Western Virginia Regional Jail, in
cooperation with Roanoke County Department of Parks, Recreation and
Tourism, with media support from Fox 21/27 and The CW5, present “Roanoke
Zombie 5k” at Roanoke County’s Green Hill Park on Oct. 4.
The race begins at
10 a.m. and is a fundraiser for Special Olympics Virginia and all net
proceeds will go directly to them. Special Olympics Virginia provides
year-round sports training and athletic competition in an Olympic
setting for individuals with disabilities in 14 different sports arenas.
More importantly, Special Olympics is about people. It is helping
create a world of respect, inclusion and unity.
Zombie Run is a 5K obstacle fun run for the end
of times. But you’re not just running against the clock you are running
from flesh-eating, virus-spreading, bloody zombies. Participants will
use speed, agility and their intact brains to overcome obstacles and
avoid flesh-eating zombies. Before the race, you will be given a flag
belt. These flags represent your health. The zombies want to take your
flags and maybe eat your brains. If you lose all your health flags, you
die. And the zombies win.
I'm somewhere near Topanga Canyon, in an Alice in Wonderland-themed
bar, drinking Chimay with an extraordinary woman who tells me she
dreamed of becoming a ballerina as a child, but her parents couldn't
afford ballet lessons. I feel my heart fall out of my chest and shatter
on the barroom floor. I wish there was something I could do to alter the
past, but since there's not, I buy her another drink. You do what you
can.
AC/DC's "Back in Black" blares, and the subject changes.
I
rave about Aubrey Plaza, saying she's "one of Hollywood's most
intriguing and gifted comedic actresses" and mentioning that I'll soon
be writing about her and her new film Life After Beth, a
deranged romantic comedy in which Aubrey drops dead and then returns to
life as a zombie who listens to smooth jazz and resumes a relationship
with her now totally freaked out boyfriend. Aubrey Plaza -- sardonic
scene stealer on NBC's smash sitcom Parks and Recreation and in films including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Safety Not Guaranteed and Judd Apatow's Funny People -- is enough of a reason to watch any film, but in case you need more, Life After Beth
also offers stellar and enjoyable performances from Dane DeHaan, John
C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Paul Reiser, Cheryl Hines, Matthew Gray Gubler
and Anna Kendrick. There's even a wacky cameo by lovable show biz
demigod Garry Marshall.
Even if you live in a pineapple under the sea or threw your
television out the window in a drunken fit of rage one night a few weeks
ago, you're likely aware that we're currently balls deep into Shark
Week...
...Discovery's Channel's annual celebration of those underwater
beasties who once upon a time turned a man by the name of Quint into a
bucket of human chum.
I don't think you need me to tell you that this week is the absolute perfect week to revisit Jaws and other shark attack films, but in the event that you do, allow me to provide that service for you.
Rob Zombie is no stranger to horror films. He's written and
produced plenty including "House of 1000 Corpses," "The Devil's
Rejects," and, of course, the "Halloween" series. But until now, Zombie
has been a stranger to using crowdfunding to make his films.
That changed recently with his launch of RZ-31, a site on the FanBacked.com
platform that seeks funding to help the metal rocker/director bring his
next "fast-paced, mean dirty film for those who like it rough" to the
big screen.
"I'm crowd funding because I realize that it's an
incredible opportunity to engage the fans," Zombie said in a video on
the site. "They've always been the most important thing for me because,
with metal and horror, the fans aren't just fans -- it's their life,
their lifestyle. They live and breathe it, as I do, and any way that you
can bring the people that are as passionate about it as you are into
the process is a win-win for everybody"
Hearing the news that someone is making a movie about one of your favorite books can cause mixed feelings. “I know it will be great!” or “I know they will mess it up.”
I had high expectations for “World War Z” (2013).
“World War Z”, by Max Brooks, read like a
journalist’s account of a zombie apocalypse. The journalist interviewed
many survivors from different countries about how they survived.
I thought the obvious choice would be to make a documentary-style movie, similar to “Cloverfield.”
Instead, the movie producers made another regular zombie movie and glanced over interesting details Brooks created in the book.
