THE WALKING DEAD -- Zombie Makeup Tips from KNB Effects

Watch KNB effects, the makeup artists on AMC's The Walking Dead, give you a tutorial in home-made zombie makeup!

Obama vs. Zombies Artwork

I was contacted recently by talented illustrator Chip Boles who wanted to show me his rendition of President Barack Obama versus the undead problems plaguing his administration.

(CLICK FOR FULL SIZE)

I'm particularly amused by the zombie Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin although, if you ask me, Palin looks more like her porno counterpart from Nalin' Palin.

Check out more creepy illustrations and caricatures like this at CHIPBOLES.com and his SKETCHBOOK BLOG

The Truth About Zombies (National Geographic)

If you're in the mood for a ghoulish documentary on Devil's Night (Oct 30th), pop some corn and tune into the National Geographic Channel for THE TRUTH ABOUT ZOMBIES.

NGC travels to Haiti to enter the mysterious, fascinating and creepy world of voodoo magic and discover The Truth Behind Zombies. Explore the zombies' voodoo roots and discover evidence of real-life zombification. Meet the people preparing for a zombie apocalypse, and the investigators who want to know whether the "Living Dead" are based in reality or simply silver screen fantasy.

As with other zombie documentaries, I'm always concerned by the lack of attention given to the history of modern fictional zombies. Documentarians like to go to the Haitian origins of zombies, but there's very little Haitian or Voodoo influence in the depiction of modern zombies.

Which route will National Geographic go? Tune in to find out.

People Live Still in Cashtown Corners(Book Trailer)

Here is the trailer for Tony Burgess's  disturbing new novel: People Live Still in Cashtown Corners. Burgess is also the author of Pontypool Changes Everything and the screenwriter of its feature film adaptation

Bob Clark owns the Self Serve in Cashtown Corners. It's the only business there and Bob is the only resident. He's never been comfortable around other people. Until he starts to kill them. And murder, Bob soon discovers, is magic.

People Live Still in Cashtown Corners is Bob's account of a tragedy we all thought was senseless.

People Live Still in Cashtown Corners is available in trade paperback and eBook form from ChiZine Publications:

http://www.chizine.com/chizinepub/books/people-live-still-cashtown-corners.php

The Indie Spiritualist: George Romero Interview

The Indie Spiritualist recently interviewed zombie maestro George A. Romero.

In the interview, Romero makes an interesting  comment about how his zombie films were never meant to "get under your skin." What does he mean?

Find out in The Indie Spiritualist's interview with George A. Romero.

Beyond Exile: Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne

Although I haven't read Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne despite the fact there's a copy on my desk, I feel safe promoting plugging its sequel: BEYOND EXILE. Day by Day Armageddon has been unanimously praised in zombie-reviewer circles, so can we expect even better things in the sequel?

Day by day, the handwritten journal entries of one man caught in a worldwide cataclysm capture the desperation—and the will to survive—as he joins forces with a handful of refugees to battle soulless enemies both human and inhuman from inside an abandoned strategic missile facility. But in the world of the undead, is mere survival enough?

HAMILTON ZOMIBE WALK (and Afterparty)

Horror in the Hammer and The Zed Word zombie blog invite you to the 2010 Hamilton Zombie Walk

DATE: Saturday, October 30, 2010
START: 2pm @ Gore Park
END: 4pm @Corktown Pub for Afterparty

DONATIONS: Accepting donation of shelf-ready food for charity.

Join us on Facebook: Hamilton Zombie Walk (Event)

Afterparty

4pm @ The Corktown (175 Young St.)

HAUNTED HOUSE:
The HorrorShow: Hamilton's Scariest Haunted house.
Tickets: $8 for zombies (or humans with food donation). $10 for other humans.

DOOR PRIZES:
The first 100 zombies get a free zombie novel: Walkers by Jack Craft.

LIVE MUSIC:
Coffincheater and Snow-heel Slim and the Boogie Infection performing.

FOOD AND DRINK SPECIALS:
1/2 price appetizers before 8pm. Mini Pitchers for $9.50

RAFFLES:
Plenty of zombie prizes to be won including an autographed photo of Sharon Ceccatti, the original NURSE ZOMBIE from Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD.

The Ghost Galleon (Review)

The Ghost Galleon (1974)

(aka Horror of the Zombies)
(aka  El buque maldito)

Director: Amando de Ossorio

RATING:
1.5 / 5 zedheads

So, Amando de Ossorio already had two "Blind Dead" films under his belt by 1974. The first film was a mildly interesting horror film about flesh-eating and blood-drinking mummifies with Satantic longevity. The second  film was a far more ambitious and impressive retcon of the Knights' origins with plenty of horse-riding, mummified Knights that butcher villagers.  How do you follow that up? 

Bring the Blind Dead to Manhattan? No, that's too far away from the production offices in Europe. Put the Blind Dead in space? No budget for those sets or effects. Oh, I don't know. Put'em on a boat? 

