Sarah Hazelton from Random House Aus drew my attention to the BEST ARTICLE EVER about Zombies, written by the hilarious Simon Pegg, creator of Shawn of the Dead. His notes on why 'the fast zombie is bereft of poetic subtlety' follows:
"However (and herein lies the sublime artfulness of the slow zombie), their ineptitude actually makes them avoidable, at least for a while. If you're careful, if you keep your wits about you, you can stave them off, even outstrip them - much as we strive to outstrip death. Drink less, cut out red meat, exercise, practice safe sex; these are our shotguns, our cricket bats, our farmhouses, our shopping malls. However, none of these things fully insulates us from the creeping dread that something so witless, so elemental may yet catch us unawares - the drunk driver, the cancer sleeping in the double helix, the legless ghoul dragging itself through the darkness towards our ankles."
This article actually reminds me why I love Simon Pegg's movies. He's a smart and empathetic writer, his subject in his movies is really the most essential elements of humanity - he understands vulnerability and while he can be funny about it, he doesn't take the piss out of people for being afraid of things like death and love. He is a compassionate writer, a kind of film-making, funny Raymond Carver - heightening the everyday to the point where everything is bizarre. And really, everything kind of is bizarre, isn't it?
Penni, I am famous on the internet!
ReplyDelete. . . I mean, yes, that is a brilliant article. He really gets zombies and why they are so freaky/awesome.
I am thinking of building some kind of time machine so I don't have to wait for the third movie in the Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz Cornetto series. It's apparently about the end of the world. ♥
I was watching Hot Fuzz last night, which makes it weird I saw this today. I have to say, I'm in love with with Nick Frost, who plays Danny and Eddie.
ReplyDeleteI also love the line, 'You've got red on you.'
It's a great article.
Hey! I've cut out red meat and exercise!
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting if people stopped killing zombies (I mean what's the big deal, they can buy brains at the supermarket) and then they were left to wander aimlessly about. Walking down the street you'd be, 'Oh, mind the zombie!' and do a discrete detour around them. Although, they could slow down traffic a bit...