The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse

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.

Read about the adventures of the Left 4 Dead crew in the webcomic The Sacrifice, which kicked off with issue one today. (Official Left 4 Dead Blog)

Apparently, Return of the Living Dead hits Blu-ray this week. Wonder if they fixed the issues with the soundtrack that pissed off hardcore fans with the original DVD release? I’m guessing … no. (Bloody Disgusting)

Not only are they making more Resident Evil live-action movies (see yesterday’s news post), they are making a sequel to the CG-animated Resident Evil: Degeneration called Resident Evil: Damnation. (Read my review of Resident Evil: Degeneration.) (Kotaku)

The Trekkie/zombie mashup novel Night of the Living Trekkies and its author Kevin David Anderson get some coverage in what seems to be his local paper. Good for him. (The Press Enterprise)

There’s also a pretty kick-ass Night of the Living Trekkies book trailer that makes me wish it was a movie. It’s embedded below for you. (io9)

There’s a new, slick looking trailer for the “hot chicks who kick zombie ass” series (webseries, I presume) Code Z. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Bitch Slap in the zombie apocalypse and you’re in the right neighborhood. Could be fun! (28 Days Later Analysis)

A plague of demon-zombies, a dude stuck in North Korea and a cheesy heavy metal soundtrack are the key ingredients in the indie flick Fear Eats the Soul. Teaser embedded below. (Quiet Earth)

A zombie film made via the process of a bunch of zombie fans discussing different zombie apocalypse scenarios, then cobbling that into a plot could be good, but the trailer for They Walk (embedded below), which was apparently developed exactly that way, makes it look as if the end result is pretty lackluster and disjointed. (Dread Central)

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Kind of hard to believe, but the site’s been around for just a touch more than eighteen months now. In that time, I’ve amassed more than 600 posts and almost a thousand comments on said posts (thanks for the feedback!), all of which means, if you’re new, or don’t visit the site on a regular basis, you might have missed some cool stuff. And the last thing I would want is for you to miss some cool stuff, especially if it was cool stuff I wrote, so I’ve gone back and compiled a list of the top ten posts on the site since its humble beginnings in February 2009. Without further ado, here are those posts…

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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.

You probably weren’t at San Diego Comic Con, so this detailed report from the Walking Dead (TV) panel should ease the pain a bit, and get you up to speed on what you may have missed. (The Geek Generation)

Or you could could just watch the Walking Dead (TV) Comic Con panel in embedded video form below! (Bloody Disgusting)

Maybe Resident Evil is more your speed? Then this description of the Resident Evil: Afterlife footage from Comic Con should be quite exciting for you. (FEARnet)

Or maybe a recap of the Resident Evil: Afterlife panel with Wentworth Miller, Paul W.S. Anderson and Ali Larter is your cup of tea. (Dread Central)

Done with that? Now check out this continuation of an interview with Resident Evil: Afterlife producers Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer. (Fangoria)

Full-length trailer for The Goon, the CGI animated zom-com movie coming from producer David Fincher, embedded below. (i09)

The classic Return of the Living Dead will make its way to Blu-ray September 14, 2010! (High-Def Digest)

Apparently, rage zombies made an appearance on the SyFy TV show Eureka recently. (io9)

Hey, English peoples! Want to be in Zombie Hood? Can you be in the Midlands (wherever that is) between September and January? Well, then get on it! (Zombie Command)

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There have been many milestones throughout the eighty-year history of the zombie in Western culture. In today’s world, where zombies are such a part of everyday life that every college campus is aswarm with games of Human vs. Zombie, zombies are used in advertising and we get a new zombie movie or game released every few months, it’s easy to forget our roots. To make sure that doesn’t happen, I’ve compiled a quick overview of ten great moments in zombie history, from the earliest days to modern times. Without these milestones, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Remember and rejoice.

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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.

It’s April 1, so fake news stories abound. I’m going to do my best to sort the real from the BS, and tell you about both, but I apologize in advance if I get any wrong.

Real News

The Return of the Living Dead film series is getting a deluxe, in-depth history in book form in the upcoming The Complete History of the Living Dead. It’s coming out October 1 and you can preorder it now , if you like the freedom to pay money for things you won’t see for a really long time. (Shock Till You Drop)

San Francisco gets WonderCon this weekend. Zombie enthusiasts, note the presence of Milla Jovovich and Max Brooks! You can get tickets and info here. (io9)

Game writer William Harms (inFamous, Supreme Commander) has branched out into novel writing with a zombie Western called Dead or Alive. In it, two stage coach robbers face the sudden, unexpected rising of the dead in a dusty frontier town. (Blend Games)

An ambitious and skillful crafter has made Plants vs. Zombies “plushies.” (MTV Multiplayer)

For the fake April 1 news, click the “Read the rest of this entry link.”

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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.

One of the original Left 4 Dead survivors won’t survive much longer! The new Left 4 Dead 2 DLC episode “The Passing” will feature just three survivors, one having given up his (or her?) life to let the others live. Then, in a follow-up prequel DLC episode for the original Left 4 Dead will let you play out those events yourself. There’s also a comic coming to stitch the story together. (Gametrailers TV)

It looks like my prayers (see here) have been answered! Rumor has it (nothing official, yet) that REC 2 is coming to US theaters in July and hitting DVD in October. Hurrah! (Bloody Disgusting)

Nashville is having a zombie prom called Promocalypse April 24. Put on a tux and nice throat wound and relive your undead high school glory!

