Out Tuesday on DVD and Blu-Ray, Zombieland!

The two disc Blu-ray collection includes:

Commentary with Actors Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg, Director Ruben Fleischer, Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Go Behind-the-Scenes with “In Search of Zombieland”
“Zombieland is Your Land” – The zombification of the United States
Deleted Scenes
Visual Effects Progression Scenes
movieIQ
Exclusive to the Blu-ray: “Beyond the Graveyard” Behind the Scenes Picture-in-Picture Track
Theatrical Promo Trailers
PS3 Wallpaper

The two disc DVD collection includes:

Commentary with Actors Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg, Director Ruben Fleischer, Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Go Behind-the-Scenes with “In Search of Zombieland”
“Zombieland is Your Land” – The zombification of the United States
Deleted Scenes
Visual Effects Progression Scenes
Theatrical Promo Trailers
Woke Up Dead Episode “Up and At ‘Em”

For being a mainstream Hollywood zombie film, I enjoyed most of it. I did find the ending to be horribly rushed and to obvious (with one small saving grace), but found a lot of the film to be refreshing change of pace to an often tired genre (I’m talking about Hollywood horror standards here).

This film came out during our down time here at the ZRC, so we never had a good discussion about it. So what did you, the ZRC reader, think of this film?

*** WARNING: SPOILERS MAY END UP IN THE COMMENTS, SO DON’T READ THEM IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS FILM AND ARE PLANNNING ON WATCHING IT WITHOUT IT POSSIBLY BEING RUINED FOR YOU! YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN FAIR WARNING!

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More Dead Rising news out of Capcom this week – this time a trailer from an upcoming Japanese small screen adaptation of the Dead Rising video game. Although the quality looks poor, it appears to be an actual Capcom-approved movie and not a fan film. The best part, however, must be seen to be believed. You’ll have to watch the trailer below to find out for yourself, but I’ll give you this teaser – it involves chainsaws and wheelchairs.

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Although we have no idea when it’s going to be available in the U.S., the British zombie “reality show” Dead Set has had its broadcast rights sold to four territories around the world. According to Variety, it will be aired on Canal Plus and a major free-to-air channel in Spain, SBS in Australia, BBC Entertainment in Africa, and TV400 in Sweden.

It’s great that so many more people will be able to watch this superb zombie TV show. Soon I’ll have to start petitioning Endemol, the makers of Dead Set, to work out a U.S. release!

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It’s been quite a week for fans of zombie video games so I’ve decided to consolidate all this week’s news into one big roundup. Yee-haw!

Valve announced some new downloadable content for their mega-hit Left 4 Dead. Once the content is released this spring, you’ll be able to play both the Death Toll and and Dead Air campaigns in versus mode. Also, they’ll be introducing a new mode of play called “survival” in which you’ll be pelted with wave after wave of zombies and compete for the amount of time you can stay alive.

Speaking of Left 4 Dead, George sent us a link to these awesome Left 4 Dead valentines, suitable for printing and handing out to your loved ones.

Prototype, the superhero zombie fighting game we posted about last month, gets a release date for June according to a company memo.

Wii gamers who wanted to play the critically acclaimed Dead Space will finally have a chance – EA announced they are working on a Dead Space game for the Wii. It is unclear whether this is a direct port or some sort of spin-off of the series, but either way it’s definitely good news for Wii fans.

Capcom also announced this week that they are officially working on a Dead Rising 2. They even released a viral video last week to get people amped up about running through a zombie horde in an American Gladiators style hamster ball.

And finally, speculation has started around a fourth Resident Evil movie. The screenplay has been written, and FX team assembled; all they need is Milla Jovovich to sign on to play Alice again. Even though the movie franchise continues to diverge from the video games, I still find them quite enjoyable. Here’s hoping for at least one more movie!

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Think you know zombie movie trivia? Why not try out Professor Vost’s Zombie Challenge game over on the Tofu the Vegan Zombie web site? It’s sort of like Who wants to be a Millionaire meets Night of the Living Dead. The questions range from easy to moderately difficult, but don’t worry you have a couple lifelines to get you through.

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This week’s list is the Top Ten Places You Don’t Want To Be During the Zombpocalypse. Each place will also be supplemented with a zombie movie featuring a scene in that location.

