Tag Archives: zombie apocalypse

Syfy’s “Day of the Dead” Continues The Trampling of Romero’s Legacy

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When the trailer for “Day of the Dead” arrived, it looked interesting but stumped me. The trailer for the Syfy series was a fast paced dark comedy with zombies, goofy one liners, and a bunch of action. It felt more like “Return of Z Nation” rather than a throwback to Romero. This could have been given any generic title like “Zombie Warz” or “Country Zombie Jammie Jam” and never really miss a beat. There’s no reason at all to call this “Day of the Dead” and pretend it’s honoring Romero’s original movie, and it’s sad Syfy has resorted to this.

It’s all brand recognition. It’s an easy sell, an easy pitch, and has a built in audience.

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Five Questions I’m Still Asking About “The Walking Dead”

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As with all good things, it come to an ends eventually, and “The Walking Dead” is finally ending in 2022. Although AMC has yet to finish finding new ways to tell Robert Kirkman’s story, the OG series is coming to a close. I have mixed feelings about it, since every year from 2010 “The Walking Dead” was an event for me.

I eagerly looked forward to it every single Sunday for so many years. Now that they’ve decided to end it, there are five lingering questions that I’ve had since Season Two. This has a lot to do with the fact that AMC screwed original show runner Frank Darabont leaving Season Two and Three to feel messy and unfocused, but they’ve yet to really offer ideas or thoughts on these questions I’m still wondering about.

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Daylight’s End (2016)

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Director William Kaufman’s “Daylight’s End” is “30 Days of Night,” meets “Dawn 04” with “Assault on Precinct 13” thrown in for good measure. Sadly, while it’s nowhere near the masterpiece the aforementioned Carpenter film is, it’s silly, goofy, occasionally clumsy, fun late night movie fodder. In the heydays of cable television I could picture sneaking out of bed, and checking this out on one of the premium movie channels at three in the morning.

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Night of the Animated Dead (2021) [Blu-Ray/Digital]

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The last time “Night of the Living Dead” was animated was in 2009’s “Re-Animated” where director Mike Schneider enlisted a slew of animators to offer their own interpretations of various scenes from George A. Romero’s masterpiece. That wasn’t so much a remake, as it felt more like an art installation, or a cinematic experiment that allowed us to view the classic film through various lenses and scopes, giving us unique peek in to the terrifying narrative. “Night of the Animated Dead” has a chance to feel like a unique re-imagining. Instead it picks off the corpse of George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.” Continue reading →

Brain Freeze (2020) [Fantasia Film Festival 2021]

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Director Julien Knafo’s zombie horror comedy is a movie that teeters back and forth between what it’s trying to say and what it’s trying to appeal to. It identifies itself as a horror comedy and injects a lot of silliness involving zombie carnage, body horror, and even some poor animals, but mid-way it stops being funny and tries to convey some kind of social commentary. What the commentary is, exactly, is beyond me, but it never improves on the overlong, tedious exploits.

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“Black Summer” Season 2 Delivers the Horrifying Reality of Humanity

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In 2020, America came to a halt ending most television series, and “Black Summer” was also stalled. Thankfully after a long hiatus it returns and with season two returning  with a deafening bang, there couldn’t have been a better time for it to premiere on Netflix. “Black Summer” Season 2 is a follow up season that doesn’t pull any punches. While the first season explored everyday people fighting to escape, the sophomore season digs deep in to every day people fighting each other (and zombies) to survive.

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Army of the Dead (2021)

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It’s no big secret how I felt and continue to feel about Zack Snyder’s previous zombie outing, and it’s not going to be a big surprise when I say that “Army of the Dead” stinks. A movie like this is virtually critic proof as it wears its silliness on its sleeves and flaunts it unabashedly to the very end. This is the zombie movie for the audience that grew up with “Left 4 Dead” or “Dead Rising 2” as their original introduction to the walking dead, and Snyder knows his audience. He even introduces our core cast like player profiles, even giving them signature weapons.

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#Alive [#Saraitda] (2020)

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It’s hard to re-imagine or re-think the zombie movie, especially in the times where just about everyone has thought of everything. Director Il Cho’s “#Alive” is basically the sequel that “Train to Busan,” should have been, “#Alive” is such a great mix of “28 Days Later,” “The Night Eats the World,” and “Dawn of the Dead ’04.” While it doesn’t re-invent the wheel it manages to offer a fun, exciting, and creepy movie about the pros and cons of modern technology and the value of human contact.

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