Will the Walking Dead Survive Post Negan

So, I'm not the biggest fan of the Walking Dead, but I can't deny it's impact on pop culture. I also can't deny or ignore that tonight's episode has fans on the edge of their seat, and it's still hours away from airing as I write this. This is the night, that they introduce the biggest, baddie of the series, Negan.

Everyone is expecting a major character, most likely Glenn or Daryl to bite the bat tonight. Or possible their will be a cliff hanger and not croak till October. I think this is very likely, and also a shitty way for the filmmakers to treat their loyal fans. Thousands may riot if Daryl dies, at least that's what they scream, in all caps, on social media.

Why I still watch the Walking Dead

But beyond who will die, there is another question. Will the Walking Dead, the show itself survive Negan? In the comics life goes on. People live, people die and new threats arise. But the war with Negan lingers on in the comics for a while.  It does end though, and the survivors settle down in Alexandria for several years.

This presents quite a change in dynamics for the show. The survivors have never stayed in one place long. The prison latest the longest but there was constant threat from the Governor looming, not to mention walkers, prisoners, and the flu. Now, following the comics, the survivors, minus possibly several loved characters, are stuck in one spot for years. Exploring the exciting world of...trading between cities.

Will fans stay behind a show that is basically a post apocalyptic Mayberry RFD? Well hopefully not that slow, but the show has been mostly about a group on the run. Nowhere is safe. After Negan they find safety, if it continues to follow the comics.

Seriously, this is why I watch the Walking Dead

There are options for the Walking Dead. They could time skip, which I think the comics do, till the next threat. It gives them time to let Judith grow, and bring in new characters. It gives them time to greive and move on. But it also brings them closer to keeping up with the comics and possibly running ahead of it. A lot of the television walking dead fans still don't read the comics so that shouldn't hurt too bad. But a major change in theme, coupled with the loss of one or more beloved characters, could, maybe cause a major down swing in ratings.  Even if the Dixon Vixens don't riot.

Zombie Pin up Corinne

We all like zombies right? C'mon the Walking Dead is the most popular show on AMC, hell on cable, hell on TV, and it's kinda sorta about zombies...occasionally. Well almost as much as we like zombies, America loves hot chicks, so what better than zombie hotties, zombie pinups.

So if you are feeling like maybe you could use a little rigor mortis in your pants, check out this zombie pin up competition. And while you are there cast a vote for my friend Corinne

Zombies, killers, Koreans and demons

So I went to the local used DVD store yesterday looking for bargains. The last few times I was there I was really disappointed. Mostly the same stuff as the trip before, lots of low budget crap not worth 2 bucks.

I did finally fall upon a tiny treasure trove, and picked out several. Actually had to put a few back because I had went WAY over my budget for the trip (10-12 bucks). I ended up spending 22 bucks and promising a trip next pay check for the ones I had put back.

I ended up buying Deadbirds, My Bloody Valentine (orig) Special Edition, Lady Vengeance, and Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 Special edition.  I was pretty stoked as I have wanted Lady Vengeance for a while, and also have been planning to collect more Italian horror cinema. Plus Deadbirds is a very underrated movie, and I hadn't seen the original My Bloody Valentine in a while.

So I came home pumped for a night of epic movie viewing. First up was Fulci, as I announced on Facebook. You can imagine my surprise when I opened the case to find.....nothing inside. OK it's a used place maybe I should have checked at the store but I have bought there several times in the past and never had an issue. Plus I was careless. It was marked 8.99 which is way above the normal price for their used DVDs, and was in a box, and looked in great shape. I kind of assumed it was new and unopened. Like I said, I was a bit careless and oblivious.

It was too late to take it back last night and the store doesn't re-open till tomorrow.  I have no idea if they will refund it or give me a store credit but I hope they will, If they don't they have probably lost a customer.

