall off my chair.
 
Druckles said:
Oh, eating.

I knew I'd forgotten something.

12 hours of L4D for the something. I don't know whether it's good or bad because I'm about to slowly fall off my chair.
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I.. can't.. leave... need more L4D.
 
Bad^Hat said:
^ Dawn of the Dead remake? Only one I can think of.
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Ah right, thought I rememberd Dawn to be caused by a virus, but now that I think about it, they really were dead but reanimated by a virus.
 
CptStern said:
you wont have time to be scared cuz you're dead ..very very quickly ..at least with slow zombies you can look on in horror .***n 20 feet away and look on again in horror for a few minutes then run another 20 feet and ...so on
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dont forget the fall over and screaming part :O
 
PvtRyan said:
Ah right, thought I rememberd Dawn to be caused by a virus, but now that I think about it, they really were dead but reanimated by a virus.
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It doesn't really "count" though, being a remake. Although I did enjoy it for what it was.

Know what, I'd like to see more MAGICAL zombies. **** guns, lemme see some head-cleaving with goddamn broadswords and battle axes. Somehow they never find their way into fantasy media when it comes to movies and stuff, yet they've always been represented in things like D&D (to my knowledge) and dark fantasy games.
 
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