The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

Halloween is almost here — not to mention the countless zombie crawls and related events October brings — which means it’s time to start thinking about a costume. Actually, who am I kidding? It’s long past time to start thinking about a costume, but most readers of this site have it easy: you’re going as a zombie, duh!

That said, as a hardcore fan, you probably want a hardcore costume. That means piecing together lots of little props, carefully aging your clothes into a suitably shitty state and practicing your zombie makeup day in and day out. Elaborate stuff. If, like me, you aren’t well on your way to having your elaborate zombie costume created, it’s probably time to think about going off the rack.

The people of HalloweenCostumes.com contacted me a while back about their off-the-rack zombie costume and asked if I wanted to give it a review. Considering I’ve reviewed everything from zombie films to zombie energy drinks, naturally I said yes. A few days later, I had their stock zombie outfit in my hands. Here’s how it shakes out.

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Zombies. Terrorists. Super-secret spy agencies. ACTION.

In Patient Zero, Jonathan Maberry has found a crossover so obvious, and so perfect, it is astounding it hasn’t already been done to death: the zombie apocalypse techno-thriller. Take one part pulpy grocery-store bestseller about the world’s most high-tech spies facing off against the world’s most desperate terrorists. Add an equal amount of classic zombie apocalypse scenario. Stir well, garnish with a Bond-worthy supervillain, and voilà! Patient Zero.

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Worst. wedding day. EVER.

The third film in the REC series has arrived, and with it arrive some changes. The first film inverted the paradigm of Night of the Living Dead, trapping survivors in a building with zombies. REC 2 turned the dials to 11, injecting a first-person shooter angle into the cinéma vérité mix and upping the adrenaline levels (think of REC as Alien and REC 2 as Aliens and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect.) Now REC 3: Genesis adds something else entirely unexpected: humor. Even weirder is that it works surprisingly well. (The rest of this review will contain the occasional spoiler for the first two films, so if you haven’t seen them and are spoiler averse, stop here).

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This week’s fashion zombie entry is something of a callback to one of my favorite zombie t-shirts of all time. It’s by the same artist (Aled Lewis), same company (Threadless) and it essentially illustrates the same scenario: our hero facing off the amassed undead from a tactically sound yet strategically doomed vantage point. What’s not to love? It could be called derivative of its forerunner, but I say that’s bullshit. There’s nothing wrong with an artist revisiting a theme over and over again if the theme is cool enough, and this one is plenty cool. This one will set you back $20 from Threadless, which is a mite steep, but I will say that I still have every Threadless shirt I have ever purchased and they are still in great shape, so you do kind of get what you pay for. If you are the patient type, you could also wait for one of their intermittent sales, which often see their fine torso coverings selling for as little as $10.

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.

Apparently the neologism YOLO is all the rage among the kids. An acronym of “You only live once,” YOLO is typically called upon to justify some stupid, rash, and occasionally lethal decision—like, say, teasing a zombie. If that were to happen, the result would be what you see above: You only live twice, even if the second time around it’s as some ghoulish, flesh-hungry, animated corpse. In other words, it’s just what everyone needs: a zombie-themed lampooning of the idiotic youth trend of the moment. Huzzah! This shirt will set you back $20 at Snorg Tees, which is a little steep in my opinion, but hey, YOLO, right?

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.

This week’s Fashion Zombie turns the spotlight on the Walken Dead. Is that a joke so obvious even your not-clever friend thought it up by the third episode of season 2 of The Walking Dead? It is. Is it a one-note, essentially dumb joke? It is. Does that mean it is any less sweet of a t-shirt? It does not. So enjoy your Walken Dead t-shirt and joke, for the reasonable price of $14.99 from TShirtBordello.com, or at least buy it for that friend of yours that just thinks it’s the funniest fucking thing he’s ever heard so maybe he will finally shut up about it. Bonus: In case you haven’t seen it, the video form of this one-note joke is embedded below.

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.

You’ve got zombie questions? We’ve got zombie answers! Ask us anything about the living dead and we’ll do our best to give you the best answer no money can buy. In our inaugural edition, we answer a question from Twitter user @MaryKoCo: “Why do zombies have such shitty clothes?! You JUST died; how’d you mess up your shirt that bad?”

Excellent question, @MaryKoCo! The short answer is, they don’t, necessarily. Have a look at this dapper motherfucker:

Not too shabby, right? A little dusty, perhaps, but looking good in that suit. That’s the first zombie from Night of the Living Dead, the first of the modern zombie films. So, you see, plenty of zombie don’t look bad at all. But you have to consider that fashion means nothing to zombies. They don’t change their clothes; they make no effort to stop viscera and gore from messing up their pants. In other words, the undead lifestyle is really hard on your clothes. You can go from fashion plate to total mess in no time flat.

Also, a lot of zombie film directors are lazy, worthless, uncreative fucks, and they don’t pay any attention at all to things like “how long has this dude been dead, and what state of decay should his clothes be in?” and so they ruin it for everyone else. Nice work, you dickbags.

Got a question about zombies? We want to answer it! Tweet it at us on Twitter, ask us via Facebook, or even just leave your question in a comment and we’ll answer it as soon as we can.

Fashion Zombie is back! And it brought a sweet shirt, naturally. This is yet another one of those “only available for a limited time” places offering cool t-shirts, and their first Fashion Zombie entry features a nice mix of the living dead and typography. As you can see, they’ve spelled out “zombie” using, well, zombies. This is one of the less-gruesome, more-cutesy zombie shirts, suitable for draping yourself in at children’s parties, company picnics, or while trying to pick up the cute girl/guy in horn-rimmed glasses at the coffee shop. But act fast! It’s only available for about 10 more hours, for the entirely reasonable cost of $11.

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… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

Here’s a nice in depth write up of the indie zombie bromantic comedy DeadHeads which hits DVD February 22. (Canberra Times)

Bill Hinzman, the first zombie to appear in the Romero classic Night of the Living Dead, passed away this past week at the age of 76. I mean this in the most respectful way that I hope he rises from the grave to come and get us all. (We Are Movie Geeks)

Every now and then a trailer comes along that makes us here at the IZA remember why we love zombie movies. Osombie is a movie about the re-animated corpse of Osama Bin Laden and the mission wherein a group of military operatives go to kill him, again. Check it out after the break and get ready for what will be an amazing ride. (First Showing)

It looks like the fine folks over at Machinima have teamed up with Lionsgate and FEARnet to bring season two of Bite Me, the zombie webseries, back to life. (c21 media)

It looks like Tom Savini is really pushing to play the coveted role of The Governor when the role inevitably emerges on The Walking Dead, but he might have some stiff competition ahead of him. Personally I’m hoping he gets the role. (MTV)

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A daily roundup of all the undead news that shambles into view… News post by Johnathon Brock and Cory Casciato. Got news tips? E-mail them to cory.casciato[AT]gmail.com. Bookmark the home page or add the RSS feed to your reader for your daily dose of walking dead.

This piece of custom firepower from the fine folks at DoubleStar weapons is the last thing you’ll ever need in the zombie apocalypse. Check it out in action after the break. (Dvice)

We’ve got a cute trailer for the upcoming book the Girls Guide to Dating Zombies after the break. (Dread Central)

SPOILER ALERT: If you’re caught up on The Walking Dead and want to see what’s in store for next weekends premiere, then check out the first three minutes of episode 8 after the break. (Superhero Hype)

There’s a new trailer out for the latest upcoming DLC add-on for Dead Island and it looks pretty interesting. This looks to be a solo mission for all you multiplayer fans of the game. Check it out after the break. (Game Bandits)

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