Exit Humanity (review)

Exit Humanity

Zombies are the rage right now, and as usually happen, once something gets “hot” the quality goes in the crapper.  That’s especially true with horror archetypes, and zombies are one of the worst affected.  In fact there are more bad zombie flicks, than there are mediocre to good ones.  So it was with a healthy dose of skepticism and resignation that I decided to rent Exit Humanity.

On the plus side it featured both Bill Moseley and Dee Wallace, two horror icons that never phone it in.  It was also set in the American West (actually in Tennessee, but no nit picking) shortly after the Civil War, and hell, I’m a big fan of Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare.


Please check out my new Cult Film blog

Set in 1875, Exit Humanity is the story of Edward Young played by Mark Gibson.  After encountering the undead during the final days of the Civil War, he returns home to his wife and son.  He returns from hunting one day to find his son missing and his wife one of the undead.  He kills her and goes in search of his son.  During his search he comes across Confederate General Williams played by Moseley who is looking for a cure to the outbreak, and to rebuild Tennessee to its Confederate glory. Ultimately he is forced to choose between joining Williams or making his own way in a world overrun by the dead.

It got off to a rough start.  I’m not a big fan of narration, and the early parts of the film are heavily narrated by Brian Cox. Normally I’m a fan of a film being told by the actors through their acting, not voice over or exposition. The first fifteen minutes of the film there is virtually no dialogue except the narration.

 At this point I wanted to watch the film through the protagonist’s, played by Mark Gibson, acting. I wanted to discover the film through his facial expressions and body language, not a narration that seemed to never end.  Strange thing though, when the narration ended, I missed it.  The narration is used in spots throughout the film and it’s like an old friend come back to visit. 

After getting used to the narration, I thoroughly enjoyed this film.  Mark Gibson, as Edward Young carries the film excellently.  He tells you his story, with and without narration, by the pain in his eyes, his tears and body language.  The supporting cast never gets in his way.  Bill Mosley who is usually a hyper kinetic maelstrom is probably more subdued than I have ever seen him in a role.  That doesn’t make him any less menacing or horrifying. In fact it makes him much more real, much more believably evil.  Stephen McHattie, another horror legend, gives an insane but also subdued performance.  Honestly I barely recognized Dee Wallace even though I knew she was in the cast.  The supporting cast did their job perfectly, they supported, allowing Gibson to shine and carry the film.

Exit Humanity is in fact a quiet film, as far as zombie films go.  True there is gunfire, screams and gnashing of teeth, but for the most part it is a quiet film.  A film driven by the main character on his quest, first to find his son, then to find a reason to live in a world of the dead.

His quest for his son ends in the way such a real life quest would be bound to end.  No happy ending, no miracle, and the film makers play it out early, not dragging it out, but not pulling any punches or making it easy on the viewer.  After this quest the film could have easily devolved into a kill em all, find a cure generic zombie flick, but instead the story continues to develop.  It seems like it was written almost as a series of short episodes, instead of a movie, and even has animated chapter markers. Each chapter marks the protagonist’s downfall, and resurrection, as he exits humanity to find his own humanity.

Exit Humanity uses innovative filming, shifting from live action to animation for certain scenes, and even using time lapse for at least one scene.  The animation at first seemed a bit gimmicky; you just aren’t expecting it in a serious film.  The animation is used sparingly and mostly to illustrate (if you will) parts of the story outside the normal continuity.

The time lapse scene likewise hits you with no warning but it works perfectly.  It heightens the tension of the scene and allows the film to progress without an overly long scene of the character running through the woods.  It’s just an innovative way to portray an almost cliched scene.

The Canadian scenery is beautiful and breath taking.  You can forget you are watching a horror movie, and believe you are watching a modern western.  The score compliments the film work.  Usually I barely pay attention to the score unless it sucks up the movie but the music here swept me up.  I loved it

If I could change one thing about this Exit Humanity, I would give Moseley more screen time, and possibly flesh out his character a bit more.  I saw the potential for a great film villain.  He was a villain, who as evil as he was, had a cause, a cause that, while not inherently evil, had been warped by him and his beliefs.  The final confrontation between Moseley and Gibson was beautiful, quick and final.  I just wish we had more time with Moseley’s General Williams before the showdown.

