Are you a sexy zombie babe? A real reanimated Romeo? When you walk down the beach, do all the other boils and ghouls just lose their heads?
Then you could be the SEXIEST ZOMBIE of 2011.
From August 1st through August 31st, The Zed Word is turning up the summer heat on the zombie world with our photo contest to find the sexiest male and female zombie of 2011! Winners will have their images and profiles featured on the homepage of ZedWordBlog.com for an entire year, and each winner will get some hot zombie artwork from zombie portrait illustrator ROB SACCHETTO (The Zombie Handbook, Zombiewood).
HOW TO WIN
Put on your hottest outfit and make yourself up as a sexy zombie. Then submit a photo by email to zedwordblog@gmail.com (Subject: Sexiest Zombie Contest) along with your name, age, and a non-zombified face photo. Voila! You are one-step away from becoming the Zed Word's poster boy or girl for undead hotness. Contest only open to residents of Canada and the United States.
The Zed Word will choose a maximum of 10 male semi-finalists and 10 female semi-finalists. Readers will then vote in an online poll for these semi-finalists; the three highest scoring men and women will have their photos submitted to a panel of zombie sexperts tasked with casting their vote for the sexiest male and female zombie of 2011.
Finalist Judges
- Diana Prince (Adult Film Actress and Zombie Fan)
- Rob Sacchetto (Zombie Artist)
- John Migliore (Professional Zombie Background Actor)
- Jennifer Emily (Photographer and director / founder of Horror in the Hammer and ArtGreen Productions)
- Mike 'Nug' Nahrgang (Comedian)
Don't be shy! Everyone of every body shape is welcome to submit. Zombies don't discriminate. Let that undead freak flag fly and show the world that Vampires aren't the only sexy creatures from beyond the grave.
PRIZES
The final male and female winner will obtain the following prizes (list updating)
Final winners will be featured on the main page of ZedWordBlog.com for an entire year with a link to a full profile on The Zed Word!
Each winner will also receive some sexy, signed original zombie art and a poster from Rob Sacchetto.
One of the potential art prizes by Rob Sacchetto
That's not all; winners will also receive a spookily sensual goodie bag.
PHOTO AND CONTEST RULES
Open ONLY to residents of Canada and the USA.
One entry per person; one photo per entry. (give us your best!)
No full frontal nudity allowed. No pornographic images.
Entrants must be 18 years or older at the time the photo was taken.
Photos must be of the entrant. Please send your name, age, zombie photo, and a non-zombified photo for verification. (incidents of image theft will be disqualified).
You may achieve your zombie look through any combination of makeup, special effects appliances, styling products, wardrobe, or digital editing (providing that the digital editing does not unfairly enhance your natural features. No photoshopped abs or boob jobs, please).
The Zed Word reserves the right to post all submitted photos and use winning photos for promotional purposes (otherwise, you will retain all copyright to your submitted photos)
Photos should be recent but not necessarily taken for this contest. (Example: if you looked especially sexy at a recent Halloween party or Zombie Walk, you can photos along).
Prizes will be awarded to the model featured in the photo.
This August, The Zed Word presents HOT ZOMBIE NIGHTS: a steamy month-long feature celebrating the sexy (and sleazy) side of the shambling undead.
I even have a contest!
CALLING ALL ZOMBIE BABES AND HUNKS
The Zed Word is hosting a month-long photo contest to find the sexiest male and female zombie of 2011. Winners will be featured on The Zed Word main page for an entire year and will win some sexy zombie swag [CONTEST DETAILS].
I wasn't happy with Spanish horror film [REC] 2 (review), but I loved the original [REC] (and need to get off my lazy ass to give it an official review). So, given the law of averages, I am cautiously optimistic about Paco Plaza's solo followup [REC] 3: Genesis. The new pics released over at Dread Central certainly look promising.
What is Spanish for "Brush your teeth" ?
According to Dread Central, [REC] 3 stars Leticia Dolera and Diego Martin, and it "takes place miles away from the original location and partly in broad daylight, giving the film an entirely fresh yet disturbing new reality. The infection has left the building. In a clever twist that draws together the plots of the first two movies, this third part of the saga also works as a decoder to uncover information hidden in the first two films and leaves the door open for the final installment, the future [REC] 4 Apocalypse."
I feel pretty, oh so pretty...
