Which was unfortunately very aptly named. Steer well clear, it’s one of the worst features I’ve ever seen. The zombie action is fine, but the trailer is a good example of the awful acting, dreary dialogue and clichéd, predictable zombie flick events. “He’s dead. Oh wait, he’s not! Oh, he bit me in the leg!” Man, that’s fresh and original.
There are the zombie-like infected in I Am Legend that were frankly a bit disappointing:
CGI Zombies - you're doing it wrong
And in the future, there just might be A.D.
This here is a wonderful, wonderful teaser trailer for a future – or rather potential, provided they can get funding – full-length CGI zombie movie. You can read an interview with the crew here. I really hope they get the cash to crank this baby out, as it looks delicious. Like Pixar teaming up with Tim Burton to do Night of the Living Dead. Don’t take my word for it, enjoy the trailer!
Remember Zone of the Dead, the Serbian zombie movie starring Ken Foree of original Dawn of the Dead fame, that I mentioned way back in may?
I for one am happy to hear that it’s finally getting its DVD-release outside Serbia, under the title Apocalypse of the Dead. The release date is set at March 1st this year. Pre-ordering can be done at Play.com, for example.
And for those of you not bothering to click on the link above, here’s the trailer again:
I now officially declare Europe as the sovereign of the Zombie Movie Kingdom. As if Shaun of the Dead and Rec (and most probably Rec 2) weren’t enough, here are three more to whet your appetite for undead action.
First up is Zombies and Cigarettes, a Spanish movie. If there ever was a stereotypical name for a European zombie movie, this would be it. The movie looks very entertaining, with normal people instead of action heroes caught up in the situation.
Then there’s Mutants, a French one. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s a zombie movie. Is this a Danny Boyle thing again? Can’t tell much from the trailer, but from the few IMDb reviews, it seems to have a bit of psychological thriller in it too.
Now, I apologize for the mental image, but the following trailer of the French movie La Horde pretty much made me wet my pants in excitement.
To make up for the lack of updates lately, I’m going to do something useful for a change. “What’s that?” I hear you ask. In reply I will introduce you to some movies you just may have missed, and might keep missing if it weren’t for a blog post such as this one. Not all of these are zombie movies per se, but are close enough to be a part of the genre.
Pontypool tells the story of a small group of people trapped in a radio station building, when a strange mental plague strikes. It turns out that the plague is caused by certain words in the English language, making the life of radio journalists precarious indeed. While the film boasts some amazingly obscure and zany theories about the incident, it has a few very good actors in it. All in all it’s a fun little film and well worth watching if you’re in for some zombie-ish entertainment.
Mulberry Street is a movie about rats. Or rather, people getting bitten by rats and turning into bloodthirsty ratmonsters. Need I say more? Mulberry Street will certainly not win prestigious culture awards, but it is pretty fun, with decent acting and well-executed gore. And I liked the way no character was really safe in the movie. Oh, and the ratmen were actually pretty nasty and repulsive.
Last of the Living is a wonderful, low-budget Australian movie that centers around a group of three friends as they make their way through the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. The effects and makeup aren’t by any means top-notch, but where this movie excels is in its characters and acting. I sympathized immensely with the characters in the film, and as this is what usually makes or breaks any movie – zombies or no zombies – I found myself liking Last of the Living a lot. Sure, there are clichés and silly things aplenty, but they couldn’t defeat the attraction of the characters. The movie’s pretty funny, too. Not really on par with Shaun of the Dead, but it did give me a fair few chuckles.
There you go, three movies for your viewing pleasure. It’s always good to be on the lookout for stuff like this, as these films tend to pop up in dvd clearance bins, message board discussions, tv-guides and the like. Keep your eyes open and remember to tip me off when you spot something interesting!
The Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (that’d be Finnish for Love & Anarchy) film festival is kicking off in a few days, and a friend pointed out to me that a new zombie movie is airing. Advertised as “a political zomedy” ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction pokes fun at US politics while delivering fine-looking zombie action. See the trailer, it’s worth it for the ending sentence alone.
Zombie comedies seem to be a bit of a hit these days, and I really don’t fault it. As with many things in life, something that can’t – or rather doesn’t – poke fun at itself can quickly grow stagnant and uninteresting. Most of the zomcoms I’ve seen also demonstrate a love for the genre as a whole, with nods to classic films, attention to gore and adherence to genre tradition. Is there something more to ask for?
