The Undead News Thread (20090620.02)

Colin

Welsh director Marc Price claims Colin, his zombie movie that premiered at Cannes Festival in May, had a production budget of $72. "The makers of Colin shot their film on a camcorder and persuaded actors and make-up artists to donate their service for free. The most extravagant expense was a crowbar, some mini DV tapes and some tea and coffee. 'The main actor, Alastair Kirton, is a friend of mine. We’d made a short together before and then we worked on Colin. I then got friends to come along and play both zombies and humans. A lot of them doubled up and end up getting killed as both zombies and humans. We ended up with over 100 people in the film. We were fans of zombie films, but they all seem to focus on a siege scenario, where people are trapped in a shack or a shopping mall, or a strip mall,’ Mr Price said. ‘It’s a case of them fighting off the zombies until all the humans either die or get away. We knew we couldn’t compete with that type of film, not having any money, so we decided to make a zombie film from the point of the view of the zombie.’"

"‘For the make-up, I sent out a message on a few websites putting out a call,’ Mr Price explained. ‘I said we wouldn’t be able to provide any material, that they would need to being their own equipment. But I said they could create whatever type of zombie they liked and we would give them footage for their portfolio. And we decided that in an end of the world situation, people wouldn’t have much time to find amazing weapons anyway, so we just used things like shopping trollies and other bits and pieces. Two Japanese film companies have made a bid to distribute the movie and the 30-year-old director is hoping that more offers will start coming in. We seem to have sorted something out for Japan, which means we’ll get to do a Japanese dubbed version. I’d love to have a UK or US distribution deal. I just want people to see it.’" The trailer actually wasn't too bad at all. You can tell it's very low budget, but it's amazing what they seem to have pulled off with next to nothing.

Source: CNN

The Undead News Thread (20090620.01)

Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation

Not exactly 'zombie news,' but I think I find Care Bears resurrecting the dead a bit too hilarious not to mention. Back in 1986, Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation came out. This was the ‘80s, which were supposed to be a harmless time for toys and the cartoons that sold them. "The Care Bears were purportedly intended to promote Christian values, but they generally pushed the same lessons as filthy amoral heathen cartoon characters: believe in yourself, eat your vegetables, don’t litter, don’t cut in line, don’t be an asshole, and don’t sell your soul to demons. Yet there’s one moment where the sky-dwelling bears go into full-blown Jesus mode and raise the dead.

"The second Care Bears movie pits the legions of bears and other toy-friendly animals against a malevolent shape-shifting creature named Dark Heart, who demands a picked-on girl’s soul in exchange for making her the best athlete in her summer camp. The girl, later realizing she’d been a moron, joins the Care Bears in confronting Dark Heart at the film’s end, and, in a strangely morbid turn for a cartoon inspired by American Greetings, catches a villain-propelled lightning bolt and, at about the two-minute mark in this clip, dies.

"As the human-shaped Dark Heart cradles her lifeless form, the Care Bears devise a solution straight out of old Peter Pan plays: yelling that they care and asking all of the movie’s audience to join in. Of course, it works, thus teaching children that one can resurrect the deceased by sheer force of will. One can only imagine all the soon-to-be-disappointed kids left screaming at dead family pets or grandmothers’ caskets."

Source: Topless Robot

Film Review: Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! - Strippers vs Zombies (2008)

Directed by Jason Murphy, written by Anthony Steven Giordano, and starring Anthony Headen, Jessica Barton, Hollie Winnard, Sean Harriman, and Tiffany Shepis.

"Searching for the cure for cancer, a scientist creates a chemical that promotes cell growth. Whilst being visited by a drug addict, the drugs and the cure are mixed up and the cure misused by him and several prostitutes. These become zombified and begin biting people nearby. A small group of exotic dancers team up with the prostitutes former pimp to defend their strip club, the Grindhouse, against a horde of blood-thirsty zombies."

Not to be confused with Zombie Strippers!, though it's really not much different. Same old shit: a failed experiment goes wrong and ends up creating a bunch of zombies. Oh, and trust me, it's as amazing as its two titles. Some strippers, their friends, and others barricade themselves inside a strip club with the undead beating down the doors. There are no stars in this one. And no plot. The action is terrible. The dialog is the verbal equivalent of not wiping after you shit: it's rank, you know you forgot something important, and now everyone else knows it, too. Even the nudity is par. Go figure.

