Zombie-Zombie Reanimates “The Thing”
Theremin-soaked electronica duo Zombie-Zombie cites John Carpenter and Goblin as two of their biggest influences. Appropriately, the “unofficial” music video for their Goblinesque tune “Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free” is a surprisingly complex re-enactment of Carpenter’s The Thing. It features stop-frame animated G.I. Joe dolls wandering stoically through carefully lit, finely crafted model sets, confronting one unearthly horror after another.
I was genuinely creeped out! And suddenly I’m deeply nostalgic for low-budget 80s horror flicks. Time to bust out The Stuff.
(Thanks, Wayne.)
July 29th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
“Jean Carpentier!” I love you! You need to make Cliff-Notes GI Joe/Barbie shorts for every classic film out there. Man, I’d be such a film buff then.
Says on YouTube that this video is “non-official.” To have fans like this! Other bands must be jealous.
July 29th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Hehe…there WAS a disturbing element to that. I think it was the grizzled, emotionless expressions of the G.I. Joes. They knew no one was coming to save them…they were just going through the motions and driving the road until death set them free ;)
July 30th, 2008 at 5:16 am
On the director’s cut dvd. there is an extra scene of the Alien being chased around the underground lair. It was shot using stop fram animation. JC it from the film because he didn’t feel the quality didin’t match up with the rest of the film. It looks very similr to this.
July 30th, 2008 at 6:33 am
pure awesome!
July 30th, 2008 at 8:23 am
That was fantastic. And those models!
July 30th, 2008 at 8:34 am
That is bad ass..!
July 30th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Pretty brilliant – makes me wanna re-watch a mess of Carpenter movies….
July 30th, 2008 at 11:01 am
A loving tribute to one of my all time favorite films!
Also interesting that you mentioned “The Stuff”, as my friend Norm dropped the reference while we were eating a suspiciously similiar substance at Pinkberry last week.
July 30th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Extra kudos for including a figure that looked like Carl Weathers in Rocky III (he’s watching tv when the second Thing gets up from the pool table).
July 30th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
great video. the attention to detail is almost the most disturbing part of the whole thing. how long did it take to make each of those sets?
@ skerror
i completely agree regarding the expressions on the joe figures. it made for an additional chilling effect.
@ nadya
you’re absolutely right! there should be adaptions of this sort for every movie. it’d make the bad ones certainly more watchable and remind you of all the best points of the good ones.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Wow, that was really great!
Also I must express my love for Goblin, I was just listening to their soundtrack to Suspiria while driving to work the other day.
July 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
This reminds me of that X-Files episode in season 1, where they go to Antarctica to investigate that worm that is found in the ice and takes over bodies, except Sculley doesn’t believe in the end :-(
July 30th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Fantastic. And surprisingly well animated, if it was in fact a fan endeavour.
I wonder if they’re just calling it “unofficial” so that they can get away with using G.I. Joe’s in a music video without paying for it.
July 30th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
“…..It features stop-frame animated G.I. Joe dolls…”
Dolls? THEY ARE ACTION FIGURES! They don’t sit around for dress up! They conduct highly organized and covert military action…it just happens that they look stylish doing so.
For an un-official video this is pretty damned well organized. I’m guessing it is only un-official in the sense that they don’t want to have to pay the license fee to use the GI Joe stuff. The attention to detail like others have noted is insane…the set decoration is better than most official videos. Really impressive and fun.
Now if only someone would do one of these for a Leningrad Cowboys song…
July 31st, 2008 at 7:36 am
That was basically a documentary about my ill-advised pit-stop at Salford Kwik Save in 2005. Woo.
By the way, tonight I’m going to be watching Attack Of The Sabretooth, replete with Sega Megadrive special effects – can’t wait. :D
July 31st, 2008 at 10:49 am
Tequila, just accept it, boys play with dolls, too. ;)
I’m pretty sure the “unofficial” bit is due to fears of litigation.
To clarify something I said in the post: I realize The Thing was hardly low budget. But somehow, Carpenter’s films always have the creepy, gritty feel of a shoestring production.
Have y’all seen Prince of Darkness? Scenes from that movie STILL scare the shit out of me.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:03 am
That is so amazingly well done. I need more action figures. Love Goblin. Zombi is another pretty good band as well. Excellent post!
August 6th, 2008 at 4:10 am
putting The Thing in my Netflix queue…now
found another zombie zombie fan video! Made from clips from the Running Man.
http://www.vimeo.com/1463127?pg=embed&sec=1463127
November 20th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
So much love for self-insertion! This is an amazing tribute and actually a music vid worth watching.