Fantastic giveaway at the bottom of the page. Podcast is here.Saturday 28th November Zombies took over the new Phoenix Square in Leicester. Day of the Undead is an annual event organised by Terror4fun who are also behind a number of zombie walks all over the UK. Check out the website for all sorts of zombie fun, including make up tips if you are planning on being a zombie any time.
Anyway, the event. 12 hours of zombie movies, kicking off with the original Dawn of the Dead and finishing with the new release Zombie Land at a midnight showing. There were authors in attendance and makeup artists helping initiate visitors into the realms of the undead.
20 minutes before the first film started the cafe was packed with zombies and fans.
I went to see Dawn, it's years since I watched it and never on the big screen. It was funnier than I remember, great entertainment and fairly gross. Ed did a great job of running things and introducing the films.
A large part of the purpose of my visit however was the podcast. I got together with Zombie Ed (terror4fun), Jasper Bark (author), Michael and Nick Thomas (authors), Dr Jennifer Cooke (zombie academic) and Sharon (my mate) and we had a good chat about Zombies.
We started out by looking at the enduring appeal of the zombie, the main themes here seem to be the idea of not needing to be exceptional or superpowered to try and fight them and that we can do terrible things to zombies without the moral repercussions involved with other monsters, or people. We considered the plague metaphor and the spread of infection as well as the earlier haitian concept of zombies. We also conisdered survival and I definately would not count on a
ny of these guys to keep me alive, they are more likely to stab me in the leg with a screwdriver and leave me to buy them time. One of the points that as a fantasy/horror fan I found especially interesting was the way zombies fundamentally differ from other monsters like werewolves and vampires. The fact that zombies are so limited, with no super powers or benefits and of course we discussed the loss of individuality.There are a number of strange and some very worrying films referenced by people who know their zombies much better than I do and we touch on the fast viral zombie type.
They were a great group to talk to and it was a fun and interesting chat. Go and have a listen then come back here and give us your thoughts!
For more information of ou
r guests:Zombie Ed - terror4fun worldwide information and UK events, including the annual film festival and zombie walks. "we fight...we die...we eat flesh". The terror4fun guys can also be spotted making up the flesh eating hoardes in UK zombie films.
Dr Jennifer Cooke - Lecturer in English at L'boro, poet, writer and zombie academic. We first saw Jennifer presenting a paper on zombies adapted from the final chapter of her book at short fuse (check out our archives, it was fantastic).
Nick and Michael Thomas - martial artists and authors of How to survive a Zombie Apocolypse, or ZomPoc. The brothers considered all the advice and requirements for
surviving any apocolypse, then tailored it for zombies.Jasper Bark - author, Jasper has written a number of books, including Way of the Barefoot zombie where releasing the inner zombie is considered as a positive life change, in amongst some fairly odd goings on. And an additional link for Jasper on Youtube
and me and Sharon and there are no links for us. that's Dr Zombie between us.
Some other websites of interest for the zombie fan, some of which we touch on in the podcast:
Zombie Command - a good variety of zombie related chat including survival tips and reviews.
How to survive a zombie apocolypse - improv show and seminar.
Zombie Undead - upcoming local movie from Dark Waters Entertainment.
Zombies don't run - for anyone who feels the virul infected undead of 28days later aren't real zombies
Zombie pin ups - if I have to explain this, you need fresh brains.
And now a FANTASTIC ZOMBIE GIVEAWAY.
I love you all so much I picked up an extra copy of Zompoc and got it signed for you. Added to that terror4fun and capcom have generously donated a goodie bag with bookmarks, a preview selection from Abaddon books, a couple of badges, postcards and fliers and some neat swine flu style face masks with a resident evil twist and a gorgeous resident evil t-shirt.
All you have to do is come and comment, tell us your favourite zombie movie or book, or whether or not you count fast zombies as zombies, whether you have ever been a zombie, or anything else related. Give your views. The contest is open worldwide and closes on the 10th December, which is totally arbitary, but that's the date. Randomiser will pick the winner.
Comments on either this post or the upcoming zombie romance review will be included.
15 comments:
Favourite zombie movie is, without any hesitation, Shaun of the Dead. And I am with Simon Pegg on the whole fast zombie thing - zombies should never, ever run! Aside from Shaun number two would have to be Romero's 1978 Dawn of the Dead.
Mr H - thanks for kicking things off and yes Shaun is wonderful!!