It’s interesting to think about zombies freezing
in subzero temperatures, then reading about characters migrating north
and battling hunger.
During a recent interview with The Walking Dead‘s
Executive Producer, Writer and Showrunner Scott M. Gimple by a reporter
from AMC, he revealed many details about Season 5 and compared it to
Season 4, hinting — among many other topics — that love will be brewing
between two of the characters. Of course, zombies will still abound and
be the paramount danger the characters face on a daily basis. Gimple
wrote the Season 4 Finale, “A” and the premiere episode of Season 5.
Have no fear, fans of The Walking Dead — there will still be
zombies and action galore in Season Five. As Scott M. Gimple put it,
love and romance will not “be an element in a huge part of the season,”
but when love enters into the plot, according to Gimple, “it’s going to
become more of a reality and a complication.
Counter-Strike is one of the most popular online shooters of
all-time. The terrorist vs. counter-terrorist gameplay has had gamers
hooked for decades. Valve’s multiplayer FPS has had longevity in spades,
thanks in part to regular updates, a wealth of content, and the sheer
quality of the Valve series. It’s also been a franchise that has inspired fans to create their own content. After all, Counter-Strike
initially released as a fan-made mod. Valve, always known for taking an
active interest in its community of fans, then took on the creators,
Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jess Cliffe, as employees.
That said, it’s always been rare for Valve to licence out its titles to other developers and publishers but Counter-Strike Online is one of those few instances. Valve licensed the Counter-Strike title to developer Nexon, who created the free-to-play CS Online game in 2008. After the success of sequel Counter-Strike Online 2, Nexon revealed this week that it is working on Counter-Strike once more – only this time, there are zombies in the mix.
Survival games are normally bleak affairs. Tense, unforgiving simulations of desperation and death. So why is it that playing Eidolon, a survival game, feels so...peaceful?
I'm someone who is in love with the idea of
a survival game, but rarely with their execution. The prospect of eking
out a living from nothingness still sounds original (despite the glut
of titles being made in this post-Minecraft world) to me, while fighting
the elements instead of a procession of aliens/monsters/Russians sounds
like a challenge more suited to brains than reflexes.
I'm certain about very little, but one thing I know for sure is that, as a middle-aged woman, I am not the target audience for The Generation of Z,
the zombie show that has people scream their heads off in the Container
Yard at the back of Edinburgh's George Square. The scenario is simple:
there's a deadly, infectious virus on the loose that turns people into
zombies at one bite. The audience are the surviving members of the
population who have been attracted to a former research facility by a
flare. The army are also there, and suddenly they have an unexpected 100
people on hand as the zombies gather and attack. Oooh, scary.
If
you enjoy screaming, you'll probably have fun at The Generation of Z,
but it's more likely simply a result of the adrenalin than from the
dramaturgy or any development of narrative or character. The idea is
nifty, but its execution is poor and the storyline is pretty lame.
Although there is a suggestion that we can influence the scenario, this
is quite clearly not the case.
Cedar Point is already looking forward to the lucrative Halloween season.
The park put out a call Tuesday looking to hire workers
for everything from food to ride operators to so-called Screamsters for
its 18th annual HalloWeekends event.
The park hires 300 Screamsters annually who are transformed into witches, zombies and various other monsters to scare guests.
The park is providing bus transportation to and from
Bowling Green State University, Oberlin College, Kent State and the
University of Toledo for students who want to work at the park this
fall.
The park also offers free weekend housing to those who qualify.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," the long-in-development movie based on
Seth Grahame-Smith's hit mash-up novel, has found new life.
After weathering a series of stops and starts, the film is finally
set to begin shooting in September, with Burr Steers directing from a
screenplay he wrote with David O. Russell, according to a Deadline report. Cross Creek Pictures has acquired domestic rights.
Lily
James ("Downton Abbey") will play Elizabeth Bennet, Sam Riley
("Maleficent") will play Mr. Darcy, and Bella Heathcote ("Dark Shadows")
will play another of the Bennet sisters.