One of the guys even "parodies" the infamous line from another shitty movie, Snakes on a Plane: "I'm sick of these motherfucking zombies in this motherfucking strip club." At one point, when a guy is bitten and realizes he'll soon turn into the walking dead, a stripper decides to give him a lap dance to make him feel better. Classy. I like shitty movies, but I don't like movies that are so terrible that I can't even laugh. Through most of the movie, it falls into that select category. I just felt ashamed for watching it, and especially for finishing it. But I got rid of it months ago and purged myself with a healthy dose of Day of the Dead instead. It wasn't quite as good as a lap dance, but I did feel better.

Best quote: "Don't say another word, you fucker, or I swear to God I'll blow your pimp ass in half!"

The Undead News Thread (20090619.02)

Resident Evil: Afterlife

Yesterday, according to writer Paul Anderson (who also directed the first in the series): "Once again we're doing it completely with the blessing of the videogame company. We got a lot of flack [on the sequels] for, 'Why isn't the movie set in the mansion just exactly like the very first videogame?' That's just not progression for me. As the Resident Evil videogames themselves have developed in leaps and bounds -- it's like when we did the last movie people were like, 'Resident Evil doesn't take place in the desert. What the (expletive) is this?' Well, where does Resident Evil take place? Does it take place in Raccoon City exclusively? Well, I don't think so because the game has been in Antarctica, in Raccoon City, now it's in Africa."

I used to have more faith in Anderson, who was the man behind Event Horizon and Soldier. Then again, he was also the man behind Mortal Kombat and Alien vs. Predator. I think he's a bit confused as to what the fans are bitching about. I don't think it's where the movies are taking place. It's all the shit he's changing and massively fucking up. Remember how this guy turned out:

Now Movies Online is reporting: "Yesterday we gave you an exclusive update that the upcoming Resident Evil 4 is done and today we have an update to that. Hot off of our own exclusive AITH got word that the script is done and that yes it will be shooting in Toronto which will double as ALASKA and that it will also shoot in Tokyo. The script is complete and they are now in the process of reworking it and scouting locations. Patrick Tatopoulos is doing the special FX and apparently the vibe will be similar to Resident Evil 2."

It's official. Paul Anderson is definitely not in tune with the Resident Evil fans. Apocalypse was the worst of the three. Though no one can dispute that the first movie was at least decent. Case in point:

Film Review: Versus (2000)

Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, written by Ryhukei Kitamura and Yudai Yamaguchi, and starring Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, and Kenji Matsuda.

"Several Japanese mobsters are dispatched to pick up an escaped convict in a place known as the 'Forest of Resurrection,' where the dead have recently become reanimated as zombies. The convict they are sent to retrieve turns out to have a strange destiny involving repeated reincarnations of himself and several other people throughout history."

The story isn't important. Trust me. None of the characters even have real names (Prisoner KSC2-303, The Man, The Girl, etc.). As simple as it is, it's still confusing. But the basics are: an eternal prisoner escapes into a forest, that somehow resurrects the dead yakuza buried there, and his eternal evil twin has an eternal woman hostage, whom the prisoner loved in a former life, and they must battle. Yeah. But that was all just an excuse so that the filmmakers could make one of the most badass martial arts movies with no budget, and that's what it is.

Most of these actors aren't even actors. They're martial artists. You'll see shit that you couldn't do if you trained everyday for the next twenty years. And that's all this is meant to be: eye candy. It's a fun ride, and easily the best low/no budget movie I've ever seen. One downside is that the zombies still use guns and knives, though they never technically call them zombies or explain why they are back from the dead (ie. evil spirits). Just don't watch the dubbed version (which I never do). It's fucking terrible. Unless you need a good laugh. This is the first from the same director as Azumi and the more recent The Midnight Meat Train, so there's all kinds of epic win to be found.

Best quote: "You can't hit me! I have five hundred times faster reflexes than Mike Tyson!"

The Undead News Thread (20090619.01)

Corpus Delecti (The Passion of the Zombie Christ)

"Ira Hunter of The 13 Flames Empire and Nick Parsons of Monster Media sent along the eye-catching trailer for their in-the-works feature project CORPUS DELECTI (THE PASSION OF THE ZOMBIE CHRIST), which promises to put a spin on the story of Jesus that Mel Gibson never dreamed of. Parsons, who’s serving as a producer on the movie, provides some background: 'Ira is the creator of the cult underground comic books CHAMPIONS OF HELL and ZOMBIE JESUS,; he tells Fango. 'About 12 years ago, he entered a local filmmaking contest in Victoria, Canada called Scrapshots. The criteria were that the movies had to be done entirely in one shot, with no post-production whatsoever. Ira entered one called CORPUS DELECTI (THE PASSION OF ZOMBIE JESUS), and surprised everyone by taking first place!'"

