Survival of the Dead is Better than its One Sheet

Ewwww. The new one-sheet for George Romero's latest film Survival of the Dead (review) has been released, first as an exclusive debut from Bloody-Disgusting.com

 

 I can't say I'm that impressed. Overusing the digital layers and filters to overly zombify folks in a generic pose makes everything appear quite flat, hazy, and boring. The prior posters that were titled "... of the Dead" still had that digital coldness to them, but they weren't so photoshopped.

Thankfully, the movie is leaps and bounds better than the one-sheet art.

Kings of the Dead (Review): First Edition

KINGS OF THE DEAD is now available in a a new REVISED AND EXPANDED edition.

REVIEW

Kings of the Dead (2009)

by Tony Faville

First Edition
CreateSpace: 2009

RATING:
3.5 / 5 zedheads

FULL DISCLOSURE: I consider Tony Faville a friend. I know him, his wife, and several of the people from the Mail Order Zombie podcast fictionalized in this novel. We've killed many a zombie together in Left 4 Dead 2 and slain many a trivia question in Xbox Live's 1 vs. 100. NOTE: This review only pertains to the unrevisded and unexpanded first edition of the novel.

Tony Faville is a zombie fan, through and through. Unlike in other zombie novels, however, so are his characters. How do a group of survivors who were fans of zombie fiction and films deal with a real zombie apocalypse when it happens? Will they make the same mistakes they criticize films for making or will their knowledge of zombie fiction help them survive a zombie reality?

In Kings of the Dead, a novel by first-time author Tony Faville, the answers to these questions are explored and take some emotional twists in the form of a journal documenting one man's attempt to survive a zombie invasion and protect his friends and family.

Noticeably rough around the edges and lacking some of the finesse seen in works by more experienced writers, Kings of the Dead nevertheless has a heart and sense of story, emotion, and genre that gives the novel a life lacking in most other first-time fiction. The book starts off rocky, insecure, and unsure of itself in style and voice, but the writing grows stronger and more confident, interestingly, as the narrating protagonist of the story becomes more mentally fractured and questioning of life's value in a post-apocalyptic world.

Plants vs. Zombies Blooms on iPod: 300,000 units sold!

PopCap Games announced that their addictively cute game Plants vs. Zombies has sold over 300,000 units in the first nine days of sale for the iPhone and iPod Touch, making it the top-grossing iPhone launch ever.

I've been tolerating many a bus ride with Pv.Z on my iPod Touch. I actually find the touch interface far more engrossing than the point and click interface of the conventional PC version.

The press release also states that, "[a]t a retail price point of US$2.99, Plants vs. Zombies for iPhone/touch has already grossed more than US$1 million."

Not bad, PopCap. Not bad.

Zombies in Salem

The Witches can keep Salem, MA.

The zombies are taking Salem, OR!

On Saturday, February 27th, zombies will be on everyone's mind at the Salem Public Library in Oregon as the Library celebrates zombies with five free screenings of zombie films and an appearance / talk by Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z writer Max Brooks (appearance already sold out).

There's some pretty hard-R  films in the lineup

"More Brains! A Zombie Survival Drill"
Salem Public Library, 585 Liberty St. SE
Cost: Free

9:30 a.m.: The Omega Man (PG; 1971)

11:15 a.m.: Night of the Comet (PG-13; 1984)

1 p.m.: Dead Alive (R; 1992)

2:45 p.m.: Shaun of the Dead (R; 2004)

4:30 p.m.: Zombieland (R; 2009)

Admission to the films is on a first-come, first serve basis, and kids ages 16 and younger will not be admitted into the R-rated movies unless with a parent. Kids, if you're dragging your parents to Dead Alive, make sure they have strong stomachs.

For more information, call (503) 588-6052 or go to www.salemlibrary.org.

Ugly Americans: March 17th on Comedy Central

Although the website for US cable channel Comedy Central is BLOCKED in Canada, my interest is no less piqued for the new animated comedy Ugly Americans premiering on March 17th.

In Ugly Americans, we meet Mark Lilly, a social worker at the Department of Integration who helps new citizens adapt to life in New York City. A lot these new citizens, however, are creatures drawn from the far corners of myth and fantasy: zombies, vampires, mermaids, wizards demons, land whales, and werewolves in need of potty training.

Zombies look to figure prominently in the show as Mark lives with his zombie roommate, Randall Skeffington.

