I have always been intrigued by zombie movies and TV shows. I think I finally figured out why.
And why they don't make zombie movies very often anymore.
Since the genre was invited, most zombie flicks have been built on the same premise. A mysterious virus appears that turns humans into ravenous monsters who eat other humans.
If you are bitten, you turn into one.
The virus spreads.
A small group of survivors must reach safety.
There are various twists on this, but this is the basic plot of pretty much every zombie film ever made.
The problem, you ask?
They all end the same way. Everyone either dies or flies away in a helicopter.
Occasionally, a zombie movie will end with a cure being discovered. But, this is by far the minority. And it's usually pretty disappointing.
And so, the most intriguing aspect of zombie films is the new level of creativity required of filmmakers who want to attempt one.
To create something new, exciting, and different. To take huge risks.
And boy, do I mean risks.
These movies cost tens of millions of dollars to create. Maybe more.
Who wants to invest that much money in a film that tries to invent a new ending? Or a twist on one of the big three endings?
Something that has never been tested and has no guarantee of success?
It has been tried a number of times over the years.
Some took the comedy approach. They created Zombieland and The Scout's Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse.
Then there were the TV shows. "What happens after?" was the founding premise of Robert Kirkman when he created The Walking Dead comics. And years later, the TV show.
But even Kirkman ran out of ideas. The comic was cancelled in 2019 because we was worried he didn't have enough ideas to sustain the storyline.
The upcoming season of the TV show will be its last. (Granted, there are spinoffs...it will be interesting to see how those end).
When you look at it like this...makers of Zombie films have to be some of the most creative risk takers on the planet. They have my respect, and I hope they have yours after reading this.
It's not all that different from composers.
At a certain point of time, one thing became clear among conservatory-trained composers.
Anyone who wrote music in a classical or romantic style would have no-question been influenced by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and countless others.
These timeless composers had done just about everything that could be done in this style. And, they were the teachers of the following generations.
What's why you don't really hear modern music that sounds like Beethoven anymore, except in movie soundtracks.
And so, what did we end up with? Atonality.
Ah, the eternal quest to do something different.
But then, all the atonal composers started sounding the same unless you were a complete music theory nerd or an aficionado of all things avant-garde.
Aaaaand, we're back to square one.
That being said, the fun is in the journey. The experimenting. Pushing the envelope. Even if it fails.
Most of us don't have tens of millions of dollars to write, produce, and release a cutting-edge zombie film. But that's ok...most of us aren't interested in doing that at all.
But we all have a proverbial Zombie flick in our lives.
That thing that feels like everything that could be done has been done.
Where it's hard or scary to try something new. But, we're pretty tired of what we've got.
Maybe the boss won't like it.
Maybe it veers too far outside the latest benchmarking statistics.
Maybe we're just afraid people won't like it.
But...
Taking the risk is so much more interesting than just flying off in a helicopter...right?