When I had the opportunity tointerview director Paco Plaza, I asked if he felt that people who normally don't see subtitled foreign films would still have a horrifying / fun time watching [REC] 2, and he indicated that [REC] 2 was a mainstream horror flick with action and scares anyone can enjoy. Will [REC] 3 be equally as mainstream and action-packed? I guess we'll have to wait and see.
21 hours after a man apparently died of an asthma attack, he awoke in the morgue's fridge and gave the morgue staff the scare of their lives. Either someone done goofed, or the zombie uprising begins in Johannesburg.
This story comes to us from Nastasya Tay of The Associated Press who reports:
Health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said Monday that the man awoke Sunday afternoon, 21 hours after his family called in an undertaker who sent him to the morgue after an asthma attack.
Morgue owner Ayanda Maqolo said he sent his driver to collect the body shortly after the family reported the death. Maqolo said he thought the man was around 80 years old.
"When he got there, the driver examined the body, checked his pulse, looked for a heartbeat, but there was nothing," Maqolo told the Associated Press.
If this becomes a trend, morgues should start charging room and board
Sounds to me like the premise for a movie about voodoo.
And you know that when the man "returned from the dead," the morgue owner had to be replaying in his head every zombie movie he had ever seen.
After police arrived, the group entered the morgue together.
"I was glad they had their firearms, in case something wanted to fight with us," Maqolo said.
To survive the zombie apocalypse, you'll need to blow away a few zombies, but a gun can't help you meet your other survival needs like shelter, food, fire, and water. Can it?
Introducing: The Super Shotgun
The Art of Manlieness website has information about how to make a Super Shotgun that could be the ultimate, hand-held survival device. Designed by Creek Stewart, the Super Shotgun is a modified Mossberg 500 pump-action shotgun transformed into a mobile survival kit that packs a punch and more storage space than an Ikea entertainment unit.
Now you're ready for the apocalypse
The gun has compartments for various kinds of ammunition, and can carry 19 rounds in total -- even signal flare rounds. Aside from all the boom that goes into this boom stick, Creek's Super Shotgun comes with a bounty of survival devices and gadets including:
A 5'' Ka-Bar knife mounted on a Picatinny rail
A flashlight and a compass installed on the gun barrel
Storage in stock, pistol grip and pump hand grip for survial supplies:
Creek's also rigged a folding saw that you can mount between the back of the pistol grip and the butt stock sling stud. Packed with all these supplies, the Super Shotgun's going to weigh 9.5 lbs (4.3 kg), 3 pounds heavier than the unmodified Mossberg.
Swiss Army Knife in Gun Form
If you have it, you're good to go. If you lose it, I guess you're screwed.
Find out everything you need to make this Super Shotgun at the Art of Manliness
Feast your eyes on this curious bit of animated violence guaranteed to defile your childhood that was tweeted to me by @ ZombiePuppets.
"Burn Big Bird, Burn" is a teaser for the upcoming movie Zombie Puppets. In this teaser, a sweeping infection invades Sesame Street (I mean "Caraway" Street), turning its puppet residents into flesh-hungry zombies, aka "Zuppets." To put the whole mess to bed, the cast of Zombie Puppets -- Rags the Bunny and his team of grim puppet friends -- show up to quell the Zuppet menace and tangle with some kind of fascist Unicorn government.
I presume Zombie Puppets will be a live action film. While I'm sure Zombie Puppets will not contain any copyrighted Henson characters, this teaser is an intriguing and highly disturbing spoof of Sesame Street that introduces us broadly to the original characters set to appear in Zombie Puppets. I get a Meet the Feebles mixed with Dead Alive vibe from these nasty puppet anti-heroes.
Should be interesting to see more of this premise as it goes into development.
Waaaaaay back, I reviewed the indie zombie film from Hamilton called Vs. the Dead [REVIEW]. The film is finally on its way to release through Midnight Releasing. Here's a quick promo!
Remember in Season One of AMC's The Walking Dead when Rick had tears in his eyes as he dispatched the bicycle zombie? The boy's come a long way since then . . . .
As is tradition on The Zed Word zombie blog, I present the annual Zombie Guide to the San Diego Comic-Con: your 2011, day-to-day agenda for all the zombie-themed panels, films, and off-site events at the world's largest celebration of geek-dom.
