Great news for people looking for a zombie western, as it was announced that the zombie content for Red Dead Redemption will be released as a standalone disc, with no purchase of the original game required.
Also coming soon, Undead Nightmare, a single, stand-alone disc that bundles together for the first time ever, the Undead Nightmare Pack, the Outlaws to the End Co-Op Mission Pack, the Legends and Killers Pack, the Liars and Cheats Pack and all the Multiplayer Free Roam modes released to date. Undead Nightmare will be available at retail stores everywhere for $29.99/£24.99/€29.99 and does not require a copy of Red Dead Redemption to play.
And here’s a new trailer. I think it’s going to be a must to purchase.
Or rather, a singular zombie treat. The Left 4 Dead comic The Sacrifice concludes, and it’s as awesome as the first three parts. There’s a PDF download available too, so be sure to pick it up for reading again later.
Click to go to comic
And here’s an interview with the comic’s creators, in case you’re interested.
Interesting zombie stuff just keeps rolling in. Here are the latest things that caught my attention:
Left 4 Dead – Sacrifice #3
The excellent webcomic continues. This really is the best zombie comic I’ve read since The Walking Dead.
Click to go to comic
Left 4 Dead – Sacrifice trailer
Speaking of Sacrifice, a lovely cinematic trailer for the new DLC has just been released. Looks mighty tasty, and has got me thinking that it might be time to fire up L4D again.
Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare trailer
Red Dead Redemption, the excellent (or so I’ve been told) spaghetti western game is getting the zombie treatment. The idea of combining zombies and westerns has been around for quite a while, but apart from some comics and low budget flicks, there hasn’t really been much to speak of. The trailer below shows that this combination is potentially a really, really good idea.
It’s a quiet day, so a few zombie things for you loyal readers. As usual, this stuff lifted from the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse site.
Dead Genesis
This indie flick looks a lot like George Romero’s frankly piss-poor Diary of the Dead, except a lot better. It chronicles the journey of a journalist who sets out to make a propaganda movie on the war versus the walking dead. Looks surprisingly good, I’m actually looking forward to seeing this!
No, not candy. Just lovely stuff from the world of zombie pop culture:
Code Z
If a new webseries with amazingly hot triplets beating up zombies sounds like your cup of tea (and let’s face it – if it doesn’t, take a long look in the mirror), definitely check out Code Z. Probably worth it for the babe factor alone.
Click for official site with trailer
Eaters
The Italian zombie movie Eaters, that I first mentioned way back now has a full trailer online. Don’t let the mention of Uwe Boll (whose movie Rampage is actually pretty good) put you off, this looks like a nice enough film.
Left 4 Dead – Sacrifice
For L4D fans and zombie enthusiasts alike, there’s a free, quality online comic based on the game available. Can hardly wait for the next instalment!
Click to go to comic
Night of the Living Trekkies
This is a video trailer for a book. Which is a shame, since I’d love to see a whole movie of this! It really tickles my geek organ.
Due to some silly country restrictions, I can’t view the clips on the AMC website. I assume the same goes for most non-US residents, so I’m snatching up the clips from Youtube instead.
Without further ado, here are some fresh new clips from the upcoming The Walking Dead zombie tv-series. Just like the long trailer, they make me want a lot more. These short trailers, they’re such a tease! They should call them teasers…oh.
The Rakkautta & Anarkiaa (Love & Anarchy) Helsinki International film festival is upon us again, for the 23rd time. The festival is known for its innovative trailers, and this year they went for much loved genre, the zombie film. I have something of a personal connection here. I was fully intending to be an extra in it, but due to the filming times (11 pm to 5 am during a work week) had to skip it. I have to say I’m scolding myself now for not sacrificing a good night’s sleep, as the trailer looks wonderful.
The program of the festival will be published later today. I’ll be sure to post on any interesting flicks on show.
For more info on the festival itself, see the official site.
While it has been making rounds as bootlegs of various quality shot in this year’s Comic Con, the trailer for AMC’s The Walking Dead has finally been released.
I’m probably not wrong in thinking that this is a dream come true for a lot of zombie fans out there, yours truly included. The Walking Dead is THE zombie comic on the market, and to see it turned into a tv series of one hour long episodes is just excellent.
