ZombiePAGES.com

Source: http://io9.com/

A new crop of campy zombie ads are cropping up on Broadway, promoting Evil Dead: The Musical. While the posters are all very clever, their presence only reveals what I’ve long feared: the Disneyification of our beloved brain-eating zombies. These cute versions of the undead are everywhere nowadays, and getting campier by the minute. Click though to see the slow decomposition of zombies, from funny versions of the living dead to the Broadway soft-shoe undead.

It used to be that the only time you were bothered by over-zealous silly zombies was on Halloween during the annual Thriller resurgence. Maybe it was Shaun of The Dead that opened the door for the last four-year craze of the undead on stage. I blame Shaun’s good humor and fantastic writing of real characters that allowed other people to view zombies (more recently in a fun and friendly way).


But instead of making a better zombie comedy or another lovely gory zombie classic (such as the 2002 new rage spin 28 Days Later) filmmakers unleashed a string of so-so camp or shaky handy cam gimicky undead flicks, each one sadder than the next. Fido, Planet Terror, Zombie Strippers were all great, but their undead hordes leaned harder and harder on the crutch of camp to get through each take.


We need to be forward-thinking with our precious zombie commodities, people. And what has this campification and blatant misuse of zombies brought us? The Broadway zombie. I love Bruce Campbell and wouldn’t mind seeing him singing and slaying on stage, but unfortunately he’s not in it. And the Bruce-substitute is surrounded by happy dancing undead. Pass. Also passing on Re-Animator: The Musical, Zombie Prom and Z: A Zombie Musical.

Our last hope for a zombie attack we can take seriously is the forthcoming World War Z movie — which is really a post-zombie narrative, since it takes place after the zombie war.

Source: http://news10now.com/

When it comes to zombie movies, opinions are pretty binary; there’s no middle ground. You either love them or revel in all of their bloody, undead gruesome goodness, or you can’t stomach them. Or, maybe you can stomach them but hate them anyway. Either way, there’s no arguing this point: without Night of the Living Dead they wouldn’t exist at all.


Now out in a 40th anniversary special edition, George A. Romero’s low-budget black-and-white fright fest is the granddaddy of the ghoul genre. And even after all the Day of the Deads, Dawn of the Deads, and Shaun of the Deads, it still holds up as being as terrifying as it is influential. There’s no need to go too deeply into the plot because that’s really not the point here. Essentially, the dead have come back to life and they are roaming the earth looking for brains to snack on. Meanwhile, a group of strangers hole up in a house in the middle of nowhere, board up the windows, lock the doors, and pray. Some of them fight back too.
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Source: http://xark.typepad.com/

BRUNCH OF THE LIVING DEAD from Dan Conover on Vimeo.

Source: http://www.brightcove.tv/


A family of zombies tries to have a nice picnic, but is interrupted by some nasty humans.

Source: http://www.ew.com/

There is high trash and low trash, and then there’s Troma Entertainment, which is trash in a class by itself. More than cheap, more than squalid or tawdry, the films of Troma have a special over-the-top rancid glee. The company enjoyed a moment of mainstream visibility in the ’80s, when it put out The Toxic Avenger, a midnight mutant bash that remains its signature film. With the occasional exception, though, Troma’s titles have skipped theaters to line the grimy back shelves of video stores. Dr. Hackenstein, Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy, Star Worms II: Attack of the Pleasure Pods…you get the picture.


Now Troma is back on the big screen — and, I’m glad to report, badder than ever. Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is a soft-core scatological zombie kitsch musical complete with social commentary. It was directed and co-written by Lloyd Kaufman, the company’s fabled president, who packs every skeevy genre in history into this mad, mod exploitation mishmash. Poultrygeist is as savage as Dawn of the Dead, as slapstick nutzoid as Evil Dead 2, as gag-on-your-popcorn gross as Pink Flamingos, and as dementedly foulmouthed literate as a Kevin Smith raunchfest. It’s genuine sick fun, and there isn’t a boring moment in it.


The movie is set at a fried-chicken franchise outlet that’s been built atop a Native American burial ground. As the demon fowls come home to roost, Kaufman mocks everything and everyone: the PC protesters in the parking lot (”Collegiate Lesbians Against Mega-Conglomerates” — i.e., CLAM), the wage-slave losers in the kitchen, the disgusting neck-and-beak chicken-grinding machine, the gay Hispanic dishwasher who gets turned, literally, into a talking sloppy joe. (Yes, it’s that kind of movie.) Jason Yachanin, as a rubber-faced geek, and Kate Graham, as a pigtailed porno babe, are terrific in the film’s surprisingly catchy musical numbers, all of which help to make Poultrygeist that rare and insane thing: an exploitation movie with soul.

