Zombie Girl (co-directed by Aaron Marshall, Justin Johnson, and Erik Mauck) is screening at the beginning of May as part of the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto.
In 2004, at the age of 12, Emily Hagins attempted to write, direct, shoot, and edit a feature-length zombie movie called Pathogen. Zombie Girl documents the making of that film.
Hot Docs, the Toronto Documentary film festival, is hosting two screenings of Zombie Girl at the beginning of May:
As part of the promotion for Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap Games has put up a make-your-own-zombie-avatar feature on its website. Starting with a basic zombie head, users can choose from a small selection of accessories and colours to dress up their zombie avatars (aka. "zombatars").
I recently had the opportunity to talk horror and music with Greg Shadowcaster -- songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist for Toronto's The Screamagers. Here is our interview . . .
Zed Word (ZW): Greg, who are The Screamagers?
Greg Shadowcaster (GS): The Screamagers formed in 2007. There have been a couple lineup changes, but the current (and best) band includes myself on vocals and guitar, Luke Byers (aka Boocas Lyers) on bass and Scott McKean on drums. I started writing the songs that became Screamagers tunes about 10 years ago. I released a solo EP called Songs for the Undead in early 2007. A friend suggested I form a band to play the songs live, and the Screamagers were born. Or unborn...
ZW: How would you describe your music and media influences?
GS: Screamagers songs are tight, melodic ditties that have an early 60's flavour. My main concern is to not bore the listener. Most of our songs are a little over a minute long, so they don't overstay their welcome. We play 20 songs in our 30-minute set. That's a lot of bang for your buck! Thematically, the music is heavily influenced by low-budget horror films from the 50's and 60's. I'm a huge fan of American International Pictures' output from that era, as well as Hammer and Amicus films. Anything with Vincent Price, Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee in it is worth watching. The same goes for zombies.
ZW: What is the appeal of zombies and the undead in your music?
GS: Exactly half of our songs are about zombies. That's huge! I'm a rabid zombie fan. I think my love affair with them started when I saw Return of the Living Dead, probably around the age of 10, and I've been hooked ever since. I don't actually sit down to write songs - they just come to me when I least expect them -- particularly the zombie songs. I came up with "Zombie Zoo" while I was sitting on the toilet. I came up with "The Living Dead" while taking a shower. I came up with "She Turned into a Zombie" while shaving. If I'm in the bathroom for more than a couple minutes, I'm probably coming up with a zombie song. (Don't knock - I'll be fine.)
ZW: What horror movie character would you want to join the lineup of The Screamagers?
GS: That's easy - the Abominable Dr. Phibes! He was a famous organist, after all. I also adore Vincent Price. I have only two tattoos (pathetic, I know), but they're both Vincent Price tattoos.
ZW: What's in the future for The Screamagers?
GS: We just finished shooting a video in Hamilton for "Zombie Martians from Outer Space." It was directed by Thea Munster, an incredible filmmaker and the organizer of the Toronto Zombie Walk, so you know it'll be great. We're playing in London next week (May 2) with the Outbred Inlaws, the Goddamn Goddamns and the Nasty Rashes. We'll also be playing the Fiendraiser for the Toronto Zombie Walk in August, and I'm sure there'll be other shows between now and then. We can't wait to return to Hamilton. The best show we ever played was at the Casbah Lounge last summer. We're setting up an online store for our new CD, She Turned into a Zombie. And hopefully we'll head back to the studio soon. We have so many other great songs to record. We recorded our entire catalogue with the original lineup, but the bass player quit and requested that we stop selling the recordings he played on. Which was fair enough, but it meant we had to go back to square one at the recording studio.
ZW: Okay, one final question. Zombies: Fast or Slow?
GS: Ha ha! Slow. I'm a purist, I guess. And there's something even creepier about being under siege by slow-moving monsters.
Thanks to Greg for taking the time to talk with us.
Directors: Billy Garberina and Richard Griffin
Writers: Adam Brown and Billy Garberina
RATING:
2.5 / 5 zedheads
Necroville isn't sure what kind of movie it wants to be. A foul-mouthed Clerks-inspired buddy comedy? A supernatural comedy in the vein of Ghostbusters? An Evildead splatter fest? A sleazy gross out Toxic Avenger-like flick? In the end, it tries to be all these things and spreads itself too thin.
Produced over the course of three years on a budget of approximately $9800, Necroville is set in the city of (you guessed it) Necroville. The citizens of Necroville have something of an infestation problem: namely, zombies, vampires, werewolves, and worst of all Goth kids. It's a city where people die everyday, the homeless beg for bullets rather than change, and life goes on for our two slacker protagonists: Jack (Billy Garberina) and Alex (Adam Brown). Jack and Alex work at a video store; rather, theywork ata video store until Jack and Alex accidently trash the place while trying to dispatch a zombie that had wandered into the store. As a result, they are fired. While Alex is not too concerned, Jack has to support his lazy and manipulative girlfriend Penny (Brandy Bluejacket). Jack's unemployment is unacceptable to her. As a result, Alex and Jack end up taking jobs as monster hunters for ZOM-B-GONE, a low-rent creature extermination service.
