The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

Ghost zombies? Zombie ghosts? It's all very confusing...

Zombie or ghost: It should be simple. If it has a body, it’s a zombie. If it doesn’t, it’s a ghost. Or to put it another way, a soulless, living dead body is a zombie, while a disembodied spirit is a ghost. But no, filmmakers have to go and make it all confusing and ambiguous — usually in terrible, terrible films.

I can’t say for sure that’s a result of mixing/confusing the two very different undead creatures, but I will say this: chances are good if you don’t know quite what kind of movie you are making, it is going to suck. And if you aren’t really sure what kind of creature your movie features, then almost by definition you aren’t real sure what kind of movie you’re making, right? Here’s a look at a few of the movies that blur the line, in an effort to sort out whether we’re looking at a ghost-like zombie, a zombie-like ghost or some genuine hybrid.

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead. Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

Space zombie fans on Xbox 360 and PS3 may get a shot at playing the on-rails spin-off Dead Space: Extraction soon if rumors of it coming to those platforms as a downloadable game turn out to be true. (Kotaku)

The lovable zombie girl who ate mommy in the original Night of the Living Dead (Kyra Schon) now makes handmade, horror-themed jewelry. Which means A) we live in the strangest of all possible worlds and B) I sense a future installment of Fashion Zombie covering some of her pieces… (Dread Central)

One blogger uses his experiences with Left 4 Dead 2 to explain why he probably won’t survive the coming zombie apocalypse. (Exercising Monsters)

A zombie walk and a screening of Zombieland at one of America’s oldest operating theaters are recounted in this recap. Plus, pictures of zombies! (io9)

A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead. Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

At long last, a game that combines time travel, zombies and dinosaurs has arrived. It’s called Age of Zombies and it will be a downloadable game for the PS3/PSP that looks like the Super Nintendo games of our youth. Well, my youth. (Kotaku)

The latest patch for Left 4 Dead 2 has arrived: bye-bye to auto-spawning during a finale, hello to bots and now melee weapons don’t have quite the same oomph against a Tank. Plus lots of other tweaks. PC players have it now, Xbox 360 players will get it shortly. (Steam News)

The Irish national broadcaster is running some sort of contest for web series and, wouldn’t you know it, a zombie series called Zombie Bashers, about a zombie disposal service, is one of the entrants. (Dread Central)

One film critic argues that irony is the most common element of zombie films. (True/Slant)

At last, Plants vs. Zombies iPhone gets a solid release date: February 15. (Kotaku)

Few things in life are as awesome as a t-shirt featuring President Obama punching a zombie in the face. It’s the work of an Etsy designer who goes by the name of tinaseamonster (from an illustration by Chris Piers) and if you act now, you can probably order one of the latest batch before it sells out. Presumably, there will be more later, but why wait? She also has a bunch of other great zombie-themed stuff, so go check out her store.

I’m attempting to assemble an all zombie-themed wardrobe. Fashion Zombie is my weekly post detailing the coolest zombie-themed clothes and accessories I can find. Check back every Monday for another look at the hottest zombie apparel.

A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead. Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

Zombie toy collectors will have a new, gruesome figure to add to the display case when the Undying Carcass is released shortly. You can preorder it February 12 if you subscribe to Sideshow Toys newsletter. (Dread Central)

Check out a gallery of almost two dozen images from the upcoming “zombie outbreak in Africa” film The Dead. (Bloody Disgusting)

In Chilean indie zombie flick Blind Death (Morte Cieca) a mining disaster leads to a zombie outbreak. Fifteen years alter a team of mercenaries and scientist venture into the quarantine zone to discover what happened. Trailer with clumsy, moderately hilarious subtitles after the break. (Quiet Earth)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead. Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

To honor George A. Romero’s birthday today (happy birthday!), the folks at FEARNet had a bunch of horror luminaries, including Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright and Max Brooks, give short tributes to the master. You can also find some other great zombie-related stuff from today on their News page. (FEARNet)

Can’t get enough Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? You’ll be very excited to hear about the graphic novel version, then. (Dread Central)

