Category: Zombies

Re-Kill (2015)

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Re-Kill (2015)

Director: Valeri Milev

Screenplay: Michael Hurst

Stars: Bruce Payne, Daniella Alonso, Roger Cross

The Pitch: “Hey, let’s make a zombie movie!”

Tagline: We are the endangered species.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

 

It’s five years after the zombie apocalypse and life inside gated communities with security goes on.  Watching Re-Kill is like watching a tv station that is all-zombie kills all the time.  Maybe like watching Cops but the criminals are now zombies.  There are commercials and public service ads insterspliced within the “Re-Kill” programming.

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Before killing Bogue, Chisholm reveals that Bogue and his men had raped and killed his mother and sisters years earlier.  They had even hung Chisholm and left him for dead.

While this gives additional justification for Chisholm wanting to take on Bogue and his men, it makes him a little less heroic.  Up to the point of the reveal, it appeared that Chisholm and the others recruited were going against impossible odds because it was the “right” thing to do… not because one of them wanted revenge.

Pandemic (2016)

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Pandemic (2016)

Director: John Suits

Screenplay: Dustin T. Benson

Stars: Rachel Nichols, Alfie Allen, Missi Pyle and Paul Guilfoyle.

The Pitch: “Hey, let’s make a zombie movie that looks like a video game.”

Tagline: You Are Humanity’s Last Stand.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

You know the drill.  A virus has swept the world turning people into crazy fast zombies.  Survivors are either trying to live on the big city streets or worse yet the suburbs.  If you’re lucky you’re safe behind the walls of a military complex where doctors are working on a cure.

Lauren is a doctor who was separated from her family.  Not allowed to attempt to check on them, (the suburbs are way too dangerous), instead she is sent with three others (a driver, a gunner and a scientist) on a rescue mission into the city.

When things go bad, Lauren decides to head to the suburbs to check on her family.

Most Pandemic is shot as a first person shooter game.  And it feels like one at times.  Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on if you prefer watching games or movies.

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Night of the Living Dead (1990) / Z-View

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Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Director: Tom Savini

Screenplay: George Romero based on The Night of the Living Dead original screenplay by John A. Russo and George Romero 

Stars: Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles and Bill Cardille.

The Pitch: “Hey, let’s update (and copyright) a remake of ‘Night of the Living Dead’!”

Tagline: There IS a fate worse than death.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Tom Savini takes the helm of an updated version of Night of the Living Dead.  All the key players and set pieces are in place but it’s like watching a historic event from a slightly different timeline.  There are little changes in character but none of them are for the better.

Barbara starts off the same — overcome with shock from the realization that the dead are rising to eat the living, but partway through the movie she is ready to pick up a gun and go Rambo on zombies or humans that tick her off.  Ben is now as much of a hot head as Harry Cooper.

And the zombies aren’t like the zombies we’ve grown used to.  They’re not as scary.  Of course part of THAT problem is that when the ONOTLD was made, the zombie genre was being invented.  We’re almost 50 years from that and zombie expectations are much different. (Only a true horror aficionado would understand that!)  Also being filmed in color doesn’t help either.

The movie was still fun and I think most fans would enjoy the ride.

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11 Things You Didn’t Know About “The Walking Dead”

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Beirut Abu Hdaib and TGN Magazine present 11 Things You Didn’t Know About The Walking Dead.  Here are three of my favorites…

– The main logo keeps changing

The show’s credits have been changing over the years. But did you ever notice what was happening to the main logo? It has been getting darker, grimier and more worn out from one season to the next.

– Carol was supposed to die instead of T-Dog

Producers were growing tired of T-Dog showing up late to shooting and his negative attitude so they decided to axe him. Carol was supposed to be eaten alive by zombies and producers decided that T-Dog would sacrifice himself to save her.

– The show is shot on 16 mm film

The show is being shot using Kodak’s Super 16 mm rather than digitally. Why? Simply because film matches the tone of the show much more than digital does.

Zombie Diaries 2 (2011) / Z-View

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Zombie Diaries 2 (2011)

Director: Michael G. Bartlett, Kevin Gates

Screenplay: Kevin Gates

Stars: Philip Brodie, Alix Wilton Regan and Rob Oldfield

The Pitch: “Zombie movies are profitable and we’ve already made one…let’s do another!”

Tagline: Humanity’s Last Stand!

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A zombie outbreak is underway.  The movie is another in the “found film” genre.  A soldier documents the outbreak with a video camera.  People make stupid decisions and are killed.  Zombies are everywhere and you can follow along with the shaky camera, jump cuts and all.  Its like watching a bad home movie with zombies.  Not my cup of joe.

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The Zombie Diaries (2006) / Z-View

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The Zombie Diaries (2006) 

Director:  Michael G. Bartlett and Kevin Gates

Screenplay: Michael G. Bartlett and Kevin Gates

Stars:  Scott Ainslie, Toby Bowman and Victoria Summer.

The Pitch: “Zombie movies are cheap, let’s make one!”

Tagline: Brace yourself… This time it’s for real.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

The Zombie Diaries is one of those “found movie” films.  The idea this time out is that we’re watching video that was recorded during the start of a zombie apocalypse.  It begins and ends with a documentary crew but there are three interconnected “stories” along the way.

I’m not a fan of “found films” because it usually means jumpy, headache inducing photography and poor editing (or no editing – just jump cuts from one “scene” to the next). The Zombie Diaries is no exception and in fact is an excellent example of why lost films don’t work (at least for me).

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George Romero, the NOTLD Restoration and His Thoughts on The Walking Dead, World War Z and More!

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Yesterday The Hollywood Reporter posted Aaron Couch’s interview with George Romero.  Here’s a taste then click over and read the whole thing…

  • Night of the Living Dead is getting a restoration by the Museum of Modern Art and Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, which brings it back to pristine condition!
  • When asked about the future of his Living Dead franchise, Romero said: “I think really Brad Pitt killed it. The Walking Dead and Brad Pitt just sort of killed it all. The remake of Dawn of the Dead made money. I think pretty big money. Then Zombieland made money, and then all of a sudden, along comes Brad Pitt and he spends $400 million or whatever the hell to do World War Z.”
  • Romero:  “It’s not about the gore, it’s not about the horror element that are in them. It’s more about the message, for me. That’s what it is, and I’m using this platform to be able to show my feelings of what I think.”

 

I’m looking forward to seeing the restored Night of the Living Dead.  I hope that the restoration doesn’t take away from the film’s horror.  If it is too clean looking it may feel more like a movie.

While I can see where Romero is coming from, I don’t think that the bigger budget zombie movies are a bad thing… as long as they’re done well.  ; )

The “Walking Dead” Attraction at Universal Studios

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As a fan who has been touting The Walking Dead comic since issue one, it still surprises me how well the comic series translated into a tv series which caught on with the general population.

Not only has The Walking Dead  tv series lasted six plus years, but has spun off the Fear the Walking Dead tv series and is now becoming a major attraction at Universal Studios.

32 Things We Learned from Zack Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 32 Things We Learned from Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

13. Snyder cameos during the opening credits montage as a soldier with a machine gun on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

19. The original’s Tom Savini, Ken Foree, and Scott H. Reiniger all cameo here as a sheriff, a preacher, and a general, respectively.

 

29. Someone after a test screening questioned Snyder as to why/how the zombies pause at the bottom of the stairs at 1:32:25, and it put him on the spot when they asked if the zombies could even do that. He replied, “in real life, no, but in film where you dramatize…”