I like Zombie movies ....

[Frustrated Father]

Alrighty, I have to admit, I'm a HUUUUUGE fan of zombie and zombie type movies. Love them to death, can watch them over and over and often do when I get around to watching the television (which isn't often any longer).

So, got any suggestions? Ones I should absolutely stay away from? Any that ya'll thought was really just the zombies knackers? Cheesy is good btw, just as long as its not overdone.

One of the latest ones I just watched was FIDO. GREAT MOVIE! I walked past it twice when I was perusing movies because it had a bad 'out of mexico 70's cover' look to it when I saw it the first time (someone needs to be fired for their advertising job) but finally picked it up and turned it over to find that it looked pretty good.

Little B&W from the beginning of the movie, but its in 'Technicolor' otherwise. Think Leave it to Beaver meets Dawn of the Dead.

YouTube - Fido opening scene: how to live with zombies

Another that I liked was 28 Days Later (and Weeks too, but not so much). Not really zombies, but might as well be for the running, flesh eating, end of the world type stuff. Resident Evil also another fun series (campy, but fun). Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Night of the Dead (old and new).

Lot of ones out there now that independents are making, or they are very low budget and are obviously direct to DVD these days - one off the top of my head is 'Diary of the Dead' by Romero - not a bad movie, but you certainly are looking forward to a few of the asses to get ate up.

So, like zombie movies? Give me some to watch. Odds are I might have seen it, but then again, I tend to miss a lot of good stuff too.

[caffeinated]

Flight of the Dead- Nice enough looking zombies, but obviously silly story going in.
Severed- A zombie ecology movie about loggers that get infected. Really kind of drags on & not much happens.
Dead Alive- Peter Jackson's tongue in cheek gore fest, great though you've likely seen it.
The Dead Hate the Living- Low budget movie about the dead crossing over to this dimension from the plane of the dead. If you like other Full Moon productions like Puppetmaster, Robot Jox, Dollman, etc. you might enjoy this.
Zombie Lake- Bad low budget foreign movie done in the 80's. Zombie Nazis that are just guys painted Green. The paint changes color & they kill by biting people on the neck.

I have more I'll list later.

[EricJ]

Anyone see Diary of the Dead? Was Romero's latest and he went the blair witch/cloverfield rout to present zombies (so I read). It's hitting DVD shortly, want to see it despite very so-so reviews.

I do love the zombies, I gotta admit

[supervike]

FIDO was very fun!

Of course, Shawn of the Dead, should be on your short list of 'greats'.

I like 'zombie' type movies too, but far too often they are just 'gorefests'. And badly done ones at that. The paranoia in a great zombie movie is a very good backdrop to a movie.

I think you can count the good ones on one hand, and you've named all those.

Stay away from FLIGHT OF THE DEAD, unless you are really hard up. It's Snakes on a Plane, only with zombies instead. Actually, it is better than "Snakes on a Plane"...But, that one looks like an oscar winner compared to ZOMBIE NATION. I couldn't even make it all the way through it was so terrible.

Land of the Dead is pretty awful too, but it has some cool elements to it. Takes place years after the zombie apocolypse, where the zombies have taken over most of the nation.

I cannot more highly suggest a move for this genre more than

SLITHER!! Yup, thats right. I believe we even made fun of it on these very forums...and it's not a true zombie movie (but borrows from the genre)....but watch it as a horror/camp movie. I absolutely love it. It's clever and fun.

Another one that hits that sense of fear, although not a zombie movie either is DESCENT. A group of spelunkers deep in the caves find they aren't alone. Great claustrophobic fear!


Check out the books by Max Brooks (Mels son!) World War Z (a oral history of the zombie war) and the Zombie Survival Guide. They are both great fun to read.

[supervike]

Anyone see Diary of the Dead? Was Romero's latest and he went the blair witch/cloverfield rout to present zombies (so I read). It's hitting DVD shortly, want to see it despite very so-so reviews.

I do love the zombies, I gotta admit

It looked as though Nathan did...


Oh yeah! I shared an elevator with George A. Romero once!!

