There’s a lot of stuff coming out based on the Image series The Walking Dead. We showed you the variant cover for #50, so here’s the regular cover and also the cover to the Special Edition #1 (which reprints the series original first issue):

Issue #50 cover

 

Special Edition #1 cover

There’s also a new “cast” t-shirt:

A new statuette, named Andrew (which you can pre-order directly from CS Moore Studio), to go with the previous statuettes, Nate and Vince:

And the Rick statue, which was bumped until Feb/ March 2008 (from August 2007, which is also available for pre-order directly from CS Moore Studio):

And lastly, this awesome “half-zombie” statue (which is also available for pre-order directly from CS Moore Studio):

Start saving that loose change now! Every penny counts!

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Dimension Films/Weinstein Co. , Zombiefriends.com , Scars Magazine, Texas Frightmare Weekend want to take one lucky fan and a guest for a weekend getaway to Texas Frightmare Weekend February 22-24, 2008. The winner will receive 2 weekend passes for the convention, a “meet and greet” with George Romero, roundtrip airfare to Dallas, and a 3 night hotel stay. They draw winners on February 15th so enter now!

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I really wanted to simply put “Shit Sandwich” as my review for this movie, but I also thought of this: The updated version of Night of the Living Dead takes a low budget 1968 movie and brings it down to the low budget level of 1998. So, I suppose I must go on.
I never thought that acting in older films was very good. It was never very natural or realistic to me. I just sort of accepted it. They were acting and they looked like it. Well, over the years, the standards have risen. John Russo has stayed true to form by hiring hacks that couldn’t act their way out of a soiled paper bag to act in the added scenes to his 1968 film. These scenes do not add anything to the movie, in fact, they detract from it.

The film starts with two guys loading a simple pine casket into a truck while a prison guard looks on . They’re going on and on about the bad things the dead prisoner had done and how creepy they were. Then they name drop Beakman’s diner, the diner that Ben mentioned being at in the original 1968 film. They drive their truck to a cemetery where they pull up to a priest and a couple who are supposed to be the corpse’s victim’s parents. You see, they’re all there to watch the burial. There’s not even a hole yet, but they have shovels. Because that’s how funerals go: a priest and people that hate the deceased watch a couple of grave diggers work for hours before spitting on the grave and grabbing a bite at the local diner. Anyway, they open the casket, like you do, to reveal a guy heavily made up to look like Bill Hinzman, the original cemetery zombie. He twitches and comes to life and attacks the grave diggers who drive away. Then the movie continues from Barbara and Johnny parking in the cemetery. There are a few superfluous zombie scenes throughout the film, some sort of car crash victims rising form the dead, but mostly just more wandering zombies. Then, at the end when daylight comes, the priest is interviewed by a reporter while zombies are shot in the cemetery. The priest is attacked by the Bill Hinzman zombie, to which his only defensive moves are to spout priestly god shit about hellfire and damnation. He is subsequently bitten on the cheek just before the victim’s family comes to his aid with a shovel in one of the most poorly choreographed scenes ever. The priest can be quoted as whimpering “Ah. My face”. The movie continues on as normal with the hunters shooting zombies and Ben getting shot before, yet another new scene is added. This scene takes place a year later as the same reporter interviews the priest about his survival of the zombie bite. He goes on and on about god’s will and being the receiver of a miracle. The reporter leaves as he has a fit of religious babblings.

In addition (or subtraction, depending on how you look at it) to the added scenes, they also added a new crappy keyboard soundtrack. It’s PAINFULLY obvious that they did not have the original components of the film to work with. The new soundtrack is only there when there’s no dialog to get in the way. They just stripped all of the sound off of those parts, added the crappy keyboard soundtrack and added whatever footfalls, rustling, shambling, or other incidental sounds that would have to appear to make it look right…yet it doesn’t. There are a few parts where they get a little daring and actually put the music over where there is small amounts of dialog. At these points you can hear the little snippets of the original score as the dialog plays out. There are also a few parts where the new score cuts real short so someones dialog can be heard, along with the original score.
For some reason, they also expanded the news reports on the radio and television. At one point they actually redundantly report on Ben’s account of seeing the zombies attack the tanker truck near Beakman’s diner. In fact Beakman’s diner is mentioned so much throughout the film, it’s as if Beakman’s diner had paid for the advertising.

The new stuff on the video is definitely a detraction given that it’s poorly shot, poorly acted, poorly scripted, poorly composed, poorly applied and poorly executed in all manners. The only thing done well in this movie is getting across that the zombie in the casket is the same as the original cemetery zombie, Bill Hinzman. I don’t mean to imply that it was done well, it’s just obvious that that is what they were trying to get across. The new stuff is simply a distraction.

There is no reason you need to see this version.

None.

