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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

In The Flesh Zombie Series in Development at BBC

I am glad to see that big TV networks start to pay a bit more attention to the zombie genre and the latest to join the ranks, probably encouraged by the success of The Walking Dead, is BBC. They are planning to start a new TV series called In The Flesh and I must admit that the premise is extremely interesting!

Here is how BBC themselves describe In The Flesh:

New writer Dominic Mitchell’s first TV commission was developed by the BBC Drama Production team in Salford and discovered through ‘Northern Voices’, a BBC Writersroom competition.

His script begins after the Zombie Uprising has been quelled by the Human Volunteer Force and life is starting to return to normal. Any surviving zombies have been captured, medicated, held in an NHS holding facility in Norfolk and are being slowly re-integrated back into society, with the help of contact lenses and cover up mousse. The story follows teenager Kieran Walker and boldly goes where no zombie drama has gone before.

I never was a fan of the idea of trying to re-integrate zombies into society, but things could always go really wrong and I have a feeling that they will. Also, I am pretty encouraged by In The Flesh and UK zombie movies especially since a while ago BBC delivered the amazing Dead Set.

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

Ground Zero Is an Indie Zombie Flick

Not many highly anticipated the release of Ground Zero, but I think that all indie filmmakers should be supported and encouraged if we want the zombie genre to deliver great gems and big blockbuster titles. Apparently, Ground Zero is from neither category and falls in the “ambitious project” range.

Ground Zero tells the story of two professional “cleaners” who are hired to collect a frozen corpse located high in the mountains and dispose of it in an old warehouse, unaware the body belongs to political activist Darius, brutally assassinated by Nat-Tech Corp. after injecting himself with a deadly virus.

A swiftly-defrosting infected corpse in tow, they arrive at the warehouse to discover a group of amateur cleaners, a rising body count… and a rising corpse. Can our cleaners avert a global biological meltdown, or will Darius’ grave become Ground Zero?

Check out the trailer below:

As you can see, we can’t talk about a great movie but it might prove to be a pretty decent flick for those who really are into this genre.

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

Zombie Dawn Gets Limited Theatrical Release

Usually, “limited theatrical release” means that the movie is so poor or unknown that nobody wants to play it, and it might be the case of Zombie Dawn too, a Spanish zombie movie that prepares to infect a few big screens in the US. However, we might be up for a really pleasant surprise in the end so if you get the chance, say “why not” and go check out Zombie Dawn (screen dates below).

Here is the synopses of Zombie Dawn:

A mysterious incident at a remote mining facility unleashes a zombie horde with an appetite for human flesh. It decimates large portions of the cities and countryside. The only course of action is to rapidly enclose the infected areas and seal them off from the rest of the remaining, living population.

Now. 15 years later the tattered remains of the government and the mining corporation responsible for where the initial event took place commit themselves to finding out what may have happened at the mining complex. The solution is to covertly send a group of mercenaries and scientists into the quarantined zone to find answers.

We all know what they will find there and the trailer shows it with no mercy: zombies. You can check out the trailer below:

As I said earlier, Zombie Dawn doesn’t look like the best zombie movie ever released but these indie flicks might come with some really pleasant and unexpected surprises and the only way to know if they really are the sh*t, we have to check them out. I don’t know about you, but I would rarely say no to a zombie movie.

So check out the theatrical release dates for Zombie Dawn in the US and maybe you have time to check it out:

APRIL 20-26:
COLORADO, Aurora: Cinema Latino
ALABAMA, Birmingham: The Edge
TEXAS, Fort Worth: Cinema Latino

MAY 4-10:
ILLINOIS, Rosemont: Muvico
FLORIDA, Hialeah: Muvico

MAY 18-19:
WASHINGTON, Vancouver: Kiggins Theater

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

High School of the Dead Season 2 Announced

One of the most popular anime zombie-themed shows out there, High School of the Dead, will kick off the second season pretty soon, to the delight of the fans of the genre. I am not one of them though and I prefer my zombies in movies or books, but probably for High School of the Dead we can all make an exception because it’s an incredibly well done zombie series!