Ugly Americans is created by Devin Clark and developed by David Stern.

The cartoon premiers March 17th @ 10:30pm (9:30 Central) on Comedy Central. 

LINKS 
Sneak Peek: Ugly Americans | Comedy
Facebook: Ugly Americans 
http://uglyamericans.tumblr.com/ 

Trailer Tuesday: FleshEater (1988)

There's a Zombie on your iPod: Plants vs. Zombies

Last week, PopCap Games' Plants vs. Zombies invaded the iTunes store as a downloadable game for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

I purchased the game for my iPod touch at $2.99 USD and am quite happy with the conversion of the game to the touch screen format. Without losing any of the game's functionality and quirks, Plants vs. Zombies remains a fun little time-waster for the iPod.

During my Junior Zombie Week coverage, I reviewed Plants vs. Zombies. Check out my review of the PC version of Plants vs. Zombies -- all my praise still applies.

Pre-Order AUTUMN DVD (UK)

The DVD for Steven Rumbelow's AUTUMN is available for pre-order in the UK. Filmed partially in Hamilton, Ontario, AUTUMN screened last year at the Hamilton Zombie Walk.

Read my review of AUTUMN

AUTUMN will be released on DVD May 10, 2010.

Pre-order at

play.com
amazon.co.uk

Official Synopsis

As the last autumn leaves slowly peel away from the trees, a mysterious airborne virus ravages the planet, and within a few hours billions die. Victims suffer horrific deaths as their internal organs liquefy, and whole towns expire within minutes. Soon cities become infested breeding grounds for the new apocalyptic virus. By the end of the first day there are only a handful of survivors.

A small group of ordinary strangers are soon forced to work together to stay alive. The survivors are lead by Michael (Dexter Fletcher Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Doom) a lonely soft ware consultant, and Carl (Dickon Tolson Peak Practice, Eastenders) an ill-tempered mechanic. When Michael and the survivors escape from the infested city to an isolated country house, they discover the real horror has only begun!

When the dead start to gruesomely reanimate the group have naive hopes that the walkers, or the meat suites, would decompose and simply fall apart but they discover the longer the reanimated corpses are alive the more they learn, the cleverer they get, the more aggressive and treacherous they become the more they became killing machines.

When Phillip Evans (David Carradine Kill Bill, Kung Fu) is discovered as a lone survivor in the lifeless city, a new hope emerges, but nothing is as it seems in a world turned upside down, and hope soon turns into terror. In order to endure the winter each survivor must find the strength within themselves to fight their personal demons and find the courage to combat a war against the vicious dead.

What follows is a shockingly clever adventure of survival, in a thrilling desolate world. This Autumn, the darkness will come!

'Corpse' comes back to life at Colombia funeral home

Saw this on the news feed today:

Corpse' comes back to life at Colombia funeral home
Wed Feb 17, 12:36 PM

BOGOTA (AFP) - Funeral home workers in the Colombian city of Cali got the shock of a lifetime when an apparently dead 45-year-old woman suddenly started breathing and moving as they prepared her for burial.

Local media said the women had been declared clinically dead at a medical facility Tuesday after having been hospitalized in serious condition with a neurological condition a day earlier.

"The instruments the patient was connected to gave no blood pressure or heart rate readings," said Miguel Angel Saavedra, a doctor at the clinic where the woman was treated.

Medical staff at the facility signed the women's death certificate and her body was transferred to a funeral home to be prepared for burial.

But, in a case of what physicians call "Lazarus Syndrome," the woman was not actually dead.

"When they were going to apply formaldehyde, the patient began to breathe again and make movements," Saavedra told a local news station.

The woman, whose name has not been released, was readmitted to hospital and was in a coma, doctors said.

Lego Zombies in ALL OF THE DEAD

I love it! Egyptian zombie corpses rise the dead. Filmed like a silent monster movie, "All of the Dead" is a pretty cute video. Look for a surprsie appearence from another Lego-fied horror icon at the end of the video.

Zombies on Supernatural (March 25th)

Looks like the Winchester boys might be going head to head with the undead when new Supernatural episodes start airing on March 25th.




My friend got me into Supernatural and I've enjoyed the previous four seaons, but when the show's fifth season returned from hiatus in January I was not impressed with its return episode. As a result, I have not been keeping up with the program. After all, LOST's final season has just started and I only have so much TV watching time a week. A guy's got to prioritize.