I'm not a huge zombie fan, but Shaun is definitely my fave. I guess I don't have too much of a problem with speedy zoms but I almost think they have to be characterized as not zombies (thinking I Walked with a Zombie or Serpent and the Rainbow as more traditional, Haitian-based zombies, too).
I vote for revenants, to use the good old term popular in the Middle Ages. I am too, too envious of someone known as a "zombie academic"! I need a cool tag line.
I have not actually been a zombie, though I have dressed as Baron Samedi on occasion which puts you in the neighbourhood, so to speak.
And of course, zombie pin-ups reminds me to tell folks about the Ravenous erotica antho Hungry for Your Love, LOL.
I'm the producer of Mail Order Zombie, a weekly zombie movie podcast that launched in January 2008, and I've now watched over 150 zombie movies to review for the show . . . and, ouch. There are certainly more bad zombie movies than good ones! I've come to accept the fast-moving zombies as well as the infected subtype as part of the evolving zombie movie subgenre that started with 1932's 'White Zombie.' As for my favorite zombie movies? I always reserve the right to change my mind on any given day - 'The Zombie Diaries', 'Day of the Dead' (1985), 'The Plague of the Zombies' and 'Zombie Love' come immediately to mind . . .
KA , I am a casual fan too, and I love that you dress as the Baron!!
CM , my review of Hungry for your Love this week is the other post where comments will be included in the draw.
Derek - I am not surprised there are a lot of bad zombie movies. And welcome.
Shaun of the Dead. I laughed so hard and it was all good fun and then there is Zombieland, which I thought was fantastic as well. Doghouse has to be some good zombie fun as well.
As far as books go I haven't read that many, but Day by Day Apocalypse has got to be an awesome entry. :)
Also I love all types of zombies apart from the voodoo one. For some reason I don't quite like it.
Harry voodoo zombies have a much more sinister bent somehow for me too.
Oooh -- I forgot to mention Fido which I have to say that I really enjoyed a LOT. I do enjoy Night of the Living Dead which is a really powerful film and certainly Dawn of the Dead which was really effective, but on the whole zombies are that interesting to me as monsters. They're sort of faceless (sometimes literally) and monolithic. I remember Clive Barker once saying they were the modern monster of consumerism and that makes sense for why they're popular now -- though perhaps the speedy zoms are less so? Or just the speed at which commercialization takes over everything!
Trad voudon zombies are far cooler and creepier.
Clearly that ought to have been "NOT that interesting to me as monsters" -- and I used "really" three times in a sentence?! Ay yi yi. Call me an English professor...
Kate, you should listen to the podcast, the interesting thing is that the popularity of zombies may actually be partly because of how faceless they are and yes we talk about consumerism, loss of identity and plague.
I know, I know! I just haven't had a mo to do so. Mondays are insane for me.
Favorite zombie movie is the original Dawn of the Dead, with Shaun of the Dead runner-up. But I have to give kudos to the movie that started it all for me (Dawn of the Dead was my very first date movie!). I'm old school - shamble, damn you, zombies! That being said, DEAD SET did an awesome job with the fast zombies and whether we like it or not, they're part of the zombie...er...culture? Heh. Just DON'T start telling me all they eat are brains. That just pisses me off...
I have been a Deadite, which is sort of a zombie, in ARMY OF DARKNESS. A sword-fighting Deadite, to be precise.
Loved Patient Zero by John Maybury, but World War Z wins the prize for me. The Book of the Dead anthologies are also up there. And yes, Kate, Hungry for Your Love is awesome!
OK so I will say that I am loving all the zombie stuff coming out lately(or ones that have been out and I'm just finding out about). My favorite Zombie book is "Cheating Death" by Teel Mclanahan. I really enjoyed that one. ( I reviewed it here http://thecajunbooklady.blogspot.com/2009/11/cheating-death-isbn-10-1934516058-isbn.html )And I'm undecided on if fast Zombies are really "zombies"...I mean come on they'tr supposed to be slow right?
Favourite Zombie Movie- Either Shaun of the Dead (For fun and quality) or "28 Days after the dawn of the night of the resident dead" (Or something, can never remember the name of it) ‘cos I was in it!
Being a screaming Zombie was fun, but being dead for my other part would have been better as being hit with a traffic cone REALLY HURTS.
Oh, and I learnt Rapier fighting from a Zombie Author and never knew. Go figure...
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