Bub from Day of the Dead (Toy Review)

REVIEW

Bub (from Day of the Dead)

Company: Amoktime Toys
Release Date: 2008

RATING:
4 / 5 zedheads



For toy reviews we'll assess each aspect of the toy on a 0-5 scale and determine an overall score.

As well as being a fan of zombies, I collect toys. Thankfully, my two hobbies often coincide. There has been a recent offering of zombie toys since 2000, and many companies have picked up rights to make figures from the Romero dead series. In 2008, Amoktime toys entered the game and released Bub, the first (and so far only) in their Day of the Dead series. I'm a loose collector of toys, which doesn't mean I'm promiscuous but rather that I open all my figures for display. As such, when I judge a toy I'm concerned with four things: sculpt, paint, articulation, and accessories. Let's see how Bub stacks up.

SCULPT





Bub is about 7.5 inches tall, a scale favored by collectors for its balance of affordability and detail. Before we talk about Bub, however, take a look at his diorama. Bub comes packaged with a diorama stand and backdrop to represent Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory from the film where Bub is chained to the wall for his experiments. There is some really lovely stone-work sculpting here, and the chain that feeds through the neck collar loop on the back of Bub's jacket is real metal. Very nice touch. Bub himself is a decent depiction of the character although his face is a little off. From certain angles, it is unmistakeably Howard Sherman as Bub with that pitiful expression with the lower jaw pushed off to the side of his face. From other angles, however, it doesn't look right. I think the face is too thin and not detailed enough to capture the look of sunken teeth and deep skin wrinkles that so distinctly define Bub's face in the movie. These are details better captured at the 12" scale in Amoktime's 12" Bub figure; however, the 12" figure's head is oddly shaped at the top. Convincing movie likenesses are one of the hardest things to do in toys. Bub's body sculpt, however, is fantastic. Very loving attention has been paid to the scuffed, torn texture of his jacket, shirt, pants and boots. I love the look off all the layers. Even though the face isn't quite detailed enough, they still included the tears on the right cheek caused when Bub attempts to shave himself. Very obvious thought was put into this figure. As a side note, Bub doesn't stand well on his feet unless pegged into the base of the diorama, but we'll discuss this more in articulation.

PAINT





A good paint job can enhance a plain sculpt as much as a poor paint applications can cover up the beautiful details of a well rendered sculpt. It is always a balancing act. The makers of this Bub figure decided to go with some very muted colours -- predominately rusty reds and browns with some black, grey, and a hint of copper. They all blend together well with little to no slop. Had the face more detail, I think a nice wash of blue would help bring out the lines, but I can see how that could go very very wrong. Subtle touches such as the blood spatter on the diorama set and the gruesome glossy shine of the bucket of entrails really help compensate for some of points lost for the face sculpt.

ACCESSORIES

Bub comes with a number of movie-specific accessories that also benefit from the fine detail of the sculpt and the quality of the paint applications. He comes with a tape recorder for listening to Beethoven, a bucket of gory reward treats, the gun with which he shoots Captain Rhodes, a small razor, and an alternate arm right that is sculpted with a 90 degree bend at the elbow so Bub can salute his superiors or hold his arm closer to his body.

While all these accessories are nice, the razor is quite useless. I appreciate the nod to the shaving scene in the movie, but the razor is so TINY that it cannot possibly fit in any of Bub's hands. While the gun fits into the hands even if loosely, it does fit; the razor will fall right through the open fist. It exists as a nice touch, but one that any loose collector will surely lose because it is so ridiculously small. Presenting the Gillette Micro: Microscopic enough to give you a smooth clean shave from inside your pores. They should have put a phone accessory in the package so Bub can practice saying "hello" to his Aunt Alicia. Even a plastic copy of a book (Salem's Lot perhaps?) would fit better in his hands than the razor.
ARTICULATION

Bub really suffers in articulation. Some fans don't like toys with a lot of articulation because it breaks up the sculpt into obvious segments. Not me. I don't want a statue -- I want something that can be posed. Bub, unfortunately, only has seven points of articulation. He has two ball-jointed shoulders, a peg-joint neck, two peg-jointed wrists, a swivel joint waist, and articulation in the chest that allows him to assume a slouched position. His legs and elbows are completely static. This creates a limited range of poses through which Bub can emote. If you try really hard, and bring in some other accessories not packaged with him, you can sometimes come up with some interesting stances (see below)

Dr. Frankenstein discovered the real secret to taming the zombie:
booze and intestinal security blankets
An odd choice was made in the design of the figure to further limit movement. Bub cannot be removed from his diorama base. As you can see, a chain connects the figure to the back of the diorama at two locations. One location can be removed by design but the other cannot. I modified my figure so I can remove the figure, but if you are worried about damaging the toy or keeping it exactly-as-is, you're never going to get Bub removed from the diorama. Even if you do remove him, since his legs and feet are static and he has very narrow boots, he has a tendency to fall over if not plugged into the base of the diorama.

