Look into my Lies

February 18, 2007 4:00 PM

Everybody loves Zombies. Everybody loves killing Zombies. Nobody wants to suddenly wake up surrounded by Zombies. Not when you thought you were just playing a video game.
posted by Elmore (40 comments total)

I don't buy it. Any gamer familiar with zombie shooters knows about ammo conservation. And the friends are way too passive. I suppose that's part of the trick.
posted by Elmore at 4:04 PM on February 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

arrrrrrrghghghghhhggh sorry
posted by Elmore at 4:04 PM on February 18, 2007

Here
posted by Elmore at 4:06 PM on February 18, 2007

so whats the link?
posted by CaptMcalister at 4:07 PM on February 18, 2007

I hate minimalist games.
posted by stavrogin at 4:07 PM on February 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Lately I really seem to hate me.
posted by Elmore at 4:08 PM on February 18, 2007

Recursion: see also - recursion.
posted by champthom at 4:10 PM on February 18, 2007

Recursion: see also - recursion.

Footnote.^[1]
posted by Mikey-San at 4:13 PM on February 18, 2007

Double
posted by docpops at 4:17 PM on February 18, 2007

It's almost a double. Third comment here.
posted by emelenjr at 4:17 PM on February 18, 2007

Metafilter: Remove the head or destroy the brain.
posted by Emo Squid at 4:17 PM on February 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

On preview, Docpops's post is funnier.
posted by emelenjr at 4:19 PM on February 18, 2007

I saw this a bozillion years ago. In web time.

From a wikipedia article on Polybius: "In the second series of "Trick Of the Mind", Derren Brown created a video game called "Waking Dead" which would put certain people in catatonic states, taking advantage of a phenomenon called Photosensitive epilepsy. Whilst Derren claimed that 1 in 3 people are affected, the condition is actually medically rare and only affects around 1 in 10,000."
posted by Baby_Balrog at 4:22 PM on February 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

Old clip. Wikipedia's article about Brown is fascinating:

Derren performed instant conversions on a group consisting of members of the public, all of whom were atheists. After the first instant conversion many of the group chose to leave, concerned by what they had just witnessed. Derren then proceeded to convert another individual and then the remainder of the group at once. In each case, he caused the participants to at least accept the possibility that there was a God, when previously they had all refused to do so. At the end of the show, a notice on screen announced that the participants had all been "de-converted" before they left.

posted by Foci for Analysis at 4:23 PM on February 18, 2007

Disappointing. I had hoped this was a link to the actual Zombies.
posted by psmealey at 4:23 PM on February 18, 2007

Thank you psmealey, I needed that.
posted by Elmore at 4:26 PM on February 18, 2007

Somehow, I blame myself for this.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:45 PM on February 18, 2007 [1 favorite]

brainzz!    zOMG! im in the game!!WTF?!LOL
  brainzz!                     \
o_ o_ o_ o_                 \o/
|\  |\  |\  |\                   /\

posted by wfrgms at 4:46 PM on February 18, 2007 [16 favorites]

This was one of Derren Brown's lamest tricks. He does some really fun stuff, especially on the specials that are tapes of his live shows. Too bad he only tours the UK.
posted by smackfu at 4:47 PM on February 18, 2007

Look into my eyes, not around the eyes . . .

This is so lame.
posted by aladfar at 4:53 PM on February 18, 2007

Derren Brown is AWESOME. That is all.
posted by matthewr at 4:55 PM on February 18, 2007

Heh funny. I would like to hope a lot of it is real. BTW this is a great zombie game.
posted by bhouston at 5:01 PM on February 18, 2007

I don't get it. Are people supposed to believe this is real or what? Oh, and it would have been nice to link to a video that doesn't have terribly out of sync audio.
posted by bob sarabia at 5:05 PM on February 18, 2007

[1] A note placed at the bottom of a page of a book or manuscript that comments on or cites a reference for a designated part of the text.
posted by Mikey-San at 5:20 PM on February 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

Entertaining concept, but it pings my bullshit detector pretty hard. 1.) friends are way too compliant; Hey, some guy just came out of the back room and wants to cart John off on a stretcher. This couldn't possibly end badly, right? 2.) The guy has never seen a paintball gun before? No muzzle-flashes, no brass, no recoil, no reloading... Everyone has seen an action movie and knows that these kinds of things go along with shooting a gun. 3.) When he is trying to escape, he bangs on the glass window with his hand rather than hitting it with the butt of the gun. Perhaps he is unwilling to unintentionally vandalize the room he has found himself, but then he demonstrates he is willing to start shooting people as an alternative?