State of Decay
studio Undead Labs has announced it will unveil a new game on Monday,
and it's not a sequel to State of Decay. According to a spokesperson on Twitter
the game is "not at all a zombie game", promising emphatically there
will be "No zombies" and "no Microsoft". The latter is a reference to
the game's console exclusivity, but I suppose you can take it to mean
whatever you want.
This doesn't mark the end of the
studio's continued support for State of Decay, with the spokesperson
adding "did you know that a studio can make more than one game at once?"
Some people seem a bit confused on this point, as Rust developer
Facepunch Studios discovered this week.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The borough's "living history village" is dropping dead this summer.
Just before midnight on Aug. 16, when the kids have finished screaming at "Jaws" and the All-American Drive-In is closed, the zombies come out to play at a brand new Historic Richmond Town event dubbed "After, After Dark."
An excerpt from the florid promo materials: "As midnight approaches, a
peculiar mist creeps up from Mill Pond. With an insatiable appetite,
the haze spreads through the timeworn streets of the historic town
sniffing out naive victims who dare to play outside in the ... After,
After Dark."
With
such a high number of apps available, how can developers make sure
their apps are being discovered and downloaded? They can't, the report
says -- resulting in hundreds of thousands of so-called "zombie apps,"
which are defined as "apps that are available, but appear to have no
life in them."
To avoid being classified as a "zombie," an app
must rank somewhere on any one of the nearly 40,000 Top Charts available
multiple times during an evaluation period of one month.
Life imitated art when, on Saturday, a car plowed through a group dressed as zombies from the popular AMC series The Walking Dead at San Diego Comic-Con, San Diego 6
reported. At least one person was injured, and one woman suffered a
broken arm, an officer for the San Diego Police Department told San Diego 6.
At around 5:30 P.M., “zombies” shuffled down Second Avenue
near the convention in San Diego. A black sedan approached the line of
slow-moving undead. The driver, 48, and his family were deaf, according
to a statement by the SDPD obtained by The Wrap. The driver honked his horn, but the costumed zombies were in no hurry to get out of his way.
Director George A. Romero grew up on classic movie monsters — and he
says he never dreamed he'd be responsible for creating the modern zombie
that now lurks alongside those monsters. "I never expected it. I really
didn't," he tells NPR's Arun Rath. "... All I did was I took them out
of 'exotica' and I made them the neighbors ... I thought there's nothing
scarier than the neighbors!"
Zombies are everywhere in Hollywood — there's a new batch of films every year, and AMC's The Walking Dead continues to kill it in the ratings. All these zombies can be traced back to Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The
1968 movie wasn't just a low-budget, black-and-white film about corpses
that came back to life to feed on people — it was also a commentary on
the racial and social tensions of 1968 America.
Terrified thrill-seekers were last night sprinting around the streets of Trafford in a bid to escape the clutches of a hoard of Zombies.
But fear not, it was not a genuine invasion by the living dead.
It
was, in fact, the first in a series of urban games which sees punters
attempt to manoeuvre their way through a make-believe zombie-ridden
world.
Called 2.8 Hours Later, players had to outrun ‘zombies’
through certain marked areas of the course in Trafford Park, starting
from a safe zone and ending up in a zombie disco when the living and the
undead party in harmony.
With their .45 and 9mm handguns cocked and ready, two PBS engineers
turned zombie hunters crept through a door in the Shenandoah Valley and
into madness. A dozen bloody and undead faces stared back.
Steve
Wynn and Eric Timmerman, who’d taken vacation days to kill zombies, put
dozens of bullets in their brains, which turned out to be plastic.
These
were zombie targets and dummies, not the flesh-eating ones, and Wynn
and Timmerman encountered them at a gun range at the end of a gravel
road in Winchester. They were students in “Zombie Survival 101: Surviving the Horde,” a class offered by a Virginia firearms training company that has, like much of the gun world, become infested with zombies.
TYLER, TX (KLTV) - It seems more and more people are jumping on the
zombie bandwagon these days. They’re watching zombie movies and TV shows
or reading zombie stories. Some of you have been a zombie on Halloween.
Well,
all you zombie fans, this is your chance to actually be a one in a
movie, but you better sign up fast. The movie is shooting in the area
the third week of July.