The start of the second season of the series has been announced by a trailer that shows that we’ll get the same high quality experience as well. Check out the High School of the Dead Season 2 announcement trailer below (Wait for it…):

Do you like anime zombies or, just like myself, you prefer the “real” ones?

UPDATE: It appears that I got fooled too – it was nothing but an April Fools joke. Thanks for letting me know.

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

We Are What We Eat Zombie Short Is an Ambitious Project

Usually, low budget zombie short movies are nothing but crap but every now and then a project that gets out of that D-class movie appears and I am happy to write about one today. We Are What We Eat is a short British zombie movie written and directed by 16 years old Sam Toller – and this should be a reason strong enough to make you curious about the movie.

We Are What We Eat tells the story of high school girl Nicole that is bitten by one of her friends that turns zombie (or maybe she’s not bitten… who knows?). It’s a good premise, even though it basically brings nothing new to the genre, but we’re talking about a genre that doesn’t have many rooms for innovation in the first place.

What you notice first from We Are What We Eat is its ambition: although obviously a low budget movie with amateur actors and shots that are way too lengthy and boring, this zombie short is not made like your regular low budget short. The make-up is fantastic for these levels, the image quality is great and overall everybody did their best to turn something otherwise cliche and unspectacular into a pretty solid project.

Probably you won’t fall in love with We Are What We Eat, but you won’t hate it either. What matters the most is that the shots themselves are beautiful, the potential for future movies created by Sam Toller (and maybe together with the same team, minus the school teacher) is great: after all, we’re talking about a movie made by a 16 years old that’s better than half the zombie shorts I’ve seen in my life (and I’ve seen a lot).

The zombie movie We Are What We Eat will have it’s premiered at Seattle’s NFFTY, and you can find more information about it on IMDB. So if you have the chance, check this movie out, as an encouragement for the young writer/director and the promising young actors.

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

Paramount to Deliver Boy Scouts vs. Zombies, Directed by Etan Cohen

Etan Cohen is about to make his debut as a director with Boy Scouts vs. Zombies, a horror-comedy that has been picked up by Paramount recently. The movie will tell the story of a bunch of boy scouts who must save their fellow girl scouts from a bunch of zombies that are there to ruin an otherwise perfect camping trip.

Personally, I am not a big fan of comedies involving zombies, but I will never say never to a zombie movie, especially to this Boy Scouts vs. Zombies which might be a pretty big budget project. Also, according to Hollywood Reporter, the script of this movie made it to the 2010 Black List of Hollywood’s most-liked screenplays.

Cohen will be supervising the re-writing process of this movie by Lona Williams (Drop Dead Gorgeous). Hopefully this will prove to be a solid movie and not just a brainless comedy!

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

Watch This Zombie Gem: Dead Set

Oh, boy! I’m not sure if you watched this mini-series on TV back in 2008 when it was launched, but I only found about it very recently. And I am so glad I did!

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Dead Set is the name of this TV Series (5 episodes, probably because it would’ve been too long for a full feature movie, even though the entire thing is only about 2 hours long!) and it’s an UK-made series. And it’s absolutely awesome!

The story is pretty simple: while the Zombie Apocalypse breaks loose outside, the contestants inside the Big Brother house have absolutely no idea about what is happening. Soon, things will change though and they will be quite happy to be locked inside the house, barricaded from the chaos happening outside. And their tale of survival begins!

Dead set starts with a pilot that’s 45 minutes long and continues with 4 shorter episodes (20 minutes each) so if you have time, you can easily watch the entire series in one go. I did so, even though I didn’t think I would: however, the series is so well done, the story so nice and the whole thing so believable that you simply can’t stop until the end!

We have some really, really strong characters and each type is really well done – from the annoying Patrick to the stupid Pippa and a story that unfolds quicker than a train going at full speed. The zombies are also there (fast zombies this time) and even though there are no explanations about how it all started, you don’t even feel that there’s a need for that. Basically, everything happens so fast and takes everybody by surprise that you don’t even have time to wonder. Nor do the characters in Dead Set, which probably describes best how things would be during the first few days of the Zombie Apocalypse.

