Hackademia: Paul Waldman and Matt Hills (Respect for Horror?)

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

On June 16th, Paul Waldman at The American Prospect posted an online essay entitled "The Left and the Living Dead". In this piece, Waldman suggests that the despite all the reasons that zombie fiction would normally fade away, the zombie zeitgeist remains viable because there is a progressive Liberal core underneath the extreme violence and metaphors for death expressed in zombie films.

The interpretation of Liberal ideology in zombie films is not a new idea, as Waldman notes, but he sums it up nicely when he writes, "Surviving the tide of zombies requires community and mutual responsibility. What could be more progressive than that?"

Although Waldman glances over what I feel are the equally conservative values as well as anti-progressive racial and misogynistic values present in zombie films, I agree that a signfiicant aspect of zombie films is an underlying Liberal philosophy. With that being said, I wish Waldman were a little more progressive in his own view of zombie fans. Waldman begins his article by suggesting that while ghosts, vampires, and werewolves can be and have been presented in highbrow or upper-middle highbrow art, "there are no highbrow zombie movies or novels, and admitting you love them [zombies] amounts to a declaration that your tastes are unrefined."

I find this aside fairly insulting in the way he blankets a whole group of horror fans in broad strokes. Maybe it depends on his definition of zombie? Sure, there are not many gut-munching art films out there, but many consider the people in Les Revenants to be zombies, and that movie's pretty high-brow. What about Soavi's Dellamorte, Dellamore? It's full of splatter and nudity, but you can't watch that movie and not come away feeling it's reaching for more artful, abstract themes.

I guess I'm more offended at the suggestion that those who are fans of zombies don't care for "refined" film, as if it's impossible to do both. As if people don't have a variety of compex tastes. It's this kind of pigeonholing of horror fans that was one of the reasons I never went back to University for a PhD. I wanted to work in the study of genres, especially of cult and exploitation films, but I often felt that even the most open-minded scholars of popular culture feel the material is not worth examining on principle. Even worse, when scholars and writers do examine these works for their cultural significance, there is still apparently a desire to denigrate those who enjoy the subject matter -- as if the only way to enjoy a cult or exploitation film is from an academic level that "betters" the subject matter by virtue of its analytical approach.

One of the few horror scholars I've read who approaches horror fans with respect is Matt Hills. In his book The Pleasures of Horror (London: Continuum, 2005), he writes that too often scholars approach the study of horror and horror fans as a problem that needs to be solved through academic study:

I would argue that some horror scholarship (though by no means all) has viewed horror’s pleasures as a kind of problem in need of explanation because it has prematurely accepted common-sense, hegemonic accounts of the genre. As represented in the Western news media, horror is frequently depicted as a source of mimetic infection, or of moral pollution . . . . But while critics such as Martin Barker, Julian Petley, David Buckingham (1996) and David Gauntlett (1995 and 2001) have worked to contest mass media narratives of horror’s ‘effects’ on audiences, work on the pleasures of horror seems to have unwittingly adopted media discourses surrounding horror via its willingness to view horror’s pleasures as a puzzle, conundrum or a ‘problem’ in need of further study. Horror’s pleasures have been defined, conservatively, as ‘aberrant’ in sectors of contemporary culture other than academia, with this symbolic equation then implicitly or explicitly taken up in studies of the genre . . . . (Hills 3)

Here, Hills suggests that the approach to take to horror is not to "solve" the problem of why people seek pleasure in horror or "trash" cinema. Instead, we should approach the pleasure of horror not from the question of "Why do people enjoy horror" but the question of where the pleasure comes from and how it is expressed. Too often, the former view of exploring why people enjoy horror leads to arguments that do not separate horror fans from the mentally ill; there is an implicit suggestion that watching horror films will either: (a) ‘corrupt and deprave’ or (b) ‘desensitize’ viewers (Hills 5).

So, I would recommend everyone read Waldman's article, but keep in mind that his description of zombie fans is generally reductive and offhandedly insulting. Waldman's take on zombie films and progressive ideology is not as progressive in its approach to why horror fans may enjoy zombie films.

Dr. Kaku? Is that you?

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THIS ZOMBIE?

EDIT: In this post, I wondered, beyond all probability, if the above zombie from Flight of the Living Dead was an uncredited cameo by Dr. Michio Kaku, a well-known theoretical physicist. I have since heard back from Dr. Kaku via e-mail. He says "Nope. It is not me"

So the question not becomes, does anyone know who this actor is? Because I think if there's ever going to be a movie about Dr. Kaku's life, we've got the guy to play him right here. Separated at birth!

Original post follows.

One of the most memorable zombies in the Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane is a long-haired man of Asian descent who is turned into a zombie that is stuck in its seat for the whole movie. Although I cannot find any confirmation online, I SWEAR this zombie is played in an extended cameo by the famous theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku.


Like I said, I can't find any confirmation online or on IMDB, but look! If that's not Dr. Kaku, he has a zombie twin. I've e-mailed Dr. Kaku to try and confirm this, but I don't know if I'll get back an answer. Does anyone know if I'm wrong?

I hope I'm not. Something about the idea of Dr. Kaku, a man who writes about parallel dimensions and the physics of time travel, getting stuck on a plane and turning into a zombie makes me feel all warm inside.