I hear Comic-Con can be an overwhelming place. To help you avoid afternoons of stumbling around like a shell-shocked zombie, I've done some leg work for you by compiling a list of Comic-Con's zombie event and even off-site events like the San Diego Zombie Walk. Although there are fewer zombie events than in previous years when Zombieland and The Walking Dead were being promoted, there are still plenty of undead dealings to keep any zombie fan occupied.
PANELS
Thusday, July 21
10:00pm-11:00am Deadliest Warrior: Vampires vs. Zombies -- Vampires and zombies have terrorized and tantalized their way through pop culture for decades, from Dracula to the Twilight Saga to Walking Dead. SPIKE TV and its Deadliest Warrior franchise are going to finally answer the question: Which of these mythical creatures would come out on top in a fight to the finish? Deadliest Warrior steps outside the confines of history for this groundbreaking fantasy episode destined to rouse heated debates amongst fans in the blogosphere for months. The Deadliest Warrior team of Richard "Mack" Machowicz, Dr. Armand Dorian, and Robert Daly, guests Steve Niles, Max Brooks, and horror legend Wes Craven, and executive producer of Deadliest Warrior and president of 44 Blue Productions Rasha Drachkovitch make their case for who is, indeed, the fiercest. Los Angeles Times writer and HeroComplex.com founder Geoff Boucher will serve as moderator. Room 25ABC
7:00pm-8:00pm History of the Modern Zombie— Experts discuss the history and evolution of the modern zombie, from its first appearance in George Romero's 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead to the most recent work being done in zombie science, survival, and pop culture today. Panelists include Max Brooks, bestselling author of World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide;Matt Mogk, head of the Zombie Research Society and author of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Zombies;Steven Schlozman, M.D., Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and author of The Zombie Autopsies;Scott Kenemore, bestselling author of Zen of Zombie, Z.E.O., and Zombie, Ohio;James Lowder, bestselling author of Prince of Lies and editor of Triumph of The Walking Dead; and Bradley Voytek, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley neuroscientist and author of Scanning the Zombie Brain. Room 7AB
Friday, July 22
11:15am-12:15pm AMC's The Walking Dead— Stars Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually), Jon Bernthal (The Pacific), Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), Laurie Holden (The Mist), Norman Reedus (The Boondock Saints), Steven Yeun (The Big Bang Theory), Jeffrey DeMunn (The Green Mile); series creator/writer/director/executive producer Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption); executive producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator); executive producer Robert Kirkman (creator/writer of The Walking Dead comic book series); and makeup artist and consulting producer Greg Nicotero discuss the success of season one of AMC's series The Walking Dead and reveal what to look forward to in season two, which will air on AMC this Fall. Join the panelists for a one-on-one Q&A session and an official sneak preview of season two. Ballroom 20
4:00pm-5:00pm Writing the Apocalypse: Genre Authors Explore the End Times (And the Fun That Comes After!)— The postapocalypse world has always been fodder for great horror and mystery works. Authors with recent books set in or around the not-so-distant but very dystopian future discuss their visions of what happens after most of the population dies. Take a look into the future with Mira Grant (The Newsflesh trilogy), Thomas Mullen (The Revisionists), Anna North (America Pacifica), Walter Greatshell (Xombies: Apocalypso), Richard Kadrey (Kill the Dead), Daniel Wilson (Robopocalypse), Isaac Marion (Warm Bodies), and Steven Schlozman (The Zombie Autopsies) as they depress moderator Maryelizabeth Hart of Mysterious Galaxy. Room 7AB
5:00pm-6:00pm The World of Capcom— Capcom fans won't want to miss this opportunity to learn about all the new games coming from their favorite video game publisher. Plus, get in-depth details straight from Capcom's stellar producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Resident Evil 4) about his exciting new open-world action adventure game, Dragon's Dogma. Producer Jason Leigh talks about the zombie-infested streets of Fortune City in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, and producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya discusses the new over-the-top rollercoaster IP, Asura's Wrath. Followed by a Q&A session. Room 25ABC
6:30pm-7:30pm Resident Evil Round-Up!— 2011 marks the 15th anniversary of the legendary video game franchise that gave fear a face and horror a home. Get the latest information about the newest entries to the Resident Evil franchise: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, with producer Rey Jimenez; Resident Evil: Revelations for the Nintendo 3DS; the gorgeous reimagining of Resident Evil 4 HD; and Resident Evil Code Veronica X HD, plus some surprises! Followed by a Q and A session. Room 5AB
