Golden Ghouls and Eat Me Pumps

Thank You for Eating My Friend

I'm going to start with some Zombie Art, an under-used label here on the Zone. The "quadratich" (yes, I may well have just made up a word and if catches on, I want credit, damnit!) above is from April Winchell's hilarious blog Regretsy. And I must give April credit for the caption, as well - it was her title for the post featuring  living-dead portraits of Sophia (Estelle Getty); Dorothy (Bea Arthur); Rose (Betty White) and Blanche (Rue McLanahan). Poor Betty White seems to have come through the worst for the wear, even though she's the only one who is still actually alive.

April's zombie lyrics to "Thank You for Being a Friend" are very funny and I just adore the little animation that one of Regretsy's regular readers made, imagining the ladies as finger-puppet zombies, complete with hilarious dialog.

I think $15.00 is an incredible bargain for four 5x7 prints and am actually considering buying a set for myself. I'd put them in my home office, somewhere I could glance at them for inspiration. Of course, Christmas isn't too far away to start thinking about...

In Zombie Fashion this week, thanks to If Shoes Could Kill, come these fabulous Zombie Pumps.

Perfect for a night on the town with your Goth boyfriend or a Zombie Pup Crawl, you'll be the envy of every brain-eating fashionista in the cemetery. They also have a an amazing pair of crucifix and garlic Vampire-Killing Pumps which I'm including as at least marginally connected in that both Zombies and Vampires are versions of the 'undead.' The shoes don't look very comfortable, though, even for a woman who is used to wearing heels.

How about some Zombie News, then eh? BoingBoing posted this story about a bunch of protester zombies who were wrongly arrested in Minneapolis two years. The four sued the city and initially lost, but filed an appeal. Rather than face a lengthy trial, the city of Minneapolis just settled the case for $165,000. That can buy a lot of clownwhite, kohl eyeliner and fake blood.

And this week's Zombie Clip of the Week is news report footage from Zack Snyder's excellent 2004 re-make of Dawn of the Dead:

I don't remember if all of this footage was used -- I'll have to go back and watch the movie again -- and I suspect some of it may be fan-made, though I could wrong. But it's fun!

More mindless consumerism... er, uh... I mean cannibalism, soon.

Prospero

Zombies on Crack?

Let's start with some Zombie Science this week, shall we?

When Uncle P was a kid, he thought Mad Magazine was the pinnacle of hilarity. I loved their goofy movie parodies, Spy vs. Spy and the last page fold-ins. As far as I know Mad is still being published. It's low-rent competitor Cracked, however, has gone the way of many ink-on-paper publications and now exists online, only. The guys who run the site are often vulgar, though occasionally funny. Even less occasionally, they run something that actually has some tenuous scientific merit. Such is the case with this article: 7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail. Way to kill my Zombie buzz, Cracked. Assholes.

And the odd news aggregate site Weird Universe had a link to the video below, about a fungus that turns ants (and other insects) into zombies, of sorts. If you're a sympathetic entomologist (Uncle P dated an entomologist, once - he specialized in a very specific type of wasp, but more on that another time), you may want to avoid the very cool images of 'exploded' insect bodies towards the end of this clip:

This week in Zombie Films, Dread Central has posted this trailer for the upcoming South African Zombie flick The Dead:

The Dead - Official Trailer
Uploaded by dreadcentral. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

And then there's the upcoming Resident Evil: Afterlife, the first major release to employ the 3D camera system developed by James Cameron for Avatar.

Milla Jovovich returns as the genetically engineered zombie killer Alice in Paul W. S. Anderson's fourth entry in the video game-inspired franchise, though 'inspired' is hardly the word I'd use to describe these films. They can be entertaining, though they're hardly what anyone would call "good." Of course, compared to a directer like Uwe Boll, Anderson is a genius.

