Grim Santo and _kelly.King have been long-time readers of the ZRC and they both sent us this little gem – The Outbreak. It’s a choose-your-own adventure style MOVIE that runs in a web browser! I mean how freaking cool is that? Check out the trailer below:
Yesterday software giant Electronic Arts unveiled their Ultra Limited Edition of the upcoming zombies-in-space video game Dead Space. This special edition (which is only available from their website and is limited to 1000 copies) and comes with:
The Ultra Limited Edition will set you back $150.
With just one zombie soundtrack album, Italian prog-rock band Goblin managed to secure their eternal place in zombie culture. From their first note in Dawn of the Dead’s opening theme L’ Alba Dei Morti Viventi, I knew I was ready to crap my pants for the next couple of hours. That song gave me such an uncomfortable feeling, I knew something horrible was about to happen. It’s part of the reason the original ’78 Dawn of the Dead has always been my favorite zombie film and Goblin one of my favorite bands.
Goblin, who have done numerous horror soundtracks, before and after Dawn, were a truly amazing band. Unfortunately, they called it quits in the early 80′s. They would occasionally get back together for a musical project here and there, and even a few reunions over the next couple of decades. One of the bands “founding fathers” (as the original members are known) Claudio Simonetti has another band Daemonia, formed in the 2000′s, which are very similiar in concept to Goblin, and have even covered Goblin material. And that’s why the ZRC salutes Goblin.
You can listen to a sample of the track L’ Alba Dei Morti Viventi here.
Just a quick note…Charlie Adlard, artist on Image’s The Walking Dead, has a new website! Or, we should say, his first website. Go check it out and see some great black and white versions of his Walking Dead covers.
The Revolting Dead starts as a recent couple discuss their predicament of having become pregnant. This discussion ends in Duke storming off amidst Jenny’s decree that she will leave town if he leaves her. Duke somehow avoids the Crains‘, the local morticians, nocturnal mission to recycle caskets from the cemetery. Jenny is not as lucky and ends up hit over the head with a shovel and buried along with the former resident of the casket, one Jonathan Drue. When Duke cools off and comes back, he misconstrues that Jenny has made good on her word to leave town. 6 Months later, Marissa Drue is in town to pay her respects and finds her brother’s grave unkempt. Outraged, she confronts the Crains only to find that one of them is sporting an amulet that her brother was buried in. She vows to help the dead have their revenge on the Crains with the use of her Druidic magic and save a little time to make whoopie with her new found friend, Duke. The Crains, in dire need of business, show their true colors by drumming up mortuary clients the hard way – good old fashioned murder framed as a suicide. But with the dead having their chance at the Crains’ fresh flesh, their new business model will be broken in due time.
The first impression that you get from the lack luster, basic movie computer program-style title sequence is an apt indication of the level of quality to follow. The simple 1, maybe 2, camera angle coverage of every scene is painfully boring. A great deal of the scenes look as though someone is filming their high school drama class practicing for the school play. The sound of the movie is the reverberating sound of a cheap microphone in an empty room with hardwood floors. The background noise often drowns out the poorly projected, poorly delivered and poorly written dialog.
The story in The Revolting Dead is not a compelling one. Once you find out who the players are, there really is no character development. Duke continues to be a dopey good guy, the Crains continue to be evil for no reason and “so fucked up and disgusting” which really is overdone and played out (I’m guessing these movie makers saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre).
The zombie make-up is adequate, although not very realistic, given that six-month-dead zombie Jenny looked as fresh and lovely as day-old-dead Pappy. Mostly a mix of grease make-up and ill-applied liquid latex. The special effects budget did allow for some cheesy magic lightning from our heroine Marissa the Druid.
Seemingly The Revolting Dead was put together on the cheap as filler for a flashy video box to sell, en masse, to national video rental chains in hopes that saps like me would pay a few bucks to make it worth their while to pick-up more video fluff from their distributors. If one of my friends had told me that they made this, I would have said “Good job”, but I would not have fostered ideas of mass distribution. This might be so bad that it’s good for the occasional masochist, but most folk should just avoid it outright.
