News to "UN"die for #1

Welcome back friends, this Santiago again, your very own Zombie blogger, bringing you another post celebrating OUR obsession, tonight I will write about many wonderful things like;

AMC's The Walking dead, where season 2 already?
Joder!!! (F word in Castilian) I'll be talking about [REC] the Spanish movie Quarantine is based on.
The wait for Pontypool... what the hell is that?
An update on the comic book project.

But first of all I want to talk about you, the audience, when I first started writing this blog I believed that I was expressing myself about my obsession, but in the time that has elapsed I realize that everyone is a little obsessed with zombies, we've all asked ourselves that "what if?" and wondered quite a bit.
In the beginning I thought this blog would only exist in the screens of myself and a few personal friends that I would force to read, but now you read me in: USA, UK, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, France, Bolivia, Germany, Malaysia, Italy, India & Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, Austria, Russia and Lebanon...  whoa, I gotta catch my breath, well anyways I guess I mean thanks all of you!!!

AMC's The Walking Dead: well what can I say? I'm still watching the reruns, that's how good it is. On my review of the first episode and promised you more to come, but I believe that reviews are great for movies, I may point you in a direction that you've never considered, or I could steer you clear of the movies that are just not worth your valuable time, but in the case of TWD it is pointless to write a review for every episode and just tell you again and again how much I love it, instead... If I have your permission I will write recaps of the story,  maybe quote some memorable phrases, and if you're good I'll give you updates for when the hell season 2 arrives, which by the way seems to be that AMC thinks the best idea is to bring it out on Halloween again, like the first one, plus it helps put the spotlight on other projects for them, so bummer we have to wait until Oct 31st so see some fresh meat, but on the bright side, they signed on for 13 episodes so when we do well be stuffed for a while...

Now lets move on to "[REC]" the Spanish movie from which the US flick Quarantine comes from, I thought the latter was an adaptation, but it's the same exact film up to the las scene, with very few variations and the obvious, they're in different languages, let's just say that both are very well done and very good movies, I will go more in depth in future posts. This situation gives us a rare opportunity,  we have two movies, made within a couple of years of eaach other, following the same exact script, but made in different countries.
Is it the fact that my native language is Spanish? or why do I believe that the English language makes movies a little less dimensional? like the characters seem less real, it could be just the fault of Hollywood and their formulas steal the magic.

Pontypool, where is it? a friend I've recently made for our mutual interest has suggested I watch the movie "Pontypool" he said it was one of those that screw with your mind... and boy do I love those, from what I've seen from the preview is that a group of people locked themselves up at a local radio station, and the receive sporadic reports on how the crisis is progressing, unfortunately Netflix does not yet have it available.

MY COMIC BOOK NEWS!!!  We had a wonderful time this past Saturday during the first meeting for the production of the comic book, we savagely tore into some nice bbq pork ribs, and some fleshy pink salmon, courtesy of one of our supporters. What did we get done? I did a reading on the first 5 chapters and got great feedback and appreciation, I have chosen who will portray most of the main characters, there are still some roles left for those who are interested, and we will always need lots of zombies in the background, so if you'd like to be zombified this is your chance... people are jsut dying to be part of this adventure, muah ha ha ha.

Also, I have sent out some e-mails to some of the people involved in the movies of this great genre, please cross your fingers that I get an answer so I can start posting interviews.

Thanks again for reading, and not making me feel like I'm writing to a wall, I hope you keep coming back and invite your friends to visit here, if they don't come around apply a little pressure, I'm not suggesting you break anyones thumb, but plucking a few eyelashes is acceptable I guess...  well whatever, just tell tem to read...

THANK YOU, and until next time remember... Zombies were people too!!!

Review: Survival of the Dead (2009)

  Some family feuds never die, some die but just don't stay dead, specially when it involves Zombies...

Leave it to George Romero to deliver another powerful thought provoking tale of horror, this movie follows a team of renegade soldiers escaping fleeing the zombie apocalypse only to end up in the middle of a family feud between the O'Flynns and the Muldoon, two big families with very different views on how to deal with the clan members that have died and been reanimated, the leader of the O'Flynns beleives that they are an abomination and need to be out down, while Pater Muldoon prefers to adhere to this bloggers idea that "Zombies were people too!!!" (at least as it pertains to his kinfolk) keeping them in chains or in a stable in the hopes that someday someone might find and a cure, or they can at least teach the zombies to feed on something other than humans.

