What Lies Ahead

Tonight saw the 90-minute Season Two premiere of AMC's amazing zombie apocalypse series "The Walking Dead" and I just couldn't wait until Monday to post my recap and comments. As always Here There Be Spoilers. Do not read ahead if you haven't seen tonight's episode.

At the end of Season One, Rick; Lori; Carl; Shane; T-Dog; Darrell; Dale; Andrea; Carol and Sophia were prepared to leave the about-to-explode CDC, just as Andrea and Dale emerged. In 'What Lies Ahead,' not everyone is happy to have been rescued, though the group is now heading for Fort Benning in the hope finding a living military presence there. As they pick their way through the stalled, wrecked and otherwise incapacitated traffic, the radiator hose on Dale's RV breaks and the group is forced to stop for repairs. 

As the group sets out to scavenge parts and supplies from the vehicles surrounding them, they are set upon by a 'herd' of walkers. Rick orders them to hide under the cars and for the most part, the ruse works. Of course, the mounting tension as the seemingly endless herd shuffled by was almost unbearable. Am I the only one who found himself holding his breath during this scene? T-Dog suffers a major wound to his arm and Darrell saves the both of them by hiding beneath the corpses of two actually dead people. Andrea, trying to rebuild her pistol after Shane cleaned it, is trapped in the RV's bathroom by a walker. Dale slips a screwdriver to her through the skylight, which she plunges into the zombie's eye. Just when it seemed all was clear, poor Sophia is discovered by a walker and she takes off down an embankment, pursued by two walkers. Rick immediately takes chase, hiding Sophia in the roots of a tree by a creek, while drawing the walkers away from her.

Meanwhile, tension is mounting between Shane and Lori and Carl has begun to notice. When Carl retrieves a cache of bladed weapons from a corpse in a car, he proudly displays his find to Shane who blatantly dismisses him in front of Lori. Confused, Carl takes the weapons to Dale as Lori admonishes Shane for being cruel to her son, which leads to a discussion about Shane's attempted rape of Lori at the CDC. 

Having dispatched the walkers who chased Sophia into the woods, Rick returns to the root cave only to find her missing. He enlists Darrell to help him search for the girl, but the trail goes cold as dark starts to descend. They return to the group with the intention of resuming their search in the morning. carol blames Rick for losing her daughter and fears Sophia won't survive a night alone in the woods. The next morning, as they prepare to continue the search, Dale refuses to give Andrea her gun and she admonishes him for forcing her to not commit suicide at the CDC along with Jennings and Jacqui. She joins the search party, resenting the fact that she still doesn't have a gun.

The party comes upon a tent in which they hope Sophia is hiding, only to find the body of a camper who "opted out." Darrell takes the man's gun and the continue on, led by the sound of a church bell. Inside the small church, they find three walkers seated in the pews but no Sophia. I immediately associated this scene with the zombies in Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," who gather at the mall because it's a place they used to go. Of course, no Baptist church would have a full crucifix behind the altar, as this one did. While there, Shane revealed to Lori that he was planning on leaving the group, which was overhead by Andrea, who asked to go with him. Carol prayed for forgiveness and the safe return of Sophia, while Rick prayed for yet another miracle to keep the survivors going. 

With no sign of Sophia, most of the group heads back to the highway and Lori admonishes all of the blame for looking to Rick for leadership and then blaming him for things beyond his control. Rick, Shane and Carl remain behind to continue the search. When they come upon a deer in the woods, Sane is tempted to shoot it, but Rick stops him as Carl approaches the deer, a symbol of hope for all of them. The deer is wary of the boy's approach, but doesn't flee as Carl gets closer. Suddenly, a shot rings out and both the deer and Carl are felled. 

Whew! A thrilling, compelling and exciting premiere which sets up the season almost as well as the pilot did. Will Shane and Andrea leave? Where is Sophia? Will Carl survive? Will T-Dog's wound lead to infection, death and zombification? And where is Darrell's brother Merle, who cut off his own hand to escape the walkers on the department store roof? Thankfully, we only have a week to wait for some of the answers, unlike the year we waited for Season Two.

More, anon.
Prospero

Two Days

Uncle P's Sister After Baking One Too Many Cakes?