Some people might find it too slow, and not enough zombie action, but personally I will take a slower less hectic film.  A film that moves at a natural pace not the rapid cut MTV style horror movie.  How many of those style horror movies are actually good?  I have also heard people complain about the lack of zombie hoards in Exit Humanity.  When I was watching it I wondered where all the undead were coming from.  This was the 1800s in the Tennessee wilds.  It’s not the big city of Dawn of the Dead or The Walking Dead. Besides I would rather see an intelligent film than just two hours of head shots, wouldn’t you?

If you haven’t guessed by now, I really loved this film.  It was touch and go for the first maybe 10-15 minutes, but it grew on me rapidly.  If you like zombie movies, but prefer your movies to have a little soul, I think you will like Exit Humanity.  So skip all the other low budget trash, and pick up Exit Humanity, this little Canadian film is worth the price of admission.

Zombies, cannibals, and um zombies, Oh My!

I was on the road last week when news of the "zombie attack" in Miami broke, but when I got to my hotel the news was all over Facebook.  To most of my horror friends this was proof that the zombie apocalypse was in full swing.  A few of my friends of a more political nature looked at it as another instance of police using undue force on an unarmed (and naked) person.  Honestly I think eating someones face gives the police just cause to use deadly force.

However, the Miami Zombie as most are calling the incident was big news.  Within a week pictures and video had appeared on the web.  What is even more shocking that the gory images are the other incidents that seemed to suddenly be happening.  A New Jersey man hurling pieces of his own intestines at the police.  A Maryland man who eats the heart of his roommate. **(see edit) A Texas woman who decapitates her infant and eats its brain.**  All obvious signs of the impending Romeroesque Armageddon.  Suddenly the Mayans were all getting smug looks on their face.  Not since Dick Clark's death were so many predicting the end.

What most overlooked, even many hard core horror fans, was that only the Miami incident really looked like a zombie apocalypse foreshadowing.  Now that incident looked just like a classic zombie attack.  Ignoring bullets, eating flesh, growling and being naked (corpses are stripped for the morgue) all straight out of a good old Romero flick, with effects by Savini.  However the others just looked like really fucked up cannibalistic murders.  While they could be connected to horror films, they really aren't very zombie like.

The Jersey man cutting out pieces of his own flesh and hurling it at cops could have come from the warped mind of David Cronenberg.  Well Cronenberg before he found mainstream success, and put away his flesh warping imagination. The Texas woman who ate her babies brain claims she was told to do so by the devil.  That sounds like an exorcism or possibly a cult movie, the same as the Maryland man who devoured his roommate.  Still these grisly events get grouped together, and usually labeled as proof of a zombie onslaught.

Critics will say that the sensationalism of the Miami zombie case has simply heightened our senses to these gory crime.  There is a lot of truth to that, even the police in the Miami case have said similar cases involving drug psychosis have happened in the past. Whether this is a new phenomena, or just the latest attack in a series that up until now we have over looked, I can almost guarantee that we will see more.  Hell, maybe even copycat zombie attacks.  Now that's scary.

***EDIT ( proof of the media sensationalizing the Miami attack is that the woman who ate her babies brain actually happened in 2009 and was thrown out there as new by some unscrupilious editor or writer to cash in on the cannibal attacks.  I apologize for not fully fact checking.  The article plays only a small role in this blog post so I wont delete the post or the reference but will (*) it.  Shame on internet "journalists" and I use that term lightly)

How is this going to affect the current zombie craze?  Right now that craze is riding high, being pushed in large part by the popularity of AMC's The Walking Dead.  I'm somewhat shocked that The Walking Dead isn't being blamed for the Miami zombie attack.  I could concede that a psychotic person could become convinced he was a zombie.  The press has always been way to eager to blame popular culture for homicidal acts, but so far AMC has escaped their wrath.

