World War Z and the nightmares it gave me
I’ve almost definitely said before that I am a bit of a kinemortophobe. I assume the “kine” part is for moving and the “morto” is obviously for dead. So, moving dead, I am afraid of them. Sentient dead would be a more accurate descriptor of what puts the shits up me, but something dead could be completely and utterly mindless and if it was still pottering around I would be jolly alarmed.
Anyway, despite being actually seriously afraid of any possibility of the shuffling deceased, I not only watch a lot of horror but I tend to be drawn to zombie-related media as well. Perhaps the very definition of a morbid fascination.
When World War Z appeared on Netflix, I of course watched it, I couldn’t resist the draw of a big budget zombie apocalypse movie. Even though I hadn’t read the book, I assumed it would all be fine. And I do really like the film! I’ve curled up under a blanket on the sofa to watch it on my own a few times.
Earlier this year I finally got around to reading the book. And it turns out that the film is nothing like it; some of the mentioned people seem to have been used as a basis for characters that appeared in the film, but the book is still very different. It’s written as a series of interviews with people who survived the titular World War Z (which, even as an English person, I assume is meant to be pronounced as “Zee” to rhyme with “three”, rather than “Zed” as we would usually say the letter; “World War Zed” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it). The war is over and its events are in the past (although there are still plenty of zombies bobbing at the bottom of the ocean, and they occasionally cause trouble by surfacing on beaches).
Despite knowing that all of the people giving interviews to the storyteller obviously lived through the war, it was still a bloody unsettling book.
EYEBALL NOW FLYING UPWARD AGAINST ITS FOREHEAD?!
The above passage actually inspired a very vivid nightmare about escaping an apartment in a similar manner.
To be honest, this book gave me a lot of nightmares, I don’t remember them all that clearly but I remember that I was ALARMED.
But also, I do really like the book, and I think there should be a World War Z movie more closely based on it, portraying some of the experiences told in the interviews. It can still be tense as all fuck even if you know the character survives.
If you are interested in my general book-reading, you can check out my Goodreads profile. I’m currently considering what to read next.
