Nightslayers Sets the Bar for Zombie Cult Flicks:
Dilan Humphrys
When most of us see the trailer for a zombie, vampire, or wizard movie nowadays, we shrug our shoulders and shake it off as another pop culture fan favorite. Soon they are blown out of the water by the movies that go on to win Academy awards and gain worldwide recognition. However this movie raised some eyebrows as soon as the trailer was released in the summer of last year. Slated for a winter opening, the movie was delayed due to production issues and over one hundred extra hours of editing. This flick underwent a surgical procedure that even the Jackson family couldn’t afford. But it was worth it. Late spring brought Nightslayers to the forefront of the box office as it grossed just under $1,640,000,000 earning it the number one spot for the year.
For a zombie movie to make it like this, everyone involved had to have done everything right. Matt Damon’s splendid return to the big screen after a yearlong absence stars him in the role of Kurt Donovan, a struggling single father of two who gets caught up in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Charlize Theron stars alongside Damon in her biggest role since The Italian Job as a waitress at a local restaurant whose quick wits and never-say-die attitude help her escape an attack in her own apartment. She later unites to help keep Donovan and his family alive as they are seemingly the only uninfected humans left in their small Massachusetts town. This movie, though action packed and full of thrills, is not without heartbreak when younger waitress Jamie, played by Kristen Stewart, is infected and turned into one of The Masses, the name for the collective group of zombies. These fast, terrifying, and ultimately deadly creatures kill without a second thought, thus forcing Damon’s character to kill his own daughter with a shotgun blast to the head.
As skeptics looked on for the B movie aspects to this film, others flocked to see what everyone has dubbed “the best zombie film in history” and “what George Romero envisioned zombies would be”. As the film gains more and more praise each day, most of the credit must be given to Sam Raimi, who has directed this, his first blockbuster since Spider-Man 3.
“We all worked really hard to put this thing together. I oversaw this project from the earliest of stages whether it was the writing or casting. It needed to be perfect and it was by the end. It is something we are all very proud of.” Raimi said on the red carpet at the premiere in April. When asked what was next for him and whether or not he had plans to return to the Spider-Man franchise that gained him critical acclaim back in 2002, he responded by saying, “Well the way things are going with this one I might not have to…”
Later that week it was announced that Raimi sold the rights to his Marvel superhero trilogy. Paramount Pictures has begun the search for a new director for the fourth installment, slated for release in summer 2012.
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