CONCLUSION

Amoktime's deluxe Bub action figure is a worthy addition to the 6-7 inch scale zombie. With many movie-specific accessories and a high level of detail enhanced by some very nice paint applications, I was very happy to receive this figure despite its lack of articulation!

This toy also has me excited about several other upcoming Amoktime zombie toys. First, Amoktime is set to release the second in their Day of the Dead series: Doctor Tongue. I'm more excited for this one than I was for Bub! Also, as I reported earlier, Amoktime is also going to release the much anticipated toy version of the Tarman from Return of the Living Dead. My zombie collection hungers for them!

If your taste is for larger zombie figures, Amoktime also offers several 12" figures. Aside from their 12" Bub, they also have a series of 12" Night of the Living Dead figures that includes Bill Heinzman as Cemetery Zombie, Duane Jones as Ben, Judith Odea as Barbra, and Kyra Schon as zombie Karen Cooper. I don't normally collect 12" toys, but between these and the 12" The Dead line from Sideshow Toys, I'm seriously thinking about it.

If only I could kick my habit for Transforming robots. Until the summer is over, zombies will have to take a backseat to Transformers.

ZOMB-ART #6: Thomas Boatwright

"Zombie"
Artist: Thomas Boatwright

I follow Thomas Boatwright on deviantART and he's no stranger to zombies. In this sketch, Boatwright avoids the gory decomposed representation in favor of inspiration from the original Hinzman graveyard zombie in Night of the Living Dead.

Thomas Boatwright is the artist and co-creator of Cemetery Blues which is now available in trade paperback from Image comics. In June he has a three page story in the SLG Publishing anthology Fat Chunk Volume 2: Zombie called "One Nation Under Zombie." Also from SLG in July is the 22 page one-shot Zeke Deadwood Zombie Lawman. That's a lot of Zombies in '09, which is fine by him.

Check out his Art Gallery http://boatwright.deviantart.com/gallery/

and his Blog right here on blogspot: http://boatwrightartwork.blogspot.com/

Moody Reconsidered

Last week, I posted a very negative review of David Moody's zombie novel AUTUMN. I was fairly unimpressed with its incredibly slow place, lack of interesting writing or descriptive detail, and flat characters. With a rating of 1.5 / 5 zedheads, I can't recommend it.

As a result, I have been avoiding the short story "Home." Written by Moody and set in the same fictional world as AUTUMN, the story is included in Permuted Press's The Undead: Zombie Anthology, which I am currently reading. I figured, however, I'd get it over with quickly like ripping off a band aid.

However, I actually LIKED "Home."

I remarked in my review of AUTUMN that the novel felt like one of Moody's early works. AUTUMN is copyright 2002 and "Home" is copyright 2004. If "Home" is any indication, in those two years Moody really improved his pacing, descriptive flair, and eye for character. "Home" is an exciting and disturbing read that is more tense and horrifying in 17 pages than AUTUMN was in its entireity.

Moody's works are still not on my "must-read" list, and given the choice I would probably avoid them, but even if my review of AUTUMN won't change, I encourage others to check out Moody's later work.

What do you think? Any Moody readers out there? Send me an e-mail or post a reply. What do you think about Moody's work ?

Nasty Nature: Hair Worm Mindcontrol

When I wrote about zombie fire ants two weeks ago and mind-controlling fungus last week, I didn't plan to make "Nasty Nature" a semi-regular feature here on The Zed Word; however, I'm starting to learn way more than I ever knew about zombie behavior in the animal world as a result of parasitic organisms.

This week we take a break from ants, which seem common victims of parasitic mind control, and instead turn to the Hair Worm and it's suicidal power over the common grasshopper.

Nematomorpha (commonly known as hair worms or horse hair worms) are fascinatingly disgusting aquatic creatures that tend to shock onlookers when they are discovered living in their hosts. Hair worms are long, thin, and cylindrical, making them look similar to long strands of black, brown, yellow, or white hair. They range in size from 5–300 cm long and can be 0.5–10 mm thick. The parasitic portion of the hair worm's life cycle occurs after the eggs, laid in water, hatch. The hatched larvae swim to find a host, use their hooks to pierce the body, and then enter into the host organism. Hair worms that live in marine crustaceans belong to the class Nematomorpha whereas worms that live in terrestrial arthropods (like crickets, beetles, and cockroaches) belong to the class Gordius. Since hair worms are so thin, they can grow to surprisingly incredible lengths within the small body cavities of their hosts. When they emerge from the body to begin mating, the sight is often incredibly gruesome and unexpected as it erupts in a massive tangle of worm that significantly exceeds the size of the host. Check out this terrifying video of a hair worm emerging.



