Dawn of the Lead

I can’t remember when I’ve last made one of these posts, but it was years ago. While this blog has obviously drifted far from its roots as a zombie blog with miniature gaming elements, I haven’t lost my interest in the genre. In the last few days I’ve come across two zombie movies that seem interesting and different enough to warrant sharing.

The Girl with All the Gifts 

(Note! The text below contains spoilers for the book of the same name)

The near future; humanity has been all but destroyed by a mutated fungal disease that eradicates free will and turns its victims into flesh-eating “hungries”. Only a small group of children seem immune to its effects.

At an army base in rural England, this group of unique children are being studied, subjected to cruel experiments by biologist Dr. Caldwell. Despite having been infected with the zombie pathogen that has decimated the world, these children retain normal thoughts and emotions. And while still being subject to the craving for human flesh that marks the disease, these second-generation “hungries” are able to think and feel, making them a vital resource in the search for a cure.

The children attend school lessons daily, guarded by the ever watchful Sergeant Parks. But one little girl, Melanie, stands out from the rest. Melanie is special. She excels in the classroom, is inquisitive, imaginative and loves her favourite teacher Miss Justineau.

When the base falls, Melanie escapes along with Miss Justineau, Sergeant Parks and Dr. Caldwell. Against the backdrop of a blighted Britain, Melanie must discover what she is and ultimately decide both her own future and that of the human race.

In general I’m not too partial to the idea of thinking zombies, but I do like the concept of this one. It also seems to be a refreshing take on the genre, even if we’ve seen the “this child is the key to the cure” storyline many, many times. It might be Britain as a backdrop, but this one also reminded me of 28 Days Later. That’s always a good thing. The movie is coming to UK theatres on September 23.

Seoul Station

Yeon Sang-ho earns his place in the zombie pantheon with this biting animated feature that takes a look at some of South Korea’s biggest social issues through a tale of a father searching for his runaway daughter just as a zombie outbreak is spreading throughout Seoul Station’s homeless population.

I have a soft spot for adult animation (oh, that sounded wrong…) so an animated zombie movie with a Romero-ish political take sounds like a treat. This South-Korean film is apparently doing the festival rounds at the moment.

The first official trailer for World War Z, the adaptation of Max Brooks’ novel of the same name, is finally out, and it’s..well…it’s..

This trailer really left me with mixed feelings. On one hand it looks like a cool enough large budget zombie fest and I usually like Brad Pitt in his films. On the other, there are quite a few things that bug me:

• Apart from the title and the general theme, the movie sadly doesn’t seem to have much in common with the book. This is a huge letdown, as WWZ is one of the best works of zombie fiction written to date. It’s the age-old gripe with Hollywood: if you want to base your movie on an original work, and are paying for the adaptation rights, then why on earth would you make a completely different movie?
• The elementary family angle. Seriously, what is it with Hollywood, disaster films and the family unit? War of the Worlds? The Day After Tomorrow? 2012? Apparently 6-7 billion people dying isn’t a big enough tragedy unless it also results in a father being separated from his family.
• Silly CGI. Instead of a massive army of shambling or even sprinting undead, we have the Army of the Dead from Lord of the Rings, sans green glow.
• Damon Lindelof. Seriously, your movie is failing, so you bring in the writer responsible for Lost and Prometheus, which are basically huge plot holes with some story around them? Good luck with that.

I know I’m sounding a more than little bitter, so I have to point out that this is mostly fanboy rage. Who knows, the movie might turn out to be a positive surprise! It’s at least nice to see a large budget zombie movie for a change – we really haven’t seen too many of those. Still, I can’t shake the feeling of disappointment. It’s most apparent when the synopses are (rather unfairly) compared:

The book

It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the 10-year fight-back against the horde, World War Z brings the very finest traditions of American journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of civilisation.

The movie

A U.N. employee is racing against time and fate, as he travels the world trying to stop the outbreak of a deadly Zombie pandemic.

