The gay zombie flick Creatures from the Pink Lagoon is out today on DVD. Watch the hilarious trailer here. From their website:
No one is safe in this campy mix of classic B horror flicks and pre-Stonewall gay melodramas.
Undead or Alive: A Zombedy finally has a DVD release date set for December 11th, from Image Entertainment. This zombie western stars Chris (SNL) Kattan, James (Desperate Housewives) Denton and Navi (Feast) Rawat. It includes these special features:
-Commentary by director Glasgow Phillips and actors Chris Kattan, James Denton and Navi Rawat
-Two making-of featurettes
Also, the original movie poster was better than this uninspired DVD cover. We’ll see this December if this is a good indie zombie film, or just another direct-to-DVD stinker…
Last night was the 2007 Ann Arbor Zombie Walk (a seperate event than the last zombie walk we were at). It was a small event but lots of fun and drew a lot more spectators this time around. We’ve got the video below (with music by Count Smokula):
We have some pictures up here. I know we talked to a lot of people taking pictures who said they’d send us a link to their photos, so if you’re one of those people leave us a comment with the link!
Special thanks go to Bambi for organizing the event, and props go out to Suzanne and her son from Group of the Living Dead and Kelly from Zombie Walk Detroit who all came out to walk.This Saturday we will be at the Zombie Walk Detroit in Royal Oak, so make sure to come on out and say hi!
Karl Hardman, who played Harry Cooper in the original 1968 Night of the Living Dead, passed away this weekend. Hardman not only played the part of the hot-headed, but very protective father in NOTLD, he was also a producer, sounds effects guy and make-up artist as well. Here is his obituary:
Karl Hardman SchonOf Pittsburgh, on Saturday, September 22, 2007, age 80. Beloved father of Kyra M. Schon. Loving partner of Marilyn Eastman. Also survived by John Eastman and wife Yvonne and their children Johnny and Diana; also Michael Eastman and wife Loretta and their children Michael, Matthew and Mia. Funeral and Interment private. If desired the family suggests donations to Animal Rescue League of Western PA, 6620 Hamilton Ave., Pgh., PA 15206. Arrangements by McCABE BROS., INC.
Send condolences at post-gazette.com/gb
Our condolences go out to his family and friends.
Going to see it this weekend? Go to the midnight showing? Waiting for the DVD? What do you think? Tell us by leaving a comment in this post!
If Resident Evil was the appetizer, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is definitely the meat and potatoes of the series. In all seriousness (and enough with the food metaphors), Resident Evil: Apocalypse is so radically bigger in just about every area it makes Resident Evil seem like just an overly-long prologue.
How is it bigger? Well, there’s more zombies, more fights, bigger sets, and bigger explosions. As much as I enjoyed the first Resident Evil movie, at times it felt like a Sci-Fi channel made for TV movie. The small interior spaces and bad CGI effects made it painfully obvious it was shot on a budget. Lucky for us, it must have been a moderate success because the directors have invested those profits in making a spectactular sequel.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse starts off right where the first film left off. Alice wakes up in a hospital (28 Days Later style) to find an empty Racoon City ravaged by the deadly (or should I say un-deadly) T-Virus. The Umbrella Corporation in dealing with the outbreak evacuates its important scientists out of the city. In doing so, one of the scientists’ daughter gets left behind as the entire city is quarantined.
Several sub-plots all converge around this girl as Alice, police officer Jill Valentine, a reporter, Umbrella Corp security team members, and an exaggerated stereotype of a black guy all work to save this girl in order to ensure a safe passage out of the city by her father. They fight their way through hordes of zombies only to meet up with the Nemesis – a freakishly strong, genetically engineered zombie that was formerly Matt Addison (the only other surivor of the first movie). Alice, who is also endowed with super-human powers from the Umbrella corporation and the Nemesis square off in a flashy fight. Finally whoever is left escape via helicopter just a nuclear warhead hits the city.
There are lots of minor sub-plots going on through the movie that I didn’t include in my overall plot description, but they’re not worth going into detail much. The plot, for the most part, is rather silly, but that’s not the appeal of the Resident Evil movies – it’s the over-the-top action, which abounds in this movie. Motorcycles that go flying through the air and then are shot with a gun and explode, loads of zombie killing, helicopter crashes, that sort of thing.
Unfortunately our beef with the first film still holds true here. Resident Evil: Apocalypse just isn’t a scary movie. I also really missed the Marilyn Manson soundtrack of Resident Evil. For whatever reason, they decided to make it a more orchestral score that’s just plain boring. Finally the last 10 minutes (which I won’t spoil for you) was so cheesy it left a sour taste in my mouth despite liking the rest of the movie.
If you liked the first Resident Evil movie, chances are you’ll like the sequel even more. If classic zombies are more your thing, you might want to pass.