Flight of the Living Dead (Review)

REVIEW

Flight of the Living Dead:
Outbreak on a Plane (2007)

Director: Scott Thomas

RATING:4 / 5 zedheads



When the first public libraries were created in this country, something tells me that no one could have predicted that one day a man such a myself could wander down to the library on a bright summer's afternoon and instead of checking out something good for the brain check out a movie about brain eaters.

Yes, I checked out Flight of the Living Dead from the library. I had been avoiding this movie since it was released, assuming it was one of this cheaply-made shitstorms concocted to suck any possible profit out of the whole Snakes on a Plane craze that itself tuned out to be too bloated to even sustain itself. I was expecting Snakes on a Train level trash here, and wasn't willing to pay for it. What I got was a thoroughly surprising and fun zombie romp that defied my expectations!




Flight of the Dead, which was originally and much more creatively titled Plane Dead, is about a commercial flight from LA to Paris that goes horribly wrong. A team of fugitive scientists bring aboard a secretive cargo that escapes and turns the crew and passengers into zombies. Yellow-eyed, snarling, hissing, undead zombies! These zombies share much in common with the modern "fast" zombies. Some shamble, but most lunge quickly out at you. They're not particularly gory, but they are effective and create some bloody mayhem. Admittedly, their bestial screeching and hissing gets a bit boring, but I found the zombies charmingly unique. Since the setting of the movie makes it very difficult to create wide shots of zombie hoards, the zombies spend most of their time hiding between the walls and popping out of the floor. They seem to nest in the cargo hold. It takes a while for the zombies to start creating mayhem, but when they do there's some really fun scenes where zombies are pulling their victims under the floor, taking them or pieces of them back to the den to feed. Director Scott Thomas and his crew make excellent use of the airplane environment that gives the movie a scope -- if not at times an unrealistic one -- that lifts the film above its budgetary restraints. Yes, the way the characters get in and out of the cargo hold seems unrealistically complicated and fabricated, but it works in the context of the film.



But zombies aren't the only threat on board. The plane in this movie must have the shittiest overhead compartments ever made because every bump of turbulence sends bludgeoning luggage projectiles down onto the passengers. Although most of the humour in this movie is intentional and tongue-in-cheek, there are some unintentionally hilarious scenes where the off-screen film crew are hurling luggage at the actors as they rock back and forth with the pretend turbulence.

So the zombies are great, but a zombie film is only as good as its human characters. Luckily, the film combines the pop sensibilities of Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake with the successful character ensemble nature of airplane disaster films like Airport and Airplane. The first third of the movie takes time to introduce the audience to the eclectic group of passengers -- some of whom will survive and others who will become zombie chow. Smith keeps things interesting by giving each character distinctive qualities without turning them into full-blown stereotypes, and each character is given his or her own arc. There's the two jocks and their bitchy, feuding girlfriends. There's Truman, the cop, and his scam-artist prisoner Frank. There's the golf star and his unhappy wife. All these characters, and more, are likable (even Co-Pilot Randy who comes across as a hysterical douche bag). Every character feels like they have an equal chance of being saved or eviscerated. There's some rough acting and terrible cliches (oh, it's your last flight before retirement? What should I put on your tombstone?).

More review after the jump!

The majority of the film, however, is well-acted and filled with many characters played by film and TV character actors. Actors such as Richard Tyson, Erick Avari, and the fantastically quirky Kevin J. O'Connor lend the film a nice balance of a familiar and unknown quality to each character. I haven't had such a fun time watching a group of characters in a zombie film in a long time. You don't necessarily wish they will die, but if they do, it's no sweat. They're not deep characters, but like the travel-sized amenities one gets on a plane, each character is satisfying in the short time you have with them before they're gone. No one overstays their welcome.

I think I'm most impressed that, for a direct-to-video feature, Flight of the Living Dead manages to use the conventions of zombie films while at the same time surprising the viewer. There were several moments in the plot and the development of the characters in which the filmmakers set up expectations that are turned on their heads. A lesser film would play to the lower expectations of the audience and let the scenes play out as they do in every other damned movie, but not this film. This film will keep things interesting both in the plot and the visuals (there are some neat scenes where the camera films the action from a unique angle, such as a kill seen through the lenses of a pair of glasses on the floor). In addition, the film quality looks great. It is as well-shot and lighted as any major release studio picture.

Finally, the film is not perfect. I have some issues with the CGI. Because of the relatively low budget, many of the effects are computer generated. The film begins with a rocking CGI title sequence full of blood and organ imagery, but other areas of the film are disappointing. All exterior shots of the plane are CGI (obvious from the solid-yellow windows that look painted on the texture map of the plane). There's also clear use of digital blood spray and splatter effects. For the most part, these effects are handled subtlety, but the more spectacular effects in the climax of the film are obviously green-screened and look more artificial than one can suspend with imagination. You just have to kind of roll with it as best you can.

Overall, Flight of the Living Dead does not deserve to be saddled with the stigma of being a Snakes on a Plane ripoff. It is a fun, exciting, funny, and surprisingly unexpected zombie treat. It has flaws, but after years of avoiding this flick, I'm now going out of my way to buy a copy. If you've been avoiding this movie too, go out and find it!

