I've had it with these motherf*cking zombies on this motherf*cking train (Train to Busan, 2016)

Too many zombies spoil the……well, everything.

As far as zombie’s go, quite often they suffer from their fundamental limitations e.g. they’re dead fucking bodies and from just being a classic monster in general. To be genuinely exciting or interesting zombie movies have to be approached in a new and interesting way. This is why I was so happy to watch ‘Train to Busan’ (2016, directed by Yeon Sang-ho) and why it was so enjoyable.

To be quite honest over-saturation is the bane of my horror watching experience. I never quite recover from revival periods of themes/ monsters, which is kind of my own fault for obsessively watching only one genre. However, when it comes to zombies this time I have something else to blame: 

The Walking Dead.
First of all if you’re an avid walking dead fan then proceed with caution because my only real talent is to rant. So here is why the walking dead sucks and ruins zombies:

• It has clunky characters who are either stereotypical, do cliché-as-fuck things or are just downright unlikable (as in mate, I do not give a shit if you die, please get on with it).           
• It takes a whole season for a major plot point to be realised, they just drag it on. The way it is done, with one action packed episode followed by one filler episode where nothing happens and everyone just talks about their shitty feelings is excruciating to sit through. This happens with a lot of long running shows which is why many shows that are actually decent only have one or few seasons.
  
  I think I sat through this shitty formula for up until season 5 or maybe it was 4 before realising this show is just the TV equivalent show a shitty Buzzfeed clickbait article; the ones where upon reading  them are so absolutely brain melting that you don’t even care about the reason you were drawn to it in the first place.

•  Every season of the walking dead is the same premise i.e. group overthrows Baddy McBadguy only to move onto the next town and oh look, another bad guy whose exploiting everyone’s desperation. Boss battles are fine in video games but they’re boring as hell to watch.

Seriously can these guys fucking get eaten by zombies already?

Ok end rant. Basically, what I am saying is this: Train to Busan achieves in its two hours what The Walking dead been trying to achieve in all its now 8 seasons. Which is to convey the idea that “humans are the real monsters” and that in a zombie apocalypse, the real bad guys are the ones who are only out for themselves.
While The Walking Dead ham-fistedly fists me in brain with this, Train to Busan does it with finesse and frankly charm.

A father, Seok-woo and young daughter, Soo-an who have become estranged since a divorce, take a train from Seoul to Busan. Meanwhile a zombie apocalypse has begun and the virus quickly begins to spread from the back of the train forward, providing a tense and high-speed fight for survival.

I loved this movie! It was above all else an immensely enjoyable mixture of horror and action. What didn’t work for snakes on a plane works perfectly for zombies on a train. 

The setting gave an added element of claustrophobia which was the perfect way to keep me on the edge of my seat. 

I really felt the terror of the characters as they moved only forward through the carriages- not only do they have to run as fast as they can away from the zombies, but they also have to wait for the train to get to Busan, essentially trapping them in a nightmare

This movie also successfully uses the moments of calm to build strong characters and set up the concept of human compassion in a time of chaos and survival. Soo-an schools her father in kindness in simple ways such as giving up her seat for others and in more direct ways by challenging him on why exactly kindness is needed. These little moments effectively foreshadow later conflicts with other passengers.

Train to Busan is full of relate-able and multi-dimensional characters who you root for the entire time and is a fresh take on a zombie apocalypse thriller. I’m giving it a 9/10.

………Also I give The Walking Dead a -9/10