We have an exclusive first look at McCulloch and more in the British psychological horror film below, where you’ll also find two posters.

Within the walls of a 1950s British psychiatric hospital, recorded interviews with patients expose a terrifying truth. Beneath the surface of treatment lies a horrifying secret. As fractured minds begin to speak, their testimonies converge on a single figure known only as the Shadow Man.

Produced by British Horror Studio, Chronicles of Depression is directed by Lawrie Brewster (Lord of Tears) and written by Sam Ashurst (The Curse of Humpty Dumpty).

Megan Tremethick (The Lockdown Hauntings), Novarro Ramon, Dorian Todd, and Michael Daviot also star.

“In Chronicles of Depression, I set out to explore the early history of psychiatric treatment and the institutional horrors that can emerge when absolute authority is placed in the hands of those who believe they are acting for the greater good,” Brewster explains. “Even the best intentions in such environments can lead to unimaginable consequences.”

He continues, “With such an intense and controversial subject, I knew the film required a veteran presence to anchor our cast of young performers. I was therefore delighted that the British Horror Studio could reintroduce audiences to Ian McCulloch, famed for his starring roles in Zombie and Contamination, as well as his distinguished work on the stage, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company. At 84 years old, he brought remarkable energy to the set, and I am incredibly proud to mark his return to the horror genre with Chronicles of Depression.”

A preview screening will take place at the Romford Film Festival in London on May 24, after which the film will undergo further refinements before a crowdfunding campaign is launched to support its wider release.

The post First Look at ‘Zombie’ Star Ian McCulloch in Psychological Horror Film ‘Chronicles of Depression’ [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Thankfully, there are some people out there who’ve decided to turn their obsession with our species’ tendency for self-destruction into something a little more constructive. That’s how we get projects like Off Protocol’s handy guide to all things apocalyptic, The 4: An Illustrated Survival Guide to 4 Apocalypses.

An independent publishing house and semi-anonymous creative collective, Off Protocol successfully ran an international crowdfunding campaign promising a realistic instruction manual meant to get readers through an assortment of catastrophic worst-case scenarios. Appropriately titled The 4, this unique piece of edutainment contains contributions by survival specialists like Marine veteran Dr. David Powers as well as award-winning genre authors like Stella Berry and Randi Harvey, with the end goal being to instruct readers on how to survive advanced global warming, killer pandemics, nuclear winter, and even a full-blown zombie outbreak.

While personal concerns surrounding the recent explosion of AI-generated content among crowdfunded projects meant that I was initially hesitant to endorse a product sold by a semi-anonymous internet collective, I was relieved to discover that The 4 is about as hand-crafted as a book can get. Not only are all of the illustrations made by real artists (with each apocalypse scenario getting its own unique art style ranging from edgy comic-book lines to realistic Photoshop collages), but each segment is also written from a unique voice representing a different kind of survivor.

While the book repeatedly claims that the information presented here is meant for entertainment purposes only, it’s pretty obvious that Off Protocol is merely trying to make sure that their ambitious debut project doesn’t get them into trouble with lawyers and overly concerned politicians. After all, once you get down to the meat of this thing, The 4 consists of about 1/4 speculation and 3/4 genuinely useful information.

It’s extremely unlikely that readers will ever have to deal with undead enemies or even radioactive raiders, but I’d argue that knowing how to butcher wild animals or how to improvise a fishing setup can be useful in any number of less-than-apocalyptic situations. Sure, you could also easily look this information up online, but the whole point of this project is to compile this knowledge into an easily accessible format presented in a way that’ll keep it from sounding like a boring old textbook.

If you ask me, Off Protocol knocked it out of the park when it comes to presentation. From the textured lettering on the cover to the high-quality paper, the whole thing feels appropriately sturdy (and possibly heavy enough to knock down an incoming cannibal). In the pages themselves, the formatting and illustrations are all top-notch as well, and I especially appreciate the copious amounts of detailed diagrams teaching everything from how to identify edible plants to how to tie seaworthy knots.

Of course, it’s the tongue-in-cheek setup that makes this such a fun read, with even a guide to edible mushrooms being entertaining when the segment is presented by a badass survivalist with a sense of humor. This self-aware approach doesn’t always work, and I would have appreciated some more detailed stories about these apocalyptic worlds and the characters that inhabit them, but the brief blurbs about the narrators’ past lives are serviceable enough.

And while flooded cities and dead forests can be terrifying in their own right, genre fans are likely to get the most entertainment value out of The 4’s final segment about a zombie apocalypse. This is by far the least believable scenario in the book (with a lot of the “advice” here having more to do with Z-movie tropes than real-life survival), but it’s also the most fleshed out setting from a narrative point of view.

Unfortunately, while the book’s aesthetic and informative qualities are commendable, the prose itself has quite a few issues. I personally don’t mind the occasional grammatical error, but the sheer amount of idiosyncratic phrasing and strange word choices makes it clear that large portions of this compendium weren’t written by native English speakers. On one hand, this is further confirmation that the project was a genuine international effort created by people instead of generative language models, but it’s also a little disappointing when you consider the effort that went into everything else. Some additional proofreading would have gone a long way here, especially since Off Protocol is selling The 4 as a premium product.

However, despite the hiccups, The 4 is a genuinely impressive piece of edutainment that succeeds in finding a glimmer of self-sufficient hope even in the worst of possible futures. While not all of the information here is both fun and useful in equal measure, just casually skimming through the book is already a rewarding experience, and an in-depth read will likely set you up with genuinely useful life skills that might one day save a life. That’s why I’d recommend this apocalyptic coffee table book to any genre fan who wants to learn a little more about what it might take to survive inside some of our favorite movies.

The 4 is available now on Off Protocol’s official website.

The post ‘The 4: An Illustrated Guide to 4 Apocalypses’ Takes Edutainment to the End of the World [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Directed by Harry Steel, the video embraces practical special effects — including an homage to the infamous ocular trauma from Lucio Fulci‘s Zombie.

Death Swallowed by Death presages the band’s fourth album, Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death, which will be unleashed this Friday, October 31, via Spinefarm Records.

Expanding on the narrative explored in Creeper’s acclaimed 2023 album Sanguivore, Sanguivore II follows a British rock band immersed in the decadence of an American tour at the height of the 1980s Satanic Panic.

Each stop leaves fresh decay in the shape of a mysterious trail of deceased fans. The world is quick to lay blame at the bloodied hands of the band, but there’s more to this story than is first apparent… Enter the Mistress of Death, a ruthless hunter on their trail with all axe and no mercy.

Recommended for fans of AFI and My Chemical Romance, Creeper was formed in Southampton in 2014. The group consists of vocalist Will Gould, guitarists Ian Miles and Lawrie Pattison, bassist Sean Scott, drummer Jake Fogarty, and keyboardist/vocalist Hannah Greenwood.

“This film marks the long-awaited climax of the Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death album campaign,” says Gould. “It follows the album’s protagonist, a vampire huntress, as she finally tracks down the vampire rock band she’s been stalking and catches them in their sleep. Directed by Harry Steel, it features the most graphic and gory imagery we’ve ever created.”

“As someone who’s always had a penchant for practical gore and specifically head trauma in horror cinema, I was so excited for a chance to make something like this,” adds Steel. “We took huge influence from that scene in Lucio Fulci’s ‘video nasty’ classic Zombie Flesh Eaters. We really wanted to draw out the tension of the impact for as long as possible and not hold back when the gore strikes, which is only really possible or effective when using practical effects.”

Creeper will support Ice Nine Kills on their upcoming European tour:

• 11/19 – Alcatraz – Milan IT
• 11/20 – Halle 622 – Zurich CH
• 11/21 – Salle Pleyel – Paris FR
• 11/23 – Gasometer – Vienna AT
• 11/24 – Zenith, die Kulturhalle – Munich GER
• 11/26 – Ancienne Belgique – Brussels BE
• 11/28 – SaSaZu – Prague CZ
• 11/30 – Haus Auensee – Leipzig GER
• 12/1 – Stodola – Warsaw PL
• 12/2 – Uber Eats Music Hall – Berlin GER
• 12/4 – Sporthalle – Hamburg GER
• 12/5 – 013 – Tilburg NL
• 12/6 – Jahrhunderthalle – Frankfurt GER
• 12/8 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester UK
• 12/9 – OVO Hydro – Glasgow UK
• 12/10 – Motorpoint Arena – Nottingham UK
• 12/12 – OVO Arena Wembley – London UK

Keep an eye out for the band’s upcoming US tour dates to be announced soon.

Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death is available to pre-order now at CreeperCult.com.

The post Creeper Pays Homage to Lucio Fulci in ‘Death Swallowed by Death’ Short Film [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“The end of the world is a lonely place.”

Film has been exploring zombie stories for close to a century. Zombie stories consistently find an audience and are one of the more popular topics for horror to explore. At this point, the zombie genre is pretty played out and films need to work extra hard and have a distinct perspective in order to feel worthwhile. Zombie stories don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, but the topic should be able to hold a mirror up to society or prompt some deeper level of change in its characters. This Is Not A Test, based on the young adult novel of the same name by Courtney Summers, has the right ingredients to do something different that can dig a little deeper. Unfortunately, This Is Not A Test becomes a frustrating case of wasted potential where a compelling vantage point for its vulnerable protagonist still isn’t enough to give this undead genre a pulse.

The most interesting thing about This Is Not A Test is that it follows a suicidal, abused protagonist through a zombie apocalypse. It would be so easy for Sloane (Olivia Holt) to just give up, become zombie chow, and put an end to her pain. This zombie apocalypse becomes an unexpected epiphany for Sloane. She’s legitimately shocked when the end of the world helps her realize that she actually wants to live. The whole idea that dying is easy and living is hard is nothing new, but it’s a powerful and appropriate theme for This Is Not A Test to unpack. Sloane, along with the other sullen teens that she’s holed up with at school, are forced to weigh their respective trauma against brain-eating zombies. This compelling angle is gradually swallowed by the film’s stronger YA sensibilities. Everyone has their own melodramatic trigger, which on their own wouldn’t be a big deal. However, grouped together, they collectively feel reductive of standard young adult archetypes. 

This Is Not A Test becomes very “Detention of the Dead” once Sloane and a handful of other teen survivors find refuge from the undead in their high school. This story is set in the late ‘90s and adopts a very punk rock aesthetic to match. It’s reminiscent of Marcus Dunstan ​​and Patrick Melton’s Unhuman, which is the more tonally consistent of the two films. This Is Not A Test’s ‘90s vibes are initially strong, but they wane over time. It doesn’t take long for this to devolve into generic zombie fodder. This Is Not A Test unabashedly embraces a lot of generic genre staples. Curiously, director Adam MacDonald is kind of a pro when it comes to horror archetypes, having helmed three seasons of Slasher and its follow-up, Hell Motel, which were dense in genre tropes. Despite this diverse expertise, MacDonald’s take on zombies leaves a lot to be desired.

There are many moments in This Is Not A Test when it feels like the film is ready to break free from convention and do something different, only to stay in line. The rampant YA energy gives it the feeling of a CW or Netflix pilot, despite its good intentions and the copious blood, guts, and gore. It’s all just too much of a soap opera for the horror to ever connect. Holt does the best work with this material as she processes her grief over losing her sister and channels it into killer instinct. She’s the film’s saving grace and it’s nice to see Holt become a veritable scream queen at this point after Totally Killer and Heart Eyes. Holt and Froy Gutierrez are also both from Cruel Summer and there are more than a few moments when This Is Not A Test could double as some non-canon Halloween special.

The teen melodrama and zombie carnage are often at odds with each other, even though they’re meant to be complementary. There are decent practical gore effects in play, but the zombie attacks are presented in such a frenzied, wild manner that quickly wears thin. It’s an intentional choice that might be an attempt at symbolizing Sloane and company’s frayed mental states, but it just doesn’t work. It’s a perfect example of the film just needing to get out of its own way. That being said, This Is Not A Test absolutely nails the random chaos that kicks off its zombie outbreak. The film’s introduction successfully captures the public’s paralyzing fear and the visual terror of it all. This early chaos is some of This Is Not A Test’s strongest material. Ironically, all the bigger picture apocalypse stuff has more energy than the Lord of the Flies microcosm that plays out in the school.

This Is Not A Test does its best to breathe fresh life into the zombie subgenre by giving it a young adult makeover, but it’s an imbalanced misfire that shambles towards mediocrity. Overthinking certain stylistic elements, while underthinking other narrative hurdles prevent This Is Not A Test from graduating into a classic. This Is Not A Test may not stick the landing, but it bravely stares into the abyss and champions some flawed, inspirational underdogs. There’s still enough to sink one’s teeth into here.

This is Not a Test screened at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival; Independent Film Company & Shudder will release in 2026.

The post ‘This Is Not A Test’ Unleashes A YA Zombie Apocalypse That Feels Like Detention [BHFF Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With more seasons of “The Walking Dead” spinoffs still going strong and the recent releases of Ziam and 28 Years Later, this week’s streaming picks salute zombie horror movies that showcase flesh eaters in stylish, gory form. Here’s where to stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Dawn of the Dead – Netflix

Director Zack Snyder and writer James Gunn dial up the zombie intensity and then some in this update on George A. Romero’s classic 1978 zombie sequel. The zombie apocalypse begins with a subtle bite on a victim in a hospital and escalates with the world in flames the next morning. It’s fast and unrelenting. Dawn of the Dead ushered in a quicker, meaner brand of zombie. It’s not just the scarier take on the zombie that sets this remake apart, but a stellar ensemble cast led by Sarah Polley as the competent, level-headed nurse Ana. Dawn of the Dead leaves Netflix on August 1, so channel your inner fast-moving zombie and run to watch this one. While the original 1978 classic isn’t on streaming, it is available to rent on Digital.

Dead & Buried – Fandango at Home, Fawesome, Midnight Pulp, NightFlight+, Pluto TV, Screambox, Tubi

Gary Sherman’s underrated ‘80s horror film is unconventional for both its unique undead rules and for its mysterious atmosphere. Set in a small coastal town, Sheriff Gillis must investigate a series of grisly murders of visitors, only to discover that the town’s dead are reanimating. The walking undead in this town aren’t your cookie-cutter zombies, but to explain further would be stepping into massive spoiler territory. The narrative also pays homage to the original zombies, in which the dead were reanimated by way of voodoo (don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler). Though this was a story that favored chills and atmosphere over gore, Stan Winston’s makeup effects made the few gore scenes really stick their landing.

The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue – AMC+, Shudder, Tubi

Jorge Grau’s memorable zombie film centers around George (Ray Lovelock) and Edna (Christina Galbo), a couple of city hippies who meet when Edna backs into George’s motorcycle at a petrol station. She’s on her way to visit her troubled sister while he’s on his way to see friends. It so happens that the area is undergoing a new experimental pest control method in the form of ultrasonic radiation, and it intersects with our protagonists when it wakes the dead and causes a wave of grisly murders. The story plays out like a murder mystery of sorts with a target set on the counter-culture movement, building toward a gore-filled finale courtesy of special makeup effects artist Gianetto De Rossi (The Beyond, Zombie, High Tension).

Sugar Hill – Pluto TV, Prime Video, Tubi

Shot and set in Houston, the film follows Diana “Sugar” Hill (Marki Bey) as she summons Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley) to unleash zombie revenge for the murder of her lover. That voodoo plays a central role in the film’s story means these zombies aesthetically borrow from the early ‘30s and ‘40s style of the undead. Meaning there’s no viral contagion, and these zombies aren’t hindered by rigor mortis or decay. They’re Samedi’s slaves from beyond the grave. Directed by prolific producer Paul Maslansky (Raw Meat, Race with the Devil) in his only director’s credit, Sugar Hill introduces a stylish queen of zombie-enforced vengeance.

Zombie – AMC+, Fawesome, Screambox, Shudder

While Lucio Fulci’s “Gates of Hell” trilogy features no shortage of slow shambling zombies worthy of inclusion on this list, it’s hard to beat his gruesome take on the subgenre, with the film initially written as a sequel to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. Also known as Zombi 2 and Zombie Flesh Eaters, the film centers around a Caribbean island inundated by flesh eaters. It’s filled with unforgettable imagery from the famous shark versus zombie underwater sequence to one gnarly burst of ocular trauma. It’s a zombie movie whose gory reputation precedes it.

The post Five Must See Zombie Horror Movies to Stream This Week appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After over 45 years, Zombie Flesh Eaters still has the power to shock and offend the unwilling. It’s coming to 4K Ultra HD on July 28 as a Limited Edition offering that’s now up for grabs.

Pre-order your copy of Zombie Flesh Eaters from Arrow Video today!

From the sleazy video nasty vaults comes a movie so stained with controversy and moral indignation that the very mention of its name sends shudders down the spines of the weak-stomached and censorious – Zombie Flesh Eaters. A gut-munching, shark-wrestling, eye-gouging orgy of mud-caked undead terror and Italian splatter from the dark imagination of horror genius Lucio Fulci (The House by the Cemetery, City of the Living Dead).

4K Ultra HD Limited Edition Bonus Features include…

• 4K restoration from the original 2-perf Techniscope negative
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original English and Italian front and end titles
• Restored original lossless English and Italian mono audio
• Optional remixed lossless English Dolby Atmos audio
• Optional remixed lossless Italian DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Brand new audio commentary by critics Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
• Audio commentary by screenwriter Elisa Briganti, moderated by Calum Waddell
• Audio commentary by Fulci biographer Stephen Thrower and horror expert Alan Jones
• Sound and Fury: Listening to Zombie Flesh Eaters – brand new visual essay by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Repellent: Memories of Zombie Flesh Eaters – brand new visual essay by author and critic Chris Alexander
• Archival introduction by actor Ian McCulloch
• From Romero to Rome: The Rise and Fall of the Italian Zombie Film – 2012 documentary featuring screenwriters Dardano Sacchetti and Antonio Tentori, critic Kim Newman and filmmakers Luigi Cozzi, Ruggero Deodato and Russ Streiner
• Aliens, Cannibals and Zombies: A Trilogy of Italian Terror – archival interview with McCulloch
• The Meat-Munching Movies of Gino de Rossi – archival interview with the celebrated special effects artist
• Zombie Flesh Eaters: From Script to Screen – archival featurette featuring Dardano Sacchetti showing key pages from his original “Island of the Living Dead” screenplay
• Music for a Flesh-Feast – 2012 Q&A with composer Fabio Frizzi at the Glasgow Film Theatre
• Original English language “Nightmare Island” screenplay
• Theatrical trailers and TV spots
• Easter eggs
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• Perfect bound collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Willow Maclay, Jack Sargeant, Heather Wixson and Matt Rogerson
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Colin Murdoch
• Six double-sided collector’s postcards

In Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters, “An abandoned boat in New York Harbour unleashes a dead flesh-crazed Zombie cargo… A young American woman and a journalist investigate a tropical island where a deadly disease is making the dead walk… Soon, thoughts of getting to the bottom of the murderous curse will be forgotten, as Fulci’s walking corpses overwhelm the living and reports come in that the Big Apple is swarming with the living dead…”

Preview the upcoming 4K restoration from Arrow Video below!

The post Watch the Trailer for Arrow Video’s 4K Restoration of Fulci Classic ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Italian composer will perform his reworked soundtrack to Lucio Fulci‘s 1979 cult classic live as the film screens for a second leg of North America tour dates in the spring.

“The September gallop was so beautiful that we thought to complete the tour in spring,” said Frizzi. “It will be once again Zombie: Composer’s Cut, the live score on the legendary film by Lucio Fulci, and then the usual foray into the other soundtracks. Below is the list of new events, new merch, new encores, surprises and news. We look forward to seeing you all!”

• 4/25 – Asheville NC @ Eulogy
• 4/26 – Charlotte NC @ TBA
• 4/27 – Raleigh NC @ King’s
• 4/28 – Philadelphia PA @ Underground Arts
• 4/29 – Norwalk CT @ District Music Hall
• 4/30 – Montreal QC @ Theatre Fairmount
• 5/1 – Ottawa ON @ Overflow Brewing
• 5/2 – Syracuse NY @ TBA
• 5/3 – Toronto ON @ Garrison
• 5/5 – Grand Rapids MI @ Pyramid Scheme
• 5/6 – Pontiac MI @ The Pike Room
• 5/7 – Chicago IL @ Reggies (performing The Beyond)
• 5/8 – Davenport IA @ Capitol Theater
• 5/9 – Kansas City MO @ Lemonade Park
• 5/10 – Tulsa OK @ TBA
• 5/12 – Fort Worth TX @ Tulips
• 5/13 – Austin TX @ Come And Take It Live
• 5/14 – Houston TX @ River Oaks Theater
• 5/15 – New Orleans LA @ Broadside
• 5/16 – Birmingham AL @ Saturn
• 5/17 – Atlanta GA @ The Garden Club

Frizzi serves as conductor and plays keyboard and acoustic guitar for the performance, joined by his Frizzi 2 Fulci bandmates: guitarists Riccardo Rocchi and Francesco Saguto, bassist Roberto Fasciani, drummer Federico Tacchi, and keyboardist Paolo Castellani.

The screening is followed by an encore consisting of cues from other Fulci favorites, including The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, Cat in the Brain, and The Psychic.

Zombie: Composer’s Cut is also available on vinyl from Cadabra Records.

@brokehorrorfan

Zombie: Composer’s Cut Live in Boston by Fabio Frizzi #fabiofrizzi#zombie#luciofulci#zombi2#italianhorror#70shorror#soundtrack#horrorsoundtrack#horror#horrorfilm#horrormovie

♬ original sound – brokehorrorfan – brokehorrorfan

The post Fabio Frizzi Announces New ‘Zombie: Composer’s Cut’ North American Tour Dates appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

One such gem happened to be Manel Loureiro’s Apocalypse Z, a Spanish blog about a crafty everyman protagonist attempting to survive a more realistic take on the zombie apocalypse. Over time, the blog became so popular that Loureiro ended up publishing the ensuing saga as a trilogy of novels following Francisco and his cat throughout their journey across a zombie-infected Europe.

These books were even more successful than the blog, being translated into several languages (they were a huge hit here in Brazil back in the day) and inciting rumors of an inevitable big screen adaptation. Of course, it would be quite a while before fans could see this story brought to life in another medium, with the official Apocalypse Z movie only releasing in late 2024.

