I taped every episode of this series that I could find last year around Halloween, and was delighted to realize this week that I had the one on zombie films, because I've been trying to watch "Train to Busan" and needed help!
I'm a mature woman, but am reduced to a callow, quiver-behind-the-covers ninny whenever a film shows anyone trapped, and movies about apocalypse may take the cake in that domain because when the world is coming to an end, there's nowhere to run.
"Disaster movies used to be about a bridge falling --- now they're about the end of the world," we're told here. Yes, the excesses of our age have sent this type of movie over the top, with effects that can make them near-impossible to endure.
We learn here about "World War Z," -- "What would a zombie plague look like across the planet?" -- in which the attitude of the Brad Pitt character can be summed up as "What is happening is insane. I'm going to do the best I can in this given moment." OK...
We're told that "Train to Busan," with which I'm currently grappling, drew inspiration from WWZ, but its "relentless action and social commentary put it in a place all its own." As comedian Margaret Cho points out, "Part of the horror is seeing the loss of all those social niceties."
As in previous episodes of the series, there is some excellent commentary here from Joe Hill, son of horror author Stephen King.
"There is something about society collapsing, and being left to fend for yourself, that's a little exciting," he notes. "No more trying to figure out how to pay your taxes online..."
I was glad to see the excellent "Last Man on Earth" get several mentions here, and it's noted to have been an influence on "Night of the Living Dead."
Every generation gets its own "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," we learn, and now I'm eager to see the version of 1956, described as "almost noir" and depicting a society of "emotionless characters, all grown from pods." The genius of this film, we're told, is that it can be interpreted as both pro- and against the McCarthy witch hunts.
1978's version of the tale is "more a sequel than a remake...a chilling horror film and satire of the Baby Boom generation's drift from the free-thinking values of the Sixties...Everything had changed. Everything was different."
And, further: "Horror films are fun when they take the kind of paranoid fantasies that float around our brain and say, 'But what if it were true?'
"Someday, the end will come. Civilization will collapse. Will you be a victim, or a survivor?"
I'm a mature woman, but am reduced to a callow, quiver-behind-the-covers ninny whenever a film shows anyone trapped, and movies about apocalypse may take the cake in that domain because when the world is coming to an end, there's nowhere to run.
"Disaster movies used to be about a bridge falling --- now they're about the end of the world," we're told here. Yes, the excesses of our age have sent this type of movie over the top, with effects that can make them near-impossible to endure.
We learn here about "World War Z," -- "What would a zombie plague look like across the planet?" -- in which the attitude of the Brad Pitt character can be summed up as "What is happening is insane. I'm going to do the best I can in this given moment." OK...
We're told that "Train to Busan," with which I'm currently grappling, drew inspiration from WWZ, but its "relentless action and social commentary put it in a place all its own." As comedian Margaret Cho points out, "Part of the horror is seeing the loss of all those social niceties."
As in previous episodes of the series, there is some excellent commentary here from Joe Hill, son of horror author Stephen King.
"There is something about society collapsing, and being left to fend for yourself, that's a little exciting," he notes. "No more trying to figure out how to pay your taxes online..."
I was glad to see the excellent "Last Man on Earth" get several mentions here, and it's noted to have been an influence on "Night of the Living Dead."
Every generation gets its own "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," we learn, and now I'm eager to see the version of 1956, described as "almost noir" and depicting a society of "emotionless characters, all grown from pods." The genius of this film, we're told, is that it can be interpreted as both pro- and against the McCarthy witch hunts.
1978's version of the tale is "more a sequel than a remake...a chilling horror film and satire of the Baby Boom generation's drift from the free-thinking values of the Sixties...Everything had changed. Everything was different."
And, further: "Horror films are fun when they take the kind of paranoid fantasies that float around our brain and say, 'But what if it were true?'
"Someday, the end will come. Civilization will collapse. Will you be a victim, or a survivor?"