"Blind Dead on a boat, 
They're on a boat
Everybody look at them
'Cause they're sailing on a boat"

And so we get the weakest film in the Blind Dead series: The Ghost Galleon. Noemi (Barbara Rey) is a bikini model worried about the disappearance of her friend, a fellow model. When she confronts her boss Lillian (Maria Perschy), Noemi finds out that her friend has been hired by Howard Tucker (Jack Taylor), a wealthy entrepreneur, and Lillian for a publicity stunt. Noemi's friend has been hired to sit out in the ocean on a new brand of pleasure boat and pretend to be stranded in hopes of being found by passing ships. The rescue of a beautiful girl, they figure, will generate headlines and publicity for the boat. No, it doesn't make much sense, but stranger publicity stunts have happened.

I'm on a boat motherfucker, take a look at me
Straight flowing on a boat on the deep blue sea

 Unfortunately, the girls on the boat go missing, so Noemi, Lillian, Howard, his hired muscle, and a professor (where's Gilligan?) try to find them. On the ocean, they encounter a mysterious 18th century ship gliding through a vale of fog. They board the ship and, predictably, fall prey to the Blind Dead, who have inexplicably given up their equestrian pursuits for a sleepy nautical adventure.

Sleepy is the optimal word to describe Ghost Galleon. The film starts slow and never really picks up much pace. The ship sets look very convincing and atmospheric, but barely anything ever happens on it. No shuffle board. No buffets. What a shitty cruise.

Busting five knots, wind whipping out my coat
You can't stop me motherfucker, 'cause I'm on a boat

The Blind Dead take a long time to rise from their coffins, and even when they do rise they seem strangely lackadaisical about the whole thing. They don't even look as cool as they used to. Robbed of their swords, the Blind Dead's only weapons are their rigid and dried up skeletal hands, which are awkwardly and unconvincingly puppeted by the actors. We're expected to believe the Knights can tear at flesh with these hands and drag a woman to her doom, but the Knights look pathetic on-screen. There is only one on-screen kill at the hands of the Knights, but it too drags on, and on, and on, and on. Despite the numerous characters on the boat, most die by one another's hands or in accidents. Even a final scene of Knights rising up from the sea is not enough to save Ghost Galleon from a pervasive and dreary sea sickness.

Fuck land, I'm on a boat, motherfucker
Fuck trees, I climb buoys, motherfucker

Ghost Galleon is also known for its embarrassing special effects. While the interiors of the ship look great, exterior shots of the ship are clearly of model ships in a tub of water. When the ship burns down at the end of the film, it's like watching someone's toy boat after a cruel spectator flicks his lit cigarette into the sail.

I'm the king of the world, on a boat like Leo
If you're on the shore, then you're sure not me, oh
Get the fuck up, this boat is real

Ghost Galleon is a tepid return to the Blind Dead well. It's worth your time and money to skip over Ghost Galleon if you're collecting the Blind Dead films as separate DVDs and not as part of the beautiful Blind Dead Collection coffin set from Blue Underground.

But, hey, at least you get to see the Blind Dead on a boat. 

"Blind Dead on a boat, they're on a boat
Take a good hard look
At the motherfucking boat"

Zombies Postpone Western Michigan University Classes

Schools are regularly closed for holidays and snowdays, but what about zombie days?

Until recently, if you were browsing the Western Michigan University website and managed to press both “z” and “v” on the keyboard (for "zombie" and "virus" perhaps?), you would see a warning appear that claimed classes were postponed due to Zombies.

Paula M. Davis, writing for the Kalamazoo Gazette, describes how the computer code had been slipped secretly into the WMU homepage during its development, biding its time like a zombie virus and waiting to be discovered.

The code has since been removed because WMU apparently has no sense of humour, but you can check out a screenshot accompanying the article in the Kalamazoo Gazette. 

Try This On For Size -- "Bill Fuckin' Murray" Zombie Shirt.

You can wear Bill Murray.

I wasn't a very enthusiastic supporter of Zombieland (review), but I did enjoy Bill Murray's (SPOILER ALERT!) cameo in the film. Now his appearance has been immortalized on this millennium's favorite medium: the t-shirt. The pop-culture junkies at Try This On For Size are offering a "Bill Fuckin' Murray" shirt in men's and women's sizes.

Try This On For Size also offers a variety of other clever pop and geek culture-inspired tees referencing everything form Diehard to Ninja Turtles to Terminator. Check 'em out!

ZOMBIES: A Record of the Year of Infection (Review)

REVIEW

ZOMBIES: A Record of 
the Year of Infection (2009)

Writer: Don Roff
Illustrator: Chris Lane

Chronicle Books: 2009

RATING:
4 / 5 zedheads


As an illustrated account of the zombie apocalypse, ZOMBIES: A Record of the Year of Infection makes one hell of a gory coffee-table book.