Bleck! Worse yet, some hair worms seem to create a form of mind control over their hosts that turn them into suicidal zombie slaves. In the case of Spinochordodes tellinii, which matures inside of grasshoppers and crickets, the worm seems to be able to force the grasshopper or cricket to commit suicide by drowning itself in order to return the worm to the water so it can complete the rest of its aquatic life-cycle.

Normally, grasshoppers will not leap into water -- that would be certain death -- but a team of French biologists who studied drowned grasshoppers in southern France discovered that the grasshoppers had been infected with hair worms, and the worms were some how able to hijack the grasshopper's central nervous system and compel the poor bugger to take the deadly plunge. Check out this video of the fatal mind-control in action!



For more examples and and explanation of the science behind this phenomena, click through to this video interview with Frédéric Thomas.

Thankfully for humans, we are not part of the life cycle and not compelled to drown ourselves if infested. Although some humans have been found with hair worms in their bodies because, like other animals (frogs for example), we might ingest animals infected with hair worms, the worms will not use us as part of their reproductive cycle or do us significant harm. I guess every worm-filled cloud has a silver lining.

But how long until something does evolve that might really turn humans into a form of water-seeking mind-controlled zombies? Has it already happened?

Do we honestly think anyone would participate in the insane Polar Bear swim without being mind controlled by a parasitic worm?

Come back next week for more nasty parasitic zombie nature when we take another look at ants and their ongoing persecution by zombie fungus.

AUTUMN by David Moody (Review)

REVIEW

AUTUMN

Author: David Moody
Infected Books: 2007

RATING: 1.5 / 5 zedheads



Reading David Moody's AUTUMN was a chore. I was compelled to stop reading it on several occasions. Had I not committed to reviewing the book for the blog, I would not have picked it up again.

In short, AUTUMN is a novel that starts with a interesting hook but ultimately does not have enough substance or character to justify 251 pages of story.

My main criticism of AUTUMN is leveled at its pace. This is a story where nothing of driving consequence occurs for two thirds of the book. This is odd given it's opening chapters that graphically depict how an impossibly fast disease wipes out most of humankind in little more than one bloody day. These opening chapters are about as exciting and interesting as the book gets. What follows is the story of our three main protagonists, Emma, Michael, and Carl, who meet one another and a scant handful of other survivors at a city community hall. Eventually Emma, Michael, and Carl decide to leave the city for the country. Good thing too because the corpses of plague victims are – against all possibility – returning from the dead!

The bulk of the story finds Emma, Michael, and Carl lucking upon an abandoned farm house that they secure as a safe haven from the dead. From this point forward, the story completely stalls. The pace of the novel crawls to a stop as our protagonists set up the house, argue, and look for supplies. There is very little plot to engage the reader and move them through the story. Perhaps Moody was trying to give us a taste of the desperation and monotony of the survivor's lives, and that's fine except you can do that and still maintain the reader's interest. Moody offers very little incentive to keep reading. Since Moody limits himself to three characters in an isolated farm house, we only see the world through their very narrow point of view, and frankly they don't do or see a lot. This narrative choice is weirdly inconsistent with the beginning of the novel that is told from a variety of points of view from multiple characters. For example, when the novel takes place in the city, Moody introduces the character of Stuart Jeffries, Sandra Goodwin, and Ralph who add some well-needed narrative and character variety to the story. When Emma, Michael, and Carl leave them behind, however, they drop out of the story and all their character build-up goes to waste. A more interesting novel might have been written about those they left behind.

Now, there's nothing wrong with having a slowly-paced novel with few characters – but your characters have to be interesting. Moody tries to establish some back stories for his characters (although Emma gets little), but the characters feel flat and hollow. Emma is the nurturing female figure who tries to foster cooperation, Carl is the hot-head and angry loner, Michael is the ... well... kind of an empty 'every man.' These three characters argue and bicker in predictable ways, and are some of the most uninteresting characters I've read in survivor fiction. AUTUMN was like being locked in a room with three boring strangers.

Part of the problem comes from the writing itself. AUTUMN is one of Moody's early novels (he's gone on to write more in the AUTUMN series as well as the much-hyped novel HATER) and in AUTUMN the writing does not present much flair for description, mood, or emotional insight. The world of the novel feels removed from the reader because there is a lack of vibrant, gripping detail. It doesn't feel like a fleshed-out world. Moody also spends a lot of time telling the reader what characters feel rather than showing it. We are told that the characters are depressed, or angry, or confused, or plagued by paranoia, but I never felt it in my heart or in their actions. Being told how the characters felt rather than describing it in a palpable way made it difficult to build empathy with the protagonists.

