This new zombie flick had an incredibly small release, and definitely did not get half of the recognition that this brilliant film deserves. When the small, peaceful town of Centerville finds itself dealing with the dead when they start rising from their graves, it's up to the quirky, hilarious, and ill-equipped groups of characters to make it out alive. Honestly, this movie is cheesy and kind of cringy, but it's absolutely hilarious and is made with flawless direction and a brilliant script. The whole movie, you might just be asking yourself, "is this a giant metaphor?", and the answer is yes, it is, and it's spectacular. Here are five things that this incredible flick got right in its metaphorical journey about society, and five that might have missed the mark.
Got It Right: People Are Desensitized to Violence
One thing this film tried to demonstrate was definitely that zombies, violence, and death are totally regular and honestly, kind of yawn worthy. It's a common joke throughout the film that all the characters totally know how to handle a zombie apocalypse and dying people. Obviously, right? Besides the weirdness that is Tilda Swinton, even Ronnie, Zoe and her crew, and a bunch of the other characters are totally desensitized to what's going on. It's just a movie, it's in the script, right? This is quite the clever message of our writers, and it's pretty accurate with today's consumption of media.
Got It Wrong: Homeless People Steal
While Tom Waits brilliantly plays the narrator, a homeless man, throughout the film, his character is pretty much just used to narrate the final scene and provide an "outside look" throughout the film.
While he's actually seen as pretty smart, considering he's (spoiler) one of the only characters to survive, Hermit Bob has a ton of run-ins with the police (they know him pretty well), and he even admits to stealing chickens from a farm. Again, funny, but we're not super sure we like the criminal side of this character.
Got It Right: At-Risk Youth Have Potential
There's a very interesting, and seemingly redundant, subplot in this film surrounding three juvenile detention inmates. While these kids are clearly there for a reason, the young boy (Geronimo), is one of the only characters in the entire film to correctly explain polar fracking and how it has altered the Earth's rotation (he also predicts the zombie apocalypse). While this is kind of hilarious, it's also pretty sneaky of the writers. These kids aren't meant to be the bad guys, and this film definitely takes on progressive views, including that these poor kids have a lot to offer.
Got It Wrong: The Woman Cop is Useless
Honestly, this film did a lot of mocking of small town police forces, and most of it was pretty funny. However, Mindy is the only female cop featured, and she's probably the most useless character in the entire film.
For starters, she can't handle the scene in the diner (and vomits profusely), and then cannot handle the stress before she throws herself to her zombie death. We're not super loving this stereotype, because there are definitely some badass women out there. In fact, we're betting they'd probably last way longer in the zombie apocalypse.
Got It Right: Small Town Sheriffs Aren't All About Justice
We're not dismissing police officers in any way, shape, or form, but this film is kind of comedic and bang on about some of the problems we see with police forces in North America. This town is clearly small, and we see some pretty bad examples of Cliff (Bill Murray) totally slacking in his duties (including sleeping in the jail cell and letting an alleged thief go because they went to high school together). In fact, this film was pretty brilliant in the tiny details. If you noticed, the three cops' last names are literally "Peterson", "Morrison", and "Robertson". Could that be any more predictable?
Got It Wrong: Millennials Don't Care About Society
The only young adults we're introduced to in this film is Zoe, Jack, and Zack, and even their names are pretty face-palm worthy. They're on a road trip and have no cares in the world, because all Millennials are carefree, obviously. This trio laughs off pretty much everything that anyone tells them, and they also have zero interest in the town, the people, or basically anything but themselves and their car.
While funny, we're a little offended. Millennials are making waves against climate change and towards social action. This total disregard for society is actually kind of super inaccurate, as we're pretty sure that this generation cares a lot more about our future as a whole.
Got It Right: Social Media and Wifi Are Addictions
Once the dead reanimate themselves and start wandering the streets of Centerville, viewers quickly learn that these zombies talk. Not only do they talk, but they only speak one word at a time, and a lot of it has to do with technology. Throughout the film, there are zombies shown searching for cellphones and chanting "wifi". While this is humorous, it's definitely a jab at 21st century technology and how it has totally consumed us. Honestly, this entire film is a HUGE metaphor that is pretty much claiming that we are all media zombies. We're all dead and on our phones, searching for that sweet connection. This is pretty accurate in today's society, as much as we don't want to believe it.
Got It Wrong: Wifi Coverage and Coffee Are Not Our Only Values
While we are definitely understanding our addiction to Wifi and social media, we're not totally convinced that we are ALL totally oblivious to everything else and don't value human connection at all. Sure, we could all unplug a little more often, but doesn't new technology actually aid us in remaining connected to people, even if they're miles away from us?
We may have our hands tied to our phones, but we also love these platforms for keeping us so closely tied to everyone around us. Technology does, in fact, keep us closer together. Doesn't it?
Got It Right: People Are Consumerist Zombies
Similar to the theme of Wifi and social media, this movie also jabs at society for its obsession with consumerism, and how we all value ourselves based on our material goods. For example, we're all familiar with the "coffee" zombies, who kill the women in the diner for coffee. There are also zombies seen breaking store windows for clothes or other expensive goods. Again, we are all consumerist zombies just waltzing through life for things. Again, partially true, and our consumerist nature has definitely flown off the rails and devoured all of North America. People are definitely too obsessed with money and the things that this wealth buys them.
Got It Wrong: Not All People Are Selfish Materialists
Sure, consumerism has become a downward spiral that is leaving pretty much every North American its victim. However, there is always two sides to every coin. Honestly, we'd like to think we're also getting smarter about consumerism, and that this generation has been trying hard to encourage people to spend their "consumer dollars" more wisely, and to love life for things other than money and stuff. We choose the more optimistic view, which is that this new generation is trying hard to change our life motto from "live to work" to "work to live". Money doesn't buy happiness, and many young people don't actually care about high-paying jobs anymore. Yet, like this film tries to drive home, there is always room for improvement. No one wants to be a zombie, right?