I like them both, it comes down to context. Perhaps the most powerful scene in all of the Romero films occcurs near the beginning of Dawn, during the SWAT raid on the housing project. Zombies are shambling up the stairs, their loved one stand, paralyzed with despair and horror, unable to act. When it comes to drama, it's hard to beat a woman crying about her dead husband as his reanimated corpse  slouches its way up the stairs toward her looking for a snack.
On the other hand, 28 days is an excellent movies, and overall probably my favorite Zombie flick. The fast zombies work really well and are hella scary. the key to this, though,is that jim and his companions keep moving. faster zombies work best if the characters are on the move, in the open.
The Dawn of The Dead remake was nhilistic crap, though, and fast or slow, I just didn't care. The original film has a great opening with the flight from the  collapsing city, but it grinds to a fucking halt when they get to the mall. The remake has them in the mall earlier and it sucks even harder. "There's a whole world of zombies out there lets hide in here," makes sense if you're in the real world; but it's a crap idea for a movie.

Quote from: AosOn the other hand, 28 days is an excellent movies, and overall probably my favorite Zombie flick. The fast zombies work really well and are hella scary. the key to this, though,is that jim and his companions keep moving. faster zombies work best if the characters are on the move, in the open.

Yeah, see I thought 28 Days Later had some good ideas, but was poorly written and poorly acted.  I still can't understand who would see a pile of wrecked cars in a dark tunnel and decide to try to drive _over_ them.  And I hated how the characters only looked for zombies when the script called for zombies to be there.  Like the grocery store scene where they loaded up on goods---no one even bothered to check to see if the place was crawling with infected.  I don't know, things like that just bug me.  It wasn't a bad movie, but I think it could have been a great movie if someone had paid a little more attention to details.      
 
Pete

Quote from: pspahnYeah, see I thought 28 Days Later had some good ideas, but was poorly written and poorly acted.  I still can't understand who would see a pile of wrecked cars in a dark tunnel and decide to try to drive _over_ them.  And I hated how the characters only looked for zombies when the script called for zombies to be there.  Like the grocery store scene where they loaded up on goods---no one even bothered to check to see if the place was crawling with infected.  I don't know, things like that just bug me.  It wasn't a bad movie, but I think it could have been a great movie if someone had paid a little more attention to details.      
 
Pete

The bit that got to me was when the tire went, they decided rather than driving on the rim for a couple of minutes to stop in the darkened tunnel to change it.

I prefer the fast zombies because I can't take the threat of the shufflers seriously.  Especially after the orange blood, blue make up zombies of the original DawnOTD.

Zombies are just one medium to show us the inevitability of death, which is where the chills come from.  Whether its slow zombies (the Romero zombie films, the Blob etc) or fast moving zombies (28 days, the Snyder DotD etc) their speed (or lack of it) doesn't matter.  They work because ultimately they will win and there's nothing we can do about it.

Quote from: StumpydaveI prefer the fast zombies because I can't take the threat of the shufflers seriously.  

Me neither, which isn't much of a problem.  The problem arises when I can't get my players to take them seriously.  I don't want to spend half the night arguing about how the zombies should never have been able to sneak up on them, or the physics of why they can't just drive through a huge mob of zombies, or why, if the zombies move so slowly, they should even have to roll to deliver a head shot, etc.  Fast zombies eliminate that problem nicely.  

And yeah, if my car could move, I would have driven it on 4 rims.  It's not like they couldn't have found a replacement!  

Pete

Quote from: BalbinusThe bit that got to me was when the tire went, they decided rather than driving on the rim for a couple of minutes to stop in the darkened tunnel to change it.

Agreed.
The sad fact is, though, that every zombie film I've ever seen relies on character stupidity to move the plot. The orginal Dawn has some really blatent examples of this, like when they land the hellicopter to refeul and everybody decides to split up and explore the abandoned airport.

Quote from: AosAgreed.
The sad fact is, though, that every zombie film I've ever seen relies on character stupidity to move the plot. The orginal Dawn has some really blatent examples of this, like when they land the hellicopter to refeul and everybody decides to split up and explore the abandoned airport.

I can sort of forgive that, though, because no one really started calling people on stupid stuff like that until the late 80s early 90s.  Nowadays, filmmakers should know better.  

Pete

I'm probably the only person alive who didn't know this. But at the movies last night I saw the poster for 28 weeks later. All us fast zombie fans may be in for a treat.

And this is semi-OT, so I apologize to the OP, but did anyone else notice the calendar scene in the very beginning of the original Dawn of the Dead.  Doesn't it count off 28 days?  I wonder if that had anything to do with the title for 28DL.  

And, I hadn't heard about 29 weeks.  Thanks!

Pete

Quote from: jdrakehTechnically, things like Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1976) are zombie flicks, as well. The "zombie" in film is best defined as a formerly sentient being turned into a primal automaton by an outside agent. . . from Romero's "ghouls" (again, in the original NotLD, they were never referred to as "zombies") to the victims of Rage in 28 Days Later.

And in literature, you have things like the "phoners" of Stephen King's Cell. Some may even argue that that the replicants of John W. Campbell's Who Goes There? qualify as zombies* -- the basic requirements are there, if you follow Campbell's story (the films skew it a bit)*.

*They (Campbell's replicants) deviate from almost all other zombies in film and literature, as they demonstrate advanced intelligence, although I've seen it argued that such intellect isn't real, but merely mimicked as part of a thing's natural camoflauge (as such, things can't take any real initiative and formulate their own ideas). This seems to be true of "things" in the short story, but not in the films.

I like this line of thinking. Zombies if I ever use them as the main critters in a campaign would surely follow this route. There's always the other way... the Shaun of the Dead mode, but that way lies madness...(which is to say I used it before -in WFRP no less)

Regards,
David R

Quote from: pspahnAnd this is semi-OT, so I apologize to the OP, but did anyone else notice the calendar scene in the very beginning of the original Dawn of the Dead.  Doesn't it count off 28 days?  I wonder if that had anything to do with the title for 28DL.  

And, I hadn't heard about 29 weeks.  Thanks!

Pete

No need to apologize, it's zombie related and might be a good observation.

Quote from: pspahnYeah, see I thought 28 Days Later had some good ideas, but was poorly written and poorly acted.  I still can't understand who would see a pile of wrecked cars in a dark tunnel and decide to try to drive _over_ them.  And I hated how the characters only looked for zombies when the script called for zombies to be there.  Like the grocery store scene where they loaded up on goods---no one even bothered to check to see if the place was crawling with infected.  I don't know, things like that just bug me.  It wasn't a bad movie, but I think it could have been a great movie if someone had paid a little more attention to details.

Civilians do stupid things, particularly when suffering from PTSD.  However, I think that the writer had that fantastic image of the rats fleeing from the infected, knew that it needed to be in the movie and then had to write the plot around it

I first watched it with my gaming group and, near the start when the protagonist is wandering over Blackfriars Bridge I actually said "You know, by this point, we'd be speeding around in one of those ambulances looking for a TA barracks*."  One of my players responded with "And we'd have found a frock coat and tricorn from somewhere."

* Territorial Army ~= National Guard

I like the concept of zombies that are smart at first but have their brains deteriate over time. Throw in the pain and hunger of the change and it makes for great story telling with some Zombies trying to fight off the madness while others just give in and devour everyone. Then even if a PC becomes infected the story still can continue. I used this plotline for my last cthulhu game in fact.