The Last Days on Mars
Jan. 14th, 2017 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI started watching this, because the summary I saw wasn't clear enough it was horror on mars rather than sf, though it's usually horror on mars so I don't know why I didn't look it up.
Then it got as far as zombie with power tools kills someone, at which point the only thing left to learn was if it's the 'everybody dies' variety or the 'lone survivor' type.
... It split the difference, had one guy left record a message for home and say he'd wait until he knew if he was infected and if so kill himself. If he lives he's stuck in orbit alone until a rescue mission can be put together from nothing, so seems to me the options are slow or quick. So, you know, horror.
And it was the boring sort. I mean, once you have zombies with power tools, everything you've done up to that point with characterisation and so forth is going to be irrelevant, because they will be zombies, with or without power tools.
Also you know who is last one standing because if you have one and only one guy you've ever seen in a movie before and he isn't the first one to die then he's the last. That's just maths. Either they could only afford the attention grabber or it's his show.
booooooring.
And the character work up until the zombie drilling was okay. Bit flat on the corners, can probably guess the order of deaths by the characterisation they don't put in, but okay. And the space mission had packed a pshrink and a medical doctor and a couple of rival geologists and one guy who was the only one who could fix the whatsit (and then sent him down a hole because somehow it makes sense to risk him when they'd already called him back to base once for being the only one who could fix the whatsits). And all of them ar at the end of their tether and stated to be as close to breaking down as the equipment is, because it's nineteen hours until they take off to go home, and they're all scared of every possible outcome, never leaving, going home, everything changing, nothing changing.
... and then drill zombies. which i can't see as really paying any of that off. even though I did skip the middle.
So what I'd do with all that is We're Not Who We Are.
Leave them epically paranoid they've picked up a xenobiotic infection that messes with their minds, just in time to stop them ever going home. And some of them would want to be quarantined, because Mars. And some of them would hate it, because home. And some would argue it's a psychological problem they can fix on the way there, and others that they can't risk climbing on a 'coffin strapped to a nuke' with even psychologically compromised crewmates. And there's a ticking deadline to resolve it before the relief crew get there, or maybe miss their ride.
And if you particularly want power tool zombies, isn't it much more horrific if at no point can you absolutely prove anything is biologically wrong with them?
Just have one guy, the guy who already lied once, the guy who would do anything to screw over that one specific crewmate, come back complaining of symptoms, and have everything roll from there.
You also save substantially on the makeup budget.
I don't know, maybe the bits I skipped were more clever than expected, I just couldn't be bothered to spend an hour finding out once the zombie grabbed the drill. you know?
so.
bored now.
Then it got as far as zombie with power tools kills someone, at which point the only thing left to learn was if it's the 'everybody dies' variety or the 'lone survivor' type.
... It split the difference, had one guy left record a message for home and say he'd wait until he knew if he was infected and if so kill himself. If he lives he's stuck in orbit alone until a rescue mission can be put together from nothing, so seems to me the options are slow or quick. So, you know, horror.
And it was the boring sort. I mean, once you have zombies with power tools, everything you've done up to that point with characterisation and so forth is going to be irrelevant, because they will be zombies, with or without power tools.
Also you know who is last one standing because if you have one and only one guy you've ever seen in a movie before and he isn't the first one to die then he's the last. That's just maths. Either they could only afford the attention grabber or it's his show.
booooooring.
And the character work up until the zombie drilling was okay. Bit flat on the corners, can probably guess the order of deaths by the characterisation they don't put in, but okay. And the space mission had packed a pshrink and a medical doctor and a couple of rival geologists and one guy who was the only one who could fix the whatsit (and then sent him down a hole because somehow it makes sense to risk him when they'd already called him back to base once for being the only one who could fix the whatsits). And all of them ar at the end of their tether and stated to be as close to breaking down as the equipment is, because it's nineteen hours until they take off to go home, and they're all scared of every possible outcome, never leaving, going home, everything changing, nothing changing.
... and then drill zombies. which i can't see as really paying any of that off. even though I did skip the middle.
So what I'd do with all that is We're Not Who We Are.
Leave them epically paranoid they've picked up a xenobiotic infection that messes with their minds, just in time to stop them ever going home. And some of them would want to be quarantined, because Mars. And some of them would hate it, because home. And some would argue it's a psychological problem they can fix on the way there, and others that they can't risk climbing on a 'coffin strapped to a nuke' with even psychologically compromised crewmates. And there's a ticking deadline to resolve it before the relief crew get there, or maybe miss their ride.
And if you particularly want power tool zombies, isn't it much more horrific if at no point can you absolutely prove anything is biologically wrong with them?
Just have one guy, the guy who already lied once, the guy who would do anything to screw over that one specific crewmate, come back complaining of symptoms, and have everything roll from there.
You also save substantially on the makeup budget.
I don't know, maybe the bits I skipped were more clever than expected, I just couldn't be bothered to spend an hour finding out once the zombie grabbed the drill. you know?
so.
bored now.