Zombie Movie Appreciation Thread (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

- might have to check that one out. I've got some stuff in my Netflix queue that I haven't seen and I'll be revisiting some of the classics so look for more additions soon!

Thanks, I'm glad nobody shot me in the head on the way in. Hee!
I'll post more comments on Messiah within a month. I plan to re-watch it soon. Definately b-grade (maybe even z) italian horror. I remember loving the bad transfer. Very white 60s building structures. The colors were all over the place like a child's paint set exploded (no, I don't use drugs). A couple of italian honeys. Not for those who need their zombies to have dripping skin though.
I meant to mention that I liked the unused ending to Deathdream the best. Although, I seem to remember understanding why they didn't use it. But I liked it a lot.

 

[Radioman970]

Hey all, I recently watched "I,Zombie" released under Fangoria's imprint. I'd never heard of it and actually still haven't other than owning it. I got it at a pawn shop and gave it a spin. I thought it was really cool. It's about a guy, (a writer I think), who gets bitten and documents his own downward spiral into the undead. It's pretty introspective for the most part, but I think that helps make the gory parts that appear in that film more realistic and effective. It's also got an interesting commentary track that reveals a lot about the trials and tribulations of low budget film making. I'd say it's one of the better blind buys I've made. If I was going to rate it I'd give it a B+. Not one of the all time greats, but effective and interesting.

I did A LOT of research last year for horror films. Usually I have a big horrorthon starting Oct 1st. Last year I watch around 155 horror films in a month. You can't imagine how fun (and trippy) that is!
Anyway, I remember reading about a film similar to the idea of I, Zombie. Mainly about a guy who's fighting the effects and keeping a journal about what's happening to him. I thought it didn't sound horror enough. This may be the same film. I'll add I, Zombie to my list. Sounds great!

 

[SteveGon]

Re-Animator - Revisited Stuart Gordon's gleefully lurid (and very loose) adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story. Trash don't get no better than this! The head scene is of course, a classic.
***1/2 out of ****
Goreometer rating: ***1/2 out of ****

 

[Radioman970]

- Revisited Stuart Gordon's gleefully lurid (and very loose) adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story. Trash don't get no better than this! The head scene is of course, a classic.
***1/2 out of ****
Goreometer rating: ***1/2 out of ****

Great film to introduce to the uninitiated. A little tamer than something like Dead Alive/Brain Dead.
wikipedia says the cut version is longer than the uncut. They added extra dialogue scenes originally cut to make up for the gore cut out.

 

[SteveGon]

Dawn of the Dead - Revisited Zack Snyder's remake of George Romero's classic. Much better than I figured it'd be, though I'm still sqarely in the "slow zombies are better" camp.
*** out of ****
Goreometer rating: *** out of ****

 

[Bill McA]

Steve, next week's Toronto International Film Festival (I'll be there!) will be premiering a few new zombie films
Fido
End of the Line
The Abandoned - not completely sure if this one is actually about zombies, but it is hinted at in the description. This is the only one of the 3 that I'll be seeing.

 

[SteveGon]

Those all sound interesting - wish I could be there. :frowning:
White Zombie - Revisited this old school zombie classic starring Bela Lugosi as an evil witch doctor who transforms a young bride into one of the undead. Creepy and stylish fun.
*** out of ****
Goreometer rating: zero out of ****

 

[SteveGon]

I, Zombie - Low budget, Cronenbergian spin on zombies. A man is attacked by a crazed woman while on a field trip in the woods. Afterwards he discovers that his body is decaying and that he has an appetite for human flesh! Abandoning his old life (and leaving his girlfriend behind), he moves into an apartment where he chronicles his deterioration...
**1/2 out of ****
Goreometer rating: *** out of ****
Resident Evil - Revisit. I know this gets slammed, but I think it's a hoot. (But the sequel sucked donkey balls.)
*** out of ****
Goreometer rating: **1/2 out of ****

 

[SteveGon]