Thankfully, despite a handful of narrative flaws and a general sense of overfamiliarity (we’ve seen many similar zombie stories since the days of Loureiro’s blog), I’m happy to report that Prime Video’s long-awaited adaptation is a genuinely entertaining re-imagining of a classic recipe.

Directed by Carles Torrens and produced by Nostromo Pictures, Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End tells the story of Manel (Francisco Ortiz), a Galician lawyer who lives in seclusion after the death of his wife, with his only companion being his miraculously well-behaved cat, Lúculo. Unbeknownst to Manel, a mysterious viral outbreak is making its way across Europe, eventually leading the Spanish government to evacuate the population, including Manel’s sister and her family, to the Canary Islands. Refusing to take part in the evacuation effort, Manel is left to fend for himself in a city populated by the infected – all of whom have now turned into a horde of undead cannibals.

You’ve seen variations of this setup countless times before, but I really appreciate how Apocalypse Z refuses to skip over the slow-burning turmoil surrounding the initial days of the epidemic. From the inadequate government response to the quarantines and public panics (including supermarket shortages and traffic pileups), you can tell that the filmmakers borrowed directly from our collective experience living through a real-world pandemic. In fact, it’s these quieter moments of reflection amid a catastrophic event – like Manel crafting a makeshift security camera for his home and watching YouTube tutorials about how to defend yourself from zombies – that make the film stand out from its peers.

I actually think that the movie loses something special when Manel finally decides to search for his sister in the Canary Islands, as the flick turns into something more akin to a conventional zombie thriller than the grounded character study of the first half. Thankfully, things don’t get as over-the-top as something like World War Z, but I was thoroughly enjoying watching Manel having to scrounge for food and create a new apocalyptic routine.

Of course, when the story finally expands into a larger world, the scope clearly isn’t as grand as the script would like us to think, with a limited budget (at least when compared to American productions) meaning that quite a few corners had to be cut when showing us the effects of the zombie plague. While I still think that a low-stakes story about a single person trying to make it out alive of a bad situation is much more compelling than following an action hero shoot his way through countless zombies, I’d also appreciate a more detailed (and hopefully gorier) look at the physical devastation that the virus left behind.

When it comes to psychological devastation, however, Ortiz does one hell of a great job of making Manel into a relatable and refreshingly resourceful protagonist. Despite most of his interactions being either with a cat or a phone screen, you really get the sense that this journey is pushing him to the very edge without the need to turn him into a badass zombie slayer.

It’s unfortunate that the same can’t be said for the film’s secondary characters, with most of them fulfilling placeholder roles as sympathetic survivors in need of rescuing or inexplicably evil raiders. While I get that zombie flicks have always made a point of showing us how the real threat comes in the form of desperate humans, Apocalypse Z’s inclusion of generic militarized antagonists feels like it was ripped straight from the worst episodes of The Walking Dead. In all fairness, this was also a problem in the books, but at least there Loureiro had the time to flesh the villains out.

And speaking of the source material, the serialized nature of the original story means that viewers shouldn’t expect a definitive ending to Manel’s journey despite the flick technically containing a clear beginning, middle and end. A sequel hasn’t yet been confirmed, but I’m excited to see if Prime Video will continue adapting this influential trilogy. I’m also grateful that they didn’t turn Loureiro’s work into yet another bloated streaming show, so I’ll happily tune into more grounded zombie terror if the filmmakers can keep up the same level of quality – though hopefully with more money involved.

Apocalypse Z doesn’t reinvent any wheels or even make any form of commentary about the zombie genre itself, but it’s still a surprisingly well-performed rendition of a classic song-and-dance. While the second half of the experience may be a little shaky and I wish the flick had the budget for larger zombie hordes, I can’t help but appreciate how everything here feels lovingly hand-crafted, which is why I’d recommend it to fans of classic zombie media.

Personally, I thought the worst part of the experience was slowly realizing that my own cat would never accept being shoved into a bag in order to accompany me on my own post-apocalyptic adventures.

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End is available now on Prime Video.

The post ‘Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End’ Is a Thrilling Retelling of a Familiar Story [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Trace and I spent August discussing Paul Morrissey’s melodramatic Blood for Dracula (listen), Julia Ducournau’s body horror Titane (listen), and Stephen Herek’s family creature feature Critters (listen) before kicking off September with Tim Burton’s ode to weird, Beetlejuice (listen).

For episode 299, we’ve hopped across the pond to tackle director Colm McCarthy‘s under seen contemporary zombie classic The Girl With All the Gifts (2016). In the dystopian film, young Melanie (Sennia Nanua) is restrained in a wheelchair in a top secret laboratory run by the cruel Dr. Caldwell (Glenn Close) and watched closely by violent Sergeant Parks (Paddy Considine).

The only bright spot in Melanie’s life is Ms. Justineau (Gemma Arterton), a young teacher who is both kindly and a little naive. When a large group of “hungries” infiltrate the base, Melanie and the others must go on the run, trying to survive in an apocalyptic world overrun by fungus-infected monsters.

Little does Melanie know that she holds the future of humanity in her hands. The only question: will she be its savior or will she bring about its downfall?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 299 – The Girl With All the Gifts (2016) feat. Carolyn Mauricette

Hide your cat and don’t say zombie because we’re talking Colm McCarthy’s 2016 adaptation of M.R.Carey’s YA novel, The Girl With All the Gifts. Along for the ride is returning guest Carolyn Mauricette!

Anchored by great performances from Glenn Close and newcomer Sennia Nanua, this dystopian “hungries” film is surprisingly complex, especially its dark/happy ending.

Plus: celebrating black girls, The Last of Us comparisons, comparisons to the book, and Melanie’s young queer love for Ms. Justineau.

Cross out The Girl With All The Gifts!

Coming up on Wednesday: it’s our 300th episode, so to celebrate we’re revisiting a film from the earliest days of the podcast on the eve of its 15th anniversary: Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody’s collaboration, Jennifer’s Body (2009)!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 333 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S01E09, Blink Twice, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the American remake of Speak No Evil and, finally, our brand new audio commentary on Beck & Woods’ Haunt for its 5th anniversary.

The post Celebrating Under Seen Zombie Film ‘The Girl With All The Gifts’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Zombie: Composer’s Cut features Frizzi’s reworked score to Fucli’s 1979 film performed live to a screening of the film, transforming a mere movie viewing into a concert experience. Currently touring the US, I ate up the performance at Sonia in Cambridge, MA on September 7.

The new soundtrack isn’t wall-to-wall music; Frizzi smartly opted to stay true to his original score — the oft-reprised prog rock main theme, the eerie synthesizer soundscapes, the tribal rhythms that evoke a voodoo curse — with some reinterpretation and expansion along the way. The music occasionally overpowers the dialogue, but Fulci often placed more importance on style than plot anyway.

Frizzi masterfully juggles keyboard, acoustic guitar, and conductor duties — sometimes all in the same song. He’s joined by guitarists Riccardo Rocchi and Francesco Saguto, bassist Roberto Fasciani, drummer Federico Tacchi, and keyboardist Paolo Castellani.

The music augments Zombie‘s many crowd-pleasing moments: decaying flesh eaters rising from the dead (and, in the film’s most notable scene, fighting a shark), Fulci’s signature eye trauma among other gnarly special effects, gratuitous nudity, and a fiery finale that gives way to a bleak conclusion on Brooklyn Bridge.

The live score is worth the price of admission alone, but Frizzi and his bandmates followed the screening with a 25-minute encore consisting of cues from other Fulci favorites, including City of the Living Dead, The Beyond, Cat in the Brain, and The Psychic.

Zombie: Composer’s Cut is on tour now. If you can’t make it to a show (or want to relive it), the new soundtrack is available on vinyl via Cadabra Records.

@brokehorrorfan

Zombie: Composer’s Cut Live in Boston by Fabio Frizzi #fabiofrizzi#zombie#luciofulci#zombi2#italianhorror#70shorror#soundtrack#horrorsoundtrack#horror#horrorfilm#horrormovie

♬ original sound – brokehorrorfan – brokehorrorfan

The post Fulci Lives: Fabio Frizzi Takes ‘Zombie: Composer’s Cut’ on Tour All Month Long appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

And with the Halloween season finally upon us, I thought that this might be a good time to look back on Romero’s spooky filmography with a definitive ranking of his ‘Living Dead’ films. After all, not all zombie flicks are created equal – even when they’re made by a veritable master of the craft.

That being said, I’d like to make it clear that every single one of these movies is worth watching, as even Romero’s lesser work is still filled with unbridled creativity and an undeniable passion for genre storytelling.

With that out of the way, don’t forget to comment below with your own ranking of the zombie king’s classic movies.

Now, onto the list…

6. Survival of the Dead (2009)

Survival of the Dead isn’t necessarily a bad film, boasting a strong premise and some surprisingly impressive cinematography when compared to previous entries in the Dead franchise, but it’s honestly the one movie that I don’t mind skipping when revisiting Romero’s filmography.

Telling the story of a group of rogue National Guardsmen who find themselves caught in the middle of a Western-inspired conflict between rival families on a zombie-infested island, the flick has a lot going for it when it comes to originality. Unfortunately, these big ideas are marred by a woefully inadequate budget and a severe case of zombie fatigue (which likely explains the film’s disproportionately poor reception by critics).

5. Diary of the Dead (2007)

I’ve already written about how much I appreciate Romero’s attempt at modernizing his filmmaking toolbelt with his 2007 Found Footage thriller Diary of the Dead, but I’ll take any opportunity I can get to talk about this deeply odd experiment. Taking place on day one of the zombie outbreak in a chilling throwback to post-9/11 paranoia, this eerily prescient exercise in multi-media storytelling is still highly entertaining even if the director can’t quite get the hang of the format’s limitations.

It may not capture the same emotional weight and overall scale of Romero’s previous endeavors, but Diary is still one hell of a fun time, featuring some clever kills and meta-humor elements that help it stand out from the undead crowd.

4. Day of the Dead (1985)

Day of the Dead had a long road to travel before it finally shambled onto cinema screens in 1985. Originally envisioned as a Gone-With-the-Wind-inspired epic meant to conclude Romero’s thoughts on the zombie genre, the filmmaker ended up having to rewrite the entire script at least five times in order to conform to both studio and budgetary constraints.

With that in mind, it’s a miracle that the finished film is as good as it is, offering up some chilling political allegory as scientists and military personnel are forced to co-exist within the same bunker after the end of the world. It may not be quite as iconic as some of its peers, but Day happens to feature the best gore effects in the entire franchise – and I’d also argue that its allegorical elements hit a lot harder after the Covid-19 pandemic.

3. Land of the Dead (2005)

The movie that Day of the Dead wanted to be, Land of the Dead is a miracle of Hollywood filmmaking. For the first time in his career, Romero was given a decent budget in order to flesh out his apocalyptic ideas, with the ensuing project becoming the zombie movie epic that fans had always dreamed of.

It’s not a perfect experience by any means, relying on some wonky CGI to enhance practical effects and being a bit too heavy-handed with its metaphors, but the movie is still an impressive love letter to horror cinema and boasts one hell of a kick-ass cast. Genre veteran Guillermo del Toro even went so far as to liken the production of the film to Michelangelo being given the chance to paint another church ceiling, and I couldn’t have put it better myself.

2. Night of the Living Dead (1968)

It may seem like heresy not to put the film that started it all in the number one spot, but the fact is that Romero’s work became more interesting the more he matured as a filmmaker. That being said, there’s no denying the guerilla thrills of the very first modern zombie movie. In fact, Night of the Living Dead actually boasts several firsts, as it also features the first Black protagonist in horror cinema while also being the first indie horror film to rake in hundreds of times its original budget at the box office.

And while much of the film’s ubiquitous nature in horror media can be traced back to the copyright blunder that prematurely placed it in the public domain, there’s a reason why this independent riff on I Am Legend started an entire sub-genre of scary stories that continues to this day.

1. Dawn of the Dead (1978)

The quintessential zombie movie, pretty much everyone and their mother has at least heard the tale of a group of survivors becoming trapped in a mall once undead flesh-eaters begin to walk the earth. Spawning numerous parodies, remakes and homages, Dawn of the Dead isn’t just the best Dead film, it’s also one of the best films of all time in any genre.

Featuring memorable characters, subtle social critique and some of the most gruesome effects that you’ll ever see in a horror flick, this is the film to choose if you can only bring yourself to watch a single movie from Romero’s filmography. And while there are several versions of this classic out there (I’m a huge fan of Argento’s fast-paced recut of the experience), you really can’t go wrong with any of them as long as Romero’s behind the wheel.

The post No More Room in Hell: Ranking All Six of George A. Romero’s ‘Dead’ Movies appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

On the other hand, this also means that it’s incredibly difficult for a title to stand out among other zombie games, as we’ve seen nearly every variation of an undead apocalypse since the early days of Zombies Ate My Neighbors. And with such an oversaturated market, it makes sense that players might be overly critical of a good game that doesn’t quite live up to their lofty expectations.

I’d argue that Bend Studio’s Days Gone is one such title, with the game being accused of being one of the worst PlayStation exclusives in recent memory despite featuring one of the only creative uses of a horror-centric open world in years. And now that enough time has passed that the pre-release hype is no longer a factor, I’d like to take a look back on this over-hated gem and dive into exactly why I think it deserves more love.

The story of Days Gone began in early 2015, with Bend Studio (mostly known for the underrated Syphon Filter games) wanting to try their hand at their first original IP since the 90s. Inspired by popular TV shows like The Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy, the development team settled on a project that would explore a zombie apocalypse through the eyes of badass bikers.

Our first glimpse of the title’s high-octane thrills occurred in 2016 when Sony released a ten-minute long teaser. This in-engine trailer highlighted the game’s horde mechanics, featuring a character modeled after Sam Witwer facing off against a World-War-Z-inspired onslaught of literal hundreds of undead that were being rendered and subsequently dispatched in real time. Unfortunately, this brief little tease would ultimately have a hand in the game’s eventual mixed reception, showcasing the absolute highlight of the Days Gone experience without making it clear that this was just one part of the game. This led to unrealistic expectations that would only really be shattered when the game was finally released in 2019.

In the finished game, players take on the role of biker and bounty hunter Deacon St. John as he embarks on a post-apocalyptic quest to find his wife in a world overrun by zombie-like “freakers.” Along the way, Deacon has to deal with insane cultists, armed militia and undead nests as he explores the Pacific Northwest on a customizable motorcycle.

While this sounds like a highly entertaining premise on paper, the critical reaction wasn’t exactly what Bend was hoping for. In general, most media outlets were unimpressed with the game’s main story, calling it clichéd and unexciting while also complaining that it intentionally left some plotlines in the air in the hopes of resolving them in a potential sequel. Reviewers also lambasted the title’s poor technical performance and inconvenient mechanics, like how your motorcycle needs constant maintenance and using fast travel requires clearing out nests. While very few reviewers actively accused Days Gone of being a genuinely bad game, the criticism was heavy enough that the title garnered a reputation as a massive failure.

Many of these complaints are justified, though I’d argue that the only possible deal-breaker here is the writing. The game expects you to care about unremarkable characters that you’ve undoubtedly seen before in several other post-apocalyptic yarns and then presents you with cringe-inducing situations like that awful wedding flashback. While it’s hard not to like Deacon’s anti-authoritarian persona, it’s also clear that his entire character was lifted from Norman Reedus’ take on The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon.

That being said, I believe Days Gone tapped into something special through its use of legitimately challenging exploration. Personally, I adored it when I ran out of gas in the middle of a Freaker-infested highway and had to desperately scrounge for fuel while hiding from an ever-growing horde. And while I agree that this can get annoying in the early game when your bike is still underpowered, I’d argue that the title’s naturally occurring moments of emergent horror more than make up for the poorly scripted drama. And don’t even get me started on the strangely addictive thrills of caring for your bike like a noble steed and slowly upgrading it throughout the course of the game!

In all honesty, the biggest mistake the developers made was locking players out of some of the best parts of the game by not introducing some of the best mechanics until late into the campaign. I mean, it says a lot about the experience that by the time the story expected me to take on my first horde (in what should have been a cathartic highlight of the experience), I had already dispatched a handful of them on my own.

I have fond memories of cruising through the wilderness and choosing to explore abandoned settlements instead of following the main story of Days Gone, but I admit that the experience would have benefited from a bigger focus on gameplay instead of drama. After all, the mechanical aspects of the title are solid, it’s just the presentation that needed some work.

This is also why I find the news of an upcoming film adaptation of Days Gone so baffling, as almost all of the game’s qualities can’t really be translated to a non-interactive medium. To me, having to sit through two hours of biker talk and familiar zombie slaying just sounds like a rehash of the worst parts of the game, especially if they end up replacing Sam Witwer with Sam Heughan as Deacon.

I can’t really blame you if you’re still not convinced to give Days Gone another shot – I only barely got through the heavily scripted opening hours myself – but I still think that it’s unfair to completely dismiss the whole experience based on a few blemishes. That’s why it’s so frustrating that we’ll never see a proper sequel, as almost all of these issues could have been addressed in the future if Sony wasn’t so obsessed with aggregated review scores.

Fortunately, the game runs better than ever now that it’s available on PC and has seen a plethora of patches and updates, so I’d recommend giving the Freaker apocalypse another chance and deciding for yourself if these roads are worth revisiting.

The post The Freaker Apocalypse: Why ‘Days Gone’ Is a Much Better Zombie Game Than It Was Given Credit For appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In June of 2003, Danny Boyle unleashed hell upon Americans with 28 Days Later. Written by then-novelist Alex Garland — in his feature screenwriting debut — the film captured the zeitgeist with its groundbreaking style, prescient casting, and subversion of the zombie genre … despite not being a zombie film. Technically. Or is it one? Rest assured, we’ll get into that.

Who’s we? Your Halloweenies. Hope you’ve brought a backpack — or, at the very least, a plastic bag — because the gang is hiking across England in search of salvation. Join co-hosts Michael Roffman, Mac Gerber, Justin Gerber, and special guest Meagan Navarro as they discuss how the film saved Boyle’s career and became one of the most influential films of its time.

Note: This episode was originally recorded in April 2021 for Patreon, and is being unlocked for the 20th anniversary of its US release.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, and The Evil Dead.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins, The Blob), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Saw, The Conjuring, The Changeling), and even topical spinoffs like their ensuing Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

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The post Revisiting ’28 Days Later’ 20 Years Later: The Best Horror Film of the 21st Century? [Halloweenies Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Obviously, there’s a simple explanation for this. Large scale stories need large scale production budgets and few studios are willing to bet that amount of money on a gory genre flick. Even World War Z had to be tragically neutered in order to justify its blockbuster financing, and indie filmmakers can’t exactly pay out of pocket to afford the special effects necessary to convey a global disaster.

Fortunately, there are exceptions to every rule, and every now and then ambitious filmmakers attempt to tackle large stories despite a lack of resources, with some of them succeeding precisely because of their down-to-earth approach to the downfall of civilization. One of my personal favorites of these low budget apocalypses is Jim Mickle’s tragically underseen Mulberry Street, a unique little infection movie from 2006 that revamps a familiar premise to make a statement about gentrification in New York.

While he’s now mostly known for his work on Stakeland and the Netflix comic-book adaptation Sweet Tooth, Mickle was once a freelancing film student who found himself working on amateur productions until he met future collaborator Nick Damici. Hitting it off with the writer/actor due to their shared love of genre movies, the duo decided to team up for a minimalist zombie film that would harken back to the manic energy and social commentary of Romero’s early work. As the scope of the project grew and the team accrued more investors, the proposed story changed into something more original.

Starring an ensemble cast comprised of the inhabitants of a downtown Manhattan apartment building, Mulberry Street tells the story of a mysterious rat-derived plague that begins to infect New Yorkers over the course of a fateful summer day. The film shifts between perspectives as these unsuspecting citizens go about their business and slowly uncover an infestation more deadly than anything the Big Apple has ever seen, with the infected slowly turning into rodent-like creatures with a taste for human flesh.

Shot over three weeks on a miniscule budget of $60,000 and featuring a cast made up of friends and relatives of the production team, Mulberry Street is certainly no Army of the Dead when it comes to production value. There are no action-packed helicopter shots or complex animatronics to be found here (and a modern low-end cell phone could probably shoot in higher quality), but the haphazard nature of this ambitious production is partly responsible for its success.

New York City might be a recurring staple of disaster cinema, but it’s public knowledge that actually filming there is something of a nightmare. Due to the complications surrounding permits for large crews and handling expensive equipment in one of the busiest places on earth, studios generally prefer to dress up Canadian locations or even build artificial sets instead of travelling to the city that never sleeps. However, in Mulberry Street’s case, the lo-fi nature of the production meant that they could actually afford to show how a zombie-like outbreak might affect locals, taking advantage of guerrilla filmmaking techniques and minimalist equipment much like Danny Boyle did in 28 Days Later.  

The characters themselves are also quintessential New Yorkers, with the film boasting a diverse cast of believable human beings just trying to get by as their home is swallowed up by ravenous real estate developers and (eventually) rat zombies. From Ron Brice’s feisty and flamboyant neighbor to Bo Corre’s struggling single mom, seeing how these wildly different people react to such a horrific crisis is undoubtedly fascinating, and all of the casualties feel appropriately tragic.

While the film is refreshingly short, it still dares to take its time when developing these characters without losing sight of the story’s apocalyptic thrills. Sure, some viewers might be put off by the story’s focus on slow-building dread instead of immediate frights, but you’ve got to hand it to a filmmaker that can make the neighborhood itself an essential character of his horror movie – especially when it’s populated by memorable bit players like Antone Pagán and even fellow New-York-based genre filmmaker Larry Fessenden!

In fact, part of this attention to idiosyncratic detail comes from Nick Damici basing several of the film’s characters on real New Yorkers that he knew from when he lived in Hell’s Kitchen. This also includes Damici’s own performance as Clutch, the de facto protagonist of the picture who wants to reunite with his veteran daughter as she returns to an unrecognizable city. Horror hounds will probably notice quite a few similarities between Clutch and Damici’s future tough guy characters in films like Stakeland and Late Phases, making the experience even more rewarding for genre veterans.

While it’s understandable that some audiences might be put off by the film’s grimy photography, I’d argue that the grungy urban visuals have aged surprisingly well, making the experience feel like a lo-fi time capsule evoking post-9/11 paranoia. While the aforementioned 28 Days Later covered a lot of the same ground, Mulberry Street’s call-backs to one of New York’s darkest days hit even harder due to the film’s depiction of these events during the course of a single day and night.

