Saturday of the Dead

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Ah, zombies….you've gotta love 'em. Not only have they been the decayed backbone of several classic genre flicks (with Romero's Dawn of the Dead standing proudly at the top of the rotting pile), but they've also chewed braaaaaiiinnnnss in one or two top-notch video games to boot.

Playing the original Resident Evil on the PS1 (with the lights turned low, and the winter wind whistling without) was a thrilling (and terrifying) experience. The terror stakes were considerably upped with the pants-soilingly disturbing Silent Hill….imagine a 'survival horror' game co-written by David Lynch and Clive Barker and you (sort of) get the idea.

For an industry that occasionally falls foul of the guardians of 'family values' and 'moral decency', zombies have proven undead (and ambiguous) friends in need to game producers. They're 'people', but it's ok to blow their heads off with shotguns! Woo hoo!

Makers of Resident Evil (and its ilk) recognise that, for good or ill, people quite enjoy blowing other 'people' to bits…at least in a virtual setting. Would these games be half as satisfying if the environment were teeming with droids (or other automatons) instead of zombies? I think not…and I'm not a sociopath (or at least I don't think so).

Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning all this is because I'm about to pop into town to purchase the (critically lauded) Resident Evil 4. It's been quite a while since I've played anything that has held my attention for more than 5 minutes, so I'm looking forward to the promise of some taxing, well-made, carnage.

Now where did I put that chainsaw..?

November 12, 2005

Posted in All posts and tagged Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil, Romero, Zombies.