Source: http://movies.ign.com/

Dance of the Dead is a low-budget comedy horror gem playing at this year’s Cannes. Already a hit at America’s SXSW festival, the film takes the simple equation that ‘zombies plus prom equals laughs’, and runs with it for 90 minutes of pure, unadulterated fun.


The plot is as ridiculous as horror plots get, revolving around discharge from a power plant bring the residents of a local cemetery back to life. It also happens to be prom time, with the pupils of Cosa High School holding their Hawaiian Hula Dance, and when the zombiesmunch their way through much of the town and eventually reach the school, all hell, quite literally, breaks loose.


Every zombie film owe a debt to the godfather of gore, George Romero, and Dance is no different, referencing Night of the Living Dead in the opening passages, andslipping in a knowing Dawn of the Dead gag when the zombies hit a supermarket.


And yet it’s very much its own beast, featuring wildly original ideas that take the genre in new and refreshing directions, from zombie frogs causing classroom carnage to zombie kids moshing at a zombie gig. Indeed, some of the scenes are truly inspired; a zombie love scenes a particular standout, and the vision of the undead leaping out of their graves on of the best of the fest thus far.


The young cast attack their roles with great enthusiasm, appearing to be the typical high school archetypes before actually turning into kids you care about. And director Greg Bishop shoots with such vim and vigour that you can’t help but be carried away by the marvellous momentum of it all. The result is perfect Friday night fodder; a zombie film that’s a blast from start to finish, and one that should inject new life into a genre that looked to be dead on its feet.

Source: http://www.fearnet.com/

Mena Suvari may be best known for her role in the high school sex romp, American Pie, or the high school sexpot in American Beauty, but typecast her at your own risk. In recent years, Suvari’s been taking on bigger roles in a number of edgy independent features.


Her latest finds her teamed up with horror maestro Stuart Gordon. In Stuck, she plays Brandi, a caretaker at a rest home who spends her off-hours dropping E and partying with her boyfriend. After one such evening, Brandi is driving home when she hits Tom (Stephen Rea), a homeless man crossing the street. Brandi panics and rather than driving him to the hospital, hides her car in her garage, with Tom stuck in the windshield—for three days. We chatted with Mena earlier this week about the real-life incident the film was based on, what it was like working with Gordon, and her fascination with the criminal psyche…


[Note: After reading this interview, be sure to check out our interview with Stuart Gordon himself, and our red band trailer for Stuck!]


When did you first hear about this project?


I was reading the script up the street from my agency. I felt like my jaw literally hit the floor so many times. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that someone could be in a situation like this, which just seems to get worse and worse. I guess that really appealed to me; I thought it was very interesting. And I ran into [my agent’s] office after I read it, saying I had to do this. I had worked with Stuart before, on Edmund, so I was hoping that relationship would help sneak me in, and that Stuart would be able to see me in this. At the time, I didn’t know it was based on a true story. I just couldn’t believe what I was reading. I just thought it was a really out-there story.


I was reading a book at the time, called Stiff by Mary Roach. The secret lives of cadavers—have you read this? I think it’s an awesome book. Not that many people know about it, but it’s fascinating to me. In the book, she mentions this incident. That was even more of a shock to me, and made me want to be on board even more.


Do you sympathize with or feel you have to justify Brandi’s behavior?


I feel that the real woman, Chante, and Brandi are inherently good people. I’ve always been really interested in psychology, criminal psychology in particular, and what makes people do the things they do. I feel like Chante/Brandi were not in the right mindset when this happened to them. I don’t feel that they set out to be put in this situation. Brandi doesn’t aim for the man she hits. I think, if she were given the choice, she wouldn’t have wanted to do any of it, be put in that situation. So that was what was so interesting to me, really dissecting that: what makes someone snap, and go to that extreme? I feel that Brandi is somewhat ignorant about the system, and that she’s afraid. She is afraid to lose everything she has worked so hard for—which isn’t much, but she has her own little world, like this job that she’s not so crazy about. I think there are a lot of people in a situation like that, where she is faced with possibly losing her own life. It’s survival of the fittest, it’s primal instinct. Don’t we all have that within us, that if we were put into that situation, what would we do to save ourselves? I think that was what was really so fascinating to me. She ultimately snaps, and starts reacting, and loses the ability to think rationally about the situation. She has to justify it to herself.
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Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/

When you’re off killing zombies in Africa, you’re gonna have some backup. Resident Evil 5 will feature cooperative player for two players - a first for the survival horror series.

