Friday, March 25, 2011

Because zombies are overdone...

We all know what the zombie apocalypse might look like. I mean, there are hundreds of movies exploring dozens of possibilities: fast zombies, slow zombies, zombies as an infectious outbreak, zombies where the world has changed and nobody stays dead, stupid zombies, smart zombies... zombies, zombies, zombies.

But there are plenty of other possibilities for a monster apocalypse that I think are... underexplored. Vampire apocalypse, for example. The classic is Richard Matheson's I Am Legend, which spawned at least three movies, including the recent Will Smith version, an older film with the same title, and The Omega Man (featuring Charlton Heston). The treatments differ a little, but the basic dynamics are the same: by night, the vampires hunt humans, and by day the humans hunt vampires.

That's far from the only possibility, though. What if the vampires have taken over because of the hypnotic abilities they're sometimes portrayed as having? What if they can come out in daylight? (In Bram Stoker's book, Dracula could move around just fine in daylight, he just didn't have any powers then and could be killed like a normal man.)

The one I'd really like to see, though, is a werewolf apocalypse. There are tons of possibilities here, and a lot of them depend on the nature of lycanthropy. I can easily picture a scenario, for example, where every full moon there are more of the beasts, and more people dead... but in the days between, you don't know who they are.

What if the infection changes you into a beast permanently? As a human, you'd end up facing off against a world of creatures that were fast, strong, relatively smart, and very hard to kill - oh, and they can follow your scent. Frankly, I'd rather fight vampires.

12 comments:

  1. Have you ever read Dirk I. Tiede's awesome webmanga "Paradigm Shift"? I'm not sure that it perfectly fits your parameters -- yet -- but it may very well be heading toward them.

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  2. No, this is the first I've heard of it. Sounds like I should definitely give it a look.

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  3. Werewolves certainly aren't as played out as zombies and vampires, that's for sure. Personally? I want to see some kind of super- insecticide resistant Giant Asian Hornet swarm scenario. But then it would just be terrifying and we'd have no hope of winning, so it would devolve into an existential consideration of the arbitrary nature of nature itself, I suppose. That's what giant hornets do to me, anyway.

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  4. Giant hornets? ...That's pretty much what they do to me, too.

    Though I suppose it depends on how giant. After all, if they're big enough to be decent targets but still flesh and blood, then it's basically (to paraphrase Burt Gummer) a matter of finding the right ordinance. Honestly, swarms of smaller things are in some ways a lot more frightening.

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  5. Have you heard of Daybreakers? Haven't seen it, but it came to mind when you mentioned vampire apocalypses.

    I like the idea of the werewolf apocalypse. If you could cast Taylor Lautner in it you might have something. Bareback/Benighted is sort of the werewolf non-apocalypse, if that's ever made into a film.

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  6. You're right, I should have mentioned Daybreakers - it's a very interesting take on the idea, not least because having nearly everyone turned into vampires hasn't actually caused the end of the world... yet. The film was far more interesting than I'd really expected it to be.

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  7. Giant water bears are my favorite scenario. Immune to radiation, pressure, dessication, heat, absolute zero, the vacuum of space . . .

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  8. ...Giant...

    ...water...

    ...bears?

    How giant? And are they made of water, or do they just live in it?

    (Yeah, if that's a reference to something, I missed it. The closest I get is the Evil Ones that occupy the Spathi homeworld in Star Control II.)

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  9. Lotr style orcs with rusty guns in apocalyptic setting would be cool! Defend the barely surviving human race and fight the dark lords bloodthirsty hordes of demonic monsters!

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  10. I would definitely watch that movie.

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  11. Water bears, you don't know what they are? Go to google images, and simply type water bears. I dunno why they're called that, but they're microscopic, and somehow survive in SPACE.

    But yes, Werewolves would be a vicious threat moreso than zombies. Dealing with them climbing all over your safehold, and of course the fact of their enhanced senses, etc.

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  12. Cripes, you mean those are real creatures??? I thought I'd just rolled a critical fumble on my Geek Knowledge skill.

    ::reads on Wikipedia::

    Okay, yeah. Giant water bears would be pretty NFBSKing threatening.

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