The muddy visuals also enhance the picture’s cheap effects, making the infected feel that much more menacing since you can’t really make out the seams behind their eerie make up. It actually takes quite a while for you to see a completely transformed rat zombie (though I imagine the infection would get even worse as time goes on), and while I appreciate how their final design is clearly inspired by Nosferatu, I’m glad that Mickle decided to keep these inhuman hordes relegated to the shadows. A rat-borne zombie plague may sound silly on paper, but the film’s realistic execution and serious tone make it so that audiences feel just as scared as our main characters when the shit hits the proverbial fan – a rare feeling in non-Romero zombie movies.

It might not reach the same emotional heights as Danny Boyle’s opus and it’s not quite as elegant in its social commentary as George Romero’s classics, but I’d argue that Mulberry Street is still one of the best and most human of the 2000s’ zombie revival movement. After all, it’s not every day that a filmmaker proves you can simulate a city-wide apocalypse on a budget without sacrificing story or characters.

The post A Low-Budget Ratpocalypse – The Underrated NYC Horror Movie ‘Mulberry Street’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Don’t get me wrong, the Resident Evil games boast plenty of memorable characters with interesting backstories, but these titles have always been more about the player-driven narrative derived from personally outsmarting Umbrella and escaping horrific situations rather than any cohesive yarn. That’s why it’s no surprise that the first Resident Evil movie actually has very little in common with the games it’s supposedly based on, functioning as more of a self-contained action-horror hybrid that just so happens to feature a few elements from Capcom’s franchise.

While fans have come to expect more faithful recreations of their favorite gaming experiences after projects like Detective Pikachu and even Netflix’s Castlevania, two decades of IP-driven blockbuster filmmaking has led me to appreciate the bonkers creative decisions behind Paul W.S. Anderson’s strange take on Resident Evil. That’s why I’d like to take a look back on what made this iconic piece of early 2000s horror so much more than a run-of-the-mill adaptation, as I think we often take its edgy charms for granted.

There were three different iterations of the project before Anderson came onboard, from Alan B. McElroy’s relatively faithful translation of the first game to George A. Romero’s infamous NC-17 version of the script. Obviously, none of these projects came to fruition, with both Capcom and the studio fighting over unfocused storylines. It was only after Anderson binge-played the first two Resident Evil games and came up with a screenplay titled Undead, which he described as a rip-off meant to still be produced even if he couldn’t guarantee the RE license, that the project really moved forward. The investors at Constantin Film loved how this proposed action-horror prequel to the games could entertain both fans and newcomers, with Capcom also enjoying how it didn’t get in the way of their own plans for sequels.

With the exception of a few character moments, not much was changed once Undead became an official Resident Evil movie adaptation, which – alongside the prequel angle – is why the film is so different from its source material. Even with Capcom’s blessing, things here are different enough that the film might as well be part of a completely different franchise. Sure, the overall setup remains the same, with both the game and the movie telling a story about a group of combat experts becoming trapped in a sci-fi nightmare once they enter a creepy old mansion, but the similarities mostly end there.

I’d argue that the biggest divergence is in our main character. While there’s never been a shortage of competent female protagonists in the RE games (from Claire Redfield to Jill Valentine), none of them can quite hold a candle to the ass-kicking Alice. This memorable role promoted Milla Jovovich to genre royalty, but the original script described Alice as a more traditional damsel in distress constantly bewildered by the horrors surrounding her. It was only through Jovovich’s insistence on script revisions that the protagonist became more proactive in her own story and ultimately turned into a badass by the end of the picture.

While some may argue that Alice’s combat prowess would reach ridiculous levels with her super-powers in the sequels, there’s no denying that she became a genre icon – one that would never have existed if this had been a simple copy-paste job. The supporting cast is also mostly unrelated to the games, but they still stand out due to charismatic performances by Colin Salmon, Eric Mabius and even Michelle Rodriguez, who signed onto the picture as soon as she heard that a RE adaptation was going into production.

Another completely original creation for the film is the Red Queen AI, which serves as a crucial plot point as well as something of an antagonist. Not only does this childlike machine brain add to the film’s hi-tech terror, but it also ties in nicely with the whole Alice in Wonderland motif, which is another idea that’s only present in the movie. While the nods to Lewis Carroll seem to come out of the blue, with several bizarre references like elaborate beheadings and even literal white rabbits, it adds some fairy-tale flavor to the experience.

Many of these creative additions weren’t exactly well-received, with fans criticizing the flick’s focus on military action instead of slow-paced dread like the first few RE games. This problem would only get worse as the movie franchise went on, but I think the first film’s action-heavy approach is mostly justified by it trying to be an entertaining midnight movie. After all, a lone protagonist backtracking through empty rooms in search of ammo may be scary for a desperate player, but it would be dreadfully boring to watch on the big screen.

Besides, there are still plenty of horrific highlights here, such as the film’s opening moments depicting the initial air-borne T-Virus infection (a scene that hits much harder after a deadly real-world pandemic), as well as an appropriately eerie score co-composed by Marco Beltrami and Marilyn Manson.

While the exaggerated set-pieces and cheesy dialogue result in the film often feeling a little goofy, especially during a couple of instances of early 2000s CGI, none of these moments are sillier than the source material. In fact, when Capcom decided that it was time for another round of big-screen zombie-slaying in 2021, Johannes Roberts’ decision to bring things closer to the games in his reboot didn’t actually make the film any more successful, with Welcome to Raccoon City earning less money at the box office and scoring lower on Rotten Tomatoes.

I may have enjoyed Roberts’ film, but it serves as further evidence that Anderson’s peculiar approach wasn’t as misguided as most people think. That’s why I believe that, if you can accept that fact that this is a B-movie spin-off only tangentially related to the rest of the franchise, you’ll find that Resident Evil is a highly entertaining example of the early 2000s action-horror trend inspired by Blade and its sequels. In fact, the first RE adaptation would end up influencing this sub-genre for years to come, inspiring competing franchises like Underworld and even Stephen Sommers’s Van Helsing (as well as a series of adult-oriented videogame adaptations).

It may not have been what fans were expecting, but Anderson’s decision to make the very first Resident Evil movie a mostly original experience meant that the finished film was fun even if you had never heard of the games before. At the end of the day, isn’t that the best kind of adaptation – a movie that doesn’t attempt to replace its source material but works alongside it? Hell, James Cameron named the flick as his biggest cinematic guilty pleasure, and even Capcom thought that the 2002 film was good enough to be worth referencing in several of its future games (such as the laser corridor sequence in RE4).

That’s why I think it’s safe to say that this “rip-off” continues to be a success 20 years down the line.

The post ‘Resident Evil’ – The Original Movie Looks Pretty Damn Good 20 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Resident Evil franchise is the undisputed king of the survival horror genre. Sure, the overarching plot of these games makes less sense the more you think about them, but in a series that has always tried to emulate the cheesy thrills of midnight B-movies, this isn’t really an issue. Unfortunately, the lack of a straightforward narrative became a problem when the franchise’s massive popularity led to a high-profile adaptation on the big screen.

After all, the first few Resident Evil games cared more about setting up a chilling premise rather than telling a fully-fledged story. While they weren’t exactly devoid of narrative, these games relied more on epistolary storytelling techniques like ominous notes and spooky diaries to set up their horrific plots rather than developing three-dimensional characters and meaningful dialogue.

So when the time came to make the first official RE film, it’s easy to understand why Paul W.S. Anderson decided to use the franchise’s batshit crazy mythology as a mere jumping off point to produce his own particular brand of action/horror hybrids instead of actually trying to adapt the games. While this approach didn’t exactly please long-time fans, it obviously connected with mainstream audiences, as Anderson’s RE movies have grossed over a billion dollars at the box office since 2002.

Of course, you can’t keep a good zombie down, and with the game series getting back on track as a survival horror juggernaut during the mid 2010s, it makes sense that Hollywood would decide to revisit the Spencer mansion with a brand new movie. While this proposed reboot was originally meant to be produced by James Wan, with Greg Russo penning a script inspired by Resident Evil 7, both creators wounded up exiting the project due to their commitment with the Mortal Kombat reboot.

Screen Gems would eventually choose Johannes Roberts to write and direct the picture based on his experience on 47 Meters Down and the criminally underrated The Strangers: Prey at Night. This fresh take on the Umbrella saga would be an attempt to bring the series back to its roots, with Roberts deciding on making it a late-90s period piece and grounding the story in traditional horror, forgoing the blockbuster action of previous films,

When the first trailer dropped last year, fans were surprised with how much Welcome to Raccoon City actually looked and felt like Resident Evil and not just some random zombie flick that happened to feature a couple of familiar characters and locations. Understandably, expectations were high when the film finally came out in November of 2021.

SO WHAT WENT WRONG?

The Resident Evil films were never critical darlings, but Welcome to Raccoon City’s disappointing 31% on Rotten Tomatoes also came bundled with the most disappointing financial return in the entire franchise, making a mere $41.8 million on a $25 million budget. Other than the obvious lack of Milla Jovovich’s star power, critics attributed this disappointing reception to a less-than-memorable cast and an overcrowded script.

The RE games have always been light on plot, but Roberts’ choice to rush through both the first and second game all at once means that little time is spent dwelling on the interesting bits of either experience, with the film stumbling its way through familiar story beats and locations without giving the audience any time to breathe. This approach also ruined any chance of a proper Nemesis adaptation in the future, though that’s more of a personal nitpick.

The script’s not the only problem, however, as the flick’s reduced production value meant that Welcome to Raccoon City couldn’t properly convey much of the apocalyptic sci-fi excesses that made the original games so much fun in the first place. The cheap CGI is especially noticeable in the latter half of the picture, and it feels like a lot of content was cut from the story simply due to a lack of budget. The end result is a film that feels much smaller than the games it’s based on.

The movie also underwent a number of reshoots during the pandemic, which means that much of the experience feels inexplicably choppy and over-edited. It seems like several story elements have been reshuffled and compressed in order to make the movie flow faster. While this ultimately helps with the pacing, it harms the overall storytelling when we’re not allowed to focus on individual moments.

Ultimately, I think the biggest problem here is that the film takes itself just a tad bit too seriously. A bit of Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson inspired camp would have gone a long way in livening up this gloomy experience that doesn’t quite have the heart to back up its retro thrills.

THE SILVER LINING

Welcome to Raccoon City may not be the perfect Biohazard adaptation that fans were hoping for, but it’s certainly an entertaining 90s throwback with plenty of undead thrills. There’s also enough love for the source material to make it worth sitting through a couple of lifeless scenes in order to reach the undead action. In fact, I’d argue that the reboot is better than most of the RE films that preceded it, though that might be an empty bit of praise depending on how much you enjoy those movies.

Regardless, the overall atmosphere here is impeccable, with Roberts making an effort to faithfully translate memorable elements from the games into the story without it ever feeling like empty fan-service. In fact, Capcom was reported to have lent the production some of their original blueprints for both the Spencer Mansion and the Raccoon City Police Department, adding to the film’s pedigree. While this attention to detail doesn’t excuse the movie’s storytelling blemishes, it certainly adds to the experience.

Of course, a zombie flick is only as good as its depiction of the living dead, and the practical effects on display here are phenomenal. While it’s a shame that so many of these gnarly flesh-eaters are replaced by CGI creatures in the latter half of the flick, I love the sickly look of the infected and how the makeup progresses from the early stages of the virus up to the macabre final forms. I also particularly enjoyed the iconic introduction to the first zombie, which was painstakingly recreated from the first game.

This might be a point of contention among fans, but I also really like the comical depiction of Leon in this film. Avan Jogia offers up a charming performance as a rookie cop who’s way out of his league but ultimately rises to the challenge by the end of the flick. While this incarnation of the character certainly isn’t a bad enough dude to rescue the president’s daughter, Leon’s recharacterization made him more relatable, with Roberts even claiming that this change was inspired by Kurt Russel in Big Trouble in Little China.

Again, this may not be the ideal RE adaptation (I’d still love to see some studio tackle George Romero’s unproduced take on the film), but there’s still a lot to love about Welcome to Raccoon City if you agree to take its cheesy thrills in stride. It certainly doesn’t re-invent the wheel when it comes to zombie movies, but there’s plenty of fun to be had here if you’re the kind of person who might enjoy watching a flaming zombie casually walk into a police department to the tune of Jennifer Paige’s Crush.

Watching a bad movie doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad experience. Even the worst films can boast a good idea or two, and that’s why we’re trying to look on the bright side with The Silver Lining, where we shine a light on the best parts of traditionally maligned horror flicks.

The post ‘Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’ – Was It Really That Bad? [The Silver Lining] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s not to say Dead Island was particularly bad. It was disappointingly ordinary and riddled with technical hitches, but there was something in its island resort setting, co-op action, and reliance on makeshift weaponry to shatter festering skulls that showed promise. That promise never really came to Dead Island’s follow-up Riptide, and certainly wasn’t found in the miserable cel-shaded spinoff Escape Dead Island. It’d be generous to say the jury is still out on development hell resident Dead Island 2 coming good if it ever resurrects, so it’s somewhat fortunate Techland headed off to make Dying Light; a spiritual successor that proved to be everything Dead Island promised, except maybe fulfilling the artful melodrama of that trailer, but honestly, that’s a bit of a relief.

Such were the lowered expectations set by the Dead Island deflation, Dying Light sort of crept out quietly by comparison, and happily, it gradually gained recognition and grew as a game as the years went on. It wasn’t just a spiritual successor, it was almost an evolutionary leap forward in so many ways.

Sailing away from the tropical sun-kissed shores of Banoi, Dying Light brings the undead to the fictional Middle-Eastern city of Harran, where a viral outbreak has been contained via quarantine, leaving its remaining resident surviving on supply drops from the Global Relief Effort, and embroiled in a constant life or death struggle against both the undead and vicious mercenaries. Harran’s housing is packed together tightly, leading to narrow pockets in which to move at street level, with plenty of obstacles, both inanimate and flesh, to navigate.

The player enters the fray as GRE operative Kyle Crane (voiced by regular zombie slayer and boulder-punching enthusiast Roger Craig Smith) who is sent into Harran to retrieve delicate files that could lead to a cure for the virus. Unfortunately for Crane, he gets infected not long after arriving, and finds himself working with various factions to not only complete his original mission, but to maintain levels of the Antizin suppressant that stop him from becoming another of the walking corpses stumbling around the streets of Harran.

So far, so Dead Island, but two major aspects separate and elevate Dying Light from its past self. The day/night cycle, and parkour.

Firstly, parkour. Outside of Mirror’s Edge, games hadn’t really tried to tackle first-person parkour. Techland had to rework the entire original story to better suit the newfound verticality, which turned out to be a smart move as the precision movement system works wonderfully in tandem with the agile melee-based combat. The risk/reward of climbing higher and higher to be relatively safe is that, initially at least, a drop is fatal, and even if by some miracle you do survive it, there’s a good chance you’ve stumbled into a street full of shambling infected. In the daytime, it’s a good way to avoid getting into a brawl with the plodding populace, at night, the floor may as well be lava for how deadly it is.

You see, the night changes the infected. They become quicker, more alert, and more aggressive, so the last thing you want to be doing is faltering in the dark as unknown numbers of tetchy rotting mouths loom in the inky black of night. If that was the only problem, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, but a particularly nasty kind of light-sensitive infected emerges as the sun sets.

The Volatiles are fast, strong, and ridiculously agile. If one spots Crane, it will go hell for leather to turn him into a red smear on the tarmac. Crane can keep them at bay using a UV flashlight (which has limited uses) or flares. The first time the story introduces them is one of the most intense and horrifying sequences of the entire game, as Crane scrambles across the rooftops of Harran’s slums in darkness, while all manner of screeching monsters bay for his blood. In the distance is the safety of a tower block the majority of the last vestiges of Harran’s living population have turned into a fortress, but between Crane and there is a sea of obsidian night, where gnashing teeth and nightmarish brutes lurk beneath the murky surface.

That introduction to Harran’s nightlife places a greater emphasis on avoiding it and returning to a safehouse before nightfall. It uses the fading of hazy daylight to emphasize the terror of the encroaching darkness. Even as Kyle Crane’s roster of abilities, and an arsenal of badass makeshift weaponry grows, there’s still something to fear when the nights draw close.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Dying Light comes midway through the story when not only does Crane acquire a grappling hook to aid his multi-tiered traversal, the introduction of the upper-class side of Harran changes the way parkour and infected combat works. The narrow, claustrophobic slums are left behind for a more modern, open map that sees plenty of heights to climb to and new depths to plummet into. It’s a clever change of pace that utilizes everything the player has learned in the opening half whilst introducing fresh elements.

After the goofy splatterfest of Dead Island, Dying Light felt somewhat somber, from its plot of corruption and survival, the menace of the night, to its sublime synth-heavy soundtrack that evokes the Euro-horror of the 80s. It still allows you to revel in silliness, like dropkicking undead from rooftop terraces, but it’s ultimately a dangerous, volatile place that’s out to murder Crane at any moment.

In the seven years between its release and that of its upcoming sequel, Dying Light repeatedly added to that captivating original package. Multiple free and paid DLC packs dropped over the years, and a brand new expansion, The Following, brought a whole other area to explore alongside vehicular combat. There was even a medieval-themed bonus mode based on an unreleased Techland title called Hellraid thrown in for good measure. Add in the fact you can tackle Dying Light with three other friends or even be invaded by one in ‘Be the Zombie’ and there ended up being plenty of legs in Dying Light, and hopefully plenty of insight that helped in the development of Dying Light 2.

The one thing Dying Light 2 has to do better is with the story and characters. While not terrible, in Dying Light they often felt undercooked and riddled with cliches. That was offset by the actual game’s overall quality, but given it’s been seven years and narrative quality is generally higher in horror games, it’d be the final piece of the puzzle.

The post The Night Comes For Us: Why Techland’s Zombie RPG ‘Dying Light’ Delivered on the Promise of ‘Dead Island’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In The Last Matinee, the audience attending the last showing of a horror film in a small downtown cinema is terrorized by a murderer who begins to pick them off, one by one. The only person to notice that something strange is going on is the projectionist’s daughter.

Written and directed by Maxi Contenti (Muñeco viviente V, Neptunia), the film stars Luciana Grasso (El Secreto de Julia), Ricardo Islas (El Que No Corre Vuela, Bailiwick), Julieta Spinelli, Franco Duran and Pedro Duarte.

The slickly shot neo-Giallo pays its respects to the subgenre, both in cinematic references and in bloodletting. Those that love their horror bloody will find much to revel in here. The killer finds creative ways to unleash carnage. But to those with ommetaphobia or a significant aversion to eye trauma, beware: The Last Matinee brings the pain. 

Here are eight of horror’s most memorable moments of eye trauma to help you prepare.

Opera

It only feels appropriate to begin with a Giallo with such a memorable moment of ocular torture that it was included on the cover art. Dario Argento’s Opera features a disturbing scene that sees Betty (Cristina Marsillach) bound and gagged as she’s forced to watch her boyfriend’s murder. The killer ensures that she observes by taping needles to her lower eyelids; if she blinks, it’s game over for her vision. Argento captures this intense moment with an unflinching gaze.

Audition

Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) takes surgical measures to ensure her lover Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) will never leave her in Takashi Miike’s memorable horror movie. After a slow build-up, she unleashes her pent-up fury by injecting him with a paralytic then wriggling needles into the tender space below his eyes with a gleeful “Kiri Kiri Kiri!” It’s terrifying.

Brightburn

In this horror spin on Superman, the superpowered child targets a waitress for expressing displeasure over the harm he caused her child. He waits until she’s alone in the diner where she works, causing surges in the electricity. When the waitress looks up to inspect a fluorescent overhead light, it shatters. Director David Yarovesky gives a closeup of the shard stuck in the waitress’s eye, followed by shaky hands that slowly pull it out. What makes this more cringe-inducing is the slurping, squishing sound that accompanies this moment.

Final Destination 5

The Final Destination series made an impressive show of wringing palpable tension out of elaborate deaths, often rooted in the most mundane tasks. In other words, it’s not just the suspense that makes this series memorable, but the way it builds on reality-based fears. Case in point; this petrifying death exploits anxieties about laser eye surgery. Here, a device straps the patient’s eyes wide open, leaving her vulnerable to a laser run amok.

Saw II

The “Venus Fly Trap” in Saw II induces sympathy pains. A man wakes up to find his head strapped in a deadly trap. His right eye his bloodied and swollen from a surgically implanted key behind it- the very key to his freedom. The man must use a scalpel to cut the key out and free himself before the timer runs out or the trap snaps closed on his skull. The ticking clock adds intensity, but the closeups of the blade to the cornea heightens the stress. Of all the tests that the Jigsaw killer administers, cutting out your eye to save yourself ranks high among the most panic-inducing.

Black Christmas (2006)

Billy has a fixation on eyeballs in this gore-filled remake. When it comes to eye trauma, you can take your pick for any number of squeamish moments of eye-gouging horror. He begins by targeting his sister Agnes, viciously claiming her eye. Later, he even goes so far as to drag a victim by emptied eye sockets after ripping out her eyes. And they’re hardly the only two that suffer severe eye trauma.

Un Chien Andalou

Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali’s 1928 film only runs sixteen minutes in length, but it packs a potent punch with surreal imagery. The most horrific scene sees a man take a straight razor to a woman’s eye as she looks straight ahead. The camera cuts to an image of the moon, then to a closeup of an eye getting sliced open. It’s gruesome, arguably more so knowing that Buñuel used a calf’s eye to achieve the effect. Nearly a century later, this ocular laceration sticks with you.

Zombie

Lucio Fulci horror movies could dominate this list. Choose any of them, and chances are high they’d feature a brutal moment of ocular evisceration. The Beyond, The New York Ripper, Demonia, and more. But it’s the unforgettable imagery from Zombie of a woman struggling against a much stronger foe, the undead, as it pulls her head toward a large splinter of wood that makes the cut here. It’s a slow impaling of the eye, and her helpless look of fear as she’s forced to stare down her own death is brutal.

Discover what ocular horrors await when The Last Matinee releases on Digital HD and VOD platforms August 24th.

The post Prepare for ‘The Last Matinee’ By Revisiting These 8 Brutal Moments of Eye Trauma! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Born August 8, 1942, Giannetto De Rossi began his career as a special makeup effects artist with the 1963 movie The Hours of Love, subsequently working on 1960s films including The Little Nuns, Corpse for the Lady, The Possessed, Wake Up and Die, The Taming of the Shrew, Doctor Faustus, Day of Anger, and Sergio Leone’s classic Once Upon a Time in the West.