I like the premise of the movie. Garberina, Griffin, and Brown set up a lot of comedic potential in a town where all kinds of aliens and monsters are on the loose but people have become used to them and death is treated nonchalantly. For example, residents of Necroville learn about weapons and martial arts as practical skills for everyday use just as how people learn to sew a button or fix a flat tire. As a comedy, the monsters aren't particularly scary. Instead, they are goofy: the zombies are goofy grey-faced idiots, vampires are sexually experimental fops, and the werewolves all look like they have black noses and hairy beards.
A vampire AND a DJ? How much more unholy can you get?
The problem with the movie, however, is the acting and the plot. Alex and Jack have little chemistry and, as played by Garberina and Brown, their banter seems forced and rigid. At times, it feels as if the filmmakers are trying to ape Kevin Smith's style of dialogue but miss the fact that throwing "fuck" into a sentence does not make it funny. The dialogue and gags feel derivative although of nothing specific. Several running gags, such as one about Holy Water, feel dull and repetitive although they do pay off in the end. Also, there is a moment in which Jack and Alex kill a room full of people - not monsters - and, despite a flashback that gives a good reason why those people should die, I lost touch with the characters for what essentially feels like cold-blooded murder out of place in the slapstick carnage of the film's universe.
The plot structure also doesn't help. The first half of the movie does a good job of establishing Jack and Penny's relationship, but then it bounces around between sketch comedy situations showing Jack and Alex on the job. It isn't until half-way through the movie that the main plot of a vampire trying to steal Penny from Jack is introduced. The vampire is someone Jack knew in the past and whom appeared in a flashback, but so little connection is made between the flashback and the film's plot that I missed the relevance of the vampire's identity at first. At times, the movie's pacing and situations feel tedious.
This scene kinda makes more sense in the movie. Kinda
Necroville does have its achievements. There are moments when all the elements begin to converge. For example, in a scene where Alex and Jack are called to a BDSM club to exterminate some zombies, the camera work, humour, action, and special effects come together nicely in a harmonious example of the fine movie Necroville could be. Also, for an independent, no-budget film, there are some very cool, inventive, and well executed special effects and gross-out bits that are highly memorable. If the movie were better, I would dare call them classic moments. I don't want to spoil them, but my favorites include zombies meeting a chainsaw, a baby and a straw, and -- as Billy Garberina puts it -- a method of dispatching a vampire that he guarantees you've never seen before.
Necroville also landed a fun musical soundtrack featuring tracks from Zombina and the Skeletons that lends a sense of energy to the film that is lacking in the plot and comedy.
In the end, Necroville would have worked better as a short film, but it has enough technical achievements and heart to recommend to independent filmmakers or fans to check out even if Necroville doesn't work well as a feature film.
Necroville is available on DVD from Shock-O-Rama, and the DVD does come with a generous helping of special features. Honestly, I didn't care enough for the movie to feel compelled to check out the features.
Media Necroville Trailer
---------------
I want to thank Brother D of the Mail Order Zombie podcast for sending me this copy of Necroville. Brother D and Miss Bren produce a consistently smart and funny podcast every week, and they love to give away prizes to their fans. Definitely check them out and subscribe to their podcast through iTunes! Help them reach their goal of 50 iTunes reviews on the US store.
This upcoming film from Cat Scare Films looks very amusing. Maybe I'm more intrigued than normal because I hate those Intervention shows and a secret part of me wants to see them all get eaten.
TRIVIA: This film stars Lynn Lowrywho appeared in David Cronenberg's Shivers as well as George Romero's The Crazies and the 1983 remake of Cat People.
Paul Dailing posted a hilariously satrical narrative to rebuke mainstream journalism and blogs by imagining what would happen if news of the zombie apocalypse broke first on Twitter. His story includes Lou Dobbs getting eaten; what more do I have to say to get you to check it out? [via The Huffington Post]
Dread Central is reporting that a sequel to Bruce McDonald's Pontypool (REVIEW) is on its way! During a recent Q&A screening in Boston, the film's producers stated they had just received the script for a sequel that will be more action-oriented. [via Dread Central]
The floodgates are now open. After all the buzz generated by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, more authors are coming out of the woodwork to inject zombies into pre-existing novels. Take the excessively over-named The War of the Worlds: Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown. Now, Eric S. Brown carries some zombie-cred. He's written several zombie novels and novellas as well as some chapbooks and short stories. He's obviously invested in the genre. However, this mash up with The War of the Worlds smells like a desperate attempt to get in on the feeding frenzy over the buzz left by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Having read neither of these works, however, my skepticism may be unfounded. The War of the Worlds: Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies will be available from Coscom Entertainment on April 30, 2009.
