More Realistic Zombie Films

Buataisi

Are there any films out there that have a more realistic view of Z-day, ie the military and government survive? Let's face it, even a bad army can defend itself and nobody wants to keep themselves in business more than politicians.

cloud493

28 days/28 weeks later, and the walking dead(thats a series) spring to mind.

Buataisi

28 Days later only had a small group of military survivors and I don't recall any in The Walking Dead. I'm talking about functioning military and government after the zombies hit.

degrassinoel

the original Romero classics might have a little of what you're talking about but they quickly disolve into smaller groups, like every Z film i guess.

Dawn of the Dead(1978)'s first half hour shows the government in action and police and special task forces, combined homeguard & army etc dealing with the Z's in an urban area.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077402/

Day of the Dead(1985) gives a really good view on the last remenants of military, goverment, civilians and scientists quest to eliminate the Z threat. Its mostly set in an underground complex too for extra claustrophobia
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088993/

If you havent seen those, definetly give them a whirl! Just eh.. try to ignore out the terrible music, some people love it.. i cant stand it, but the films themselves are 100% pure class!

Rew

Walking Dead is horribly unrealistic in places, id say 28 days/weeks later. Most gov/military find it hard to orgnise and deploy on home turf in very short periods. yanks on 911, yanks with hurricane katrina, brits in the Falklands etc. Mass confusion, lack of info, deserting to look for/protect family and friends leading to massive breakdown in numbers and chain of command would really hamper things. Some mil faculties should be able to hold out though as there inherently secure, well armed and have supplies.

Buataisi

degrassinoel - Thanks for the suggestions, I'll certainly have a look!

Rew - That's a good point, I didn't consider deserters and such, that could account for a massive breakdown in ranks, but I still think there'd be enough there to make a major difference.

BigDuffman

Sure the zombie films would not be as fun if the military could come in and save the day! But yes I think the military response would have a far great effect than is ever shown in films. Particularly in a small country like Ireland.

TheBegotten

Sorry to go all socio-psychotic on you, but most of the aims of the ideas behind these films are to show how our first-world mindset is unprepared to face an unprecedented crisis - the world economic collapse, for example. This is best represented in the original Walking Dead comics (or at least that's what the author says). In real life, the Yanks probably would act the same as in the movies to an extent, especially in the early stages, trusting in the organisation or, worse still, the power of the all-mighty individual so glorified in movies, this being themselves. Another factor is the dense urban centres. odds are, these would have to be evacuated and every single person would have to be screened. The best plan at this stage is to quarantine all cities with populations of <500,000. However when the crisis is in full swing, a well disciplined military would be much more effective in a defensive mode, once properly retrained.:rolleyes:
In other words, such a movie wouldn't be fun.

degrassinoel

if it was edited to have a massive montage of zombie deaths it would be AWESOME!

norrie rugger

Shawn of the Dead ?

ScumLord

Military's will be just as vulnerable to the loss of the global economy as everyone else on the planet. They will be very fuel hungry, not only their vehicles but the men themselves. Nothing will work if international shipping and economy breaks down, which the zombies could cause if we're to afraid to travel.

unreggd

Buataisi wrote: »

Are there any films out there that have a more realistic view of Z-day, ie the military and government survive? Let's face it, even a bad army can defend itself and nobody wants to keep themselves in business more than politicians.

Resident Evil, in some sense

Umbrella Corp cause the whole viral outbreak in the first place, yet still manage to escape to safe places and hand-pick survivors, leaving the rest of the general public deemed expendable

I think the Hollywood view that the military are always overrun is a hysterical disbelief thing. Like, they wouldnt realise / believe exactly what was happenin til its too late

Carter P Fly

While not really standard zombie flicks Dog soldiers (werewolf) and Outpost (nazi ghost zombies) are both decent shows where soldiers are faced with a WTF situation.

BigDuffman

Carter P Fly wrote: »

While not really standard zombie flicks Dog soldiers (werewolf)

I LOVED dog soldiers!!! Not a realistic plot line but the scenario of having wpns but only blanks was darkly brilliant.

the-waterboy

Some of the most realistic zombie movies iv seen in terms of if it happened to you would be Rec The Crazies (new or original) The Zombie Diaries, Carriers and of course Night of the living dead. The original Crazies (Directed by Romero!) is told from the point of view half from a group of survivors half from the military so that might be what you want

bb1234567

the-waterboy wrote: »

Some of the most realistic zombie movies iv seen in terms of if it happened to you would be Rec The Crazies (new or original) The Zombie Diaries, Carriers and of course Night of the living dead. The original Crazies (Directed by Romero!) is told from the point of view half from a group of survivors half from the military so that might be what you want

+1 crazies,(the new one havnt see,never even knew there was an original actually)anyway what a brilliant movie, great atmosphere and tone, great special and visual effects, brilliant script and acting, tensse and exciting the whole way through,scary in parts too..such a good movie,one of the movies where at the end you feel so satisfied:)
ye rec movies are all good,carriers was fairly good too,no zombies in it though, the trailer was misleading:mad:
boo diary of the dead, what a crappy movie:p

The Master of Disaster

Zombie Diaries 2 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733578/. A bit like 28 Days Later in that a small group of military survive. In this case a group of Territorial Army (British reserves) have survived and located themselves in a military base. Then some idiot leaves the perimeter fence open at night and the rest of the film is about them trying to get to another base on the coast. It's not great but don't mind IMDB if you're into these sort of movies it's better than the 4.2 rating suggests although it does suffer from an awkward ending.

