Once upon a time, in a town not so far away from here, two unknowing little sprouts started a weekend trend that would end in one of them carrying on the legacy for life. Everyone has a starting point, that one moment. The soundtrack, the attitude, the look, the boobs!! HA! I got to see boobs at 5 years old! Don't ask me how, or what my family was thinking, I said before they were most likely just too busy to care at all. At least they waited a few years before letting us dive right on in I guess.
"Nah dude, It's totally cool! Me and her have a history!"
To be honest, we started with Thriller. It made me a little less afraid because it was Michael Jackson, and afterwards, we got to immediately watch how the entire thing was made, even the costumes and zombies because we had the VHS, which turned into multiple copies. We grew a little more and snuck quick views of movies like 976-EVIL. My cousin and I, as I said before, grew into everything together, even horror movies, but we could only be kept at bay for so long. We were wild, care free, and 5 years old!
This whole thing is for you, I miss you so much, but look at me! addressing things and all!
Now here's a rundown. My cousin Nicky had a condition. She had very weak muscles, it was hard to walk, talk or sometimes even just move. She proved to be a lot to handle (before she was even born) and my Grandparents took her on without hesitation. I spent her entire life with her, extremely close to every single moment. Even after my Mom and I had moved out of the house and become established with a cool ass Dad (finally). I saw Nicky, or talked to her daily. Weekends, we were sure to be together, it was just a given. And we couldn't do much. So we turned to this movie.
Excuse us, have you seen our teeth? WE NEED EM FOR BRAINS RaAaGgGhHh!
Now, when I say 'turned to' what I mean is Friday night "lets watch it once". Saturday "Lets watch it three times!". Sunday "I know we gotta go home soon but.. there's plenty of time to watch it just one more time!". In between that, there were car rides, where we alternated between the official movie soundtrack, and Michael Jackson. I at this point, had no clue what punk rock was. But you could say this was my first real exposure to it obviously. The soundtrack is iconic. It was our routine.
I didn't really watch horror movies with anyone else. I loved horror, it was all I talked about besides cartoons. The rest of our family wasn't as receptive as most. They just didn't really watch horror movies when I was younger, now I realize she was just trying to shelter my mind just a little but for what? They were just movies! So instead I would glue myself to cartoons until I could get my fix. It was my sense of normalcy to other kids. I was different in absolutely every way. And I even did 'growing out of cartoons' wrong!
HUUGGGGSSS!!!!
In 1994, after a lot of years of being totally tough, my cousin got really sick one day. She stopped eating, she stopped leaving her room. Eventually, she had to be hospitalized and it was made official. She was rapidly dying of cancer, there wasn't anything anyone could do. After spending almost every single day with her, I was put into a room with her after she was brought home. She couldn't talk, she just laid there, no response, no anything. I was absolutely crushed.
I had just lost my Grandfather, it couldn't even come a quarter way in comparison to this. Luckily I did not have to watch her pass, I would have died along with her. She wasn't a cousin, I will admit it at this point, family tree naming aside, she was my first SISTER. I stopped watching horror movies. I stopped talking to the friends I had. I had become totally broken at this point.
I attached myself to my mom. People stopped talking to each other, things fell apart, and no one could deal with feelings. A year later my grandmother died and after that we REALLY went nutso. It was the most horrible experience I have ever been through, and I have been through a lot. It wasn't until a few years later that my aunt of the past with the magic movie would come to stay with us for a while.
One day she put up a movie rack, and on it, dust free, and covered in that grainy film was the 'HBO Home Video' logo. And as I pulled the movie out to glance at the cover just to see it again, someone told me just to watch it. Not some THING, someone. I pressed play and felt safe again, I had a blanket back. In other words, I was human again, I started talking more, and seeking help for things. My mom and I started having horror movie nights, and I rekindled a love, all because of the movie that started it all in the first place.
You know, that little kids gonna grow up to be A fine lookin' young man, lemme corrupt his mind quick
I can't really explain what it was that attracted us in general. Maybe it was the bit of humor added to make it OK? I remember being scared, but I also remember how good it felt to be a little scared of something. Maybe its because there wasn't super massive amounts of blood and gore, the effects are tastefully done. The campiness of the movie and spur of the moment acting add to the realism. Everyone is yelling through the entire movie. There is clear panic in the air. You don't have to know what the rest of the city is experiencing, everything is centered into one square block because, well just because it fit so well together. I said this about other stuff but, being stuck in one isolated area with nowhere to run is what makes a movie for me. Zombie movies have lost their touch with lengthy, TV show worthy stories and fast running weird looking, toxic radiated, virus infected.. It just isn't the same.
I will always cherish zombies that come out of the ground, and dramatic scenes involving such. I am from Pennsylvania, our zombies are totally different, and we created what you know, so take my God damn advice.
Anyways, it was that and you know, the 💥BOOBIES💥 did it, totally not gonna lie. I am admitting it here and now, this movie totally got me in touch with the 'dirty bird' super super young. Maybe that was for the best, because seeing the 'absolute hottest strip tease ever' 10 million times in my life, has made me totally timid and I am moving onto another topic because my face is burning just using these horrible words you monsters! I'm a virgin! Ok, I'll stop seriously.
The wardrobe choice is what attracted me to the weird, I knew what a mohawk was because of 'Scuz', I knew punks wore Camo because of Spider. When I got into punk rock as a whole, I knew hair dye and whining from Billy Joe Armstrong, but my wardrobe was totally influenced from right here (The best I could, I was still a nerd even as a tough punk rocker).
And finally, the zombies. The highlight, those terrifying brain eaters with so many icons with names that will always be remembered like 'Tar Man' and 'Cop zombie'. They weren't super fast, they didn't rip out your guts in totally awesome FX. They were the closest relation to what I originally knew as zombies from the very beginning. They were grim and ghastly looking monsters. As much as I love George Romero and his series, Day of the Dead is my favorite due to decomposition state. They just look and act more like monsters. And I got that picky attitude from these little beauties. Knocking down plywood in droves and TALKING! HA! talking zombies.. oh man... You know, reality?
Also, they were a little more innocent on the gore factor, sure you had some blood spraying but it wasn't ever anything intense. I still like that to this day, give me something simple like you know, Terrifier. Horror has become to torturous and real lately. And I can thank Return of the Living Dead for keeping me from falling into that trap and losing all enjoyment of horror.
It holds such an important piece of my life and it will always be official in my top 2. I want to thank EVERYONE involved because there's so manty names to drop. Bands, actors, movie makers. This is it for me, my total geek movie. For so many important reasons. I still watch it to this day, and to this day, I am still mad about the remaster and loss or switch up of some songs in the film you monsters! I hope that was ok, I don't really know how to do this stuff.
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