7:30pm-8:30pm Death Valley— MTV brings the unique marriage of horror and comedy together with this new series. Join members of the ensemble cast, including Caity Lotz (Mad Men), Tania Raymonde (Lost), Bryan Callen (The Hangover), Bryce Johnson (Sleeping Dogs Lie), Texas Battle (Final Destination 3), and Charlie Sanders (Funny or Die), along with showrunner/executive producer Eric Weinberg (Californication, Scrubs), director Drew Daywalt (Bedfellows), executive producer/director Austin Reading (Spike TV's Scream Awards, FEARnet), executive producer Julie Kellman Reading, and co-executive producer Spider One, in a discussion about the challenges of bringing the comedy and horror genres together and how the team involved in the series bring all the elements of what they know best to the series. Fans will get an exclusive first look at an upcoming episode. Q and A session to follow! Room 5AB
7:30m-8:30pm The Science of Zombies: How Possible Is a Zombie Virus?— The top creative minds behind the acclaimed and highly anticipated Dead Island role-playing video game and an esteemed medical professional in the field of brain research and brain disease explore the pop culture fascination with the zombie genre as a whole and how creative talent is harnessing medical science to define and explore horror entertainment in more realistic (and therefore more frightening and engaging) ways. Room 8
Sunday, July 24
2:00pm-3:00pm Max Brooks: Zombie Survival 101—Max Brooks, screenwriter and author of bestselling books The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z, and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, is the world's leading authority on the defense against a ghoulish uprising! Renowned for his campus and convention lectures nationwide, Brooks comes to Comic-Con to share his insight into the rotting minds of the undead, reveal how the Zombie Survival Guide came into existence, and field questions from zombie-phobic fans. You dare not miss this lecture -- your very life may depend on it! Room 7AB
3:00pm-4:00pm Keenspot 2011: Vampires and Zombies and the Moon!— Pioneering webcomics publisher Keenspot returns for their unfathomable 11th annual Comic-Con panel! Creators scheduled to appear include Benny Powell (Wayward Sons), Brion Foulke (Flipside), John Joseco (The Lounge), David Campiti (Exposure), R.C. Monroe (Out There), and tentatively, writer/director Jay Weisman (Shockwave Darkside). Additionally, Aimee Schoof (Red Giant Media), co-producer of the upcoming shot-in-3D war on the moon feature film Shockwave Darkside as well as the movie adaptation of the Keenspot webcomic Last Blood (after zombies take over the Earth, vampires must protect the last surviving humans so they can live off their blood), will bring previews and announcements about both projects. And everyone who attends will receive a free...something. Room 4
MOVIE SCREENINGS
Saturday, July 23
10:35pm-11:00pm To Romero with Love—Mike and Katie got together as a couple because of a movie quote...from Dawn of the Dead! Alex proposed to Kim by getting on his knees...and giving her a human heart! This documentary celebrates people who love people who love zombies. Producer Kiel Chenier and director Aaron Peacock talk about their film.
"This year marks the FIFTH anniversary of America’s Finest Undead shuffling through the streets of the Gaslamp Quarter during Comic-Con! At 5:30PM, on Saturday, July 23rd, zombies from all over will be gathering in San Diego to take over the nerdiest place on Earth… and feast on their brains!
Our initial meeting location is set to be the courtyard area next to Horton Plaza, outside of Sam Goody, at the corner of 4th & Broadway – where we’ve met for all of our Comic-Con walks. This area is large, easy to locate, and quick to get to from the Convention Center."
It's summer time, and I've been spending an unusual amount of time swimming. See, I don't like to get my head wet, so I usually just float around with my nose, eyes, and ears above the surface, much like the Nazi Zombies seen in Shock Waves, Ken Wiederhorn's flawed yet enduring cult horror film. Although all this swimming got me in the mind to revisit Shock Waves, I wish I could say it made a splash with me. It's not a bad film, but it's problematic at best. For a film set in and around the water, it's surprisingly dry on scares.
This is what happens when you don't wear enough sunscreen
In this low-budget zombie offering, the crew and passengers of a chartered pleasure craft off the coast of Florida (captained by genre staple John Carradine) accidentally runs aground on an island with an abandoned hotel that is home to a strange hermit (Peter Cushing). To everyone's surprise, they find themselves being hunted by aquatic, undead Nazi soldiers created during WWII when the Nazis created super soldiers out of bloodthirsty sociopaths (you're not going to see that in Captain America this summer, I guarantee it). The survivors discover that the hermit living in the hotel is the former SS Commander of this zombie "Death Corps," but he can't help when the zombies emerge silently from the murky deeps and start drowning anyone they can get their hands on. These aren't the flesh-hungry or brain-addicted undead; Nazi Zombies just want to drown you.
