You can’t have a good zombie movie without convincing looking zombies, and when you talk about zombie special effects, one man stands above the crowd: Tom Savini! He defined the zombie “look” with his work on Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985), and is also an accomplished actor in his own right (usually playing either a biker or a deputy sherrif). Savini has a passion for special effects makeup and has penned several books on the subject. He even teaches an associate degree program in special effects makeup.

Recently he’s been busy acting with appearances in Grindhouse: Planet Terror and the upcoming Lost Boys 2: The Tribe. He’s also a regular of the convention circuit and is easy to meet and talk to. Tom Savini, the ZRC salutes you for your outstanding work in zombie films!

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George Romero may have created the template for the modern zombie film, but horror/ sci-fi writer-director Dan O’Bannon helped shape the future of zombie cinema with the 1985 release of his zombie masterpiece, The Return of the Living Dead. His film gave the genre a much needed jolt and added fresh ideas to the rich history of cinematic zombie lore. His film was the first to feature the idea that zombies eat brains (to deal with “the pain of being dead”), their bites do not infect the living, the ability to speak (”Send…more…paramedics…”) and reason at times and introduced a number a new problems, including the fact that shooting them in the brain does nothing to them. ROTLD was O’Bannon’s love letter to the original Night of the Livng Dead (even going as far as referencing it in the film as an actual historical event) and the classic tales of EC Comics.  The ZRC thanks you for not only making one of the best zombie films of all time, but for also giving it one hell of a soundtrack.

 We leave you with a tribute to The Return of the Living Dead, by the thrash metal band Engorged:

Army chemical remains -
They’re opened again
Toxic gas escapes - 245 Trioxin!
The two are in pain -
The change begins
No one survives but the unlucky few
Smell the gas, breathe your last
Send the cops, gory props
Munch the brain, down the pain
Covert Ops, bodies dropBrains!Acid rain, atomic blast
Deadly earth, masses gassed
The dead have risen from their graves!
On the hunt for human brains!

Deadly - Hunger Satan spawns a deadly force, a mindless
zombie army
In your town, underground,
undead await the party
A military blunder causes
catastrophic change
The teeming masses can’t be killed with bullet
or a bladeAnd the dead re-animate!
Army of corpses
They rise from the graves with a hunger for
human brains!

Board up the windows,
barricade the doors
The zombies are comming,
they can’t be killed!

And the live will breathe their last -
And the dead will most!
Blood flows and toxic gas -
You will hunger for brains…

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He was one of the most recognizable zombies in film, killed nine people on screen, and even directed his own zombie movie Flesh Eaters. He’s Bill Hinzman, and this week ZRC salutes him!

Bill Hinzman met George Romero in 1961, and worked with him on several commercials and industrial training films until making Night of the Living Dead in 1968. His appearance as the “cemetary zombie” set the bar high for zombie actors for decades to come.

These days Hinzman is still involed in independent movies, both making movies and acting in them. He continues to reprise his role as a zombie in B movies such as The Drunken Dead Guy and Shadow: Dead Riot.

Whenever I walk through a cemetary I’ll always be expecting his iconic face to appear behind a gravestone. “They’re coming to get you, Barbara!”

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This week the ZRC salutes one of our favorite zombies, Vampira! Maila Nurmi (whose stage name is Vampira) was a television horror show host in the early 1950s for a Los Angeles ABC affiliate. Her zombie claim to fame came in 1959, when she starred in Ed Wood’s seminal Plan 9 from Outer Space as one of the walking dead.

Other amazing facts about Vampira:

• She dated James Dean
• Unsuccessfully sued Elvira over likeness rights
• Sang in a punk band called “Vampira and Satan’s Cheerleaders”
• Nominated for an emmy award for “Most Outstanding Female Personality”

Vampira now lives in North Hollywood and runs a small antique shop called Vampira’s Attic. She runs a website of the same name where you can purchase autographed photos. You can watch some clips of Vampira on several video clips she’s uploaded to YouTube.

With that, we leave you with a few lines from the Misfits‘ song “Vampira”:

“Black dress moves in a blue movie
Graverobbers from outer space
Well, your pulmonary trembles in your outstretched arm
Tremble so wickedTwo inch nails
Micro waist
With a pale white feline face
Inclination eyebrows to there

Mistress to the horror kid
Cemetary of the white love ghoul, well
Take off your shabby dress
Come and lay beside me”

Vampira, the ZRC salutes you!

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