Trailer Tuesday: The Newlydeads (1987)

Michael Jackson: 1958-2009

Well, the news is all over the web, TV, and radio at this hour. Michael Jackson has died of heart failure at the age of 50.

I was never a huge Michael Jackson fan, but you can't deny he was an amazingly talented man. In his own way, he also did much for the zombie and horror community. His Thriller video and song left an indelible impression on popular horror culture that will carry on.

So, tonight we say goodbye to the King of Pop. And we remember how he thrilled us.

Trailer Tuesday: The Eaters

Jesus Hates Zombies: Winners Announced!

Congratulations to Michael S. and Acacia C., the winners of our Jesus Hates Zombies giveaway contest!

Winners have been e-mailed, and both will receive a copy of Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack Jaw Blues!

Thanks to everyone who entered.

If you didn't win this time, don't fret. There will more opportunities to win zombie swag in the near future.

So keep reading THE ZED WORD for more chances to win!

What Are Zombies (Part One)

I've decided to use my new YOUTUBE ACCOUNT to host a series of videos what will explain my personal definition of what is and what isn't a zombie. It may surprise you!

Check out the first installment of "What Are Zombies?" here:

It's Father's Day!

Where's... my cake? I... want... my... cake! Where's my cake, Bedelia? Where's my Father's Day cake? I want my cake you dirty BITCH! I'm going to have it! BEDELIA! It's Father's Day! Where's my cake? You promised me my cake! Bedelia, I'm your father and you're supposed to be taking care of me! BEDELIA, YOU BITCH! What do you think I've got you here for? You're just like all the others - you're nothing but a bunch of VULTURES! BEDELIA! WHERE'S MY FATHER'S DAY CAKE?

Zombieland Trailer and AICN Interview

The trailer for ZOMBIELAND is now up and looking smashing! Woody Harrelson plays Tallahassee, a zombie hunter in this horror-comedy from Sony Pictures. I was really interested in this movie before, but after seeing the trailer with Harrelson in action during the amusement park scenes has guaranteed my butt will be in the theatre come October.

The folks at AINT IT COOL NEWS also have an interview up: Quint talks with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer

Here's how Fleisher describes the movie:

Ruben Fliescher: I like to think of it as MIDNIGHT RUN with zombies, the story of these two unlikely people that go on a road trip together. Woody Harrelson is this zombie-killing badass and then Jesse Eisenberg is this sort of wimpy coward and they have both managed to survive.

It takes place in a post apocalyptic zombie world, so it’s more along the lines of 28 DAYS LATER as opposed to the moment of outbreak. So they are just in this post apocalyptic zombie landscape, they meet up on the road, they end up traveling together and it’s a true buddy comedy with these opposite characters with Woody as our badass zombie killer and Jesse being the opposite, but they both manage to survive because of their unique traits. Like Woody can kill every zombie and Jesse puts together a collection of rules that have allowed him to survive using his smarts and his fear to his advantage.

Dr. Tongue released by Amok Time Toys

Amok Time Toys, producers of the Bub action figure I reviewed, have released their next toy in the Day of the Dead license: DR. TONGUE

Michael Crawford has a review of the figure RIGHT HERE.

I hope to get it soon and share my thoughts.

Brain Picking: Interview with Stephen Lindsay (creator of JESUS HATES ZOMBIES)

I recently had the opportunity to pick the brain of Stephen Lindsay, creator of the indie comic Jesus Hates Zombies, which is now available in the Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack Jaw Blues trade paperback collection from Alterna Comics. The story begins six days after the zombie plague brings the earth to the brink of annihilation, and God has sent his favorite son Jesus back to earth to kick some zombie ass! (right: image by Lauren Monardo)

Does Stephen Lindsay fear for his soul for crafting such a deliciously blasphemous concept? Read on as we discuss zombies, indie comics, writing, and controversy with Stephen Lindsay. We even get a little philosophical.

ZED WORD (ZW): Stephen, in your blog, you mention that you were working on a zombie comic, After the Rising, when the idea of Jesus fighting zombies came to you. Can you expand on what you find so appealing about Jesus whooping slack-jaw ass? Did it have something to do with the fact that zombies, like the Beatles before them, became bigger than Jesus and you felt the score had to be settled?

STEPHEN LINDSAY (SL): The most appealing aspect of writing Jesus for me is making him someone people wouldn't expect. That's why I removed most of his 'powers'. I wanted to explore what he'd be like as a real working-class kinda guy. So I went into this with the idea that Jesus loves people so much that he's willing to sacrifice himself for us. And if he's willing to do that, there's no way he'd let some disgusting, soulless monsters devour the entire race! Plus, I spent 8 years in Catholic school, so getting a chance to deprogram myself a bit was pretty welcomed.

ZW: Most of the latter stories collected in Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues are written by your good friend Michael Bartolotta. Although you two have been writing together since you were 13, did he ever propose ideas that took Jesus Hates Zombies into places you never expected?

SL: Absolutely. As soon as I decided to do the anthology before the full series, I asked Mike if he wanted to write any of the stories. I totally gave him free reign on what he wanted to write. He knew that I wanted to infuse some pop-culture references, so when he busted out the story with the heavy Karate Kid references, I was in heaven (no pun intended). Mike and I have very similar senses of humor, so there have been times when I've actually forgotten which stories he wrote and which ones I wrote!