This Sunday sees the 90-minute  Season Two premiere of AMC's groundbreaking series "The Walking Dead." You know when even Uncle P's mother is excited for the return of a series about zombies, it must be good. 

Of course, "The Walking Dead" is only nominally about zombies. Mostly it's about people trying to survive a cataclysmic event that turned their lives upside down. And that's what makes Robert Kirkman's graphic novel (and the series) so compelling. Sure, the zombies are horrifying and disgusting; yes, the special effects are gross and even a bit titillating and of course, the suspense of  trying to escape a hungry horde of zombies is exciting. But without characters we care about, it's just crunching and munching; buckets of fake blood and exploding heads. That gets boring, after a while. What makes "The Walking Dead" work so well are its characters. Real people responding to an extraordinary situation, reacting in the only ways they know how. And of course, amazing performances by an excellent ensemble cast don't hurt.

When we last saw our rag-tag band of survivors, they had barely escaped the about-to-explode CDC, after the suicidal Jenner whispered something obviously important into Rick's ear. I'm guessing that Rick's wife is pregnant, but with whose baby? Of course, I could be wrong. If you haven't seen Season 1 of "The Walking Dead" (and shame on you if that's the case), you can stream it from Netflix or watch the inevitable marathon this Sunday on AMC, before the Season 2 premiere. Or you can search "The Walking Dead" and "recaps" on this blog and read my recaps of the first season's 6 episodes. AMC has ordered a full 13 -episode season for this year. Seven episodes will air this fall, starting this Sunday, with six additional episodes starting in February.  Here's the official Season 2 trailer, which had Uncle P's sister gripping the arms of her chair as she watched:

I am very psyched for this Sunday, and will post my recap on Monday.

In other zombie news, my buddy Pax Romano at Billy Loves Stu, posted a link to this review of the upcoming African zombie movie The Dead on Facebook. It's one of several International zombie movies (including the Cuban zombie movie Juan of the Dead) that Uncle P is excited to see. I mentioned both of these films over at the now-defunct Zombie Zone and m glad to see they're getting more attention. Here are their trailers:

More, anon.
Prospero

First Zombie

In 1931, Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi became a bona-fide movie star with his performance as Dracula in Tod Browning's film of the same name. But in 1932, he starred in what many consider the first actual zombie movie, White Zombie. 

Directed by Victor and Edward Halperin, White Zombie  is set in Haiti where Madelaine (Madge Bellamy) meets with her fiance Neil (John Harron) for a romantic island wedding. They arrive at the sugar plantation of Charles Beaumont (Robert Frazer) who falls in love (well, lust) with Madeline. Beaumont soon arrives at the sugar mill run by Murder Legendre*(Lugosi). Legendre's mill is run entirely by zombies under his control, and he convinces Beaumont the only way  to win Madeline is to turn her into a zombie. Legendre gives him a potion which Beaumont slips to Madeline on her wedding day. Soon thereafter, Madeline takes ill, 'dies' and is buried, much to her new husband's consternation. Charles and Murder soon sneak into Madeline's tomb and revive her as a zombie, but Charles begins to regret his actions and begs Murder to restore her to life. Murder refuses and it soon becomes apparent that Charles is also under Murder's supernatural control. Meanwhile, Neil, haunted by ghostly visions of Madeline, seeks the help of a local missionary, Bruner (Joseph Cawthorne). Bruner and Neil arrive at Murder's cliffside castle, where Murder sends Madeline to kill Neil. Bruner intercedes and after a struggle, Beaumont and Legendre are thrown off an escarpment to their deaths, releasing Madeline from Murder's spell. 

The movie was not well-received when it was released. Critics savaged the performance of Ms Bellamy, a former Broadway and silent film star, even though she had very little actual dialog, spending most of the picture moping about silently in a trance. The Halperin brothers were sued by playwright Kenneth Webb, who claimed they had stolen the plot from his theatrical flop "Zombie" (the court ruled that Webb's dialog and plot were not infringed upon). Bellamy went on to make a handful of films, but never really recovered from vicious attacks on her performance, despite being an accomplished stage actress. Lugosi, of course, went on to become one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces, though by the late '50's was reduced to appearing in Ed Wood, Jr's "Z"-grade movies. 