But it was during the 1970s and 1980s that De Rossi firmly established himself as an icon in the eyes of horror fans with contributions to Emmanuelle in America, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, and Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, the latter film’s gruesome brutality making De Rossi a legend in the horror space. De Rossi was responsible for the creation of the zombies and various scenes of carnage throughout the movie, using everything from mortician’s wax, egg whites and even a real-life shark to bring to the screen some of the genre’s most memorably brutal moments.

De Rossi subsequently reunited with Fulci for The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery.

Giannetto De Rossi spent the remainder of the ’80s and ’90s working on big productions including Conan the Destroyer, Dune, King Kong Lives, Rambo III, Kull the Conqueror and The Man in the Iron Mask, and he returned to the horror genre in 2003 with Alexandra Aja’s High Tension, bringing his brand of graphic violence to a new generation of fans.

Giannetto De Rossi also wrote and directed three films throughout his career: 1989’s Cy Warrior, 1990’s creature feature horror movie Killer Crocodile 2, and 1995’s Tummy.

A legend whose incredible work will live on forever. Rest in Peace, Giannetto.

The post [R.I.P.] ‘Zombie’ and ‘High Tension’ Makeup Effects Artist Giannetto De Rossi Has Passed Away appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

For those who haven’t seen it, the story follows an ensemble of film students as they document a zombie outbreak, exploring how survivors might share and react to information when society begins to crumble. Once these young filmmakers embark on an ill-fated road trip, their impromptu documentary slowly reveals less about the zombies and more about the ugly side of human nature, making for a classic Romero picture with copious amounts blood, guts and post-9/11 allegory. Of course, in order to really appreciate what Romero was going for with Diary of the Dead, we have to look back at the context surrounding this odd little production.

The original Dead trilogy received a satisfying conclusion back in the 80s with Day of the Dead, but the socio-political turmoil of the Bush era ultimately convinced Romero that he had more to say within the Zombie genre. This resulted in a comeback with 2005’s tremendously entertaining post-apocalyptic parable, Land of the Dead. Unfortunately, the production of this undead epic was a terrible experience for the director, as he was forced to deal with studio meddling and a series of personal problems behind the scenes. While I think the final product stands alongside the original trilogy as an iconic piece of horror fiction, it’s no surprise that Romero decided to tone things down a bit in his next project. So, in 2007, George returned to the low-budget guerrilla filmmaking that earned him his stardom, but for different reasons.

While the cultural landscape surrounding Diary of the Dead could not have been any more different than Night of the Living Dead‘s swinging 60s, both movies share a rebellious spirit informed by Romero’s own fears. By the mid-2000s, it was obvious that media as a whole was changing, and so was our way of consuming it. Communication empires were starting to fracture under their own weight and online social bubbles were rapidly expanding. In this chaotic environment, Romero figured that it was up to common folk to rise up and help untangle what he called a “media octopus”. And who better to fight for the truth than a rag-tag band of naïve film students?

Of course, Romero was also influenced by the rise of YouTube, one of the most revolutionary media platforms of all time. Corporate interests and greedy algorithms may have put a dent in its reputation, but the site was originally envisioned as a place where regular people could share their point of view without fear of corporate oversight. It’s no wonder that YouTube was once regarded as a beacon of free expression, but it was also a hub for all sorts of viral horror content, usually presented as real-life Found Footage. Naturally, these ideas bled over into Diary‘s portrayal of an online media-frenzy.

At the time, Found-Footage had yet to be re-popularized by the Paranormal Activity franchise, but it wasn’t exactly an obscure style of filmmaking. After The Blair Witch Project, the sub-genre was usually adopted by up-and-coming filmmakers as a way of breaking into the business without going bankrupt. Obviously, this wasn’t the case with Romero, as this Master of Horror deliberately chose to make a Found-Footage project because he realized the format’s potential for telling intimate and timely stories.

While themes of media censorship and the ineffective government response provide a terrifying and realistic backdrop for this re-imagined undead uprising, Romero’s choice of telling the story through the lens of amateur filmmakers also adds another level of commentary to the picture. The characters’ insistence on completing The Death of Death (the film within the film) makes for a compelling case of “the medium is the message”, and their obsession with documenting their survival wouldn’t be out of place in today’s social media landscape. In fact, the movie feels even creepier now that we live in an age when we’re more likely to hear about international tragedies through an Instagram post than a special news bulletin.

Despite this novel approach, Diary still benefits from the same charms as Romero’s traditional zombie flicks. Moments like the tragic discovery of Debra’s family or the Professor’s nihilistic musings on the future of humanity echo some of the best aspects of the director’s previous work. That’s not even mentioning the appropriately ominous finale, which concludes the film on a grim viral video. After all, zombies can be stopped with a simple bullet to the brain, but there’s no cure for human nature.

Unfortunately, Diary of the Dead succumbs to some classic Found Footage pitfalls that keep it from becoming a modern classic. From convenient camera angles to questionable CGI, plus a couple of overly theatrical moments, the movie has its fair share of flaws, but I still think it works as a visceral zombie flick. Personally, the simple fact that a filmmaking legend is trying his hand at a new and incredibly difficult form of storytelling more than makes up for some stilted dialogue and computer-generated blood splatters.

Romero actually described his experience with Found-Footage like “coming home”, saying that he enjoyed the possibility of unscripted surprises and down-to-earth storytelling. In behind-the-scenes featurettes, the director actually claimed that there’s more planning involved in setting up a convincing Found Footage shot than a traditional one, and he explains that he preferred to cast stage actors in order to facilitate longer and more complex scenes. At the end of the day, it’s quite clear that he had fun playing around with this new format while commenting on the future of emerging media. It’s a real shame that he didn’t get the chance to perfect his technique with more Found-Footage projects, though I’m still grateful for what we got.

Even then, most of Diary‘s flaws are justified by the premise. The entire movie is meant to have been cobbled together by a handful of amateur film students, so some of the pretentious narration and wonky pacing actually contribute to the realistic tone. There’s also a surprising amount of humor in this mostly nihilistic picture, from playful jabs at running zombies to dynamite-wielding Amish folk. Horror fans are also likely to appreciate the numerous voice cameos from other masters of the craft like Guillermo Del Toro, Stephen King, Tom Savini, Wes Craven and even Quentin Tarantino.

Diary of the Dead is far from Romero’s greatest work, but it’s still worth watching after all these years. The subtext is still on point, the zombies are still scary and there’s no beating that chilling apocalyptic atmosphere. So, whether you’re a zombie enthusiast, Found Footage fan or just a casual horror hound up for some socially conscious thrills, I wholeheartedly recommend digging this one up. The revolution may not be televised, but if the late, great George A. Romero is to be believed, it might just show up online. And I think that’s a relevant message for these troubling times.

The post George Romero’s Underrated ‘Diary of the Dead’ Offers a Relevant Message for These Troubling Times appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Both films have been restored in true 4K 16-bit ultra high definition with Dolby Vision HDR and a new Dolby Atmos audio mix, bursting at the seams with hours of extra features.

Here’s the full breakdown for Zombie:

Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
• Audio Commentary #1 with Troy Howarth, Author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films
• Audio Commentary #2 with Star Ian McCulloch and Diabolik Magazine Editor Jason J. Slater
• When The Earth Spits Out The Dead – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
• Theatrical Trailers
• TV Spots
• Radio Spots
• Poster & Still Gallery
• Guillermo del Toro Intro

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras:
• Zombie Wasteland – Interviews with Stars Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson & Al Cliver, and Actor/Stuntman Ottaviano Dell’Acqua
• Flesh Eaters on Film – Interview with Co-Producer Fabrizio De Angelis
• Deadtime Stories – Interviews with Co-Writers Elisa Briganti and (Uncredited) Dardano Sacchetti
• World of the Dead – Interviews with Cinematographer Sergio Salvati and Production & Costume Designer Walter Patriarca
• Zombi Italiano – Interviews with Special Make-Up Effects Artists Gianetto De Rossi & Maurizio Trani and Special Effects Artist Gino De Rossi
• Notes on a Headstone – Interview with Composer Fabio Frizzi
• All in the Family – Interview with Antonella Fulci
• Zombie Lover – Award-Winning Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro talks about one of his favorite films

And here’s the breakdown for Maniac:

Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
• Audio Commentary #1 with Producer/Director William Lustig and Producer Andrew Garroni
• Audio Commentary #2 with Producer/Director William Lustig, Special Make-Up Effects Artist Tom Savini, Editor Lorenzo Marinelli, and Joe Spinell’s Assistant Luke Walter
• Theatrical Trailers
• TV Spots
• Radio Spots

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Extras:
• MANIAC Outtakes
• Returning to the Scene of the Crime with William Lustig
• Anna and the Killer – Interview with Star Caroline Munro
• The Death Dealer – Interview with Special Make-Up Effects Artist Tom Savini
• Dark Notes – Interview with Composer Jay Chattaway
• Maniac Men – Interview with Songwriters Michael Sembello and Dennis Matkosky
• The Joe Spinell Story
• Mr. Robbie: Maniac 2 Promo Reel
• MANIAC Publicity
• MANIAC Controversy

Both of these horror classics will be released on 4K Ultra HD on May 26, 2020!

The post Blue Underground Details Their First Two 4K Ultra HD Releases: Fulci’s ‘Zombie’ and Lustig’s ‘Maniac’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Hard at work on our very first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray! With DolbyVision HDR and new Dolby Atmos audio mix!! More info coming soon,” the company has announced this week.

Along with the tease, they shared the Zombie box art that you’ll find below. The brand new 4K restoration comes from the original uncut and uncensored camera negative.

“This is Zombie like you’ve truly never seen it before, bursting at the seams with hours of new and archival Extras!”

All the glorious gore is expected on 4K Ultra HD later this year.

The post Lucio Fulci’s ‘Zombie’ Coming to 4K Ultra HD for the First Time Courtesy of Blue Underground appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Full disclosure: it took me several years to “get” Fulci. I would watch his movies again and again, confounded by their refusal to conform to traditional narratives and unable to see past certain limitations to appreciate the technical mastery on display. One day, though, everything finally clicked, and Fulci has gone on to become one of my favorite filmmakers. In a genre so often characterized by sameness, his films are like no one else’s. Even a mediocre effort – and he certainly has his share of movies that don’t work – has a personality that’s distinctly Fulci.

Ranking his horror films was no easy task. Obviously there’s a huge amount of subjectivity – my favorites may not be anyone else’s favorites – but there’s also a pretty wide gulf between the Fulci films I like and those about which I’m less passionate. The choices for slots 1-10 came quickly; the rest is kind of a crapshoot. No matter what, it was a blast to revisit all of these movies and to be reminded of just what a special, singular director Lucio Fulci was. There will never be another like him.

Without further ado…

1. The Beyond (1981) – Winner and still champion. Though some Fulci fans might bristle at my naming The Beyond as his best movie, it’s the one that combines everything that’s great about him and his work: the mounting sense of dread, the shocking explosions of gore, the nightmare logic, the unforgettable visuals, and Fabio Frizzi’s best score. Animals attack, heads explode, faces are melted off, eyeballs pop out, the gateway to Hell is opened. The Beyond has it all. This isn’t just my favorite Fulci movie; it’s one of my favorite horror movies period.

2. City of the Living Dead (1980) – A very close second for me, City of the Living Dead (aka Gates of Hell) is maybe the best example of Fulci’s talent for creating sustained nightmares – movies that make little to no logical sense but which bombard the viewer with atmosphere and gruesome imagery from which there is little relief. The story here is simple: a priest commits suicide in the opening moments, thereby opening a doorway to Hell. What makes City of the Living Dead so effective is the way the story is told, all soft focus and misty grounds and the threat of violence at any given moment. One of the movie’s most famous sequences, in which a woman vomits up all of her innards in real time, is a the perfect distillation of what makes Fulci – and this movie – great: it’s a nightmare from which the director refuses to look away, from which we cannot wake. It’s a horror movie that really horrifies.

3. The House by the Cemetery (1981) – The third and final entry in the “Gates of Hell” trilogy is a movie that sneaks higher up the list every time I revisit it. This is prime Fulci, full of creeping dread punctuated by shocking violence. The plot is straightforward: a mad scientist is more or less reanimated in the basement of a house and begins committing murders. Fulci has worked with the trope of “the Bad Place” before and would subsequently, too, but there’s something about limiting himself to the location that energizes him here. A lot of horror fans seem to find Giovanni Frezza’s Bob character irritating, but I’ve always found him and his crazy dubbing just one more oddball element in a movie (and a career) full of them.

4. Zombie (1979) – I’m sure it will be considered blasphemous to place Zombie (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters, aka Zombi 2) at #4 on this list, seeing as it’s arguably Fulci’s best known and most beloved movie. It’s a movie with which I’ve had a complicated relationship, as it took me a handful of viewings to really come around on it. Zombie’s best moments, be it the famous scene of Olga Karlatos getting her eyeball impaled on an enormous wooden splinter or the ominous and haunting visual of an army of zombies luring their way towards New York City, are as good as anything Fulci has ever done. I just find that this one sags a bit more in its down moments than the movies that appear above it on this list, all of which maintain an atmosphere of weirdness and dread even when the guts aren’t being spilled.

5. The Psychic (1977) – Fans of Lucio Fulci’s splatter movies may have little use for The Psychic (aka Seven Notes in Black, aka Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes), as it’s one of the director’s classiest and most restrained efforts. Jennifer O’Neill plays a woman whose psychic visions lead her to uncover a murder, but there’s much more to the grisly crime than she first realizes. This is Fulci in full-on Hitchcock mode, much more interested in tension and suspense than shock or horror (that wouldn’t come until Zombie Flesh Eaters two years later). It’s one of his best-constructed efforts; the final third is pure cinema, told entirely through visual suspense and with very little dialogue. Those who would contest Fulci’s technical merits as a filmmaker clearly have never seen The Psychic.

6. Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (1971) – Fulci’s first proper giallo (following the warm-up that was One on Top of the Other [aka Perversion Story]) is one of the genre’s funkiest, most original outings. Florinda Bolkan is a politician’s wife who begins having dreams about orgies and murder, then wakes one morning to discover she may have actually acted upon these impulses and killed her neighbor. This is the best of Fulci’s non-supernatural horror films, flirting with the dreamlike vibe of his later work and conjuring up a number of striking, abstract nightmare images like a collection of dogs that are split open (done with puppets) or a pair of hippies whose eyes have gone all blank white, predicting a similar effect in The Beyond. The mystery at the center is pretty good, too, and not entirely easy to predict.

7. Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972) – Despite its classification as a giallo, I almost feel like Don’t Torture a Duckling barely counts as horror…except for the three child murders at its center, of course. There’s the requisite amount of Fulci salaciousness, but the film is fairly elegant in its construction and quite restrained, given how sleazy this subject matter could have been. Instead, it’s gorgeously scored (by Riz Ortolani) and photographed, making the most of its location shooting across the Italian countryside. It’s also interesting as a personal statement of Fulci struggling with his own Catholic faith. Many of his films examined the true nature of evil, but rarely did that evil wear so human a face.

8. The Black Cat (1981) – Though often considered middle-of-the-pack Fulci (which, as Fulci scholar Stephen Thrower points out, might have something to do with the film’s lack of gore), The Black Cat is a surprisingly strong entry in the Maestro’s filmography. Made during what is arguably the most creative and fertile period in his career – sandwiched between City of the Living Dead, Contraband, and The Beyond, The Black Cat is a loose adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe tale featuring the titular feline as a vessel of vengeance exacting revenge on an entire village. While the pacing is again uneven and the narrative never quite crystallizes in a satisfying way, there are so many strong set pieces in the movie – nearly all of which play out with no dialogue – and so many gorgeous qualities to the film (not the least of which is Pino Donaggio’s score) that The Black Cat deserves better than its overlooked reputation might suggest.

9. The New York Ripper (1982) – Easily the sleaziest, most polarizing, and most controversial film Fulci ever made, The New York Ripper plays like the director is doubling down on everything he was ever criticized for doing on screen. It’s a giallo about a killer who is mutilating and murdering women, targeting their bodies and ways that are both ugly and highly sexualized. Oh, and he continually makes phone calls to his potential victims and speaks in a series of duck quacks. I’m not making that up. The movie could be self-parody if it wasn’t so brutally violent and so well made. This one closes out the golden period of Fulci’s career that began with Zombie and ends here.

10. Manhattan Baby (1982) – A number of Fulci films could be described as “mixed bags,” but maybe none more than Manhattan Baby. This uneasy mix of the supernatural and Ancient Egyptian history offers a good deal of striking imagery, some nightmarish sequences, and represents a genuine effort to do something different within the horror genre. That it doesn’t totally work isn’t for lack of trying. The story falls flat, but the camera work is so fluid and precise that it’s among the best of Fulci’s entire filmography. There are a handful of moments of gore that feel a bit wedged in (Fulci gotta Fulci), and the repurposing of Fabio Frizzi’s brilliant score for The Beyond is a constant distraction, even if it does serve to remind the viewer just how good a score it is – distraction or not, the sequences in which it appears are better for it. Fulci himself was not especially proud of the movie, more or less discounting it as a misfire in later years. There are too many good moments, though, for the film to be totally ignored.

11. Murder Rock: Dancing Death (1984) – Fulci seems somewhat disengaged from this one, a mix of giallo and standard slasher slathered in ‘80s music video excess. A murder mystery set at a dance studio, Murder Rock is a direct response to the success of Flashdance – a response that reportedly came at the insistence of the movie’s producers, despite Fulci’s own protestations. Some of the director’s trademark sleaze and insanity has carried over from the likes of The New York Ripper, but it’s often strangely dispassionate, as though the director’s heart isn’t fully in it.

12. Touch of Death (1988) – One of the rare comedic Fulci films since his early days (he got his start making Italian sex comedies), Touch of Death (aka When Alice Broke the Mirror) takes much of the director’s mean-spirited ugliness and attempts to wring laughs from it. Brett Halsey plays a middle-aged serial killer who kills and regularly eats his victims. The movie is episodic in the way that it follows him romancing and then killing a series of women, each of them cartoonishly repulsive (as anyone who has seen The New York Ripper can attest, Fulci may have some issues with misogyny). While it may never be explicitly funny, the insanely dark humor is an amusing respite from a body of work that’s usually very, very grim. Touch of Death is almost too ugly to really be enjoyed and runs out of steam about halfway, but ranks above other entries in Fulci’s filmography for the ways in which it manages to stand apart and reveals a different, more playful (albeit demented) side of the director’s personality.

13. A Cat in the Brain (1990) – Fulci goes meta, and the results are a fascinating mess. The director, who, like Hitchcock, nearly always cameos somewhere in his movies, this time takes center stage as the star, playing himself. He’s a director of notoriously violent movies whose work has begun creeping into his daily life, either triggering memories of his own films or causing him to have hallucinations of violence all around him. This is Fulci’s most experimental film – his 8 ½ if you will – and also his most challenging. The use of violent clips from his films, the way its cut together, and Fabio Frizzi’s acid jazz/rock score all combine for a pretty unnerving experience, which is appropriate considering the movie’s depiction of a descent into madness. It’s a movie I like to study more than I enjoy watching, and is really only for advanced students of Fulci’s filmography.

14. Zombi 3 (1988) – The first sequel to Fulci’s own classic Zombie (aka Zombi 2, hence this one being part 3) is a movie only partly directed by the maestro himself. There are conflicting stories as to why: some accounts say he left due to illness, while others say it was conflict with the producers over what he felt was a bad script, resulting in less than an hour of usable film after editing. Bruno Mattei, arguably the hackiest director in Italian horror at this time, took over directing duties to complete the film, which helps explain why Zombi 3 is scattershot. It’s never boring, though: colorful, violent, often ridiculous (an attack by zombie birds is particularly memorable, as is a woman giving birth to a full-grown zombie), and plenty energetic. With as much green ooze as there is on display in Zombi 3, it’s the closest Fulci ever came to making a Troma movie.

15. Voices from Beyond (1991) – Another narrative mess from near the end of Fulci’s career, Voices from Beyond takes on some additional relevance because it’s such a personal film. Directing from a screenplay he co-wrote, Fulci tells the story of a man (Diulio Del Prete) who passes away mysteriously and then speaks from beyond the grave to enlist the help of his daughter (Karina Huff) in solving his death. Between facing his own mortality – the Maestro was in his 60s and in poor health for years at the time the movie was made – and the close relationship between father and daughter (Fulci’s own daughter Camilla served as assistant director and this and several more of her father’s films), there is a lot of the director’s own life on display here. That alone makes it more interesting than the other late-period Fulci films, as do the small handful of shocking or horrific sequences included, from a bowl of eyeball soup to an insane opening that lurches from sweaty sex to the brutal stabbing of a young child.

16. Aenigma (1988) – Only a director like Lucio Fulci could make a movie as weird as Aenigma and have it still feel like he’s on autopilot. An awkward college student (Milijana Zirojevic) is the victim of a cruel prank and winds up in a coma, but manages to psychically take revenge on her tormentors while unconscious in her hospital bed. Aenigma suffers from being too derivative, not only of Stephen King’s Carrie (from which it draws its clearest inspiration) and Patrick, but also Fulci’s own work. Unfortunately, the repetition nets diminishing returns: it’s one thing to re-stage the famous spider scene from The Beyond, but it’s another thing altogether to try and do it with snails. Maybe there’s a horror movie that can make snails scary. Aenigma isn’t it.

17. Demonia (1990) – Fulci travels back to Manhattan Baby territory for a story about archaeologists investigating the ruins of an ancient Sicilian monastery and awakening the spirits of some vengeful nuns who were crucified there centuries earlier. The director’s Catholic background reappears here (as it has in City of the Living Dead and Don’t Torture a Duckling), but the movie uses its evil ghost nuns as more of a gimmick than it does as a way of commenting on the Catholic Church. A more sympathetic lead (Meg Register), as well as a more consistent pace and tone, help this to feel less sloppy than other entries from this same period, but we’re still a pretty long way from The Beyond.