“The situation is growing more dire by the
minute. The World Health Organization is warning of a global pandemic,”
said random news anchors on the movie trailer.
What does the undead have to do with environmentalism?
For
event organizer Ben Wiggins, he thinks a zombie twist in a river tubing
event will bring new life to efforts protecting the French Broad River.
Wiggins
recently announced his plans via a Facebook page -- "Tube-ocalypse:
Zombie Float and World Record Attempt!" -- to help rally hordes of the
floating dead for a Sept. 20 attempt to break the world record number of
linked tubers.
"The only thing better than trying to break a world record is trying to break a world record while dressed like zombies!"
China's previous top grossing film of all-time was "Avatar," according to a press release.
Achieving this historic benchmark with the unparalleled support from our
partners in China has been a spectacular experience for our studio,"
said Brad Grey, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures in a statement.
"We're honored by the deeply passionate response from Chinese audiences
and audiences throughout the world to 'Transformers: Age of Extinction'
and the unique storytelling of Michael Bay.
After
only 10 days in release, Paramount’s Transformers: Age of Extinction
has become the top-grossing movie of all time in China with $222.7
million in ticket sales, eclipsing the $221.9 million grossed by James
Cameron's Avatar. The 3D tentpole achieved the milestone over the
weekend. - See more at:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/transformers-age-extinction-becomes-chinas-717083?mobile_redirect=false#sthash.tQliLPey.dpuf
After
only 10 days in release, Paramount’s Transformers: Age of Extinction
has become the top-grossing movie of all time in China with $222.7
million in ticket sales, eclipsing the $221.9 million grossed by James
Cameron's Avatar. The 3D tentpole achieved the milestone over the
weekend. - See more at:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/transformers-age-extinction-becomes-chinas-717083?mobile_redirect=false#sthash.tQliLPey.dpuf
Michael
Bay’s cyborg action flick, which has a strong Chinese flavor aimed at
wooing audiences here, has outperformed its box office performance in
North America. - See more at:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/transformers-age-extinction-becomes-chinas-717083?mobile_redirect=false#sthash.tQliLPey.dpuf
Actress Heather Danner, who appears in the #1film of all time in
China, is also signed on as a cast member in the highly anticipated
production, The Beauty of Decay. More details about Transformers is
below.
China Box Office: 'Transformers: Age of Extinction' Is No. 1 Film of All Time
BY CLIFFORD COONAN JULY 7, 2014 | 11:54PM EDT
UPDATED: The Heavy Use Of Chinese Elements In The Movie Did Much To Win Over Fans In The World's Second-Biggest Film Market.
After only 10 days in release, Paramount’s Transformers: Age of
Extinction has become the top-grossing movie of all time in China with
$222.7 million in ticket sales, eclipsing the $221.9 million grossed by
James Cameron's Avatar. The 3D tentpole achieved the milestone over the
weekend.
Michael Bay’s cyborg action flick, which has a strong Chinese flavor
aimed at wooing audiences here, has outperformed its box office
performance in North America.
Transformers: Age of Extinction registered 338,793 screenings with
17.72 million admissions after 10 days to become the top-grossing movie
in history at the Chinese box office, not accounting for inflation and
currency translation, according to data for the week to June 6 from research group Entgroup.
U.S.-based Jiaflix and the China Movie Channel (CCTV6), with its new
media subsidiary M1905, are the production and promotion partners of the
film. China Film Group is the sole import company in China.
Worldwide, Age of Extinction earned $575.6 million in its first 12 days in release, including $400.9 million overseas.
Michael
Bay’s cyborg action flick, which has a strong Chinese flavor aimed at
wooing audiences here, has outperformed its box office performance in
North America. - See more at:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/transformers-age-extinction-becomes-chinas-717083?mobile_redirect=false#sthash.tQliLPey.dpuf
“Let them hate,” Michael Bay told MTV
about critics, fan boys and haters late last week. “They’re still going
to see the movie.” And yep, Michael Bay was right. You may claim to hate
the explosions-happy filmmaker and the “Transformers” franchise, but
clearly your love-hate relationships ends with you in bed with them at
the box office. Or someone you know saw the newest installment, anyhow. Michael Bay movies are akin to Dave Matthews and Nickelback:
it’s impossible to find someone within a 10,000 square mile radius who
will admit to liking them, but they sell millions of records. Clearly someone is buying.