1. Planes:You know that SkyMall catalog they put in the seat pockets on planes? They make money by taking advantage of an idle audience who are stuck a mile in the air. Much like a group of hungry zombies would treat the average commuter flight like a buffet lunch.
   Movie reference: Flight of the Living Dead
2. Hospitals: Access to medical supplies and food in a large sturdy building seems like an idealistic safe haven. But hospitals are also the last stop for many people who are about to die. Will they come back from the dead?
   Movie reference: Diary of the Dead
3. Government Shelters: The government doesn’t have a terribly good track record when it comes to providing shelter for victims during natural disasters. One only needs to look back at Hurricane Katrina to find out how inept our government can be in a crisis. If you can’t trust them in a hurricane, can you trust them in a life and death situation?
   Movie reference: 28 Weeks Later
4. Underwater: Imagine being on vacation in the Caribbean, going scuba diving, and viewing a shark in it’s natural habitat… followed by a zombie. If that doesn’t make you pee in your wet suit I don’t know what will.
   Movie Reference: Zombi II
5. Your Favorite Bar: Everybody has their favorite hang-out, but you can’t necessarily sustain yourself on booze and peanuts for very long.
   Movie Reference: Shaun of the Dead
6. Zombie Convention: In other words, “Dinner is served.”
   Movie Reference: American Zombie
7. Train Station: Any place where people are trying franticly to escape, there are bound to be mistakes made, mob mentality, emotional contagion and a crowded place where infection can spread like wild-fire.
   Movie Reference: 28 Days Later
8. Church: All to often, people go to church in a time of crisis. If we learned anything from the original Dawn of the Dead, we learned that zombies go where they know. With the statistics showing that 96% of the world is religious, you have that much more of a chance that any church, synagogue, or mosque will just turn into a death trap.
   Movie Reference: Dawn of the Dead (2004)
9. Cemetery: This might seem like a no-brainer, but it definitely will be if you stumble upon an open casket or mortuary while the recently dead are returning.
   Movie Reference: Return of the Living Dead
10. Military Complex: While this may seem like a good idea, countless movies have shown otherwise, being that the zombie infection may even start because of the military or they may just be bone-headed enough to think they’re invincible.
    Movie Reference: Day of the Dead

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This year’s Treehouse of Terror episode of the Simpsons (the name for the annual Simpsons Halloween special) will feature the dysfunctional family turning into zombies after eating some bad meat at Krusty Burger. The episode will air later this month on Fox.

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We received this press release yesterday concerning World Zombie Day and the It’s Alive Zombie Fest and felt that it was so chocked full of info, that we’d reprint the whole thing  for your reading pleasure.

Zombie Fighter Faces the Undead at Zombie Fest
Ken Foree heads Zombie Fest guest list
Pittsburgh, PA – September 25, 2008 – Thirty years ago, Monroeville Mall was overrun by zombies. Only two humans survived the ordeal – and one of them is returning to the site of Dawn of the Dead next month. Ken Foree, who played Peter in the original Dawn film, will headline the guest list for The It’s Alive 2008 Zombie Fest™ – a free fan festival that will take place at Monroeville Mall outside Pittsburgh, PA on October 25 and 26. The show is open to the public and all ages are welcome*. In addition to Foree, who has also appeared in director Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects and Halloween, other guests scheduled to appear are:
o Dawn of the Dead “zombies” Sharon Ceccatti Hill, Clayton Hill, Leonard Lies, Joe Shelby and Frank Serrao
o Sam Nicotero, whose film credits include The Crazies and Children of the Living Dead
Horror writers contributing to discussion panels sponsored by Permuted Press:
o Travis Adkins
o Michael Arnzen
o JL Bourne
o Tim Gross
o Bowie Ibarra
o Scott A. Johnson
o Glenn Kay
o Jonathan Maberry
o Steven North
o Kim Paffenroth
Additional guests will be announced soon. Complete guest bios will be provided on our web site.
Zombie Fest is part of Pittsburgh’s Zombie Weekend, kicking off with a Zombie Masquerade Ball sponsored by Straub Beer on Friday, October 24. The Ball is open to ages 21 and older; tickets are available for $20 in advance or $22 at the door. The fun continues on Saturday and Sunday as zombies and zombie fans invade Monroeville Mall for the second annual Zombie Fest featuring specialty vendors, celebrity guests, bands, author panels, films, games and contests.
The highlight of the weekend will be the annual zombie walk on Sunday morning, which drew more than 1,000 people in 2007 and earned a Guinness World Record™ and Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award. The walk is the hub of World Zombie Day with 50 cities participating worldwide. All cities are holding food drives in conjunction with their walks – Pittsburgh zombies are asked to bring a non-perishable food donation for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Activities taking place at Monroeville Mall are free this year. “In honor of the 30th anniversary of Dawn of the Dead, we wanted to give all zombie enthusiasts an opportunity to enjoy a fan fest where the movie was filmed. And given the current economic climate with rising gas and food prices, we thought that free admission would make it easier for fans to come out and enjoy the festivities”, says organizer Mark Menold, producer and host of The It’s Alive Show. Zombie Weekend is sponsored in part by Straub Beer, Rue Morgue, Permuted Press, Pittsburgh East Nissan, Zombie Friends and Scars magazine. Details for all Zombie Weekend events can be found at www.theitsaliveshow.com.
*Film screenings open to ages 17 and over only.
It’s Alive is a television show produced by Clownhouse Productions, LLC in the same format as the highly successful Pittsburgh favorite Chiller Theater. Classic horror movies are presented by a talented cast performing comedy and live music. The show is aired Saturday nights at 10:00 PM on Pittsburgh’s WBGN-TV, and streamed 24/7 via the show’s web site at www.theitsaliveshow.com.