[Frustrated Father]

Dairy of the Dead - I watched it and enjoyed it overall though it was low budget in the extreme. I won't ruin it for you, but in the end you are hooting and hollering when they (the zombies) finally eat some of the more annoying members of the survivors squad.

Shawn of the Dead - can't believe I didn't mention that one! That is/was/always will be, a classic. My wife just looked at me like I was an idiot while watching it (as well as Hot Fuzz), but I had a real laugh over them and really enjoyed them.

There are a few out of New Zealand (least I believe that's where they are doing it, or hell, maybe Wales or some other place ... alright, I apologize in advance if I just stepped on any toes unknowingly) that really aren't that bad. Not great, but a good chuckle and hell you can buy them for $6 at BlockBuster so you really can't go wrong with them. One of them was 'Boy Eats Girl'. Campy, stupid, but enjoyable. Not sure if that made sense.

Another was something like 'The Dead' or some such ... I'll have to go and find it. Either way, basically space dust and meteors caused zombies to spring up and this beauty queen, mad gun man, couple of constables and some others get thrown in it together. In the end, lots of dead people, camp and laughs, and aliens make it start raining to get rid of all the Zombie Dust and stop the plague, only they missed some of the more determined 'survivors' who were plagued and it all started over again at the end of the movie. Really not bad, and a plus that it wasn't an American drawl I have to admit (nothing wrong with it, just like the twang/lilt/burr/whatever of other accents and languages.

Slither was fun for what it was, have to admit that. Bit gory when it came to eating the meat but that was meant to be a gross out factor.

Descent ... is that the one where they go in to check out these caves and there are these, erm, for lack of a better word, gargoyle type creatures picking them off and hunting them down and one of the main guys is infected but keeps it together long enough to use it to help get some of the survivors out? If so, loved that film!!

Haven't seen half of those that you mentioned Steve but I'm definitely up for getting a few of those. My wife calls me the 'B Movie Fanatic', so a lot of that will probably appeal to me.

[caffeinated]

I voraciously watch lots of movies while working, so I tend to watch a lot of different quality stuff & judge them based on their efforts & the money thaey had to work with.

I liked both Diary & Land of the Dead and saw them in the theatre when they came out. They pretty much fall in line with the first three films in terms of tone & style but add new perspectives. They also fit the whole world view that only Shaun of the Dead has done. Every other movie has to start off with its own ridiculous "start of the infection story".

Re-animator films- All great flicks loosely based on Lovecraft. Eagerly awaiting part 4. You've likely seen these, but few people mention them when naming zombie flicks.

Undead- Great New Zealand (or Aussie can't remember which off hand) film. In the style of the Evil Dead movies.

Night of the Creeps- Space slugs turn people to zombies in the 80's. A favorite of mine which Slither copied a bit in story and style( love that movie too though. If you liked Slither see this.

Night of the Comet_ Another 80's fave of mine. Comet wipes out almost everyone. There are really only a few zombies (from half exposure to comet rads) in it though.

The Dead Next Door- Old 80's low budget film with zombie hunters. Produced by Raimi with dubbing on 2 characters voices by Bruce Campbell. Not great but it entertained me.

Wild Zero- Japanese film starring the band Guitar Wolf. Over the top weird. Not really horror at all, but you'll go "what the hell?' and "Oh my God!" a lot. Seriously, its weird.

Day of the Dead 2: Contagium. Yep the name contagium tells you its bad. Someone had the rights to the DOTD name so they did a crappy prequel explaining the start of the virus. The zombies are ridiculous. They were trying to cash in on the Dawn remake & Land I guess.

[caffeinated]

Oh and just in case you haven't been inflicted with Uwe Boll's work: House of the Dead is the worst movie ever. It may be why my tolerance for other film's is so high.
WORSE than Zombie Lake.

[Frustrated Father]

Undead! That's the one, thanks Steve.

[caffeinated]

Another addendum:

Worst Case Scenario- just trailer vignettes, but they are awesome:

http://www.gorehoundinc.com/

[Moavoamoatu]

Great. I am a big zombie fan too : I saw almost all movies, I collect zombie miniatures and I play zombie games too.

