So it has been a super long time since my last post. So if you have been a reader of this blog I apologize for not uploading any new content recently, but I have good news! I have a steady stream of new movies to write about in the coming weeks so keep on the look out for that. So this week in the corner I am writing about a movie with a very interesting premise called Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead. Now the word Mimesis itself has a meaning of mimicry or imitation and that is sort of the foundation of what this movie has to offer. Now I have to say up front that this movie will be much more enjoyable if you have seen the George A. Romero 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead. Romero's film is in my opinion not only the best horror film of all time, but a film that had a profound impact on cinema, violence, and racial boundaries. It also was the beginning to the zombie craze that mainstream America has fallen in love with in the last 5-10 years. Romero filmed the original classic in black and white in a time when movies were all moving to colorizing their pictures. Romero chose black and white purely for financial reasons (it was cheaper) but it actually adds an eerie quality to the movie. Secondly Romero chose to cast an African American in the lead role in a time when racial tensions were at a breaking point in the mid to late 60's. In fact, this movie was finished and shipped on April 4, 1968, the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. George Romero never intended to have racial undertones in this film but the impact that it had cannot be denied. Finally the original Night of the Living Dead was pretty violent for the time. To show the zombies eating human flesh, Romero used pork shanks with chocolate syrup, to make it look like the zombies were actually tearing the flesh off of the bloody bone. It was quite shocking at the time and made the stabbing of Janet Leigh in Psycho look tame. Now this blog entry is about Mimesis but a little back story on the original helps with the synopsis of this film. The premise of this movie involves a couple of guys who go to a horror convention. They go to see some horror celebrities and directors and get autographs and while they are there they are invited to an after midnight party out on a farm. This is never a good idea in general but of course the two guys agree to go to the party because they are invited by a hot girl. After arriving at the party and having a few drinks the two guys pass out and when they wake up, find themselves in a farm house, with new clothes, and no idea why they are there. They soon find out that they have been captured by a group of sadistic killers, with a catch. The killers are dressed and have make up on to emulate zombies and look to re enact the original Night of the Living Dead for their own sick enjoyment. The killers kidnap seven people just like seven in the original. They kidnap a father, mother, and daughter just like original. The race, gender, and clothes of the seven people even match the cult classic with the lead being African American. The director adds a nice touch by having all of the TVs in the house showing the original Romero film while the seven people are trying to avoid death at the hands of this group of "dedicated" horror fans. It is an interesting twist on the genre. The finale of the film sort of loses its way and doesn't have the impact that the original Romero film did, but it was still a fun watch especially you if you are a fan of the 1968 version. I feel like there could be a whole series of Mimesis films, one dedicated to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, or any other classic horror franchise. If you are a fan of the original Night of the Living Dead, you should give this movie a go. If you haven't seen the original you should go watch that immediately.
Mimesis to my knowledge can only be viewed on DVD and blu ray, but if you can find a copy, let me know what you think in the comments! I would love to hear your thoughts on the original Romero film as well!
Next week I am going to be writing about another loving homage to a classic horror franchise. The Icelandic version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre! (this is not a joke! It is an actual movie!)