We have an amazing award-winning team.
Congratulations to Heather Danner, who appears in another record-breaking Transformers, Film: Transformers: Age of Extinction starring Mark Wahlberg!
Halfbrick Studios' Age of Zombies [$0.99]
is a preeetttyyy old game by iOS standards, launching way back in
October of 2010, but it's actually even older than that as it was
originally a PlayStation Mini title released earlier that year in
February. Mobile games don't tend to have a long lifespan, so it was
kind of incredible that Halfbrick up and decided to update Age of Zombies earlier this month
with actual new content in the form of a rideable zombie T-Rex and MFi
controller support. Not bad for a 4+ year old game. Well, Halfbrick
apparently wasn't done, because there's yet another Age of Zombies update that popped up today, which adds even more new content than the last update did.
Today's update includes a brand new chapter in the game's campaign that
sees you channeling the power of Abraham Lincoln and going after a
zombie George Washington. Yes, the evil Professor Brains has manipulated
time once again and zombified our nation's first president. Given the
inclusion of both Lincoln and Washington this update is appropriately
dubbed: PRESIDENT EVIL. I never tire of Halfbrick's pu
With Google Glass still being in its Explorer phase, there hasn't been a whole lot of diversity as far as its app (or "Glassware") selection is concerned. But to kick off I/O, Google has just announced a whole slew of new apps you can slap onto your face computer.
The most notable (and mildly disconcerting) addition is Livestream, which will let you broadcast exactly what you're seeing, as you're seeing it.
While you
could already broadcast the world around you via Hangouts, anyone,
whether or not they're a Google user, can tune into your face feed at
their leisure.
There are also several fitness apps thrown into the mix, with Zombies, Run! leading the way in fun factor.
It was Day of the Quacking Dead at Canal Park on Tuesday, an Akron
RubberDucks promotion that attempted to turn fans and employees into
zombies for the team’s scheduled game against the Erie SeaWolves.
Inda
Blatch Geib, a local costume and set designer who works internationally
with theaters, filmmakers and magazines, staffed a booth near the Main
Street entrance, offering to apply a little gore to any would-be
walkers.
“We’re hoping to get 200 people turned tonight,” she said.
Organizers
couldn’t reach that goal, however. The scary-looking weather forecast
prompted the RubberDucks to postpone Tuesday’s game. It will be made up
July 19.
WELLSVILLE- An overcast, dreary morning provided a fittingly eerie
backdrop for the inaugural Zombie Run 5K Saturday in Wellsville. Rainy
weather did not discourage runners and walkers of the "undead" and
living variety from turning out in numbers to support a good cause.
The
run was organized by the aptly-named non-profit group Wellsville Back
From the Dead (BFTD), with all proceeds and donations from the event
going to the Wounded Warrior Project. The newly-formed group hopes to
bring interest and people back to the village with unique events like
the Zombie Run. They appeared to have accomplished that goal Saturday,
attracting about 115 runners and walkers from all over the tri-state
area and as far away as Florida.
If Robert Kirkman's zombies haven't given people enough nightmares, his demons sure will.
The writer and creator of The Walking Dead
comic book — and executive producer of the hit AMC TV show — switches
horror tropes in his new Image Comics/Skybound Entertainment series Outcast,
with a first issue out Wednesday. The comic, illustrated by Paul
Azaceta, is the story of Kyle Barnes, a guy who's been plagued with
demonic possession his entire life and is finally ready to do something
about it.
And like Kirkman's zombie epic, Outcast is coming
to the small screen, too — it's currently being developed as a series
by Showtime, with news forthcoming on whether a pilot is being greenlit.
For Kirkman, The Walking Dead has always been more of a survival
drama, with zombies as a backdrop. Exploring exorcism, though, has a lot
more potential for true horror, and he's even scaring himself a little
bit.
