Will new zombie film draw moviegoers?
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Jeremy Hobson: There are a lot of villains in this recession — bankers, predatory lenders, Bernie Madoff. Well, tomorrow we can forgot all those complicated villains and just focus on the brain-eating dead. It’s the release of George Romero’s latest zombie thriller — “Survival of the Dead.” Zombie lover Jim Kendrick is an assistant professor of film at Baylor University and he joins us now. Mr. Kendrick, thanks for being here.
Jim Kendrick: Thank you for having me.
Hobson: Well how unusual is a big zombie movie like “Survival of the Dead?”
Kendrick: Well as far as size goes, zombie movies have not tended to be big mainstream films. In the history of zombie movies, they generally tend to be more smaller budget. You don’t need a whole lot of special effects.
Hobson: Is there something about a horror or zombie movie that people are drawn to in times like this because maybe there’s an easy-to-identify villain?
Kendrick: In some ways, yes. Interestingly, because zombies are fairly unchanging — in a lot of ways they’re not very interesting. A lot of zombie movies have really been more interesting on a kind of metaphorical level. What are they telling us about the times we’re living in? And George Romero’s movies have been really interesting in that realm since the first one that he made, “Night of the Living Dead,” came out in 1968 — which was the height of the 60s and all of the social turbulence and the civil rights era, Vietnam and all of that. And the movie was very much a reflection of that. I’m guessing that “Survival of the Dead”
Hobson: You know all of living people are trying to get through these very difficult recessionary times. Do you think a zombie would do better?
Kendrick: During the recession?
Hobson: Yeah. Are they good with money?
Kendrick: That’s the beauty of being a zombie is economics are completely irrelevant. All they need is to eat people.
Hobson: All right. Well, Jim Kendrick, assistant professor of film at Baylor University, and zombie expert. Thanks so much.
Kendrick: Thank you.
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