The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

You can thank Italy for this classic moment

The modern zombie movie is a thoroughly American invention, forged in Pittsburgh by George A. Romero. But like rock and roll and nuclear weapons, it wasn’t long before foreigners had a look and decided they just had to make their own homegrown versions. Before the blood was even dry on his incredible undead innovation, zombie began popping up all over the world, a trend that continues to this day. Once you’ve finished picking the corpse of Romero’s canon clean, had your brains eaten by Return of the Living Dead and devoured Zombieland  and are ready to travel the world in search of new zombie thrills, this handy guide should get you started. It’s by no means comprehensive—that’s a book, not a blog post—but it should serve as an intro to what the world outside of the good old USA offers the zombie aficionado.

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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.

After a slight delay, Resident Evil: Revelations is expected to hit the markets February 7. If you’re into the collectibles, Gamestop has a pre-order bonus of a pretty slick looking cover for your 3DS. (FEARnet)

The fully restored and digitally enhanced version of the Lucio Fulci classic film Zombie will be hitting a pretty large group of theaters in the US and Canada October 21 through 22. (Buy Zombie)

While I know that all of you are die hard fans, if you’ve got any friends just getting into The Walking Dead for season two, here’s a nifty field guide to the series first season that explains the backstory. (FEARnet)

It looks like Zack Snyder is working on a new zombie project with the director of the upcoming prequel The Thing. It will be called Army of the Dead and it’s being billed as one of the most vile zombie movies of all time. Looking forward to the news on this one. (io9)

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.

To make up for a lackluster news day yesterday we’ve got a ton of great content today and several videos. In an effort to save time, I’ll just point out now that all videos are after the break. Enjoy!

Here’s a first look at the zombies of World War Z. I hate to say it, but they look very bland compared to modern zombies. They look like leprosy afflicted Beatles impersonators. You be the judge. (io9)

They might only be ten seconds each, but check out four new clips from season two of The Walking Dead and anxiously await the start of the new season. (Buy Zombie)

If you’re like us, you’re really excited now that Fulci’s classic film Zombie is now on Blu-ray. Here’s a sweet video showing the level of detail that the effects team went through to make the movie a high definition masterpiece. (FEARnet)

In a recent interview, director Craig Gillespie said that Pride and Prejudice and Zombies would stay incredibly true to Austen’s original work, the only difference being the zombies. It’s sad that a parody book stays closer to the source material than World War Z. (LA Times)

Check out this cool preview for Key of Z, a zombie comic book co-created by one half of the band Coheed and Cambria. (Comic Book Resources)

While it’s not action packed, we’ve got some beautiful footage of the environments and time change effects for the upcoming Xbox Live MMO code named Class3. (FEARnet)

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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.

Just a quick update from us here at the IZA. We’ve wrapped up Zombie Movie Marathon Month and we’ll be releasing the podcast reviewing the last fifteen or so movies sometime next week. So look out for it and get your mp3 players ready! Now on with the news!

If you live in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, then you’ve got to check out the Shoot House, an establishment that lets you fire simulated weapons at real zombies for fun and survival practice. (CDA Press)

We’ve got all of the juicy details on the Blu-Ray release of the Lucio Fulci classic film Zombie, which is jam packed with shark fighting extras. (Fangoria)

There’s also some details and a release date (it’s this month!) for REC 2 on DVD. (Dread Central)

Everyone should check out this review of the script for the comic book to film adaptation of R.I.P.D. which I’m already excited about. There are a few minor spoilers, so beware. (io9)

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.

Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (or Zombi 2 as it’s better known) is finally coming to Blu-ray later this year. (Brutal As Hell)

If this isn’t the biggest piece of racism ever I don’t know what is… Apparently the zombie actors (the REAL stars) of The Walking Dead had to eat at a separate craft services table during shoots so they wouldn’t make those human actors squeamish. (Buy Zombie)

After the break we’ve got the trailer for Poisoned, a zombie movie out of Israel that looks pretty exciting. (Dread Central)

If you’re not a huge fan of the television show House, you will be after you check out this clip (after the break) of Hugh Laurie kicking ass against the undead horde. It’s simply amazing. (io9)

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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.