Preceding Val Lewton's atmospheric I Walked with a Zombie, by 11 years, White Zombie manages to combine the traditional voodou zombi mythology with the mind-control of hypnotism popularized in earlier works such as The Cabinet of Caligari. Lugosi sports a truly demonic goatee and chews the scenery like every other horror star of the era. A lame, unofficial sequel called Revolt of the Zombies was released in 1936, though that movie lacks the atmosphere of the original and suffers from a dialog heavy script by Webb.

Like all horror movies of the era, White Zombie is truly tame by today's standards. Still,  it remains an important entry in the sub-genre and introduced the concept of the "Zombie" into the American psyche. It is also an essential part of any serious horror collector's library. Don't be confused by the 2009 movie of the same name, which has absolutely nothing to do with this film.

*Is that the most awesome character name ever, or what?

More, anon.
Prospero

Lucio Fulci's "Zombie" Gets a Halloween Re-release

I have never actually made it through all of Lucio Fulci's 1979 "unofficial sequel" to Romero's Dawn of the Dead (Fulci actually uses footage from Romero's film). Released in Europe as Zombi 2, Zombie has one of the genre's most infamous (not to mention preposterous) scenes of all time -- but more on that in a moment.

First of all, as a movie, Zombie is rather terrible. A ridiculous plot, nonsensical editing and downright awful acting just can't make up for the outrageous gross-outs Fulci and his team committed to celluloid. The closest thing to a star the movie has is Mia Farrow's sister, Tisa. The Italian actors spoke Italian while the Americans spoke English (how confusing must that set have been?) and the whole thing was badly dubbed into English by American actors who must have been rejected by every community theatre company in North America. As far as Uncle P is concerned, there are only two reasons to see Zombie: Gianetto di Rossi's outrageous make-up effects and the aforementioned infamous scene.

Recently, the movie was digitally restored and will see a limited release at select theaters for Halloween, just before the Blu-Ray version hits stores. Hitflix reports that the film has never looked so good. I first saw half of it at an inner-city theater where the audience was so loud, I was forced to leave half-way through, and again on grainy VHS, which I just couldn't stand to watch, especially given the very bad 'acting.' I'll have to try again, I suppose, if only for that scene. You know you the one. You've seen it, even if you've never seen the movie. It was recently featured in a cell-phone commercial and remains one of the most discussed scenes in the genre's history, if only because no one can figure out just how Fulci did it:

What the hell? Somehow, Fulci convinced a stuntman to get into a tank with a live shark, wrestle with and bite it and then stick a fake arm in it's mouth! Can you imagine a director attempting something like that today? The insurance company would shut that sh*t down before you could say "Hell no!"

A complete list of dates and cities for the re-release can be found at Hitflix here. The Blu-Ray drops on October 25th. 

Um... Okay, then.

More, anon.
Prospero

Zombetsy

Via

If you look at the list of blogs Uncle P reads regularly, you find a link to April Winchell's hilarious site, Regretsy. April pokes fun at some of the nonsense that goes on over at Etsy, a site for crafters and makers to sell their wares. She's particularly good at pointing out frauds and re-sellers, but is best at pointing out some of really ridiculous crap people try to sell on the site.

But Etsy actually does have some true artists who make and sell some lovely and interesting things. Today, my zombie-loving co-worker Mia sent me a link to a zombie item on Etsy and I suddenly found myself exploring page after page of items Etsy has liked to the word "zombies." And while I was going to post about the Halloween re-release of Lucio Fulci's Zombie (I'll do that tomorrow), I thought I'd share some of the amusing and disturbing items I found there. So, without further ado, here's a sampling of the zombie-related items I liked best on Etsy:

A Perfect Spaghetti Plate

Zombies Wobble But They Don't Fall Down

This Is Based on the 'Residental Evil' Movies

Wanna Ride?

Hello Dolly?

I'd Post This Sign

A T-Shirt

I'd Actually Wear This One

A Laptop Decal

When Did They Visit Uncle P's Garden?

How Romantic!

 Of course, there are lots and lots of zombie Evil You Know What things available, but I didn't post any pictures of them in deference to Dear D, my sister and Mia, herself -- all coulrophobic zombie-lovers.