There will be a Return of the Living Dead reunion at this year’s Monsterpalooza, April 9-11 in Burbank, California. Clu Gulager, Lianna Quigley, Dorothy Randolph, Thom Mathews, Don Calfa, John Philbin, Brian Peck, Allen Trautman and William Stout will appear. (Dread Central)

The After Dark Horrorfest IV movies hit retail tomorrow, including Zombies of Mass Destruction (review here) which is definitely worth seeing and one I expect many people will want to own. (Bloody Disgusting)

Get the details on the final issue of the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency comic. (Dread Central)

Enjoy this report on a Zombies vs. Humans games at CU Boulder. There’s also video, which you can find embedded below. (Daily Camera)

A flash mob of zombies hit Daley Plaza in Chicago. (TimeOut Chicago)

An advice columnist gives some half-decent advice on what to do in case swine flu turns out to be the first stage in a zombie apocalypse. (Daily Evergreen)

A fellow zombie blogger asks, “What’s a good first zombie movie?” For his three-year-old. But don’t worry (or call Child Protective Services!), he’s going to save it for later. He just wants to start planning. (A World on Fire)

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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.

I enjoyed this loving tribute to Dan O’Bannon via a look back at his directorial debut, the seminal Return of the Living Dead. (Fangoria)

Michael Jackson and John Landis’s classic short film/music video “Thriller” has been honored by the Library of Congress and will be preserved in the National Film Registry. (io9)

Get the first info on the super-violent zombie Western Devil’s Crossing, shooting now in North Carolina. (A World on Fire)

Some fans made a trailer for a live-action Marvel Zombies movie and it’s not half bad. The people at Revenant liked it so well they interviewed the creators. (A World on Fire)

You zombie toy collectors out there are going to love these scale-model zombie busts. Everyone needs a model zombie head around the house. They’re gruesometastic! (Dread Central)

The iPhone version of Plants vs. Zombies is coming soon — late January, apparently. (Kotaku)

If you prefer killing zombies in a rhythm game (you know, like Guitar Hero) try Zombeat. (A World on Fire)

Finally, after the break I’ve embedded a humorous short film that takes an unusual look at the attitudes of two zombie apocalypse survivors. And don’t forget, no more news updates until after the new year. Happy New Year!

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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.

Dan O’Bannon, the director of the classic Return of the Living Dead (not to mention writer of Dead & Buried, Alien and lots of other stuff) is dead of an undisclosed illness. A moment of silence, followed by a call for “Brains” (he introduced the idea in RotLD) is in order. (Dread Central)

Rejoice, for George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead has distribution. Magnet Releasing has picked it up and it will come to video on demand spring of 2010, followed by a limited theatrical release and finally, DVD. (Dread Central)

The political zombie comedy Zombies of Mass Destruction (review here) will get a theatrical release on January 29 as part of After Dark’s “Films to Die For” series. (Bloody Disgusting)

If zombie Christmas carols sound like a good time to you, you will enjoy this Q&A with It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies! A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols author Michael P. Spradlin. (LA Weekly)

A new poster and a bunch of images for Nazi zombie film Outpost II: Black Sun have been released. (Bloody Disgusting)

I’ve already written about my feelings toward and experiences with Return of the Living Dead pretty thoroughly (missed it? read it here), and I intend to write a proper review and some discussion about its place in zombie movie history at some point, so I will keep this brief. I scheduled it for viewing this year because my daughter had never seen it and it filled  a need for a classic on the schedule. There are certainly some issues with it (pacing is a bit off in spots, some of the zombie makeup is little more than mud smeared on stuntmen’s faces, some inconsistent treatment of the zombifying agent 2,4,5-Trioxin) but hey, it’s a freaking punk-rock/zombie comedy that single-handedly introduced the notion of zombies craving brains into the zombie mythos. It’s genuinely funny and even has some subtleties stirred in amongst the slapstick stupidity. And it features possibly the most iconic zombie in all filmdom in the Tarman (only Bub from Day of the Dead comes close, in my opinion).

Oh, and gratuitous nudity lovers? A young, lovely and luscious Linnea Quigley runs around for about a third of the movie stark naked. There’s a tiny shot of it to your left (sorry, those reading this at work, but it’s only 150 pixels wide and only shows a bit of side boob and side ass, cover it with your hand if the boss comes by).  Her assets are a significant part of the movie’s appeal.

Tomorrow night is the Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary. In HD, no less. I was going to say I haven’t seen this one in a while, but I was thinking about it and I’m not sure I have ever watched it all the way through. I won’t be able to say that this time tomorrow.

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

Stan Yan, a great artist who does zombie caricatures and all around cool guy, has a nice write-up at Fangoria. Which reminds me — I have a fully transcribed interview I need to finish working into my own feature on the guy… (Fangoria)

My Little Zombie Ponies — every little girl should have one. (Street Anatomy)

If you are absolutely starved to know more about REC 2, there are three short clips available. I would have embedded them but they are utterly pointless — just a few seconds each of footage of a guy wandering around a dark, seemingly empty building (go here if you really want to see them). One thing I gather is that it looks like much or all of the movie will take place from a helmet-cam perspective, which is ind of a cool twist on this kind of first-person film making. (Bloody Disgusting)

As the collaborative project Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated marches ever closer to release, info continues to trickle out — today, the poster was released, and it’s quite a lovely one. (Fangoria)

After the break, we’ve got almost eight minutes of Left 4 Dead 2 footage, showing snippets of the new Charger boss, the incendiary ammo, the new submachine gun and shotgun and a bit of the new character dialog (including a very welcome Arrested Development reference). (Horror-Movies.ca) Read the rest of this entry »