Zombie aficionados have got it good right now. In addition to Zombieland and Doghouse, here are a few others coming our way:
Survival of the Dead I alreay mentioned some weeks back. Funnily enough, while I only had stills to show back then, I now have a trailer. Funny thing is that I stumbled upon this trailer looking for something else entirely, and it’s on Youtube under the in production name of “… of the Dead”. Looks like a lot of fun, although what I said in this post still applies.
I posted about Rec 2 way back, and I finally ran into real trailers. From the looks of it, the movie continues the story of the first film with some kind of a SWAT team sent in to investigate. If you haven’t seen the first film, see it. And you may not want to watch the trailer below to avoid spoilers. That’s one lovely trailer, by the way.
For one reason or the other I’ve missed the movie Carriers altogether. To rectify the situation, here’s a trailer to enjoy. Seems like a wonderful post-apocalyptic scenario, and I like the cinematography of the trailer. It’s interesting that they chose avian flu as the disease to end society. If avian flu – or the swine variant – did what this disease does, we’d be in a whole lot of trouble.
With most of the zombie movie excellence of the past few years coming from Europe, maybe Hollywood is finally on to something here. The few recent zombie comedies I’ve seen – Shaun of the Dead and Fido – have both been wonderful and funny, and Zombieland looks like it’ll be added to the list.
From Columbia Pictures:
Zombieland focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. Columbus is a big wuss — but when you’re afraid of being eaten by zombies, fear can keep you alive. Tallahassee is an AK-toting, zombie-slaying’ bad ass whose single determination is to get the last Twinkie on earth. As they join forces with Wichita and Little Rock, who have also found unique ways to survive the zombie mayhem, they will have to determine which is worse: relying on each other or succumbing to the zombies.
Don’t really know, sounds a bit unspectacular doesn’t it?
Now watch the trailer and rethink.
Man oh man oh man. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas!
I love what the British have done with the zombie genre in the last few years: 28 days later, Shaun of the Dead and Dead Set have been instant classics in my book, and upcoming movie Doghouse looks like it might join the club. While it doesn’t seem to be a zombie movie per se, it seems to follow enough of the genre conventions to be classed as one, just as 28 days later is.
From the official site:
Six men with mid-life anxiety set out for a weekend in the country in an attempt to reconnect with their masculinity. What they find is a catastrophe so horrible and bizarre that a mid-life crisis turns out to be exactly what they need to survive it…
Doghouse should be opening in cinemas in the UK on June 12th 2009.
I’m always on the lookout for new zombie movies, especially those with good production values. I’m not saying that production values make a movie, but sadly they can often break it. Anyway, two of the movies I’m currently waiting for are [REC] 2 and Zone of the Dead. Neither are American or British productions, which is always a joy – in the sense that it’s nice seeing that zombie culture is being created all over the world.
The Spanish movie [REC] is one of my favourite zombie movies ever. I like its documentary handycam style and the fairly realistic approach, not to mention that it’s creepy as hell. The movie had me and a couple of my friends – all of us used to horror movies – watching it hugging our knees and going “arghhh, ihatethisihatethisihatethis” , so if you haven’t seen it yet, you should definitely check it out. There’s a Hollywood remake of the same film called Quarantine, but I suggest you go for the original. The foreign language, Spanish in this case, makes it somehow seem more real. Maybe it’s because I’m used to most movies being in English?
Anyhoo, they’re making [REC] 2, due for release this October according to IMDb. The teaser trailer doesn’t really tell us a lot – it’s probably why they call it a teaser, duh – but I’m still psyched!
Zone of the Dead is already out. This Serbian film is apparently a nice old school zombie flick, and judging by the trailer it looks like mighty good fun. And it stars Ken Foree of original Dawn of the Dead fame. I just hope it eventually gets released outside Serbia, too.
And as a final note a friend passed me a link about real life zombies. While it certainly is interesting and creepy, I couldn’t be bothered to write it an entry of its own, so I’ll just attach it to this one. It’s a small article about parasites that take over and control several different host animals. Just imagine the fun of something like this happening to humans! Is it just me, or does stuff like this really make you think about the whole evolution/intelligent design thing?
Dawn of the Lead 