Seventeen years after using Johnny Cash to hot-wire his Dawn of the Dead redux into something authentically apocalyptic, Snyder remains the master of the pop-montage credit sequence Army of the Dead peaks early (and dizzyingly high) during a self-contained set piece scored, naturally, to “Viva Las Vegas,” which in three minutes transforms the city’s glittering landmarks-and service economy-into a series of grotesque, absurdist tableaux. Those are not words you’d use for Army of the Dead, but even as it mashes up war, heist, and action tropes (plus a MacGruber-style team-building montage), Zack Snyder’s latest bows to the zombie genre’s subtext of alienated labor. Bonello’s film is tender, emotional, and thoughtful. Last year, French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello evoked I Walked With a Zombie in parts of Zombi Child, about a teenage girl’s reckoning with her family’s Haitian roots. The spirit of Tourneur is alive and well thanks to a few directors who understand the zombie movie’s melancholy, political potential. The same goes for the enslaved Carrefour (Darby Jones), whose first appearance in a screen-filling close-up is one of the scariest and most powerful moments in horror movie history staring out at us from behind blind eyes, he’s at once uncanny and unknowable, powerful and powerless. As the avatar of a white family riven by sibling rivalry, adultery, alcoholism, and tragedy, she’s as much a victim as a figure of fear. “She makes a beautiful zombie, doesn’t she?” asks the town doctor of sleepwalking Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), who glides through the streets at night in the grip of a voodoo curse. That same dread courses through Jacques Tourneur’s 1943 masterpiece I Walked With a Zombie, which uses a similar Caribbean setting to restage a creepy version of Jane Eyre. Yet none of it comes close to shredded your nerves quite like this close call in a dark tunnel.The “Could You Survive This Zombie Apocalypse?” Matrix Give in to the Blockbuster Excess of Zack Snyder’s ‘Army of the Dead’ Death comes swiftly and frequently in 28 Days Later, as do the bursts of stark horror. A reprieve awaits at the other end, this time. Jim, Selena, Frank, and Hannah barely make it out of the tunnel alive by the skin of their teeth. The aural build ties it all together, matching the emotions of both characters and viewers. The rapid, turbulent camera movements within the tire changing scene exacerbate the unease shaped by its eerie setting. The lo-fi quality and Boyle's dynamic direction give 28 Days Later a gritty, present feel for this unique dystopia, but it also heightens the fear. ![]() Jim's journey toggles back and forth between moments of extreme stress and lulls of peaceful calm before the next wave. The tension gets drawn out to an uncomfortable degree.īoyle toys with erratic pacing to maintain unpredictability. As the gap between the enemy and the protagonists shorten, pulse-pounding horror reaches a fever pitch. A single silhouette in the distance gives way to dozens-their angry wails signal proximity. The noise hushes to a lull long enough for the actual threat to emerge. The wave of rats heralds a rush of panic, but they serve as a foreboding harbinger of doom. Then comes the sound, a soft rushing roar that builds to shrieking terror. The camera's rapid pans as it follows Jim's pacing makes his anxiety palpable. Boyle exploits the natural unease the setting creates with frenetic camera movement and quick edits, cycling through wide shots of the group fumbling in the dark to close-ups of each character as they set about their tasks. Only one way in and out creates claustrophobic dread, but then it's magnified to a horrific degree with a makeshift graveyard of those that were unable to escape civilization's ruin. The dark, enclosed tunnel instills trepidation before even factoring in the outbreak. They begin their part in the narrative with lower survival odds and the expectation of added weight for Jim and Selena. ![]() The introduction to middle-aged Frank and his young teen daughter contradicts everything Jim has been taught about what it takes to survive. Speed is of the essence against the fast-moving and seemingly tireless aggressors. It set a precedence that survival isn't guaranteed for even the most heroic and fit characters. ![]() Before this intense scene arrives, Boyle established stakes through more minor scaled attacks by the infected and the shocking demise of Mark.
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