18. The House of Clocks (1989) – Fulci got very sick in the mid 1980s, and though he recovered, his work almost never did. Outside of The Devil’s Honey (one of his best movies, but one which isn’t really horror and therefore won’t appear on this list), none of his post-illness films have the power or precision of his previous output. This one tells the story of some young thieves who set out to rob the house of an old couple, only to discover that the old couple are ghosts and that time follows its own rules inside the house. There are a few good moments and a bit of Gothic atmosphere – fans of Stuart Gordon’s Dolls may be particularly interested – but the narrative is shapeless, the characters weak, and the last act goes from bad to worse. Originally made for Italian television but deemed too violent to air, this was Fulci’s second consecutive film to be released direct to video following Sodoma’s Ghost the year prior.

19. The Sweet House of Horrors – (1989) Originally made for Italian television (but released to video instead because of its violent content), The Sweet House of Horrors might be one of Fulci’s strangest efforts – and that’s really saying something. A brother and sister are orphaned when their parents are brutally murdered by an intruder, but not to worry: the parents spend the rest of the film visiting the kids as two floating flames, wreaking havoc on any who attempts to sever the bond between them and their children. Like a lot of late-period Fulci, there are powerful images and moments of inspiration, but it’s all surrounded by a lot of dull nonsense. At least this one scores a few points for pure weirdness.

20. Sodoma’s Ghost (1988) – A group of teenagers stumble upon an abandoned mansion and decide to stay for the night, not realizing it’s the same location where a group of Nazis were killed following a Bacchanalian orgy in the 1940s. Though the opening prologue of Sodoma’s Ghost (aka Ghosts of Sodom) seems to set up something sleazy and perverse, the subsequent 70 minutes are by turns clumsy and dull, and that’s something a movie about Nazi sex ghosts should never, ever be. There’s plenty of nudity on display, but very little of even Fulci’s demented sense of sexuality to liven up the proceedings. Only a handful of images – one involving a decomposing figure and another involving a sexual attempt gone horribly awry – manage to speak directly to the nightmare centers of our brains. Even Carlo Cordio’s score feels like the stuff of early ‘80s easy listening radio. Perhaps not coincidentally, this was the first Fulci film to never receive a theatrical release.

21. Door to Silence (1991) – Fulci’s last film is also, sadly, his worst. Fulci’s variation on Duel stars John Savage as a man who…drives a lot. Despite working with maybe the biggest movie star of his career (Hollywood movie star, at least), Door to Silence never really comes together at all and definitively demonstrates that Fulci’s best days were behind him. He would never direct again, and died in his sleep five years later at age 68. He leaves behind an uneven but often brilliant body of work. We horror fans are forever in his debt.

Thank you, Maestro.

The post Zombies, Slashers, Ghosts and Extreme Gore: Ranking All 21 of Lucio Fulci’s Horror Films appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The super high-end collectible hardback edition is the most limited and collectible book Eibon Press has ever released, with only 500 copies in print, and 200 available in a very special signed and numbered Super Psycho Fan Edition. The prices for each edition are as follows…

• $50.00 for the 300-copy limited edition
• $100.00 for the 200-copy signed and numbered Super Psycho Fan Edition

The team explains, “We spared no expense to collect the first four issues of LUCIO FULCI’S ZOMBIE as a full graphic novel, going back to the original art files and reworking the color finishing, lettering and other technical mumbo-jumbo to create all-new image files, from which all-new offset printing plates were struck. The results, kids, is THE definitive version of LUCIO FULCI’S ZOMBIE. The entire story of the classic film in one long seamless comic book novel, designed to blow you right away. This is a super limited edition HARDCOVER BOOK, with only 500 copies printed and bound! Each copy has a full color case wrap on the hard-cover itself and a removable dust jacket featuring Mike Broom’s stunning original cover art for issue #1.”

For full details on both editions, be sure to check out Eibon’s holiday newsletter.

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Fulci earned notoriety in his home country of Italy in the ‘70s due to the graphic violence depicted in his giallo films. The graphic violence and gore would become his trademark with the international breakthrough hit Zombi 2, or Zombie. Of course, the gore meant his work often ran afoul with censors and critics, and as a result Fulci’s horror filmography took much longer to reach classic reevaluation than the likes of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. It wasn’t just his use of gore that makes Fulci a vital pillar of Italian cinema, but his ability to craft atmosphere. Fulci’s work is fearless and with a distinct style that earned him a massive following from the horror community. You could count on Fulci to be unafraid to push the boundaries of bad taste. Moreover, Fulci’s horror films have played a major influence on American filmmakers, and still continues to inspire today. Though his lengthy catalog is full of films worth seeking out, these five horror classics are his most influential.

Zombie

Also known as Zombi 2, this beloved zombie film was intended to serve as a sequel to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (Zombi in Italy). Fulci was hired for the project based on his work in his giallo The Psychic, and it changed the trajectory of his career. Though he never set out to be a horror director, the international success found in Zombie paved the way for his most widely adored “Gates of Hell” trilogy. The gore put this film in the crosshairs of the Video Nasty craze, and marked a trend in Fulci’s affinity for ocular trauma. In a way, Zombie serves as inspiration for Fulci’s future work in horror. But on a bigger scale, Zombie directly influenced the work of filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, who mimicked shots straight from the film for his own film Kill Bill: Volume 1.

A Cat in the Brain

One of the director’s final films, released in 1990, A Cat in the Brain also happens to be one of his most personal films. In addition to co-writing and directing, Fulci stars as himself. It’s a meta film in which Fulci plays a filmmaker-driven mad by his experiences behind the camera of his goriest films. Fulci assembled much of the film from clips of his previous horror films, and as such wasn’t a favorite among fans upon release. But his health was fading during production and A Cat in the Brain was reflective of his depression. It was also his response to the criticisms he’d received for much of his work in horror.  As for its influence, this film was ahead of the curve in terms of the wave of meta-horror that would follow in the latter half of the decade.

Don’t Torture a Duckling

Though Zombie was the film that really revved up Fulci’s use of gore, it began with this giallo. A remote Southern town is plagued by a string of child murders, and a reporter and a promiscuous woman team up to discover who’s responsible. The problem is that the town is superstitious and mistrustful of outsiders. Heavily themed around repression and guilt, the film’s hefty criticisms of the Catholic Church meant the film was essentially blacklisted for a period. It was the earlier stages of Fulci’s experimentation with close up violence, and a giallo that leaned into the political. As such, it’s a film that played major influence on filmmakers like Tarantino and French husband-and-wife team Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (Let the Corpses Tan).

The House by the Cemetery

The final entry in the “Gates of Hell” trilogy is also the only one that doesn’t have that same dreamlike quality that its predecessors had, and it’s smaller in scope. The plot follows a family who recently move into a New England home that’s been host to a series of murders in the past, unaware of the dark secret lurking in the basement. Does that plot sound familiar? Ted Geoghegan’s 2015 feature debut, We Are Still Here, draws inspiration from many films, but at its core is a heartfelt homage to Fulci and The House by the Cemetery. It’s not just the story in which Geoghegan drew inspiration, but the characters’ names as well.

The Beyond

Easily the most celebrated among Fulci’s horror films, and the second entry in his unofficial “Gates of Hell” trilogy, The Beyond also is the director’s most influential. Set in Louisiana, a young woman inherits a hotel and discovers it was built over one of the gates to Hell. Bleak, surreal, and dreamlike in its storytelling, The Beyond toes the line between beauty and horror. Essentially, The Beyond is what happens when you cross Fulci with H.P. Lovecraft. That it played a vital influence for Tarantino is no surprise at this point, but it also inspired notable directors like Sam Raimi, who lifted a shot from The Beyond when creating Spider-Man. Even horror films as recent as last year’s The Void pay homage to this Fulci classic.

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Blue Underground has restored Lucio Fulci’s gory classic Zombie in 4K for a brand new 3-disc limited edition Blu-ray release, which celebrates the 1979 Italian horror film’s 40th anniversary. The Blu-ray will come with your choice of 3D Lenticular Slipcover featuring 3 different iconic scenes, and it boasts a 4K Restoration from the uncensored original camera negative. The release will be Region Free, going up for pre-order soon.

It’s bursting at the seams with hours of NEW and archival extras…

Check out the kickass slipcovers below!

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One of gore master Lucio Fulci’s most widely known and regarded films is Zombie. Or Zombie 2: The Dead Are Among Us, Nightmare Island, Zombie Flesh Eaters, or The Island of the Living Dead depending on the market. In native Italy, it was Zombi 2, an unrelated but intended sequel to Zombi (the European cut of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead). The basic plot follows a group of people searching for a young woman’s father, and they arrive at the island where he worked only to find its inhabitants in the throes of an epidemic that causes its dead to revive and attack the living.

Being that we’re smack between Discovery Channel’s annual Shark Week and the upcoming mega-shark release The Meg, there’s no better time than now to get acquainted with this Fulci classic. Gory zombie movies don’t typically have anything whatsoever to do with sharks, but Zombie puts itself in the arena with spectacular results.  One of the most notorious scenes in the entire sub-genre of zombie films occurs in the first half of this Fulci classic. The underwater scene features an almost completely naked female scuba diver (of course) as she freaks out over a shark encounter. Then a zombie. It would’ve been sufficient to end there, but then the zombie had to get into a fight with the shark. I should mention that the budget for this film didn’t have room for fancy animatronics, so the shark was real.

But, this is a gore column, and as insane as the shark fight scene is, there’s not much gore in it. That’s ok, though, because the rest of the film more than makes up for it. The second most memorable scene in the film is the excruciating, drawn out death of Paola (Olga Karlatos), the wife of Dr. Menard who wants nothing more than to leave the island. Fulci consistently featured cringe-inducing eye trauma in his horror films, and Paola’s ever so slow eye skewering is the worst. The viewer is forced to watch as she struggles with a zombie intent on pulling her toward him, a large splinter between them. The tension is unbearable, as the viewer knows what’s going to happen, and Fulci takes his sweet time building up to the inevitable. When that splinter finally pierces Paola’s eye, it doesn’t stop. No surprise that it’s primarily this scene that earned the movie its status as a Video Nasty.

The entire final act is a gore lover’s dream, as the island is taken over by zombies both ancient and new. Our unwitting cast of characters get slaughtered in gruesome ways, ensuring that the eye gouge sequence doesn’t hog the gore limelight. Much of that can be attributed to special effects artist Giannetto De Rossi, who created a lot of the zombies, bite wounds, exploding heads, and even featured as the zombie hand responsible for Paola’s eye impalement. De Rossi teamed up with Fulci again to handle special effects for The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery, earning international fame in the process. He’s one of the world’s greatest special effects artists, and still kills it today with more recent work in films like High Tension. The brutal, lingering gore of Zombie makes it easy to see why De Rossi would continue one to have a lengthy career.

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The Dark stars Nadia Alexander as Mina, a young girl who stalks an isolated forest as a flesh-eating ghoul. After murdering a man as he attempted to flee from the authorities, Mina finds Alex (Toby Nichols), a traumatized blind boy hidden away in the man’s car. An unlikely friendship ensues as they both try and come to terms with their abusive pasts, though Alex’s presence starts to attracted unwanted attention.

Although the premise is interesting enough, what follows is an unexpectedly human tale concerning the healing power of affection and the relativity of monsters. While there is a surprising amount of violence and more than a few legitimately intense sequences, The Dark really shines during the warmer, more introspective moments shared by our leads.

Speaking of which, both Alexander and Nichols did a phenomenal job of selling their awful predicaments, and their reactions really helped make the film more believable. Bad casting could easily have broken this movie, considering how most of the runtime is spent on the interaction between the two young main characters, but the filmmakers did a phenomenal job of casting the right actors for these roles.

Sadly, the film stumbles in the pacing department, with a couple of scenes dragging on for way too long, and a conclusion that feels almost anticlimactic considering the emotional stakes established earlier in the picture. The movie also doesn’t make a point of explaining how the more fantastical elements of this world work. While none of these factors necessarily ruin the movie, it’s unfortunate that the experience is just a few minor tweaks away from greatness.

That being said, The Dark is still consistently entertaining, with atmospheric visuals and a haunting soundtrack. The cinematography isn’t exactly Oscar-worthy, but it does a great job of conveying the isolation of our lead characters and is at its best when depicting the eerie forested backdrops. This quality extends to the production value in general, as I was never convinced that this was a low-budget endeavor.

Ultimately, The Dark doesn’t quite reach the artistic heights that it aspires to, with an experience that could have benefited from a tighter script and some more energetic editing, but it’s still a successfully unique zombie movie. The slower nature of the flick may not be to everyone’s liking, but the film will definitely appeal to fans of intelligent supernatural thrillers and unconventional dramas alike. Potential viewers should just be prepared for an intensely emotional ride.

The post [Review] ‘The Dark’ Is a Chilling Tale of Friendship and Abuse appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

According to the latest patch notes, the game will be referred to as Just Survive from now on, furthering the split that the devs talked about last year when the game was effectively turned into two separate projects: H1Z1: Just Survive and H1Z1: King of the Hill. As for content, the patch introduces a new map called Badwater Canyon, which is designed for “multiple styles of gameplay in mind”. The map replaces the game’s original map, and will be rolled out in phases worldwide.

Along with the new map, the patch introduces a new feature called Strongholds, which are a form of base which players can fortify with traps and other defenses, and are customizable. Additionally, the weapon mechanics have been “rebuilt from scratch”, introducing tiers and fine-tuning to make them feel unique from one another. Lastly, a new in-game currency has been introduced called Golden Eagle Coins, which allow players to buy Stronghold locations.

To read up on all of the changes/improvements, you can check out the patch notes here.

This story was originally posted on Plenty Dreadful. Head there for more horror video game goodness!

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Beyond some of the more well-known examples, such as Fulci’s Zombi 2 (marketed as a sequel to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead) or the infamous Cruel Jaws, there are some of much lesser notoriety. In the comments section of the previously mentioned La Casa article, a reader by the name of Giacomo Calzoni drew my attention to a film that had managed to elude my watch-list all these years, Non aprite quella porta 3 (AKA Night Killer). That title roughly translates to Don’t Open That Door 3. Huh? Say you’ve never heard of that series? Sure you have!

Tobe Hooper’s 74′ classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, was released as Non aprite quella porta in Italy, because…sure, why not? Released in 1990, the same year as the legit sequel, Leatherface, this attempted cash in on the franchise was directed by Claudio Fragasso. Yes, the man behind Troll 2 dared throw his name in the ring with the Chainsaw legacy. This film actually sent me on a Fragasso kick. Yes, I am a masochist. With films like Zombi 4: After Death and Monster Dog, I can honestly say the man gets a bad wrap. Yes, they are far from “well made”, but they carry a certain charm that you can’t find in many other films.

With Night Killer being released as an unofficial sequel, it’s unclear if Fragasso or anyone else involved in the production had actually seen the previous two films in the series as the plot bares no resemblance to the exploits of Texan cannibals or otherwise. There’s certainly no chainsaw in sight. In fact, the killer actually has long, razor sharp claws for fingers not unlike another popular big screen boogeyman.

Night Killer is a bizarre blend of Giallo and more straightforward slasher elements with several “Shade of Grey” thrown in by way of a few baffling sub/dom sequences. This truly is a “Franken-film” cobbled together from bits and pieces of far superior works. Those at all familiar with my tastes know that this type of trash is right up my alley. The script, written by Fragasso and his wife (Rosella Drudi), potentially shines some intriguing light on the duo’s relationship. At its core, Night Killer is a tale of rapey love conquering all, but we’ll touch on that in just a bit.

The film opens with a leg warmer and leotard drenched dance crew preparing for a big performance. Their director/choreographer quickly becomes the first victim to the most poorly designed monstrosity you’ve ever seen condemned to celluloid (see below). Seriously, you guys, this “monster” makes the goblins of Troll 2 look like Rob Bottin creations. Mercifully, it’s revealed very early into the film that this in fact not a supernatural entity but a psychotic maniac in a mask (a really bad one still) who has been murdering woman all across town. Thankfully, despite incessant claims from police and reporters that the victims are all sexually assaulted, our Night Killer only seems interested in ripping out hearts and slicing throats. Thanks Fragasso for sparing us that detail.

In a surprisingly intense scene (with a twist ripped from a late 70’s thriller and classic Canadian slasher) our heroine is presented as a sexually frustrated divorcee. Her daughter has just left and now Melanie is all alone when threatening calls begin coming in one after the other. The raspy voice on the other line is the Ripper, and he’s got his pervy claws set on her. Fragasso manages to choreograph the scene for ample suspense despite the obvious nature of where it’s all headed. Melanie survives the attack because we’re only about twenty minutes into the film, so…yeah. The only problem is she’s suffering severe memory loss. Despite having seen the killer’s true identity, she can’t for the life of her remember who it was.

From here the film falls into two separate pieces. One side of the coin, we have Melanie slowly losing her grasp on reality as she tries to come to terms with the trauma she’s experienced. Ultimately, she’s taken hostage by a sleazeball named Axel who may or may not be the Ripper himself. It’s unclear, shaky moral ground as Melanie’s bond with Axel escalates from unwilling hostage to ride or die chick over a few sweaty nights in a locked up hotel room. Is this a case of Stendhal Syndrome or poor screenwriting? You decide!

The other half of the plot is a string of random slayings, each feeling more like a traditional American slasher than a stylish black gloved Giallo caper. These moments truly shine through, however. Each set-piece is given time to breathe and build tension. Fragasso proves himself adept at suspense, and I’m now contemplating how amazing it might’ve been if he’d been brought on to direct a Friday the 13th back in the day. A moment featuring a chase through a darkened aquarium is a true highlight with a nice, bloody payoff.

Night Killer is a wacky, kooky flick that culminates with a twist so absurd that Shyamalan would shake his head in disapproval. That said, the moment everything comes together had my jaw on the floor. You simply won’t know what hit you, and for that – I’ve got to give Fragasso and Drudi credit for concocting such a bonkers conclusion to the story.

No, this has nothing in common with TCM, and you have to wonder just what drove the decisions of some Italian producers. Oh, wait, it was money. Nevermind. The biggest takeaway from the film is that Fragasso wasn’t completely incompetent in the director’s chair. He crafted several moments that rose above the cheese and had me jumping from my seat. If you have a penitent for 80’s sleaze, do yourself a favor and track down a copy of this oddity.

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In the past decade, the living dead have reached peak saturation thanks to the likes of The Walking Dead, various video games, and the ability for no budget filmmakers to rally a group of friends, throw some white paint on their faces and yell, “Zombie!” From documentaries to home decor, the undead are everywhere. With such an assault on our pop culture senses, it’s easy to get burnt out on them dead bones. The truth is, filmmakers will always return to the well of brain eating masses because it’s a simple plot conceit that still manages to work. Look no further from a recent international smash (mentioned in the list below) to the surprisingly satisfying third season of Fear the Walking Dead (a show I assume most have given up on) to realize a well-told story about flesh eaters is still worth championing.

When tasked with concocting a top 10 list of the greatest zombie films ever to come lumbering, open-mouthed into my horror loving cranium, I thought, “Easy.” As a die hard fan of the shambling undead since I was a wee-teen, at least six films that were deserving popped into my head right away. Three of them happen to involve a certain George A. Romero (please, like that comes as a shock to ANYONE). Instead, it wasn’t long before I was struggling to pare the list down. I quickly realized there were far more standouts in the sub-genre than had initially come to mind.

Films such as Re-Animator, Night of the Creeps, Cemetery Man – these are undoubtedly classics to varying degrees with their own rabid fanbases. For me, though, the words “zombie film” drum up something much different than what’s contained within those pictures. Yes, they feature the dead being brought back to life in some form or another, but the groundwork laid by Romero in 1968 and dutifully copied, updated, and reworked by numerous filmmakers in the time since is where I’ll place the focus of this list.

The truth is, reanimated corpses have been a spooky staple since the inception of the horror genre itself. While the label “zombie” could easily be given to Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, we don’t consider him as such. I won’t be including the more historically accurate depictions of voodoo zombies such as the lyrically haunting Val Lewton production, I Walked With a Zombie or Wes Craven’s underrated The Serpent and the Rainbow. Also, no genre mashups where the living dead are only a small part of the overall threat (i.e. Night of the Comet, The Beyond, Zeder) will be allowed. That said, “undead” isn’t necessarily a prerequisite either. As you’ll see, there are a few films where the creatures are infected by some “zombie-like” virus but are NOT in fact dead or rising from the grave.

For this list, “zombie film” will be defined by a story revolving around a group of diverse characters thrown together in isolated locales fighting for their lives against a shambling horde of deathly contagious “former humans” whose sole purpose is to maim, eat, or simply murder and mutilate our heroes.

#10. Zombi 3 (1988)

AKA Zombie Flesh Eaters 2

The number ten spot was a tough one. It was a toss up between this, Zombi 3, or the equally bonkers Italian munchfest, Burial Ground. It would be quite the challenge to label either one a good film per se. They’re low budget films created with the sole purpose of capitalizing on the success Dawn of the Dead and Fulci’s unofficial follow-up. What makes them noteworthy is just how much damn fun they are. When it comes to the good times, Zombi 3 just managed to edge out the competition.

Originally to be directed by the Italian gore-meister himself, Lucio Fulci, he was replaced after shooting more than half of the film. Rumor has it he bowed out due to health concerns while Fulci claimed he quit over the poor script. Nonetheless, Bruno Mattei was brought in to complete the production by adding in several subplots to fill the running time to feature length. While this sure sounds like a recipe for disaster (and it is), it’s the schizophrenic story structure that gives this film life and earns its spot as one of the best zombie flicks of all time.

The plot concerns a military experiment gone wrong. GASP! Soon the dead are rising up on a small island and a group of randy kids and military grunts are holed up in an abandoned resort trying to figure out a way to survive the hungry hordes. Zombi 3 features a plethora of insane moments such a machete-wielding corpse who moves so fast as to almost lop off the lead actress’s head IRL…right there on camera. There are the “stunt” performers (low paid villagers of the island where they were filming) dropping in from all areas of the screen, and the infamous “flying head”. This is perfect movie night fodder for you and a group of like-minded friends. I avoided it for years due to the terrible word of mouth and sordid production history. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Seek it out!

#9. Train to Busan (2016)

This is the one film I had yet to see when building this list. I knew it was supposed to be the best zombie film in years and signify there was still life left in the undead. Because of this, I knew I had to check it out before putting a finger to keypad. Needless to say, I agree with the hype and only wish I had gotten to check it out in theaters last year during the film’s limited run.

