R.I.P. David Emge, who recently passed away! Horror nerds might have been familiar with the actor for playing Stephen "Flyboy" Andrews in The Empire Strikes Back of horror film trilogies, Dawn of the Dead (1978).
The tense finale, where a zombie Flyboy shuffles his way to his former hideout, was effectively forshadowed earlier in the film when his desperate comrades set up base in a shopping mall. Peter Washington (Ken Foree) yells, "Hold it, Flyboy! Don't go into the stairway! Don't open that door, baby, you'll lead them right up with you." which he inevitably did in his zombie state.
The news of Emge's death has once again triggered the age old question for horror geeks like myself: did Flyboy betray his friends? Much like his skin complexion, it's a grey area. To some, his zombie state might have made him exempt of responsibility; to others, his final goal while alive was to reach his girlfriend Fran Parker (Gaylen Ross) and their unborn child, which persisted in his undeath.
Romero made it clear in his zombie films that the undead occasionally exhibited lingering memories and actions in their past lives, hence the answer as to whether Flyboy is on the same level of despicable characters from a previous post related to traitors, is clouded like a zombie's eyeballs (except Flyboy's for whatever reason).
That moment where the lift opens to reveal him as a zombie is one of the most terrifying moments in movie history. R.I.P.
ReplyDeleteIt's somewhat unexpected too as The Gonk is played before the lift doors open.
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