Swag: Zombie Christmas Music

So, I'm not sure if anyone is this in to zombies, but I found an album of zombie Christmas music for the fan who doesn't take holidays off. Their sample song--"We Wish You a Zombie Christmas"--is a little silly and certainly not something I'd consider paying for, but who knows? The rest of the album could be pure genius. It includes chuckle-worthy titles such as "Zombie Night", "The Twelve Slays of Christmas" and "O Come All Ye Dreadful". While the CD might give a new meaning to the word kitsch, this website also sells Christmas Caroling booklets so that you can share these zombie tunes with your neighbors on Christmas Eve. Now that appeals to me, if for no other reason than its originality.

So if you want to annoy your neighbors and friends with tunes of a holiday more bloody than cheery, checkout these products here.

News: Juan of the Dead Feasts Upon Festival-Goers

Like any self-respecting Chicago liberal, I was listening to WBEZ this week when I heard an interview with a Cuban director. The director, Alejandro Brugués, spoke at length about his new film, Juan of the Dead, in which he is using the zombie genre and the comedy genre to satirically poke fun at what he believes are the troubles with Cuban government and society. For example Brugués features the Cuban government blaming the zombie apocalypse on dissidents funded by America. Check out a print summary of the interview here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/juanofthedeadmovie/5368744306/lightbox/

Well after I heard the interview, I did some more research on this flick and now my appetite is all teased! The trailer looks amazing, and it has been really well received at many film festivals. Most recently, it won the Audience Award at the Havana Film Festival. This should be a great catalyst for its cinematic release, which begins in Spain this January.

Personally, I can't wait to see it make its way to the states. If I could see this movie AND The Dead (directed by Howard & Jonathon Ford), it would be the best Christmas present ever...Santa, make it so.  Haven't heard about The Dead? Check out that trailer below. Seems like a glut of good foreign horror films have been popping up lately.

Review: Dead Snow

From the opening sequence, you know Dead Snow is going to be a good movie. The film opens against the stark white backdrop of Norwegian mountains and snow on a lonely arctic night. A woman is running through the trees, pursued by what? We don't know. Music from the Nutcracker blares in the TVs speakers as you struggle to discern what's happening...and just as you do and the woman meets her untimely end? Opening credits roll. Genius. I'm instantly engaged.

After the credits, Dead Snow begins like many movies of its type. You are introduced to a number of stock characters of varying levels of acting ability. They're all supposed to be college students, but they all look they could have been guests at my late-twenties Halloween party. The girls are too attractive for the boys, but hey...it's film. I was wary for a little bit at the beginning, as the dialogue pirouetted around sex jokes and cheesy puns, but this film won back my allegiance very quickly.

Dead Snow is a gore-lover's dream. The filmmakers were certainly not shy with their karo syrup and red food coloring, and they seemed to hold a special place in their hearts for intestines and other internal organs. By the end of the film, every character is shellacked in a lovely coat of fresh blood, and every stab wound seems to hit a vital vein...sending pumping and squirting blood everywhere...even on to the camera. Yum. Definitely not for the faint of heart. That being said, the effects are actually quite nice and realistic looking (with a couple reasonable exceptions). For a small budget flick, they made some pretty involved gore look pretty damn realistic. You'll be screaming and squirming the whole way through.

From a zombie standpoint, I'm a little on the fence. The movie was certainly a good horror movie, but it's hard to title it a straight, classic zombie flick. The monsters are clearly dead, they're referred to as zombies, and the makeup artist certainly intended for you to think that the are the living, brain-eating undead. But here's where I get a little iffy. They're nazi zombies, which of course means they are still in full nazi regalia, but these zombies also use binoculars, lead organized charges, and stab, punch and kick like actual, living soldiers. My only other complaint would be that they don't seem to eat their victims at any point, although they do disembowel them and dismember them like true zombie pros. So don't expect a whole lot of zombie gluttony here, but as long as you go in with that in mind you'll be fine.

From a film making standpoint, this film usually gets it right. The narrative is clear, focused and honest. The cinematographer was original and gutsy, but everything he tries really tends to work. Sometimes his choices seem a little out of place stylistically, but they really do help to tell the story. My personal favorite is a moment when one character is buried under the snow...you'll know what I'm talking about when you get there. Great camera work. Also, while the film is foreign and is therefore subtitled, you get used to it very very quickly. There isn't much dialogue in the final 1/3rd of the film, so it isn't too distracting even if you don't watch many foreign flicks. My only filmmaking complaint would be the editing (both sound and video). It seemed too abrupt and actually impeded the story telling at times. There were a few moments in the film where I was left like "wait...what just happened?" because of the editing, and I don't really feel like that was intentional.