If you want to test the game I created with a swedish friend just join our group to download the rules (it's free) : Dead walk Again :

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/deadwalkagain/

[supervike]

Descent ... is that the one where they go in to check out these caves and there are these, erm, for lack of a better word, gargoyle type creatures picking them off and hunting them down and one of the main guys is infected but keeps it together long enough to use it to help get some of the survivors out? If so, loved that film!!




Ah, what a creative memory you have! You have just described a book call The Descent, which as far as I know has never been put to film. It was a fun read though!

The film I am talking about bears the same name, but completely unreleated.

It's an all women group of spelunkers, who take the wrong cave to explore and find some very disturbing (and hungry) creatures. It's a bit gory too, but worth the watch.



Worse Case Scenario! I've been waiting for that film for years! Those undead nazis on balloons are SOOOOOOO creepy!

[caffeinated]

I downloaded that a while ago, but never got around to playing it. I just don't get to play many games these days.
Someday maybe I'll get around to releasing the zombie stuff I sculpted for myself.

[supervike]

I downloaded that a while ago, but never got around to playing it. I just don't get to play many games these days.
Someday maybe I'll get around to releasing the zombie stuff I sculpted for myself.


Yes, you should! There are quite a few mini-zombie lovers out there!!

(perhaps you'd care to tempt us with a photo or two?)

[caffeinated]

All I have photos of is one I did for the Frother's comp last year:
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p281/mrcaffeinated/RavingDead005.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p281/mrcaffeinated/RavingDead002.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p281/mrcaffeinated/RavingDead003.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p281/mrcaffeinated/RavingDead004.jpg

[Frustrated Father]

Ah, its called the Cave


YouTube - The Cave Trailer

Ah, what a creative memory you have! You have just described a book call The Descent, which as far as I know has never been put to film. It was a fun read though!

The film I am talking about bears the same name, but completely unreleated.

[supervike]

The Cave?

It's got the same plot as the book then! I'll have to check that one out.

[Frustrated Father]

Oh yeah, and the Grindhouse movie that came out a bit back, no clue what the hell that was called. Campy, but fun.

[caffeinated]

Planet Terror- I liked that a lot as well.

[EricJ]

yeah, decent was a good movie, but not a zombie movie at all, but worth the watch.

I still can't wait for Stones War!

[goblyn13]

Doomsday was a decent movie, there's the Resident Evil Series, first one was decent, then the rest kinda went downhill. Planet Terror was the way better of the the two Grindhouse movies.

[Hinton]

Love movies about the undead and zombie-like creatures. The Romero films and Shaun of the Dead definitely top my list.

I don't think I saw these mentioned:

Braindead (also known as Dead Alive) - a guy's mom gets bitten by some kind of zombie monkey, she turns into a zombie and hijinks ensue. Written and directed by Peter Jackson, but don't expect LoTR here.

Cemetary man - a cemetary caretaker and his assistant tend to a cemetary, which sometimes includes fighting off the rising corpses of the newly-dead. It focuses more on the caretaker (Rupert Everett), but there are undead and it does have a kind of interesting plot.

Think about all of the others that I've seen have already been mentioned.

[caffeinated]

Dead Alive got a mention on first page, but really it deserves the extra push.

Cemetery Man was cool though I'd like to see it again. I'll have to see if its on dvd.

Also the Return of the Living Dead 3-5 were not so god. 3 was goofy S&M crap & the last 2 were tv/dvd direct releases that did not have the spirit of the first or even the charm of the second.

[EricJ]

yeah, dead alive (braindead) is one of the greats, I'll give it another mention!

[Moavoamoatu]

Don't forget books: my favourites are Day by Day armageddon and of course the zombie survival guide.

World war Z was not so good.

And comics such as Walking Dead : a must read.

[supervike]

I liked World War Z! It was a fun read.

The Walking Dead comics are fantastic but soooooo depressing. Those characters just never get a break!

[Frustrated Father]

Jim gave me the Walking Dead ones and they were fantastic, depressing, but fantastic. I need to read the rest of them.

Monster Planet, Monster Island and Monster (whatever) all sucked. Sorry if you're a fan of them, but bad reads.

[supervike]

Jim gave me the Walking Dead ones and they were fantastic, depressing, but fantastic. I need to read the rest of them.

