The October Zombie-Thon! - Day 28: I Zombie
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.28.2007
The first ever emo zombie movie.
I ZOMBIE: THE CHRONICLES OF PAIN (1998)
Written & Directed by: Andrew Parkinson
Country: UK
When you think "zombie movie," you don't normally think "intimate character piece." And yet here we have I Zombie, which is not only one of the more introspective living-dead films you'll ever see, but is also the most depressing.
And when I say depressing, I mean depressing. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against downbeat films. In fact, when it comes to the horror genre, I'm all for doom and gloom – I've seen far too many scare-films ruined by a completely inappropriate happy ending. But even have my limits, and I Zombie comes close to crossing them. This thing is so relentlessly depressing, I bet even Morrissey would watch it and say "wow, that could have been a bit cheerier."
Mark is a young student living with his girlfriend, Sarah, in London. Besides a little difficulty trying to make time for Sarah in addition to all his studying, things are otherwise going pretty well for the guy. That is until he comes across an apparently injured and ill young woman out in the country, while doing some field research. Being the decent bloke he is, Mark picks the woman up, intending to carry her to help. Bad move – she instantly bites him on the neck, causing Mark to drop the woman and wander out into the nearby fields, where he eventually collapses from the blood loss.
When Mark eventually comes to, he instinctively attacks and eats a nearby hiker. Confused and horrified by what he has done, Mark realizes he can not return to Sarah and his normal life. Instead, he rents out a small flat and, being the curious student he is, decides to document his new condition, in order to better understand and possibly cure it.
Mark learns that he is able to live somewhat normally for about four days, at which point he is stricken with intense pain which doesn't subside until he has consumed human flesh. Although understandably disgusted by this, Mark goes along with it – because what can you do, really? But even as Mark begins kidnapping, murdering, and eating hitchhikers and vagrants (Why Mark's neighbors never notice the smell of him burning the remains in his backyard is a question best left un-pondered), he realizes it's doing nothing to stop his physical deterioration. His original neck wound refuses to heal, he's soon covered in sores, and he eventually can barely walk without risking breaking his bones from the effort.
On that note, now's as good a time as any to note that the film's make-up effects are something of a mixed bag. The initial stages of Mark's decay are quite convincing, as are the moments in which Mark tries to "fix" his new wounds with household tools (unfortunately, a great image of Mark patched up with bits of metal-sheeting turns out to be a hallucination). In the end, though, things get a little rougher looking. The final "zombie" make-up is particularly off – he looks more like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly than he does a decomposing human being.
Meanwhile, as Mark struggles to come to terms with his new "life," Sarah is doing the same. Well, not exactly the same, but at the same time Mark is losing his humanity and grip on reality, Sarah is trying to regain her life, which was shattered after Mark's sudden disappearance. The film inter-cuts between the two, effectively showing how Mark's condition has forever changed both of these character's lives – even if one of them has no idea exactly what happened.
Overall, I Zombie is one of those movies that I enjoy more for its ideas than its execution. That's not to say it's a poorly-made-film, or not worth watching. Quite the opposite, really: Parkinson's scripting and directing are both strong, as is the performance of Giles Aspen, as Mark, who brings all the required humanity and pain to the character. Still, the film has its problems, not the least of which is its slow pace. I get that that's somewhat the point – Mark is slowly wasting away, and can do nothing about it, and thus Parkinson wants us to feel this long-lasting agony right along with him. But, given that we can pretty much guess how this one is gonna end (no film called The Chronicles of Pain is gonna have a happy ending), it can definitely feel like an unnecessarily monotonous trek to get to those expected final moments.
I was also bothered that the film didn't spend a little more time exploring Mark's own rationalizing of his new murderous tendencies. The guy is obviously an upright, decent fellow, and so one would imagine he would have a pretty hard time coming to terms with killing innocents. Because of the affliction the film gives Mark, I was ready to accept that he could be driven to these extremes. I just don't think the movie ever really gives us the desired scenes depicting him wrestling with this aspect of his new existence. It's not until the end of the film, when Mark is months into his ordeal, that he says he can't take killing people anymore. Fine, but how did he put up with it before?
Still, even with these minor problems, it's easy to admire the film's unique take on the zombie mythology. After watching film after film showing apocalyptic zombie epidemics quickly wipe out mankind, it's a nice change of pace to instead see the plague represented as more of an under-the-radar, slow-acting disease that, one can assume, might just be more prevalent in this world than we think. In this universe, it's not even exactly clear whether the "zombies" are in fact undead – Mark never really makes it clear whether he still breathes, or has a heartbeat. In a way, the disease is presented more as a sort of extreme leprosy – albeit one that creates an intense hunger for human flesh (did Mark ever even try to eat animals, instead? It seems odd to dive right into feasting on people).
Whether this is more or less realistic than the average cinematic zombie is debatable (frankly, it's not like either are exactly realistic), but the equation between zombie-hood and socially alienating diseases like AIDS gives I Zombie a sort of real-world feeling that you just don't get in most living dead films. Parkinson maintains this feeling by never going for cheap laughs or campy winks towards the genre. This is dead-serious, through and through (although a scene where Mark accidentally mutilates himself while masturbating probably comes across a little more humorous than Parkinson intended).
So will I Zombie appeal to the majority of zombie fans out there? It's a tough call – many will probably be put off by the film's slow pace and more meditative attitude. Then again, the film does finally offer a story told from the point-of-view of the zombie himself, which is an approach surprisingly sparse in the otherwise overcrowded genre. For once, we experience everything through the eyes of he who would most likely be just the monster in any other film, and in many ways it's much more fascinating than the usual zombie fare. We can put ourselves in Mark's shoes, and imagine what it would be like to slowly succumb to such a horrible fate – which might actually be a more horrifying prospect than just being eaten by one of these things, anyway.
For its highly original take on the zombie film, I Zombie must be given credit, even if it is too slow and depressing to earn much re-watch value. If nothing else, the film raises a whole lot of interesting ideas; ideas that it then somewhat avoids. Admittedly, this is because the whole film is from Mark's perspective, and so we can only ever know and experience what he knows and experiences. Luckily, Parkinson would more fully explore the larger ramifications and potential prevalence of this "zombie disease" in a follow-up film, Dead Creatures, which we'll take a look at tomorrow. Still, while I Zombie doesn't quite live up to the potential of its own concept, it's still a unique variation on an often stale genre, and worth at least a casual look from zombie fans who want to take a temporary break from the more typical fare.
FINAL SCORE: 2.5 out of 4 Bubs (Mildly Recommended)