There was also a striking lack of dread and fear in the mood of the novel. The “zombies,” although they are never called this, never seem like a real threat. When the bodies start to rise, they are slow, almost catatonic, and oblivious. Just wandering. Eventually, they begin to congregate and move toward loud noises, but I never felt afraid of them in the story. Moody describes their pathetic stumbling and falling, yet the characters all seem deathly afraid of these creatures anyway. Sure,we'd all be freaked out and run the hell away if a corpse got up and started stumbling around, but it takes a long time for the zombies to show real aggression. In the meantime, however, everyone seems petrified by the creatures. In the story itself, we never actually see the zombies do anything terrifying. Late in the novel, one of the characters stumbles upon a gory scene of dead survivors and we assume this was caused by the zombies, but all we ever see the creatures do is wander, grasp at people, bang on doors and windows, surge through doorways in large numbers, and fall down in the mud. Do they eat flesh? No idea. Do they attack people? I think so. Do they tear people up or strangle them or beat them? No idea. The threat and tension in AUTUMN is very poorly defined. Moody goes to great lengths to try and put a twist on the zombie, but whatever he is trying to do does not offer much tension. Moody often calls the zombies "lamentable corpses," which inspires feelings of pity and not fear.

The unattributed promotional quotes on the back of the novel call AUTUMN “the perfect zombie story” and “beautifully apocalyptic.” I have to call shenanigans on that. AUTUMN isn't gory enough for the gore hounds, scary enough for horror fans, dramatic enough for drama fans, or narratively insightful enough for post-apocalypse fans.

AUTUMN is a good idea underwhelming executed. Perhaps Moody's other work is better, but this novel leaves me with little interest in reading more of the series.

What I am excited about is the independent film adaptation of AUTUMN from writer/ producer/ director Steven Rumbelow and Renegade Motion Pictures. Starring Dexter Fletcher, the AUTUMN movie has a trailer that already looks way more exciting and scary than the novel. People say movies are never as good as the book, but I've often found that when the book didn't satisfy me the movie versions can.

Check out this cool trailer for AUTUMN the movie!

ZOMB-ART #5: Princess Polly-Pox

"Princess Polly-Pox" (2002)
Artist: The Zed Word

Princes Polly-Pox is the prettiest purveyor of pestilence at the most posh proms and pageants

Odds n' Ends

A round up of zombie-related news hitting the web

Make your own Zombie Apocalypse

• Valve, creators of the highly popular Left 4 Dead game have released and open beta for a kit of PC software development tools that will let fans mod and build levels, create props, import props, and edit lighting. [via Kotaku]

• Also from Kotaku comes another bit of Left 4 Dead modification. Some brilliant Rock Band 2 player has created a band in the likeness of L4D's four survivors: Bill, Francis, Zoey, and Lewis. Watch them perform "Pretend That We're Dead"

Have you heard of Pontypool?

I've posted quite a bit about Pontypool because I really think this movie deserves a wider release. Over the course of the last few weeks, some new Pontypool news has hit the web.

• First, Edward Douglas has posted a look at the new US one-sheet and an exclusive interview with director Bruce McDonald [via Shock Till You Drop]

• Second, confirmed news is getting around that a sequel to Pontypool called Pontypool Changes will begin filming as early as 2010 [via Dread Central]. I wonder if they are going for a trilogy in which each title of the films will build up to the title of the book on which they are based: Pontypool Changes Everything.
  

Here Comes Colin

Colin, an independent feature from the UK, is getting some buzz after playing at Cannes. (if the internet is to be believed).

• Ray Bennett covers Colin at Cannes, describing a bit about the making of the film. [via The Hollywood Reporter]

• Based on its presence at Cannes, Colin is starting to get distribution bids from Japanese companies but the filmmakers hope for more interest in the near future. [via The Press Association]
  

Are Zombies Real?

Sometimes the line between fact and fiction is slippery.

• "Halley" on Yahoo Answers posted a rambling question about whether or not the zombie apocalypse is real and whether there are more important things than the zombie apocalypse. If she thinks world hunger is more important than the zombie apocalypse, she's already doomed! [original question via Yahoo Answers]
  

• Is this the video of a real zombie attack on some poor scared kid? Run kid! There's a ZOMBIE ON YOUR LAWN!

Funny - Funny Videos

Misc News

• New stills are up from the film ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction. [via Bloody-Disgusting]

• William Safire uses his "On Language" column to explore the origins of the term "Zombie Bank" that has become so popular in this current economic crisis. [via The New York Times]

• The film adaptation of David Moody's AUTUMN by Renegade Motion Pictures will be debuted on May 30th at the Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon, SK. Renegade are good people, and they put a lot of hard work into this film. If you are in the area, GO SEE IT! [via Making of Autumn Blog].
  

Trailer Tuesday: The Grapes of Death (1978)

In The Grapes of Death (Les Raisins de la mort) a young woman discovers that the pesticide being sprayed on vineyards is turning people into killer zombies.

Killer wine-drinking French zombies!

"Cerveaux! Cerveaux!"

