ZombiePAGES.com

Source: http://www.derryjournal.com/

Derry’s historic city walls could soon be over-run with hordes of flesh-eating zombies, if Ulster film director George Clarke gets his way.

Mr. Clarke wrote, produced and directed ‘Battle of the Bone’, the North’s first ever kung-fu zombie movie, which is set for release next month.

The film is one of a trilogy of films in the pipeline and depending on its success, the director could soon base a sequel here in the heart of the city.

‘Battle of the Bone’ takes a surprising slant on the contentious marching season. An army of the undead invade Belfast city centre as Orangemen and nationalist protestors clash, forcing rival gangs from both sides of the community to team up and fight for the greater good. The low budget gore-fest has already attracted global media attention, much to the delight of its director. Speaking to the ‘Journal’, George Clarke (30) revealed: “‘Battle of the Bone’ has got everyone talking. It’s a fun spin on the usual heavy Troubles themes that dominate films from Northern Ireland, so we thought we would make the mother of all Troubles movies, with an absurd kung-fu zombie storyline!

“The ideas are now flowing for a trilogy of films and we’ve suggested that filming in Derry, around the walls, would be a great idea. We like to keep things home-based and Derry’s Walls are very historic and feature in the Troubles in their own way, so they would be a perfect place for a sci-fi horror twist,” he said.

(more…)

Source: http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/

If you were traveling near the University of Alabama campus earlier today you may have seen a strange sight walking the streets.

Students in a class studying zombies in American literature and film dressed up in full zombie garb and took to the university campus for the class’s annual Zombie Walk.

The class, taught by University of Alabama English professor Sean Hoade, spends the three weeks of the interim term taking a close look at the evolution of the zombie horror story throughout the history of film and literature. Topics included the philosophical, symbolic and moral implications present in movies like George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead,” “Dawn of the Dead,” and “Land of the Dead.”


The class took a $10 donation in order to participate in the walk, with all proceeds going to the West Alabama Food Bank.


The class raised over $500 with this year’s walk.

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://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.
(more…)

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?

(more…)

Source: http://www.chortle.co.uk/

The London pub where Simon Pegg fought his last stand against an army of zombies in Shaun Of The Dead is to be turned into a block of flats.

The run-down Duke Of Albany pub in New Cross, South-East London, stood in for Pegg’s fictional local, The Winchester, in the 2004 zom-com, but it has stood empty for more than two years.

Now developers are set to move in, as Kang Properties has been given permission to demolish part of the building and erect seven flats.

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

Maryland filmmaker Gary Ugarek, writer/director/producer of DEADLANDS: THE RISING, sent along a few photos (see more below) and info on his follow-up movie DEADLANDS 2: TRAPPED. Like its predecessor, this zombie opus was originally conceived as a short (as first reported here). “Chris Kiros and Elias Dancey of Art Held Hostage productions were developing a project titled ZOMBTHOLOGY, and were looking for directors to make short films for it,” Ugarek tells Fango. “The wraparound story stars Tiffany Shepis, who is kidnapped, held hostage and forced to view these films by her captor; mine is currently the first she has to watch. I began writing a screenplay titled THE ESCAPE, about four strangers stuck in a movie theater during a zombie apocalypse trying to plan an escape and find help—but of course, as in the first DEADLANDS, the ghouls were a bit more agile and made their attempts feeble at best.


After changing the title of his 26-page script to TRAPPED and adding $5,300 of his own money to Art Held Hostage’s $1,000 budget, Ugarek nonetheless came to believe that “it really couldn’t just be a short. Being confined to a 20- or 25-minute running time was hard for me, as I felt this story had so much more to tell. So I said to [Kiros and Dancey], ‘How about I make a feature-length version, cut it down to meet my obligation for ZOMBTHOLOGY and also release my own director’s cut of how I see the film?’ They agreed, and off to work I went.”


(more…)

Source: http://www.filmthreat.com/


In celebration of the 40th anniversary of “Night of the Living Dead,” George A. Romero and MySpace ran a contest to award the top five “Dead”-related short films. Romero picked the winners himself, and on top of appearing on the upcoming DVD release of Romero’s latest, “Diary of the Dead,” the shorts are also here for your viewing pleasure:

(more…)

Source: http://www.star-telegram.com/

They ooze fake blood, moan and stutter through the streets in search of their favorite dish: “Brains!”

But don’t be alarmed.

Hundreds of zombie-loving visitors from across the U.S. are in Grapevine for Texas Frightmare Weekend, a celebration of horror flicks at the Hilton DFW Lakes hotel.

The event kicked off Friday with a quarter-mile zombie walk from Salt Water Willy’s in Grapevine Mills to the convention site. Motorists on Grapevine Mills Circle were stunned as they encountered about 400 slow-moving pedestrians, their clothes torn and bodies decorated with faux injuries.

Once inside, the gory guests can expect to be treated to chat sessions with actors, writers, directors and special effects artists. Many classic movies are being screened, and George Romero is being feted for the 40th anniversary of his, ahem, brainchild, Night of the Living Dead.
(more…)

Source: http://media.www.bsudailynews.com/

Under cover of darkness, a group of about 35 students compared arsenals of Nerf guns and strategized for the upcoming game of Humans versus Zombies.

Game Moderator Adam Huston summarized the game for newcomers before discussing possible changes to the rules during and informational meeting Wednesday night.


Huston said a committee of moderators would be available to answer players’ questions and organize missions during the game.


He said Ball State University differs from other campuses in that moderators create a plot for gameplay, directing events in order to bring the game to a logical conclusion.


Huston said the game’s Web site would use a different feeding system for zombies. Moderators also would consider banning playing the game while in vehicles, he said.
(more…)