Art by Jeff McComsey

ZW: Every story in Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues is about five pages long and illustrated by a different artist. This creates a very episodic and sometimes disconnected feel because of the 5-page length. However, several of the later stories start to develop the character’s relationships and suggest an on-going story line. Do you intend to move Jesus Hates Zombies away from the stand-alone episodes and start writing an ongoing story arc?

SL: It actually started as a full story. But when you're a completely unproven comic writer with no published work, getting an artist to commit to a full book (especially when you can't pay them up front) is damn near impossible! But getting relatively new artists who are hungry to showcase their talents to commit to a 5 page story is very doable. So, instead of going for the full story first, I started writing these short 5 pagers and getting as many artists involved as I could. I figured, it was a great showcase piece for them, and if the book did well, it would make it much easier for me to find a full-time artist to work with on the longer story!

ZW: Who were your indie and zombie influences in creating Jesus Hates Zombies?

SL: As far as writing comics goes, my influences were definitely Steve Niles and Robert Kirkman. Kirkman is a freakin' genius. No matter what genre that guy decides to write, he kills it. It's amazing. And Niles is the same way. Those two are really responsible for bringing horror back into comics, as far as I'm concerned. On the indie front there's a book called Living With Zombies by Matt Billman and Christopher Herndon that I adore. It's funny and irreverent and fantastic. As far as zombie influences go, I absolutely LOVE the dead-pan humor of Max Brooks' The Zombie Survival Guide. It was brilliant. And his follow-up, World War Z, was even better. I'm also infatuated with Romero's original Night of the Living Dead. As far as I'm concerned, no zombie movie has ever come close to it. But I think you'll also see some influences from Shaun of the Dead and Bubba Ho-Tep in my work as well.

ZW: How would you say your book is different from the other zombie comics out there these days?

SL: I'd say the vast majority of the zombie comics out there go for the gore. A lot of times, the story seems secondary to the gore. And that's cool. I'm definitely down with that. The exception, obviously, would be The Walking Dead. No other book has ever fused the amount of storytelling with the amount of gore (and it's freakin' black & white) that Kirkman does. It's amazing. Me? I wanted to take it in a different direction. I wanted it to be funny. I wanted it to be wacky, but not so far out there that you lose people. More than anything, I wanted it to be fun. I think the sense of fun is missing from a lot of mainstream comics these days. Everything is heavy and deconstructionist. I just wanted to take people on a journey that they could enjoy.

Art by Steve Willhite

ZW: Finally, I promised artist Deborah Valentine, who is a vocal atheist, that I would ask you her question: “How can an unsubstantiated mythical figure hate anything, including the undead?”

SL: This question again? I get asked this at LEAST a dozen times a day! ;) Hey, I can dig what Deborah's saying. I don't believe 99.9% of the crap I was fed in Catholic school. In answer to her question... he couldn't. An unsubstantiated mythical figure exists only in the minds of those who believe in it. But then, isn't that everything? Without our conscious (and unconscious) minds telling us what it is we see, hear, taste, touch and smell, wouldn't NOTHING exist? So, in this one little corner of my warped mind, Jesus does exist -- as do angels and werewolves and zombies and all manner of shit that my conscious mind tells me isn't real. I don't care if people do or don't believe in Jesus. Just believe in MY Jesus. Hey-- I sound like a religion now!

ZW: I ask because one could assume your book is poised to set off religious debate by making Jesus a swearing, smoking, fighting, car-stealing zombie hunter. At the same time, the book feels kind of non-religious despite the fact that God and Jesus are characters. The stories never feel like they’re taking shots at Christianity or trying to undermine the faith. Has your book ever sparked any religious controversy? Is this something you openly welcome?

SL: I certainly didn't write the book to piss off anyone who believes in Catholicism or Christianity or God or any of that shit. Sure, it's bound to upset some people, but that was never my intent. Comedy that's simply mean spirited just isn't funny to me. But comedy that's fearless is! And that's where I try to align myself. Mel Brooks is a comedy genius not because of the inflammatory stuff he puts out there, but because of the fearless manner in which he does it. That's how I want to do it. That being said, my book actually hasn't sparked any controversy. And I think that's mainly because it's small potatoes. If it really got any big-time recognition, I think the religious zealots would come out of the woodwork to denounce it, even without reading it and realizing that ultimately, it's a book about the power of faith (be it faith in family, friends, god, whatever...). Yeah, I'm definitely open to a little controversy. I'll gladly engage in a conversation with anyone who feels offended by the book... as long as they take the time to read

And you should all read it! Jesus Hates Zombies is available from the Alterna Comics store, but The Zed Word is also giving away two free copies of Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues (Contest ends Monday, June 22).

Stephen Lindsay is currently finishing work on the series Jesus Hates Zombies (feat. Lincoln Hates Werewolves). Also, keep an eye on his upcoming work:

* 'Necessary Horrors', a vampire tale set in Leeds, England in 1888 with artist Michael DiPascale
* 'Massive Awesome', the story of Commando Bacon and Zombie Pickle with artist Rolf Lejdegård
* 'Being Super', a superhero comedy about a group of former heroes in group therapy together with artist Fabrico Bohrer

Stephen Lindsay's also all over the net. You can catch him at his WEBSITE, on his FACEBOOK, or through TWITTER.