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In Mutant, two city boy brothers are stranded in a rural town and keep running into the same rednecks that stranded them there. Agitated by their bad luck, the local Sheriff wants them out of town. But, when his brother ends up missing in the morning, Josh has found cause for concern and heads out on the town to find his brother and get his car fixed. Josh finds this easier said than done since a bug has hit the town and closed down most of the local businesses. Holly Pierce is a school teacher filling in for her uncle, who’s sick, at his bar when Josh come in to find help. Finding a mutual attraction, she decides to help take him to the service station across town. On the way Josh gets into more trouble with one of the rednecks, this time being framed for a murder. The victim ends up being a curiosity to the local practitioner who discovers a chemical that is changing the physiology of it’s victims. Josh, Holly and the Sheriff end up trying to get to the bottom of this illness and brought on by strange chemicals when all hell breaks loose and the zombie attack.

I would venture the guess that Mutant is one of the first films to try to unconventionally represent a zombie outbreak and could be considered the grand daddy of movies like 28 Days Later.

Mutant is chock full of actors with memorable faces that haven’t quite made names for themselves. Wings Hauser, who plays the lead Josh, can be found in movies like Dead Man Walking (not the Sean Penn vehicle) and appearances in every damn dramatic TV show you could imagine from “Air Wolf” and “A-Team” to “Third Watch”, “House M.D.” and “Monk”. Bo Hopkins is another familiar face without a familiar name with more TV appearances in the 80s on shows like “Fantasy Island”, “A-Team” and “Scarecrow & Mrs. King”. The acting by these cast members and the others are adequate if not well done.

The quality of the Mutant is of no question good, although the shadow of the boom-mic is quite prominent in one tender scene. The pacing on the other hand leaves something to be desired. Clocking in at 100 minutes, Mutant doesn’t quite make good use of it’s time, but is enjoyable nonetheless.

The zombies in Mutant are rather peculiar in that they transform from a healthy, fleshy pink color to a dusty, pale gray pallor, sometimes in seconds before your eyes due to contact with the chemical. Of course, when ganged up and charging after the camera, they do make a rather creepy visual. The special effects aren’t all that ambitious as this is not an overly gory effort, but what little effects they use come off rahter well. They make use of a straw yellow zombie blood that definitely took the gore level down, but did nothing to garner anything less than an R rating.

I found watching Mutant to be a pleasant experience, not only as a history lesson on the roots of the modern zombie “outbreak” picture, but as basically well crafted feature film. For 1984, Mutant is pretty good and original zombie flick. If you get the chance, take a look at Mutant.

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In Zombi 3, scientist working for the army run tests on a chemical called “Death One” which bring the dead back to life. When a terrorist tries to steal Death One, he unwittingly becomes exposed to it and is later captured, killed and cremated, which mutates the Death One virus and makes it airborne, infecting all manner of life with a zombie virus. In an effort to contain the virus, the army sends out bio-warfare outfitted soldiers to kill anything inside the infected area. 3 soldiers on R&R and a group of tourists are caught in the infected area trying to fight off the zombies and the army, just to survive.

The zombies in Zombi 3 are pretty bad, especially for 1988. They’re pretty much just slathered in a dark gray make-up with tons in blood and dirt added. It seems that the zombies were all issued uniform pajamas when they died, too. This film is completely gory, but very poorly done gore. More attention is paid to having a lot of blood and ooze and not so much realism to it.

There isn’t a whole lot of continuity to the zombies either. It’s always weird to see a zombie that supposedly just wants to eat your flesh taking the opportunity to punch and kick it’s victim rather than just go for the throat, literally, thus ending up fist fighting with a guy as if they were sparring. A lot of the zombies don’t require head shots to die, yet some of them don’t die from the body shot that kill others. I guess it just depends on what one of the directors was trying to convey in that particular scene. Who knows?

The fight scenes and any of the action scenes are super poorly choreographed. The realism just isn’t there and it ends up looking comical to the point of embarrassment. It doesn’t help that the acting is bottom of the barrel as well.

Zombi 3, in my opinion is really bad, but may go over well as an easily derided movie by your friends that are over to party with beer. The soundtrack alone is ridiculous and that’s only the beginning. If you’re looking for a serious zombie flick or even a humorous one, you might want to look elsewhere. If you’re a fan of the “so-bad-it’s-good” films, this might be your cup of tea. The history of this series is fairly interesting and can be easily researched on Wikipedia, but may warrant it’s own post on the ZRC at a later date.

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