Could zombies exist? Should we be preparing for a Zombie Apocalypse? In this edition of asapSCIENCE, find out how these ferocious, flesh-eating creatures could become a reality, through a simple scientific pathway.
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Today’s Trillion Dollar Movie, White Zombie, holds the distinction of being Hollywood’s first zombie picture. It’s much different in tone, though, than contemporary zombie thrillers –achieving its chilling impact through atmosphere, rather than gore. Released in 1932, White Zombie has more in common with Universal Pictures’ horror classics of that era, beginning with its star, Bela Lugosi, fresh from his success playing the
title role in Universal’s Dracula.
Lugosi made a monumental career mistake by appearing in this low-budget feature by Amusement Security, a small indie company. He only got paid $900, and because he was tied up with this role, he had to turn down Frankenstein, paving the way for the rise of his longtime rival Boris Karloff. While Frankenstein became a staple of the genre, revived often on television, White Zombie disappeared from view and, owing to legal complications, didn’t resurface again until the 1960s.
Too bad, because in White Zombie, Lugosi delivers the best performance of his career, truly a menacing turn as “Murder” Legendre, a voodoo high priest in Haiti who can raise the dead using black magic. He runs a successful sugar plantation and mill staffed solely by working zombies. But now he wants a bride, and finds the ideal candidate when the virginal Madeleine Short (Madge Bellamy) arrives on the island for a planned wedding with her fiance. Instead, she’s spirited away by Legendre with help from a rich baron who also is carrying a torch for her.
White Zombie not only boasts creepy sets, but also many eerie Gothic touches — from the natives’ chanting to the shrieking vulture that’s always hovering around Lugosi. The fluid cinematography evokes the great Expressionist thrillers of the silent era, surpassing the static camerawork that prevailed after the first “talkies” hit the screen. Among the uncredited musical contributors was Xavier Cugat. Enjoy, and do return again next Friday for another Trillion $ Movie.
P.S. In case you’re wondering Rob Zombie did name his first band after this movie.
In an irreverent folk ballad that’s a cross between Barney and Call of Duty, SourceFed’s Joe Bereta and Steve Zaragoza explain how the presidential line of succession works. It’s a little morbid, but the boys are right — zombies might attack, nuclear bombs could rain down on us and the plague could simultaneously wipe out the chain of command in Washington, DC. So it’s good we’re prepared for any eventuality.
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Today’s Trillion Dollar Movie, Last Man on Earth, has been acknowledged by George A. Romero as one of the major works he “ripped off” in creating Night of the Living Dead. It’s an eerie, atmospheric adaptation of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, the first of four movies based on that same tale, also including The Omega Man with Charlton Heston and I Am Legend with Will Smith. Here, Vincent Price portrays the stoic hero, presumably the last man alive, battling to survive against hordes of zombie-like vampires that awake each night to stalk the Earth.
The premise: A pandemic bacterial plague has wiped out everyone except Price, spared by virtue of having once been bitten by a vampire bat in Panama, inoculating him from the disease. He leads a lonely, monotonous existence, scavenging by day for food and supplies, and seeking out the vampire lairs so he can put them out of their misery by driving wooden stakes through their hearts. At nights, he retreats to a boarded-up sanctuary, blaring jazz records and drinking scotch, while the vampires gather outside, clamoring for his head.
The film’s official tagline sets the tone, “By night they leave their graves crawling, shambling, though empty streets, whimpering, pleading, begging for his blood!”
Britain’s Hammer Films originally acquired the rights to Matheson’s story, but passed along the project to American International Pictures, which produced the 1964 film on a shoestring budget in Rome, Italy. Matheson helped to co-write the screenplay, but withdrew his credit (going under the pseudonym Logan Swanson) after having creative differences with Price. Still, this is probably the one I Am Legend adaptation that best captures the mood of the book, while adhering most literally to its narrative twists.
Some modern viewers find it a little too languid and slow-moving for their tastes, but its groundbreaking importance can’t be denied. Its influence can be seen in practically every zombie movie made over the last half-century, notably Night of the Living Dead, but also Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later. Enjoy and return next Friday for another Trillion ($) Movie.
Fans kick off a Star Trek convention by staging a zombie flash mob and dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The convention took place this past weekend at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Some Star Trek purists on YouTube questioned the Star Trek-zombie connection, but one commentator wasn’t fazed. “Red shirts! Love it! They’re dead, Jim!” H/T My Disguises
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Time-lapse captures the transformation of a beautiful woman into a zombie. The video was created by MyIntelEdge using its “A Momentary Lapse” program. The company bills it as “not your ordinary zombie make-up tutorial video. This video is a time-lapse story of a gorgeous girl who gets zombified and comes to life, only to decay and die in front of our eyes. Watch as the nightmare unfolds.” H/T My Disguises
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What do you do when you live on a cul-de-sac and learn that your new next-door neighbors are flesh-eating, zombie cannibals high on bath salts? Time to summon the League of S.T.E.A.M.
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