Nasty Nature: Zombie Fungus

Last week in Nasty Nature, I posted about zombie fire ants -- ants infested with phorid fly larva that exhibit strange aimless wandering behavior before their heads fall off and the mature phorid fly crawls out of its mouth. Zombie-like in the behavior of their mindless wandering, it seems that ants aren't only prey to parasitic flies but also parasitic fungus that takes control of their minds.



Cordyceps is a genus of parasitic fungus that infects the bodies of its hosts. Cordyceps unilateralis can actually exert a controlling force over the brains of ants, causing them to climb to an elevated height so that when the parasitic fungal spores are ready to pop they will cover a wider area.

The whole gruesome process is beautifully captured in this clip from Planet Earth, narrated by David Attenborough: Cordyceps: Attack of the Killer Fungi

It works like this:

1.) The spores of the fungus attach themselves to the outside of the ant and germinate

2.) The germinated spores enter in to the ant's body through the ant's breathing tubes

3.) Fungal mycelia (thin filaments) invade the inside of the ant's body and consume its soft tissues without damaging the vital organs

4.) When the fungus is ready to reproduce, it grows into the ant's brain and produces chemicals that fuck with the ant's brain. By mixing up the ant's sense of perception, the fungus compels the ant to climb to a higher elevation on, for example, a plant.

5.) At the top of the plant, the ant fixes itself to the position by chomping onto the plant with its mandibles. There it sits and will die as the fungus consumes what is left of the ant's brain and then fruits out of the ant's head. Once mature, the fruiting bodies of the fungus erupt and release capsules of spores into the air which also explode and rain down parasitic zombie spores onto the other ants in the area.

Perfect idea for a gruesome zombie movie, no? Different versions of the fungus are targeted at different insects; it is only a matter of time before one adapts to infect humans! At least one person has already imagined a Cordyceps zombie. On his Science Punk Blog, Frank Swain posted a zombie identification card for a human Cordyceps zombie.

Imagine a fungus that could infect our minds and instead of driving us to a higher elevation would drive us to violent attacks to spread the deadly, mind-controlling fungus. On the other hand, zombies with mushrooms coming out of their heads might be too ridiculous for some audiences. It might remind them of the Mario games.

"Thank you Mario! But our brains are in another castle!"

Or, of Matango (Attack of the Mushroom People)



Either way, think twice before you put mushrooms on your burger today. Fungus is not your friend.

ZOMBIES EVERYWHERE

My mailbox is exploding with zombie news lately, and it all comes from articles trying to locate the focus of the so-called "zombie zeitgeist" in pop culture.

Christopher Borrelli at the Chicago Tribune posted "It's the dawn of the zombie zeitgeist" in which he proclaims "[t]he A-list monster mascot of our miserable moment is a slouching corpse". There is also a priceless quote from S.G. Browne, author of Breathers, in which he states, "Vampires are Brad Pitts. Zombies are more like the Steve Buscemis. We can relate." I wonder how Steve feels about that.

And coming in from the other coast, LA Weekly posted two seperate zombie articles. First, Gendy Alimurung offers "This Zombie Moment: Hunting for What Lies Beneath the Undead Zeitgeist" as the magazine's feature story. Second, Scott Foundas's "Birth of a Zombie Nation: The Undead in the Movies" takes the reader through zombie cinema history, from Bela Lugosi to George Romero and beyond.

Melbourne Zombie Shuffle 2009

Check out this "awesum" video of the 2009 Melbourne Zombie Shuffle from MinistryOfAwesum

Nasty Nature: Zombie Fire Ants

I came across an interesting story in the Star-Telegram by Bill Hanna yesterday called "Parasitic flies turn fire ants into zombies"

The article focuses on the phorid fly of South America. The fly will attack only red imported fire ants for the purpose of implanting its egg in the ant. It divebombs an ant and inserts an egg in the ant's midsection. Once the egg is laid and hatches, the maggot moves through the ant's body and worms its way into the ants head and eats its brain. The maggot develops into an adult fly inside the ant's head, which soon falls off. Then the fly crawls out the ant's mouth.



We could call the ants "zombies" because of their strange ambulatory behavior once infested:

"At some point, the ant gets up and starts wandering," said Rob Plowes, a research associate at UT [University of Texas].

The maggot eventually migrates into the ant’s head, but Plowes said he "wouldn’t use the word 'control’ to describe what is happening. There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly. This wandering stage goes on for about two weeks."

About a month after the egg is laid, the ant’s head falls off and the fly emerges ready to attack any foraging ants away from the mound and lay eggs.

Phorid flies can be bought and sold as a means of pest-control to reduce the spread of fire ants and control their movements.

The whole grisly life cycle of the phorid fly reminds me of the wasps in Dead Rising except the zombies don't lose their heads until you kill the Queen Wasp.

Trailer Tuesday: Dog House

Jake West's Dog House



Six men with mid-life anxiety set out for a weekend in the country in an attempt to reconnect with their masculinity.

