The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

If you’re bored at work this afternoon, or need something fun and zombie-centric for the weekend, how about the documentary Zombie Girl? If you haven’t heard of this, it’s a documentary that follows the efforts of 12-year-old filmmaker Emily Hagins to make her own zombie film.

Let me repeat: 12-year-old filmmaker. Wow.

I haven’t had a chance to watch this myself, but I have heard some good things. I’ll probably get around to it this weekend (with a review to follow shortly if I do) but I wanted to get the word out so people who want to watch it can, before it goes away. It’s free, and though it looks to be embedded, that’s actually a widget — click on it and you’ll be taken to the Snag website to view it. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.

What does Final Girl think of this zombie?

Well, shit. My paying work is keeping me really busy these days and I haven’t had time to make a dent in the mountain of cool stuff I have lined up for this site. In the meantime, how about you enjoy this post from Final Girl? She is one of my top three favorite horror bloggers and about a week ago she did a really cool post about her favorite zombies. Her list is a nice mix of the obvious (Bub from Day of the Dead, cemetery zombie from Night of the Living Dead) and more original choices (not going to spoil those, go read the article!).

As with everything she writes, her unique voice and slightly off-kilter charm shine through. Seriously, I could read this woman’s musings on cereal production in the Great Lake states from 1956 to 1973 and be riveted. But when she talks about something as near and dear to my heart as the walking dead? Well, that’s just gravy.

Read all about Final Girl’s Favorite Zombies.

I’m more of a reader than a listener, but when I am in the car (like I will be a lot on my vacation) podcasts are just about the perfect way to speed the journey. So while I am away, I’ll be catching up on the backlog of Mail Order Zombie, the best zombie podcast I’ve found. The show originally focused on direct-to-DVD zombie movies, but has since expanded to all things zombie, from books, to movies to games and more. It’s a once weekly, two-ish hour podcast with the hosts Brother D and Miss Bren, plus assorted guests. Each week, they review a few movies, answer some listener questions or respond to feedback, have a few guests, talk about their daily lives — you know, the usual podcast thing. It’s very professional sounding, apart from the fact that Brother D is not blessed with one of those incredibly deep, resonant “radio voices” you’re used to hearing on commercial radio. Apart from that very minor quibble, Brother D is entertaining and well-versed in all things zombie and an excellent, engaging host. I fully expect he’ll help the miles fly by. Check him out and tell him I sent you.

Got an e-mail today informing me about an intriguing new site/twist on the zombie mythos. It’s called The Zombie Wilson Diaries, by Tim Long, and it is about a man shipwrecked on a deserted island … with a zombie. A once-hot female zombie, no less. The story is told, as the title suggests, diary-style (which is clearly the best format for a man-alone/desert-island tale) and it looks promising. I haven’t had a chance to read the entire thing yet, but what I have read is well written with some nice horror and comedic elements. When I have a chance I’ll read the entirety of it, but for now I wanted to put it out there so all of you hungering for something new and zombiesque could enjoy it.

Visit The Zombie Wilson Diaries.

If you enjoyed Otto; or Up with Dead People — or even if you were utterly repulsed by it — this recent interview with director Bruce LaBruce is well worth a read. LaBruce talks about his influences, his intentions and people’s reaction to the film (and his other work as well) with Sean Abley for Fangoria. It might not change your mind about the movie, but it shows that LaBruce is a filmmaker of rare vision and courage. You might hate what the man puts out, but you sort of have to admire his willingness to take chances and put himself out there — isn’t that what artists are supposed to do?

I’ve gone on record stating that I think Otto is a worthy film, even an important one, for zombie fans to consider (read my review here).  That being said, I acknowledge it is not a film for everyone (LaBruce says the same thing in his interview). Hell, one of my good friends, an art historian who’s been known to enjoy a good zombie movie, texted me to tell me I was “off my rocker” for recommending it to her. She couldn’t get past the gut-fucking scene…

A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… Got news tips? E-mail me at cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com.

News today? How about none, basically? Not that that’s why I haven’t posted. I was tied up with a paying job all day and didn’t have time, but as it turns out, it turned out to be pretty much a moot point, because there’s no real news to report! But because I love you (and zombies) I dug up a few nuggets…

Remember yesterday, when I gave you the early word on Colin, the under-$100 budgeted zombie flick from the zombie’s point of view? Well, CNN reads the blog apparently (or, just maybe they have their own source … I guess it’s possible) because they have a story about it today. Still no word about distribution or eventual release date. (CNN)

And … that’s it. But, here’s a link to a cool, on-going series of short-short stories set in a zombie-infested world. It’s written in a collaborative fashion (each story has one author, but they are clearly set in the same world, telling different parts of the story). It’s called Wrath of the Damned and I heartily recommend it.