That being said, I may have to get caught up on Supernatural for their new zombie episode. Although they've tangled with resurrected undead creatures in the past as well as humans infected with a demonic rage virus, this is the first time that the flesh-hungry undead look like they'll make an appearence.

About time!

Trailer Tuesday: Sugar Hill

I once saw this movie on TV, but the ending was never aired. I don't know why. Wish I knew how it ended. My guess: those honkeys got what was coming to 'em!

Breathers: A Zombie's Lament (Review)

REVIEW

Breathers: A Zombie's Lament (2009)

By S.G. Browne

Broadway: 2009


RATING:
3.5 / 5 zedheads


In George A. Romero's Land of the Dead, Dennis Hopper's character utters the famous line: "In a world where the dead are returning to life, the word 'trouble' loses much of its meaning." While this line refers to the unexpected troubles humanity must face during a zombie uprising, the same line could be said to describe the troubles zombies face in  S.G. Browne's dark comedy Breathers: A Zombie's Lament. If you thought you knew what trouble was when you were alive, just wait until you're a zombie!

In the novel, we are introduced to Andy Warner -- an average guy of sorts who has found himself in a world of trouble. He and his wife are involved in a fatal car wreck that takes both their lives, but only Andy reanimates as a zombie. In the world of Breathers, many people dying violent deaths are inexplicably rising from their graves into a world that hates and fears them. Andy is disfigured and unable to speak -- an aware mind trapped in a dead and broken body -- so he is forced to live in his parent's basement as a social outcast. Even walking on the streets means he'll be pelted with garbage, food, and threats of violence. If he fights back or in any way provokes the police, he'll end up imprisoned in a dog kennel. Zombies aren't even worthy of jail in this society; instead, they get sent to the pound like stray dogs. If no one claims Andy from the pound, he'll be sent away for medical research.

To help cope with the loss of his old life and the prejudice he faces in his newly acquired necrotic existence, Andy enrolls in a zombie support group: Undead Anonymous. There he meets and falls in love with Rita, a young suicide victim. Together, with a cast of other colourful zombie characters, Andy and his zombie friends find themselves on a gruesome path of self-discovery when they stumble upon a taboo remedy for preserving and reparing their dead and broken bodies.

Despite the interesting premise, there's some spark missing in Breathers. To be sure, it's well written, darkly amusing, and full of unique and memorable characters, but like the zombies Browne portrays, the story is missing some intangible spark of life.

Horror Valentine's Day Cards

Horror Valentine's Day cards from the pages of Horror in the Hammer's Scream Scene zine!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) Download high-res mini-cards

2.) Print images on double-sided paper (front and back)
3.) Using extra sharp scissors or a butcher knife, cut out mini-cards (chainsaws not recommended)
4.) Give to your loved ones, friends, family, parole officer, and even court-appointed therapist.


PAGE 1- FRONT                                  PAGE 1-BACK

PAGE 2- FRONT                                   PAGE 2-BACK

These cards originally appeared in the February / March issue of Scream Scene presented by Horror in the Hammer.

Rock of the Dead video

Gameplay footage has surfaced for Rock of the Dead, the Wii game that allows you to use Guitar Hero controllers to kill zombies with deadly riffs.

Killing Zombies with the Power of ROCK!!!!!

Although Romero's zombie rock film Diamond Dead may never happen, at least you can get your fix of zombies and rock 'n' roll from the upcoming Wii game Rock of the Dead.

In Rock of the Dead (Epicenter games), players can use their Guitar Hero controllers to input riffs that will kill approaching hordes of zombies. According to 1up.com's news story on the budget title, "the game features co-op play, and instead of licensed music uses rock versions of classical songs."

It is also reported that Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog actors Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day will be supplying voices for game characters.

Now let me ask you, do you want to rock?

For other rock 'n' roll zombie nonsense, check out my review of Scooby-Doo and the Rock 'n' Roll Zombie

Trailer Tuesday: The Dead Hate the Living

Age of Zombies (PS3 and PSP -- Feb 25th)

There are a couple superficial reasons I think that Age of Zombies, Halfbrick's new zombie shooter game for the PSP, is going to be awesome.

1.) The main character is named Barry Steakfries
2.) There will be a zombie T-Rex.
3.) The zombies are chibi!
4.) BARRY STREAKFRIES!