What they find is a catastrophe so horrible and bizarre that a mid-life crisis turns out to be exactly what they need to survive it...

ZOMB-ART #4: Twilight of the Dead

In the beginning, one man made us fear the NIGHT
Then night BECAME DAWN
and dawn became DAY
and the day broke upon the LAND
....and someone wrote about it in their DIARY(?)
but the DIARY didn't sell as well as Mormon vampire romance fiction...

Now, legendary film maker George A. Romero has decided to cash in. Prepare yourself for terrifying new heights of teen romance!

Stumble through . . . George A. Romero's TWILIGHT of the DEAD

"Twilight of the Dead" (2009)
Artist: The Zed Word

Could the inclusion of zombies save such a dreadful movie as Twilight? Maybe if George Romero was at the helm!

Guess what?

YOU FORGOT MOTHER'S DAY!

If, upon reading that, you suddenly bolted up out of your chair in the sudden realization that you neglected to send your poor, dear mother some love today, fear not!

I have compiled a list of handy gifts to send your mommy this Mother's Day. There's just one catch: She better like zombies!

Last-minute Zombie Mother's Day Gifts

1.) Zombie High-Heeled Shoes


Although temporarily out of stock until June, these fashionable flesh-ripping heels would be perfect for the zombie-loving mother who has to put her foot down.

2.) Zombie Garden Sculpture


If your mother is a gardening and undead enthusiast, she might enjoy this garden sculpture by Alan Dickinson. You never call her anymore, so send her a garden zombie to keep her company. Seriously though, call your mother.

3.) The Perfect Ribs T-Shirt


Let your mother show off her perfect rack -- rack of ribs! Your mother was always telling you that milk builds strong bones, right? With this t-shirt from CherryPiePunk, your mom can show how important bone-health really is.

4.) Zombie Brain With Stem Soaps



Mother's Day is a day for mothers to relax and be pampered. Why not give your Mother some of these lovely creepy zombie brain soaps by agonysdecay for when she soaks in the tub? Made from pure vegetable glycerin soap and enriched with Aloe and Vitamin E, these brain soaps come in a variety of colours and scents.

5.)Peter Jackson's Dead Alive (Braindead)



Never has a zombie film been more appropriate for Mother's day. Lionel's oppressive mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat monkey, dies, and comes back to life as a disgusting zombie who kills and eats everyone around her. Nothing says, "I love you, Mom" like a movie in which a giant mutant zombie mother sucks her son back into her stomach. No mommy-issues there!

He's behind you, he's got swine flu

The ongoing association with Swine Flu and zombies continues. Music by The Streets

Odds n' Ends

A round up of zombie-related news hitting the web

Crafty 4 Dead

• Some zombie-lover's crafty girlfriend crocheted some precious representations of the survivors and infected from Left 4 Dead. Awww, cute. I wonder what the Tank would look like? [via Kotaku]

• Also, Snack or Die has posted a recipe for some delicious looking Left 4 Dead survivor cookies.

Sony presses play on [REC] US release

• Looks like the Spanish horror film [REC], from which Quarantine was copied (ahem) adapted, will finally get released in America in July. Paradox released [REC] in Canada at the beginning of the year on a barebones DVD, but now Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the movie in the US. The US release will feature both the original Spanish and English-dubbed versions and a [REC]: Making-of featurette. [via Fangoria]

• In other [REC] news, the official website for it's sequel is now ONLINE
  

Dead Air screening at NY FangoCon

• Reports indicate that Dead Air (starring Bill Moseley) will screen at Bill Moseley's Dead Air will have a screening at NY FangoCon's Weekend of Horrors. [via Horror-Movies.ca].

Viva La Horde

• French zombie film La Horde (The Horde) is selling well on the international and European market. Can't wait to see this. [via Bloody-Disgusting]

ZOMB-ART #3: One Eye

"One Eye" (2009)
Artist: The Zed Word

This is a colour experiment I did on one of my very old black and white sketches. I did the sketch while watching The Goonies. You might notice this was inspired by One-Eyed Willie from that film.

Monster Island by David Wellington (Review)

REVIEW

Monster Island: A Zombie Novel

Author: David Wellington
Running Press: 2006

RATING: 5 / 5 zedheads



Here is an author who gets it – David Wellington’s Monster Island is a thrilling, thoughtful, and vividly written horror / adventure zombie novel that puts a new twist on the idea of the zombie. David Wellington takes the reader on a grisly, exciting ride through a hellish zombie nightmare that will make you rethink your expectations about zombie fiction.

Monster Island is set one month after a global disaster precipitated by a zombie outbreak. The brain-intact dead have returned to life as slow-moving but persistently ravenous monsters. Desperately hungering primarily for human flesh, they will in reality eat anything – animals, grass, tree bark – they consume all life. America and the rest of the developed word has fallen to the crisis and now the only relatively safe places in the world are the despotic, oppressive regimes of dictatorships or third-world theocracies and war-lord protected nations.