Dance of the Dead - Expansion of Richard Matheson's short story about post-apocalyptic teens who binge on drugs and watch nightclub shows featuring loopys (Lifeless Undead Phenomena; the term for human corpses reanimated by a germ-gas - the dancing dead of the title). These "zombies" are only marginal to the story as the focus is on the real living dead - the survivors of the war. This was Tobe Hooper's entry in the Masters of Horror series.
*** out of ****
Goreometer rating: * out of ****
Black Demons - Zombies Italiano (from director Umberto Lenzi) by way of Brazil. A troubled college student uses a voodoo ritual to raise the long-dead corpses of plantation slaves who were executed after trying to escape. Naturally they're still pissed off and take revenge on the student's pals and other sundry victims. Interesting premise with average results. Some good gore, though not as much as I was expecting.
**1/2 out of ****
Goreometer rating: *** out of ****
Shaun of the Dead - Revisited the classic zombie comedy. This deft blend of comedy and horror succeeds mainly by taking the undead problem seriously. Also, while it's funny and silly, it's never over the top stupid (note to filmmakers: there is a difference!).
***1/2 out of ****
Goreometer rating: *** out of ****

 

[Rhoq]

- Expansion of Richard Matheson's short story about post-apocalyptic teens who binge on drugs and watch nightclub shows featuring loopys (Lifeless Undead Phenomena; the term for human corpses reanimated by a germ-gas - the dancing dead of the title). These "zombies" are only marginal to the story as the focus is on the real living dead - the survivors of the war. This was Tobe Hooper's entry in the Masters of Horror series.
*** out of ****
Goreometer rating: * out of ****

I watched this yesterday afternoon and was pleasantly surprised. I think it's now my third favorite entry in the Masters Of Horror series (right behind Joe Dante's "Homecoming" and Don Coscarelli's "Incident On And Off A Mountain Road")

 

[Radioman970]

I started my yearly Horrorthon Sept 1. I number them as I go along (up to 62 flicks as of Sept 19). I should have 200+ watched by Halloween.
(from my journal at rottentomatoes.com)
42. Zone of the Dead (a.k.a. The House of the Dead, Alien Zone). (1978) This film was originally called House of the Dead, then Alien ZoneZone of the Dead. RT has it catalogued as the latter so I'm happy with that. The credits said House of the Dead but that title is tied to a worse movie than this one. Anyway, this is a horror anthology piece with 5 very short stories of varying quality. My favorite is probably the first one. It's very halloweenish, with a mean school teacher experiencing various spooky movie cluches in her house before meeting her demise in a satisfiyingly creepy, if not cheesy, way (see the movie poster below). Posters on the net generally disliked this particular story but liked one about a couple of competing detectives. I liked both. The final story reminded me of the movie SAW. It wasn't half bad, although the ending was far-fetched. The bookend story was lacking. Overall, not a total waste of 85 minutes. It's public doman so go get it! 6/10 (guilty pleasure upgrade 8/10)

I love this poster!! That's why I listed it here...those zombies with the oddly angular teeth.
43. Zombie from 1979 is quite sticky! And happens to be very good work from italian horror guru Fulci. I love his zombies!! Could these be the best ever? When you look at them they actually appear to be the living dead with dirt caked on rotting wounds, REAL BUGS!!, and slow-moving until they get close to what they want...then BOOM! This is grim stuff with only a few unintentional laughs and dubbing that can be rediculously bad. There's the famous scenes (shark and eye) that keep me coming back year after year. I love this! 8/10

See? Damn good zombies.
53. City of the Living Dead. (1980) Fulci's atmospheric horror film about the dead coming back and just being a general nuisance. Overly gory at times, but pretty effective during others. Like Fulci's Zombie, there's some terrific makeup and eery surroundings to make this a satisfying experience. Nice job Mr. Fulci! 7/10

(cheesy upgrade 9/10)
I'm saving a lot of good ones for October.

 

[Shane Gralaw]

A few that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

"Stacy" - a slightly silly Japanese film where schoolgirls inexplicably turn into "Stacys"- zombies. One good Bruce Campbell joke- the "BluceCampbell-anator" (sic) a hi-tech chainsaw that straps to your arm, being marketed to Stacy fighters.