According to ShackNews, the coop gameplay was revealed in a GameShack preview (which has since been pulled). Players will control Chris Redfield, one of the heroes from the first RE, and an unnamed female mercenary as they investigate mysterious events at an unnamed African country (cue the hordes of zombies). The characters will be separated on and off throughout the game so it won’t be constant coop, though. If there’s only one player, his companion will be controlled by A.I.

RE5 will also feature a new cover system so players can duck behind walls and fire around corners. With all this attention being paid to beefing up the combat system, it makes you wonder if they’ll be toning down the puzzle gameplay common in the series. I imagine somewhere in this poor desert nation you’ll stumble upon a secret research facility with doors that only unlock if you carefully rearrange paintings, though - it just wouldn’t be Resident Evil without that crap. The solo portions of the game will be more puzzle-heavy, maybe; I somehow don’t imagine they’re adding coop to enable synchronized statue-pushing.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/



In 1968, George A. Romero ran a company in Pittsburgh that produced commercials. In building his business - one of a handful in the country at a time when most commercials were shot live - Romero collected quite a bit of camera and audio equipment and lights.


It was always in the back of his mind to use it all to make a feature film, and he knew just what kind, too: a horror film. More specifically, he wanted to make something about zombies.


In the Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney tradition of “let’s put on a show,” Romero talked some of his closest friends into investing $600 apiece in the production, and kicked in another $600. With that seed money, a producer was able to raise $70,000, and on that budget, “Night of the Living Dead” - the most influential horror film of its time - was made.


It’s a simple story: Seven people trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by zombies fight over the best escape. But it never fails to chill and thrill.

With a 40th-anniversary edition of “Night of the Living Dead” coming out on DVD - along with a DVD of his latest zombie flick, “Diary of the Dead”- Romero recalled his influences and what it was like to hit it big as a 28-year-old first-time filmmaker.


Q: What made you settle on zombies?


A: An early influence was the old EC Comics that I read as a kid. They were gleeful horrific tales told in a humorous way. I recall one where a team turned on its third baseman and ended up ripping out his heart and using it as third base. I always chuckled.


Q: “Living Dead” has become a cult classic with a huge afterlife on DVD. What do you think it is that makes people watch it again and again?

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Source: http://www.fangoria.com/

Producer Richard Rubinstein gave Fango the scoop on a wild development concerning an upcoming revival of George A. Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD. Rubinstein, the man responsible for producing many of Romero’s films as well as the 2004 DAWN remake, is planning to rerelease the 1979 zombie epic in true 3-D! In-Three, Inc. of Agoura Hill, CA will be responsible for the “dimensionalization” process.

“When Mike Messina [another producer on the DAWN redux] and I began to investigate using In-Three’s technique, I was very skeptical,” Rubinstein tells Fango. “I couldn’t see how it could be used without re-editing George’s film, which I was not going to do. I was also concerned that converting a 29-year-old movie would not be competitive qualitatively with the new 3-D live-action features being shot today. I was wrong in both cases. George’s DAWN OF THE DEAD can be reformatted into 3-D without any editing, and the image looks spectacular! As it stands now, it will take about a year to complete the conversion of the whole film.” Indeed, In-Three’s work has been hailed by George Lucas, James Cameron and Peter Jackson, among others.

Lucky FANGORIA chief Tony Timpone got a sneak peek at several scenes of the 3-D DAWN in NYC, and came away suitably impressed. “I was blown away by how easily DAWN OF THE DEAD lends itself to 3-D,” he says. “This is not a gimmick. Romero’s film looks better than ever, and the extra dimension adds, well, another vibrant dimension to Romero’s masterpiece. I can’t wait to see the final product when it emerges in 2009. The idea of seeing a spiffed-up DAWN—the original!—on the big screen again is a cause for celebration.”

Rubinstein also has plans to create a direct sequel to the original DAWN (!) and will be producing a new screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s DUNE, to be directed by Peter (THE KINGDOM) Berg. Keep checking this site for further developments on both DAWN projects.