Shana Festa used to be scared of zombies. Not just scared: Terrified.
That
might surprise readers of Festa’s zombie-fiction website, The Bookie
Monster, or her gory new zombie novel, “Time of Death: Induction.”
But it’s true, she says.
Festa
couldn’t sleep at night after watching the 2004 remake of the zombie
movie “Dawn of the Dead.” The movie unsettled her deeply, and she
imagined the undead were everywhere, just waiting to tear her flesh with
their rotten teeth.
The looks like the zombie genre really is showing no signs of ever dying, especially with The Walking Dead
still bringing in nation-state-population-sized viewing figures each
week, Legendary Pictures has decided to jump on the bandwagon with a big
screen adaptation of the zombie smashing video-game, Dead Rising.
According to ComicBookMovie.com, Tim Carter is down to write the script while Transformers' Lorenzo di Bonaventura is executive producing. Carter and Thomas Harlan, whose production company also delivered Mortal Kombat: Legacy, will also produce. Here's what the duo said in a statement:
We are excited to be working with Legendary and Lorenzo, who have both
created immersive properties for fans around the world. As avid players
of the game, we're extremely thrilled to take the popular franchise that
millions have embraced and give them the opportunity to experience it
on a new platform.
What is with all the zombie stories out
there on TV, movies, etc.? Is this like when everything had to have
ninjas in it a few years back? Aren't ninjas still cooler than zombies?
What's the deal? George Lewis, Palm Springs
This is a great question, George.
No
doubt zombies are all the rage, and have been for the past decade or
so, not just in movies, television, video games and literature, but also
in the fields of personal fitness, public safety and philanthropy.
Groups organize costumed zombie walks to benefit charitable causes. Both
public and private organizations use "zombie apocalypse preparation"
exercises to teach skills for coping with somewhat more common disasters
as hurricanes and earthquakes. A friend of mine has an app on his phone
that simulates, through headphones, being chased by ravenous zombies to
motivate him on his daily runs.
Expect to encounter traffic delays, street closures and, most likely,
blood-covered zombies in downtown Portland on Monday when filming
continues on a new romantic comedy set amid a zombie outbreak. Filming on Maine native Kyle Rankin’s “Night of the Living Deb” began
last week, but most of the footage was shot in private homes and
businesses. The shooting now moves outside into public view.
The city announced on its website that India Street will be open to
local traffic only between Middle and Federal streets while Newbury
Street will be open to local traffic only between Hampshire and Hancock
streets. The closures will be in effect between 8:30 a.m. and noon and
from 1 to 4:30 p.m.
A group of Boy Scouts huddled behind a Humvee on a quiet residential street.
They had just returned from a camping trip to find that their suburban community had been overtaken — by the walking dead.
As
they quietly crossed the street into one of the Scouts' houses, a horde
of zombies wandering the streets heard the noise and rushed toward
them.
The nighttime scene for the upcoming Paramount Pictures
movie "Scouts vs. Zombies" recently came to life in the Happy Valley
neighborhood of Newhall, part of the city of Santa Clarita.
STUDENTS from Mandurah and
Rockingham high schools will have their ownHollywood experience over the
next couple of months, when they work with someof the industry’s best
and brightest to make their own zombie movies.
The
college has enlisted to take part in the MurdochUniversity creative
arts project, which encourages students to aspire touniversity study.
Students will get to work with a team of industry professionals including: actor Myles Pollard (McLeod’s Daughters, Drift)who will direct the movie and production designer Jeremy Shaw (Lord of the Rings).
When there’s no more room in production hell, the dead shall walk in
the silver screen! Ah yes, don’t we all love a good zombie flick? The
most human monster of all, and therefore the most terrifying, the zombie
genre is something that is here to stay as recent decades have come to
prove. Which is good, considering they give people like me a macabre
reason to keep on loving the horror genre. The glorious thing about
these films is that very few become blockbuster successes or instant
classics, yet they still garner the most dedicated and loving following
from many cult film lovers, including Yours Truly!