Monster Planet, Monster Island and Monster (whatever) all sucked. Sorry if you're a fan of them, but bad reads.


I read through most of Monster Island...I can't say it sucked. It has some very unique twists on the zombie genre. The writing was pretty tight...and the action decent.

But, on the same token, I never finished it, so it must not have really grabbed my attention.

The reason I even gave it a chance is because you can get it for free....

It is certainly worth the time, if you are hard up for freebie zombie action.

[Frustrated Father]

I bought them, maybe that's the difference.

[Hinton]

If we're talking about books, there's Book of the Dead and Book of the Dead 2, edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector. Basically, they're collections of short stories about the undead (in some variation) by various horror and suspense authors. Some of the stories are ok, some are pretty good.

[green stuff]

It's a bit out of topic, but for those of you who'd like a good laugh on the gendra, I'd suggest : "Night of the Living Bread" :P.

It's a short black and white film, but it sums up pretty well the story telling effects in such movies.

[Ritual]

Zombie Flesh Eaters, anyone? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080057/

A lot of gore films (with zombies, cannibals, vampires, serial killers, etc.) were made in Italy in the 70s and early 80s. Most of them are rather poor films with low budget, but if you want morbidity, bad taste, gratuitous nudity, sadism and general depravity this is where you'll get it!

[supervike]

I bought them, maybe that's the difference.


Oh yeah! That is the big difference!!

There have been plenty of movies I liked when a rental, but had I shelled out big bucks to see them in the theatre, I'd most likely have hated them!


Still got those books? I'd be interested in giving them a read through!

[Frustrated Father]

I've got one of them still (gave the other two away) - I'll dig it out and post it to you.

[ThunderhawkerMinis]

No 28 Days Later? Running zombies. Scary thought.

[supervike]

I think he mentioned those films way up at the start.

I liked those too.

@nathan...thanks man!

[Moavoamoatu]

A great book list here :

http://www.zombiebooklist.com/

And of course the FVZA :

http://www.fvza.org/zombies.html

[ThunderhawkerMinis]

Don't say "films" - the second one was total crap IMHO and only resides in my collection out of spite.

[Ritual]

I think 28 Weeks Later was possibly better than 28 Days...

[demonherald]

I'm torn on those two.. couldn't decide wether to get them or not for ages then they were part of a special offer on boxed sets in the local supermarket and I picked the two films up and enjoyed them a lot.. I think the second is just edging it a little for me

The cannibal films that were video nasties in the 80's and then had a ressurgence were pretty cool if you like high on random gore ... cannibal appocalypse definitely jumps to mind....

I watched one last week and can't for the life of me remember what it was called.. I think it may have been a combination of been high on painkillers and watching it with earphones in a hospital bed after dark but it scared the shite out of me....group of people in the jungles of new guinea....fairy recent.. not a zombie but a cannibal affair??/ any takers? could have been welcome to the jungle?

Slugs was fun.....
and Black Sheep.sort of a shawn of the dead ..with sheep .. funny film..

[Astorderire]

Jim gave me the Walking Dead ones and they were fantastic, depressing, but fantastic. I need to read the rest of them.

Monster Planet, Monster Island and Monster (whatever) all sucked. Sorry if you're a fan of them, but bad reads.

I read Monster Island... Well, while I'm sure it won't be remembered by the futur generation as a major masterpiece, I find it rather pleasant... Yet I was unable to read Monster Nation past page 10.
"Down the road" was also a major disapointment (like "it floods out of a cow but it isn't milk" kind of disapointment)

Did anyone read "Automn"? I bought the books but they are still waiting on my bookshelf. I heard a movie was made from this serie

[caffeinated]

I read the Monster trilogy. They weren't great, but were readable.

The Autumn series is very good. 5 books so far with another out soon I believe.

The Cell is Stephen King's take on the zombie story. If you've read The Stand or any of his other longer monster books, its the same basic story: Small group of people, whose backgrounds you get too much in depth info on, fighting an omnipotent critter and some die suddenly and pointlessly at the same point in every book as the impetus to kill the thing once and for all.

Anyone watched any of the recommendations found here?

[Frustrated Father]

Got a plan to watch some of them this week coming when I have some time off.