If you visit Etsy, there are also many wonderful non-zombie items for sale, as well. Remember, there are only 74 shopping days until Christmas...

More, anon.

Prospero

Craven Zombies

Wes Craven, director of such classic horror movies as Last House on the Left; The Hills Have Eyes; A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, took a shot at the zombie genre with 1988's The Serpent and the Rainbow, with mixed results.

Based on the non-fiction book of the same name by enthobotanist Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow is a story about Haitian zombies; Voodoo rituals and social unrest, rather than reanimated flesh-eating ghouls. 

Bill Pullman (Independence Day; "Torchwood") stars as Dennis Alan, who, after an hallucinogenic experience in the Amazon, returns to Boston where he is approached by a pharmaceutical company looking for a new, safer type of anesthetic. They send him to Haiti to investigate the drugs used by Voodoo priests to create zombies. He arrives to find a country in the midst of a revolution; Duvalier's Tonton Macoute are still in control, terrorizing and torturing in the name of their corrupt leader and the only thing people fear more are Voodoo sorcerers known as bokor. Alan meets a local doctor named Marielle (Cathy Tyson) who agrees to help him find both the 'zombie drug' and a man named Cristophe, who apparently died and was reanimated as a zombie 8 years ago. Marielle introduces him to Lucien (Paul Winfield), a witch doctor and club owner whom she believes can help him. When Alan gets too close to the truth, the head of the Tonton, Peytraud (Zakes Mokae) has him tortured in an excruciating scene involving a nail through his scrotum. 

Peytraud dumps Alan at Marielle's, where she helps him recuperate. Undaunted, Alan continues his search, finding Christophe wandering in a cemetery. Not long after, he is framed for murder and forced to flee the country at gunpoint. Once aboard the plane, witch doctor Mozart (Brent Jennings) slips him the drug in a bid for fame and glory. During a celebratory dinner in Boston, Alan's employer's wife is possessed by Peytraud, warning him that he will die. Concerned for Marielle's safety, Alan returns to Haiti where he is kidnapped, buried alive and turned into a zombie himself. He is rescued by Christophe (Conrad Roberts) just in time to save Marielle from being decapitated (the same fate suffered by Mozart) and defeat the bokor Peytraud with the help of the jaguar spirit guide he discovered in the Amazon.

Notable for some truly intense and frightening nightmare scenes, Craven's movie isn't so much an account of Wade Davis' real experience as it is a fictional tale of black magic, Voodoo and political horror. And while a mostly fascinating take on all of those subjects, the movie's denouement devolves into a downright silly battle battle of Good vs Evil, featuring then state-of-the-art animation effects which don't really hold up today. Pullman is fine as Dennis Alan, though for a scientist, he seems too easily caught up in the spiritual aspects of the story. Mokae gives an over-the-top performance as the evil Peytraud, while the rest of the cast seem resigned to accepting the story's overall silliness. The aforementioned nightmare scenes and the depiction of Alan's burial are the highlights and are certainly worth seeing the film for, even though it ultimately disappoints in the end. The Serpent and the Rainbow also features performances by Paul Guilfoyle ("C.S.I.") and Michael "Alfred" Gough.

Wade Davis publicly decried Craven's film, even as his own book was being savaged by scientists who believed that no one could be controlled as the subject of his book, one Clairvius Narcisse, claimed to have been.

More, anon.
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There's Got to Be a Morning After (or 2)

Krishna failed to pull this guy up to Heaven by his ponytail.

I won't bother you again with the story of when I first saw Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Instead, I want to share my thoughts on the film (and Zack Snyder's 2004 'remake').

