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sirensaria's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I have to say, this book was definitely longer than it had to be. The author did a really good job of restating their thesis over and over and over and over and… Well, you get the picture. There was quite a bit of information, and the thesis was actually interesting. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the fourth chapter, I was pretty much checked out. If the author hadn't separated the films they looked at and literally broke it down scene by scene, it would have been better. This might be more of a me thing, though. I don't like when an author continuous rams their thesis or ideas down my throat over and over. Give me the idea, then the support to back up the idea. This book way too long for me to get through simply because the author kept stating the same thing and not entirely adding any new information after the first couple times. I'm also not entirely sure if I agree that the zombie genre is gothic, or how the author protrayed it as gothic, but that's just me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Body horror, and Violence
kellswitch's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting look at zombies in movies, their history, what influenced them and how they in turn influenced modern culture and have evolved over time.
I found I preferred the first chapter that dealt with the origins of the zombie, both as a real part of Voodoo and in films. He was his most concise and to the point at this point and the history itself is fascinating.
In the remaining chapters he focuses primarily on the George Romero films, which while understandable got a bit tedious after awhile. I would have appreciated a bit more in depth look into other zombie movies as well, especially since he seemed to repeat himself multiple times in trying to explain and prove the theories about what influenced those movies and how he made them work.
Overall I enjoyed this book and it 19s quite approachable and easy to read, even if you 19ve only seen one or two zombie movies this book does a good enough job of fleshing out the whole genre that you don 19t really need an expansive history with them get something out of it.
I found I preferred the first chapter that dealt with the origins of the zombie, both as a real part of Voodoo and in films. He was his most concise and to the point at this point and the history itself is fascinating.
In the remaining chapters he focuses primarily on the George Romero films, which while understandable got a bit tedious after awhile. I would have appreciated a bit more in depth look into other zombie movies as well, especially since he seemed to repeat himself multiple times in trying to explain and prove the theories about what influenced those movies and how he made them work.
Overall I enjoyed this book and it 19s quite approachable and easy to read, even if you 19ve only seen one or two zombie movies this book does a good enough job of fleshing out the whole genre that you don 19t really need an expansive history with them get something out of it.
amythebookbat's review against another edition
4.0
This book began as a PhD dissertation. The writing is very scholarly. The reason I went with 4 stars instead of 5 is because the author uses a lot of uncommon vocabulary and has a tendency to repeat things.
Overall, I think the author has a lot of valid points to make about the evolution of the zombie subgenre. I think it is very interesting to see how various films are allegories to the social fears of the times. I also learned about films I had not heard of prior to reading this and I will now watch them to see the author's points being illustrated.
If you are interested in film criticism or zombie films, you may want to take a look at this book.
Overall, I think the author has a lot of valid points to make about the evolution of the zombie subgenre. I think it is very interesting to see how various films are allegories to the social fears of the times. I also learned about films I had not heard of prior to reading this and I will now watch them to see the author's points being illustrated.
If you are interested in film criticism or zombie films, you may want to take a look at this book.
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