Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I'm with ya on that one! I'll email Jon Mulvaney...

(Hey, if they can release friggin' Armageddon...)

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

right, on Criterion, no doubt!

They should try a special line of Criterion for stuff similar to this. Sort of like MGM's Midnite Movies.

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Zombie Holocaust - A rash of corpse mutilations at a NYC hospital leads a group of journalists and anthropologists to a remote Pacific island where they run afoul of cannibals and a mad doctor. A few token zombies show up to justify the title, but with the cannibals having already eaten everyone they just kind of amble around. Super schlocky and gory Italian horror flick manages to entertain despite its ineptitude - check out that hilarious gaffe in the scene depicting a high rise suicide!

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****

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Mortuary - Murky, muddled, Tobe Hooper mishmash about a widow and aspiring mortician who moves into a dilapidated funeral home with her two children. Too bad the place was built on cursed ground! The half-baked plot includes deformed mutants, bile-spewing zombies and dead teenagers to little effect.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: *1/2 out of ****


Tamara - Middling entry in the revenge of the living dead subgenre adds a dash of Carrie. A mousy girl with an unpopular anti-drug stance is accidentally killed by her high school peers during a cruel prank. She then comes back from the dead the hottest zombie since Return of the Living Dead III, looking to dish out some justice and score with her hot English teacher.

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: *1/2 out of ****


Near Death - A group of parapsychologists investigate the supposedly haunted home of a murderous movie director and find it inhabited not by ghosts, but flesh-eating ghouls. Not a bad premise, but laughably cheap.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: **1/2 out of ****


Crap zombie movies: 3

SteveGon: 0

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Oh boy....I would rent it first (assuming you haven't seen it) it is good in a bad sort of way IMO...I love the flick because it has good atmosphere, bad acting, good makeup, bad music, bad acting, bad writing, bad actors, bad stereotypical gay characters, bad acting....did I mention the bad acting?

Put it this way, it would have made a fantastic MST3K episode.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Greetings Zombie Enthusiasts,

This is my initial post here in Zombie Wonderland. I do enjoy a good zombie movie, but to me, they've always been like the second person you ever made love to: exciting, fresh, and while you're not "exactly" sure what to expect, (unless you've made a real faux pas) you pretty much know what you're getting into: Enter our heroes, Enter some undead, somebody is going to end up getting their intestines eaten, some zombie' heads will explode from gunfire....blah blah blah. I guess the same argument could be made for many different genres, but I've never been able to get past the "been there, done that" feeling I get from zombie flicks. Not say none are any good, I just have to be in the mood for one...kinda like a taco.

But I finally braved this thread, and have some new titles to add to the queue. Stacy, in particular, sounds like must see TV to me. So thanks. Anyway, on to the real reason I stopped in.


My dear friend Steven let me borrow this masterpiece. And he talked it up so big, my wife even wanted to see it (for the record, she usually avoids any movies he gives me like the plague....even though the plague isn't the issue nowadays that it once was in the past...and come to think of it, I can't recollect her ever taking any precautions against the plague, yet she has against his movies...oh well, I'm sure you get the point). Then there was his little "I haven't laughed this hard since we saw Meet the Feebles line. And this is no small thing. That viewing is one of the singularly best times I ever had with my clothes on. Comedies are best viewed with other people....somehow they just are funnier, and I laughed pretty hard that night. So all this was surrounding my viewing of Nudist Colony of the Dead.

With that part out of the way, let me say I was underwhelmed with the "film." But how could I not be with that kind of build-up. Then there was the fact that I was viewing on VHS. The sound was horrible and constantly shook me from the movie. Jokes just aren't very funny when you have to constantly get them from your wife (who isn't laughing).
"What did he say?"
(Her reply in a monotone, deadpan voice) "I'm not going to let 47 freak accidents with a wood chipper ruin this bible retreat."
"Oh."

So, should you decide to watch this gem (and it is worth watching....I still can't get some of the musical numbers out of my head- It's an inky-dinky-do-da morning, morning) I suggest you do it with a pal who appreciates this type of humor; not with my wife.





P.S. The Evil Dead films are not zombie films. And neither (really) is Night of the Creeps, but it is a totally kick-ass movie with zombie-type sequences. And I didn't want it to seem like I don't enjoy tacos, cause I do...just as long as they do not contain refried beans. Thanks.

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Shoot, that's comedy gold!

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Flesh Freaks - Or, Hey Mom! Look What I Did With That Camcorder You Got Me For Christmas! An archaeological expedition in South America accidentally unleashes a plague of alien-spawned zombies.
Super cheap production (hell, I spend more on my dates!) adds elements of Invasion of the Body Snatchers to the usual zombie recipe. If the results are like this, maybe we would be better off controlled by aliens!