In fact the Miami zombie attack may actually help The Walking Dead.  After all the word zombie is on almost everyone in America's lips right now.  Now with the season three premiere still four months away there is time for the furor to die down.  That is if there are no more zombie or cannibal attacks between now and then.  That's a big "if."

Whatever happens, whether TV and movies get blamed, whether more disturbed people dine on bath salts and go loco, or even if this is the opening snack in a zombie apocalypse, I can just about bet we will be hearing more about this.  I would also bet the press is going to hype up any attack that even slightly resembles a cannibal or zombie attack.  Me? I'm gonna just sit back, stock up on bullets and water, and practice my head shots.


Now here are the very, very graphic pictures.  Be warned

Miami zombie victim

Aftermath of the Miami zombie attack

Miami zombie attack victim after the attack

Zombie Girl Diary teaser trailer

Here is the new teaser trailer fo the independent horror film Zombie Girl Diary, directed by Mike Pine.  The film stars Vanessa Rae Bent, Jim Krut, Jimmyo Burrill and Eliza Jayne.  It's set to start filming soon, look for it zombie fans

You also might be interested in my interview with Mike Pine the director of Zombie Girl Diary

Top Ten Zombie Films Without Zombies

Zombie films have been around almost as long as any other form of horror film. Originally zombies in these movies were based on the Caribbean myths of the zombie. In these myths the zombie was a dead person reawakened by voodoo to serve the master who reanimated him. The movie White Zombie starring Dracula himself, Bela Lugosi, featured this stiff walking undead corpse.

The shambling, mindless voodoo zombie made sporadic appearances in film until a man named George Romero reinvented the genre and the zombie. It was Romero who gave the zombie his taste for human flesh and took voodoo out of the equation. George Romero may have been responsible for the single most important evolution of the zombie, but the reanimated corpse has continued to evolve.

Now zombies have advanced even past being dead. Film makers are using the zombie term to refer to any creature or group of people who attack mindlessly. Many films have “zombies” that bear little if any resemblance to Romero’s zombies or their voodoo predecessors. Some are good, some are horrible. Here is a list of my favorites.

10. Slither- An alien land on Earth with the desire to feed and mate in the horror comedy Slither. To do this it takes over the townspeople with alien slugs and turns them into mindless zombies. The zombies bear some surface similarities to Romero but that‘s about it. The alien infected zombie story has been done before in Night of the Creeps and even the classic Plan Nine From Outer Space but in these films the zombies were actually dead,

9. Warning Sign- A experimental virus escapes in an underground bunker changing everyone infected into homicidal killers. No real relation to a true zombie, the zombies here are still alive and still intelligent. They do not crave flesh but are homicidal. Predates and influenced the rage virus of 28 Days later. The main difference is that in Warning Signs we know the government created the virus. In 28 days we are lead to believe it developed naturally.

Read more at triond

quick update

Just a qucikie. This weekend I watched Carriers and Pontypool and hope to review both. Also purchased Thirst, Let the Right One In, and The Forsaken ( 4 bucks at walmart get em while they last)

The Crazies is a remake of the George Romero movie. The Crazies is directed by Bret Eisner and starring Timothy Oliphant and Radha Mitchell. Normally I hate remakes and, well honestly I can't see that this one will be much different than the rest of the remake crowd. However, I'm not a big fan of the original. That may seem like sacrilege to some but I have only seen it a couple of times and it just doesn't strike the same resonance as Romero's other work. Since I really like both of the stars, Radha Mitchell has never let me down and I have fond memories of Oliphant from Deadwood so I might give this a chance

David Dutton is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his house after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh...with insanity. The few still sane find themselves trapped: Sheriff Dutton; his pregnant wife, Judy; Becca, an assistant at the medical center; and Russell, Dutton's deputy and right-hand man. Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a struggle for survival as they try to get out of town alive.