Bill Murray may appear as a zombie in the upcoming film Zombieland. The news broke through various sources but nothing I can personally confirm. Shock Till You Drop posted exclusive news that Murray would appear in full undead makeup for a cameo in the film; then, Bloody-Disgusting posted a link to props being sold on Craig's List. According to these Craig's List pages, Murray is indeed going to appear in the film; however, the Craig's List pages appear to have been removed. Forget literary mashups, when is a filmmaker going to step up and finally give us Groundhog's Day of the Dead?
When I first purchased Zombie CSU: Forensics of the Living Dead by Jonathan Maberry, I expected a book that would attempt to ineffectually mash together two pop-culture trends: zombies and crime scene investigations shows. I thought it would look something like this:
After I snapped out of my CSI fever dream and actually read a chapter of Zombie CSU, I realized it was so much more than a cheap attempt to shoehorn zombies into the crime genre.
In reality, Zombie CSU is written by a true zombie fan and offers a comprehensive, informative and entertaining examination of how real-life forensics, science, and law enforcement would respond to a Romero-style zombie outbreak. It is full of technical information but written for the average reader.
Tracing an imaginary zombie outbreak from the first attack through each of the procedural steps followed by law enforcement, emergency responders, forensic investigators, and the media, Jonathan Maberry comes to some interesting conclusions about how zombies might be able to exist scientifically. He also dispels many myths perpetuated by Hollywood about the ineffectiveness of the law in the face of a zombie threat.
For example, using his experience from writing about crime investigation and doing research with knowledgeable people in the law enforcement and medical fields, Maberry illustrates that the common scenario we see in the movies of slow-moving zombies overwhelming the police and military, leading to a post-apocalyptic breakdown of society, is realistically unlikely. Maberry presents modern police and emergency responders in our post 9/11 world as so well-trained and able to access a wide range of tools and national / international support that it would be highly unlikely for a zombie epidemic of the George A. Romero variety to get out of hand. A lighting-quick 28 Days Later virus is unlikely because it flies in the face of virus biology, whereas a Romero-style zombie virus makes more sense. However, a Romero-style virus is slower to spread; therefore, emergency responders would be able to identify and isolate zombies quickly.
Also, Maberry explains how zombies—scientifically speaking—probably wouldn’t look like we expect from the movies were zombies real decaying bodies. For example, the mouth of a zombie, full of those dangerous gut-munching, flesh-ripping teeth, would eventually become quite harmless as a weapon as the body rots.
Quoting Dr. Bryan Chrz, former president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, Mayberry writes:
Teeth are not fused to the bone but rather attached to the bone by a ligament system . . . . Teeth become rapidly loose with decomposition. The periodontal ligament that holds the tooth to the bone socket decomposes with the rest of the body.
Maberry drops chunks of knowledge I'd never thought of before: decomposing zombies would probably turn toothless and lose one of their primary methods of attack.
Far from being a dry technical read, Zombie CSU is clever, fun, and smart. Proving that Maberry knows his zombies, he's intersperesed throughout the text pages of zombie-themed artwork by indpendent artists as well as bits of zombie movie trivia, interviews with zombie filmmakers and authors, and summaries of the best and worst zombie films of all time.
All this and more await you in Zombie CSU, a must-have book for anyone interested in exploring the zombie genre. ------- Jonathan Maberry is also the author of Patient Zero (St. Martin's Griffin: 2009), a novel about a Baltimore detective secretly recruited by the government to stop a group of terrorists from releasing a bio-weapon that turns ordinary people into zombies. We'll be reviewing Patient Zero here on The Zed Word in the coming months. After getting such a kick out of Zombie CSU, I can't wait to start it.
What words do you think of when you think of "zombie"? Energetic, flexible, choreographed, and musical are probably not the first, second, or even third words that come to mind. However, ever since Michael Jackson and John Landis dropped the megahit Thriller on us in 1982, every ghoul, zombie, and crafty corpse with a half-decent sense of rhythm has been trying to recapture the limelight of music video stardom. Few music videos have ever topped Thriller, but I would like to present:
8 GREAT ZOMBIE MUSIC VIDEOS (that aren't Thriller)
8.) "A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead" by The Zombeatles
Admittedly, the song here sucks. Sucks HARD for the ears, but you'd expect zombies to be pretty tone deaf. However, The Zombeatles (as performed by Wisconsin's The Gomers) are a goofy and fun concept and this video gets enough play out of the ineptitude of zombies stumbling around to warrant a few chuckles. "A Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead" is okay, but it can't hold a candle on our next entry -- one of the weirdest videos I've ever seen.