Train to Busan does very little to try and reinvent the wheel aside from a neat gimmick revolving around the infected’s ability to see. Beyond that minor tweak, this is a straightforward survival tale of a father escorting his young daughter on a nightmare train ride to visit her mother. The emotions run high here and it’s easy for the audience to get swept up alongside the characters as they evade (or don’t) one white-knuckle set piece after the other. Busan works due to the stellar direction that keeps the suspense tight and because of the amazing actors who breathe life into what amounts to fairly stock characters. Ultimately, there is little here that you haven’t seen before, but a well-told story can always overcome convention.

#8. [REC] (2007)

I rarely consider zombie films to be scary. Usually, they are either gory, tense, or occasionally, funny. I know for some folks suspense and scares may be one in the same. For me, they differ. Suspense is the mental unease of knowing the worst possible outcome and being forced to wait and see if it will transpire. Fear is an irrational feeling that anything can happen, being powerless against the unknown. Again, these are merely my distinctions between the two, but I bring this up because [REC] manages to illicit fear in what is a typically grounded subgenre.

By taking elements of possession (a more fear-based genre), cramming that into a locked down tenant full of demonic creatures and shooting it all through the “Holy shit! This is really happening!” lens of a found footage movie, [REC] became an integral part of the recent living dead resurgence. The monsters presented here are fast and ferocious, delivering a number of bloody shocks. If the creeping dread doesn’t get you throughout, the film’s final moments will. [REC] goes out on a genuinely terrifying note that has quickly become one of the most horrific images in genre history. If you’ve never seen this flick, I highly recommend it and its sequels. Although, you could be forgiven for missing out on [REC] 4.

#7. Zombie (1979)

AKA Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombi 2

Lucio Fulci is a legend. Granted, for a long time it seemed he was always considered the lesser of his contemporary, Dario Argento. Thankfully, in this day and age of Blu-ray bringing a new audience to his films with high-def transfers likely outshining his movies’ original presentations, Fulci can rest knowing his special brand of sleaze is appreciated. After George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was released in Italy (under the title, Zombi) to boffo box office, producers were quick to get a “sequel” into production. The film was released as Zombi 2 in Italy, though future releases have simply dropped the 2 to tamp down some of the confusion.

Sans bookending scenes shot in New York as part of a last-ditch effort to try and tie this film to Romero’s, Zombie takes place entirely on a secluded island where voodoo has caused a massive onslaught of gut munching corpses. I know, I said no voodoo, but the voodoo plot here is nothing more than an excuse to get the dead up and moving. They’re still taken down by a bullet to the brain, and no one is about to confuse these rotting, maggot encrusted slobs for a poor sap on a bad trip. While the film’s production might not have been artistically motivated, Zombie is hauntingly scored and beautifully shot, featuring some truly awe-inspiring underwater photography of a zombie battling a shark. A FRIGGIN’ ZOMBIE/SHARK THROWDOWN! That scene alone is enough to land Zombie on a best of list. Thankfully the rest of the film is equally as gruesome and once it starts, the tension never lets up.

#6. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Shaun is a complete shlub who can’t seem to get his life together, his love life in particular, but he can always count on his best friend, Ed. It’s this highly relatable premise that launches us into one of the best undead movies from the early aughts. While there’s plenty of intestine ripping, head shots, and the stakes never feel low, Shaun of the Dead also manages to nab the distinction of being hilarious.

Shaun of the Dead was a fairly large success despite receiving a somewhat limited release. It has gained a giant cult following. Unfortunately, that success also went on to inspire a barrage of low-budget imitators. The reverb of which can still be heard today. Even if they didn’t invent the zombie-comedy, they sure defined what it would look like for years to come. Director Edgar Wright, in only his second feature, creates a star turn for Simon Pegg and a film that manages to perfectly capture the transition in our culture from Gen-X to the age of Millennials.

#5. Dead Alive (1992)

AKA Braindead

Peter Jackson is no stranger to genre fans. Spearheading the epic Lord of the Rings franchise has endeared his name to the hearts of geeks worldwide. However, before launching a bazillion dollar franchise, Jackson was busy turning in raunchy splat-stick flicks out of New Zealand. Dead Alive is possibly the most fondly remembered of his early output. Why? It just so happens to be the goriest film ever made.

Feeling a lot like the Kiwi cousin to Evil Dead 2, Dead Alive is filled to the brim with bucket after bucket of blood and guts. It’s a lot to take in, and quite frankly – I wasn’t sure how to take it all as a kid. I’ll never forget renting a tower of random scary flicks on VHS for my 12th birthday. Dead Alive was the last film we watched as the sun was coming up the following morning. It was a delirious, sleep deprived, and confusing experience. The film is obviously a comedy, but somehow my brain just couldn’t compute what I was seeing at the time. Now all these years later, I still go to that headspace when watching this flick. Jackson has crafted a timeless, gory orgy of absurdity that feels like it was beamed down to us from another world.

#4. 28 Days Later (2002)

In the beginning of the new millennium, horror was slowly on the rise thanks to inventive, ballsy genre fare that was pushing limits of what was expected from big screen fright flicks. It’s safe to say that sub-genre had gone from undead to for real dead by this point. Thankfully, Danny Boyle decided to direct his first full on horror flick, 28 Days Later. That film reignited an entire sub-genre and proved that a huge infection film could be delivered on a small dime. Shot on DV tape, there’s a unique feel to the cinematography that will likely never be duplicated in this type of genre picture. After all, the technology used to create it has long been dead by this point.

The score, the soundtrack, the acting from all involved (including a role that pretty much put Cillian Murphy on the map), and Boyle’s inventive use of the diminutive cameras all came together to make 28 Days Later a breath of fresh air upon its release. It’s a jarring, adrenaline-fueled rush from start to finish…that might not feature legit zombies (the disease here are is a “Rage Virus”). The film also marked the first serious attempt we’d seen of depicting the infected as fast moving, agile hunters. Ultimately, though, the film is a zombie flick no matter how they label or dress them up. It’s basically a condensed retelling of Romero’s original Dead trilogy and classic all its own.

#3. Pontypool (2008)

The first and only film on the list to feature monsters that spread their sickness without the exchange of any bodily fluids. The creatures in this unique little indie are infected by language. That’s right, it may sound bizarre, but as the first in a proposed trilogy (still waiting on part 2…), Pontypool succeeds as a suspenseful chamber piece revolving around a shock jock and his producer, secluded in a radio station’s studio as they slowly come to terms with the insanity that’s taking place right outside. It’s a slow burn flick that takes a surprisingly well-worn trope (a DJ powerless to the horrors beyond the glass) and really makes use of the claustrophobic scenario.

By the climax of the film, my nerves are always in shambles no matter how many times I’ve seen it. The infected here are of the fast moving variety, and their intensity when setting their sights on prey is unnerving. I can’t help but yearn for a sequel that would open things up more. While the contained nature of this narrative is one of its biggest strengths, the concept is wide open for further interpretation. In this day and age of “fake news” and breakdowns in communication despite our ease of access to information, even close to ten years later, Pontypool still works as a perfect metaphor for our times.

#2. Return of the Living Dead (1985)

I first saw Return of the Living Dead on MonsterVision with Joe Bob Briggs one late Saturday evening many moons ago. There isn’t much to say about this one that hasn’t already been dissected and praised a hundred times before. After going their separate ways post-Night of the Living Dead, Romero continued making his “of the Dead” films while John Russo set about trying to make an official sequel to the original. Hence, while Return is far removed from Night in style and tone, it’s the only film in the fractured series to refer back to the events of the original.

Of course, we also learn Night of the Living Dead was nothing more than a fictionalized version of the true events. Trust me, it’s far less confusing than it might sound. At the end of the day, Return brought something fresh to the genre that hadn’t been successfully mined at the time. Return of the Living Dead stands head and shoulders above many a zombie film due to the inclusion of not only hot pink, punk rock style but an abundance of comedy. If it weren’t for this, we may have never gotten Shaun of the Dead. Return also excels by giving us characters worth rooting for and even a bit of pathos for the creatures themselves. “It hurts to be dead.”

#1. Romero’s Dead Trilogy (1968 – 1985)

Okay, I realize this might be considered a tad bit of a cheat, but if it’s angers you feel, you’re free to bump the two at the top off the list (sad face) and rank these three how you see fit. Ultimately, I’ve grown to love Romero’s original trilogy of Dead films all on pretty equal grounds. The man singlehandedly, well…with some help from John Russo, created an entire subgenre with one film, Night of the Living Dead (1968). It stands as an undisputed masterpiece of genre cinema that still holds up all these years later. If not for Night and the other two films here, we probably wouldn’t have as many awesome films to place on this list. For this reason, I feel comfortable placing all three in the top spot. They’re of equal importance to one another, and it’s easy to pinpoint each one as “best of” examples of the sub-genre.

When I first saw Night, I was far too young. My mom had rented a copy from the library thinking it was just some old black and white flick like the The Black Bat which she brought home the same day. Needless to say, Night was no Black Bat, and I was forever changed after watching it. Both Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985) are exceptional as well. They stand as touchstones for the genre they created and examples of the evolution of horror. While I don’t think anyone could ever consider Night to be a “safe” film, Dawn drives the discomfort much further while placing us smack dab in the pinnacle of American living – the mall! Day, which was my least favorite as a kid has quickly climbed the ranks to join some of my all time favorite films. The effects work from Tom Savini is legendary. The story, revolving around a society descended into madness and paranoia after the outbreak truly opens up the world Romero created to deeper understanding. Even better, It manages to do so by staying true to the confined location setup from the previous two installments.

While Romero went on to direct three more Dead films (Land, Diary, and Survival), none of which reached the same heights as his first three. Luckily, I would say that all except Survival wouldn’t be terribly out of place on this list and certainly were there in the consideration phase. Rumor is Romero has at least one more shot to take at the sub-genre he created, and one can only hope he proves capable of recapturing the sociopolitical pulse of the time like he’s done for us so many times before.

There you have it. The greatest zombie flicks ever made. Did your fav not make the list? Sound off below, fiends!

The post List of the Living Dead – Top 10 Zombie Films of All Time! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Featuring an ensemble cast of original characters, Seoul Station takes place during the beginning of the zombie outbreak featured in Train to Busan, revealing how the virus spread from patient zero to the population at large. As this terrible night goes on, we see the outbreak progress from the point of view of several ordinary citizens of Seoul, who must slowly come to terms with the carnage ensuing around them.

From a retired call girl to a worried father and careless boyfriend, the stories here are gracefully intertwined, as normal people must fight to stay alive, creating unexpected bonds as the undead population grows. In spite of the apocalyptic setting, this is a character-driven survival story at heart, exploring far more of how these regular people react to the bloodshed around them than the origins of the epidemic itself.

To those unfamiliar with this style of animation, the curious blend of 2D and 3D elements may take some getting used to, especially with the peculiar framerate, but the story is definitely worth the effort. The visuals are appropriately gruesome when they need to be, especially when gore is concerned, but there’s also a certain urban beauty in the way Seoul is presented, not to mention the extremely expressive and well-designed characters.

The connections to Train to Busan are superficial at best, with the two films only sharing a few common themes and the director between them. Strangely enough, Seoul Station is, tonally speaking, a lot darker than its live-action counterpart, with a bigger focus on eerie atmosphere rather than zombie-butchering fun. Nevertheless, both films might benefit from a double-feature, and could be interpreted as different sides to the same coin.

Much like its companion, however, Seoul Station doesn’t really do much to stand out from the massive horde of zombie apocalypse movies. The only real difference here is the overall quality of the film, which is a far cry from the unimaginative schlock that usually populates this sub-genre. Then again, not every movie needs to reinvent the wheel. There’s a certain twist towards the end of the film that could prove divisive among moviegoers, but other than that there isn’t much to complain about here.

Overall, Seoul Station is a thoroughly entertaining and competently made zombie movie, and a worthy companion piece to Train to Busan, despite not quite reaching the same heights. The animation style may seem off-putting to some viewers, but a compelling story and realistic characters more than make up for that. Adrift in a sea of generic zombie movies, what more could you ask for?

Seoul Station will be available on Blu-Ray and VOD starting April 3rd!

The post [Review] ‘Seoul Station’ Is a Worthy Companion to ‘Train to Busan’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Our books are like limited edition record albums,” says Stephen Romano, co-creator of Eibon Press and Fulci Comics. “You know all that awesome stuff they’re doing with posters and vinyl soundtracks at places like Mondo? Well that’s what we’re bringing to comics. Each and every issue of each and every title will come encased in a specially-designed album jacket-style sleeve which we’ve invented ourselves. We call it the “’Eibon Sleeve.’”

Not only are these comics super limited, but the actual content of the comics are awesome. Issue #1 of Zombie was a fun intro back into the wonderful world created by Fucli in his cult classic Zombi and issue #2 promises to make things even gorier than before! In this issue we finally get some more sweet zombie vs shark action! What’s not to like about that?

Issue #2 of Lucio Fulci’s Zombie was written by Stephen Romano, Michael Broom, Derek Rook, Gerry Coffey and Fatboy. Pre-order your copy now at EibonPress.com

The post Lucio Fulci’s “Zombie” Issue #2 On Sale Now! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Killer Party features an ensemble cast, starring Kurt Ela, Rachael Drummond, Drew Benda, Stephanie Beran, Andy Hoff and a few others as a group of friends and colleagues (mostly failed actors and writers) who become trapped at a baby shower when a mysterious outbreak threatens the city. As the infected become increasingly violent, the group must overcome their own differences in order to survive.

Naturally, the plot isn’t going to win any points for originality, but Drummond’s approach to the script is at the very least peculiar. Killer Party doesn’t seem sure if it’s trying to be a horror comedy or just a horror movie with some comedic elements. Most of the humor falls flat, and the serious portions of the story are quite underwhelming in comparison to some previous entries in the genre. This results in a tone-deaf finished product that feels disjointed, as if someone mashed two completely different zombie movies into one weird experiment.

Either way, the entire cast and crew obviously had fun with the material they were given. The story unfolds mostly through the eyes of Kurt Ela (Nick), but we do get some nice character interaction that keeps things fresh. There were even some scenes that could have been genuinely moving had the rest of the movie decided on what emotional direction it was going for. In a way, there are several good moments and clever ideas hidden in this film that could have been made into another, better movie.

Drummond’s direction was solid, but at times it feels as though he doesn’t quite know how to deal with tension and gore in a ‘light-hearted’ feature like this one. This is really more of a script problem, but it still hampers the viewer’s enjoyment of Killer Party. Perhaps the film’s greatest problem is the lackluster “ending”, as the movie doesn’t really end, it just stops, and then the credits roll. While some of the character development was well handled, nothing about the film felt satisfying, and the ending is just another example of that.

That being said, Killer Party isn’t an awful mess of a film, as it has some charming moments sprinkled here and there, despite the confusion. An entirely horrific or entirely comedic cut of the film may have ultimately worked better, but there’s still some merit to the movie that we ended up getting. I can’t exactly recommend it as a great zombie flick (if such a thing can be allowed to exist in an over-saturated genre like this one), but there are worse things to watch on a late-night horror binge.

The post [Review] ‘Killer Party’ Feels Disjointed and Confused appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

I Dream of Zombies was produced as part of the UK’s First Acts program which was created to support and celebrate emerging English artists between the ages of 16 – 24.

The film was written and directed by Alex Forbes.

Official Synopsis:

Jordan is an isolated man who dreams of a zombie apocalypse. He practices with weapons, trains on video games and turns his house into a fortress. When he opens his curtains one morning to find a undead hoard outside, he feels as though all of his Christmases have come at once…

The post ‘I Dream of Zombies’: A Doomsday Prepper’s Wish Comes True [Short] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Taking place between Dead Rising 2 and 3, Chase (Metcalfe) has gone back into the quarantined zone of East Mission City, Oregon. The military is still using the drug known as Zombrex to control the infected population, but has implemented a new way of administering the drug via implanted chips. However, this being the US military, the chips are also being used as homing beacons to spy on infected citizens. Worse still, Chase discovers that the military, while doing some illegal backroom deals, also has a killswitch with the chips. If activated, the chips could administer a lethal dose of Zombrex to those citizens. Aided by his ragtag group of friends, Chase must now work to stop the military’s plan.

Just as director Zach Lipovsky did with the previous film, Endgame‘s director Pat Williams attempts to tap into the mayhem from the videogames, albeit this time with a more subdued take. The weapon combos are back, but instead of the wacky over-the-top combinations from the first film, this time it’s more along the lines of sawblades strapped to pipes and nailbats. To be fair, that seems far more plausible in the film world than in a video game world (and was one of my problems with the first film). You quickly get the sense that Williams is trying to do more of a zombie action film, rather than a straight-up loveletter to the videogames. In the splatter category, there’s again a sense of things being taken down a notch. The over-the-top mayhem has given way to less hectic action sequences, but not so much that the sequences are devoid of any intensity. You still get moments of zombies being run over, impaled, a flare down the throat, and a mashed-to-a-pulp head (again with some CGI blood). It’s an interesting step to take, though as you’ll see, not entirely without problems.

Along with Metcalfe returning, we also get Dennis Haysbert’s General Lyons showing up as the film’s antagonist. Haysbert this time around is given more to work with in his role, and it definitely helps to flesh out and develop his character. He doesn’t quite nail the delivery in spots, but the added exposure goes a long way in giving more substance to the role. Metcalfe does pretty much the same as he did with the role in the previous film, but like Haysbert, he has a few moments were the delivery misses the mark. Ian Tracey’s turn as Hancock is delightfully skeezy, and the guy definitely deserves his fate (although guys might be squealing in pain as much as him). Billy Zane does Billy Zane as Rand, which despite being only five minutes on-screen, is always a treat. Fans of Dead Rising 2 will have Victor Webster as that game’s protagonist Chuck Greene making an appearance, while the ladies have Marie Avgeropoulos kicking ass and turning in a strong performance as hacker Sandra Lowe.

Now obviously, the decision to take a more serious tone with this film won’t sit well with diehard Dead Rising fans, especially those who enjoyed the zaniness of Watchtower. Even though I didn’t entirely enjoy the adherence to the game’s universe in the previous film, I did appreciate the use of its humour, especially from Rob Riggle’s performance. Well, Riggle’s not here, and neither is the humour. This becomes all the more apparent when Endgame becomes tedious from characters standing around talking. A lot. It becomes a chore to sit through, especially when unlike the first film, the cinematography is so routine. You have none of the fun zombie POV shots, none of those continuous shots of battling on top of a bus and the like. Instead, you have shots of someone talking to a character offscreen, then a cut to that character responding to the first character (who is now offscreen). Then of course you have the zombies, which all look the same, with the same pale makeup and cheap-looking appliances, or just generically bald. So much for those production values from the first film.

Dead Rising: Endgame tries to take a more realistic tone compared to the first film, but in doing so, takes away the charms of the first film. For all of its flaws, after sitting through Endgame, Watchtower still has more entertainment value. Endgame takes away the humour and ridiculousness of the first film, turning it into a dry and pedestrian 96 minutes. There’s tension in the action sequences, but it’s all robbed of any impact when the dull talkie moments with equally-dull camerawork pulls the pacing to the side of the road. Diehards videogame fans will be disappointed that the film has none of the ludicrous tone of the first, and the rest will wonder why they bothered with this film at all. You’re better off playing the games and waiting for Dead Rising 4.

The post [Review] ‘Dead Rising: Endgame’ Turns Serious…ly Dull appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The idea is to release single issue comics in super limited “Prestige Editions.” These editions will feature premium printing and innovative packaging never before seen in the history of comics.

“Our books are like limited edition record albums,” says Romano. “You know all that awesome stuff they’re doing with posters and vinyl soundtracks at places like Mondo? Well that’s what we’re bringing to comics. Each and every issue of each and every title will come encased in a specially-designed album jacket-style sleeve which we’ve invented ourselves. We call it the “Eibon Sleeve.” Plus you’ll get some fun extra stuff inside the sleeve with your comic. For example, the first 250 of each 1,000 copy run will contain a signed and numbered bookplate. And we’ll be inserting random awesome stuff in a few of the sleeves like autographed bookmarks and such. What we’re doing has never been done before, and we really hope people will dig all the blood and sweat we’re putting into each issue.”

If you’re familiar with Romano’s work you already know he’s an amazing artist with a knack for handling grindhouse fare. That’s basically what Shock Festival is all about. Given his background and talent, creating horror comics is essentially his calling. The fact that they’ll be pretty exclusive makes it even more exciting from  a horror collector’s viewpoint. Stuff you can get anywhere is cool because it’s easy to get, but it’s not as fun but it’s not as special. Releases from Eibon Press will most certainly be special. Comics will only be available through the Eibon website and will not be sold in any stores.

“We were actually about to sign a pretty big co-branding deal with an established publisher to get these books out,” says Lewis. “But Stephen had been down that road before and when we started looking at the numbers, it became more logical to use our own resources to get these books out through direct internet marketing. So we came up with a business model that would allow us to sell a limited number of titles in small print runs through our own website. Stephen’s been a professional creator of this crazy stuff for decades and I’ve been in the business of mail order fulfillment for decades, so it was kind of a “duhhh” moment. We figured we’d do this thing ourselves and make the books really collectible and special.”

“It’s a lot of hands on work to do it this way,” says Romano. “But it really makes these comic books into instant one-of-a-kind collector’s items. Plus, of course, there’s what actually INSIDE the pages of the books. Which ain’t so shabby, if I do say so.”

It’s true. Check out the gallery below, the artwork is incredible. I wish these had come out when I was a kid. Not that I’m not going to be excited about them now, because I very much am and can’t wait to get my hands on these books, but having these specific ones as a kid would have been a real treat.

Eibon Press’ debut line will be Fulci Comics that have spent nearly 16 years in the making. After taking on an adaptation of Fulci’s The Beyond, Romano and Lewis tackled a number of other projects based around Fulci’s work in the late 90’s. The pair took on very ambitious graphic novel adaptations of both Zombie and City of the Living Dead (Gates of Hell), but unfortunately they were met with great adversity and were just kind of lost in time…until now of course. With the birth of Eibon Press these past projects are experiencing a re-birth.

“Actually, you really haven’t ever seen these comics before,” Romano quips. “Not like we actually wanted you to see them anyway. GATES was never really released in its entirety at all. ZOMBIE had a release, but it was so small and it looked so bad, with the lousy printing and everything. Plus that was like 16 years ago. A lot of people have never even heard of these things. We wanted to return to these Fulci projects and not only get them really right—but continue the stories beyond the films they are based on.”