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Not if you don’t have pantry full of these puppies! That’s right, they’ve finally done it! A German company called Trekking Mahlzeiten has found a way to preserve the American way even through the zombie apocalypse by creating the cheeseburger in a can! To prepare, just boil the can in some water, pull it out, pull up on the easy pop-top lid ring and chow down, wide load! Because you know when the world goes to shit, you’re going to want a cheeseburger like a zombie wants brains. Now you CAN has cheezburger!

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Texas Frightmare Weekend is coming up on February 21-24 in Dallas, TX. If you live in or around this area, or are traveling to Texas for this show, you are in for an awesome fucking weekend…

Guests for the show include: George A. Romero (director, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead , Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, the upcoming Diary of the Dead), John Russo (Co-writer, NOTLD), Judith O’Dea (Barbara, NOTLD), Russ Streiner (Johnny, NOTLD), Bill Hinzman (Cemetray Zombie, NOTLD), Marilyn Eastman (Helen Cooper ,NOTLD), Kyra Schon (Karen Cooper, NOTLD), Goerge Kosana (Sheriff McClelland, NOTLD), Tom Savini (FX legend, director and actor, Dawn of the Dead - 1978 & 2004, NOTLD - 1989, Land of the Dead, Planet Terror), Greg Nicotero (FX, Land of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Planet Terror), Ken Foreee (Peter, Dawn of the Dead - 1978), David Emge (Flyboy, DOTD - 1978), Scott Reiniger (Roger, DOTD - 1978), Clayton Hill (Zombie, DOTD - 1978), Sharon Ceccatti (Zombie Nurse, DOTD - 1978), Howard Sherman (Bub, Day of the Dead - 1985), Joe Pilato (Capt. Rhodes, DayOTD - 1985), Jarlath Conroy, McDermott, DayOTD - 1985), Antone Dileo (Migul, DayOTD - 1985), Eugene Clark (Big Daddy, Land of the Dead), Jennifer Baxter (Number 9, LOTD), Robert Joy (Charlie, LOTD), Pedro Miguel Arce (Pillsbury, LOTD), Kelli Maroney (Samantha, Night of the Comet), Jason Lively (Christopher Romero, Night of the Creeps) and many, many more horror guests.
Go a day early! On Thursday, February 21 is a 40th anniversary screening of the original Night of the Living Dead, at the Landmark Inwood Theater in Dallas TX. It includes an appearance and Q&A with writer/ director George A. Romero and co-writer John Russo. Also present will be Marilyn Eastman, Bill Hinzman, George Kosana, Judith O’Dea, Kyra Schon, and Russ Streiner. The tickets for this show are free, but you need to e-mail your name to zombies@texasfrightmareweekend.com by February 15th. If you are in the area, you better do it quickly, I’m sure this will fill up very fast.

And lastly, here’s the new promo video for the ZombieFriend’s Zombie Walk, taking place February 22nd, in honor of George A. Romero.

If you are attending the show, have fun! And send us your photos!

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ShockTillYouDrop.com has it on good authority that Marvel is set to develop a direct-to-DVD Marvel Zombies animated movie. Given that Marvel has been pretty consistent with releasing live action screen movies along with animated direct to DVD videos, and they are coming out with an Iron Man movie and Hulk movie, it makes sense that they’d bust out something big in the animated DVD realm. There’s no info on any kind of release date, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground for ya.

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When the zombies come, this will be my weapon of choice! Meet the Stanley FUBAR. No picture that I have found does this ominous tool any justice. It’s almost two feet long, has a flat hammer surface on the top, a gripping/ripping surface on the other side, a nail puller on the bottom and a crow bar end. You could brain a zombie, pry open locked doors, board up doors/windows and bash your way out of any room that’s made of drywall or wood that you have cornered yourself in by letting the zombies gather in front of the solitary entrance.

You really need to see one of these with your own eyes. Upon first sight of this tool, my first impression, along with a co-worker (independently, of course) was to use it against zombies. Another co-worker had picked it up on a lark and decided to show it off to all the dudes. It cost him $40. This will be my very next medium-sized purchase.

If you have a bit of free time and good sense of humor, check out the website devoted to this singular tool. It has a tour of the tool, a demonstration video and an overall ambiance that plays to every man’s bone-headed sense of a need for destruction.

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Revenant Magazine has an interview up with Jim Ojala and Scotty Fields, the creators behind the fan film “trailer” for Marvel Zombies: The Movie, including some great “behind the scenes” photos. If you missed out on seeing this when we first posted it, unfortunately the YouTube link is dead, with this message posted instead:

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Marvel Entertainment, Inc.

You would think that Marvel would embrace this for what it is…a fan film. DC did it with Batman: Dead End, why can’t Marvel?

EDIT: Thanks to Revenant for letting us know that the video is available again via MySpaceTV:

MARVEL ZOMBIES THE MOVIE

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Remember sock monkeys? Now they’re back, only deader! This enterprising crafter (known only as “underoos”) has created these undead creatures out of socks. Each one is an original work of art. Check ‘em out!

Thanks to BoingBoing for the link!

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American Zombie

 

 

 

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