Complete fabrication that could have been better executed. Fun idea though.
posted by quin at 6:10 PM on February 18, 2007

Somehow, I blame Astro Zombie for this.
posted by nola at 6:26 PM on February 18, 2007

To go along with what quin said, the insurance issues that would be involved with something like this would make the whole thing impossible to shoot. What if this guy has a heart condition and this stunt brings on the big one? What if he beats one of those people to death? Nobody would what anything to do with something like that.

Really, you just have to think about it for a second to realize the whole thing is a crock.
posted by bob sarabia at 6:44 PM on February 18, 2007

I'm a zombie. A zombie for your love.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:46 PM on February 18, 2007

Not just that quin, what if he'd been an actual zombie expert? He would have immediately begun bashing the fallen zombies with the butt of the gun or any nearby blunt object to permanently disable them. Who could blame the poor guy if there were a couple of actual corpses left after a stunt like this?
posted by IronLizard at 6:48 PM on February 18, 2007

Between this and The Real Hustle, it's any wonder that TV is still even allowed in the UK.
posted by niles at 7:26 PM on February 18, 2007

That was the least convincing passing out in the history of fake passing-outs.

But I am in favor of zombies of the astro. They eat the alien brains before the aliens can take over our world and enslave us. They're like the spiders of space.
posted by dirigibleman at 7:45 PM on February 18, 2007

the insurance issues that would be involved with something like this would make the whole thing impossible to shoot

You'd think that.
posted by dhartung at 7:53 PM on February 18, 2007

The guy (Mick) who Derren is working with is my University tutor for media theory :)
posted by lemonfridge at 2:52 AM on February 19, 2007

Hey, some guy just came out of the back room and wants to cart John off on a stretcher. This couldn't possibly end badly, right?

Hey, some hugely famous television personality wants to cart John off on a stretcher. This is going to end with us on the telly!

2.) The guy has never seen a paintball gun before? No muzzle-flashes, no brass, no recoil, no reloading... Everyone has seen an action movie and knows that these kinds of things go along with shooting a gun.

Well, he's just awoken from a catatonic state to find himself inside a computer game, maybe he's not exactly thinking straight, or assumes that guns work differently in zombie computer games come to life.

Not that I'm saying it isn't faked to some extent, but having seen the crazy stuff Derren Brown can do that is real, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this stunt.
posted by jack_mo at 4:50 AM on February 19, 2007

It's been said before, but they really need to get Derren Brown in to run a series of Big Brother. (Not participate, although that could be amusing enough as well).
posted by Drexen at 6:26 AM on February 19, 2007

Of course, if he did participate, he would win (or come in whatever other position he desired).
posted by Drexen at 6:28 AM on February 19, 2007

Between this and The Real Hustle, it's any wonder that TV is still even allowed in the UK.

I've heard the The Real Hustle is a complete fake, and that everyone involved is an actor.
posted by smackfu at 6:29 AM on February 19, 2007

Zombies?
posted by Mental Wimp at 3:34 PM on February 19, 2007

Here's how it was done. The "hyponotized" guy was in on it with the illusionist. And possibly no one else save a manager-type. Even the zombies may be thinking they are dealing with an actually hypnotized person.

So it comes off as authentic. Really, it is quite unnerving.

But the only people for sure in on it are the illusionist and the "mark." Everyone else could be in the dark.

Watch the video again from this persective. And BTW? The real marks are the two unsuspecting and new "friends." The fake mark buddied up with them somehow, and then drew them into the vid-game room, and then one thing leads to another...
posted by mongonikol at 4:30 PM on February 19, 2007

"Here's how it was done. The "hyponotized" guy was in on it with the illusionist."

You call that hypnotized? The fake mark couldn't even pretend to be drunk well. Jamie Kennedy outdoes this Derren Brown guy and I don't even like Jamie.
posted by ZachsMind at 9:38 PM on February 19, 2007