Whose next on the list? Read more!
7.) "Zombie" by Count Smokula
Where to begin? First, I had never heard of Count Smokula before today. Therefore, I was not prepared for a white-faced, mascara-wearing Jewish old man in a leopard fez and cape belting out Zombie songs with an accordion. Perhaps there is no way to prepare. Throw in some African-kitch and googley-faced voodoo zombies, and you have a video for the ages. Fun, silly, danceable, and kitchy -- "Zombie" deserves a higher ranking on this list. I just can't get over the fez.
Count Smokula is a beloved cult figure in Hollywood performed by Robert "Smokey" Miles.
6.) "I hear you calling" by GOB
Okay, this one takes me back. "I Hear You Calling" would have been popular just as I was finishing up high school, so this song is indelibly stamped on the sound track of my graduation year and first year of University. Strangely, I forgot this video had zombies in it. And not only zombies: SOCCER too! Yeah, not that exciting. Let's take the world's slowest monsters and make them play the world's slowest game. Okay, that's not fair. American Football is far more boring.
Anyways, this video features some great zombie makeup and (aside from the Thriller dance reference) a pretty unique and nonsensical premise.
5.) "Fashion Freak" by Naked Ape
Sexy Zombie Carwash? Sign me up.
Here's a video I had never seen before. Naked Ape is a Swedish group and although the song rubs me the wrong way with its digitally distorted voice synthesizers, this song is HEAVY on the zombies. And sexy zombies too! They titillate, unnerve, and confuse you all at once. I guess in this bleak post-apocalptic version of Sweden, the undead have an instinctual desire to get soapy and writhe around on the hood of cars while zombie chihuahuas roam the land. Holy shit: BRAIN STORM! Dawn of the Dead set at IKEA! I need to write that screenplay. "DOCKSTAOF THE DEAD" -- Copyright THE ZED WORD!
4.) Brains - Living Dead Girlz
I featured "Brains" in my first list article, Top 5 Sexy Zombies. It's a ghoulish parody of Liam Sullivan's "Shoes" by The Living Dead Girlz: a zombie dance troupe led by Amber Steele of the Steele Dance Company. To learn more about the Girlz and their bloodlust, check out my list of the Top 5 Sexy Zombies.
3.) "Good Advice" by Head Like A Hole
Head Like A Hole was a New Zealand band that disbanded in 2000 (although some news seems to suggest that they have since reunited). Before they disbanded, however, the last video they made was for their song"Good Advice." While this video is not perfect -- it is more 'short film' than music video since you can barely hear the music (which doesn't sound that exciting anyways) -- what it lacks as a music video it makes up with ZOMBIES and CHAINSAWS and BLOOD. Those New Zealanders really know how to make zombies messy.
2.) "Back From The Grave" by El Guapo Stuntteam
WOO-HOO. Strap yourselves in for this one -- it's a wild ride.
Lighting reanimates a crazy biker licked with flames (I call him Eviler Knieveler)who raises a graveyard of zombies that emerge through the mist to terrorize a spooky cabin. The two young women inside refuse to be victims and fight back, grind house style, and splatter the walls with zombie guts. Then: dueling chainsaws climax. I want this to be a feature-length movie
El Guapo Stuntteam hail from Belgium, which I now know for its waffles, chocolate, and ass kickery. This video is beautifully shot and realized. I love the attention to detail: that corpse bride has an axe in her back which she then uses as a weapon!
and our #1 zombie music video is................
1.) THRILLER
Okay, so I cheated. But you can't have a list of zombie music videos without giving Thriller it's due. It is, hands down, THE BEST zombie music video. But, instead of linking to the original Thriller, I thought I'd show just how much of a global cultural impact Thriller has had with these tribute videos.
Since I last posted about Plants vs. Zombies, PopCap Games has been releasing more PvZ game media including a trailer that gives us aglimpse at game play.
They had me at "Potato Mine," but the Bobsled and Bungee zombies are a nice touch.
Also, there are three new Zombie Temp Worker videos on Youtube, all of which get funnier and funnier:
If you'd like a chance to win some PvZ swag, check out THIS CONTEST at Zombies and Toys.
Each week, I will post an entry of my own zombie-themed art or images by other artists I would like to showcase.
"Walk with the Zombies: Hamilton Zombie Walk Teaser" (2008) Artist: The Zed Word
I did this mock up as as a potential teaser flyer for the 2008 Hamilton Zombie Walk put on by Horror in the Hammer. Although we never printed it as a flyer, I think we did use parts of it on ads for the after shows.