"'Twelve years went by,' Parsons continues, 'and Ira decided to ‘remake’ the CORPUS DELECTI short into a feature utilizing Victoria’s first greenscreen production facility, Island Industrial FX. After five months of planning and replanning, and realizing just how difficult and expensive it is to organize 30 volunteers, the decision was made to shoot a trailer over one weekend in the hopes of landing production money for the full film. Ira changed the title of this version to CORPUS DELECTI (THE PASSION OF THE ZOMBIE CHRIST), and is hopeful that a big-name star like Bruce Campbell or George A. Romero—who expressed interest in ZOMBIE JESUS to Ira nearly 10 years ago at Comic-Con!—will come on board in some capacity.'"

My friends and I have been talking about this idea for years now. I always talked about how the Last Supper, where Christ told his friends: "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me," and "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." It always seemed a bit cannibalistic to me. Maybe even zombie-like. I also remember one of my friends (Tyler) asking if Easter was the day that Jesus "rose from the dead and walked the Earth again, right?" It's too bad we never made this movie ourselves years ago. Oh well. If this guy can pull it off right, I'm down for it. I'm sure I'm well on my way to Hell now (like I wasn't before). Here's the original short that won him first place at the Scrapshots Film Competition.

Source: Fangoria

The Undead News Thread (20090618.03)

Zombieland

Just a few days ago I posted the first pics from the new Zombieland movie with Woody Harrelson. Well, today they released the first trailer for the movie. I can't wait to see Bill Murray as a zombie. This is definitely on my must-see list for 2009. God, this looks awesome. Check it out.

Source: JoBlo

The Undead News Thread (20090618.02)

Dead Snow

"Dead Snow is a Norwegian horror film, starring, among others, Charlotte Frogner, Stig Frode Henriksen, Bjørn Sundquist, Ane Dahl Torp and Jenny Skavlan. It is directed by Tommy Wirkola. The film was released on 9 January 2009 in Norway. The US premiere was held at the Sundance Film Festival, after which IFC Films purchased the US distribution rights. The film will have a limited release in the US on June 19 2009.

"The plot of the film is set around a group of Norwegian medical students who go away for an Easter vacation in a cabin up in the mountains. Unfortunately, the area they are staying in was used by the Nazis in the German occupation of Norway during World War II. The Germans raped and pillaged the locals and stole all their gold, until the locals chased the Germans up the mountains, where they supposedly froze to death. The medical students find a box of gold in the cabin they are staying in, which had belonged to the Germans. As a result, zombie Germans come back to reclaim their gold, with deadly results."

I somehow missed this one, and it slipped under the radar. Apparently the film is being released tomorrow. Nazis, and zombies, and I knew nothing about it. I should be ashamed of myself. Here's the trailer though. I guess it's a big hit at Sundance.

It looks fucking badass. Anyone else catch the sickle and hammer?

Source: Fangoria

The Undead News Thread (20090618.01)

Paris By Night of the Living Dead

"A young married couple has to survive in a post apocalyptic Paris filled with zombies. Will love triumph over death?" Paris By Night of the Living Dead is a 12-minute short film that featues, yes, you guessed it, the living dead. It's still playing at festivals, so it'll be a while before it's posted online. But here are some screen caps from Fangoria until then.

Source: Fangoria

Online Game: The Damned

"You're on a lake, your boat motor stalls, and WTF?!? ZOMBIES! The zombies are wading through the water to get you. Luck has it that you brought your pistol and machine gun. Hold off the zombies till your friend can get the motor running again." That about covers it. Not much to it really, but fuck it. If you have nothing better to do, click the pic at the top and play for a few at OZG.

The Undead News Thread (20090616.01)

Night of the Creeps

"In 1959, an alien experiment crashes to earth and infects a fraternity member. They freeze the body, but in the modern day, two geeks pledging a fraternity accidentally thaw the corpse, which proceeds to infect the campus with parasites that transform their hosts into killer zombies." Thanks to the always awesome FEARnet I have actually gotten to see this twice. That's a bit tricky, you see, because the movie has been out of print since its release on VHS. But that's all about to change, on October 9th. The film finally has a DVD release date. Not only that, but the special features are immensely extensive. Take a look.

