Justin Johnson, Aaron Marshall, and Erik Mauck’s 2009 documentary from R Squared is probably one of the most simplistic stories ever told but also proves to be fodder for one of the best independent documentaries I’ve ever seen, a film about an enthusiastic little girl who loves movies and is doing everything in her power to make a zombie film, the film community of critics and movie buffs that embrace her for her enthusiasm, her mom willing to do whatever it takes to feed her daughter’s ambition–as long as she goes to school, and the movie that became a cult classic in its own right because of its charming production qualities and overall creativity.
Tag Archives: Zombies
Resident Evil (2002)
Back in 1996 when Capcom and Playstation released “Resident Evil,” the horror and gamer world were awash with buzz and raves of a game that while lacking in voice acting department (seriously if you’ve ever seen the filmed intros to the American game, you’ll laugh non-stop), was an all around horrifying and inventive survival horror game that begged to be made in to a movie. It featured all of the tropes of the classic horror genre from a large spooky mansion, a bunch of mercenaries called out to investigate strange goings on all of which lead them to clash with undead dogs, birds, ravenous monsters and–worst of all–hordes of flesh eating zombies.
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Much like almost every horror fan out there, I’ve seen “Night of the Living Dead,” and had my cherry busted by it when I was five. Since being in the public domain, Romero’s movie has been open to many, many re-workings, one of which occurred in 1990 when his protégé Tom Savini got the wild idea to remake “Night of the Living Dead,” and you know what? It wasn’t bad. In fact his remake stands as one of the better remakes of a Romero film to date, and Savini enlists much of the same dread and horror and instills it with a bleak tone of greens and dark blues to invoke a film that’s quite gritty, bleak, and hopeless even in spite of changing a lot of character actions and increasing the tension. It also helps that he enlists the talents of special effects guru Gregory Nicotero to turn the walking dead in to shambling harbingers of death that I still have difficulty looking at to this day. The song is almost like what you’ve heard in the original.
The Sky Has Fallen (2009)
For a movie about the end of the world through an Ebola-like virus that infects people and turns them in to demonic killing monsters that feast on the living, while shadowy specters wait in the darkness carrying off the innocent and the dead, I was surprised at how utterly bored I was through most of this movie. In fact “The Sky Has Fallen” literally had me watching the clock and completely apathetic to its entire premise. As someone who adores almost any movie about the end of the world, director Doug Roos really doesn’t put an argument as to why his movie stands out among a slew of better indie films about the apocalypse and the undead.
My Name is Felix and I'm a Kinemortophobe
Acrophobia, Nictophobia, Mysophobia, and Kinemortophobia. These are my primary phobias that plague me day in and day out. But… mainly that last one has been a nagging more insane but very troublesome phobia that has grabbed on to me since I was old enough to walk and hasn’t let go. Kinemortophobia (or Ambulothanatophobia) can be described as fear of the undead, or more importantly fear of the walking dead. Sure to some of you, it may sound idiotic and something to laugh at, but when you’re a little kid trying to sleep unable to go five minutes without looking behind you or sleeping near the edge of your bed, it’s not funny. And it’s quite traumatic. No, this is not meant to be a satirical article, this is quite real to me. I simply can not explain it. I’ve tried to figure out why since I was a child, but I simply can not explain it. I have a fear of zombies. Not vampires, or mummies, or anything else undead, but specifically zombies. The walking dead, the brain munching, gut gnawing, glazed over, staggering, shambling, moaning, groaning, mobile, green skinned, mouths agape, oozing, bleeding, rotting monsters that have become so absolutely prevalent in modern death obsessed pop culture.
Mike Schneider Gets "ReAnimated" with "Night of the Living Dead"
The latest iteration of “Night of the Living Dead” is not a remake, but a re-visioning, the same classic zombie film from George A. Romero except seen through the eyes of dozens of graphic artists, animators, and the like, all of whom have come together to form a moving painting and ode to George A. Romero and his lasting legacy of a zombie epic involving a group of mismatched survivors in a farmhouse one fateful night trapped wall to wall with the walking dead anxious to feast on their flesh and guts. Combing the talents of many people, Mike Schneider is an artist and curator who speaks about this latest project that brings a new dimension to Romero’s film.
Night of the Living Dead: ReAnimated (1968) (DVD)
Since George A. Romero’s seminal 1968 independent horror film was released without a copyright, the horror classic we know as “Night of the Living Dead” has been in the public domain for literal decades. Since then it’s been remade, re-released, re-dubbed, re-edited, restored, colored, chopped, extended, spoofed, satirized, animated, prequelized, sequelized, novelized, sampled, and so on ad nauseum. Much to Romero’s chagrin, “Night of the Living Dead” has been the Mr. Potato Head of the horror world upon which independent film directors can switch and mix without worry of a lawsuit.