zombiefreak.com

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This humourless magician, seems to have an overly serious take on zombies. In the video he talks down to all of us voicing his disdain for the zombie horror genre calling them ‘pretty bad’. He claims films like “White Zombie“, “I Walked With a Zombie” and 1974’s blaxploitation horror film “Sugar Hill” are generally considered to be the ‘best of the lot’ of Hollywood horror films about zombies. Generally? By whom? Voodoo practitioners who have no sense of humour or folks who lack the ability to suspend disbelief and enjoy something creative? I suspect the Rev Don Lewis, a practitioner of wicca, is the latter.

He’s definitely a purist when it comes to voodoo and sites that as the reason behind these ‘bad’ films calling some of them racist. No kidding. Perhaps Rev. Lewis should read the Reason magazine article from the post below to help him understand the zombie genre. Or perhaps Rev. Lewis is a zombie himself trying to mislead us so they can overtake us when we’re looking in another direction.

He also states that zombies are NOT a staple of other monsters have been. He says, “there have been few films about zombie and even fewer good ones.” Few? Here’s a sizeable list of the few on Wikipedia. There are 125 in this very incomplete list. Many of the independents and up and coming films are missing.

Personally I see some great films there:

• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
• Shaun of the Dead (2004)
• Braindead (1992)
• Zombi II (1979)
• 28 Days Later (2002)
• Re-Animator (1985)
• Cemetery Man (1994)

Those are just a few of my personal favourites.

Come now… Do your homework.

Seriously though Rev. Lewis, it is sad that you feel slighted by Hollywood’s take on zombies. However, I don’t believe that filmmakers (myself included) intend to disrespect anyone’s religious beliefs. Zombies are but another story device. A very effective one that plays to people’s deepest fears - the deepest of all being their own death and what happens afterward. Dealing with death, even through entertainment, is a spiritual experience for some people and to be told that it’s wrong to do so sounds like religious intolerance to me. Frankly, it smacks of the ideals behind the Spanish Inquisition. You’re entitled to your opinion, just don’t bash me for mine. I enjoyed the information I just didn’t appreciate the judgement.

You can learn more about Rev Lewis at the MagickTV web site.

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The convoluted politics of zombie cinema
Tim Cavanaugh | Reason Magazine, February 2007 Print Edition
via Disinformation

The zombiephiles—that odd cohort of nerds, video game addicts, and mullet-headed grindhouse nostalgists who have made the flesh-eating zombie a central figure of modern culture—know all about chewed kidneys, shambling ghouls, moldering flesh, barricaded doors, deserted streets, and the all-important bullet to the brain. But most of all, fans of the rich, vibrant zombie narrative of the late 20th and early 21st centuries know about politics.

Ever since George Romero’s genre-creating Night of the Living Dead in 1968, and especially since Romero’s overtly political 1978 masterpiece Dawn of the Dead, highbrow revolutionary theorizing has stalked this graveyard of lowbrow pleasures. In his 1979 study The American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film, the esteemed cineaste Robin Wood declared that the zombie’s cannibalism “represents the ultimate in possessiveness, hence the logical end of human relations under capitalism.” J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum’s 1983 study Midnight Movies called Night of the Living Dead “a remarkable vision of the late sixties, offering the most literal possible depiction of America devouring itself.” In a later reappraisal, a Village Voice critic explained that “the zombie carnage seemed a grotesque echo of the conflict then raging in Vietnam.” … (Complete Reason article)

Fantastic read.

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“This is an short film about 3 guys in a car during a zombie outbreak. It has some gore, cannibalism, and comedy. Definitely a great flick.” By 2Chums

I love this little flick. I’ve watched it many times. The best zombie movies are films, like this one, that make me cringe and giggle at the same time. I’m never sure whether to laugh or barf.

The filmmakers make great use of an obviously limited budget. Zombie Movie is strongly written, has solid acting and creative yet intelligent direction. Overall a superbly pleasurable zombie viewing experience. I hope we see more from these guys.

I give “Zombie Movie” a 9 out of 10.

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Necrophilia. Yikes!

My Dearly Departed by the folks over at Galacticast is an amusing and insightful look at love relationships between the living and the undead. I’m curious though as to why the zombies are all male. Perhaps there’s something to this. Can one have a relationship with a female zombie? Honestly, who would want to though. Yuck. Stinky.

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Looks as though 2007 is shaping up to be the year of the zombie movie. With flicks like 28 Weeks Later, Fido and and a pile more on the horizon how could one think any differently.