And if you want my opinion, even though this has the potential to spark some controversy, I can say without a pinch of doubt that Dead Set is a lot better than The Walking Dead. We have believable and strong characters, we have ACTION and behaviour we can understand and we have a very solid movie series here. So if you didn’t watch it, do yourself a favor and watch Dead Set now!

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

Zombie Apocalypse Review

The first thing that convinced me to watch Zombie Apocalypse was the presence of Ving Rhames in the cast: I really like him, and this told me that this movie is not really a poor, low budget zombie flick that will just make me wonder how come somebody created it. And I was right – Zombie Apocalypse is a good zombie movie (don’t expect Triple A class, but expect better than you probably imagine from a movie by The Asylum).

Zombie Apocalypse gets straight to the point – the apocalypse has already happened and the survivors are few and scarce. A group of three friends that just left a survivors camp meets another group that is headed to Catalina island, where they know everything is safe and sound and civilization is rebuilding.

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This is the main plot line and I won’t say more to make sure I won’t spoil any surprises (there are hardly any, though). What I will say, though, is that the movie reminded me about Z.A. Recht’s Plague of the Dead (The Morningstar Strain) every now and then and that’s a great thing, because I consider this book one of the best zombie books ever written: there are both slow and fast zombies, the outbreak started somewhere far away from the US and zombies seem to have some primitive instincts still going. Again, I can’t say more not to spoil things, but trust me – the connections to Plague of the Dead are a bonus for Zombie Apocalypse.

Of course, there’s a lot of nonsense in the movie too – but the errors can be easily ignored, especially if you’re a fan of zombie movies. You can’t notice, though, that Cassie’s sword cuts heads open immediately, while in other scenes a chainsaw barely manages to cut open a skull. But these are details that won’t matter that much. However, it’s this kind of details that makes the movie just a mediocre one and not outstanding.

Because there’s a lot of potential to Zombie Apocalypse: the acting is pretty decent, the story is nice enough, the characters are mostly believable and even though they lack depth or an evolution throughout the movie, they are quite lovable. The special effects are not really the strongest point of the movie, but they’re of much better quality of what we usually get, and the zombies themselves are very well done and generally believable.

The movie also caters to a younger audience with the weapons used to fight zombies (a huge hammer, a samurai sword, a golf club and so on) and it really is surprisingly good: at least a lot better than I expected it to be, which I consider already a solid bonus for Zombie Apocalypse.

So yes, if you are a zombie fan, then most likely Zombie Apocalypse will be one of those movies you’ll enjoy watching. The story unfolds nicely and has a proper ending – something very few zombie movies or books tend to have, and this is for me a huge bonus. Therefore, make sure you don’t miss this one out!

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

Zombie Short: Fear of the Living Dead

I just stumbled upon this short movie, Fear of the Living Dead and I decided to share it with you, especially since it’s free to watch and has something that we all like: zombies.

It all starts pretty nicely: a woman, an axe and some solid zombie bashing but evolves soon into something I don’t necessarily like – or ends with that. Yes, I don’t want to spoil things, but I didn’t really like the ending.

However, Fear of the Living Dead is clearly a worth seeing flick – it’s just 15 minutes long and even though we’re not talking about Oscar quality stuff here, it has its moments. So check out this zombie short below:

What do you think about Fear of the Living Dead?

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Zombie Movies You'll Wanna CRUSH

Exit Humanity Trailer Brings Zombies to the Civil War

I’m not necessarily a fan of zombie movies set in the past simply because they lose credibility (even though for many zombies themselves come with a lack of credibility), but this trailer for the upcoming Exit Humanity seems pretty impressive.

Set in the times of the Civil War, Exit Humanity tells, according to the plot summary, the story of a “young man’s struggle to survive in the aftermath of a deadly undead outbreak”. So expect to see zombies, two sides amongst which one seems to be even worse than the zombies and overall a pretty exciting movie. I, personally, can’t expect to get my hands on it and check it out.

Pretty impressive!