*Audio Commentary with Members of the Cast
*Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Fred Dekker
*Deleted Scenes
*Alternate Ending – Theatrical Version
*Original Theatrical Trailer
*Trivia Track
*6 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes:
*Birth of the Creeps - Writer/Director Fred Dekker discusses his influences and early filmmaking experiences and how NIGHT OF THE CREEPS evolved into his debut feature film.
*Cast of the Creeps - Actors Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall, and Actress Jill Whitlow talk about their experiences on the film, and how they have dealt with the film's enduring cult success over the past 25 years.
*Creating the Creeps - Make-Up FX Creators David B. Miller, Robert Kurtzman and others discuss the extensive make-up creations in the film, and how they brought the slithering sluglike "creeps" to life.
*Escape of the Creeps - A detailed look into the film's post-production and why the film was barely released to theatres with Writer/Director Fred Dekker, Composer Barry DeVorzon, and Producer Charles Gordon.
*Legend of the Creeps - Final words from the cast & crew on the film's enduring cult popularity plus interviews with the film’s biggest fans.
*Tom Atkins: Man of Action – A detailed look at the career of Tom Atkins with testimonials from filmmakers he’s worked with over the past thirty years.
*Footage from the June 2009 cast reunion screening at The Original Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

"Night of the Creeps is a 1986 horror film written and directed by Fred Dekker. Night of the Creeps stars Tom Atkins, Jason Lively and Jill Whitlow. The film is notable as an earnest attempt at a B movie and a spoof of the genre. While the main plot of the film is related to zombies, the film also mixes in takes on slashers and alien invasion films." The film is just classic 80's horror. And it stars the infinitely gorgeous 'dream girl' Jill Whitlow, who kicks more ass in the movie than any of the guys. If you don't like this cult film, you don't have a soul.

Source: Arrow in the Head

Film Review: Dead & Breakfast (2004)

Directed by Matthew Leutwyler, written by Matthew Leutwyler and Jun Tan, and starring Ever Carradine, Brent David Fraser, Portia de Rossi, David Carradine, Bianca Lawson, Erik Palladino, Gina Philips, and Jeremy Sisto.

"While heading to Galveston in an RV for the wedding of a friend, the driver Johnny gets lost and arrive in the small town of Lovelock and his friends Kate, Sara, Melody, Christian and David decide to spend the night in the Bed and Breakfast owned by Mr. Robert Wise. David has an argument with the chef of the inn, Henri, and when the chef is found dead and Mr. Wise has a heart attack in the middle of the night, the local Sheriff suspects of the group and asks his assistant Enus to take the key of their trailer and stay in Lovelock during the investigation. Then the Sheriff arrests a drifter that becomes his prime suspect. When the clumsy Johnny accidentally breaks a box of Mr. Wise's, he releases the fiend Kuman Thong and the evil spirit possesses the locals, transforming them into zombies."

Dead & Breakfast can't really decide if it wants to be a zombie flick or a slasher flick or a comedy. Sometimes it's not any of those three, and it's just boring and stale. The highlights of the film are definitely the interspersed scenes of the band Zacharia and the Lobos Riders, a creation of lead singer Zach Selwyn, occasional anchor on G4's Attack of the Show. The music folk/rock with some witty lyrics, and they easily steal the show. Actually, his band is playing in a barn/bar, and they even eventually become zombies themselves.

The movie itself has its humor, and the gore and action is actually quite well done, even featuring my favorite horror cliché (started by Carrie and also found in The Descent) of a sweet, normal blond chick going crazy near the end and being covered in a massive amount of blood, all while kicking ass. Other than , Gina Phillips, of Jeepers Creepers fame, the acting is par, nothing spectacular, nothing too terrible. Overall, a decent horror movie, but a better comedy. You can find the official page for the Lobos Riders here, and below is one of their little numbers in the movie.

Best quote: "Had I known it was going to feel this good to bash your brains in, I would have done it a long time ago."

Online Game: Zombie Hooker Nightmare

"Business for hookers is slow in the graveyard until zombies heat things up." Take a break from turning tricks for coke, and kill a few minutes (and some zombies, of course) over at Adult Swim. Just click the pic above to play.