Speaking of books, or in this case, Audio Books, I find that they work best for me these days while I'm working. Don't have to bother with anyone and it makes the night go by quicker.

Anyhoo, not really a zombie type book, more in the vein of 28 Days Later, but Steven King did a book called 'Cell'. I've only listened to about forty minutes worth of it so far but it seems somewhat interesting. Basically there is a signal or something that is transmitted through the phone lines/cell phones and everyone around the planet, at the same time, anyone that is on the phone, or gets on the phone there after, basically goes psychotic and its a merry time had by all. We'll see where it goes.

[demonherald]

sounds interesting... could already be happening .. I now whenever I get put on hold and ater to listen to greensleeves or some equally god awful crap I get angrier and angrier....

[caffeinated]

Commented about "The Cell" in the post above yours Nathan. I didn't care for it. They're doing a movie of it now though.

[Frustrated Father]

Hah, go figure, I read your post but missed the reference to Cell - snake - bite ... you get the picture.

I can't stand to read any of King's stuff to be honest, but I figure I can have the audio book do it for me and see what comes of it. Like everything though, King's stuff goes to film and I figured this one was right up there for the Sci-Fi Channel.

[EricJ]

This one looks a lot like zombies to me!

Quarantine

[goblyn13]

This one looks a lot like zombies to me!

Quarantine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfUAETRhhkw)

Agreed, apparently, its a remake of a spanish film http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038988/

[Thryth]

Viral zombies and photographing a movie with a camcorder. Breaking new ground there. Oh! Wait... ;)

[EricJ]

yeah, I checked out the spanish film, the scenes they show in the trailer look almost exactly the same as REC.

As for the genre, I think we have to consider viral zombies just the standard now days, and similarly handheld 1st person filming is becoming a standard now. The issue is now not how it was shot anymore, but we have to go back to whether WHAT is shot is a compelling or interesting story.

[supervike]

I think 1st person filming really has some great merit. I understand it has been a bit overused at times, but it's a reflection of our society. How often do you go somewhere touristy and see someone filming everything (but not really enjoying it, just filming it)...

Zombies are so creepy because they represent that slow, relentless march towards death itself....But I think fast movie zombies are fantastic too...they just don't build the tension as much.

[supervike]

Sorry to bring this back from the dead....but it is a ZOMBIE thread afterall, and no one has given it a headshot!

I just watched DIARY OF THE DEAD this weekend.

Uff...that was awful. So contrived and poorly written....

Anyone see Quarantine yet?

Also, with the WALKING DEAD (graphic novel) I finally broke down and bought the next two in the series (I'm still behind by a few books)....It's not getting any more cheerful! But, they do capture that impeding fear very well. Still highly recommended!

[Frustrated Father]

Dairy of the Dead - the only thing I liked was when some of the annoying blokes got ate. Otherwise, drivel and snot.

Not yet on the Quarantine yet but I'm interested. It is supposed to be a remake off a spanish film apparently.

[EricJ]

Casey and I have decided to go the the theatre and she's going to see the Bee's movie (some chick flick about knees or something), while I go to Quarantine, just haven't found a day yet.

I recently saw Diary of the dead also, and agree that it was relatively poor.

Still wondering if Stone's War will ever come out...

[Grinning Buddha]

Dance with the Dead (aka nerds save the world err well ok small town) ... 2 zombies kissing is just too funny for words even if the movie is total pants!

Trailer Park of Terror (aka rednecks go zombie) ... the whole movie is HILARIOUS but the duct tape and deep fat fryer scenes are too funny!

[HoAx]

Here is my two cents worth on movies not mentioned:

Zombie Strippers = a good movie as a fun poke at zomie flicks

Return of the living dead - necropolis = Terrible... throwing a shotgun instead of shooting it, means more brains for the zombies.

Dead and Breakfast = good movie worth a watch.

Ed and his dead mother = another fun movie

this one is a "no brainer" (sorry for the pun) Zombie clowns = it SUCKS!! We had it playing on the way to Gen Con. I wasn't even watching and it sounded bad.

There is one out there called Special Dead but I have not seen it. Yes that is special as in short bus special.