Overall, it was well worth the 90 minutes I spent watching it. It had a sort of Shaun of the Dead vibe, and I both gasped and laughed numerous times during the film. It has a good handle on the balance between black comedy and horror. Also, the backdrop certainly adds to the creepy factor in a very The Descent kind of way. You keep thinking, even if they can avoid the zombies...how the heck are they gonna get out? On the first really snowy day of the year here in Chicago, it was a perfect choice.

You can check it out on Netflix (it's available on streaming), or you can purchase it for $14.99. After watching it, I may have to add it to my amazon wishlist. Until then, here's the trailer...

Video: Zombies and Christmas...An Instructional Approach

Think zombies can't put a damper on your holiday cheer? Think again! Take a few minutes to watch these helpful hints for staying away from the undead this Christmas.

A friend shared this video on my wall a few days ago and I just got around to watching it. Kind of funny. Definitely worth a few minutes. I'm especially a fan of rule #4.

Review: Walking Dead Volume 15

So I read the newest Walking Dead trade back on Thursday, but didn't get a chance to post my review until now. Honestly, part of my lack of urgency might have been due to a fairly palpable feeling of indifference I felt upon finishing. It's not that the comic isn't good anymore, it's just that it's not great anymore. It's really hard to wait like 6-7 months for something, only to have it fall far short of your expectations.

In earlier issues, the characters were almost all engaging and dynamic. I was interested and invested in Tyrese, Axel, and even the Governor's goons. But now it seems that our remaining intrepid heroes are lost amongst a fog of otherwise mediocre and simplistic characters. This is largely due to the sheer volume of new people, as it just makes it difficult to develop characters as individuals rather than just faces. There are too many people in this damn town, and it makes it even harder to follow the narrative than when Herschel showed up with his 7 million children. And the characters that have been introduced seem a little hollow; they have nothing original or dramatic to bring to the table. I keep thinking of them as zombie food--just more people for Kirkman to kill off as he stalls for time before killing off more major characters.

Also, I'm a little disappointed on the villain front. I know truly horrifying villains like the Governor aren't simply spawned out of an author's pen every day, but come on. Either Rick is going to become the villain or he's not, and if he isn't, then let's start establishing a more consistent and ongoing conflict like Woodbury. Doing so would give the story a clearer and more engaging arc. I'm a little tired of this villain of the month crap. The series is becoming increasingly serial--the law and order of zombies--and I'm not down. As a result, there's no continual sense of fear anymore. I don't end each trade like I used to--by running to the calendar and counting the weeks until the next release.

And what's with Andrea bringing up Shane after all these months? He's been dead for over a year at this point. In the comics, there was never anything between them, so it almost seems like Kirkman is trying to fuse the comics to the TV show rather than the alternative. I hope this was a one time thing, and Kirkman doesn't go the way of Lucas and the prequels. You can't just start changing and rewriting stuff as a result of your own hindsight and a changing fan base. That's not how publication works.

Also, it's getting a little soap opera-y. The whole "Rick's demons" thing is becoming more melodrama than actual drama, and...this is a bit of a spoiler...there's literally a part where a character develops amnesia. Come on. Is Kirkman pulling for a lead writer gig on The Young and the Restless?

But, all my carping aside, I did enjoy it. All our favorites are still there and there's some pretty anxiety-inducing stuff with Glenn. Michonne is being her usual, gloomy self, and this one at least has some romantic drama, even if it's lacking in other dramatic conflict. The ending is eyebrow raising...if not a little predictable, and yes, I'll still be reading. I'd just like to see it gather the intensity it once had. It's grown a little amorphous over time.

There's still time to order it and ship it before Christmas! Walking Dead: Volume 15 is available from amazon.com for $10.18.

Review: The Walking Dead Board Game by Z-Man

When I heard there was going to be a Walking Dead board game coming out this fall, I couldn't wait to get my paws on it. I'm a big fan of board games (Risk, Settlers of Catan, Scrabble, Scattegories...just to name a few), so a Walking Dead board game was basically combining two of my favorite things.