This one, American Zombie, has a couple of unusual bits of trivia attached to it.

One is that it was produced by a Korean company planning to produce a number of English language films in the near future.

The second tidbit is that the film was written and directed by, Grace Lee of 2005’s The Grace Lee Project. Yes, a female. That is very rare in the horror genre to say the least. But, I know chicks dig horror too. My wife likes it lots.

Grace’s film appears to take a look at the genre from an entirely different and somewhat sensative angle. Humanizing zombies? Sure. Why not?

Here’s the trailer:

Funny! Zombie prejudice definitely needs some exposure. They are, after all, people too. After a fashion at least.

From GreenCine Daily:

“I won’t say with any confidence that American Zombie is an allegory about Muslims or undocumented immigrants or anything else specific,” writes Salon’s Andrew O’Hehir. “It might just be a goof on the silliness of contemporary media that gets a little broader and darker as it goes along. But the mere fact that [Grace] Lee can make both a media satire and, in the end, a creepy horror flick, while at least alluding to bigger social issues, suggests the breadth of her wit and intelligence.”

Grace is blogging her experiences at Slamdance and seems quite please d with the film’s reception after its world premiere last Saturday:

“The audience was great — they really seemed to get the movie and were troopers, after a couple of nervewracking technical problems. While they were fixing the sound, Austin Basis, who plays Ivan, started passing out one of his Slamdance special edition ‘zines and people went apeshit. People have been coming up to him at the festival, asking for more copies of that thing. Now I want him to do a special edition for every festival.”

For a full interview with Grace Lee check out this article at Bloody Disgusting. In the article Grace alludes to the possiblity of a “Canadian Zombie”. Holy shit! Count me in. I am the zombiefreak and I am Canadian. Audition please. Acting chops don’t fail me now…

Congratulations to Grace and everyone else involved with American Zombie. Sounds like more success is just around the corner. Way to go!

Who said the zombie genre was dead? It keeps on coming back to life one way or another. As it should. No irony there.

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Tune in to ZNN: Your zombie attack information station!

Written and Directed by GB Shannon Starring: GB Shannon, Ramsey Bergeron and Kinon Keplinger

Coming to you from ifilm.com.

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I wish I had a pet zombie to mow my lawn.

Anyway, to the info. Here’s an update on Fido from horror-movies.ca:

Goon was SOOO wrong. He told you all that FIDO was pushed back to June 15th and man oh man was he wrong. Never believe goon I tell yuh. Its coming to theatres March 16th in Canada, but June 15th in the US. Oh wait…. ok so maybe Goon was half right, but I wouldnt trust him. He has shifty eyes. On a serious note, FIDO is gonna kick some serious ass and I am stoked for its arrival.

Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly and Henry Czerny star in Fido, a biting satire set in a small town lost in the idyllic world of the ’50s. The sun shines every day, everybody knows his neighbor, and zombies serve as gardeners, milkmen and servants. Here lives a young boy (newcomer K’Sun Ray) and his best friend – the family zombie named Fido. All is well until Fido’s domestication collar goes on the fritz.

It’s a story that could rip your heart out – literally! With saturated color that recalls the Technicolor era, the film marks the second feature from Vancouver director Andrew Currie (Mile Zero). Script is by Currie, Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton. Producers are Blake Corbet and Mary Anne Waterhouse of Anagram Pictures.

That’s cool. Canada gets it release before the U.S. I’m not sure why that’s happening but it’s good for me as I happen to be in Canada. To our friends in the U.S. who want to see the flick, come on up and watch it with us. We’re glad to have you.

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More fast zombies. But don’t be discouraged, this time it looks plausibly done. This film, directed by newcomer Steven C. Miller, has piqued my interest on a number of levels. Automaton Transfusion, according to the posts and reviews on horror-movies.ca anyway, was made in 9 days for a mere $30,000. From the look of the trailer that’s actually quite an accomplishment. I’ve noticed that a few of the “reviews” have been written by people who were involved in the film so we’ll wait to see more independent opinions though the one’s I’ve seen are fairly positive.

Here’s the synopsis:

In the early 1970s when everyone in America was worrying about what was going on in Vietnam, the United States Army was secretly developing a way to reanimate the dead. The hope was to have the dead fight instead of the living, but the experiments were shut down when the reanimated corpses were unable to control their hunger for human flesh.

Thirty years later the army has decided to reopen the project. Grover City, because of its remote location, would be the home of their main testing facilities. Without warning the experiments go horribly wrong in Grover City and the DEAD are now on the rampage, eating everyone in sight.