* out of ****

Splatometer rating: **1/2 out of ****



SARS Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis - Wacky, frenetically-paced action comedy about a young hero recruited to save a kidnapped girl from mobsters. But the apartment building she's being held in has been infected with a deadly strain of the SARS virus that turns its victims into flesh-eating zombies! AND there's a giant snake that meows! Aided by his eccentric master and a hot female scientist, can he rescue the girl and fight off the badguys, the zombies and the snake? More importantly, will she put out for him? Bizarre plot twists, transsexuals, anti-drug messages and the deux ex machina to end all deux ex machina are just some of the items on display in this cartoonish Thai outing.

"That is one ugly, demonic ho!"

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

You go on dates, Steve?!

Day of the Dead was on the HD Monster channel last night. Nothing like seeing people ripped apart in high definition!

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Well, no, but sometimes ya gotta sacrifice reality for the sake of a joke.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I got Stacy and gave her a spin, and I must say it's a bad movie. Not bad in the sense that the movie is crap, but bad in the sense that it is evil incarnate. The film itself is evil, and makes evil things happen in your life. It's cursed.

I like to think that I'm a good father. I'm no Cliff Huxtable or anything, but I rarely beat my kids and feed them most days. And until the evil Stacy came into my life, I had never forgotten one of them.

My daughter wanted to go to a YMCA sleepover (don't worry, there were no bikers or sailors present....sorry couldn't resist) and the outcome being a night home alone, I wanted to let her. So I take her and drop her off and even signed her in and stuff....see what I mean about good father. Then I go home and pop in Stacy. Thus, the evil begins.

For around 90 minutes I was tricked into a state of quirky happiness (the film's way of lulling me into unawareness) as 16 year old school girls (yep in school girl uniforms) were turned into zombies and hacked into pieces and dangled wind chimes and sought love and watched puppet shows and ate people and bought chainsaws and most importantly....learned the secret to Butterfly Twinkle Powder. Good times were had by all.

Then, I decided to go to bed. Somewhere in the back of my mind, something was trying to get my attention, but damn if all I could think about was Butterfly Twinkle Powder. Where does it come from? Do actual butterflies have powder? Why does it twinkle? Does it come in an easy-to-use cream form?

So I sleep on it. Sometimes answers come to me after a good night's sleep. And sleep good I did (oops, turned into Yoda for a second there). Then, right in the middle of an awesome dream about Drew Barrymore covered in a twinkling powder, I'm jolted awake by the evil telephone. The good folks down at the YMCA were wondering if I might like to come and pick up my daughter. And so I did, but let me tell you this: I don't think I've ever encountered anything quite so frightening as the icy-cold glare of a tired YMCA operative.

But not to worry, I expect my daughter (and my wife..unfortunately) will begin talking to me again sometime within the next few days. I will overcome the evil.

Damn you Stacy, damn your black heart.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I was thinking since I'm such a fan of A Christmas Story, I could....heh, joking. I'm actually a fan of Deathdream. Weird and creepy. I was figuring that one with some added ham & cheese wouldn't be too bad. You're right, I should probably rent it. It all depends on the price. Some home made MST3k is always a blast. One of the last flicks I bought was American Gothic for $5. That was a bargain!

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Zombie - Revisited Lucio Fulci's living dead opus, probably the best of the Italian zombie films. A journalist and other assorted zombie bait travel to a remote island where the undead have risen. A coherent plot and classic splatter scenes make this a genre classic. Also known as Zombie 2 to cash in on Romero's Dawn of the Dead (released in Europe as Zombie).

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: **** out of ****


Building a Better Zombi - Documentary chronicle of the making of Lucio Fulci's Zombie.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: **** out of ****


Sugar Hill (1974) - Blaxploitation zombies! When a nightclub owner is murdered for refusing to sell out to a mobster, his woman raises an army of the living dead to put the kibosh on the baddies. Fun little genre mixer.

"I hope they like white trash!"

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


Enter... Zombie King - Goofy, good-natured flick pits Mexican wrestlers against an evil megalomaniac who plans on taking over the world with an army of zombies. Spiced with gratuitous boobs and a living/dead lesbian makeout scene.

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Severed: Forest of the Dead - Loggers and environmentalists in a remote island forest find themselves beseiged by flesh-eating zombies, a product of experimental tree growth hormones. Seriously. Actually not that bad; it's another stylistic clone of 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead '04 (though it never reaches those heights). The novel setting is a plus, the anti-climatic ending is not.

