My Thoughts on World War Z

So my Mother in law came to visit, and had my wife and I watch "World War Z". When I had first heard about the movie, some three plus years ago, I was excited. I never read the book, but the idea of a big budget Zombie movie excited me. Once the trailers came out I was less than amused with what I was seeing. It looked like super fast zombies with super human strength,  that all worked together, which would show intelligence.  Not cool in my book.
After the movie came out I heard from many people (most whose judgement I don't trust when it comes to movies) that it was a great zombie movie. That was it for me, I wasn't going to waste my time on another Hollywood failure.
Which brings us to last night, where I broke down and rented the movie.
My thoughts on the movie are as follows:
1. The movie definitely has great entertainment value. It keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole time.
2. With that, the film stars Brad Pitt. He is a great actor and I haven't seen a film with Brad Pitt that I didn't like.
3. Are they really Zombies? This is a question for debate. While the catatonic state they are in until they hear sound says yes, very little of any of their other behavior links them to zombies. Are they consuming human flesh to survive? No. They bite people purely to spread the "virus" or "plague".
4.Jerusalem just happens to build a wall based on a communication heard from India? They could stop a war to build a giant wall? (Which, SPOILER ALERT, didn't work)
5.This is something in the plot that I'm not sure if I like or not. SPOILER ALERT: In order to defeat the "zombies" one must "camouflage" themselves with a major sickness. If you're sick, the "zombies" ignore you, making it easy to sneak up on them and kill them. Problem solved and humanity lives on.
Maybe that's my problem with the film, humanity wins. In every other zombie film, the message is no hope for humanity (exclude horror comedy "Shaun of the Dead", and "Fido"), and they took that away from us. Zombies are meant to be a total destruction force that we cannot escape, so to see a serious zombie film deny that and change it, well, it doesn't sit right with me.
What did you guys think about the movie?

Support Grassroots Horror

In the past ten years we have seen a flood of horror films hit the theaters, and for one reason or another, only a handful ended up being worth watching. For some reason Hollywood seems to like to make a great beginning and middle of a movie, only to limp across the finish line in a way that ruins the entire experience. It seems to be a continuing occurrence in the horror genre. Along with that we have to sit through terrible remakes of iconic films. Now, I'm not saying all the remakes are bad, but most of them are terrible. Oh, and who thought it was a good idea to let Rob Zombie make movies?
Independent Horror has been a great alternative to big Hollywood films, as they seem to deliver where Hollywood just can't.  But beware, not all independent films are created equally.  I've sat through many a film that looked like someone's high school senior project. Those are hours of my life that I'll never get back. But it's worth it because sitting through bad films I have found a lot of great horror films by watching trailers. And when you're in the video store reading the backs of DVD cases, the description may sound good, but the film falls flat. It's a process of trial and error.
Which brings me to the point of this post. The Horror community needs to support grassroots film makers. These people has a dream and a passion for the genre, and the could very well help to usher in a new era in horror films. But how does one support grassroots horror? Glad you asked!
In the days of social media and tablets and smartphones supporting things and causes has never been easier. Thanks to a great little app called Popcorn Horror, you can watch and support grassroots horror no matter where you are! This app allows aspiring film makers to post their short films and allow anyone who has the app to view them. Not only that, but there is a place for comments on the films and forums where you can join others and talk about all things horror. Now I will warn you that not everything on there is good, but in the past year or so, I have seen a lot of great short films on this app. It's worth a shot, so check it out and help support the horror community!