E-mail zedwordblog@gmail.com for your chance to win a free Screamagers prize pack including their new album: She Turned Into a Zombie
The Screamagers have created a monster that refuses to die! By fusing '50s and '60s pop sensibilities with crooning vocals and a touch of Ramones and Misfits-inspired punk, the Screamagers concocted a new musical genre: Ghoul Rock! The Screamagers leave no genre staple untouched: zombies, vampires, mummies, werewolves and giant insects are all paid tribute in their songs. Their fiendtastic and spooktacular tunes are best described as spoovy - a combination of spooky and groovy! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-ha!
One lucky winner will receive a free copy of She Turned Into A Zombie and some special Screamagers stickers and buttons! HOW TO WIN:
E-mail your entry to zedwordblog@gmail.com.
Please include “SCREAMAGERS” in the subject line and your name and full mailing address in the body of the e-mail (address must be in Canada and at the address you wish your tickets to be mailed).
Contest will end on May 7th at 12:00am (Eastern Standard Time). One winner will be drawn at random, alerted by e-mail, and mailed their prize. One entry per name/address please. Contest open only to residents of Canada.
This Contest is open to all residents of Canada but void where prohibited by law.
How to Enter
Valid entrants must e-mail zedwordblog@gmail.com with “SCREAMAGERS” in the subject line and a body that includes the entrant’s full name and mailing address.
Entry is limited to single email sent from a valid, unique, individual e-mail address. Multiple e-mails including the same name and address sent throughout the contest period count as one entry. One entry per name/e-mail/postal code. Contest open only to residents of Canada. Prize will be automatically mailed to the address given in entrant's email.
Prizes
There is a total of one (1) prize available to be won. A random draw for the prize will be made on May 7th, 2009. Valid entrants will be compiled and one entrant will be selected at random. The one (1) prize to be awarded includes: one (1) copy of of The Screamagers' album She Turned into a zombie, one (1) Screamagers Button, and two (2) Screamagers stickers.
Eligibility
Selected entrants will be notified by email and automatically mailed their prize via Canada Post at a rate to be decided by The Zed Word. After the prize is mailed, all entrant e-mails will be deleted. No correspondence will be entered into except with potential winners and no private information about entrants will be kept or sold to or shared with any other party.
In order to win, each selected entrant must e-mail zedwordblog@gmail.com with his or her full name and full mailing address in Canada at which they wish to receive their prize.
The prize must be accepted as awarded and is not transferable.
She Turned Into a Zombie Artist: The Screamagers (Centipede Records)
RATING: 4/5 zedheads
CLICK HERE to win a free copy of She Turned Into a Zombie and other swag!
--------- REVIEW
The Screamagers are going to bite you in the eye and leave a zombie centipede in your brain pulsating with infectious rhythms.
Last week, I discovered The Screamagers: an indie horror / punk / surf band out of Toronto. I've since became enamored with their catchy brand of Ghoul Rock: a combination of 50’s and 60's influenced tunes inspired by drive-in horror and sci-fi B movies.
One thing is immediately clear, The Screamagers love zombies. Besides zombie songs like “She Turned into a Zombie,” “Back from the Grave,” and “The Undead”, it is obvious thattheir lyrics are also steeped in the history of the horror genre. This is especially evident in the song “Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee," which pays sincere homage to these two Hammer movie titans in song with lyrics comprised almost entirely out of the titles of Cushing and Lee films like The Creeping Flesh (1973). Unlike other horror bands that fixate on gloom and industrial noise, The Screamagers are fun: they play with the audience and embrace the morbid joy of monster mashing!
With lyricist Greg Shadowcaster lending his deep, crooning vocals to each bone-tapping track, The Screamagers offer songs that would seem right at home accompany scenes of flying saucers descending on beach parties, shambolic skeletons doo-wooping from their crypts, and post-apocalyptic arthropods boogieing down while worlds collide. Their songs feel like reading your first issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland or finding an old 1960s monster model kit in the garage.
Their new (and first) album entitled She Turned Into a Zombie is an independent release from Centipede Records. It offers eight catchy tracks:
1.) She Turned Into a Zombie (1:37) 2.) Back From The Grave (1:37) 3.) Day of the Centipedes (1:14) 4.) Zombie Martians From Outer Space (1:10) 5.) The Undead (0:55) 6.) Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (1:17) 7.) She Turned Into A Werewolf (1:22) 8.) Bride of Frankenstein (1:53)
While the album could benefit from some more lyrical variety (several songs seem to start with lyrics about walking the streets or in the woods), the album is incredibly re-playable because no song exceeds two minutes. While this creates an abbreviated listening experience if playing the album as a whole, I find these songs work best interspersed throughout a shuffled playlist of other music. Regardless, I find myself returning to these songs again and again.
She Turned Into a Zombie is a spunky morsel of ghoulish zombie rock. Check out their Myspace page to listen to sample tracks and learn how to get a copy; or, enter our contest to WIN a free copy of this CD!