Although presented as the post-apocalyptic journal of one Dr. Robert Twombly, a blood specialist and amateur artist, ZOMBIES is actually written by Don Roff and illustrated by Chris Lane. The book is designed to appear like a large sketch pad that Dr. Twombly has converted into a hand-written and hand-drawn journal to document a world ravaged by the undead. Through text, scribbled notes, newspaper clippings, and full-page watercolour illustrations, readers take a journey with Twombly through the Pacific North West and Western Canada as Twombly attempts to capture snapshots of the world, no matter how violent and gory, and reflect on the living nightmare that is day-to-day living among the hungry dead.


While there is nothing wrong with the story told in the pages of ZOMBIES, the story is a fairly standard zombie plot. Outbreak begins and survivor observes the carnage from a safe location. Survivor escapes and meets up with different groups of other survivors on his journey, yet through the folly of man's inhumanity, social breakdown, and overwhelming odds, the best laid plans of mice and men quickly go awry. It's a satisfying and familiar story.  Except for proposing a very intriguing and unique cause for the zombie infection, Roff's story on the page is very familiar; it's the pages themselves that are the real prize of the book. 

ZOMBIES is clearly an art book. Full page illustrations of gory zombies, close-up studies of gnarled corpse faces and the desperate faces of the survivors they hunt, simulated news clipping and email pages -- all come together to create a very visual and immersive experience. I found myself more interested in pouring over the images than the text. Like me, you'll find yourself thumbing through it again just to admire the art by Chris Lane. Lane manages to create very skilled paintings and sketches that balance the amateur and rushed quality of Twombly's situation while also putting forth work that shows Lane has zombie art chops. It's a book you can leave on your coffee table to intrigue or horrify your guests (depending on their tastes).

I really enjoyed experiencing ZOMBIES. I doubt it's a book I'll reread very often, but it is an art book that I will turn to from time to time when I need to satisfy a hunger for zombie art that is visceral and wet.

Sample ZOMBIES: A Record of the Year of Infection by reading the first 20 pages for free at SCRIBD

DEAD SET premieres on IFC this October

DEAD SET, the fantastic UK miniseries from 2008, will premiere on IFC this October.

The five-part mini-series begins on IFC Monday, October 25. It chronicles an epic zombie outbreak in Britain where the housemates and crew of Big Brother are trapped inside the Big Brother house - rapidly diminishing in number while fending off the undead. The zombie-horror-comedy and pitch-black satire of reality TV was filmed at the real UK "Big Brother" set and features the show's host, Divina McCall, in front of an actual eviction night audience - with some cameos by former contestants.

The series will air Monday, October 25 - Friday, October 29 at 12:00 midnight ET/PT. There will also be a special Halloween marathon event featuring all 5 parts back-to-back on October, 31 from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm.

Back when I started this blog, I reviewed Dead Set, calling it "one of the best zombie productions of 2008." (READ REVIEW). This Halloween, I'm glad North American audiences will be able to finally sink their teeth into the series, which was only previously available in the UK and on Region 2 DVD.

CORRETION: Apparently, the SPACE channel in Canada is also airing DEAD SET. Go Canada!

Trailer Tuesday: CABINE OF THE DEAD

Teaser for the short film CABINE OF THE DEAD, a French zombie comedy directed by Vincent Templement and produced by Rémi Veron and Alice Brunel.

Cabine of the Dead is screening in North America next month as part of the DRUNKEN ZOMBIE FILM FESTIVAL, November 5-6.

Port Alberni Zombie Walk -- Oct 09

While I continue to unearth corpses to populate the upcoming Hamilton Zombie Walk, back in my home town of Port Alberni, BC they're making history with their own zombie jamboree: the first annual PORT ALBERNI ZOMBIE WALK.

At 2pm on Oct 09, 2010, zombies in the inlet community of Port Alberni will begin congregating at the Zellars / 7-11 area on 3rd Ave before proceeding down Argyle to the Harbour Quay. Interested undead are also invited to meet up after the walk at Greenwood Cemetery (on Josephine St.) for a photo op.

I'm very proud that my spawning ground is having it's own walk. The Zed Word wishes them all the best!

Rigor Amortis: Horror and erotica. Zombies and romance

Can zombies be sexy?

I tried to find out when I started this blog in my list of the 5 Sexiest Zombies, but I'm not the only one looking into undead attraction. Today,  a new book of short stories went up for sale from editors Jaym Gates and Erika Holt. It's aptly titled  Rigor Amortis.

Description

Maybe a tender love story is your thing, a husband doting on his wife’s rotting corpse. Or perhaps a forbidden encounter in a secret café, serving up the latest in delectable zombie cuisine, or some dirty, dirty dancing in the old-time honky-tonk. Voodoo sex-slaves and vending machine body-parts? You’ll find those here, too.

Whatever your flavor, these short tales of undead Romance, Revenge, Risk, and Raunch will leave you shambling, moaning, and clawing for more.

Rigor Amortis promises to be 148 pages of transgressive fiction for those who like their zombies hot.

If you're interested in buying Rigor Amortis, you can find it on Amazon.