This is definitely a movie to watch, it has the inventive gore that you come to expect from a modern zombie flick,  intelligent survivors who are prepared for the threat ahead, but what is most important to me is that the movie posts moral questions that leave you thinking, I know that thinking is a very dangerous pastime but sometimes it's inevitable.

In  synthesis, this movie is well put together, believably acted, and has a good serving of gore for those who are just in it for the thrill of it.

To see a list of all the films I've reviewed click here

Review: AMC's The Walking Dead - Season 1 - Episode 1: Days gone by

 

AMC's The Walking Dead for those of you who live under a rock like Patrick Star (from Spongebob) is a series about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse based on a popular comic book.

I don't know why but I have the instinct to erase a recorded show after I'm done watching it, seconds later I kick my self for doing it, for this one in particular I wanted to hit myself in the head with a baseball bat for choosing "Stop & Delete" on my DVR, thankfully this week they had an encore of the whole first season.

Just how good is this series? let me just put it this way...  I do believe this show is the essence of what I like about zombie movies, it is as realistic as possible, though the make up effects are great and there is satisfying amount of blood in it, the show is really about the survivors, and how they fight to maintain their own humanity in the midst of the apocalypse.

I love the fact that it is done in series format for two main reasons; character development, and since the story doesn't have to end in two hours the survivors don't have to make some unrealistically stupid decision so they can all die off, as happens in 99.9% of zombie stories.

(Spoiler)

Now on to episode 1, the first shows  deputy sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) waking up form a coma in a hospital some time after the zombie outbreak, completely in disbelief he ventures out to the halls were he sees the devastation that was left, and a double door with chains marked "do not open, dead inside" suddenly the doors slightly open and hands start reaching out, once Rick is outside the hospital he sees hundreds of dead bodies laid down all over the place, the remains of an overrun military temporary defense post, we also see a flashback of Rick and his partner Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal) before rick gets the gun shot would that sends him to the hospital in the first place, it sets the backstage for one really screwed up drama, see Rick and Shane as I mentioned are partners... and in the law enforcement world we know partners are sacred, so big surprise in the post z-poc (zombie apocalypse) Shane (believing Rick is dead) is boinking Rick's wife Lori (Sarah Wayne Callie) and raising his son Carl (Chandler Riggs)...  a genius move by the writer if I must say, something that I would never have thought to put in a zombie sotry :)

While searching for his family Rick meets up with Morgan Jones (Lennie James) and his son Duane (Adrian Kali Turner) who quickly bring him up to speed, then they go to the sheriffs station to get cleaned up and stocked with weapons, Rick decides to search for his family in Atlanta where supposedly there is a sheltered area and the CDC (Center for Disease Control) is working on a cure. to know how this episode ends you will have to either see it, or read my review of the second episode. watching the actual TV show will be infinitely more satisfying than reading my next review, but don't worry you can do both!!!!

Until next time remember...  Zombies were people too.

I don't paint my nails black

Hello out there, my name is Santiago, my friends call me Santy...

Now I don't paint my nails black, I don't idolize the macabre, and I am not generally a gloomy person, but lately I have been obsessing with the undead, Zombies to be exact, this is mostly due to a string of movies that I have seen lately like "Zombieland", "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" and specially AMC's "The Walking Dead" Series.

Don't think for a second that these are the first things I've watched on the subject, it's just that for the past couple of weeks there is not much else I can think about when I'm idle. Unfortunately this genre is not one my wife or my 5 and 2 1/2 year old kids are interested in, so for lack of someone to converse with I am writing to you.

I'm kind of embarassed to say that I got the idea for writing this blog after watching the movie "Julie and Julia"... yes the movie abut Julia Childs... yes the cook!!!! but oh well, what can I say? my tastes vary a lot...

Back to the subject at hand "Zombies" or what I am more interested in... the interactions between Zombies and the unlucky survivors, and their portrayal on any media whether it be on screen or print.

If there is ONE thing I would like to accomplish with this blog it would be to end the cheesy unbelievable stupidity some movie producers believe the audience is capable of, for example: The one person in the group who is scratched sometime in the film, and even though he/she is pale, sweating and has become disturbingly quiet and detached, when someone else asks "are you OK?" they believe the gravely voice that says "....hmm ... arghh, it's nothing... I'm ok" and voila!!! in the end of the movie he/she turns Zombie and kills them all.