"Sars Wars- Bangkok Zombie Crisis" - easilly the most balls-out silly zombie film ever made. At one point - the virgin lead hero gets laid for the first time- but it kinda turns out not to be the most ideal experience, in retrospect.

"Severed" - strictly by-the numbers Canadian zombie film starring the guy who played Billy on Battlestar Galactica. This time it's zombies caused by genetically modified trees. Lots of lumberjack zombies ensue.

"Dead Men Walking" - zombies in a prison film that owes a lot to both the prison riot sequence in Natural Born Killers and the DOTD remake (fast, rioting zoimbies). Actually, despite some low production values and occasionally iffy acting, there's a lot to like here with a logical progression of the zombie plague, attempts at real character development and some hot, shaky cam zombie action.

 

[Radioman970]

I enjoyed Stacey a lot. Although I cringed at the Bruce Campbell thing. :frowning: What the hell is wrong with me?

 

[Chad R]

It's not a movie, but I'm about half of the way through the book "World War Z" by Max Brooks (Mel's son) and it's pretty interesting so far. It's a series of interviews from survivors recounting the World War against zombies. The aduio version has a great deal of stars reading sections including Alan Alda, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins. I'll probably get that after I finish reading the book (the audio is abridged).
Max also wrote the very cool "Zombie Survival Handbook" which is in the humor section, but is done very seriously. I know he's Mel's son, but both books are not meant to be parodies.

 

[SteveGon]

Just bought a copy of the ZSH off eBay.
I'm ready for 'em.

 

[SteveGon]

Zombie Lake - Nazi zombies rise from a French lake and go after the locals in this (very) low budget affair co-directed by Jean Rollin and Spanish director Julian de Laserna. Dreamy atmosphere aside, there isn't much else to recommend it. The zombie makeup ranges from laughably bad to halfway decent and the zombies seem content to just bite people on the neck and suck their blood. Lame-o! Worth a look for fans of Rollin.
** out of ****
Goreometer rating: * out of ****
Dead Creatures - Quasi-zombie flick from the UK, an unofficial companion piece to I, Zombie. A strange disease has struck London, causing the bodies of its human victims to deteriorate while cursing them with an insatiable cannibalistic appetite. The film focuses on a group of infected women who've been forced to give up their old lives and live on the lam, moving from dingy apartment to dingy apartment, all the while on the prowl for fresh food. As if that weren't enough, they're being stalked by a mysterious vigilante! Takes a while to get going, but interesting - if Ken Loach did a zombie flick, it'd probably be something like this.
**1/2 out of ****
Goreometer rating: *** out of ****

 

[SteveGon]

Dawn of the Dead (extended version, 1978) - Revisited George Romero's zombie epic. The additional scenes in this extended version don't add much and it's easy to see why they were cut. Still, they're interesting to see and don't hurt the film enough to downgrade its rating.
This is the umpteenth time I've screened the film and it still invokes a feeling of dread and despair - the mark of true horror. No, it's not perfect: the acting is at best adequate, the zombie make-up is cheap and the film lacks polish, but it does have vision and I get the sense while viewing it that I'm watching a real classic. Hard to imagine this ever getting topped.
**** out of ****
Goreometer rating: **** out of ****

 

[Todd H]

Zoom's Monsters HD channel is showing zombie movies for the next few days it would appear. Just wanted to inform all of you zombie lovers out there.

 

[SteveGon]

Dead Life - Fairly effective no-budget zombie flick. A guy and his buds try to get out of town after a mysterious plague causes an outbreak of flesh-eating ghouls. Shot on Super 8 which gives it a cheesey seventies vibe (replete with variable acting and spotty techical saavy). Features a pointless, if rather gruesome, blowjob scene!
**1/2 out of ****
Goreometer rating: *** out of ****

 

[BradWOO]

Hey, has anyone read the novel, World War Z by Max Brooks? It is a very engrossing book. It consists of a series of accounts by characters of their experiences in the "Zombie World War". I really recommend it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Z