28 Days Later vs Lord of the Flies

The theme that unites these two great works seems to be when there are no laws or civilization, human character changes.

In 28 Days Later the portion of the movie that I am referring to takes places at the military compound. These guys in a normal position would be normal military personnel. However, under circumstances where they are the primary authority they become sadistic. These men feel that they are the only normal people left in the world, when that is not the case. They refer to women as a “hope for tomorrow.” They are overwhelmed with thought they are the last people on Earth and are obsessed with guaranteeing the survival of the human race. The soldiers look at the two women as the survival of the human race and will do anything to ensure it. However, the more worldly approach for saving the human race turns into an approach that is centered on self-gratification. Some of the soldiers force themselves onto the two women. As the saying goes, “Absolute power corrupts.”

So you are probably asking yourself, “How does this relate to Lord of the Flies?” Before the children are stranded on the island they are perfectly normal children. Once plane crashes and they kids realize there are no adults things begin to change. The kids lose their innocence and become sadistic. The other thing that parallels these stories is the way the characters view the world. At first the children might still look for ways to get off the island, but after a while the kids seem to accept their new surroundings as the reality and forget about the rest of the world. This is very similar to what happens in 28 Days Later. The soldiers at first might still think the rest of the world is fine, but after being in this compound secluded from the world their mindsets change. The soldiers start to think that they are all that is left in the world, just as the stranded children soon forget that there is a world of people out there. The island is basically the military compound because both isolate their inhabitants from the rest of the world.

So often there are hidden commentaries in media. The question then becomes are these themes imbedded by the author or are these “commentaries” constructed by people that look too deeply into simple stories.

The Changing of the Monsters

Over the years the faces of monster movies have changed and so have the monsters themselves. Monsters are no longer slow moving and dumb. The have evolved to a much quicker breed. There are two ares where this is easiest to see, zombies and vampires.

In older zombie movies, zombies were extremely slow moving. In the 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead, the zombies are so slow that people can literally walk right past them. The only reason the zombies are any trouble at all is because the people board themselves into a house. The zombies eventually overwhelm the house and eat the peoples brains. This brings up another thing about zombies from older movies, they really like eating brains. I mean, why brains? Are brains really that delicious? Maybe the zombies thinks that if they eat brains they will get smarter...I don't know.

In new zombie movies the zombies are much faster and ferocious. In the new age zombie thriller, 28 Days Later, the zombies could probaly compete with an olympic relay team, as far as speed goes. The zombies in this movie are not that smart, but they seemed to have heightened senses, specifically smell and hearing. Theses new zombies seem to have a different pallet then old school zombies. These zombies do not eat the same amount of brains, they tend to prefer a big meaty leg.

The next monster that is changing is the vampire. Think of what old vampire movies were. Movies like Nosferatu portray vampires as old guys that are creepy and live in castles. Vampires were portrayed as very suave and they have this sort of sex appeal about them that the opposite sex cannot refuse. Old school vampires used there charm to seduce their victims, they also seemed to have a type of mind control. Vampires used to be something that was very feared and respected. People did not want to be associated with that vampire lifestyle.

Vampires nowadays are young and cool. Think of Blade, which is not really a horror movie, but shows how vampires are seen in society today. Vampires are younger. They no longer live is castles. They go to raves and own night clubs. In movies vampires are still seen as having a sex appeal about them. However, the lifestyle of vampires is being glorified more and more. Instead of seeing vampires as something evil and sometihng to be feared; people see vampires as a trend and a kind of stlye.

Monsters are not what they used to be. They are no longer these freaks of nature that nobody understands. Monsters are culture and monsters are everywhere.