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.
The title for George Romero’s newest zombie flick – so far called only [blank] of the Dead – has been announced, and it’s Survival of the Dead. This from mania.com:
“Survival” is a direct tie-in with Romero’s 2007 film, Diary of the Dead. Alan Van Sprang will resume the role of Crockett, last seen giving militia supplies to the film students. The film also stars Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe, Athena Karkanis, Joris Jarsky and Devon Bostick. Romero is directing, based on a story he wrote. No word yet on when it will hit American theaters.
Plot Concept: In a world where the dead rise to menace the living, rogue soldier Crocket (Alan Van Sprang) leads a band of military dropouts to refuge from the endless chaos. As they search for a place “where the shit won’ t get you,” they meet banished patriarch Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh), who promises a new Eden on the fishing and ranching outpost Plum Island. The men arrive, only to find themselves caught in an age-old battle between O’Flynn’s family and rival clan the Muldoons. It turns out that Patrick was expelled from the isle for believing that the only good zombie is a dead zombie, while the Muldoons think it’s wrong to dispatch afflicted loved ones, attempting to look after their undead kinfolk until a cure is found. But their bid for stability on the homestead has turned perverse: the undead are chained inside their homes, pretending to live normal lives – and the consequences are bloody. A desperate struggle for survival will determine whether the living and the dead can coexist.
The movie premiers at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
After the okayish Land of the Dead and the disappointing Diary of the Dead (yes, opinions differ on both), it’ll be interesting to see what Romero comes up with. The idea is interesting, and I can’t wait to see what is done with it. The idea of people desperately taking care of the infected is nothing new though, as it has been explored in zombie culture before with Robert Kirkman’s excellent comic The Walking Dead coming to mind first.
While I’m fairly sceptical, a new zombie movie is always a new zombie movie, and Romero is still a fine filmmaker even if his heavy-handed social commentary is growing a bit tiresome.
To top up the post here”s a few movie stills. I have to admit, they look like a lot of fun might be coming our way.
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.
Now, where would I never in my life want to be? The Big Brother house, for sure. But for one exception: in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
For those of you not familiar with the format, the idea of the Big Brother tv-show is simply this: a group of more or less ignorant and attention-hungry people are locked up in a small house and every aspect of their fairly dull everyday life is observed through video cameras. Occasionally they’re given tasks to complete, and if they succeed, they’re awarded with something, usually booze. For our viewing pleasure. Every now and then they vote someone out, and the last one remaining wins a cash prize.
I’ll just come out clean and say it: I hate Big Brother. I absolutely loathe it. The entire concept of watching stupid and dull people make fools out of themselves on television is repulsive. Even so, the setup is interesting: how will people react when they’re isolated from society and deprived of news, activities and meaningful social contacts? Against this background, when I heard of Dead Set – a horror mini-series combining Big Brother with zombies – I couldn’t help but to be more than a bit excited. Could the braindead on the inside best the undead on the outside? The idea is brilliant. The BB house is by its very nature closed off to the outside world, isolated and somewhat protected. What better place to spend the apocalypse in?
In Dead Set the zombie catastrophe happens in the UK. True to Romero’s style, the whys and hows aren’t explained. All we know is that in the outside world, society collapses and the undead reign, while in the BB house the contestants remain blissfully ignorant of the happenings. Of course it reaches them eventually, but how and why would be spoiling the story. Along with the contestants, the series also tells the parallel stories of a few members of the production staff and a few other survivors, giving us a chance to glimpse at the outside world. All the people are connected, and the parallel storylines bound together in a smooth natural way.
What in my opinion is crucial to any film and zombie movies in particular is the cast of characters and their interaction. Dead Set excels at this. The characters and their reactions to the strange conditions feel genuine enough. There are no heroes here, just regular (a relative term when talking about BB contestants) people caught up in an awful situation. When this is combined with the authentic Big Brother set and cameo appearances from real-life BB contestants and host Davina McCall, the scenario is frighteningly realistic. In a zombie movie, this is pure goodness. I also feel that this is where British zombie productions beat their modern American counterparts. The characters are more low-key and realistic, making them and the story easier to relate to.
The actors – many of them familiar faces from various British series – pull off their roles well, with especially Andy Nyman delivering a wonderful performance as the rude and obnoxious producer Patrick. Again, this adds to the feel of the story, as the viewer’s immersion is not shattered by that unfortunate companion of many zombie movies, namely frustratingly bad acting.
The story itself is balanced and the tension is upheld throughout the entire show. The structure of five separate episodes instead of a single film probably adds to this, as the story never grows boring or slows down. This is quite an accomplishment considering a combined length of almost 2½ hours. There’s no empty filler here. Dead Set also has a fair amount of humour in it, but it’s woven well into the story and dialogue. The same can be said about the critique aimed at reality-tv and its viewers.
The visuals are fairly standard fare. If you’ve seen 28 Days/Weeks Later or the Dawn of the Dead remake, you’ll know what to expect. Some shaky cam, some groovy filter work etc. This isn’t to everyone’s liking, but I personally have no problem with it.
What about the main attraction then? The zombies are of the running variety, again reminiscent of the two films mentioned in the previous paragraph. They’re well detailed and the makeup is excellent, with especially the creepy milky white contact lenses with a tiny pupil in the middle giving the zombies a truly scary look. Gore is very graphic and plentiful and well executed, with ripping skin, gallons of blood and entrails galore. Definitely not one for the squeamish or those repulsed by excessive violence.
As mentioned before, Dead Set is a mini-series consisting of five episodes, with a combined length of 141 minutes. Yes, that’s almost 2½ hours of quality zombie action. The episodes can be viewed separately, or as one movie.
Overall Dead Set is, simply put, the best zombie thing I’ve seen in years. There’s nothing here to complain about. Seriously, nothing. So if you haven’t seen it yet, get it and enjoy it. Then watch it again and like it even more.
Don’t believe me? Watch the trailer.
Dead Set is available on dvd from Amazon UK, Play.com and eBay (especially eBay UK), among many other places.
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 