Beating an Un-Dead Horse

Ideas are fickle things. When I started as a clerk at the Drive-In, I was full to the brim with ideas of what I could write about. Fate, however, often has other plans. I've had my own bout of writer's block recently, even for my own blog that is separate from the Drive-In. It lasted quite a while, with everything I wrote sounding stupid to me within a few sentences. Now, however, with school once again getting my creative juices flowing, my ideas have come back from the dead. And, as my creative side feels like a zombie that's recently reanimated, it's only appropriate that my first article back should be about zombies. Specifically, about the over-saturation of the carnivorous un-dead horde in the world today.

Shaun Of the Dead: The Gateway Drug Of Horror Movies?

It can be really difficult for those of us who dig monsters and freaks to get other people to see a movie with us. In my experience, most of my friends either think that horror movies are garbage for cinematic or psychological reasons, or they scare easily and don't want to watch anything that might give them nightmares. And I get that. Still, I get tired of doing everything by myself. What flick hooks in people who aren't gorehounds? What one movie could be considered the gateway drug of horror? In my opinion, the answer is clear...

The Pros And Cons of Horror-Comedy

In the past decade, most horror films released were... legitimately terrible. Gore-hungry filmgoers usually had the unsavory choice of either seeing a poor remake -excuse me, "re-imagining"- of a classic, or an American redo of a film that was far better in its native tongue. There was also a glut of vampire romances which I do not need to name here, suffice it to say that I'm looking forward to the next Garlic Years period. The one ray of light in this sea of sewage was a handful of horror-comedies, notably Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, I Sell the Dead, and, to a lesser extent, Dead Snow. (I've just realized that all the films mentioned feature zombies. Cannibalism guarantees big laughs, kids.)

As I've said before, horror and comedy go down real smooth. They both rely on well-timed shocks and outrageous predicaments, so it's not hard to see how they flow into each other. But is mixing funny and frightening the best thing for the genre? Let's draw up the list.