Rumor is The Walking Dead (TV) will debut on AMC Friday, October 8. Let the countdown begin… (Bloody Disgusting)

There’s a big interview with The Dead co-director Howard Ford for you to read. He tells us about influences, the hassles of filming in Africa and why it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen. All that and part two of said interview is coming soon. (Dread Central)

You could also watch a behind-the-scenes clip from The Dead in embedded video glory, below. (Fangoria)

Let’s talk Resident Evil: Afterlife with producer Don Carmody. How much you want to bet half the interview is him talking about how revolutionary the 3D is? (Fangoria)

Natalie Portman talks Pride and Prejudice and Zombies movie progress to MTV — in brief, new draft is in from writer/director David O. Russell, shooting hopefully to begin next year, she thinks it’s clever. There’s video if you like looking at her talk. (MTV Movies Blog)

Point your eyeballs at these pictures from The Horde, the French zombie/gangster/cop flick that most people seem unimpressed with. Supposedly it’s hitting VOD this week. (FEARnet)

Enjoy a nice essay on the classic film Lucio Fulci’s Zombie. (Fangoria)

Look out below for a trailer for Zombiefied a zombie-slasher film that’s debuting October 15, 2010 in Houston, Texas. (Buy Zombie)

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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.

A brief interview with Paco Plaza, co-director of REC and REC 2, covers his motivations for making film, the origins of the zombie plague in the films and more. (28 Days Later Analysis)

The awesome zombie/vampire movie The Revenant (review here) is getting a showing July 12 in Montreal at the Fantasia Festival. (28 Days Later Analysis)

The New York Museum of Arts and Design is running a month-long program of Italian zombie films this July. Featured films include Dawn of the Dead (presumably Dario Argento’s Euro edit, which is awesome), Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, Cemetery Man, almost every zombie movie Lucio Fulci ever made and Paolo Pasolini’s Pigsty (which no one but this museum seems to think is a zombie movie, but whatever). (Fangoria)

Some enterprising and twisted soul took a warped Amber Alert PSA and turned it into an even more warped faux-ad for Left 4 Dead 3: Soccer Mom. It’s embedded below for your entertainment. (Kotaku)

I am not at all sure Pet Sematary needs to be remade, even though the original sucked, but if that idea intrigues you, there’s a bit of info on the possible remake in an interview with one-time screenwriter on the project David Kajganich. (Lilja’s Library)

Here’s an interview with Dr. Dale Seslick, of How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, the British zombie apocalypse survival road show. (Southern Fried Gamer)

Finally, apologies for this being a day late. I had to work last night from 5 p.m. until almost midnight. There will be another news post at the regular-ish time tonight, but none on Friday, because I am getting married that day and thus will be sort of busy.

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The more Lucio Fulci films I see, the more I appreciate his work. The latest, and last of the Fulci zombie flicks, is The House By the Cemetery. It’s your basic haunted-house tale, only the house is haunted by a zombie. Crazy!

The zombie lives in the basement and emerges to murder and eat people to stay alive. A family moves into the house so the dad can do some research and pretty soon weirdness is erupting all over the place… The family has a weird-looking little kid and there’s a little dead girl that only the kid can see, and some weird crying coming from the basement. And a tombstone thing in the main hallway and of course the cemetery right outside.

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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.

The mainstream will not let the Survival of the Dead-induced George Romero interview mania pass without getting in on the action! The Master talks to the Boston Globe about why zombie movies will never die and what his movies are really about. (Boston.com)

Sneak a peek of Resident Evil: Afterlife with three new images from the film. (UGO)

Zombies invade Battle Creek, Michigan (isn’t that where all the cereal gets made?) and a local blog captures the mayhem. (The Village Thinker)

Looking forward to “zombies in Africa” epic The Dead? Then this report should be quite interesting. (Zombie Command)

A new horror anthology series called Habeus Corpus is on the way, and one of the episodes is about civil service zombies. Color me intrigued. (Dread Central)

Baltimore, Maryland will get its sci-fi con May 28-31 at BaltiCon, where you can enjoy a panel discussion on the all-important zombie apocalypse preparation kit. (The Command Line)

A report from PollyGrind, a Las Vegas-based film festival, calls Zombie Apocalypse Now: A Zombie Hunter “one of the most trying movie-watching experiences … ever endured.” Sounds promising! You can read a bit more about it here. (Las Vegas Sun)

How about some delicious “zombie meat”? Okay, it’s really beef jerky — blue beef jerky, mind you — marketed as zombie meat in Japan. Yummy. (Pink Tentacle)

Coming this week to Blu-ray: Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead (and a lot of other stuff without any zombies in it). (Dread Central)

Sometimes, you just need to tell the world, “Lucio Fulci’s Zombie is an awesome fucking movie and I love it.” This shirt will do that. It’s one of Rotten Cotton‘s many movie-themed offerings that repurposes a film’s original promo art work into a spiffy T-shirt. I don’t own any Rotten Cotton, so I can’t speak to the quality, but most of its shirts, this one included, run a reasonable $15. That seems a decent price for a chance to shout your love of classic zombie film to the world.

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.