With the town overtaken by Zombies, a group of High School seniors take it upon themselves to fight back and find a cure for this deadly disease.

Automaton Transfusion is a non-stop adventure of four friends battling there way through swamps, forests, blood, and ZOMBIES to survive!

And here’s the trailer:

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Nicely done. This trailer had me at the obligatory homage to Evil Dead’s Ash. Although I didn’t like the bit about it claiming to be the defining horror film of a generation. I’ll overlook that as the rest of it grabbed my attention. There was a definite intensity to the deliciously gore filled action thanks to the energetic camera work. Hopefully the entire film is this relentless.

Surprising as well is that the filmmakers snagged such a boatload of extras to portray the all important zombie hordes in the film. Props that eat can be expensive. I’ve seen many a craft service table decimated by only 20 background performers and this looked like far more. My bet is there was a pizza sponsor in there somewhere. Good thing too, without zombies you don’t have much of a zombie movie.

Thankfully there were no recognizable stars (see my post on the upcoming Day of the Dead remake below) to take us out of the action. It also appears that this is a film full of down and dirty zombie chomping action. Exactly what the 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake seemed to promise but sadly ended up prematurely blowing it’s wad all over itself after only 20 minutes. I’m crossing my fingers hoping the trailer isn’t misleading.

All in all it doesn’t look half bad. I’ll check this one out for sure when it comes around, not only because it looks like a decent zombie film but also for my interest in seeing if a film made for that small amount of money in such a short amount of time can actually achieve its aim beginning to end.

There’s no official release date yet. I’ll keep y’all posted.

Thanks to Zombie-A-GoGo for the heads up on this flick.

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Making real zombies the Hatian voodoo way is easy and this article teaches you how to use 3 naturally occuring chemicals to do it.

read more | digg story

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WARNING: If you care, there seem to be spoilers in this unrated trailer. So before you click play consider that. Although I don’t know how you can spoil a piece of shit. It’s kind of spoiled already.

This happens to be a zombie movie I’m not looking forward to. A remake of the third (Hooray for Bub!) in Romero’s original trilogy of the living dead. I know. I know. There’s Land of the Dead and the upcoming Diary of the Dead, but the first three are the iconic films.

Anyway, with B grade stars Mena Suvari and Ving Rhames leading the way this movie looks like it’s going to be a steaming bucket of zombie diarrhea. You know darn well that’s got to stink.

The “From the Director of Halloween H20” tag line at the top of the poster is enough to warn real zombie movie fans and anyone who watched H20 that this is going to be horrendous.

There’s are reasons this film won’t work. First of all it seems to break most or all of the rules established in the classic zombie films that fans have come to love. Just a few of the rules broken in this trailer are:

• Fast and Strong Zombies - Zombies are uncoordinated, a little weaker than a living person, slow and shuffling. It is by the stupidity and carelessness of the victims and often being outnumbered that leads to their demise or infection. It is never that they cannot get away. Even late films like the awesome Shaun of the Dead prove that slow zombies still work. Fast zombies can work too, like in 28 Days Later and almost in Dawn of the Dead (2004), but the story has gt to be strong enough to support it.
• Too Much Information - We don’t need to know what the cause of the zombie outbreak is. Just get on with the action for God’s sake. Sometimes less is more. A little bit of mystery adds to the tension. The fact that the characters in the film don’t know what the hell is happening gives far more substance to each role.
• Lack of Story Focus - To make a decent zombie film you don’t need stars, big effects, sexy twenty somethings or even big effects. The Hollywood teen horror film formula never makes for a great movie. Throw your money and energy at the story. It’s supposed to be about how the living react to the stress of a zombie outbreak. We get to see the true nature of folks in extreme situations. Having some underlying social message is a necessity as well. For example one of the themes in the low budget grand daddy of zombie films Night of the Living Dead (1968) was racism.

 

I’m sure the film will have other flaws that will piss off old school zombie fans like myself as well. I remember when I saw the Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake I was disappointed with that as well, but at least it appeared they tried. This one just looks like not only did they break the rules they’ve never even seen the rule book.

Don’t get me wrong. I will see this film somehow, just to see if I’m right about this. I’m hoping some of my connections come through with passes to a premiere so I don’t have to pay.

I know this is contempt prior to investigation, but I can assure you I won’t like this movie. Not one bit.

Thanks to Zombie-A-Go-Go over at Zombie Friends for the heads up on the trailer and wiki article.

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