What does this mean exactly? Well it means that ZOMBIE will get it’s originally intended 4-issue film adaptation and then once that’s complete it will move forward as an ongoing series. Where do I sign up?!

“You’ll see all your favorite characters of course,” says Lewis. “But you’ll also see some new faces. And some faces you thought were dead and buried, too. Stephen’s bringing back Doctor Menard, for example, as a crazy mutated zombie mad scientist monster, working under the insane magic of BIACANDO—the voodoo priest sort of responsible for the zombie apocalypse. But there’s a post modern twist to everything, involving a toxic waste dump and a crazy Army general. It’s just insane stuff. The fans are gonna eat it the fuck up. I mean. I’m a fan
and I’m already eating it the fuck up!”

THE GATES OF HELL will be ongoing as well, but we don’t know much beyond that at this point. Romano and Lewis are being very hush-hush regarding that specific title.

“It’s a secret for now,” says Romano. “But we have some awesome-wicked stuff coming in the second wave of Fulci Comics. The Saga of the Seven Gates was something we sort of set rolling in 1998, and we may be bringing it to its conclusion soon. Plus we’re working on several other Fulci film licenses.
And some non-Fulci film stuff, too. Fans are gonna shit when they hear what’s coming next.”

Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE #1 will be available to the public in July. The follow up will be The Book of Eibon, which I gather to be a snapshot of all Eibon plans to offer up to genre fans. The first issue of this series will have a preview of Shark vs Zombie which is scheduled to be a story in a Halloween issue of ZOMBIE. This first issue of The Book of Eibon will be exclusively available in the August Box of Dread from Dread Central, so you’ll want to be sure to sign up for that.

The duo doesn’t plan to just stick to Fulci adaptations either. They’ve got plenty more in store, like BOTTOMFEEDER. This is an all-new original horror series that is expected to be released in 2017 and is described as HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP meets BAD LIUETENANT.

“We originally wanted to make BOTTOMFEEDER as a movie,” Romano says. “So when we decided to make it as a comic series, we ‘cast it’ just like we might have cast a dream version of the film. This means we can have some heavyweight horror stars in there, like Bill Mosley and Clu Gulager, who have both given us permission to use their likenesses…plus we get to resurrect Joe (MANIAC) Spinell and Zoe (MS.45) Tamerlis from the dead. Just wait’ll you see them in our comic. Our artist did an amazing job of bringing them back to life!”

For more information be on Eibon Press be sure to follow them on Twitter and Instagram and give them a ‘like’ on Facebook. As you wait to get your hands on these awesome comics enjoy this trailer for the ZOMBIE comic series and take a look through the gallery, which features art from ZOMBIE, BOTTOMFEEDER and more!

The post Comics Based on the Films of Lucio Fulci? Yes, Please! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“DEAD BEAT”

“Dead Beat” was arguably the stronger of the two episodes as it centered on Major’s incarceration after his arrest at Dale’s hands at the end of last week’s episode. Screenwriter John Enbom infused the episode with so much suspense that it was pretty hard to handle. The best example of this is Major’s initial release from prison as he he walking down the steps with Janko behind him and Ravi with a brain smoothie just out of reach. That crushing moment when Clive arrests him again was such a soul-crushing moment. The entire sequence was masterfully directed by John Kretchmer.

Everything came back to bite Major in the ass in these episodes. From his massacre at the Meat Cute in last season’s finale to all of the “killings” at the hands of the Chaos Killer. The entire episode was a waiting game to see if he would turn while in prison and start a zombie outbreak. Little did we know that the outbreak would eventually happen. Major just wouldn’t be the cause of it.

One great thing we got out of Major’s incarceration was a delightful guest appearance by Rob Thomas staple Ken Marino (Veronica Mars, Party Down) as his defense attorney Brant Stone, appointed by Vaughn du Clark himself, no less. Stone was essentially a replica of his Veronica Mars character Vinnie Van Lowe, but it was still a treat to watch, especially for fans of that series.

We can’t discuss “Dead Beat” without talking about the major plot development that occurred: Liv finally (finally!) told Clive that she and Major were zombies! It’s a moment that has been a long time coming and opens up a whole new world of story opportunities for Clive next season as he deals with the repercussions of that knowledge and his betrayal of Dale since he ruined her case against Major. Clive has frequently been a strong supporting character, but his lack of zombie knowledge prevented him from ever truly connecting with the main group. Here’s hoping next season will remedy that problem.

Both episodes brought Vaughn front and center as the main villain of the season (Mr. Boss didn’t really have much to do this year, did he?) as he sent Janko after Liv and Major once Major was released. Ravi got to show off some mad skills as he killed Janko in self defense. “Dead Beat” was an outstanding episode of iZombie that moved the plot forward in ways you wouldn’t have imagined possible. That was nothing compared to….

“SALIVATION ARMY”

While Clive’s revelation was the major set piece of “Dead Beat,” “Salivation Army” focused on the hostile takeover of Vaughn’s prison-themed party (White people….) by a horde of ravenous zombies.  First we had to deal with some issues with Mr. Boss.

Blaine has been one of iZombie’s most valuable assets, with David Anders’ performance a true highlight of the series. Blaine’s amnesia has allowed him to play a different side of the character, but it also makes him significantly less interesting. The entire B plot with Mr. Boss’ henchmen kidnapping Peyton seemed a little out of place in an episode where Vaughn was clearly being set up as the Big Bad. Even the conclusion of that plot leaved a little to be desired, with Ravi walking in on Blaine hugging Peyton after he murdered the henchmen. The whole thing felt like an afterthought when compared to the A plot, but it’s still gave us plenty of Ravi and Peyton which is never a bad thing.

The big set piece of the episode was the zombie outbreak at Vaughn’s party (featuring musical guest Rob Thomas!). This party provided plenty of visual gags with the waiters dressed up as policemen before shit hit the fan. Clive showed up to help Liv and Major and we got a taste of our new team setup with their defense against the zombie hordes. While it was pretty clear that Clive was never going to become a zombie, the reveal of Vivian the military contractor as their savior and zombie leader(!) was a huge surprise. It’s not clear what she has in store for Liv and the gang, but a zombie paradise sounds too good to be true. Still, the last scene of her eating Rob Thomas’ brain while her soldiers sang Matchbox 20’s “Unwell” was a rather nice touch.

We lost a lot of people in this episode. First it was Chief, then poor Drake. I admit that I didn’t think Drake would have gone out the way he did. It was ballsy of iZombie to actually have him become a Romero (love that term) after his self-sacrifice, but to have Liv kill him to save Clive was an even ballsier move. Drake didn’t make as much of an impression as Lowell did last season, but his death will undoubtedly have sever ramifications for Liv next season. Then there’s Rita. Poor, poor Rita. While her end was poetic (her last action was eating her father’s brains), it’s lamentable that she wasn’t given a chance to be a part of the main cast (I’m a sucker for villains to decide to side with the heroes), but c’est la vie. Vaughn, on the other hand, got exactly what he deserved. Good riddance.

“Dead Beat” and “Salivation Army” were two stellar episodes of iZombie that made for an incredibly exciting and suspenseful season finale. It sets up what could be a potentially great Season 3, with new character dynamics and a clean slate of supporting characters. With these episodes, iZombie has emerged as one of The CW’s greatest series.

Random Notes:

• Chapter Titles of the Week (Dead Bait): Felonius Hunk; Bros Before Po Po’s; The Chaos Spiller; Freezer Burned; Tickets to the Gun Show; Brain Candy; At Death’s Door
• Chapter Titles of the Week (Salivation Army): Jankos Rancheros; Other Pluckers; Alive and Tricking; Three’s Company, Boo; Stairway to Hell; Emotional Rescue; Drake-Ing Up is Hard to Do
• Brain Recipes of the Week: First is a Straight Brain. It’s finger lickin’ good! Also, Chocolate Covered Brain Nougat and Schmear for a Bagel!
• “Brains, brains the magical food. The more you eat, the less you brood.”
• How funny was it watching Ravi and Major use the video game cover to discuss the location of the frozen bodies?
• “Quid pro quo Bernice. It’s from The Silence of the Lambs” – Ken Marino needs to be in more things.
• “You’re doing all this for me? Yet you couldn’t hold an elevator door open for three seconds?” – RIP Rita/Gilda. You will be missed.
• “We should have taken the damn hand.”
• The drink specials at the party: Cellblock Mango and Convicted Melon
• So many Rob Thomas jokes tonight:
  • “You didn’t tell me the dude from Matchbox Twenty was gonna be here. I might have come.”
  • “Poor Rob Thomas.” “This is how a skull breaks.”
  • One hundred dead employees! One dead Rob Thomas! This just looks bad!
• A massive zombie outbreak means never having to say you’re sorry.”
• “We’re all on the same team here. We all hate my dad. We’ve all seen Major naked.” “I haven’t seen….” – God Bless you, Clive.
• “Major Lilywhite: Personal Trainer.”
• “Heeeeeeere’s Major!”
• Thank you everyone for reading my reviews for iZombie this season! I’m not sure if I’ll be covering the show next season, but feel free to follow me on Twitter for my random thoughts on all things movies and television.

The post [TV Review] “iZombie” Season 2 Finale: ‘Dead Beat/Salivation Army’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

You see, Millicent recently went in to get her wisdom teeth removed. And as many viral videos show, once you get knocked out at the dentist, it’s kind of hard to keep your wits gathered about you post-surgery. And that’s exactly what happened to her, which gave her brothers the perfect opportunity to pull a little old prank on Melissa: convincing her that the zombie apocalypse had begun.

After waking up and being quite disoriented, Millicent was being driven home by her brother when an “emergency broadcast” from the CDC played on the radio, announcing that there were reports of “…high fever, nausea, death and even cannibalism.” It didn’t help that the siblings’ mother then called, telling them to come home immediately and that there is, “…some sort of a weird virus outbreak…” and that it’s, “…not a test.”

From there, the two make it home where they bombard Millicent with such questions as “Do we take the cat or the dog?” and “We can only take funfetti or chocolate cake, which should we take?”, the latter being what they will survive upon during the rise of the undead.

It’s honestly rather amazing seeing this poor young lady being asked to make one ridiculous decision after another, simply because her brothers want to laugh at her being high. And, to be fair, she’s actually rather level-headed about most of the questions tossed her way! It’s her brothers that nearly crack up multiple times throughout the video that almost give away their prank. C’mon guys! Really get into character here, okay?

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Such is the case with Jamie T and their video for “Zombie”, which shows the band performing the song in bar as they slowly turn into the undead. Once the transformation is complete, they begin falling apart, sometimes with the assistance of each other, and the limbs and blood begin flowing freely!

You can hear “Zombie” on Jamie T’s album Carry on the Grudge (iTunes).

The post Twisted Music Video of the Week Vol. 226: Jamie T “Zombie” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was released in 1978 and was a big hit. In Italy the film was re-edited by Dario Argento and released as Zombi and it was quite successful. In order to capitalize on this success an unofficial sequel was released in Italy the following year called Zombi 2. The maestro Lucio Fulci was hired to direct, a zombie fought a shark and even though it wasn’t really a sequel a worthy successor to Dawn of the Dead was born.

Now because Zombi 2 was only a sequel to Dawn of the Dead in Italy, it was released in the US as Zombie and in the UK as Zombie Flesh Eaters. Up to this point I think everything is pretty easy to follow. This gets confusing when Zombi 3, also directed by Fulci (mostly, we’ll get into that later), is released in Italy. From Italy’s perspective this makes sense, it’s the “third” Zombi movie. In the UK this was released as Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, again making sense. The confusion is when we get to the US where Zombi 3 is known as Zombi 3, a sequel to Zombie. Why not call it Zombie 2?! Who was in charge of this blunder? Things get more hectic as you dive into the other Zombi “sequels” which continue in numerical order even in the US where we never had a Zombie 2.

It’s all a bit of madness that I wanted to touch on a bit before diving into my review of the Blu-ray of Zombi 3 released by 88 Films. By the way that’s a UK company releasing Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 as Zombi 3 (technically it’s released under both titles but the slipcover reads Zombi 3). Anyway check out the Wikipedia page on the Zombi film series, it’s fascinating.

Now onto this often overlooked gem of Italian schlock that is Zombi 3 (I guess)….

Dr. Alan Holder (Robert Marius) leads a team of scientists working on a serum called Death One. The idea is to reanimate the dead, much like Herbert West. The intentions are good and after many failed attempts they achieve success, or so they think. Death One does reanimate the dead but in doing so turns them into flesh eating zombies (the Brits were onto something with their title!) and Dr. Holder decides he can no longer be affiliated with this project.

In an attempt to resign from the project, Holder goes to deliver Death One to the military but things go terribly wrong as he’s ambushed by a group of terrorists set on getting that serum. A gun fight breaks out with many ending up dead but one terrorist doesn’t manage to escape with Death One. Unfortunately the clumsy oaf drops the serum breaking it open where he then proceeds to touch it by mistake.

This is a crucial moment in the “plot” because we learn that not only does Death One reanimate the dead and turn them into zombies, it also turns the living into zombies. Basically Death One is about to cause a whole lot of problems. The military quickly gets on top of things in order to find this now infected individual so they can quarantine him before it spreads. Unfortunately they may already be too late.

The infected terrorist ends up making it to a hotel/resort that is located in the middle of the jungle. That’s where he starts to turn and spread the infection. This is also where the military finds him and they wipe out the entire staff at the hotel, burning their remains. This turns out to be a big mistake. The ashes of the burned staff members gets caught in the wind, spreading the infection all over.

Have I mentioned the DJ yet? No, well the film also has a DJ that sort of serves as a narrator. He broadcasts the undead uprising over the airways. It’s like Vanishing Point except with zombies.

The plot details really don’t matter. This movie is about watching zombies rip people to shreds. We all love that, right?

Over the years I’ve had a really hard time gauging how horror fans feel about Zombi 3. I think it’s mostly mixed which is more than understandable. I’m definitely on the side that loves the movie. I think it’s a total blast. It’s not the classic that Zombi 2 is, but it’s a lot of fun and contains plenty of that signature gore Fulci was known for. Of course it also contains some other Fulci standbys like horribly hilarious line readings and a mostly nonsensical plot.

Is this really a Fulci movie? I don’t know. That’s been a bit of a mystery over the years. I don’t know all the details and I’m not sure anyone really does. A quick Google search will likely pull up a variety of stories. Fulci is definitely the credited director but you’ll also find lots of places list Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso (who both had cameos in the film) as uncredited directors. We know that Fulci directed a good chunk of the film, somewhere between 50-60 minutes, maybe more. But during this time Fulci was very sick and he couldn’t finish the film. Either Mattei or Fragasso or possibly both directed the rest of the movie.

I tend to think Fragasso directed the scenes Fulci did not. To be fair though, I mostly think this because the 88 Films Blu-ray contains an interview with Fragasso where he says as much. Fragasso claims that even though he directed some of the movie that it is entirely a Fulci movie. But it doesn’t feel like a Fulci movie, at least not entirely. Sure, it has a bunch of the elements you’ll find in most Fulci films but something seems off. That could be because someone else had a bigger hand in shaping the final picture or maybe it’s just because Fulci was extremely sick at the time. Either way, it’s interesting stuff.

The 88 Films release is stunning. This is an incredible looking Blu-ray. I never expected to see Zombi 3 look this good. I have the Shriek Show DVD from a number of years back and this is a huge improvement. That DVD had a number of flaws but no one ever anticipated that we’d get a better release. Thankfully 88 Films has proven otherwise.

They didn’t stop with a great transfer either. In addition to the Fragasso interview, this release is pretty loaded with special features:

BRAND NEW HD Master
Uncompressed LPCM English Soundtrack
Interview with star OTTAVIANO DELL’ACQUA
Live Q&A with CATRIONA MACCOLL
ZOMBI REFLECTIONS – an interview with BEATRICE RING
Interview with CLAUDIO FRAGASSO
ORIGINAL ITALIAN OPENING
ORIGINAL ITALIAN END TITLES
TRAILER REEL
Reversible Sleeve with alternative art
Includes a Collectible Post Card

If you’re a fan of Zombi 3 you have to own this. It’s a must for any horror fan’s collection.

Zombi 3 is now available on region B Blu-ray from 88 Films.

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Let’s get to the big one: Ravi found out that Major is the Chaos Killer! It was inevitable that Minor would cause problems for Major ever since he dognapped him from his owner,* but who would have thought that Ravi would be the one to put the pieces together? Then Bozzio had to go an show him a picture of Major and Blaine together and the rest is history. We so rarely get to see a serious side of Ravi and Rahul Kohli knocked it out of the park during his confrontation with Robert Buckley.

iZombie really snuck one up on us this week with Major’s zombification. We knew it was coming ever since Blaine reverted back to zombie form, but we just weren’t sure when. The first major clue of the episode was Major thinking the milk that Ravi had just bought had gone bad. The second one was in the final shot, of course. Major went into full-on zombie mode before Ravi sedated him with his own injector gun. Major’s reluctance to trust his friends with his predicament has been a permanent frustration since the beginning of the season, so it will be nice to have this sub-plot be finished and have a post-Vaughn du Clark/Chaos Killer zombie Major to look forward to next season.

Speaking of Vaughn du Clark, he was absent this week but we got a brief moment with a newly zombified Rita before she was kidnapped by her father’s henchman. Hopefully we get more of that next week watching Leanne Lapp and Steven Weber play off of each other is always a treat to watch. It’s understandable that the show is wanting to save it for the next couple of episodes though. Her sudden departure ended up being the perfect cue for Peyton to move back in. It would behoove the CW to bump Aly Michalka up to a series regular, as her sisterly bond with Liv is a facet of the series that is vital to its success. It is off that in a show that centers on a strong female character, there aren’t actually that many supporting characters who are female (just Peyton and Rita compared to Ravi, Major, Clive and Blaine). Their friendship has gone mostly unexplored this season and it would be nice for it to get some more screen time.

As I’ve mentioned before, the case of the week is usually the weakest part of the show. A good way to make it seem useful is for it to be A) Fun (or at least provide Liv with a fun brain), B) Relevant to the Season Arc and C) Feel like there are actual stakes involved or have some modicum of suspense. Tonight’s case had all three of those things, and even had a bit of a surprise twist with the killer’s reveal (I totally thought it was Lorelei, even after that hilarious sobbing scene).

When Cassidy, a stripper that Peyton had reached out to in the past, is murdered with a tire iron, she asks Liv to eat her brain (as any best friend would) in order to find out information she may have had in the case against Mr. Boss. Liv works double-duty tonight, using Cassidy’s brain to help Peyton and Clive. Cassidy’s brain helped Liv pinpoint the location of one of Mr. Boss’ stash houses, which Peyton successfully busted. This probably won’t bode well for Peyton’s future, but it was still an exciting development for the character. The case itself provided plenty of laughs (mostly from the effects Cassidy’s brain had on Liv), but it also contained an engrossing aspect that is all too often absent from iZombie’s weekly mysteries.

“Pour Some Sugar, Zombie” showed iZombie at the most fun it’s been for a while. It also provided a few gasp-worthy moments, which is never a bad thing to say about a television episode. This season may have been spinning its wheels a bit in its middle portion, but we’re in the final stretch now, and the show has rarely been better.

*Minor (or whatever his previous name was) is safe with his owner’s brother. That makes me so happy because I got teary-eyed out when Major left him on that bus five episodes ago.

Random Notes

• Chapter Titles of the Week: Shake N Wake; Mailboxed, Etc.; Pest Friends; Frost, He the Dough Man; It’s Not Delivery, It’s Babineaux!; Snared Weather Friend; Scare Naked Ladies
• Brain Recipe of the Week: A BLT! Brain, Lettuce and Tomato!
• Even if it was sort of a thankless appearance, it’s always nice to see Veronica Mars alum Daran Norris show up as Seattle’s sleaziest weatherman Johnny Frost.
• The “cure” caused some amnesia in our dear Blaine. That can’t be good.
• “You’re clearly a Rachel.” -I’m a child of the 90s. Friends references will never not be funny to me.
• “Oh! Is that her brain there?” -Seriously, Peyton injects life into iZombie.
• Peyton trying to trigger Liv’s visions with the phrase “stash house” was hilarious.
• “Pasty ass ho!”
• “Did that bitch just smack me in the face with her ponytail?” -Liv’s stripper-isms were coming a mile a minute tonight, and most of them stuck!
• As much as I liked this episode, that “I’ve got to follow my Destiny” joke (with Destiny being the name of the stripper) was a little too on-the-nose.
• “There’s going to be a discernible carbon footprint on your ass if you don’t cut the crap.”
• I liked how Clive referred to Lorelei as “blonde” instead of “Asian.” Progress, people!
• Just three episode left this season! See you all next week.

The post [TV Review] “iZombie” Episode 2.16: ‘Pour Some Sugar, Zombie’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Liv ate the brain of Eleanor Cash, a 52-year-old single scientist who was employed by Vaugh du Clark at Max Rager. Cash’s Brain gave Liv super-intelligence, and helped catch her up to speed with information that viewers have known for quite a while: Drake is employed by Mr. Boss. Then Major kidnapped him! This is a pretty exciting development, and it will likely help Liv to realize that Major has been the Chaos Killer the whole time.

Cash’s brain definitely helped move the plot along at a rapid pace this week. The sequence in which Liv was thinking with science infographics floating above her head was cute, but the episode didn’t make much use of the technique for it to really make an impression. What was fun was seeing Blaine have a similar reaction to the brain, but again the episode didn’t play with that dynamic nearly as much as it should have. Liv’s science-brain also allowed her to help Ravi with his cure (RIP New New New Hope), which he promptly gave to Blaine.

Once again, the case of the week was the weakest part of the episode, but at least the killer reveal at least provided a moment of surprise. Cash was in charge of an experimental trial that left a patient with a horribly disfigured face (seriously, that was messed up), and after blaming everything on her partner she was set on fire. I have to admit, I had to do a double take when “Annie” was revealed to be Annie’s twin sister Jenny. It was a nice little twist.  iZombie is very good at making you feel empathy towards many of the murderers, so it hurts when you see Clive (sometimes reluctantly) begin to read the Miranda rights.

The best scene came early in the episode, when Vaughn du Clark called Major into his office for a meeting. It all goes to show that communication can work wonders for relationships (and greatly enhance the quality of a show)! Major called Vaughn out for having Rita room with Liv. Then Major told Vaughn he slept with Rita. Then Vaughn told Major that Rita was his daughter. Then Rita showed Vaughn her black eye. It was a series of rapid revelations that was a long time coming. If only it had occurred earlier in the season.

