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More Q & A With Zombie Writers

QUESTION: What is your favorite zombie movie and why?

Ryan: "Oh, I'll probably upset a lot of zombie purists by saying that my favorite zombie movie is the remake of Dawn of the Dead. I can't help it! It's the first one I ever saw and it's the movie that sparked my love of zombies! After I left that movie with my fiance I could not stop talking about it - I wanted to know what happened next, how they survived, what the world would look like in a year, ten years, a hundred years. Of course after that I devoured every other zombie movie (and book) I could find!"

Henry: "I'd like to say that it's Night of the Living Dead, because that's the first one I'd seen and really have a soft spot for, but it's not. The one I can watch over and over again is Peter Jackson's Dead Alive, originally released as Brain Dead - it figures I'd go for the horror-comedy, right? That movie was so gross, funny and over-the-top at the same time, it forced you to love it. When people watch The Lord of the Rings, I always wonder what they'd think if they knew Jackson directed the supreme splatterfest of the 90s."

Priest: "I'm not sure I can pick just one. For starters, I'd say the original Night of the Living Dead; it was the first truly great zombie movie that dared to take them seriously as a threat and say serious things with a frankly preposterous premise. And I loved the remake of Dawn of the Dead - it was a very keen blend of humor and horror, done nicely, and with a big budget. I also loved 28 Days Later and to a lesser extent, its sequel. Shaun of the Dead was simply exquisite; and who doesn't love Army of Darkness? Versus was a great Japanese take on kung-fu zombies too - but that one might be a bit of a stretch to include."

Schreiber: "Fulci zombies are awesome because they're just so over the top - zombie versus shark! And of course the original Night of the Living Dead is so perfectly calibrated and raw, it's almost like this horrific Vietnam documentary set in Pittsburgh. But I think I'll always have a warm place in my heart for Return of the Living Dead, that self-referntial Dan O'Bannon masterpiece with punk rockers and the thing wagging its severed spine like a tail. I saw that one in the theater back in high school and man, it stuck with me."

QUESTION: Slow zombies (Romero) vs. Fast Zombies (28 Days Later) - What are your feelings about them?

Ryan: "I think they're both terrifying in different ways - I love them both!"

Henry: "I love them both. The slow ones are scary because of the sheer number of them, that they'll keep coming and spreading and eating. It's ultimately a hopeless situation and that's frightening. The fast ones really changed everything. Technically they're not really zombies, because they're alive, but I'm willing to forgive Danny Boyle, simply for producing such an amazing film. He gave people like me the opportunity to throw away the old lore and come up with something completely new. People were receptive to it. Not everybody, there are tons of threads on zombie forums where outraged purists beat the crap out of the fast zombies. I'm just glad there's room for variety."

Priest: "I can work with either one. Slow zombies have that whole creeping dread thing going for them, but fast zombies are more of an immediate threat."

Schreiber: "I actually prefer the cracked-out ceiling-climbing zombies of the new Day of the Dead remake. People give that movie a lot of crap, probably because it sucks and the zombie behavior is so wildly inconsistent, but I have to say, for that one scene alone, I have to laugh out loud. I'd also like to see slow zombies driving fast cars. Just a thought."

QUESTION: What do you think your chances are of surviving a zombie apocalypse and why?

Ryan: "Right now, unfortunately, I have a very poor chance of surviving. We live on edge of a big city, our house only has one floor with lots of windows and we don't keep a lot of food or weapons around. We'd be zombie food pretty quickly. Now, if the apocalypse started while we were out of town, then we might have a fighting chance. It's about timing!"

Henry: "Who says I'm on humanity's side? Seriously, I'd be gone in the first wave. I'm just too slow and I don't own a gun."

Priest: "I'd like to think my chances are pretty good. I'm an army brat with years of survival research under my belt and a life-long familiarity with emergency evacuation (I spent much of my life on the Gulf Coast, in hurricane country). I have no medication-dependent medical conditions, I'm in generally good health, I'm good with knives and I'm familiar with guns. So all things being equal and barring any unforeseen smack-down by fate, I ought to make it out alive. I think. I hope."

Schreiber: "Since I have a day job in a hospital, I'm pretty good about infection control. As long as the rubber gloves and needles hold out, I should be fine."

QUESTION: What terrifies you and why?

Ryan: "The thought of losing someone I love terrifies me the most. I'm also very good at freaking myself out. If I'm home alone and think I see something in the shadows I can convince myself that there's something there!"

Henry: "Lots of things. For a while there, the most terrifying thing was my wife's night terrors. She'd scream in the middle of the night, just shriek at such volumes you'd swear a banshee had just swept into the room. Many a night I woke certain that was the end. Really. Terrifying."

Priest: "There are many scary things of which I'm fond (zombies, vampires, ghosts), but not much genuinely frightens me. Sloths, maybe. Their scary little ghost faces freak me out, along with their incremental limb movements and curled-clawed hands. Also I'm afraid of pathogenic contagion, but I'm not the kind of nut who wears a face mask everywhere (thought I do keep a teeny bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse.)"

Schreiber: "As a child all of my nightmares were about machines - huge black hulking machines, whole warehouses full of them, rattling away endlessly. These days I fear for my kids' safety on a daily basis. On a personal level I'm terrified of losing my memory and imaginative faculties, the inevitable physical and mental decline that comes with the slow road to death. Viscerally, I'm haunted by the possibility of waking up in the middle of the night and hearing someone walking around inside my house - knowing that they're down there and will eventually make their way upstairs."

Thanks, everyone!!!

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