----------- UPCOMING SHOWS
May 2nd, 2009: London Music Hall w/ Outbred Inlaws, The Goddamn Goddamns and the Nasty Rashes.
As much as I am a fan of zombies, I'm a fan of action figures and toy collectibles. Thankfully, my two hobbies often tend to coincide. That's why I'm very excited about the news that Amoktime Toys will be releasing an action figure of Tarman, the most iconic zombie from Return of the Living Dead.
"They're Back from the Grave and Ready to Party" The first ever ROTLD Action Figure! Tarman Zombie features ball jointed neck, Shoulders, Opening Jaw and base with Trioxin cannister and bitten brain! Coming September/October. Price: $17.99
I own theDay of Dead Bub figure from Amoktime, and I am very happy with it. As it was one of their first original figures, it's not perfect. It shows the company has much potential, however. Amoktime also has a figure coming soon depicting Doctor Tongue, the jawless zombie that appears during the title sequence in Day of the Dead. If both these figures improve on the potential in the Bub figure, Amoktime might just shape up to be a hotspot for zombie figures.
If you like zombie toys, check back soon for a review of Bub from Amoktime as well as other figures from my zombie collection.
Easter Sunday was not just for Church or chocolate eggs this year in Somerville, Mass. It was also time for the Zombie Outbreak 2009 parade which crawled from Davis Square to Harvard Square. The Boston Herlad notes that the organizer's Facebook page posted the following notice:“This walk has nothing to do with any kind of anti-Christian sentiments and is not intended to be offensive.” Comments left on the Boston Herald'swebsite, however, seem to suggest not everyone was happy about the parade occurring on Easter.
Writing for the Telegraph, Tim Robey wonders why the undead are suddenly invading mainstream culture. He mentions both the surge in vampire fiction (such as the critically loved Let the Right One In) as well as zombie media: "Viva the undead revolution!"
The Silent Night, Zombie Night teaser trailer has been released. It will be interesting to see how this X-Mas zombie flick compares to Gargoyle Entertainment's upcoming 12/24
It's not easy to find kind-friendly zombie media. For a reason that will never be explained, kids don't generally like the idea of rotting corpses. Go figure.
However, below you can watch a short animated movie directed by Steven-Charles Jaffe and illustrated by The New Yorker's Gahan Wilson. The video is kid friendly (i.e. no brain eating) and adapted from a comic by Neil Gaiman that appeared in the book It Was a Dark and Silly Night. In the video, a group of kids just want to find a place to party. When they choose a graveyard, they get some unexpected party crashers.
“More zombies! More carnage!,” said the Los Angeles production team after wrapping principal shooting on Silent Night, Zombie Night, an upcoming film about a living dead outbreak set in during the Christmas season.
But director Sean Cain says he just couldn’t seem to shoot the additional scenes of zombie mayhem without attracting emergency crews.
“We wrapped out of one location where there were zombies breaking into a car and pulling family members out,” Cain told Fangoria Magazine. “Just in the nick of time, too, because as we were all packed and preparing to leave, a police cruiser drove by with its spotlight on.”
While filming another scene, ambulance and fire trucks were dispatched to a real emergency, then became distracted by a prop police car parked at a weird angle to a house nearby.
“They drove on into production and parked it, thinking it was their destination,” says producer Wes Laurie. “The first thoughts going through their heads when they saw a crazed zombie standing in the yard to greet them must have been priceless."
Uncle Creepy of Dread Cental posted some tantilizing news today: George A. Romero is working out a deal with Grand Central Publishing in New York to produce two original novels set in the Dead universe of Romero zombie films.
According to Uncle Creepy:
The debut novel will brings fans exactly what they've been craving as it will feature Romero laying down the ground rules of the zombie epidemic right from the beginning of the end. Looks like we may even get a chance to find out why these things got up and started feasting.
Grand Central is set to publish the first book in the summer of 2010, with a second book to follow sometime after that. Look for more details on the books as soon as we get them.
It's not clear from this article if Romero will be writing the novels or if the writing chores will be farmed out. Either way, paint me FUCKING EXCITED. Anyway we can get more Romero zombie media, the better.
On May 5, PopCap Games will release the bizarrely cute game Plants Vs. Zombies.
I wasn't going to post about PvZ until closer to its release because little is known about the game, but I can't wait any longer. PopCap has been dropping viral videos online to promote the game that .... I ..... cannot..... resist ..... posting. They're too funny.
From what I can tell, PvZ looks to be a real-time strategy castle-seige defense game in which you have to plant cute little cartoon plants to keep zombies off your lawn to stop them from entereing your house and eating your brains.
The first ad is a singalong music video for the song "Zombies On Your Lawn"
Second, PopCap has posted some short clips about a Temp Zombie in the office. I really relate to him in "Rise and Shine"
Marilyn Chambers, star of Rabid, was found dead today at 56.