It came over a month ago, but I've been so busy being a boring adult that I didn't get a chance to sit down and give it a first go with some friends until last night. After having read about 50% of the instruction manual, we sat down to play at around 8:45pm.

The game set up wasn't difficult. It's a little like Clue, and each of your players has a different designated starting place on the board. You also pull location cards, a follower card, and a hero card. We each picked our own main character to start, but you're technically supposed to assign it randomly. They each have different benefits and weaknesses, so it's probably better to just pull them without choosing.

Basically the goal of the game is to scout three locations on the board (places such as The Greene Farm, The Prison, Wiltshire Estates, etc...plus some non-comic locations such as The Mall and The Airport). You can only scout locations when that location card is turned up, which means that the majority of the time you can only scout four of the locations. This leads to more competition between players and more strategy involved in your movements.

As you move, you leave behind you a trail of zombies. To move back through this trail you either have to waste gasoline driving through them, or you have to fight your way through--hence why it's a good idea to plan your movements so you don't end up cutting yourself off from your final destination.

As you scout locations, the tasks become more and more difficult. The tension of the game is also maintained by encounter cards, which are drawn on almost every turn, as you need to complete an encounter do almost anything. I really enjoyed the variety of tasks in the encounter stack. Some required you to fight zombies with the dice, some required you to roll hats (or "actions") with your dice set. Some even required that you poll your other players about what they would do in apocalyptic scenarios, and I was really impressed that the game didn't reward you for being the "nice guy".

The game took us a little while to complete (we finished about 2.5-3 hours later at 11:30pm), but part of that might have been that we had to keep stopping to read the directions and clarify some of the stranger encounter cards. The box says the game takes 30-60 minutes, but I doubt that. My guess would be that subsequent games will take us around 90 minutes or so.  But it was an exciting 2.5 hours, and the variety of cards in the encounter deck keeps it fun and fresh. Depending on which characters and locations you pulled, this game could feel completely different with each play.

I really enjoyed it, and I hope my friends will be down to play soon. The only thing that frustrates me is that it'll take a while to explain the game to new people and, admittedly, I'm pretty bad at explaining directions. But if you're willing to devote an hour or so to learning the game, it was pretty darn fun. Sometimes games with a gimmick like this are poorly thought out, but this one pretty much had it all. The only complaint I might have is that if you had enough followers, there weren't enough dice and you had to reroll some of them to add up to your full dice pool. But whatever, not a big complaint.

There is a TV show board game, which I haven't checked out yet. Seems a little ridiculous that they'd make two, but this version by Z-Man would make a great holiday gift for the gaming and zombie fan near you! It's available for $29.19 from Amazon and it can still be ordered in time for Christmas!

Top 5: Reasons Why Dawn of the Dead (2004) Doesn't Suck

Many people have used way too much energy dogging the 2004 film that shares Romero's title. Maybe the blind hatred is rooted in the belief that the film is a remake of the Romero classic, but it just isn't. While it shares some traits, it certainly is not intended to be a remake of any kind and its reception probably would have been better had the film been titled something totally different. But, zombie baby birthing scene aside, this movie really has some moments that are pretty awesome and pretty well done.

#5: It's set in Milwaukee
As a resident of Chicagoland, I'm not without a little love for our neighbor to the north. Also, movies frequently showcase New York and Los Angeles, but frequently totally overlook all the smaller cities that help to make up this nation. So here's to you, Dawn of the Dead, for trying something new.

#4: The opening credits set a great tone
Apparently producers were originally worried about the choice of Johnny Cash's "The Man Comes Around" as background music for the opening titles, but they were quickly eating their words. The editing here is really fabulous, and I love the use of fake news footage to increase the globally apocalyptic feel of the flick. I still get a shiver when the CDC dude is asked "Are they dead or alive?". He pauses, sighs, and replies, "We don't know". Cue the J. Cash!

#3: Many of the characters are engaging and realistic...or just downright entertaining.
It's pretty rare to have a film with such sympathetic, understated and just realistic protagonists. In the characters of Ana and Michael you have a sort of "every man" thing, and Kenneth has just enough stoic melancholy to make him an engaging and enigmatic character. And if the character isn't realistic, then they are at least a lot of fun. Take for example the character of Steve; his jerky banter makes you laugh as you simultaneously fill with disdain for him and his spoiled, elitist kind.

