Article by Marie Robinson
Greetings, readers! I hope you are enjoying your summer, because it
is a cool 98 degrees in St. Louis (where is Nick Lachey when you need
him?). Did I mention that I hate hot, humid weather? I have been trying
to spend most of the daytime in air-conditioned movie theatres, and
using the cool nights for walks. Speaking of creatures of the night…
When
you think of the American Civil War, you probably think of the battles
and the blood, the dead men strewn across the field, who now rest in
chipping graves in their very own section of the cemetery (assuming you
have a morbid imagination). However, two recent releases have turned our
thoughts toward the undead in the eighteen hundreds.
2011’s
Exit
Humanity and 2012’s
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter tell tales of
centuries-old monsters we know all too well: zombies and vampires. We
all have seen a thousand films featuring both, but these two have a
shared twist to the old trope.
One of the many things Christine
and I have in common is we are sick and tired of zombies, or
“dead-walks”, if we want to use the adorable nickname given in the film I
have mentioned above. Don’t get me wrong, I love the classics, can’t
get enough of the golden days of George A. Romero, but after a while,
shit gets old. They have ceased to be scary and instead become stale.
Yet as film companies seem to green light ANYTHING that features a
drooling, vacant-eyed, blood-smeared face on the poster, I have begun to
ask myself, “What else can they do?”
But when I caught wind of
Exit Humanity and saw the trailer, I found myself actually excited for a
zombie film (I’m sorry if I am hurting any zombie lover’s feelings, I
hope I can patch things up between us as this article trails on).
Written and directed by John Geddes (who seems to be building himself a
career in the horror genre), the film is narrated by Brian Cox who
introduces himself as Malcolm Lee. He reads to us from a journal that is
written by a distant relative, Edward Young (Mark Gibson). Edward
writes to us from a time where the war has just ended, in a Tennessee
where zombies outnumber humans. Distraught after having to kill both his
wife and son with his own shotgun after they had become monsters just
like so many others, he now wanders the wooded South with his horse,
Shiloh.
At first I didn’t think I was going to like the movie, it
seemed like just another fight for survival among the undead. Now
although I am usually very stubborn to watch zombie movies - because I
think the story can only be so unique - there is something about zombies
that allow for quite a bit of creative flexibility: they don’t exist.
But there are a consistent set of traits that people have established
about them over the years, and our Civil War era zombies are given the
following: they are have no speed beyond a stagger, they must be dealt a
fatal wound to the head to be killed, and they possess wide,
unsettling, inky-black eyes.
As the movie progressed and the plot
thickened, I found myself more and more enthralled by the film. Edward
stumbles upon a fellow living person named Isaac (Adam Seybold)
who basically forces him to accompany on his crazy mission to find his
sister, whom he believes was kidnapped by the dreaded General Williams
(played by Bill Moseley, who has been a horror veteran since the 80’s)
who has a sinister plan of his own.
Although the time period gave
Exit Humanity the film and the genre a refreshing twist, it isn’t the
first time we humans have heard of zombies in the American South.
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| Painting of a Haitian zombie |
Voodoo
was introduced to Louisiana through Haitian slaves in the
seventeen-hundreds, and became abundant in the 19th century. It became a
dominant religion among slaves and was also a way for them to express
their culture and stay in touch with their tribal roots.
Zombies
exist in Voodoo culture as a reanimated corpse, devoid of its soul, that
had been resurrected by a Voodoo priest or queen. Voodoo queens became
important and powerful figures in the eighteen-hundreds, particularly
around the time of the Civil War. Voodoo zombies are usually used as
servants, or to carry out some task for the creator; they were often
used to work the fields. A priest or queen must capture the soul of the
deceased person in order to create a zombie, prevention of this included
relatives stabbing a dead loved one in the heart, or cutting off the
head.
On encountering his first zombie, our protagonist Edward
Young says, “It was though he was alive, but had been stripped of his
soul…”
I must admit that I did want to see
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but the reason I followed through is
because I got to see it for free (perks of working at a movie theatre). I
suggest that you see it ONLY if you can view it under similar
circumstances. The 3D was impressive, and I was into it for about thirty
minutes, and then when it started trying to have this whole “serious
plot” thing, I was pretty much done.
Unlike zombies, I CANNOT get
enough of vampires. If there is a movie where vampires are involved,
there is a 90% chance that I will see it, and probably a 70% chance that
I will like it.
Similar to zombies, you can play around with
appearances and traits, and I must admit, the bloodsuckers were pretty
bad-ass looking in
Abraham Lincoln. Once they got a taste for that
crimson human sweet stuff, their faces get all distorted and
hideous—Buffy style! These vamps can also walk in the sun, but they
can’t be seen in mirrors… Not that I can really get mad about it—like
I’ve said before, they aren’t real.
The film, directed by Timur
Bekmambetov (known for
Wanted and the
Night Watch series) and written by
Seth Grahame-Smith (the same guy wrote the book), doesn’t begin during
the Civil War. First you meet a poor, young Lincoln who finds his hatred
for the undead in the vampire who killed his mother. Years later, in a
bar, he meets a man who tells him that he is a vampire hunter, and can
teach him the ways of killing the beasts—which isn’t with a wooden
stake, but with silver.
Abraham wields his weapon of choice—an
axe with a silver blade—and goes to work. Things get awkward for the
Yankees when they discover that the Confederacy has vampires in their
army, but luckily, Honest Abe is Commander in Chief, and he
just-so-happens to be a bad-ass slayer.
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| Bill Compton serving in the Civil War |
Seth Grahame-Smith may
think he had the cutest idea by writing Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,
and he sure as hell made a lot of money on it, but he isn’t the first
one to think that the South is a good place for fangers.
True
Blood’s own Bill Compton fought for the Confederacy just before he was
made into a vampire, and we can’t forget Charlaine Harris, who wrote the
series of books that inspired the show that I am truly obsessed with.
Horror author heroine Anne Rice, who is a Louisiana native, has written
of bloodsuckers in her hometown of New Orleans.
I even have the pleasure
of owning a book entitled Vampire Stories from the American South
edited by Lawrence Schimel and Martin H. Greenberg, which features
stories published as early at 1939.
The South is perhaps the most
whimsical, cultural, and mysterious place in the United States; it’s no
wonder that the people who die there refuse to stay dead.