The plot of Monster Island is told from the point of view of two characters, Dekalb and Gary, whose paths cross in what remains of undead-ravaged New York City. Delkab is an American weapons inspector for the UN. Finding himself stuck in Africa with his daughter while the world goes to hell, Delkab makes it Somalia where he is promised protection if he can find anti-HIV drugs to preserve the life of Mama Halima, a powerful warlord with a cult following. Unsuccessfully able to find the required medications in Africa and the Middle East, Delkab and a team of Somali child soldiers make their way to New York City in the hopes of finding the medications at the abandoned UN building.

In New York, they meet Gary, a doctor-in-training who has joined the ranks of the undead. However, Gary is special – he has found a way to retain his identity and preserve his mind after death. This is only the beginning of Gary’s journey, however. Soon, he discovers something startling about the nature of the zombies around him and his own role as one of the undead. The man he becomes takes the novel in a completely new and unexpected but brilliant direction.

The first third of Monster Island follows the trajectory of a conventional zombie-siege story, but after the first act, it takes off on an incredibly new plot line that introduces a new undead power into the story. I do not want to spoil anything about what to expect because I was unspoiled and new direction surprised and fascinated me. What I can tell you is that the story will sink its teeth into you and drag you non-stop to its startling conclusion.

On the surface, Monster Island may seem like a conventional example of violent, gore fiction but I think there is more to it. First, The novel is expertly written. Wellington does not waste a word – every plot beat is carefully executed and his details are judicially chosen for maximum effect. Wellington has an obvious flair for writing and creating immersive details that are clever and insightful. Although the chapters are short and the book is only 282 pages long, the story is stuffed so full of ideas and events and character development that the story felt epic. Second, and most strikingly, Wellington manages to balance shocking depictions of gory violence with genuine humanity without compromising the wonderful pace of the story. This achievement came a breath of fresh air since I was reading another zombie novel at the same time that was shambling at an aimless pace even a zombie would find slow. Simply put, Monster Island was a joy to read.

Finally, Monster Island also takes the zombie apocalypse formula and introduces surprisingly refreshing elements. For example, characters of colour from Eastern nations are active players in this novel, and they aren’t the typical villainous Muslim stereotypes. Even though Delkab’s companions are Islamic child soldiers from Somalia, and most of us would agree that use of child soldiers are a terrible human’s rights abuse, Wellington challenges such knee-jerk reactions. He explains early on that they belong to a group called the Glorious Girl Army of the Free Women's Republic of Somaliland. Their leader, Mama Halima, formed the fundamentalist Islamic group to protect women from sexual abuse, violence and mutilation such as infibulation, the practice of sewing closed the outer lips of the vagina as a form of sexual oppression. Like the humans, the undead characters are also shown in a more complex and sympatheticly human way. The plot device (which I won't spoil) that Wellington introduces into the story allows the reader to get a sense of what it must feel like to be a zombie, a state which is both frightening and saddening. Make no mistake, the novel is primarily an action / adventure story, but moments like these offer a complexity to the world that is intriguing and often lacking in such stories.

You owe yourself to read Monster Island. It began as an online serial, but you can read the novel and its prequels/sequels in its entirety ONLINE. However, do yourself a favor and buy a copy! There is a pleasure to gripping a collection of pages in tension as you thrill at zombie hoards approach your heroes that you just do not get online. You will not regret it. Monster Island will make for exciting summer reading!

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite parts that captures some of Wellington’s gift for details and flair for writing. Delkab and his team are arriving on Liberty Island, and they find a ghoulish welcoming party dead ahead:

One of the girls opened up with her rifle, a controlled burst, three shots. Chut chut chut chopping up the grey water. Chut chut chut and the bullets tore through the red windbreaker, tore open the woman’s neck. Chut chut chut and her head popped open like an overripe melon and she sank, slipping beneath the water without a sound and still, pressed up against the railing on Liberty Island, a hundred more reached for us. Reached with pleading skeletal hands to clutch at us, to take what was theirs.

Your huddled masses. Give me your dead, I thought. The ship heeled hard over to one side as Osman finally brought her around, nosed around the edge of Liberty Island and kept us from running up on the rocks. Give me your wretched dead, yearning to devour, your shambling masses. Give me. That was what they were thinking, wasn’t it? The living dead over there on the island. If there was any spark left in their brains, any thought possible to decayed neurons it was this: give me. Give me. Give me your life, your warmth, your flesh. Give me.

Trailer Tuesday: Mutant Vampire Zombies From The Hood

Mutant Vampire Zombies From The Hood



Is it wrong that I really want to see this?

Zombie Girl (Review)

REVIEW

ZOMBIE GIRL:
THE MOVIE (2009)

Directors:
Justin Johnson
Aaron Marshall
Erik Mauck

RATING:
5 / 5 zedheads



It was a beautiful, breezy day on College Street in Toronto on Sunday. The perfect day to sit back at The Royal Theatre and fall in love with a Zombie Girl.

