This is really my Friday post. It’s today because I had an old friend over for the past three days, whom I haven’t seen in years, and probably won’t see again for a few years. So I am releasing some content from my Patreon site in the hope that my readers will enjoy it.
This wasn’t the movie I planned to write on this month, but I watched it. First of all, I HIGHLY recommend it. It’s a wonderful film, much deeper than the average zombie movie, and in my opinion, is what I Am Legend should have been. Second of all, spoilers ahead, so go watch the movie. I’ll wait.
Are you finished? Good! Wasn’t it cool? Yes, it was.
BUT! Ooooooooooohh, but…
I’m sorry, I still don’t buy it. Two things I especially had trouble buying:
First, the zombie fungus. Here you have an organism that destroys all higher functions of the body in the name of eating. But, wait! They can’t eat each other, so the fungus has to spread almost instantly and render the bitten human unpalatable. Most zombies, in fact, are almost unmarked by the initial attack. But the zombies do attack and eat (and apparently do not infect) animals.
But then the film shows us two (arguably three) amazing things: the first is that the plague has apparently been around for at least 12 (maybe 11) years. And second: the zombies don’t apparently NEED to eat. In London, we see them standing around in a dormant state when no food presents itself.
So, we have a fungal infection that stimulates hunger, but apparently does not need ANY food. It doesn’t need to consume its host, or the food of its host. And it keeps the host from decomposing.
Thirdly, it keeps the host’s CLOTHES from decomposing, which is arguably more impressive.
All this adds up to a question not easily answered: if the fungus does not NEED energy to live, then why does it infect at all?
But the real problem I see here is with the humans. They’ve been fighting this war for twelve years. Now, in six years of WWII, the last time the planet was faced with foes that would absorb the full might of its industrial powers (each other) humans invented the main battle tank, the jet fighter, and the atomic weapon. The humans have held out for twelve years against the zombie horde, which means they MUST have an agricultural and industrial base, and they have developed…
ZOM-B-GON zombie repellent. Stops the zombies smelling you.
And that’s it.
Now, the zombies are fast, but mindless. It’s not too hard for ME to figure out how to get rid of them. What you want is pits with stakes, minefields, and multiple fences with the gaps filled in with concertina wire. Hell, the zombies chase vehicles that are faster than them and don’t look where they were going. You could run dump trucks laying high-explosive mines in front of them until they were gone. And why is London even THERE any more? Why are we not getting rid of the dormant zombies with nuclear strikes? Humans have invented NOTHING to combat this menace. Not bite-proof body armor, not rifles that throw explosive shells (instead, they’re still relying on headshots with standard rifles), no. There are ZERO anti-zombie weapons, or tactics, in play.
So my conclusion at the end of the film was that the human race pretty much had it coming.
G. Scott Huggins 
One could flee them in a combine harvester, driven in reverse? If that fails, the orchardists will save us!
http://www.agriexpo.online/agricultural-manufacturer/disc-pruning-machine-1040.html
I agree the movie was good for reasons other than a new take on the zombie plague.
The clothes thing was the first ‘fail’ I noticed. I also don’t think the cities/skyscrapers would deteriorate to the extent they show in that amount of time either. It was full of plot-holes and inconsistencies.
It’s almost like a director said, “Oh, don’t worry about all that stuff. Nobody is smart enough to think about all that. It’s a movie!”
Even so, I like the idea of a mutated zombie-human hybrid child. What will the future look like as they begin to rebuild a technological base? That’s a book I would read. If the other flaws were fixed, of course.