Age of Zombies will be available from the PlayStation Store on Thursday, February 25 for $4.99 US

Kirby Krackle -- Zombie Apocalypse Song

Found this video via BuyZombie.com:

KIRBY KRACKLE is The World’s First Comic Book Rock Band!
Their debut album touches on subjects like friendship, acceptance, revenge and love, all filtered through a lens of pop culture imagery.
Call it Geek Rock, Nerd-core, or whatever you want – KIRBY KRACKLE is music for YOU

I Sell the Dead (Review)

REVIEW

I Sell the Dead (2008)

Director: Glenn McQuaid

RATING:
2.5/5 zedheads




Although I Sell the Dead is not strictly a zombie movie, it has enough undead elements to warrant a review here on The Zed Word. Unfortunately, this horror/comedy rarely manages to be frightening or funny, burying whatever charms it has in a grave six feet under its own mediocre execution.

The film begins in the Victorian era with the execution of Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden) and the interview of his partner Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan). Blake and Grimes are body snatchers – grave robbers who are paid by unscrupulous individuals to dig up bodies and deliver them to the buyer. Blake is being interviewed about his criminal adventures by Father Duffy (Ron Perlman speaking in a terrible Irish accent). Duffy is a man suspiciously interested in Blake's tales of the occult. You see, Blake and Grimes left behind the normal body snatching business for the more lucrative and niche market of trafficking in the undead: vampires, zombies, and few other weird surprises.

I Sell the Dead is based on an interesting premise and (aside from the occult) inspired by real life grave robbers such as the infamous Burke and Hare. In this regard, Fessenden and Monaghan's performances are enjoyable as they turn these two scoundrels into a likable pair dealing with unlikely situations. We see their bond grow from their first encounter when Blake was a young boy to their final occult adventure. Despite these charms, the story structure, supernatural elements and humour, special effects, and music all fail to drive the film forward.

 Zombies: Pillowy softness you can see and feel.

The film is structured like an anthology film. Unlike most horror anthologies in which each segment focuses on a different set of characters, each segment in I Sell the Dead is Blake's description of various events in his life as a grave robber. These stories are book-ended by and interrupted with questions from Father Duffy. Unfortunately, each segment fails to tell a satisfying story worthy of the time its given. Instead, these segments seem designed to provide the audience with information that will become important in the last scene of the film, but this is done at the expense of a sense of momentum in the narrative.

Zombies vs. Unicorns

 

 Zombies vs. Unicorns sounds fun.

It's an anthology of humorous essays / stories edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier that explores the age old question: Which is better, the Zombie or the Unicorn?

According to Simon & Schuster, the publisher:

Half of the stories portray the strengths--for good and evil--of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. Contributors include many bestselling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan.

The debate over zombies and unicorns began on the editors' blogs in 2007 (Holly Black in favour of unicorns and Justine Larbalestier for zombies).

Zombies vs. Unicorns is due out in hardcover on September 21, 2010.

Happy Birthday, George A. Romero!

Today the grandfather of the modern zombie genre, George A. Romero, turns 70 years old.

Marking approximately four decades of professional filmmaking, Romero's 70th birthday comes on the heels of the impending release of Romero's newest zombie film Survival of the Dead, which I'm happy to say is a welcome return to form for his zombie franchise. Romero's work also continues to inspire other filmmakers and remakes, such as Zack Synder's influential remake of Dawn of the Dead as well as a Breck Eisner's soon-to-be-released remake of The Crazies.

From the films he made in Pittsburgh to the films he now makes in Canada, Romero has produced a very noteworthy body of work in and outside the zombie genre.

George A. Romero Filmography (as director)

Survival of the Dead (2009)
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Bruiser (2000)
The Dark Half (1993) 
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
Monkey Shines (1988)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Creepshow (1982)
Knightriders (1981)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Martin (1977)
The Crazies (1973)
Hungry Wives (1972)
There's Always Vanilla (1971)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Cast and Crew of Zombie Ferox Almost Arrested

Here's an interesting story I found through Twitter that points to the struggles independent filmmakers have to overcome.

In January, the cast and crew of an indie zombie film called Zombie Ferox were cuffed and detained by the police who thought the weapons on set were real. Cast and crew were ordered to lie down on the ground before they were cuffed and put into the back of police cars.

Read full story and check out pictures of the hand-cuffed zombies at the film's official site:

http://zombieferox.com

My personal note to director Daniel Semel: hang in there, buddy! It will all be worth it some day.

