Tracey sat down with author Isaac Marion who is the author of Warm Bodies. With the film of his book out and doing well, Tracey took in our questions and Isaac was kind enough to share his thoughts.
By Tracey Barrientos
Within the last six years, Zombies have become a huge pop culture craze. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know honestly, people ask me that a lot and I don’t really have a theory on it. The things that interest me are not the same as what most people respond to because what I find interesting is about the zombies themselves and what they are and kind of how they work and what they would think about. That is what has always interested me while watching zombie movies but that is never what is explored.They are usually used as props for people to shoot at. With that kind of thing I don’t really know what it is that people get so excited about. It might often be that zombies go hand in hand with the Apocalypse and that is sort of another big interest. People want to see society wiped out which is sort of a common fantasy. I know I used to think about it as a kid what it would be like if it was just me and my buddies if the world was wiped out and we could do whatever we want and write our own rules. So that intrigued me about it and that may be part of the public appeal.
What is your take on the fast moving vs slow moving zombie debate
I am not sure why that is as big of a deal as it is to people. I definitely understand why their doing that because it is much harder to make something scary if you can outrun it. The original zombie movies had to go through much more complicated lengths to make sure it was a threat because if something cant run, you would have to get trapped by it and it’s hard to make that work without the characters being really stupid and getting themselves trapped. So it requires much more creativity to pull that off. Creativity is not really in plentiful supply in Hollywood these days so it sort of makes sense that they go towards fast zombies. It is an easy way for thrills which I think is a different approach to the idea.
Do you think the genre is in danger of being over saturated with so many zombie projects out and currently in the making?
Yes most definitely, I think it was over saturated a long time ago. I didn’t write this to be an addition to it. It’s not a spoof but a deconstruction of the whole idea. I wasn’t trying to add the latest zombie thriller to the genre. It was more like a response to how saturated it was already. It was such a pop cultural element I was like, I want to use this to turn it inside out as a vehicle to explore different ideas.
Out of all the new shows, films or games out there, what is your favorite and why?
I don’t really play video games anymore. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite. My interest in the genre is probably between 28 Days Later and Shawn of the Dead They are both from opposite sides of the spectrum. The idea can be really fun and comedic but it can also be genuinely heavy and dark and both of those films do those things. Where I explored it was in the middle where I tried to have it both ways. There is comedy but also moments where it’s intense and dark.
With any book turned movie changes are always made. Are you happy with how close to you think they stuck to the book?
The plot is pretty much the same, however the ending is a little different as far as how it gets there and where is ends up. The storyline is pretty close and the deviations are more in the town of it. It skewes more towards comedy and doesn’t have quite as much heavy going on. Considering in what happens in adaptations how difficult it would have been to actually pull off that duality with the really heavy stuff with the light hearted stuff. It’s hard enough to do it in a novel where you have all the space you want to make those transitions. Given all of that stuff, its is pretty close and is about 80% there.
Are you happy with the cast that was chosen to portray your characters?
Yes! Especially Nicholas Holt. Both of the leads nailed it but Nicholas was just great. His character was the one I was most worried about. It’s such a difficult role to pull off because he doesn’t really speak and he has to deliver these awkward halted lines without sounding like somebody just impersonating a zombie.
Do you have any plans to continue the story with a sequel?
I just finished writing a prequel which is sort of like a novella of about 150 pages that will sort of be an interlude between this and an actual sequel which is what I am working on now and that will be the conclusion of it. Then I plan to move on to some non Zombie things.
Skewed & Reviewed would like to thank Isaac Marion for the participation in this interview.
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