#2: Everyone loves a bleak ending to a zombie film
The filmmakers clearly had watched Romero's original Night of the Living Dead, and they really reapplied that sort of bleak finale in this film. Because hey, it's the zombie apocalypse. And no matter how much we love these characters, people don't just walk away from the end of the world.

#1: It pays subtle homage to Romero's films
Without coming right out and painting "George Romero was here" across the side of the mall set, this flick finds subtle ways to honor the godfather of zombie. First, Ken Foree, the actor from the original film, plays the televangelist in the TV segment. Next, Ving Rhames's character is named "Kenneth" in a clear throwback to Ken Foree from the original film. In the opening aerial shot of Milwaukee, a truck runs into a gas station, causing a huge explosion and setting the place ablaze...a clear throwback to a scene Ben recalls in Night of the Living Dead. There's plenty of elevator stuff, which seems to hail back to the original flick, and the setting of a mall is a pretty clear tie-in. Lastly, the character of Steve has a very Harry Cooper-ish character (Night of the Living Dead), and he even goes so far as to lock the heroes out in a zombie infected climax...just like Mr. Cooper. The fact that the filmmakers throw in all these little honorary moments is the mark of true zombie fandom.

All pictures are the property of Universal Studios, 2004.

Swag: Zombie Booze

Besides the survival essentials, what will you be looking for in the zombie apocalypse? If you're anything like this blogger, you just went "mmmm....good wine...."

Well, what wine would be best paired with the zombie apocalypse? What about zombie wine!? This wine, a red blend (68% Cabernet Sauvignon and 32% Touriga Nacional), is creatively called "Return of the Living Red". Reviews rate it pretty highly, and one reviewer said he "couldn't get his nose out of the glass". The hang tag even includes some horribly macabre images of human flesh and tissue (really gets you in the mood for dinner and a drink). It isn't cheap, but for the horror and wine lover, it might be just what Santa ordered. You can order it in various amounts here.

And hey, if you wanna go really geeky with your nightcap, you can cork the bottle and throw it in the fridge for tomorrow with one of these funky stoppers.

Review: Zombie Running Apps

So I am an on-again/off-again runner, and a friend suggested that I combine my love for zombies with my love for running. After all, it's a lot easier to run when you have something to run from. Short of hiring actors to chase me up and down the streets of Evanston in zombie makeup (I just don't have the coin for such an undertaking), I thought that there might be some GPS type apps that would simulate such an event. So I checked out some applications on my iPhone, and sure enough...there are some out there.

The goal of these apps is to first locate you on a map. Then the apps simulate zombies on the map that will approach you from a variety of directions and at a variety of speeds. The idea is to keep you running and to make running more of a game and less of a chore. In theory, this sounds like an awesome idea.

In actuality...the reality falls far short of my fantasy. The truth is that the technology isn't really there...yet. At least not on the iPhone 3GS. Below I'll review two different applications and give my thoughts, but I was let down overall. In general these programs were laggy and buggy. They didn't track my location with the necessary accuracy, or they failed to keep up when I started running. Also, the inability to close either application (but still keep it running while I was away), seemed to undermine the beauty of having an iPhone. Still, maybe you'll have more luck than I did, so here are my reviews of two apps.

App #1: RunZombieRun by SeeSaw ($0.99)
This is one of the only paid apps that I've actually ever deleted off of my phone. It's hard to know where to even begin complaining about this app. First, it doesn't allow you to simultaneously stream your own music. Instead, you are forced to listen to some new age, tribal stuff that is impossible to run to. Next, the zombies are kind of cool...at least they look like zombie silhouettes rather than ghosts...but there is not auditory or vibrating warning that they are close to you. And when they "get you"? Nothing happens. Everything just resets. Also, there's this shadow of an airplane constantly flying over the map which makes absolutely no sense. Overall, a total waste of money.

App #2: Zombie Escape--GPS Game by Apps4Life ($0.99 for the zombie version, ghost version is free)
This app was a marked improvement over RunZombieRun. First, it allowed you to play music in the background from either your iTunes or Pandora, the only catch is that you have to get the music started first and you can't exit zombie escape once it's opened (so no skipping a song). The program seems to locate you on GPS with a little more ease than RunZombieRun, and when I ran, it tracked me well...at first. However, when I made the mistake of letting my phone fall asleep, the program never really came back into real time. After the phone fell asleep it seemed to mess up the GPS and the timer, but it might have continued to work just fine if it hadn't fallen asleep. Overall, my favorite part was the ease and simplicity of the app. My least favorite part was the whole lag thing that happened after it fell asleep. Also, if you're going to buy this app, you should just go with the ghost version for free. It's the exact same app except that the dots (zombies) are blue instead of red.

