Zombie Country

I have been doing a lot of pondering since yesterday's post.

Things like "How would I explain Zombieland to my parents?". Arguably, not the most profound of thoughts, and indeed why would my parents even care? It turns out that my dad found the Zombieland commercials very funny and after seeing the flick, I could see him enjoying it. But Dad finds ideas such as vampires, mutants and zombies silly and childish (Dad is very practical) so how would I hook him?

It hit me like a tornado in a trailer park: zombie movies are the new westerns.

All the westerns* I was forced to see by my parents were about loners or a ragtag group of loners battling the elements and savages to survive in an unfamiliar and unforgiving new land.

Transpose a post-zombie apocalypse for the wild frontier, zombies for savages, trucks for horses, machine guns for a trusty sidearm, keep the loners and bang! Shane (of the Dead). High Zombie Noon. Shoot-out at the Zombie Corral. Far Zombie Country. River of No Returning Zombies. The Good, The Bad and The Zombie. The Last of the Mochicans Eaten by Zombies. They Died with their Boots On.

In Zombieland your have the older loner (Harrelson) passing on his wisdom to a "greener" loner (Eisenberg), much like many of the later John Wayne westerns. 28 Days Later is about survival in the new world order, similiar to many old school western movies.

Zombies are a "safer" target than the indigenious folk of yesteryear. And you can kill zombies with impunity and humour (try doing that, Kevin Costner!).

Saddle up boys! The shooting is getting better and better!

*I'm talking about old school westerns from the '30s to '60s, both movies and tv shows, not the post-modern reinvention of them by Eastwood and Costner et al, late last century.