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: **1/2 out of ****


Chopper Chicks in Zombietown - Deliciously titled Troma flick is unfortunately a big bore. The chopper chicks ride into a small town, get laid, face their inner demons and fight zombies. Meh. Billy Bob Thornton stands out in an early role.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


Voodoo Moon - Supernatural thriller pits a brother and sister against the demon (or was he the Devil?) who slaughtered their parents years before. The brother has spent years brushing up on magic and is ready to kick some evil ass. Blah, blah, blah. Plays out like an episode of Angel and even stars Charisma Carpenter and Angel lookalike Eric Mabius. But are there any zombies you ask? Well, Jeffrey Combs plays a hero zombie cop aiding the goodguys and the badguy has a bunch of undead servants who serve as cannon fodder, but none of them eat anybody. Would have been better if they had.

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: * out of ****

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Wild Zero - Rock and roll/alien invasion/transgender love story/zombie flick from Japan has the band Guitar Wolf and their number one fan Ace fighting flesh-eating zombies and a vindictive music promoter. Along for the ride are a band of thieves and a hot female arms merchant. Scores of zombie heads get blown off in this ingratiating if inexplicable undead outing.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


The Return of the Living Dead - Revisited Dan O'Bannon's cult classic zombie opus. I'm not as big a fan of this as others, but it has its moments.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


Electric Zombies - Bottom of the grave no-budgeter has various low lifes running afoul of a government plot to control people via their cellphones. (The victims, upon receiving a coded message over their phones, go on bloody rampages.) Endlessly talky and poorly executed (to say the least), with no real zombies. Skimps on the gore too.

Bomb!

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


Plaga Zombie - Low budget living dead flick from Argentina (but set in the U.S.) has three pals fending off zombies spawned by an alien virus. Lacks finesse but makes up for it with gory chutzpah; owes a lot to the splatter films of Peter Jackson.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: ***1/2 out of ****


Plaga Zombie: Mutant Zone - Sequel to the above has our three heroes (one of them inexplicably returned from the dead) deposited by the FBI in a town overrun by zombies. Goofy, bizarre, and gorier than the original. A tad too long.

*** out of ****

**** out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I keep wondering when you're going to run out of zombie movies to watch Steve. Doesn't look like any time soon

Netflix never seems to have any of the best sounding zombie flicks

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I know Netflix has Wild Zero and Plaga Zombie.


Nope. Got a stack of 'em right here: Zombie: The Resurrection, Zombie Planet, Living a Zombie Dream and a revisit to Return of the Living Dead 3.

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I keep hoping to click on this thread and see a review of DIE YOU ZOMBIE BASTARDS (I think that's the title), which was released a week or two ago.

I wouldn't recommend it but I don't think you've seen the (unofficial) fifth BLIND DEAD film: MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Die You Zombie Bastards is in the ol' Netflix queue.

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The Ghost Galleon - Third in the Blind Dead series has the undead Templar Knights crewing a ship (ala the Flying Dutchman) and preying on small boats. Intriguing entry is atmospheric but boasts the unforgivable conceit of having much of the shipboard action take place in near total darkness. Pony up for some lights, dammit!

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: * out of ****


Zombie Planet - A carb-burning diet enzyme causes a world wide epidemic of zombies, forcing the wealthy to withdraw into walled-off safe zones. The poor, known as "the dregs," have to fend for themselves, fighting off zombies and the self-serving Adam, a petty tyrant who carries out the orders of the rich. Then the mysterious warrior Kane shows up (think Snake Plissken in Land of the Dead). Attempt to do something other than the usual zombie gut-muncher is undermined not so much by its low budget but by its overlength and derivative nature.

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I actually watched this earlier today since I'm a fan of the once great, now horrible Lommel. God, has this guy lost it. HOWEVER, this was actually the best made film I've seen from his recent run of "true story" movies. This is also on the same level as PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in how incredibly stupid it was. Did you check out that police station? How about the dumb cop who doesn't look in the bags?

I also got STACY and WILD ZERO sitting here and hope to get to them soon.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

This is cool: donate a buck (or more) to this zombie movie production (love that title!) and get your name in the credits!

Check it out!

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

The Child - The new governess at an isolated family estate discovers that her new charge has psychic powers that include the ability to raise the dead! Creepy little zombie revenge chiller.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


I Eat Your Skin - Fun drive-in fare has a group of people on an island being menaced by bug-eyed zombies, the product of a mad scientist bent on world domination. Now where'd I put that irradiated snake venom?

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


Return of the Living Dead 3 - Revisited the best in the series (unless parts four and five turn out to be masterpieces). A military brat whose father has been experimenting with Trioxin gas exposes his recently-killed girlfriend to the stuff. She then comes back to life with a craving for brains. Can she keep her hunger at bay and not eat her boyfriend? Third entry takes a different tack and is actually pretty good, with sympathetic lead characters.