Now available is the Zombie Survival Guide: 2008 Day to Day Calendar by zombie scribe Max Brooks. It will run you $13.99. Here’s the description from Amazon:
Author Max Brooks warns us that anyone-a policeman, a nurse, a friend, or coworker-can turn into a zombie. That is why this daily calendar is so important. Each page contains information that is vital to survival against an attack by the living dead. You will learn the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home, and how to adapt in any territory or terrain. A Zombie Outbreak Journal is included for recording suspicious events. Please, keep alert; zombies may be stalking us right now without us even knowing it. Watch out.
which set the bar plenty low for future game to movie transitions. Street Fighter
continued the trend, and director Uwe Boll practically made bad video game based movies an artform with versions of House of the Dead
, Alone in the Dark
, and Bloodrayne
.
Somehow, Resident Evil was an exception to this rule. While not an earth-shattering film by any means, Resident Evil manages to be fun and entertaining, and never tries to be something more than just a fun action film (and don’t worry, plenty of zombies too).The Resident Evil games all received critical acclaim for their cinematic experience and revolutionary game-play. Perhaps that’s why Resident Evil to succeeded where so many others video-game/movie adaptations have failed. The rich source material of the Resident Evil games already provide a compelling environment and backstory to play with – something that the director skillfully takes full advantage of.No time is wasted in getting straight to the action in Resident Evil. It starts deep inside the Hive – a top secret research facility for the Umbrella Corporation where genetic and viral experiments are run. A sample of the infamous T-virus was stolen and in the process contaminated the entire facility. The advanced computer defense system in the Hive shuts down access to lab and as a result, dooms the workers stuck inside.
A crack team of security agents are sent inside to investigate, including the main character Alice (played by Milla Jovovich). Alice suffers from some memory loss as a side effect of the computer’s defense system. This gimmick actually works really well for the film – as Alice starts to remember more about her past, more plot is revealed to the audience. Although it can make the movie a little confusing at first, I think it adds to the sense of fear.
The security team’s first task is to disable the computer system that is trying to kill them. There is an unforgettable scene where the team must get past a room with powerful lasers and 3 members of the team get sliced to pieces. Once they get to the computer and disable it, they find that the previous tennants of the Hive are still there – only not alive any longer. There are several good scenes with the zombies, but ironically Resident Evil fails to be as scary as the video games it’s based off of. In the games, you may go a long period through eerily quiet, spooky rooms only to have a zombie jump out at you when you’re least expecting it. In the movie however, we often see the zombies coming before the characters do. There is only one or two “jump out of your seat” moments, but even these aren’t done as well in other films.
The action, however, is fantastic. The characters are constantly on the move from one disaster area to the next, fighting their way out of the Hive. There is running, punching, shooting, jumping, and even a flying karate kick to a zombie dog.
On the way out of the Hive one final obstacle stands in the way – a genetically engineered creature with large claws and a whiplash tongue. They manage to dispose of it by kicking out of a train door and dragging it along the tracks. Inexplicably, it catches fire, but their ordeal is finally over – or so it seems. As they exit the Hive they are put into quarantine by doctors from the Umbrella Corporation. When Alice wakes up in the hospital, she finds that the entire city has fallen victim to the T-virus. She picks up a shotgun and the movie ends.
Overall, I liked Resident Evil. It was a fun action flick, but rather weak on the horror side of things.
The most recent game in the Resident Evil main series is Resident Evil 4. Originally released for the Nintendo Gamecube, it was eventually ported to the Playstation 2 and Nintendo Wii. The latest installment has radically changed the way the series is played, and is hands down the best game in the Resident Evil series.
Technically the enemies in Resident Evil 4 aren’t zombies. They’re just slow moving cult members possessed by large parasitic insect creatures who would love take a chunk out of your flesh. If the zombies in 28 Days Later were just humans infected with the rage virus and technically weren’t undead, I’m comfortable calling these things zombies too.
Resident Evil 4 is one of the most amazing video games you will ever play. It’s really that good. The first 20 minutes of this game set the stage for an adrenline soaked rush to the finish that rarely lets up. You start in a rural, Eastern-Eurpoean town investigating the kidnapping of the president’s daughter. Out of nowhere, hundreds of zombies attack, and you seek refuge in one of the nearby houses. They beat down doors and crash through windows as you try and brace them with pieces of furniture. You hear the chainsaw before you see the hooded man wielding it and it’s a pants-wetting moment as your gunshots to him barely slow him down. And this is all in the first 20 minutes folks!
The rest of the game is equally awesome. You progress quickly from place to place with little or no backtracking. It’s a nice change from so many other games where you are forced to search around for items, get lost, go back, etc. The boss fights are epic in scale and tons of fun to play. There are a few puzzles here and there, but a far cry from the esoteric and confusing puzzles of the previous Resident Evil games.
The controls are so fluid it becomes second nature. The game allows you to target individual body parts which has many advantages – you can shoot a pitchfork out of an enemy’s hands, or take out his kneecaps so he can’t pursue you. Press the action button once to open a door, or quickly tap it twice to kick it in. It just all works so smoothly and cinematically.
Nuby Tech released a Chainsaw Controller for use with the game. It doesn’t add any new functionality, but it sure does look cool. Speaking of new functionality, Capcom also released a Nintendo Wii port of the game takes advantage of the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii remote.
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