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It’s true. Sometimes awful can be good. O.K. Maybe not good, but fun.

A few months ago my buddy Wes came over for a movie night and brought me a gem of a polished turd in the form of a DVD titled ‘Hard Rock Zombies‘.

This travesty was released in 1985 so one can pretty much guess (and correctly) that the hair, make-up and wardobe are going to be horrendous. The music, cinematography, writing, acting, direction and anything else isn’t much better.
The name ‘Hard Rock’ is rather misleading. This band’s music is as hard as Culture Club. Although the actors who play the band members do look like rejects from a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. That said they’re still quite pansy-fied. These are the type of guys my friends and I would have thumped outside the mall in 1985.

Here’s a clip you’ll never be able to extract from your brain:

That was gay and no I’m not a homophobe…

Other than the things mentioned above what are a few of the things that make this movie worth watching a worth avoiding all at the same time?

• Midgets. And yes, midget zombies. And, yes, midget nazi zombies.
• Hitler and the Californian Fourth Reich
• A nazi zombie eats himself.
• Zombies afraid of Elvis.

Sounds horrid right? Yep. But it’s a must see.

Here’s another clip:

Ooh! Aah! Fantastic.Check out a more complete review at badmovies.org.Thanks again Wes. You rock.

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While surfing the boards over at All Things Zombie I happened across a link this two year old little Finnish zombie flick aptly called Winter of the Dead:

An epic story about a battle between three survivors and the living dead altered by nuclear radiation. In the ravaged landscape of Eastern Finland, Toni, Marika and Risto are getting prepared for the last attack of the mutants. The fate of the survivors is uncertain.

Well that sounds like some ultra-chilly zombie goodness. Let’s have a look at the trailer:

Yikes! Although the zombies are fast it looks well done. I wonder if the soundtrack is any good. Here’s the opening theme, Kuolleiden Talvi (Winter of the Dead for those who don’t read Finnish):

If you like that the entire soundtrack, composed and produced by Matias Puumala, is available for free download. Get it now!

The soundtrack is not the only thing that’s free. You can download the entire movie right from the Winter of the Dead website free of charge… for nothing… gratis. I did. With FlashGet it only took 12 minutes.

The movie comes as a 342mb WMV file and doesn’t look too bad from a quality standpoint. I watched it at fullscreen on my monitor at a resolution of 1280×1024. I don’t think it would make the jump to my widescreen HD TV as there were compression related artifacts on the screen throughout. However it was more than watchable. There were a few glitches in the file toward the end but it really didn’t take away from the overall experience.

I’m lazy and don’t always enjoy reading movie subtitles. These were necessary as I don’t understand Finnish, even though Sami Salo is one of my favourite hockey players. At times the translation was obviously slightly off but that added to the entertainment.

Inexpensively made, but well shot, this movie entertained me. I was impressed. The story, acting and effects are all pretty decent as far a no-budget film goes. A great back story with a mix of humour and buckets of gore kept me watching. Sadly the film only last for a bit over 35 minutes and I wanted to see more. As like with most good shorts I’ve seen they leave you wondering why it couldn’t have been stretched out to feature length. This one definitely could. Perhaps the right folks will see Winter of the Dead and the filmmakers can have enough cash to see the story through some more.

I give Winter of the Dead a 7.5 out of 10.

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I love this song. Monster Hospital by Canadian band Metric is one darn catchy tune on its own. A terrified female lead singer, undead band mates and other horror elements in black and white with red all over video directed by Toronto’s Micah Meisner makes it just that much better. I bought this CD after the first time I heard the song while watching music videos one dark night and am glad I did. There’s plenty more in the way of decent tunes on the Live it Out CD. The zombies reeled me in but the music kept me.

9 out of 10 for both song and video.

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That’s it, the official Fido poster is here (found on CHUD). That March 16th 2007 release date for Canadian theatres is getting closer. Wee!

Here’s a favourable review of Fido’s Sundance showing:

“You crazy, wonderful zombie!”

Fido is ruthlessly zombietic and timelessly entertaining. Director Andrew Currie and a great cast, including Carrie-Ann Moss who takes a significantly distant step away from her Trinity persona, pull together a great horror-comedy in the way that Shaun of the Dead did in 2004. (The rest of the article by by Alex Billington can be found at FirstShowing.net)

Am I ever getting jazzed for this. It sounds like a cute (I can’t believe I’m using that word) little film about a boy and his zombie.

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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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Ah yes! A bunch of my favourite things all rolled up into one. The Ramones, a zombie theme and a Stephen King book and movie. I guess Johnny, Dee Dee and Joey were not buried in a Pet Sematary as we have yet to see them live their lives again. Too bad. I miss the Ramones.

The first time I Pet Sematary read book gave me such an acute case of the heebie jeebies that I had to sleep with the lights on. Even though Pet Sematary, the book, was far better than the Pet Sematary, the film, I enjoyed the movie regardless. Fred Gwynne a.k.a. Herman Munster as Jed Crandall was superbly creepy with his thick Maine accent. The youngster, Miko Hughes, who played Gage Creed had the best lines in the film:

• movie rating: 7.5/10
• book rating: 8.5/10
• song rating: 10/10 [Gabba Gabba Hey!]

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