Nazi Zombie you’re the one,
You make bathtime lots of fun,
Nazi Zombie I’m awfully fond of you
Shock Waves has a lot of problems, but the cast isn't one. Although we get next to no back story on any of the characters, they are immediately identifiable in broad strokes: the beautiful young woman in a bikini (Brooke Adams), the handsome but neglected hero waiting for the chance to shine (Luke Halpin), the cantankerous and contemptuous - and probably drunk - Captain (Carradine), the petulant husband and suffering wife (Jack Davidson and D.J. Sidney), etc. All the characters play off each other well and the acting is good. Even the design of the zombies is nothing to complain about. Although I'd imagine WWII era zombies would look a bit more fish-eaten after being submerged for so long, Alan Ormsby's impressive special makeup effects gives the Nazis an appropriately pale, bleached, and water-logged pallor. When they rise silently like pillars from the deep with their black goggles and bleached hair, they cut an imposing silhouette.
Honestly, I don't think that IS the Blue Man Group after all
Unfortunately, Shock Waves is all waves and no shock. The film is made with little sense of horror, or drama. The narrative just floats from scene to scene with little tension or mood . In the shock department, Shock Waves is depressingly tame. We don't see a zombie kill anyone until more than 30 minutes into the picture, and even then the majority of the deaths are off screen. There's also no blood or gore. Scenes involving blood squibs and rotten corpses were eventually cut from the film; the director admits as much on the Blue Underground DVD film commentary that he has no taste for gore or horror films. Not all horror films need to be filled to the brim with blood and guts, but if you're not going to bring gore then you have to bring tension and atmosphere. Here, Shock Waves fails too.
Luke Halpin (R) starred in Flipper. For a pack of Players cigarettes, Carradine (L) would play flipper
1849: A mysterious glowing meteorite unearthed by the residents of an Old West mining town suddenly releases a glowing green cloud of spores, turning all it contacts into mutant, flesh-hungry zombies. Welcome to Cowboys and Zombies (releasing July 26, 2011 in the US as The Dead and the Damned before releasing August 1st in the UK as Cowboys and Zombies). In the small world of zombie westerns, Cowboys and Zombies serves up very impressive zombie makeup and gore effects, but where the zombie element is strongest in Cowboys and Zombies, its Western genre elements are half-hitched and consistently fail to deliver.
Only in the Old West will you find zombies with suspenders.
In the film's opening gunfight, we are introduced to Mortimer (David A. Lockhart), a bounty hunter who's just as comfortable in a fight with his sixshooter as he is with his fists. Single handed, Mortimer dispatches a group of outlaws before subduing a fugitive with a series of furious blows. Lockhart is so tough and determined, he immediately take a new job to hunt down an alleged rapist and murderer, the Indian named Brother Wolf (Rick Mora). Along the way, Mortimer encounters a human trafficker from whom he buys a "wife" named Rhianna (Camille Montgomery) and callously uses her as bait to catch Brother Wolf in exchange for her own freedom. While Mortimer sets out to bring in the man he believes to be a ruthless savage, real savagery is erupting in the nearby town as the miners and town's folk are mutated into fast, strong, and violently mindless creatures on the hunt for human flesh.
Rhianna (Camille Montgomery) packing heat
Let's start with the stand-out achievement of this film: the zombies. With Ed Martinez on special makeup effects, Cowboys and Zombies doesn't just give us zombies. We get great-looking zombies! I was genuinely surprised by the film's attention to undead detail. The film features a variety of deformed and dessicated zombies, all of which are unique -- some look more like corpses, others look more like mutants -- and each have unique personalities. The standout zombie of the picture appears during a tense scene in which Rhianna is accidentally boarded inside a building with the undead mutants. She is pursued silently upstairs by a blind female ghoul that tracks her by smell and sound alone. The blind zombie, dressed in a loose night gown, is flawlessly designed. From the face to the bare skin of the neck, shoulders, chest, arms, and hands, the Blind Zombie is consistently covered in zombie makeup. In fact, you rarely see in Cowboys and Zombies that tell-tale sign of low budget productions: zombies with messed up faces but clean arms and hands. This attention to detail goes a long way in convincing me of the film's zombie threats. Although the zombies make some pretty terrible and generic monster sounds, they look great and wreak all sorts of gory havoc that is fairly realistic (except for one ridiculously impossible feat of anatomy). There's a lot for zombie fans to love in Cowboys and Zombies.