While you're on twitter, why not follow THE ZED WORD to find out more about what I'm up to and to be alerted of new interviews, contests, reviews, and features,

Tokyo Zombie (Review)

REVIEW

Tokyo Zombie (2005)

Director: Sakichi Sato

RATING:3 / 5 zedheads




Tokyo Zombie is a quirky Japanese adventure / comedy from director Sakichi Sato that is mildly amusing in its first half but then takes a disappointing turn in the middle that undercuts much of the character chemistry and fun that makes the first half so enjoyable. It almost doesn't recover.

Adapted from the comic by Yusaku Hanakuma, Tokyo Zombie stars Tadanobu Asano and Show Aikawa as two fire extinguisher plant workers. They are perfectly matched for comedy. Fujio (Asano) is tall with a wild Afro. Mitsuo (Aikawa) is short and bald. Fujio is a goof off, Mitsuo is disciplined. Both, however, are more interested in practicing jujitsu than doing their jobs.

In the bizarre version of Tokyo where they live, a giant pile of trash and industrial waste known as Black Fuji rises above the city. People come here to dump their waste, and it seems publicly acceptable to dispose of the dead and not-so-dead bodies there. However, the combination of industrial waste and bodies produces a terrible result: ZOMBIES!

When the zombies descend on Tokyo, Fujio and Mitsuo go on the run in their van and attempt to survive.

The first thing that struck me about Tokyo Zombie is the zombies. They are a low-budget variety of zombie -- all grey-blue face paint and very little signs of extreme decomposition. However, they look and move beautifully. They are fully painted (none of this "face only" bullshit you see in low budget films where the zombies have painted faces but no paint on their hands or other skin areas). The zombies are also layered and dirty looking. Even more impressive, the zombies in this movie have some of the best zombie acting I've seen in a long time. These are Romero-style zombies that move in a very similar fashion to the zombies in the original Dawn of the Dead. Each zombie has a distinct way of moving, but all are stiff-legged, top heavy, and swing around stiff twisted arms. The extras were coached to pull of some really noteworthy zombie body acting here that transcends their simple appearance. Look for a cameo from the film's assistant director as a zombie at the end of the film who is scolded for attempting to bite someone. The look on the zombie's face is brilliant.





Second, I really like the chemistry between Fugio and Mitsuo. Humour rarely translates well across cultures, but there are a number of laugh-out-loud and hearty chuckle moments in the first half of Tokyo Zombie. Much of the humour comes from the interplay between the two main characters. Like the best comedy duos, each of the characters needs the other to be a full person. There are also some surprisingly touching moments between them. Even though the humour is probably too understated and quirky in some places for most Western audiences but at the same time too sexually suggestive in other places, I was really grooving on the movie's tone.

About halfway through the film, however, an animated sequence moves the story "Five Years Later" to a post-apocalypse Tokyo. From this point, the movie lost me. These scenes change the dynamic and tone of the first half by introducing actress Erika Okuda. Her character Yoko is completely aggravating and obnoxious, and she replaces one of our more likeable main protagonists for much of the movie. I never really felt the last half of the movie has any heart until the resolution. There's a long patch before the climax of the film where I almost literally fell asleep.

Without explaining what happens and spoiling the plot, I can't say more except that I can't really recommend Tokyo Zombie as something to add to your permanent collection. That being said, it is definitely worth a rental to check out the great Japanese zombies and to soak in the charming absurdity of the story.

It's just nice to get a movie from Japan that's not a Grudge/Ring rip off, you know?

Trailer

(WARNING: Trailer spoils many of the most surprising parts of the film. Watch at own risk!)

Trailer Tuesday: The Book of Zombie

A small, sleepy Utah town gets an undead wake-up call when all of the townspeople of Mormon faith suddenly transform into flesh-eating ghouls! Now, a group of "non-believers" unaffected by the mysterious epidemic must band together to survive the night and answer the burning question: How do you kill a Mormon zombie?

Is SALVAGE a zombie film?

After watching the mysterious trailer for Lawrence Gough's Salvage, I'm left to wonder if it is a zombie film.


It certainly doesn't describe itself as a zombie film, but the trailer certainly suggests many zombie conventions:

• Mysterious threat (shipping container) appears in small community and prompts overly harsh military / police response
• People trapped in confined locations (quarantined in their homes) while the threat outside terrorizes them
• Blood being smeared on windows by hands
• A group of characters forced to band together although they have inner conflict
• The appearance of some kind of disfigured, ghoulish creature

Here's the official synopsis:

Terror has found a home...

When a shipping container washes ashore, its deadly cargo escapes to wreak havoc on a suburban neighborhood. Is this a terrorist attack or something more sinister? As the military enforce a quarantine, a mother must overcome all the odds to save her estranged daughter.

As one character says in the trailer, however, "This isn't what it looks like." Something in my gut tells me this movie is probably more than it seems. I don't know why, but the restrained way it plays with visuals in the trailer make me think this movie is based upon some kind of Twilight Zone twist and has something up its sleeve. I can't shake the feeling that the movie is following the themes of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," an episode of The Twilight Zone in which a community is isolated because of a total power loss and comes to believe this is evidence of an alien invasion; however, the invasion is only the product of paranoia, hysteria, hate, and fear, culminating in a witch hunt. In Salvage, we also have an isolated community and clear grounds for paranoia.