Sorry if I sound like a brainless fanboi, but it looks absolutely perfect. There’s no other way to describe it. It even has the guy from Love Actually in it!
The series premieres on this year’s Halloween, I can’t wait.
Wow, it’s been a while since I posted anything on zombies. While the zombie world is pretty much obsessed with the upcoming Walking Dead tv series, it doesn’t mean that it’s the only interesting thing on the radar. I’ve talked plenty of times about Europeans solidly dominating the zombie movie scene at the moment, and I’m happy to say that there seems to be what looks like a worthy addition, this time from Germany.
Judging from the trailer, Toxic Lullaby looks and feels very much like 28 Days Later. The story (as lifted from the official site and run through Google Translate and my mad high school German skills) is standard zombie flick fare:
Eloise wakes up after a drug binge in a broken and hostile world. Separated from her friends she learns to survive in a bizarre reality . The world around her is in chaos. She learns that the reason for this is grounded in a financial crisis and the speculation about the last food resources and their total destruction. The use of biological weapons spread among the people a virus that has turned them into dangerous mutants.
Caught in this desperate situation, Eloise joins a group of people as they are driven by the desire to escape this nightmare.
Nothing new there, but the trailer looks very very cool.
Toxic Lullaby appears to be coming out on DVD on September 11 this year.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: when it comes to making entertaining zombie movies these days, Europe is soundly kicking the US around. The latest in a line of European zombie goodness is a film that I’ve frothed over before: La Horde, by Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher.
I loved La Horde, and it now holds a place in my mind as one of the top (something) zombie movies ever. And why is that? It’s better than the sum of its parts. Let’s take a look.
The premise of the movie is very simple. Gangsters kill a cop, cops go for revenge, zombie apocalypse happens and cops and gangsters have to work together to survive. Nothing massively original here.
The main characters are pretty much what you would expect. The intelligent but ruthless gangster boss and his murderous, brutal little brother. The tough but mostly honest cops. The crazed French Vietnam veteran…as said, pretty much what you would expect. There is a lot of wasted potential here, with unanswered questions and characters that could’ve easily been given more depth and explored in detail.
The acting is fine. Nothing special, the word “solid” springs to mind.
The dialogue has its moments, but yet again, nothing really memorable. Like the characters, there could’ve been much more here.
The zombies? They’re of the nowadays typical, running variety.
The gore? Existent, but not excessive. Nothing special.
The visuals? Dark and grimy. Lots of quick cuts and even some camera shake. Industry standard.
…and suprisingly out of all these unremarkable elements emerges one of the most entertaining zombie flicks in a while.
Actually, I think that entertaining is the operative word here. While La Horde may lack the social commentary of Romero’s original Dawn of the Dead, the lovable characters of Bio Zombie or Shaun of the Dead or the sheer gripping horror of REC, it is a very enjoyable piece of zombie cinema. It’s both the movie’s strongest and its weakest point: it doesn’t try anything new or fancy, but what it does, it does very well.
La Horde is a poster boy for contemporary zombie movies, and that’s why a review of it turns into a review of today’s zombie movies in general. It looks good, it’s packed with action and consequently paints the zombies as a very immediate, shocking threat, instead of creating the sense of despair prevalent in Romero’s original trilogy. It’s very much a win some-lose some scenario, as some – but not all – character building in the form of dialogue and actor performance must be sacrificed to make room for action. On the other hand it makes for a movie in which action is plentiful and which never really gets boring or creeps along at a snail’s pace.
Overall verdict: Whether you’ll like La Horde depends very much on what you’re looking for in a zombie flick. If it’s character development, a look at contemporary society and moral content, you’ll probably be better off elsewhere. I’m not saying that those things are nonexistent in La Horde, there are simply other movies that focus more on such genre aspects. If, however, you’re in the mood for a grim and gritty French cop flick with zombies, you’re in paradise.
La Horde is coming to DVD on July 7, and should be available in VOD services this summer.
Here’s the official site, and there’s a trailer below if you want to see what the movie is all about.
Dawn of the Lead 