Land of The Dead

I don't know if one could call this particular feeling I've been having as a form of enlightenment, or just an amusing notion played out to it's inevitable conclusions.

There's been a few films out recently that are commonly referred to as "survival horror" genre movies. George Romero kind of created the genre with the release of his low budget cult classic Night of the Living Dead, which not only put him on the map- but had the strange ability to put Pittsburgh back on the map as well.

The Survival Horror movie usually revolves around a mismatched group of desperate people trying to fend off, outrun, or otherwise stay one step ahead of an ever increasing army of "X".

"X" tends to be the one variable factor that's unleashed on our hapless group of heroes and heroines- they can be anything from acid bleeding xenomorphs [Aliens] to the living dead I'd mentioned earlier. The idea being that this allows the audience to be voyueristically compelled into a human relations character study by placing The Human Condition into an extreme environment or event and noting the reactions played out between the survivors.

The oddity I want to present to you fine readers, is simply this- "Do you ever catch yourself playing out this scenario in your own day-to-day life?"

There's a line in most of these "undead" movies that has one character noting to another "These dead people keep walking around acting like they're alive."

Only to be followed with the retort, "You call what we're doing living? Isn't this nothing more than an act?"

Have you ever had a day so mundane that you were able to step out of it and notice the milling and shuffling of the people around you? Depending on your area of the country [planet?] and whether you're in a rural, urban or suburban setting; this could play out one of many ways...

Could something be said about yourself as a survival character in these regards? Granted, it's all play- and what you think you see in yourself, real or imagined, could be played out as your own character study.

Would you go the mindset of The Survivalist- plotting your barricade, your food stores and your escape methods from your office building in the event the undead start looking for brains... Or perhaps you're the Thunder Road type, where only constantly moving with the wind in your hair and the zombies too far back to even care...

Now for the Zen-Taoist part to this post...

Have you looked around yourself and started noting your friends and acquaintances and then taking tally of who would survive and who would become chowder? Now there's an interesting perspective on not only yourself- but on how you perceive others!

Now- taking this just one more step further; have you looked around and noted your location, your perspective on the day and then whether you see any difference between The Living and The Existing..?

Do you see yourself as Alive, [vibrant, involved, engaged] or simply alive [existing, breathing, using up oxygen and space]?

George Romero has said in an interview that his films revolve around The Problem. Whether social discourse, racism, yuppie-ism any number of "isms" out there; the undertone to his films were to expose and confront The Problem. Many times to a gruesome and otherwise ugly truth.

The scary part is, that whatever "ism" is exposed within the mise-en-scene of these films, the survivors are only respites of humanity by the end of the movies.

Even though the credits roll, much like real life, The Problem is still out there and by running away, our heroes have only prolonged facing the inevitable, oppressive encroachment.

I continue to be; Russ