Will Salvage be the "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" of this generation, using the trappings of the zombie film just as "Monsters" used the trappings of the alien invasion story to show that WE are the monsters? That it is we who are SAVAGE (notice how the word "savage" appears as the title of the film for a split second before an "L" appears to make it "SALVAGE") Given the social anxiety reminiscent of that of the Cold War squirming under the surface of today's society, it would seem like a good time to remind people of this message.

This is all wild speculation on my part, but I can't shake the feeling that Salvage might have something interesting in store for us, with or without zombies.

Zombie Italiano Promo

ZOMBIE ITALIANO starts here at the beginning of July!

One week. Five Italian Zombie movies.

Zombi 2
Zombi 3
Zombie 4: After Death
Zombie 5: Killing Birds
Zombie Holocaust (aka. Dr. Butcher MD). Dellamorte Dellamore

Zombie Colour Theory @Evilontwolegs

Ever wonder how best to coordinate the skin colour of your zombies? When describing them to your friends, are you unsure whether you would describe your zombies as "cuticle pink" or "rotten pumpkin"?

Well wonder know more thanks to Evilontwolegs.com's handy dandy guide to Zombie Colours

With this easy-to-use comparison guide and spectrum analysis, you too will finally be match the colour of your zombies to your drapes and carpet.

Let's see Home Hardware do that!

Breathers Contest @zombiesandtoys

Zombies and Toys is giving away the novel Breathers by S.G. Browne.

I'm reading Breathers right now and am very much enjoying its dry, humorous take on zombie oppression.

So click on over to Zombies and Toys for your chance to win a copy

Zombies Ate My Funny-Books

For a while, I was really into comics. For my MA, I studied comic books and wrote a small research project on one of them. Recently, I’ve fallen out of buying and reading as many comics as I used to, but I still keep them close to my heart. And I still keep my eyes on what's happening in the world of zombie comics.

Taking a quick survey of zombie comics, here’s a brief rundown of some interesting developments in the world of sequential undead art.

First, the big news continues to be the inroads being made by Dark Hero Studios to adapt Deadworld for the screen. Reports suggest that David Hayter (Watchmen) will be fleshing out the script for this zombie apocalypse flick with the goal to start shooing in 2010, according to Variety.

In Deadworld, the zombies are not the slackjaw shamblers or mindless fast-running beasts we’ve seen in recent movies. Instead, when the dead return to walk the earth, some return as motorcycling leader zombies with intelligence and joy for their work: eating humans!

I never read Deadworld, but from what I understand the book has had an shifting printing history, which is common for independent books. It was published by Arrow Comics until that company folded, then it went to Caliber Comics. Between 1992 and 2005 the book was not being published, but Image comics released a reboot of the Deadworld series.

In other zombie news, the Marvel Zombies series keeps on going. Part way through its fourth volume, Marvel Zombies is making hay with the parallel dimension premise at the heart of the original to find further ways to exploit the concept.

And finally, there’s a team-up of epic proportions coming out this July: THE GOON vs DETHKLOK

The Goon is a comic by Eric Powell that often features zombies. Dethklok is the fictional metal band from the cartoon series Metalocalypse. Why are they meeting? Who knows. Will it shred your face? You bet. Check out this teaser.



THE GOON vs DETHKLOK by Eric Powell will be out in July from Darkhorse Comics.

If you like zombie comics, check out my contest for a FREE AUTOGRAPHED copy of Stephen Lindsay's Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack Jaw Blues

CONTEST: Win Jesus Hates Zombies autographed by Stephen Lindsay!

Jesus saves!
Jesus loves!

BUT JESUS HATES ZOMBIES!

And you COULD WIN IT!

Courtesy of Horror in the Hammer, I am giving away TWO copy of Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues published by Alterna Comics. First place winners will receive a copy of Those-Slack Jaw Blues autographed by its creator, Stephen Lindsay. Second place winners will receive the same book without autograph.

Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues is a 144 black-and-white trade paperback of short comics written by Stephen Lindsay and Michael Bartolotta.

SYNOPSIS: Six days after the zombie plague brings the earth to the brink of annihilation, God sends his favorite son Jesus back to earth to kick some zombie ass. Each comic is a short and gory vignette adventure, sometimes comedic sometimes serious, illustrated by a different artist (over 16 in total!).

Zombie clowns, bowling massacres, human cannibals, Buddha, Sasquatch and more weird zany encounters wait for you in Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues.

HOW TO WIN:

E-mail zedwordblog@gmail.com with the correct answer to the following question:

Which two H.P. Lovecraft adaptations is Horror in the Hammer Screening at The Staircase Theatre on June 24th?

Please include “JESUS HATES ZOMBIES” in the subject line and your name and full mailing address in the body of the e-mail (address must be in Canada or the United States and at the address you wish your prize to be mailed).

Contest will end on Monday, June 22nd at 12:00am (Eastern Standard Time). The first winner will be drawn at random, alerted by e-mail, and mailed their prize. A second winner will also then be drawn at random. One entry per name/address please. Contest open only to residents of Canada and The United States of America.

Read more for full contest details.

Official Contest Rules and Regulations

This Contest is open to all residents of Canada and the United States but void where prohibited by law.