Zombie Girl is a documentary from co-directors Justin Johnson, Aaron Marshall, and Erik Mauck. It documents the attempt by 12-year-old Emily Hagins in 2004 to write, direct, film, and edit a feature-length zombie movie called Pathogen. The movie is not so much about zombies or the nature of making film but rather the special relationship between bright, ambitious Emily and her incredibly supportive mother. Emily was after all 12 and, although unusually dedicated and passionate about making film, still inexperienced and at times awkward as a pre-teen director. With the help of her mother (who becomes everything for the film: makeup artist, set designer, prop master, boom mic operator, etc., producer, financier), Emily takes a very rough two-year road towards finishing Pathogen, sometimes fabulous and exciting - sometimes tense and overwhelming. She finds her voice along the way and makes every mistake in the film-making book.

I fell in love with Zombie Girl because it reminded me why I love being creative. The film captures the exalting thrill of creating something out of nothing and the heart-breaking crash that comes with the understanding that your ability to realize your vision stands so far beyond your human limitations and abilities. I'm sure every person out there has at one time given up or shelved a creative project, thinking it was impossible or they weren't good enough, or that no one would like it. Then you see Emily Hagins -- a girl at the beginning of her life, forging ahead to create a movie on a home-spun budget with a boom mic made from paint roller poles and tape and a handful of Halloween makeup -- and that inspiration and love of art is rekindled.

Also, the fact that Emily and her cast are all young is a reminder that, no matter how technical, self-important, artsy, financially bloated, and overexposed movies and celebrities are these days -- at the heart of every actor, director, and special-effects supervisor is a little bit of that youthful energy cultivated from playing make-believe and dress up.

Zombie Girl is a lovely under-dog story about determination, the joys and desperation of independent film making, and family. At times quirky and heart-wrenching, Zombie Girl is a documentary that will, hopefully as it did for me, leave you leaving the theatre re-inspired to turn your visions into reality.

Especially if those dreams include zombies.

Zombie Girl: The Movie played in Toronto as part of the Hot Docs Festival and was sponsored by Toronto Zombie Walk and co-presented by Rue Morgue and the Toronto After Dark Film Festival

Hackademia: Zombie Psychology

In Hackademia, we spotlight academic work across the disciplines that hacks and slashes its way to the bloody, gory truth about zombies!

On April 13th, 2009, Dr. Steven C. Schlozman, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a lecturer at the Harvard School of Education, gave a lecture on zombies for Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Science On Screen program.

Thankfully, the Phoenix posted the whole lecture as a video. Check it out below and learn what might make Zombie brains tick.

"The Neurobiology, Psychology, and Cultural
Overtones of the Zombie Film Genre"

presented by Dr. Steven C. Schlozman

HOAX: Zombie Swine Flu

A hoax news story designed to look like an official BBC news page is claiming that those who have died of the swine flu have risen from the grave

After death, this virus is able to restart the heart of it’s victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believe to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.”

The story spread through Twitter in no small part thanks to Tweetme, a website that tracks the popularty of links on Twitter, which presenetd the story as legitmate. According to an Entertainment Weekly article about the hoax, it was "listed on Tweetmeme's homepage with this very misleading and official-looking moniker: BBC NEWS | Europe | EU quarantines London in swine flu panic. And it's right alongside actually legit BBC News stories, like this: BBC News | Health | What scientists know about swine flu"



"Braiiiins! Braaaiins and Tamiflu!"
The hoax plays the joke straight, dropping very few references to zombism in the piece, but when it does mention zombism treats the issue matter-of-factly. Hilariously, the story links to a previous hoax from 2005 claiming an outbreak of zombism in Cambodia.


I didn't post this originally when the link came across my desk because there is already WAY too much unscientific misinformation out there.

Odds N' Ends

A round up of zombie-related news hitting the web

• Although it has been finished for two years, Dead Air starring Bill Moseley is finally screening at Cannes and looking for distributors. In Dead Air, bio-terrorists release a plague that turns people into zombie-like maniacs. Talk-show host Logan Burnhart (Mosely) takes refuge in his studio, providing a voice to document the crisis. [via Shock Till You Drop]

• Be amazed by these promotional screenshots from the PS3 version of Capcom's Dead Rising 2 [via Gamepro]

• "In Russia, Zombie walk you!" Check out these pictures from the 2009 Moscow Zombie Walk.

• Andrew Klaven explains from a politically conservative perspective, how government is like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead [via Pyjamas Tv]

• Brian McKechnie has posted an interview with Aaron Marshall, co-director of the documentary Zombie Girl. The film documents 12-year-old Emily Hagins's two-year attempt to shoot, direct and edit a feature-length zombie movie. [via Citynews]