***1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ***1/2 out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Evil - Greek zombies! Three workmen break into a cave which somehow causes an outbreak of zombies (fast variety). As the undead epidemic spreads across Athens, the ususal disparate group of survivors try to get out of the city. Flimsily-plotted but saved by likeable characters and some over the top splatter.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: ***1/2 out of ****



Night of the Seagulls - Fourth in Amando de Ossorio's Blind Dead series has the residents of a seaside village sacrificing their young women to keep the bloodthirsty zombie knights at bay. Can the new doctor in town stop the evil Templars? Not too bad, but it's clear you can only stretch this premise so far.

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****



Living a Zombie Dream - No-budgeter has a murdered psychopath returning from the grave to torment his killer. Something like that anyway. Not badly directed for its type, but still cheap and mostly incomprehensible.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I thought The Child was pretty good. That's the only DVD from the company Something Weird I tried but it made me hungry for more. They really put a lot of thought into the extras. That babysitting short was nearly as creepy as the movie. I'm surprised MST3K never did that short. IN fact, that would be a prime candidate for a rifftrax.

BTW, I saw the Return of the Living Dead flick out of order. 3-2-1. Weird way to watch them. But I have a great love for 3 as well. I also like 2 better than many. But I love the original.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Feeding the Masses - Low budget zombie flick has a news crew fighting to get the truth out about a recent outbreak of zombies. Sort of an expansion of the beginning of Dawn of the Dead and not bad.

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


Beaver Lake Zombies - Toxic waste dumped into Beaver Lake turns a couple of hitmen and some locals into flesh-eating zombies who then team up and munch on some campers. Typical no-budget affair that doesn't even show any beavers (either kind).

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Just had to cut in with this announcement ...

Zack Snyder's 2004 DAWN OF THE DEAD will be available on HD-DVD this year!

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...to_Blu-ray/449

- Colton

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Die You Zombie Bastards! - The title is the best thing about this Troma-esque hodgepodge of serial killer superheroes, megalomaniacal zombie kings and busty babes. A few chuckles here and there, but mostly interminable.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


Hell of the Living Dead - Bruno Mattei's riff (or rip) on Dawn of the Dead has a SWAT team and a couple of journalists traveling to New Guinea to investigate a zombie outbreak. Typical Italian undead orgy of gore may not be a classic, but it's not as bad as its reputation would have you believe. The Goblin music recycled from Dawn of the Dead helps.

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


Detroit Blood City - Slightly better follow-up to Beaver Lake Zombies finds Detroit being overrun with zombies after some drug dealers start selling toxic waste-contaminated weed. Still pretty cheap, but fairly entertaining.

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


Zombie: The Resurrection - Lame German undead flick set in the near future after the world has been overrun by zombies. The German DVD I watched this on had no English subs, but they really weren't needed as the plot consists of a bunch of idiots running around the woods not doing a very good job of avoiding ravenous ghouls. There's lots of agonized screaming and spurting blood as one moron after another gets surrounded or ambushed by slow-moving zombies, rarely thinking to use their guns! Like I said, lame. Thankfully it only runs an hour.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


Zombie: The Mission - Short film from the makers of Zombie: The Resurrection about some survivalists in the woods who do battle with a bunch of zombies. Again, these people are just too stupid to live as they all have weapons but easily succumb to the undead horde.

* out of ****

Splatometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Night of the Living Dorks - Teen zombie comedy has three dead high school nerds resurrected as super-powered, flesh-craving zombies. Can they find a cure for their condition before they become permanently undead? Can they avenge themselves on the school bully and get chicks? And more importantly, can they keep their bodies from falling apart? Amiable enough, but it's awfully innocuous, feeling like a middling episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

** out of ****

Splatometer rating: * out of ****


Codename: Yinyang - Get this: the United States tries to take over Denmark by infecting fast food hamburgers with a zombiefying serum. The Danes counter by sending two hot female assassins to take out the nutso scientist who created the serum. Unfortunately, one-eyed supercommando Bobo Moreno and hordes of flesh-eating zombies lie between them and their objective! Homemade Danish production is fairly accomplished for its low budget, with the exception of some painfully cheap sequences set in the U.S.

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: *** out of ****


Zeder - Pupi Avati's stylish horror thriller has a writer investigating a secret cabal whose members are searching for supernatural patches of earth in which the buried dead will be returned to life. Little actual zombie action, but still pretty good.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

This looks awesome!...can't wait.

http://fidothemovie.com/