Vaughn and Rita had their own special moment in this episode though. After studying a female full-on zombie/Romero zombie, it broke free and Vaughn left Rita there to die. Vaughn has been a pretty hilarious villain, and while we’ve seen him do plenty of terrible things, this is a new low for him. His nonchalant attitude to closing the elevator doors was a douchey move, but when Rita finally made it back up to his office (she had to have been scratched, no?), the look in his eyes was telling. It was a nice moment from Steven Weber and if we’re lucky Leanne Lapp will be given some great scenes in the future

Maybe I’m just holding a grudge against iZombie for taking so long to get the characters up to speed with the audience. “He Blinded Me With Science” was a solid episode of the series, but it mainly succeeded in getting you excited for what happens next, as opposed to what was actually happening in the episode.

Random Notes

• Chapter Titles of the Week: The Meal’s On the Bus; Feed Me, See Morgue; To Err is Human, To  Forgive Bovine; Cold Hard Cash; Interview With the Zombie; Kids Say the Darndest Things; She Finded Me With Science.
• Brain Recipe of the Week: I’m not 100% sure what that was. It looked like Brain Stew. You tell me!
• “We would not want any zombie-come-latelies coming to the party, would we?”
• Seems like du Clark is going to be going on a murderous rampage soon, no? I feel like he may be this season’s real big bad.
• Clive and Dale finally (finally) learned that that brained they sent for testing was a human brain and not a cow brain. Good job, team!
• That look that Clive gave Liv and Ravi when he saw them observing New New New Hope’s corpse was priceless.
• “You know who else has a secret basement? Everyone.” -du Clark was really on point tonight, wasn’t he?
• “He’s running a funeral home, straight out of freshman English. Foreshadowing? Hello!”
• Surely that cure won’t kill Blaine, right? It’s too soon, especially considering his fake-out death in the last episode.
• Peyton’s back next week! And she helps Liv with her new stripper brain! Color me intrigued.

The post [TV Review] “iZombie” Episode 2.15: ‘He Blinded Me With Science’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The obvious saving grace for this episode (and other episodes like it) is that the case of the week was directly linked to every single subplot in the episode. This removes the episodic element and helps iZombie to embrace its procedural roots. The episodic structure has been criticized in the past, and unfortunately that is just the type of show that iZombie is. That just means when an episode eschew that structure for most of its runtime, it makes that episode stand out more, and it’s all the better for it.

This week the case centered on three hitmen whose decapitated bodies were found washed up on the shore. Of course, this ended up being tied into a much bigger case involving Mr. Boss. Eddie Jemison made an imposing first impression a few weeks ago, but he has been mostly absent since then. It was great to see him come back and show off his range: vulnerability when learning of his nephew’s death and a mencacing vibe when cornering Blaine in his basement (how fun was that scene?). With the debt that Blaine now owes Mr. Boss (for walking out on the utopium dealing operation after the boat crash in the pilot), it looks like we’ll be seeing many more scenes with the two of them together.

Turns out the three dead bodies were actually Mr. Boss’ hitmen, and they were sent to kidnap District Attorney Baracus, who is actually a zombie under Blaine’s control. Baracus went into full-on zombie mode after being held hostage for a little too long without brains, and he ended up storing the heads of his captors in his refrigerator while throwing their bodies in the lake. Still with me?

Baracus’ kidnapping also brought about trouble for Major, who came under Vaughn du Clark’s suspicion when the hitmen turned up dead. If a D.A. was kidnapped by three professional killers, then that D.A. would be dead unless he had the superhuman strength of a zombie. The fact that he had a lot of hot sauce purchases on his credit card didn’t help matters.

I try not to recap too much in my reviews, but it felt necessary for this one since there was so much going on in the episode. “Physician, Heal Thy Selfie” pretty much brought everyone out of the woodworks. Gilda even showed up to torment Major a little bit! Props to you if you even remembered who Baracus was. I had to Google him.

Liv was able to interact with pretty much all of these characters as well (except du Clark), but she was mostly concerned with herself after eating the brain of a ditzy social media butterfly that Ravi had on reserve for her. Said brain ended up helping her confront Drake about his past (more on that in a bit) and figure out that Baracus was hiding out in a nook in his cabin.

du Clark also reinforced his role as a psychotically evil super-villain. He pretty much did what all bloggers wish they could do: murder trolls. It may not be the most original idea, but it’s treated with the utmost seriousness and actually does make du Clark a more threatening villain. Credit should be given to Steven Weber, who has been doing a bang-up job in the role.

For a show with three main villains, iZombie certainly does an excellent job with fleshing them all out and making them feel like real people. Blaine and Mr. Boss (who has had the least amount of screen time between the three) still manage to feel like actual threats, as opposed to stereotypical “comic book villains.”

This was an episode that paid off tremendously to fans who have stuck with the show since the beginning. It can be easy to forget that creators Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero pepper little clues and Easter eggs throughout the most episodic of episodes that will pay off remembering in a later episode. It will probably make a re-watch of the series much more rewarding.

Less prominent but still important this week were the romantic subplots with Liv and Peyton. After doing some internet research with her brain powers of the week, Liv learned that Drake spent 22 months in prison for aggravated assault. The overall explanation was a little anticlimactic, but it was a serviceable hurdle for the two to overcome.

More interesting was Peyton, who had to deal with the aftermath of learning about Blaine’s true identity. After a stellar scene in which she and Liv cornered Blaine in her office, Peyton spent the majority of the episode getting drunk with Ravi. After spending a good chunk of the season Peyton-less, it was nice to see her emotional fallout and spend so much time with her this week. Aly Michalka is a talented actress and she deserves more to do on iZombie.

Hopefully next week’s episode isn’t better than “Physician, Heal Thyself,” otherwise I’ll look like quite the fool. Nevertheless, this was yet another first-rate episode of iZombie and we can only hope that the remaining seven episodes of the season can maintain this kind of quality.

Random Notes

• Chapter Titles of the Week: Brain Trust; Head Case; Chaos Theory; Lillywhite Lie; Deaux, A Deer in the Headlights; Cabin Cleaver; Takeout For Dinner. I’m a sucker for musicals so the Sound of Music reference in “Deaux, A Deer in the Headlights” killed me. That “Cabin Cleaver” title is timely though, considering the release of the Cabin Fever remake on Friday.
• Brain Recipe of the Week: Brain Sushi, and it looked awesome.
• Liv discovers that Blaine is the Mystery Man/Mr. U. Have I mentioned how nice it is that iZombie is zipping through these plot lines now?
• Love how Clive Red Dragon‘d du Clark by tricking the reporter into believing Baracus’ kidnapping was the work of the Chaos Killer so that he could try to bait him out of hiding.
• “Looks like a no-brainer to me, Liv.” -Ravi, on the headless corpses.
• “For the record: all you are to me is a giant mistake.” -Nice to see Peyton get a lot of great lines this week.
• I’ve never heard of the #BootyHadMeLikeWhat, but I’m going to start using it all the time on Twitter.
• “What does it mean if a guy you’re dating isn’t on Facebook?” -I think it’s weird when someone isn’t on Facebook too. Sorry!
• “You look just like this doll my little sister used to have.” -This is an apt description of Liv.
• “Tell me more about this Mystery Man.” “It’s like you don’t know wha the word mystery views.” -That informant was pretty funny though, wasn’t he?
• “153 people watched you unpack a box. How? Why?“
• “Why obsess over the trolls?” -When I first started writing for BD I obsessed over the meanest comments. I’d like to think I’ve gotten better at handling them.
• “If you post that you have to tag me in it.” “I don’t know what that means, honey.”
• “You work up the nerve to resign and your boss gets abducted!”
• The stakes rise again next week as Major comes face-to-face with Blaine again!

The post [TV Review] “iZombie” Episode 2.12: ‘Physician, Heal Thy Selfie’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Picking up the day following Liv and Major’s breakup, Ravi breaks the news to them about the zombie cure being only temporary and then we are taken on a short time jump that was a little jarring, especially considering how it diminished the impact of the events that ended “Cape Town.” It does provide a nice way for iZombie to not have to drag Liv and Major’s break-up (and Liv and Clive’s break-up) out for multiple episodes, but it makes the dramatic plot turns from “Cape Town” seem unimportant by the end of “Method Head.” Liv and Major are on speaking terms and Clive and Liv are back to working together. We just skipped all the fallout.  Also, that whole Santa Claus murder bit could have been removed entirely and the episode would have been all the better for it.

The bulk of the episode was spent on the set of “Zombie High,” a show that Liv watches religiously but for some reason hasn’t mentioned until now (but how funny was it to see Clive make fun of it?). This setup was prime for a ton of meta humor, and “Method Head” didn’t disappoint. There were plenty of zombie jokes as the show (iZombie, not “Zombie High”) poked fun at itself and also allowed Live to eat the brain of an actor. I admit that the show didn’t go quite as far with the brain as I would have liked it to, but otherwise all of the meta humor worked pretty well. The mystery itself, in which a cocky actor was shot with a real gun during filming was not quite up to par with some of iZombie‘s best mysteries, but it was serviceable.

In other news, Blaine is without his zombie hooker that Major froze back in “Cape Town,” and he gets paid a visit from Bozzio! Watching Blaine freak out about the cooler with the brain in it was highly entertaining and it was quite refreshing to see Blaine actually worried about something. Blaine may be a great villain, but he is definitely the epitome of a “comic book villain” in that he always comes out on top. Seeing a moment of weakness for the character was a nice turn of events. It doesn’t look like things are going to get any easier for Blaine, since Clive and Dale realized that he is also their suspect in the Meat Cute Massacre from the Season 1 Finale.

Major didn’t spend much time with Liv this week, but he did get to bond with Vaughn du Clark for the majority of the episode. Special mention must be made of Steven Weber. How great is he in that role? He’s clearly relishing every second of it and it shows in his performance. It was fairly obvious that Major was being tested for his loyalty when the good doctor came to him pretending to be a whistleblower, but it did lead to a great moment of suspense when du Clark let the zombies loose with the doctor inside the feeding room.

“Method Head” is a lot of fun to watch, but it seems to be more of a filler episode to bridge the two halves of the season (it is the middle episode in a 19-episode season), so it did feel a little slight. That being said, it’s hard to resist an episode that calls itself out on its ridiculous premise.

Random Notes

• Chapter Titles of the Week: Dead Rodent’s Society; Homicide for the Holidays; Cast Times at Zombie High; A Royal Fan; Trailer Trash; Major Downer; The Brains Behind the F.B.I.;
• Brain Recipe of the Week: Used as a topper on a frozen dinner! I ate many of these during and right after college so this actually looked appetizing to me.
• Nice cut from Blaine pondering about a zombie outbreak to a scene from Zombie High.
• On that note, how funny was the repeated use of the word “prickerbush.” I’ve never heard it called that before.
• Babineaux and Bozzio are having sex. That’s cool.
• Liv trying to not act excited when they were interrogating Wyatt the shooter was hilarious.
• “Well, there it is! Some of the most famous junk in America.” -Liv on Jordan’s penis.
• “He’s blinded you with man-jewelry and the promise of a rock-hard ass!” “Well *slaps butt*, promise delivered!”
• “Don’t know if he has the range for Blue.” -Liv, when hearing that Wyatt was auditioning for the role of the Blue Ranger in the new Power Rangers movie. Also a nice nod to Rose McIver’s days as a Power Ranger (she was the Yellow Ranger).
• Gilda calls full-on zombies “Romeros.” I love it!
• I’m not the only one who thought that sketch of Blaine was super creepy right?
• iZombie is taking the next two weeks off so I’ll see you all on February 2nd (and I’ll be on time next time).

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That last part should tell you everything you need to know about Anger of the Dead, as it is a poorly-scripted and poorly-acted slog of a film that should satisfy only the most hardcore of zombie fans.

Alice (Roberta Sparta) is taking care of her toddler daughter when she receives a frantic call from her husband warning her not to leave the house. Little does she know that her daughter has opened the front door and let in a zombie. Some mayhem ensues and Alice teams up with Stephen (Marius Bizau) before the film flashes forward four months and they have had enough time to become seasoned zombie fighters. Meanwhile Rooker (Aaron Stielstra), a truly loathsome character (at one point he threatens to sic his “racist and pedophile friends” on someone), is attempting to locate the unnamed female Prisoner, a young woman whom he was holding hostage that somehow escaped his clutches.

There are a slew of problems present in Anger of the Dead, the worst of which is the aforementioned script. For example, there is a groan-inducing monologue in which Rooker compares a disloyal henchman to Pinocchio and proceeds to explain to him in detail who Pinocchio is and how his comparison is apt. There are also a plethora of plot contrivances. From a character leaving himself wide open to zombie attacks by sitting in his parked car with the windows open to another character who had previously been willing to shoot a friend for getting bit suddenly wanting to keep another infected until the moment when they turn. There are enough nonsensical moments in Anger of the Dead to make your head spin and to attempt to list them here would be a seemingly endless task.

What Anger of the Dead truly suffers from is issues with its tone. Everything on screen plays as silly while the actors are all doing their best to deliver lines in the most melodramatic ways. Had the film just gone the Sharknado route and played it all for laughs, it would have been a better film. Unfortunately the film takes itself so seriously that it makes a joke of its entire 84 minutes.

It’s not all bad though. The makeup effects are well done by Carlo Diamantini, even if the zombies look more like vampires from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (see above). Francesco Picone, adapting his short film of the same name, is actually quite a talented director. He chooses to film about 95% of the film in daylight and it works in his favor. The film isn’t gorgeous by any means, but it looks a lot better than you would expect something like this to. Cinematographer Mirco Sgarzi’s should also receive credit for this. These factors make Anger of the Dead somewhat watchable, as it is a competently made film.

Anger of the Dead might entertain those who are desperately in need of a zombie fix before The Walking Dead returns in February, but all others should stay away. It is nothing more than a cheap way to cash in on the buzz surrounding AMC’s popular series (the opening credits of the film are a near-replica of the credits of that show, music and all). This is depressing, since zombie films can be so much better than this. Anger of the Dead just isn’t up for the task.

Anger of the Dead opens theatrically in NY and LA on January 8th before its DVD release on February 2nd.

The post [Review] ‘Anger of the Dead’ Inspires Anger With Its Dense Characters and Mindless Script appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

News stations love showing videos of these savings-obsessed throngs, who often pour into a store like a flash flood, devastating everything in their wake. It’s something that looks a great deal like zombies as they descend upon the living.

I’m not the only one who thinks this. In fact, YouTube user Andrew Kasch had very much the same idea, as evidenced by the fantastic video he edited together that mashes scenes from zombie films with actual Black Friday footage. It’s pretty astonishing how well reality and fiction blend together, often times appearing nearly indistinguishable from each other.

If you went out on Black Friday and braved the long lines, the cold weather, and the risk of being trampled to death or, at the very least, seriously injured in a stampede, tell us what you got! Get any good scores? Did you manage to avoid getting bit?

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But wait a minute! What about your vehicle? Do you have the right wheels in order to survive? Is your car a gas guzzler? Does it have enough space to carry your gear? Can you trick it out with defensive and, if possible, offensive gear?

Below is an infographic that goes over several different kinds of cars and vehicles as well as rating them based upon several criteria. Looking at it, do you think you and your car stand a chance when faced with a horde of the undead? Or are you going to end up a zombie yourself?

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This week’s mystery centered around Goth magician Sid Wicked, who was murdered with a sharp-edged playing card in the middle of a magician’s convention (named Presto Fest, of all things). While the eventual reveal was a bit silly (was it not obvious that Meers was a woman?) the journey getting there was a lot of fun. Until Meers was introduced, it was a constant guessing game of whodunit. All of the magicians and their tricks made the investigation supremely entertaining to watch, and Meers’ identity as Irina the maid was a clever, if slightly goofy, payoff.

Maid in hotel screams. A Goth guy has a card in his throat. A magician walks away. Sid Wicked is victim. Presto Fest. There was a rotten fish with a note under the welcome basket. He was yelling at the angels and his assistant was named Angel. He was mad she was at the bar with another magician. Houdina calls Liv to be her assistant and throws bladed cards. She was engaged to Sid. Magnificent Magnus was having sex in a room without cameras. Smoak and Meers. The mid did it and she’s in the hotel. Meers is the maid. Irina  is the killer!

The highlight of the episode had to be Liv and Blaine playing Scooby-Doo with their investigation into the zombie killings. It’s only a matter of time before they find out Major (and thus Vaughn du Clark) is behind them, but watching them reluctantly work together was a real treat to watch. Blaine coming across a picture of Minor the dog was a great gasp-worthy moment. It’s one of those near-misses that iZombie has become so good at doing.

One big surprise was the mystery woman (who is actually credited as “Mystery Woman” on IMDB) leaving the envelope marked “Occupant” on Bozzio’s doorstep. She is also credited as Regina Sumner, though that doesn’t tell us much. While nothing was learned from her appearance, it provided a nice tease for what will hopefully be addressed next week.

Given less screen time this week was Major and Liv’s budding (or crumbling?) relationship? After beginning the episode with some optimism and a little bit of mutual masturbation (at least I think that’s what they had just done), Major slowly started to become bothered by Liv’s personality traits on Sid’s brain. His choice to go upstairs rather than approach Liv in the episode’s closing moments was puzzling, as it’s unclear why he s just not realizing he might not be able to handle her shifting personalities. This isn’t a new development, but maybe Sid’s brain was just a little too intense. Still, Major’s aggravation at Liv’s behavior came out of nowhere.

Ravi and Peyton had some relationship issues of their own as well, with Ravi breaking things off with Steph and Peyton flirting with Blaine. Steph seems like a pretty pointless character that was brought in an abandoned attempt by the writers to cause friction between Ravi and Peyton. This may prove to be a good thing for iZombie, since that could have gotten old real quick. It is a much wiser move to bring Blaine into the mix since he is already an established character for the series (and a lot more fun to watch than plain Jane Steph).

Television seasons can sometimes sag a little bit in the middle, but iZombie doesn’t seem to be following that trend. It was more slowly paced than the previous two episodes to be sure, but it was by no means a slog to get through. “Abra Cadaver” provided a highly entertaining mystery-of-the-week and nudged many plots forward to their eventual endgame.

Random Notes

• Chapter Titles of the Week: Heavy Petting; Trompe Card; Presto Mortem; Strange Deadfellows; The Lady Materializes; A Rose By Another Name; An Ace Up the Sleeve. Call me immature, but I liked Heavy Petting.
• Brain Recipe of the Week: Honestly, I couldn’t tell. First it looked like stir fry, and then it looked like meatballs. Any ideas?
• Seriously, where have Gilda and Vaughn du Clark been? I’m guessing iZombie is saving them for the third act of the season, but their absence has been glaring.
• “This is the best brain ever! I almost want to start killing magicians so it never ends.” -Ravi really is the best, isn’t he?
• “She’s rolling hard on ‘death-obsessed magician.’ It’ll pass.” -I like that he calls it “rolling,” as if the effects are similar to that of MDMA.
• “There was that time her eyes turned red and she killed someone. Thinkin’ that was probably a one-off.” -I love how Peyton nonchalantly delivered this line.
• “Did you eat Edgar Allan Poe?” -Blaine, saying what we’re al thinking.
• Ravi has twenty thirty Twitter followers, which is admirable.
• “Got a big night of British stuff ahead of us! Throwing darts, apologizing!” -Is apologizing a British stereotype? I’ve never heard that before.
• “I performed the autopsy! He is dead!” -Liv having to constantly reiterate this to Houdina was golden.
• “You’re bumming me out man.” -Blaine, after one of Liv’s goth monologues.
• “You killed the fourth man to walk on the moon?” “Please nobody cares about the fourth person to do something!”
• “…so is that a ‘yes’ you want a quesadilla? Or a no?”
• iZombie takes a break next week for Thanksgiving. See you all in two weeks! But first, a little preview of coming events:

The post [TV Review] “iZombie” Episode 2.07: ‘Abra Cadaver’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After a zombie outbreak, a man and woman (Derek Lamar Keeton and Rivera Reese) take refuge in a remote cabin. However, the man was bitten while escaping, leaving the woman to attempt to treat him in vain. Weeks later, after the man dies, the woman is left with her thoughts, struggling to hold on to memories of before the outbreak.

The short unfolds via voiceover from Rivera Reese’s character, who is basically writing in a journal. While Reese does a good job of conveying emotion in her voice, there are moments where it falls into sounding like she’s doing a dramatic reading of a script, rather than telling a story and speaking “from the heart”. Admittedly, it’s a difficult thing to avoid falling into, but there’s a distinct change of feeling in the voice when it does happen. Regardless, Reese does establish the mood and gets in some good lines as the story progresses. The line likening the fight against the infection of a zombie bite to a cancer patient’s fight in chemotherapy might seem a bit harsh in the real world, but in that character’s world, it’s all too real.

For a miniature budget, Brown manages to make the film look quite professional. There are some great shots of the countryside, and the more intimate moments when the woman recollects her memories with her companion also belie the film’s origins. There are some good close-up shots that help bring out the emotion of what’s essentially a film without dialogue, save for the obvious voiceover. Keeton and Reese are able to tell the story through their actions through these emotions. The final shot of the short typifies this, as well as throws in a bit of ambiguity for good measure.

Aside from Reese’s stumbles in the voiceover department, the short did let me down in the name department. No, the film’s name isn’t the problem. Rather, the idea that the short begins with the idea that the woman doesn’t remember her companion’s name. This continues until the final scene, where she suddenly remembers his name. While this might seem like nitpicking, the idea that she can’t remember his name, even after spending weeks with him and tending to his wounds, it flies in the face of reality. Yes, even the woman acknowledges that it might be some sort of post-traumatic amnesia, or that he didn’t even say his name. It’s still hard to believe. Also, those looking for zombie action will be let down with Name, as we only get a series of quick cuts of a brief attack. Then again, this film is meant to be more introspective than action.

For a short, there are some good things going for Brown with Name. The camera work and the editing are nicely executed, with some great writing that taps into some equally-great mental imagery. While the delivery of Reese’s voiceover wasn’t quite as well done, the acting by both her and Keeton are handled well, showcasing emotion and realism without any dialogue. Name is a step in the right direction for Brown. With this serving as a preview, it’ll be interesting to see what he can do with full feature productions in the future.

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