Love, Justice and now Zombies are Blind
If you're a fan of Westerns, I have bad news, cowpoke. I think Cowboys and Zombies is going to disappoint you terribly.. Where it went above and beyond to bring us zombies, Cowboys and Zombies misses the mark of a good Western. Take Lockhart, the lead actor, for example. He reminds me of a young Tom Cruise -- he has that look of a very a-typical yet plausible action hero. The moment Lockhart opens his mouth, however, I knew he was miscast. His voice is simply too soft and boyish to convey the physical force we're expected to believe on screen. In the short-hand of genre, Lockhart simply lacks the commanding on-screen presence necessary to sell his role as a Western (anti)hero. I'm not saying that all Western characters have to be Rooster Cogburn, but when a film like this relies so heavily on Western stereotypes and genre conventions, audiences expect a certain level of gruffness and authority from their cowboy heroes. When Lockhart speaks, he makes Mortimer sound like an awkward young boy incongruous to the character we see before us. In a telling bit of advertising, you'll notice that Lockhart (as Mortimer) is totally absent from the poster art provided by Left Films, the film's UK distributor. That cowboy bad-ass with the goatee who's front-and-center on the poster art is not even in the film although, I suspect, this is how the film wishes us to see Mortimer. I'm sure Lockhart is a good actor in other projects, but he's all kinds of wrong for this part.
Operated by a zombie fan, Zombie Shop offers zombie-themed merch, gifts, and playthings like movies, crafts, snacks (mmmm, jelly brains), and even cosmetic contact lenses and zombie RPG and LARP items. If gaming is your bag, Zombie Shop stocks a full range of All Things Zombie games, including: the ATZ: Better Dead Than Zed core rules, the two supplements ATZ: Haven and ATZ: I, Zombie, and a current UK exclusive: ATZ: Risks and Rewards Deck.
Juan of the Dead is Cuba's first zombie movie, and it looks like director Alejandro Brugues is coming out with a double dose of comedy and some pretty effective zombie mayhem (if this English-subbed trailer is any indication).
In Juan of the Dead, a Cuban slacker named Juan (Alexis Diaz de Villegas) finds Cuba overrun by zombies after the government is slow to react to the epidemic. Seeing a need, Juan creates a business alaGhostbusters that will exterminate the zombies for a fee.
Of all the upcoming foreign and domestic zombie movies, Juan of the Dead is at the top of my list of films I really want to see.
According to horror news site Dread Central, a new Evil Dead is going into production.
Dread Central claims, crediting an anonymous but "very reliable source" that Bob Murawski (editor Army of Darkness) has made way for Detroit to begin work on a new Evil Dead film, which will be "a small indie thing like the first two."
Fans have been salivating for a new Evil Dead for years. Is this a remake? The fourth installment in the ongoing adventures of Ash?Is Bruce Campbell involved? Is Sam Raimi involved?
Maybe this is all just bullshit.
We'll have to wait and see if this news turns out to be true and "Groovy" or if it is yet another soul swallowing disappointment.
Two independent filmmakers from Barrie, Ontario are set to debut their independent, guerrilla style zombie film: Walking Among the Dead
Walking Among the Dead debuts July 15th at the Barrie Imperial Theatre (55 Dunlop St. West). Directed by Ionas Von Zezschwitz and Mickey Cardoni of She Died Productions, Walking Among the Dead is a full-length film shot "guerrilla style" in Barrie and other Ontario locations, a raw shootings style that sometimes got them in trouble with the law.
Talking with Lance Holdforth of the Barrie Examiner,
Von Zezschwitz describes a shoot that got some unwanted attention: "We were chopping a fake head off of a dummy's torso and somebody called the cops . . . . There were two cops that came out with shot guns. They crept around the far side of this house where we were in the backyard and they came out with guns drawn on us."