The Undead News Thread (20090615.01)

World War Z

Some unfortunate news just surfaced today regarding the adaptation of Max Brooks' (Mel Brooks' son) World War Z, which is "the story of the world's desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts 'as told to the author' by various characters around the world."

"In an interview with Migros Magazin (via Dark Horizons), Forster says that the script still needs developing, and the project is 'far from realization.' So much so that he's moved on to another film, this one called Disconnect."

So, it's not looking too good on seeing this on the big screen. Time will tell. Up top is the first piece of concept art that was made for the film.

Source: Arrow in the Head

The Undead News Thread (20090614.03)

World War Z

"Ten years after the human victory over the world wide Zombie epidemic, referred to as World War Z, an anonymous editor scours the world collecting the stories and experiences of those who have survived the conflict that almost eradicated humanity."

"The screenplay was written by Babylon 5 and Rising Stars creator J. Michael Straczynski, who identified the challenge in adapting the work as 'creating a main character out of a book that reads as a UN Report on the zombie wars.' Marc Forster signed on to direct on November 13, 2008, and described the film as reminiscent of 1970s conspiracy thrillers like All the President's Men."

I still haven't gotten around to reading the book it's based on, which I heard is nothing short of the greatest zombie book ever written, but I do own his 'The Zombie Survival Guide,' so this should be amazing once it's finished.

The Undead News Thread (20090614.02)

Deadworld

"Deadworld is a comic series that depicts an apocalypse in which humans are overrun by flesh-eating corpses. It picks up four months after that event, where the Dead overtake the Earth, with humans few and far between. Protag is King Zombie, a Harley-riding corpse who holds a grudge against the survivors who made him an outcast."

It's being written and orchestrated by none other than David Hayter, the screenwriter for X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and Watchmen, and the voice of Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid video games. So, yeah, it should turn out pretty fucking good.

Source: Arrow in the Head

Weekly Video: Bush vs. Zombies

Film Review: Automaton Transfusion (2006)

Written and directed by Steven C. Miller, and starring Garrett Jones, Juliet Reeves, and William Howard Bowman.

"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."

The original trailer for Automaton called itself: "The film that defines our culture." It was filmed in nine days and on around $30,000. And it shows. It's pretty terrible really. There are so many inconsistencies, such as zombies with super strength, and then some that can't knock down a door. As bad as the movie is, it was made by people who were probably film students and never took it too seriously. Which means goods things came about, because its thick layers of stupid shit are where the film succeeds.

I enjoyed the fact that they put almost every zombie movie cliché all into one movie: a group of four people - three guys and one girl, baseball bats, chainsaws, shotguns, parents turning and then attacking their kids, military experiments, holding up in a bar, holding up in a barn, holding up in a house in the woods, girls falling, jocks, nerds, cheerleaders, and a token black guy. The greatest scene? About thirty minutes in, a zombie punches through a pregnant girls stomach, pulls out the fetus, then eats it. If you're looking for a shitty B-horror movie to enjoy, this is the one for you. Just imagine that you and your friends made this in your hometown and you'll have more fun. Supposedly there is a sequel planned. The largest fault in the movie? It ends abruptly with a black screen and white text which reads...

Best quote: "To be continued..."

The Undead News Thread (20090614.01)

The Book of Zombie

"A small, sleepy Utah town gets an undead wake-up call when all of the townspeople of Mormon faith suddenly transform into flesh-eating ghouls! Now, a group of 'non-believers' unaffected by the mysterious epidemic must band together to survive the night and answer the burning question: How do you kill a Mormon zombie?"

I had never heard of this one until now, and I have to say, this looks terrible, maybe even worse than Automaton Transfusion, which was very bad. So that's why I have to see this. I'm hoping for abysmal dialog, excessive gore and T&A, and clichés galore. This should be fun.

Source: Arrow in the Head

The Undead News Thread (20090613.02)

[REC] 2

Just recently released, we have the new trailer to the sequel to one of the greatest zombie movies ever made. Whether it's a British zombie movie (28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, Shaun of the Dead) or a Spanish zombie movie ([REC]), Americans (especially Romero) will never measure up. That’s right, I said it.

"Written and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, both of whom returned from the previous film, the story takes place hours after the events of the first film with Filmax International describing it as having 'the same claustrophobic concept' as [REC] but with 'new means of transferring fear from the screen to the spectator through the recording lens.'"