Overall, I guess my conclusion was that it'd be better to just use my imagination. Pretend that the person behind you on the path is a drooling, disease-ridden ghoul. lol. Or, if that doesn't do it for you, you can always join me at the zombie-themed 5k "Run for Your Lives" in 2012!

Review: Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

Below is my amazon.com review of The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor. I finished the book a few weeks ago, but I thought I'd take the time to share the review on here, too. If you have read the comics, this novel is a quick read and would be a great weekend novel. Hint hint to your loved ones that it might make a good gift...cuz nothing says Christmas like zombies.

Just finished reading, and I must begin by saying that I'm nearly breathless. I read the final 2/3rds or the novel in a single day. Overall, this is a quick and very engaging read. It moves through plot at a reasonable and engaging pace without sparing visual description and insights into character emotions. From a gore standpoint, this is about as brutal as one could be in words, and certainly not for the faint of heart. I'd advise parents to really steer clear. This is not a stocking stuffer.

The good:
-The plot is perfectly crafted and manipulated. For readers of the comics and non-readers alike, you'll be biting your nails and throwing the book in the air for the entire ride.
-The characters are believable, both likeable and unlikeable, exactly what most people would likely devolve into given the situation. The entire scenario rings true, and it seems as though the author has clearly visualized the world of the story down to the tiniest detail.

The bad:
-I'm an English teacher, so I'm a big fan of metaphor, simile, personification, the whole lot of it. But the purpose of metaphor in literature is to further specify, describe and clarify a given image. Therefore, when your metaphors become overly obscure or detailed, it only serves to distract the reader from the story itself. Sure, it may seem like the metaphors here are beautiful to the point of near genius, but they are beautiful to the point of literary impediment. About 75% of the time, they strike true and achieve their purpose, but at least once every three or four pages you'll find yourself taking pause to dissect a metaphor. This is not the mark of great writing, even if it might appear as such to someone who is impressed by the sheer word craft.
-The author, like many writers, is clearly nurturing love affairs with certain words. I hate to point it out, as now you'll be looking for it, but the author might want to steer clear of the word "gape" and the word "primordial" going forward. The other words are getting jealous.
-The point of view, for me, was a little jarring. Usually novels written in present tense are also written in first person. Obviously, this isn't some sort of literary rule, and I applaud the author's attempt to break the mold. Still, at times I felt that this tense took me out of it. I guess that I just assumed it would be written in past tense since it is a prequel.

But overall, I'm really impressed. My above comments are nothing more than the petty nitpicking that accompanies true love and fan-dom. Why else would nerds still sit in their living rooms and argue about whether Jar Jar Binks was the worst decision Lucas ever made? When you love something, you see its flaws even more clearly, but you love it anyway. And I will say, still gasping from the mind-numbing genius of the final fifteen pages of this novel, that it is definitely worth your time. 

I'd love to chat about this with people once they read it! The ending demands discussion...or at least someone to gawk and scream with me! This will be the first in a series of Walking Dead novels, and you can read an interview with the author here. If you're still not sold on it, check on the preview below...which is basically just a dude reading the first few pages...lol.

Swag: Zombie Art, Household Items, Etc...

So, as an artsy girl, I'm a big fan of etsy.com. It really empowers some talented, but possibly unrecognized, artists, and it gives those people a digital forum for pedaling their goods. So I was very excited to stumble upon this shop today.

This artist, by his own report, is living out of a Winnebago (just like Dale!) and creating some pretty haunting zombie art. His creations are available on a variety of items (purses, wallets, shower curtains, rugs) or simply as prints. Here are some awesome samples...

http://www.etsy.com/listing/37975031/rw2-signed-limited-edition-print-12-x-18

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65036574/rw2-signed-limited-edition-print-12-x-18

http://www.etsy.com/listing/72867525/rw2-nightlife-zombie-shoulder-clutch

He'll also do personal zombie portraits for $100 that are pretty authentic looking. Check it out.