Marilyn Chambers is best known as a porn actress who starred in Behind the Green Door and other adult films; however, she made attempts to be known as more than a porn star. In the 70s and 80s, she tried to break into mainstream film. During this period, she became known to horror and zombie fans for her role in David Cronenberg's Rabid (1977).
In Rabid, Marilyn played Rose: a female motorcycle accident victim whose life is saved by an experimental transplant surgery. This surgery leaves her with a mutated, blood-sucking appendage and an insatiable, almost sexual, need to penetrate others and feed from them. Her victims develop a rabies-like disease that drives them to insanely attack and bite other people. I consider Rabid to be a zombie film for the way it avoids the tropes of the vampire and prefigures the "infected" as zombie similar to those which would later appear in films like Nightmare City,28 Weeks Later, and Quarantine.
I also consider Marilyn a lost talent. I'm not too familiar with her adult film work, but in Rabid she brought a lot of heart to the film in her role the doomed woman. The movie succeeds because her emotions appear honestly conflicted. I think it is a shame that Marilyn never found mainstream success.
Marilyn Chambers was found dead in her Los Angeles home.
The Los Angeles coroner's office said an autopsy would be carried out to determine the cause of her death late on Sunday night.
Mock ups and prototypes for unused Left 4 Dead box art have been circulating online this week. They've popped up on the official Left for Dead blog with a commentary about how the final and much loved box art was finalized. [via Left 4 Dead Blog]
"Zombies are the new vampires," proclaims Lev Grossman on Time's entertainment page. Grossman offers comments on how the zombie has clawed its way into popular culture and not only horror pop culture but that of Regency romance and superhero comics, dubbing zombies the "monster of the recession" [via TIME.com]
Craig Wilson at USA Today also remarked on the zombie content of popular culture, focusing primarily on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and upcoming projects like Diablo Cody's adaptation of Breathers. He also mentions other zombie-related work for younger audiences like Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby [via USAtoday.com]
Even Academia is interested in talking about zombies. On April 13th, Dr. Steven C. Schlozman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Education, will be giving a lecture on zombies. Scholzman will be pontificating on the psychological appeal of zombie movies and offering some theories on how zombies might operate neurologically were they real. Sholzman's lecture is part of the Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Science On Screen program [via The Harvard Crimson]
Not everyone is enamored with zombies in culture, however. Cartoonist Brian McFadden rails against zombie walks in a recent entry to his Big Fat Blog: "Be warned hipster douchebags, you are doing to zombies what goths did to vampires: turning them into pussies and punchlines." As a volunteer at zombie walks and zombie walker, I can't help feel that McFadden sounds more the douchebag than the "hipsters" he is ranting about. Love his comics though. [via Big Fat Blog]
Finally, Automopedia.org has posted a fantastic list of the 10 Best Zombie Apocalypse Survival Rides. Including fictional, concept and real-life vehicles, this list is a shopping list for gear heads who want a leg up during the zombie apocalypse. However, it might take a zombie apocalypse to put some life back into the recession-pinched automotive industry before you can get one.
Anthony Colliano, the director of the upcoming 12/24 (a Christmas-themed zombie flick), e-mailed me with some harsh words in response to my comments on the trailer for 12/24.
Admittedly, I wasn't kind to the trailer of 12/24, but I may have been too harsh on Gargoyle Entertainment as a whole. While I will not deny the trailer for 12/24 made me laugh in a "looks so bad it's good" way, I will admit I too easily took shots at Gargoyle Entertainment. It's easy to forget all the hard work people and volunteers put into an independent production like this. I applaud Colliano's efforts and, although we shared some cross words by e-mail, I think we came to a civil understanding: regardless of my thoughts on the trailer, I respect Colliano's heart and passion. I did not intend to personally attack him. At the same time, I will state my observations if somethings strikes me as worth saying even if my comments may not be the publicity he wants.
Colliano has asked me to hold off on judging the film until it's completed. He assures me that many of the scenes I derided will make sense. Also, he has offered to send The Zed Word a copy of the film when its completed. He says we'll see zombies in an a new way. I genuinely look forward to see what he has to offer, even if the trailer made me laugh.
So, keep 12/24 on your radars, zombie fans. Something tells me that, no matter what, this isn't the last you've heard of 12/24.
Oh, my. We've all seen some BAD zombie movies before, but it has been a long time since I've seen a trailer for a zombie movie that had me laughing until I was crying.
Behold the trailer for Gargoyle Entertainment's 12/24, a festive zombie holiday film starring Tiffany Shepis.Watch and be amazed.
Notable Highlights
Mush-mouthed Johns abusing prostitutes:
- "Oh, you're so good." / "Hurmpharamee . . . giffe ourt mah curr nah"
Actress walking in the rain randomly replaced with obvious computer animation shot. High-tech!