Have a great weekend, and please let me know what I should watch for my movie marathon!

I wanted to draw your attention to a newish web comic called The Zombie Years. It’s a post-apocalyptic zombie story that follows a young Cuban-American named Frank who lives in Miami and so far it looks great. Here’s what you can expect from the series, in the creator’s words: “Zombie Years is a Horror Drama with lots of action and Humor, Survival tips, both real and unreal, DIY concepts, Latin American/Caribbean culture, while featuring Miami as a whole other character in the story.”

The writing is solid, the art is appealing and vibrant and the series doesn’t waste a lot of time with clumsy exposition or setup — it’s action packed from the word go, with explosions, face-shooting and hand-to-hand mayhem abounding in the few short pages available. Poking around on the site, it’s obvious a lot of thought and care has gone into the comic. The author, Juan Navarro, seems to have crafted a deep, engaging fiction and backstory and it will be exciting to see it come out in the comic over time. He’s already outlined the varieties of zombies, the timeline of the epidemic and other important details.

Really, the only complaint is that there just isn’t enough of it yet. I read the entirety of it in no time at all and now I have to wait a week for the next page. Damnation! Patience is not one of my many virtues. On the other hand, if you want to check it out, you can still get in at the more-or-less beginning, which is kind of nice in its own way.

Read it and judge for yourself at The Zombie Years web site.

Good morning, zombie fans. Here’s a link to an interview with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies co-author Seth Grahame-Smith to enjoy on your coffee break (or while you should be working — don’t worry, I won’t tell). My favorite line: “If you read through the original book it’s startling and a bit eerie how many opportunities Jane Austen left in her original work for ultra-violent zombie mayhem.” Uh, okay.

Check back later today for a short review of the thoroughly unimpressive Quick and the Undead.

I came across Night Zero today, an interesting new zombie tale told in the innovative (for the U.S., anyway) format of fumetti, which are comics that utilize photos rather than illustration. Specifically, Night Zero uses high dynamic range (HDR) photography and a process called tonemapping to produce its images. The results are interesting, an almost hyperreal look that still has a “comics” look. It seem like they are still working out the kinks, as some of the panels look markedly better than others.

Format aside, Night Zero is set in a world that has collapsed due to a plague of “scratchers,” zombies of the infected and crazed type, similar to 28 Days Later. The first two chapters are available, along with a third vignette. So far, it’s an intriguing story that centers around a Land of the Dead type “city on the hill” stronghold. The city is run by a group that doesn’t exactly see eye to eye on everything and it looks like the intrigue between the various factions will drive the narrative, similar to the political intrigue that drove Battlestar Galactica. One amusing detail is booze seems to stave off the infection — an idea I’ve seen once or twice elsewhere that never fails to amuse me.

There isn’t enough there to give it a full review yet, but my initial impression is that it shows some promise in its narrative structure and a well-developed setting, while the characters seem a little two dimensional (no pun intended) and the format may not be up to displaying the degree of action that will be necessary to pull the story off properly. Time will tell if I am right. For now, considering it’s free and available online, it’s definitely worth a look. I’ll be watching it and you can expect a full review at some point in the future.

Read it and judge for yourself at the Night Zero web site.

One of my good artist friends who knows of my predilection for the walking dead gave me a print of the image above a few months ago and it’s been hanging in my house ever since. I really like it — the details in the picture are exquisite. Every time I look at it I seem to notice something new.

When I recently saw the woman who gave it to me I asked her if she knew the artist’s name who did it and she told me it was Stan Yan. I could have figured that out myself probably, but the signature was a little hard to read. Anyway, it turns out that not only is Yan a local Denver artist, I’ve actually interviewed him before regarding a non-zombie project of his. Small world, huh?

Among his many projects, Yan produces zombie caricatures, or zombicatures as he calls them, at conventions, or by commission via his web site. You can find information on how to get prints of this piece, or any of his other zombie works or your even very own zombicature here. And stay tuned, because I’ll have an interview with Yan about his work in the undead medium up sometime in the next week or so.