How to Enter

Valid entrants must e-mail zedwordblog@gmail.com with “JESUS HATES ZOMBIES” in the subject line and a body that includes the entrant’s full name and mailing address and correct answer to the question: "Which two H.P. Lovecraft adaptations is Horror in the Hammer Screening at The Staircase on June 24th?

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 and The United States. Prizes will be automatically mailed to the address given in entrant's email.

Prizes

There is a total of one (2) prize available to be won. A random draw for the prize will be made on June 22nd, 2009. Valid entrants will be compiled and one entrant will be selected at random. The first prize is one (1) copy of of Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues autographed by Stephen Lindsay. The second prize is one (1) copy of Jesus Hates Zombies: Those Slack-Jaw Blues without autograph.

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 or the United States at which they wish to receive their prize. Entrants must also correctly answer the trivia question: "Which two H.P. Lovecraft adaptations is Horror in the Hammer Screening at The Staircase on June 24th?"

The prize must be accepted as awarded and is not transferable.

FRIGHT NIGHT THEATRE: From Beyond and Dagon! H.P. Lovecraft Double Feature

Although it's not zombie related, I belong to Horror in the Hammer and am very excited about this upcoming event!

Horror In the Hammer presents:

FRIGHT NIGHT THEATRE at the STAIRCASE

The 1st in our monthly screenings at the Staircase where we will be Exploring Horror In Film is an H.P. Lovecraft tribute with TWO films directed by Stuart Gordon (dir. of Reanimator).

FILMS:
From Beyond (1986)
Dagon (2001)

DATE: JUNE 24th
TIME: 8.00 pm
ADMISSION: only $5

The Staircase Theatre
27 Dundurn North
Hamilton, Ontario
905-529-3000

Bistro will be open to serve their delicious menu and bistro is also licensed to serve alcohol (19+.)

Come down to the Staircase, enjoy a drink and some food. Laugh, cry and scream in an intimate theatre atmosphere!

Horror in the Hammer: www.myspace.com/horrorinthehammer

Special thanks to Staircase Theatre (www.staircase.org) and Lionsgate (www.maplepictures.com) for taking part and allowing these great nights to happen!

Zombie Reviews

I've been a bit back-logged this week. Lots of non-zombie writing to do and self-imposed dead-lines to meet. Until I clear my plate, check out these zombie movie reviews from some cool creeple (that's "creepy people" for the uninitiated)

First,Tales from the Weapon X lab will point you in the direction of a review for the new Nazi Zombie film DEAD SNOW

Then, you can surf over to Zombies and Toys for a review of PONTYPOOL.

Pontypool is making its way through the US as part of the American release, but if you're interested in my thoughts from its debut in 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival, you can read my review here.

Trailer Tuesday: Flight of the Living Dead (aka Plane Dead)

Zomb-Art: May Illustrations

In case you missed them, enjoy this recap post of some my favorite cartoons and illustrations that I created last month for various articles and features.

• Fungus Zombies, created for my article about Zombie Fungus
  

• Lou Dobb's encounter with a zombie to illustrate this Twitter story
  
  
  

• Bub illustrates the bombshell in Zombie CSU that decaying zombies would lose their teeth in real life.

Mail Order Zombie Karaoke

This past Thursday, my two favorite podcasters, Brother D and Miss Bren, uploaded a very special Episode 71 of their awesome podcast Mail Order Zombie. Episode 71 is a particularly special installment because listeners were invited to send in recordings of them singing zombified versions of popular songs. Without exaggeration, I can say that the songs submitted are some of the funniest and most creative parodies I've ever heard.

If you're a zombie fan and love a good posdcast, get your ass on iTunes and subscribe to Mail Order Zombie. You owe it to yourself.

Had I not run out of time this week, I too would have called in a zombie song. It's a very easy rewriting of that old "Let's all go to the lobby" movie theater jingle, but with a bloody twist for the hungry zombie customer. The lyrics go like this:

Let's all ghoul to the lobby
Let's all ghoul to the lobby
Let's all ghoul to the lobby
to get ourselves some meat

Delicious brains to eat!
The entrails can't be beat!

The slippery spleens are just dandy,
the blood on tap is quite handy,
so let's all ghoul to the lobby
to get ourselves some meat!

Let's all ghoul to the lobby
to get ourselves some meat!

This was David Carradine

David Carradine
(1936 – 2009)

If you are a fan of cult or exploitation films, you've probably heard the heart-breaking news that David Carradine was found dead on June 3, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Mainstream audiences know Carradine best from his standout performance as Bill, Uma Thurman's nemesis / lover in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Fans of drive-in, kung-fu, and cult films, however, know Carradine best from his leading roles and guest spots in over 200 film and TV productions. He was Kwai Chang Caine, the wandering monk of martial arts, in Kung Fu. He was the mysterious Frankenstein of the original Death Race 2000, a masked gladiatorial racer rumored to be rebuilt after each violent crash. He was Abel Rosenberg, the unemployed American circus acrobat in post-WWI Germany for Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg. Although much of his recent work tended to go direct-to-video or only get a limited release, there wasn't a genre, obscure or mainstream, that Carradine wasn't a part of ... except for the zombie genre.