Oh well.

Haven’t posted film trailers (or anything else for that matter!) in a good long while. Here’s a trailer that is filled with awesome! If the movie’s half as good as the trailer, I’m looking at one of my new favourite Z-flicks. Cockneys vs. Zombies seems to be just that – kind of Snatch meets Shaun of the Dead meets Dawn of the Dead meets Attack the Block.

According to IMDb the movie opens in the UK on August 31.

I honestly thought I’d seen pretty much everything when it comes to the zombie genre. It seems I was wrong. Here is an offering from the land of the rising sun eyebrows that will leave you dumbfounded.

It’s rare for me to be at a loss for words.

The year is ticking towards its inevitable end, but there’s still time for one more post of zombie movie news. All of these are set to come out in 2012, so unless those Mayan bastards were right, we’re in for a few treats.

Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Not another NotLD re-hash – what’s it this time? 4D?” At least that’s what I was thinking. What the producers had to say (via Dread Central) changed my mind a bit for the positive:

Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection is aiming to serve as an entertaining companion piece to the original film rather than attempting to do the impossible and improve on it. This project is being produced by a group of filmmakers who are genuine fans of the horror genre. We have fresh ideas for how to revitalise the zombie sub-genre and have created a story that combines modern elements with the classic premise. We are sure genre fans will be happy to see a modern horror film which focuses on genuine suspense and tension, utilises practical FX rather than CGI, and provides characters that the audience will actually care about.

Of course that’s what they always say.  The trailer looks very nice, though, so I remain optimistic about this project.

[REC]³ Génesis

[REC] is one of my all-time favourite zombie movies. [REC]² was okay-ish, though poor in some parts. Now there’s [REC]³ on the way (set to premier in Spain March 30, 2012), and it’s looking tasty indeed. I’ll just let the trailer speak for itself.

Zombie Dawn

This Chilean low-budget venture has actually been doing the festival circuit since 2009. It’s really been travelling under the radar, as I only recently ran into it via a friend’s tip. The movie centers on a group of mercenaries entering a quarantine zone to investigate the roots of the whole catastrophe. I have a strong feeling that things don’t go quite as planned. I’ve always been a sucker for these military-squad-vs-monster-of-choice (like Predator, Aliens, Dog Soldiers or Outpost), so I’m looking forward to this one. For more information, see the film’s official site.

The Upcoming zombie goodness series will of course continue in 2012.

It’s time for another look at zombies on film. I haven’t done these in a while, so pardon me for showcasing some that are already out there.

Zombie Massacre has a nice name to it. It’s a new movie from the makers of the zombie film Eaters, which was rubbish – it was actually the first time I fell asleep watching a zombie flick. The trailer seems very stylish, though, so maybe there is promise in this one.

Nazi Zombies: I Think We’re Alone Now is a fun short homage to Call of Duty’s nazi zombie part, featuring four WW2 soldiers from different nations fighting nazi zombies in slow motion. Yes. It’s included in its 2½ minute entirety below.

Zombies: A Living History is a pretty interesting History channel documentary on the zombie phenomenon, exploring the history of the zombie and the possibility of real-life zombies amongst other things. It features zombie pop culture experts, such as Max Brooks and Jonathan Maberry. There’s a trailer embedded below. I’ve no idea how you can get your hands on it commercially, but you can watch it on Tube+ and the like.

Exit Humanity is something of a rarity – a period zombie piece set ten years after the American Civil War. It looks pretty tasty in the trailer, and has been doing the festival rounds lately. For more info check out the trailer below as well as the movie’s official site.

I Survived a Zombie Holocaust looks to add to a small number of zombie comedies. This NZ film promises to be a fun story of actual zombies invading the set of a zombie movie in the making. The trailer shows great promise, so let’s hope they can pull it off. The movie is due out in 2012.

There you go, plenty of new(ish) stuff to feast on!