Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Sorry Todd, all the movies in that post are fake.

(At least the trailers and the book are real.)

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Watched Splinter last night. Not bad, but marginal as a zombie flick.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

[shaking fist angrily]Damn you Steve!!!!!! You had me excited.[/shaking fist angrily]



I'm finally going to get around to watching Fulci's Zombi 2 this weekend. Hope it lives up to the hype.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Anno Domini 3048 - One thousand years in the future, after a devastating nuclear war, the long-dormant church has regained its power and outlawed science. Church crusaders travel the land, destroying any vestige of science they can find, all the while battling mutants known as shifters (ostensibly zombies) and the mysterious (and paunchy) warrior known as the Druid. Some interesting themes in this one, but it's ultimately defeated by its super low budget, seeming more than anything a film concocted by well-meaning fantasy gamers acting out one of their role-playing adventures. R1 DVD.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: * out of ****


Dark New World - Yet another "group of disparate types stuck in a house during a zombie outbreak" flick, this one ups the conceit that some of the refugees may be more dangerous than the living dead. Not without interest, but pretty cheap and it shows. R1 DVD.

*1/2 out of ****

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


Dead Snow - Ah, here we go! A group of medical students heads off to the mountains for a weekend of fun and runs afoul of Nazi zombies. Good, gory fun follows in this Norwegian slice of undead horror. R1 DVD.

*** out of ****

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


The Lord of Zombie City - Mixed bag of a short has a gumshoe teaming up with an elf (!) to investigate why the local zombies are no longer docile. Meh.

Watch part one here, follow the links for parts 2 - 4

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


The Passion of Zombie Jesus - Yet another Christ-themed zombie short has a resurrected and hungry-for-flesh Jesus infecting his disciples with a zombie plague. Will this herald the beginning of a new undead religion?

Watch it here

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


Southern Fried Zombies - A high school student is questioned by police after the football coach is attacked by a zombified cheerleader. Misleading title aside, a nifty little short.

Watch it here

**1/2 out of ***

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


The Zombeatles: All You Need is Brains - One-joke mockumentary short chronicles the rise and fall of the world's most famous undead rock band. I chuckled a couple of times (Pall IcKartney is still alive!) and that's about it. R1 DVD.

*1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


Xombie: Dead On Arrival - Flash animated online series (now collected on R1 DVD) about a sentient zombie who finds himself saddled with a still-living little girl. Can he get her to safety before she's devoured by his dumb but very hungry undead brethren? Entertaining and better than I'd thought it'd be.

**1/2 out of ****

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


Trailer Gallery:

Ninjas Vs. Zombies

Zombie Allegiance

Onechanbara: Vortex


Book news: hot on the undead heels of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, an H.G. Wells' classic gets zombified:

The War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells's Classic Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies
Edited by SteveGon - 7/13/2009 at 02:58 pm GMT

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

OK, I am not a fan of zombie movies, but I just popped in here to post what I think is the funniest quote by a zombie movie fan. I'm sorry that I don't have the link, but a fan wrote an essay about zombie movies and when I got to the sentence "There's no such thing as a good zombie movie." I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

It's one thing to hear such a sentiment from someone who doesn't like zombie movies, quite another to hear it from someone who does.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I just joined, and I grew up on zombie movies as a child. I can still hear voodoo drums.

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Welcome to the zombie club, Arletty!

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Thank you for making me welcome. People my way (Cairns) are often taken for Zombies, but it's just Tropical Torpor.

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

Cemetery of Terror - Stupid teenagers steal the corpse of a serial killer only to have the murderer come back from the dead thanks to some nasty black magic. Before you can say Jason, he's hackin' and choppin' 'em to pieces. Gory slice of Mexi-horror also features a zombie-laden finale. R1 DVD.

**1/2 out of ****

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


Brokeback Zombie - Brief feature illustrates that people will still want sex after a zombie apocalypse. In fact, some even want sex with zombies! In this undead future, three not-so-hotties run a successful bordello where the living can have their way with the living dead. But can they survive a mad preacher's scheme to bring down their seamy enterprise? Not an uninteresting premise, but rather poorly done with no gay cowboys to be seen. R1 DVD.

* out of ****

Splatometer rating: ** out of ****


2 - Better than average indie effort follows two survivors of a zombie uprising as they hole up in an abandoned factory to await...what? With little indication that help is on the way and supplies dangerous to get, how long can they last? R1 DVD.

*** out of ****

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


Come Get Some More! - Unreleased sequel to Come Get Some! finds the Last Resort Man once again called back into action to battle zombies. But can he convince (beg, really) his one-time allies (a trio of ass-kicking beauties) to lend him a hand? And who is the mysterious, bat-wielding black man in black? Come Get Some! was flawed but fun, this follow-up is muddled and slapdash. Only lead Steven Grainger - here taking over the directorial reins and once again playing the Last Resort Man - shows any life. More than anything he seems like a poor man's Bruce Campbell (he was also kind enough to send me a free copy of his film so I feel kinda bad about slamming it).