But even Carradine got in on the zombie genre eventually. Carradine has a role in Steven Rumbelow's film adaptation of AUTUMN, based on David Moody's novel of the same name. AUTUMN, which now stands as Carradine's last Canadian film, has not yet been released, but director/writer Rumbelow has been very open about the bond he formed with Carradine while shooting.

"He proved to me that he was capable of just about anything I wanted to test him with," said Rumbelow in an e-mail he shared with me last night. "We were supposed to do Christmas together this year. I miss him. He was like another kid in the schoolyard. I’m really, really sad. We sorta recognized the rebel brat in each other the first time we met. There was definitely that recognition… he took one look, put his hands on his hips and said 'uh-oh this is going to be good, Orson.' I miss him"

Carradine was on location in Thailand to shoot the film Stretch, but in a shocking turn of events, a maid discovered David Carradine's body hanged in a closet. People is reporting that police found Carradine's body in a sitting position, "with a yellow rope wrapped around the neck and attached to a closet bar." The police suspect Carradine commited suicide but admit that the circumstances are very suspicious.

Carradine's past struggles with drugs, alcohol, depression and suicidal thoughts are no mystery to those who know him, but many of his family, supporters, and fans cannot believe he would commit suicide today.

For one, many have commented on how Carradine had turned his life around in the past few years. In an Associated Press interview with Carradine in 2004, Carradine was quoted discussing his past alcoholism and drug abuse, but he seemed very positive about the future. "You're probably witnessing the last time I will ever answer those questions [about substance abuse]. . . . Because this is a regeneration, "he said. "It is a renaissance. It is the start of a new career for me. It's time to do nothing but look forward." Did Carradine really turn his life around? Those closest to him certainly seem to think so. Tiffany Smith, his manager, was quoted in People as stating, "I can tell you 100 percent that he would have never committed suicide."

Obviously, those who knew Carradine doubt he was suicidal. By many accounts, he was so full of enthusiasm about his future work that suicide seems out of the question.

"There is no way David took that way out," Rumbelow adamantly explains. "He was too alive. We were talking just two Saturdays ago… he was excited about the script Over the Edge which we’ve been working on together since Autumn finished shooting. He was in great shape enjoying his drive… loving the weather…. top down… coast road…. Plenty of work coming up… late for an event as usual. Smile. He was happy and full of life. No way he hung himself. He was way too much of a rebel to take that way out. He was way too much of a Buddhist to take that way out."

Suicide or not, the way Carradine died is less important than the man he was, the body of work he leaves behind, and the people he inspired. Film has lost a truly special star, even if that star burned brightest on the fringes of planet Hollywood. Even when Carradine wasn't involved in films of the highest quality, he was always engaging and fun to watch.

In one of my favorite lines from Kill Bill: Volume 2 that conveys more in what is not said rather than is said, the Bride asks Bill if he's going to be nice.

"I've never been nice my whole life," Bill replies before a cryptic pause, "but I'll do my best... to be sweet."

Well, David, your career was pretty sweet.

"The world is a duller place without him," says Rumbelow. That's for sure.

Odds n' Ends

A round up of zombie-related news hitting the web

Video Games

• When PopCap Games released Plants vs. Zombies last month, it became their best-selling game ever [via Shacknews.com]

• At E3, attendees not only got to see the trailer for Left 4 Dead 2, but also for Capcom's Dead Rising 2, which is now online:

Movie News

• Watch the first 10minutes of Jake Wests' Doghouse HERE courtesy of Empire. In Doghouse six friends head off for a weekend in the country after one of them goes through a divorce. Unfortunately, they end up up in a town where all the women have been infected with a virus that has turned them into zombie cannibals. [via Empire]
  

• The director of Colin, an independent film from the zombie's point of view, talked with Fangoria about making the film [via Fangoria.com]
  

Weird News

• TV zombies rose up in Texas last week, but not to attack. Instead, they wanted to thank legislatures in Texas for passing a bill to make the recycling of old televisions easier. Discarded televisions never die -- they continue to plague the future with their toxic materials in landfills and dumps -- but Texas will legislate mandatory recycling programs. Good for Texas! And good for these zombies ! It is nice to see socially conscious undead out there. [via KBMT News]
  

• Zombie preparedness buffs were obviously thrilled last month to learn from the Boston Police Department's twitter feed that the Boston PD will warn citizens of any zombie attacks. But can we trust them to tell us the truth? [via Kombo.com]
  

• According to the venerated Weekly World News, nominated Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will have to address a very interesting discrimination suit as one of her first cases -- a suit filed by a zombie claiming he was unjustly denied Social Security benefit! It seems that prejudice against the living impaired has become the last excusable form of prejudice. [via Weekly World News]

• Can zombies be sexy? Many have pondered this question. I did my own list of the Top Five Sexy Zombies when I started this blog, and it scarred me for life. I09 is giving it a go too, but that way madness lies. [via I09.com]
  

Left 4 Dead 2: Trailer

Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man. So excited about this.



I don't know what to say.

Trailer Tuesday: White Zombie (1932)

Seattle Zombie Walk. vs. Police

So Jerry, dressed as an Umbrella Corp soldier for the Seattle Zombie Walk, won best costume but not before the police came to meet him and put him in cuffs.



Let that be a lesson. Cops generally don't take kindly to people with realistic-looking grenades walking the streets even if they are protecting citizens from the ravages of the undead.