However, there are hundreds of titles to choose from, so the notion
of what one should or shouldn’t bother watching is an incredibly blurred
line. Fear not though, for your humble reviewer has taken the liberty
of watching over a hundred of these decaying grave-walkers to bring you
the 25 zombie movies that one should see before an untimely demise. And
although one cannot include AMC’s “The Walking Dead” into a film list
category, there are a few that can be a meaty supplement to your
devilish desires:
If the hit AMC show “The Walking Dead” has
taught us anything, being trapped in a room full of zombies can get
pretty stressful at times.
It’s hard enough having a brain eating monster
breathing down your neck, but what if you could only escape by solving a
bunch of puzzles?
This “Saw” meets “28 Days Later” scenario is the
theme behind “Trapped in a Room With a Zombie,” an interactive theater
performance that recently set up shop in Charlestown.
The production, which is now in 10 cities across America, places a team
of people in locked room with a chained up zombie, according to Boston Magazine.
Participants must solve a series of riddles and puzzles in order to
find the key to their escape, before the undead breaks loose.
I have become tired of zombies. So, it is fitting that the last
zombie film I would willingly see was the one that tapped into the final
vein of originality.
Warm Bodies focuses on the journey of a zombie (Nicholas Hoult)
to reclaim his humanity and find love. The film is a stew made up of
elements from Aliens, George Romero's Dead films, Twilight and seasoned
with the charm of a Wes Anderson film. On first glance, this list seems a
recipe for cinematic disaster; but, the end result is a soup with such a
unique flavor that leaves the taste buds in conflict.
Before elaborating on the aspects of the film that work, I would like
to focus on the ones that do not blend well. One manifestation with it
is in the design. The young adults in the film are supposed to be
seasoned inhabitants of an America that is overrun with reanimated,
flesh-eating corpses: yet, these actors look like they were clipped from
the pages of a Hollister catalog. This is problematic when there is a
subplot involving a shortage of cosmetic products. Now, I understand
that this decision was made with marketing in mind; but, the lack of
detail dilutes the illusion. This idea of a lived-in world is what makes
films such as Looper great: the design has to be synchronized with the
story.
Getting ready for the zombie
apocalypse might just save your life—in the event of a hurricane,
terrorist attack or other disaster.
Zombies have become a popular theme in emergency planning. The Centers for Disease Control launched a "Zombie Preparedness Campaign"
in 2011, and last fall, more than 65,000 people signed up for a massive
open online course through University of California at Irvine for an academic crossover
with AMC's "The Walking Dead," tackling subjects including the spread
of infectious disease and managing stress in disaster situations.
There are also preparedness apps such as Apocalypse Survival Guide—zombies
are just one world-ending possibility—which this week plans to launch a
feature to allow friends to create emergency plans together.
If you're a fan of the zombie film genre, then Doc of the Dead could be the documentary for you.
The
film delves into the evolution of the zombie in film and literature,
and looks at how the genre has influenced popular culture around the
world.
Director Alexandre O Phillippe says he's
been making films about pop culture for 12 years, so has to keep his
finger on the pulse of what's hot – and zombie films are very hot right
now.
"About five years ago or so I was really
noticing – as everybody couldn't help but notice – that zombies were
becoming really huge and going into the mainstream," he said on
Firstline this morning.
It's been around 80
years since the first zombie flicks, which Phillippe says were based on
Haitian voodoo myths and quite different to what viewers expect
nowadays.
Paramount has pushed the release of its “Friday the 13th” reboot
eight months, scheduling “Scouts vs. Zombies” for the date previously
assigned to the horror flick. “Scouts vs. Zombies” will open March 13
while “Friday the 13th” will now open Nov. 13, 2015.
“Scouts” is a
horror comedy about a trio of Boy Scouts who battle zombies in a small
town, starring Tye Sheridan, Joey Morgan, Logan Miller and Sarah Dumont.
It will open up against Ron Howard's “Heart of the Sea” and Disney's
new “Cinderella” movie. It will also open a week before “Insurgent,” the
second movie in the young adult franchise.
Yeah, I hear you! How do you even know who would survive that kind of calamity? Zombies are, after all, fictional creatures.