The charming horror-comedy (with zombies!) I Sell the Dead (review here) is coming to DVD/Blu-ray on March 30 for $20 (DVD) or $30 (Blu). (Bloody Disgusting)

French zombie film Mutants hits various VOD (video on demand) systems February 10, so there’s a new trailer out, which you can watch after the break. I want to see this, but fear it will be dubbed for VOD. I hate dubbed films. (Bloody Disgusting)

The band Zombie Apocalypse NOW! is releasing their third EP Forbidden Tales of Science on February 5. (Western Herald)

NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me totally falls in love with a fiction about a taping of their show during the zombie apocalypse. (Wait Wait Don’t Blog Me)

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Today is the one-year anniversary of the site! So, to celebrate, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite zombie things — the stuff that I use, look at or think about every single day. I’m not going to cover my favorite movies, books or games here — those are amply covered in other posts and each of those categories is probably deserving of its own dedicated list. These are the other things — the little zombie accoutrements, ephemera and oddities that make every day in the Casciato household a zombie day. And consequently, many of the things that make my fiancée a little crazy (she does not love zombies).
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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead. Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

To celebrate George A. Romero’s seventieth birthday FEARNet is having a day-long zombiefest tomorrow. Lots of streaming content, interviews with the Master himself, zombie haiku, pictures of zombie cakes, all kinds of shit. (FEARNet)

Learn why Ellis is developer Valve’s favorite Left 4 Dead 2 character and lots of other behind-the-scene fun facts on the popular zombie killing game in this interview with writer Chet Faliszek. (Games Radar)

Read all about how The Dead, the upcoming “zombies in Africa” flick, came to be in this Q&A with director Howard Ford. Plus zombie pictures! (Bloody Disgusting)

Here’s a gallery of NSFW images (for reasons of boobs. And lots of blood) from Zombie Women of Satan. (Bloody Disgusting)

Some people in the UK did a zombie apocalypse miniatures sculpting competition. The results are pretty goddamn awesome. (Dawn of the Lead)

A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead. Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

You lucky bastards in the U.K. are getting a massive, super-deluxe Blu-ray version of George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead. There are too many special features to even hit the highlights here, but I’d say most any fan of Day, or Romero in general, should be happy with it. (Bloody Disgusting)

Author Max Brooks is coming to the Salem, Oregon public library for a presentation on (what else?) zombie survival as part of the library’s “More Brains! A Zombie Survival Drill” film festival February 27 and a local magazine interviewed him for the event. (Willamette Live)

There’s a CG-animated post-apocalyptic sci-fi zombie movie called A.D. in the works (well, planning stages really). Trailer after the break, interview with the people behind it here. (Zombie Info)

Then there’s E’Gad Zombies! a movie with an olde-timey take on zombies. It’s kind of an original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies kind of thing from the looks of it. There’s a trailer after the break, and a brief statement from the director and a few still images here. (Living Dead Media)

Come February 23, you can own Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay on DVD. But I’d like to remind you that you shouldn’t bother — it’s terrible (review here). (Dread Central)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead. Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

If you loved Zombieland and can’t wait to get your hands on the DVD you can get a sneak peek at the deleted scenes and special features. (Dread Central)

If you’re in the Pasadena, California area, there’s a zombie art exhibit you should check out. (A World on Fire)

You can’t ever have enough zombie survival tips, so enjoy this fairly comprehensive guide to surviving a run-in with the undead. (Mahalo)

With the motto “If you’re going to make a movie in your backyard, then make it an EPIC!” Italian Zombie Movie sounds promising — at least for those of us that appreciate the occasional backyard epic zombie movie. (A World on Fire)

Coming tomorrow on DVD is a sci-fi zombie apocalypse called Biophage. Bio-chemical agent, zombie-like “biophages,” the usual. (28 Days Later Analysis)

Zombie westerns seem to be popping up everywhere lately — Dead Walkers is just a short, but the trend seems to be picking up steam. There’s a trailer embedded after the break. (28 Days Later Analysis)

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