Film Synopsis

Zombie Ferox is about a group of ex-soldiers trying to survive in a world taken over by the living dead. They spend their days fighting the dead while looking for food in abandoned cities and towns. As the soldiers try to stay alive they must confront something more dangerous than the zombies: other survivors.

Trailer Tuesday: A.D.

UPDATE: Read interview with filmmakers of "A.D." teaser @ Zombieinfo.com

More of a teaser really, the following is an atmospheric and simply drool-inspiring CG animated clip featuring zombies called "A.D." The teaser is directed by Swiss artist Ben Hibon. This is not his first brush with zombies as Hibon also created an animated sequence for the film Tokyo Zombie (read my review).

It's not clear if this clip is meant to tease a future project (perhaps a short film), but we can only hope because I LOVE what I see. Animation has been long  neglected as an art when it comes to bringing zombies to life.

Brain Picking: Interview with Tony Burgess (Pontypool)

INTERVIEW with TONY BURGESS

(author, screenwriter of Pontypool)

This is a transcript of a video interview I did for Horror in the Hammer with Tony Burgess (author and screenwriter of Pontypool). Burgess was in Hamilton for an October 14th, 2009 screening of Pontypool organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton for its Fall 2009 film series. Burgess was kind enough to stick around for an interview. Unfortunately, the video never made it out of post-production.

Speaking is risky. At least that is the premise of Pontypool, a fantastic Canadian zombie film directed by Bruce McDonald and written by Tony Burgess (author of Pontypool Changes Everything). Even though speaking is risky, I could not give up the chance to speak with Tony Burgess when he was in town for an Art Gallery of Hamilton screening of the film. He and I discuss Pontypool, the film’s proposed sequels, the metaphysical terror of language, the film’s stellar cast of actors, and the debate over when it's appropriate to use the word "zombie."

Zed Word (ZW): Tony, thanks for spending some time with The Zed Word zombie blog and Horror in the Hammer.

Tony Burgess (TB): How you doing, man?

ZW: Not too bad. Not too bad. I wanted to ask you a few questions about the book [Pontypool Changes Everything] but also about the process of turning it into a movie, and I can’t start without this question: where are you and director Bruce McDonald in the production of the Pontypool sequels?

TB: The Pontypool sequels are written, more or less, and we’re just sort of waiting for – you know – funding and things to happen, and who wants to line up and get behind it and who wants to get involved. But sometimes that’s nine months and sometimes it’s nine years, right? We’ve got everything in place, everything we need, except, you know, for some [funding].  

ZW: But are [the scripts] completely finished? Because I know on the DVD commentary for the film you and Bruce talk at length about plans for the future movies. Have they all been written completely?

TB: They’ve been written completely. I’m careful not to say “completely” completely because then, you know... but there is some room in there to move things around.

ZW: Now, you were telling me that Pontypool 1, the first Pontypool movie we have out now, is sort of an appetizer for the other movies. That the other movies were kind of conceived first, but Pontypool came a bit later.

TB: Pontypool 2 and 3 were written substantially before [Pontypool 1]. Actually, Pontypool 2 and 3 are Pontypool 1 broken in half. And Pontypool 1 is some of the pieces of those two.

ZW: So, when you approach Pontypool 2 and 3, what kind of things do you hope to bring to them that is different from the first Pontypool? Because I know the book is . . . something of a feral creature, kind of unstable, and fragmented and very gory and very bloody whereas the Pontypool [movie] that we have know is - not more restrained - but the scope is limited.

TB: [Pontypool 1] is a tauter, sort of more controlled, thing necessarily, but the sequels are more feral, and those qualities in the novel I’m trying to keep in the film versions. In fact, that was part of the difficulty we had over the years in keeping the people interested in the screenplay. They’d go, "Oh, I like this, it's really interesting, but......”

ZW: Is that a particular issue for Canada?

TB: No, not necessarily. You know, it’s a question of raising a lot of money for something. Really, it’s as difficult as it sounds to talk somebody out of millions of dollars for an idea that’s, you know, not tested. An idea that’s not clear and is not there. So yeah, it’s a big challenge, I think anywhere. I’m always attracted to the idea of small in film, and love that about Pontypool 1, so in Pontypool 2 and 3 we have bigger, much bigger, canvases. But, in the back of my mind, I have scalable versions of them . . . but they’re all sort of based on the same principles which is they’re about actors and performances.