Cheesy zombie rendition of "The Night Before Christmas"
Ineffectual zombie pistol whipping
Air-compressed blood gushes from every single head shot
Junior Reporter gets the scoop: "I have no idea what is going on!"
The world's most INAPPROPRIATELY POWERFUL ceiling fan
Flannel and Wigs
SANTA!!!! NO!!!!!!
According to Gargoyle Entertainment's Myspace page, "Gargoyle Entertainment is on the verge of greatness. With the ideas, talent, and passion to make the highest quality films possible, Gargoyle Entertainment has nowhere to go but up."
Well, I guess it couldn't get any worse.
One thing's for sure, although the film makers behind 12/24 probably didn't intend this, I am going to buy this movie for the sheer pleasure the trailer gave me. Hopefully they didn't put all of the best (i.e. the worst) stuff in the trailer.
Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead Author: Dr. Bob Curran Career Press: 2009 RATING: 3.5 / 5 zedheads
Although the title of Dr. Bob Curran's Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead seems to suggest readers will get a Zombie Survival Guide-style handbook about Romero-esque zombies, this is not quite true. In actuality, the book is a survey of international folklore, mythology, and belief in the walking corpse or resurrected dead. Zombies of the Hatian or pop-culture variety occupy only a small section of this book. However, Zombies is more than worth your time and money if you look past the misleading title to see the great book within.
Dr. Bob Curran is a historian and psychologist who has written numerous books about reoccurring mythological figures such as the vampire and the green man of folklore.
Given Curran's interest and other books, something tells me this book's title is the invention of the publisher trying to cash in on the pop culture zombie trend. A number of questionable movies and books are misleadingly marketed to zombie fans despite any real zombie content (see: The Ghouls). In this case, however, the book makes up for its misleading title with an intriguing glance at the significance of the walking corpse in many cultural beliefs. From the mythology of ancient Greece, to the belief in Viking draugrs, to the tradition of ancestor worship and dead festivals in Mezo-America, Zombies shows us the enduring fascination and fear with the returning cadavar that, in no small part, has fueled the popularity of zombies in the public consciousness.
More on Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead after the jump.
Zombies focuses on figures of the dead that are either humans or gods who pass through the afterlife back into life or humans that are dead bodies or corpses that return to a resurrected corporeal life. No ghosts or vampires in this book. Some of these "zombie" figures resemble the popular violent and cannibalistic zombies of modern representation. Most of the walking dead incarnation, such as the ghuul of ancient Arab culture or Strigoria (shroudeaters) of Eastern Europe, are quite different from the movie zombies of the North American tradition.
The most fascinating thing about Zombies is how Curran charts the evolution of a myth through a culture as it changes over time. If you approach Christianity from a mythological perspective, the emphasis on Jesus's miracles of resurrection can be traced back through Hebrew belief, Ugartic, Babylonian, and Egyptian tradition of resurrections. Also, my favorite chapters in Zombies concerns how the industry of grave robbing and public hangings in Europe helped propel myths and belief in the walking dead.
Written in clear accessible prose, Zombies is a quick but enlightening read regarding the tradition of the walking dead. More information about non-European traditions could have expanded the book's scope, however. Also, Zombie horror fans may be disappointed in the lack of Romero-inspired zombie information, especially if they bought this book based on the misleading title. Despite these missteps, Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead is actually worth a look for any fans of zombies and mythology / folklore.
This month, Canadian McDonald's locations debuted the new Big Mac Snack Wrap. Appropriately, brand new commercials are airing in Canada for the Big Mac Snack Wrap featuring none other than Land of the Dead's Big Daddy himself: actor Eugene Clark.
Through May 18th, McDonald's Canada is testing the Mac Snack Wrap (a normal Big Mac sans bun crammed in a flour tortilla) at over 1, 400 stores. In the commercials, Eugene Clark plays the boss of an office who professes his love for the new product.
Big Daddy has a Big Big Hunger
I think this is highly appropriate. In George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, Clark plays Big Daddy, an unusually self-aware zombie who leads a hungry army of the undead against their human oppressors. Who better than to lead the hungry living masses to accept something as grotesque looking as McDonald's new bunless freak of nature than the man who played a grotesque freak of nature that leads his people to freedom. Freedom from hunger!
Even without stomaches zombies crave the Snack Wrap
ZOMBIE GIRL AT HOT DOCS
REVIEW
Paul Dailing posted a 
The floodgates are now open. After all the buzz generated by 
REVIEW
On May 5, PopCap Games will release the bizarrely cute game 
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Finally, 
Although the title of Dr. Bob Curran's Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead seems to suggest readers will get a 
This month, Canadian McDonald's locations debuted the new Big Mac Snack Wrap. Appropriately, brand new commercials are airing in Canada for the Big Mac Snack Wrap featuring none other than 