The website Estately came up with a goofy list of 11 key factors
that determine what states would hypothetically survive a zombie
feeding frenzy, including the state’s number of active military
personnel, number of people who know how to use guns, average physical
fitness, and obesity rates.
When the website applied those factors to each state, Georgia came close
to the bottom. On the upside, we still beat New Jersey, Mississippi,
New York state and Washington, D.C.
A piece of advice here: if you see zombies, run to Alaska! That is the top-rated state to survive the apocalypse.
Comedian Rob Cleveland had an explanation for that.
What do zombies, fad diets and Wyoming have in common?
They’re all part of the brainchild “FatEATERS: The Movie” from producer, director, actor and Gillette native Brooke Benson.
The film is a mix of horror and comedy in the
popular zombie genre. The movie portrays what happens after a fad diet
pill turns consumers into body-conscious cannibals and zombies.
The crew will be in Gillette from May 25-27 at a
friend’s house outside of town. They are looking for Wyoming artists to
contribute to the soundtrack.
These are all terms frequently used in my house growing up. Questions
as to how to survive a zombie invasion or in a post-apocalyptic society
would arise during family meals and car rides. My mom is your
definitive horror lover, an avid watcher and reader of any and all
things that go bump in the night.
Zombies have always been Mom’s favorite; there’s something about
these gruesome flesh-eaters that she just loves. But don’t dare ask her
to read or watch Game of Thrones — for some reason, that’s “just too much” for her.
Among things your seventh grader won’t learn in civics this year: The Pentagon has a plan in case of a Zombie Apocalypse.
They really do. This matters to you because last month, an online
article ranked Mississippi the second-least prepared place in the
country for a Zombie Apocalypse. The same article did not discuss that
with Mississippi’s consistently-low educational rankings, the quality of
the brains might not be up to par for the food-snobbier zombies.
On Tuesday, Foreign Policy Magazine published an article exposing the
fact that the Department of Defense has a response for “counter-zombie
dominance” if zombies attacked and the military had to combat them in
order to “preserve the sanctity of human life” among all the “non-zombie
humans.”
BACK in 1967 a 27-year-old film-maker by the name of George A Romero
shot a zombie movie that turned out to be one of the most important
horror films ever released.
Night of the Living Dead was
culturally, socially and politically relevant and has been the
inspiration for a raft of films starring the undead since.
Now we
get a glimpse into the mind of the man behind the movie via this
highly-illuminating documentary that shows the impact it had back then
and is still having 47 years later.
From its humble
beginnings in 1968, the zombie film has flourished into an international
phenomenon. In the hands of its inventor George A. Romero, the films
were full of social commentary. Whether those themes were racism,
consumerism, military infiltration, terrorism, or simply the bleak
nihilistic vision of humanity; Romero made his voice heard through the
grunt of the undead. Now, the popularity of the sub-genre carries its
own commentary about us.
George Romero and John Russo’s partnership took the concept of the
controlled undead (akin to voodoo rituals) and placed them at the top of
the food chain. Throughout Night, Dawn, Day, Land, Diary, and Survival
the closest we come to learning the cause of the epidemic is “a space
probe.” This invites our own interpretation, though in the end, it
doesn’t matter. Life as we once knew it has ended. Groups of stragglers
band together in order to survive the dead and each other. The concept
of family is mutated: once your husband, wife, mother, father, brother,
sister, son or daughter turns they must be killed again. Governments
become obsolete and our primal drives for survival are triggered. This
becomes life after the dead have risen.
Prom is a magical night full of possibilities. Even if you are a
rotting corpse. The San Diego Zombie Walk, a Southern California
tradition that takes place during San Diego Comic Con, is attempting to
put together an unforgettable night for its zombie participants by
sending them to prom.
For the last eight years Jennifer Muzquiz and her team of undead
cohorts have been organizing an annual Zombie Walk that coincides with
one of the biggest geek conventions in the U.S. Participants and
onlookers alike come from all around to see people dress up as the
undead and parade down the street, doing their best to shamble and moan
like a freshly reanimated corpse. The walk usually ends with an after
party where zombie and humans get together to enjoy a few drinks and cut
loose.