*1/2 out of ****

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


Street of the Dead - Fun little zombie comedy has a stoner trying to survive an outbreak of the living dead (thanks to an ancient, mold-encrusted sandwich!). But the only help he finds is from a nutty assassin who just happens to be his neighbor! Despite its nil budget, this actually features some (mostly) decent acting and quite a few laughs. R1 DVD.

**1/2 out of ****

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


Bubba's Chili Parlor - More mad cow-induced living dead madness as a city girl finds herself holed up with the titular redneck (along with two of his gun-totin' buddies) after contaminated beef causes an outbreak of zombies in the boondocks. Wannabe grindhouse flick (complete with fake drive-in intermissions) is no-frills zombie fun. R1 DVD.

**1/2 out of ****

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

Re: Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread

I've been waiting for this one and did not realize it was out. Keep up the good work, Steve.

Edited by SteveGon - 7/13/2009 at 02:51 pm GMT
Edited by SteveGon - 7/13/2009 at 02:53 pm GMT
Edited by SteveGon - 7/13/2009 at 02:56 pm GMT
Edited by SteveGon - 7/13/2009 at 03:02 pm GMT

Night of the Living Dead: Rifftrax - The guys from Mystery Science Theater 3000 take on George Romero's classic chiller!  Actually there's not much here to get excited about.  There are some laughs but I guess it's hard to make too much fun of a movie that's actually good.  R1 DVD.

**1/2 out of ****

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


The Grandmother's Mushroom Soup - Finnish no-budgeter has a drug dealer teaming up with two backwoods brothers to battle zombies spawned from the titular concoction.  Watchable but not very good, with lots of geysering blood substituted for gore shots.  R2 DVD.

* out of ****

Splatometer rating:  ** out of ****


Pontypool - Canadian-lensed infected thriller about a fired shock jock who takes a job at a radio station in the small town of Pontypool.  Things go from bad to worse after he and his co-workers are trapped at the station by a bizarre viral outbreak that turns those infected into murderous, gibberish-spewing fiends.  Tense shocker features the most unusal virus vector yet seen in a zombie/infected flick.  R1 (Canadian) DVD.

*** out of ****

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


Life Room - Routine zombie chiller about a group of people trapped in a church "life room" during a zombie outbreak.  Will they give in to their base instincts in order to survive?  The John Carpenter-ish score helps.  R1 DVD.

** out of ****

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



Zombedy - Comic short has two buddies bickering incessantly before and after they're turned into the living dead.  Tries too hard and ends abruptly.  R1 DVD.

** out of ****

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


The Ties That Bind - A husband must figure out what to do after his wife is bitten by a zombie and subsequently possessed by a demon.  Overrated short features little zombie action.  R1 DVD.

** out of ****

Splatometer rating:  ** out of ****


Bonus Zombie Trailer:

theeaters.com

I have been waiting on an update to this thread - thanks!  Looks like Pontypool is the winner here....

Yep, definitely check out Pontypool.  It's available from Amazon's Canadian outlet.  Sorry to be taking so long between posts, but my new family life eats up lots of time!  Lots of new zombie releases coming up in the next few months so keep looking! 

Pontypool is definitely a good zombie film, especially since it takes place mostly in one setting (the basement of a church where the radio station resides). It's bit of a return to form for director Bruce McDonald (Highway 61, Hard Core Logo) and another example why Canadian cinema doesn't need huge budgets to entertain audiences. The book the film's based on, Pontypool Changes Everything (written by Tony Burgess, who wrote the screenplay), is very different from the film, but it's an amazing piece of literary fiction, especially when it was published in 1998, when zombies weren't popular like they are today!

Good to see so much love for zombies on a "serious" film forum.

My faves are:

Re-Animator
Evil Dead 2
Return of the Living Dead
Shaun of the Dead

I also don't really enjoy the original zombie movie Night of the Living Dead.

I am guessing that you saw the original NOTLD for the first time sometime in the last ten years and after you saw some of the othere movies you listed?

no slam to your age, just looking for context.

Autopsy of the Dead - Lengthy documentary focusing on the lesser-known contributers to the original Night of the Living Dead.  Some good nuggets of information here, but at 144 minutes this one's strictly for NOTLD buffs.

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating:  ** out of ****


Grace - A woman loses her husband and unborn baby in a car accident but refuses to have the dead fetus removed from her womb.  And wouldn't ya know it, the lil' tyke pops out on schedule as a zombie baby!  Can she sate its appetite for blood and fend off her nosy mother-in-law?  And what about those pesky flies?  Sedate thriller boasts a queasy finale.

*** out of ****

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


Red Victoria - A struggling screenwriter reluctantly agrees to write a horror movie script and is visited by his muse, a "spectral zombie" whose outer beauty belies her nasty intentions.  Will he survive her attempts to show him the true meaning of horror?  Made on the cheap, but a good try.

**1/2 out of ****

Splatometer rating:  *** out of ****


Zombieland - No need to say much about this one as it's pretty high profile.  I had a lot of fun with it, though I don't think it quite measures up to Shaun of the Dead (to which it's been compared).  Loved the star cameo that gives the film an unexpected touch of surrealistic humor - very funny!

*** out of ****

Splatometer rating:  *** out of ****