Santa Claus vs The Zombies is a short, independent comic produced right here in the ZRC’s home state of Michigan. It’s told in a rhyming style reminiscent of the classic Christmas poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” but avoids directly aping it. With a name like Santa Claus vs The Zombies you kinda know what you’re getting in to and I’m glad to report this comic doesn’t disappoint.
One would think that a 16 page comic about Santa Claus fighting zombies wouldn’t leave a whole lot of room for exposition, but author Jet Rosas does a wonderful job of keeping the story flowing and the pages turning. Erin, who is not a comic book fan, even found it surprisingly good and raved about it. The art is dynamic, colorful, and conveys a sense of motion and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality. It’s also in full color which is a nice touch and shows off artist Angela Crouch’s work.
This review was difficult to write without giving away the story, but just take our word that it’s an awesome book that made us smile a whole lot. It will be available soon from Strange Holiday Comics and Comixpress. And it’s only $4.00! Order one for yourself and one to give away to a friend – I’m sure this will make a great stocking stuffer.
I have to give props to our friend Corey over at The Midnight Podcast who tipped us off to this new zombie novel that is being distributed digitally in podcast form. With high production values and real voice acting it shares more in common with the best audio books than an independent production. It’s serialized and new episodes are released every week. The author, James Melzer, offers it all up for free so if you enjoy it please donate a few bucks to him.
Evidently, there’s more than meets the eye within the new Saints Row 2 video game for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3, due out on October 14th in America and October 17th in Europe. There’s a way to play a zombie version of the game (of sorts) by having your character play a video game within the game. Here’s an excerpt from this article from GameSpot.com:
“…even the cheapest of entertainment centers gives you the ability to play one of Saints Row 2′s hidden gems: a video game within the game called Zombie Uprising. Rather than a retro arcade game, this is actually a fully 3D zombie game that applies the look and feel of the regular game to a darker, more zombie-filled setting. In it you need to survive wave after wave of undead with a limited number of weapons and fellow survivors. It may be a poor man’s Left 4 Dead, but it’s still a very cool throw-in that’s indicative of just how much there is to do in Saints Row 2 if you go around looking.”
I don’t know if this would sway your decision to buy it or not, but it’s definitely a cherry on top for any zombie fan.
In Shadows of the Dead, a traveling couple take a short-cut that leads to them beings stranded in the wilderness. They happen upon what they think is a dead body that ends up attacking the boyfriend and infecting him with a virus that slowly turns him in to the walking dead. The girlfriend decides to take care of her man and sooner than later he bites her and infects her with the undead disease as well. The couple fight with each other and fight their urges to kill people in order to sustain themselves. The outcome is tragic.
The dramatic nature of Shadows of the Dead really called for a dynamic cast of skilled actors, but sadly this was obviously not in their budget. At times their bickering was reminiscent of relationships past, but most of the time it just made for a boring watch. The fact that 90% of the movie took place in a single bedroom was less than exciting as well. This single fact makes for a pretty short review as well.
The make-up was rather lacking in Shadows of the Dead. The boyfriend gets infected and soon dons mummy-style wrappings on his head because he has become so hideous. They never show how hideous, which just seems lazy. The girlfriend gets infected and just looks rather pale for the rest of the movie. I guess they figured that watching two people in masks bicker in a bedroom for 92 minutes would be far too boring.
On the bright side, Shadows of the Dead seemingly sought to use the zombie genre as allegory, possibly for STDs transferred between partners. Allegory has always been my favorite part of zombie cinema and is seldom used, although Shadows of the Dead’s use of allegory was rather far fetched and lacking, in my opinion. You could do worse on a Tuesday night than to watch this movie, but you could do better.
Here’s a new film you can slap on your DVD shelf (calm down, it’s not out yet), right next to your copy of Re-Penetrator and Otto; Or Up With Dead People (yes, we know it’s gay…), it’s Dawna of the Dead. I can’t find much info on this film, since it’s website doesnt’t work, but you can check out their MySpace and ZombieFriends pages in the meantime (neither give much info though). No news I can find on a DVD release date either, but it did just have a one night only showing in August. So I’m guessing a DVD release would come sometime soon. For all you film fanatics that like a little smut with your zombies! Here’s a mildly annoying video from that August showing of Dawna of the Dead, from Scars magazine:
Comments(1)