TRAILER
Thankfully, the filmmakers survived their run-in with the law to finish there film four years in the making. Walking Among the Dead is described as "a movie made for die hard cult zombie aficionados. Blood, guts, home made effects, and a magnificent original score that draws you into a carefully crafted and uncomfortably real survival scenario. The cinematography evokes underground VHS horror classics of the 80's but goes a step further, using a tiny camcorder to capture creative angles that would be impossible to achieve with larger equipment."
Although a version of the film already premiered in Toronto in 2008, the filmmakers say that the Barrie premier will be the final cut. "The version we're putting out now is the definitive final version," Von Zezschwitz said in the Barrie Examiner. "The one we screened in Toronto will never be seen again, It's in the memory of some and that's about it."
The final cut of Walking Among the Dead has a running time of 86 minutes.
Milla Jovovich, star of the Resident Evil film franchise, has admitted to having Resident Evil nightmares.
You know what? I do too -- nightmares about how shitty the films keep getting . Jovovich's nightmares, however, as quoted in an article by Digital Spy, center around zombies:
"I have a lot of zombie nightmares," she told the Mail On Sunday. "Work has permeated my consciousness. I don't even like scary movies, but I've lived for ten years inside this world of horror images."
Detailing the dreams, she continued: "I'm being chased, they're closing in on me. It's weird, because the actual making of the movies is very normal. The zombies are on set drinking coffee, having a cigarette and chatting. It's so banal. Then I close my eyes sometimes and they're after me."
I guess working on four Resident Evil movies will eventually warp your brain.
Disco, zombies, and time travel finally come together in The Z Word, a free novel by Bella Street that could win you some sweet swag just for talking about it.
Through October 6th, The Z Word (Apocalypse Babes Book One) is available for free on Smashwords, and if you spread the word about the novel, you'll be eligible for some sweet prizes.
By promoting The Z Word (by review, blog post, or tweet, etc) readers are entered in a contest for a chance to win a Juicy Couture tracksuit (such as worn by the main character in the series), Victoria's Secret Pink perfume, and a $30 Amazon giftcard. No purchase necessary. Details can be found at www.apocalypsebabes.com
It's been said that a sure sign of the coming apocalypse is an 80s roller skate disco movie coming to DVD (with special features). In the science-fiction novel series Apocalypse Babes, a stylish group of twenty-something friends are torn from the Babylonian arms of 2006 West Hollywood and flung nearly thirty years into the past. It might be because one of them purchased the taboo film in a nostalgic moment, setting off a chain of events more disturbing than a roller skating conga line. They wake up in an apocalyptic but strangely familiar landscape, complete with a hidden mountain compound and retro survivalists, hinting at hidden and retro secrets they must face if they want to survive.
The Z Word follows Seffy Carter and her longtime friends Gareth, Addison and Lani. The four besties share a past dysfunctional and dark enough to keep them bound together under do-over identities. But rends develop in their relationships from the flesh-eating pressures of ending up in 1980, in a Montana desert, surrounded by zombies wearing dated disco duds.
Sex, Violence, and Zombies. What a catchy trailer.
Synopsis
The Reunion has been described as "The Wire" meets "Dawn of the Dead". From writer C.B. Kaczor and Director/Screenwriter Jeff Stewart comes a film which exhibits characteristics of crime drama, suspense and zombie thrillers.
Currently in production, "The Reunion" stars actor Kirk Ponton who has done notable work in crime dramas. The film also stars Chase Toretto and Ronnie Armani. "The Reunion" is a compelling tale of the human tragedy of a life of crime, followed by redemption and betrayal. Further pressures are placed on the characters by an unforeseen event, a zombie outbreak.
Are there any truly patriotic American zombie films?
Zombie Presidents by Greg Lambrakis
If so, they're rare as a white buffalo. I've noticed that zombie films, as a whole, tend to avoid simple patriotic themes regardless of their country of origin. Since Romero used zombies as a metaphor for the dangers of consumerism in Dawn of the Dead, subsequent filmmakers have continued to use zombies as subversive critiques of American and modern culture. Afterall, zombie films tend to deal with the collapse of society, inhumanity, and selfish inner conflicts -- these themes make it difficult to present a story that's very nationalistic.
So, as my American readers celebrate Independence Day, I'm sorry I can't find you any zombie films that shout, "AMERICA IS NUMBER ONE!" as you all did when Osama bin Laden was killed. However, if you're looking for zombie films that deal with American themes, history, and iconography, please enjoy the following (subversive) recommendations.