Stakeland http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1464580/. Not zombies per se the creatures in this are vampires but they act more like zombies. Probably one of the more realistic films in terms of what would happen if society collapsed. Individual towns survive and there is a degree of commerce etc. and they even have bars! The characters do mention that there is actually still some sort of national administration but it's clear it's ability to deal with the situation is minimal at best.

leftism

Way off zombie topic but i would recommend both of these movies if you're looking for a realistic depiction of how the machinery of government (army, police, customs, border control) might deal with a major crisis.

Monsters (2010)

and

Children Of Men (2006)

Neither are zombie movies but i think both realistically capture the "what if" scenario with regards to a global doomsday crisis. Plus they're both excellently directed sci-fi movies!

IMO, nearly every zombie movie underestimates the power of a well trained army in dealing with public disruption. A massive poplulation of infected, biting lunatics, all functioning as incoherent individuals should be no match for a well trained, well armed military, working and communicating as a team... Having said that, i actually thought 28 Weeks Later did a pretty good job of depicting the difficulties in crowd control, quarantine and isolation during an infectious outbreak.

BigDuffman

Zombie Diaries 2 looks like my kind of crappy! Where might one watch this. Anyone that has a linky or how the I might go about acquiring these films pm moi please.

neeko

My thoughts:

• New CRAZIES: really good film (i particularity like it when zombie/apocalypse films show the "overview" type scenes where you see the more widespread affects i.e. the nuclear bombing of cities.
• Old CRAZIES: some old films are great (planet of the apes) but some are crap. This was crap
• I AM LEGEND: deadly film! some cool military type scenes
• 28 DAYS LATER: great film
• 28 WEEKS LATER: some cool military stuff but a bit too Hollywood-ified
• DAWN OF THE DEAD: great flic, no military stuff though
• DAY OF THE DEAD: brutal film
• LAND OF THE DEAD: even worse
• THE KILLING STRAIN: nice military scene where a blackhawk helicopter mini-guns a bunch of zombies. otherwise crap
• Loving THE WALKING DEAD. but i'd write it better.

If like me, you harbour a morbid fascination with the end of the world you'll also love the non-zombie film OUTBREAK. Wish they hadn't found a cure and the world went downhill though.


I also hear they might be making Max Brooks' WORLD WAR Z into a film. Now that'd be cool!

colonel-yum-yum

neeko wrote: »

I also hear they might be making Max Brooks' WORLD WAR Z into a film. Now that'd be cool!

More than might be. They are filming at the moment and Brad Pitt is starring in it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/

bb1234567

colonel-yum-yum wrote: »

More than might be. They are filming at the moment and Brad Pitt is starring in it.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816711/

beat me to it:p anyway cant wait for that film !

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

they're going to butcher the book

he's not interviewing anyone, he's racing around the world trying to find a cure
probably with a sexy wife
and a wise cracking black guy

Carter P Fly

Indeed, It will be to max brook's book what the will smith Irobot movie was to the azimov book.

colonel-yum-yum

For those into the crappier side of zombie movies, and if you have the channel(s), Colin is about to start (21:00) on Zone Horror or 22:00 on ZH+1

Our hero Colin is bitten by a Zombie; he dies and returns from the dead. We follow him as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse.

IMDB

EDIT: Just saw this:

Budget:$70 (estimated)

Oh god!

degrassinoel

leftism wrote: »

Way off zombie topic but i would recommend both of these movies if you're looking for a realistic depiction of how the machinery of government (army, police, customs, border control) might deal with a major crisis.

Monsters (2010)

and

Children Of Men (2006)

Monsters was a brilliant film, i was really surprised by it.
Children of men was quite good too, the explosion at the start scared the crap out of me when i seen it first xD

The Road, is another film worth watching if you've not seen it before, although it is incredibly depressing and full of despair. It is a top notch flick.

neeko

degrassinoel wrote: »

The Road, is another film worth watching if you've not seen it before, although it is incredibly depressing and full of despair. It is a top notch flick.

+1 to that
Very dismal but i love the whole "end of the world" thing! :cool:

bb1234567

well seeing as we seem to have veered away from zombies and more onto post apocalyptic type movies, i gotta recommend 30 days of night:D best movie ever, its about vampires that over run this little town of 200 or so people in alaska. the town is plunged into 30 days of darkness annually and the vampires take advantage of this, sever all commmunications with outside world from town and begin their feast. Its not zombies but the vampires in this are ten times scarier then any zombie ive seen i bet youll absolutely love it if you like the walking dead or anything apocalyptic really.

ScumLord

bb1234567 wrote: »

well seeing as we seem to have veered away from zombies and more onto post apocalyptic type movies, i gotta recommend 30 days of night:D best movie ever,

That was awful, mindless Hollywood nonsense is all it was. Once anything starts jumping around the place like a cartoon I have no interest.

bb1234567

ScumLord wrote: »

That was awful, mindless Hollywood nonsense is all it was. Once anything starts jumping around the place like a cartoon I have no interest.

how did you not like it:eek: what was so bad about it?

degrassinoel

i quite enjoyed it myself. I just didnt like the end. Apparently there was a sequel too