The events of Romero's version take place in the days following those of Night of the Living Dead. The world has been overrun by the reanimated dead, and as scientists argue over the cause and what should be done about it, Philadelphia newscaster Fran (Gaylen Ross) and her helicopter pilot boyfriend Stephen (David Emge) are planning on stealing the station's chopper to make their escape. Meanwhile, SWAT cops Peter (Ken Foree) and Roger (Scott Reineger) are sent into a Philadelphia tenement where they find a basement full of zombies, hidden by their loved ones who don't want to see their family members slaughtered. After killing dozens of both zombies and the living, the two decide they've had enough and meet up with Fran and Stephen to flee the city. After a scare while refueling the chopper, they come upon a shopping mall which they realize could serve as a sanctuary and land on the roof. They kill the zombies inside and risk going outside to block the mall's entrances with tractor-trailer trucks. It is during this risky operation that Roger gets sloppy and ends up bitten. They create a hidden living space and use the guns and food in the stores to create a mini-utopia for themselves. That is, until Roger succumbs to his wounds and reanimates. When Peter is forced to shoot his friend i teh head, they soon realize that their utopia is actually a prison, and begin to discuss leaving. Before they can, the mall is invaded by a gang of bikers, which include Romero himself (in a the Santa suit) and make-up effects innovator, Tom Savini. The bikers let hundreds of zombies in and Peter is bitten. When he reanimates, he leads the zombies right to the hidden living space, forcing Fran and Peter to the roof. As Fran waits outside, Peter contemplates suicide, but at the last minute fights his way to the chopper where he and Fran fly off with an unknown amount of fuel to an uncertain future.

Romero's film is notable for many reasons. First, Savini's effects: exploding heads; flesh being ripped off; intestines being pulled from stomachs and most infamously, the zombie ho gets the top of his head cut off by the helicopter's rotor. Second, like most of Romero's films, it makes a telling statement about blind consumerism and how people need to feel like they belong. As Peter says, "They're us, that's all."

Oh, Mom! You're so funny!

In 2004, director Zack Snyder (Watchmen; 300) 'remade' Dawn of the Dead. I used quotations here because the only thing the two films have in common is a shopping mall.

Snyder's film, from a screenplay by Slither director James Gunn, is set in Wisconsin and ignores the events of  Night... altogether. Nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) has just come off a double shift at a hospital which has seen an unusual number of bite victims. She briefly talks with her young  neighbor Vivian (Hannah Lochner) before heading off to an in-house date night with her husband, Luis (Louis Ferrreira). The next morning, Luis is awakened to find Vivian in their house. Before he can figure out what's going on, Vivian savagely attacks him, ripping out his throat with her teeth. Ana tries to save Luis, but he dies and is quickly reanimated only to attack Ana, who barely manages to escape to find that chaos has erupted in her normally quiet suburban neighborhood. After crashing her car, she meets up with Kenneth (Ving Rhames); Michael (Jake Weber); Andre (Mekhi Phifer) and his pregnant girlfriend, Luda (Inna Korobkina). The four make their way to a nearby mall, where they're basically taken hostage by a trio of mall security guards (Michael Kelly, Michael Barry and Kevin Zeigers). Soon, a panel truck filled with survivors shows up, including rich a-hole Steve (Ty Burrell); devoted dad Frank (Matt Frewer); his daughter Nicole (Lindy Booth), among others. They also discover Andy (Bruce Bohne), who is stuck in his gun shop, across the street from the mall. They communicate with Andy via whiteboard, playing chess and sending encouragement. It isn't long before folks start dying; Andy begins to starve and a reanimated Luda gives birth to a zombie baby. Deciding to escape on Steve's boat, they construct two zombie-proof vehicles and break out. After one of the trucks crashes and it's passengers die, the survivors make their way to an island in Lake Michigan, where things aren't much better. Foree makes a cameo appearance as a televangelist, reprising his line from the original: "When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth."

Unlike the shuffling, shambling zombies in Romero's films, the zombies in Snyder's movie are fast and furious (like the 'zombies' in Danny Boyles' 28 Days Later), which made Romero furious. Romero would later make his disdain known in his "first-person" zombie film, Diary of the Dead, in which a young director yells at an actor playing a mummy: "You're dead! The dead can't run! They'd break their ankles!"

While an effective and exciting horror movie, Snyder and Gunn's version has none of the social commentary of Romero's film. Both films are terrifying, but they work on completely different levels. Uncle P, while no purist, actually prefers the Romero version, though that may have more to do with the circumstances under which I first saw it, more than anything. If nothing else, Snyder's movie proves that the rules of the genre (like many a horror story) are malleable and subject to the whims of the writer. In either case, the Zombie Apocalypse is not something I want to be around for. But if I am, I will be well-prepared.

More, anon.
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