Do you like Romeros's 'cause unknown' outbreak or spill or 'virus' and 'spill'

[goesaround]

I like overall Romero's 'Spiritual' implication more then a a spilled chemical. Actually I like them all but the 'unknown' reason adds a layer of Spiritual depth but spares us the preaching of knowing. Waht do you think?

[The Blind Dead]

I think I like the "unknown causes" but feel most of the yammer associated with his films is simply layer upon layer of what offers are seeking and ultimately "find" in his work. If they want it to be spiritual...it is...then they build upon that by explaining how and what they believe Romero was trying to say.

[hugonian]

Sometimes, the unknown is scarier. I think Stephen King wrote about this somewhere, maybe in one of his introductions. He says that, sometimes--and I'm paraphrasing here--a monster is just a monster, no explanation needed.

[Cotter]

That was in the introduction of The Shining, I believe. I personally like ROTLD's story line of the missing barrels that are clumsily opened... they kind of stretched it out in 2 and 3. I mean, it's a great idea to not tell the audience how it happened to make it a little scarier, but I honestly do not think that was the approach he was going for. Considering Night of the Living Dead was not a very serious or "expensive" production, i'm sure he whent with the "No one knows" idea to save time, expense, and energy, and it then stuck with him as NOTLD became such a big hit so he incorporated it in his sequals.

[Zombie-A-GoGo]

I like the classic "voodoo" explanation, or the unknown. Zombie uprising explanations have become far to "realistic" for my taste in recent decades--it sort of ruins the point of zombie movies for me...that this is fiction, this isn't reality, it's fantasy. When they start going on about radiation-chemical-environmental-viral-bacteriological-yadda-yadda-yadda, it's brings it too close to my reality and takes some of the fun out of it. That being said, just because the reason is unknown, it doesn't make it at all "spiritual" for me--even when Peter's yammering on about "no more room in hell" and John's lecturing about God being pi$$ed what with our "trying to figure his $hit out," it doesn't make it spiritual. It just makes me see those characters as kind of sad in a way--falling back on superstition out of desperation--which makes them not much different than most people even when there isn't a zombie apocalypse going on. "Voodoo" explanations could very much be taken the same way, but unlike other recognized religions, it already, in real life, falls within a kind of folklorish catagory, so continuing that into film isn't hard--it's hokey but I like it. :)

[Zombie Survivor]

'Cause unknown' makes the movie more mysterious... and I like mysterious...

[mazlionheart]

true but I also like the Resident Evil spin on the virus thing... which makes sense in this world we live in considering all the crap they pull with science nowadays

[Cybopath]

I like both too. Depends how its done, sometimes I like a reason and sometimes it's good to leave it to the viewers Imagination. What I do find funny is that Romero's zombies are caused by some unknown forse and are far more realistic than the Chemical Viruse Zombies from other movies.

Explaining things I usually find annoying like in Halloween 6 they try to explain what Micheal is, in Hellraiser 4 we find out who made the box etc.

[mazlionheart]

I like both too. Depends how its done, sometimes I like a reason and sometimes it's good to leave it to the viewers Imagination. What I do find funny is that Romero's zombies are caused by some unknown forse and are far more realistic than the Chemical Viruse Zombies from other movies.

Explaining things I usually find annoying like in Halloween 6 they try to explain what Micheal is, in Hellraiser 4 we find out who made the box etc.

so maybe knowing without having to know all the details would be good for a film...

[UNDEAD FRED]

In NOTLD 68 wasnt it hinted durning 1 of the news programs of the high level of radiation from a space probe falling back to earth was the cause. At that point it makes me wonder did the radiation outrght kill a percentage of the population, turning them into zombies, thats why there were so many at the beginning, or just everyone who died from that point on got up and started killing everyone in sight,escalating from there. Thats one of the best parts of DOTD 04, how fast it started, and how fast the city was over run. How Andy was trapped in his gun store with all the weapons and ammo, but no food. the others in the mall had food, but very little ammo.

[Dagnammit]

A big part of the zombie kick for me is the eeriness of not knowing.

It's kinda like the whole H. P. Lovecraft universe where people think they understands it all until they come face-to-face with something that shows them just how naive and insignificant humankind is in the scheme of things. There might be a scientific explaination, as opposed to magic, but the cause is so weird and incomprehensible to human minds that the results are indistinguishable from magic (i.e. dead people coming to life). That to me is really frightening.

Also, I think that usually in a good zombie movie the characters should be spending too much time fighting for their lives to be able to resolve the cause. Plus, if every zombie movie explained in labourous detail the cause of the outbreak, we wouldn't be able to have interesting conversations like this one! :)

[9th Lv. Paladin]

I like not explaining it much better. In night, they only hint at an explanation in a very little side plot, which took about as much time as it takes to tie your shoe. Some zombie movies today spend way too much time explaining why zombies are here, and it usually comes off as corny, And even when you do explain the zombies most of the time its not going to have any impact on the plot. Not explaining anything is a lot better because most people probably wouldn’t know whats going on.

[chickenchop1]

Not knowing how it started could explain why they never found a cure for the zombie pandemic. I mostly thought it was an airborne disease, since people return from death without ever getting bit (they breathed it in while alive, it remained dormant).

[ZombieJohn]

other then the mystery virus there was a theroy in notld that it was radiation from a sattlite but I dont think thats the cause. Mabey in 68 that was like the scape goat for all horror movies space and aliens but now GAR wants us to ponder on this topic so it makes us interested to keep watchin.

[Propaganda13]

It really depends on the plot. In some cases, it doesn't really matter. In others, it sets the basis for that reality and possibly some rules for the movie to follow.

[ZombieJohn]

In day of the dead i really started to think I would find the true reason but didnt =( damn u frankenstein

[Scotwith1t]

I like the unknown reason because it appeals to a broad spectrum of audience. With an unknown reason, you don't have to worry about logistics of the infection or spread. I personally think the remake of Dawn of the Dead ****ed up badly when they decided only bites turn people into zombies. If that were the case, then no way could so much chaos happen in such little time. I would have spread like an infection slowly spreading out from a central location. You wouldn't have had Wisconsin taken over at the same time that the White House was getting swarmed, or it happening in Israel. It didn't make sense. Where Romero's 'unknown' cause simply made the unburied dead to rise, bite not required.

[TheMapSaysWereFxcked]

Dood... Its all about the Solanum Virus...

[goesaround]

I like in Romeros's world the unknown reason, but I really like the attempt to figure it out. When NO discussion is given like in Land of the Dead I feel something is missing. Granted by the time of Land Of The Dead then there is no reason seemigly to talk anymore about it, but I really felt some discussion is necessary

[Dave_Dunwoody]

Depends...I really like the unknown factor, particularly in Romero's films, where for the most part the cause of the outbreak is of no consequence. But stories that offer a reason and make it key to the plot can be just as entertaining.

[CivilDefense]

H. P. Lovecraft
The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.