And since it's been a while since we've visited this series, your Zombie Clip of the Week is the next episode of Zombie College:

That's all the news that's fit to chew for this week. More grisly gristle chomping, soon.
Prospero

Eat Brains Love

The hilarious poster on your right comes via the Sci-Fi, Steampunk, zombie-lovin' nerds over at Boing Boing. Uncle P would certainly see this movie over the one in which Julia Roberts is currently starring. I mean come on, the Queen of Rom-Coms for the past 30 years as a zombie? I'd pay double to see that movie. Pretty Zombie, anyone? Or how about Runaway Zombie? My Best Friend's Zombie? Zombie Hill? I know - Sleeping with the Living Dead! Any of these movies would be preferable to the treacly crap the very attractive star usually makes.

Sadly, there aren't very many major Zombie Films on the near horizon, unless you count Paul W.S. Anderson's upcoming Resident Evil: Afterlife, the next wide release movie shot with the 3D cameras developed by James Cameron for Avatar.

Of course, next year we have Natalie Portman starring in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies from lunatic director David O. Russell (I Heart Hucakbees), based on the book adapted by Seth Grahame-Smith. 2012 is the scheduled release date for the film version of Max Brooks' novel (really a collection of related short stories) World War Z (a book Uncle P found to be actually quite boring) reportedly starring and co-produced by Brad Pitt.

And we have yet to see the U.S. release of Rec 2, the sequel to the Spanish zombie movie that was rather effectively re-made in the U.S. as Quarantine:

And While Rec 2 is a direct sequel to Rec, Quarantine 2: The Terminal (according to IMDb) takes place at an airport, during the same time as Quarantine. Latino hottie Ignacio Serricchio appears instead of Latino hottie Jay Hernandez, whose hot fireman character apparently died in Quarantine.

There are a few low-budget Indie zombie movies on the horizon, though they'll most likely play a festival or two and then go straight to DVD. Zombie Undead is one such film:

As is Dead EXIT:

Sadly, neither of those trailers make me want to spend the money to rent them.

And it seems that Zombie Pastries are all the rage of late. Uncle P's sister sent this link to an L.A. Times article about Brain Cakes. Mmmm... brain cakes!

Finally, here's your Zombie Clip of the Week; a very short and very silly bit of Zombie Nonsense appropriate of nothing, really:

Hopefully, I'll have something of a bit more substance to report the next we meet in the Zone...

More shambling, moaning and chomping soon.
Prospero

Zombie-copia

Happy August, Zombiephiles!

Lots to talk about this week, so let's get started, shall we? First, in Zombie Pastries is this delightful cake of Audrey Hepburn as a zombie. Titled "Zombie at Tiffany's," it's an entry in this year's Threadcakes contest, sponsored by T-shirt company, Threadless. Uncle P's sister entered last year's contest, but realized that her sculpting skills just weren't up to some of the other entrants', so she decided to forgo this year's. I imagine if Ms. Hepburn were to rise from the grave, she'd be in much worse shape than this, considering she's been dead for over 17 years...

In Zombie News, here's a funny story I've been sitting on for a while (I honestly forgotten about it), but thought you might find amusing. Apparently, some revelers dressed in Zombie attire were involved in auto accident in Portland, OR. Can you imagine witnessing this accident? Or worse, being the first EMT on the scene?

And then (via) comes this fun story about a Zombie App for your iPhone. You take a picture of someone, and it "zombifies" them. Yup, there's an app for that. Personally, I hate iPhones (and all so-called 'smart phones,' for that matter). I think they are just one more device that is depersonalizing society - creating virtual zombies who are too "plugged-in" to experience and enjoy real life. But that's just my humble opinion. Of course, without modern technology, you wouldn't be reading this right now, so who am I to judge? You can download the free app here, if you so choose...

And in a Zombie Nonsense/Zombie Music combo-post, comes this rather amusing mash-up video from Barely Digital, Left for Dead Beatles:

Now where have I heard that "Paul is dead" line before?

Finally, tonight in Zombie TV -- by now you all know how excited I am to see the new AMC original series The Walking Dead, based on the Robert Kirkman comic book series of the same name, about a family struggling to survive in the aftermath of the Zombie Apocalypse. Via the flesh-eating maniacs at i09 comes the Zombie Clip of the Week, showing how the Walking Dead SFX makeup team created 'Bicycle Girl.' Enjoy:

At the risk of repeating myself, if anyone can do this series justice, it's Frank Darabont.

More gut-chomping, soon.
Prospero