Zombies Everywhere

Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008 by Robert Hood

Thanks to Avery (my kaiju search-robot, who moonlights as a zombie search-robot), I have just updated the zombie film list. 2008 is looking scarily full of the carnivorous dead. Here is a list of zombie flicks appearing in 2008 and beyond — as it exists as of today:

Autumn (US-2008; dir. Steven Rumbelow)
The Book of Zombies (US-2008; dir. Scott Kragelund)
Colin (UK-2008; dir. Marc Price)
Dance of the Dead (US-2008; dir. Gregg Bishop)
Dead Air (US-2008; dir. Corbin Bernsen)
Descendants [aka Solos] (Chile-2008; dir. Jorge Olguin)
Diary of the Dead (US-2008; dir. George A. Romero)
G.P. 506 (South Korea-2008; dir. Su-Chang Kong)
The Happening (US/India-2008; dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Night of the Templar (US-2008; dir. Paul Sampson)
Onechanbara (Japan-2008; dir Yohei Fukuda)
Porto dos Mortos [aka Beyond the Grave] (Brazil-2008; dir. Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro)
RetarDEAD (US-2008; dir. Dan West, Rick Popko)
Sabbath (US-2008; dir. William Victor Schotten)
Trapped (US-2008; dir. Gary Ugarek)
The Veil (UK-2008; dir. Richard Chance)
Ultimate Weapon High School Girl: Rika (Japan-2008; dir. Kenichi Fujiwara)
Walking With the Dead (Canada-2008; dir. Mickey Cardoni, Ionas von Zezschwitz)
Z13 The Zombie Within (US-2008?; dir. Voltron Jones)
Zero Dark Thirty (US-2008; dir. John Stalberg)
Zone of the Dead (Serbia-2008; dir. Milan Todorovic)
Zombies of the Night (UK-2008; dir. Stuart Brennan)
Zombie Wars (US-2008; dir. David A. Prior)
Zombi Kampung Pisang [lit. Zombies of Banana Village] (Malaysia-2008; dir. Mamat Khalid)
Zomthology (US-2008; dir. Elias Dancey, Robert Elkins, Chris Kiros, Gary Ugarek)
All is Lost: The Zombie Saga ([in production]; dir. Manuel Antonio Gomez)
Boiled Blood (Japan-[in production, 2009]; dir. Ryuhei Kitamura)
Cell (US-[in production, 2009]; dir. Eli Roth)
Dead Centre: Architecture and Apocalypse (UK-[in development], short)
Death Walks the Streets (US/Canada-[in production]; dir. James Zahn)
Dead West (US-[in production]; dir. Adam Green)
Doomed to Consume (US-[in production]; dir. Jason Stephenson)
Flesh Crawl (US-[in production]; dir. Dustin Bennett and Troy Collins)
Worst Case Scenario [aka. Woensdag Gehaktdag] (Netherlands-[in development]; dir. Richard Raaphorst)

Now, we’re used to zombies from the US, UK, Italy, Japan, Hong Kong and even Germany and Australia, but everyone’s making ’em now.

There’s Zone of the Dead from Serbia:

Then there’s Zombi Kampung Pisang [Zombies of Banana Village] from Malaysia.

Banana Village Zombies

Not to mention Porto dos Mortos from Brazil:

Chile has got in on the undead act with Descendants [Solos]:

Still unmade, but much anticipated is the political satire zombie film from the Netherlands, Worst Case Scenario:

Worst Case Scenario poster

Avery says I should add Pakistan’s first zombie flick: Zibahkhana [aka Hell’s Ground] (2007; dir. Omar Khan) for good measure:

And also the trailer for South Korea’s G.P. 506:

Looks like it’s a worldwide plague…

By the way, here is the poster for Ultimate Weapon High School Girl: Rika — another Japanese sword-wielding, zombie-slaying school girl flick:

rika poster

Posted in Film, News, Trailers, Zombies | 4 Comments

Black Box 2

Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008 by Robert Hood

Black Box 2 mystery

 

 

Posted in Mysteries, News | Leave a comment

MORAV: Giant Robots Rule!

Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008 by Robert Hood

This looks like it will be worth keeping an eye on. Titled M.O.R.A.V. (which is an acronym for Multi-Operational Robotic Armored Vehicle), it is an in-development scifi TV series set in the fictional country of Tangri Island, where a military/political drama is being played out using 30-foot robots and other hi-tech weaponry.

MORAV scene

The website provides ongoing information on the progress of the series, as well as video insight into technicalities relating to the SFX.

Posted in Giant Monsters, Mecha, News, TV | 2 Comments

New: The Wawa, Sea Serpent

Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2008 by Robert Hood

Looks like some good ol’ boys and luv’ly ladies from down Alabamee way have been getting so much hooch into ’em they’ve gone made a movie about radioactive fish, a sea-serpent named the Wawa and Sweet Tee’s beach volleyball team.

It’s called Birth of a Legend: The Story of the Wawa (US-2007; dir. Steve Wiggins).

On the urging of my kaiju search-robot Avery, who wants to help ’em out, I’m hereby posting a trailer of the film:

 

And giving y’all a link to where ya can read up on the flick, see a diff’rent trailer, and meybe even buy it! Go here!

And, ah, sorry about the bad accent, guys.

Addition:

From Filmmaker Magazine comes the following description. It certainly makes the “sea serpent” sound more intriguing.

Birth of a Legend
A feature length movie filmed in Northwest Alabama about a creature formed from plastic worms and radioactive fallout from the nearby nuclear plant. The creature terrorizes the small town of Sweet Tee located on the banks of Coffee Slough on the Tennessee River. A comedy about all of the stereotypes found in the deep south with an original screenplay and original score produced by a songwriter publisher, Corey Barker. Screenplay written by Sheri and Steve Wiggins, directed by Steve Wiggins.

Posted in Film, Giant Monsters, Lake Monsters, Preview, Trailers | 6 Comments

New: Onechanbara

Posted on Saturday, February 23, 2008 by Robert Hood

How about a bikini-clad Japanese cowgirl using her phenomenal skills with the katana blade to deal with a horde of flesh-eating zombies? Would that scenario have legs at the box-office? Oh, yes.

onechanbara poster

It’s apparent based on an understandably popular video game — and, yes, she has a cute younger sister and a female buddy who all lend a hand.

Onechanbara [lit. Big Sister Chanbara] (Japan-2008; dir. Yohei Fukuda]

Posted in Film, Japanese, News, Zombies | 3 Comments

Pure Spanish extravagence, with zombies and giant monsters

Posted on Friday, February 22, 2008 by Robert Hood

Star Wars meets the peplum genre epitomised in Maciste, they go on a date and then give birth to a mutant version of Krull (1983). That’s The Baron Against the Demons [aka El Barón contra los Demonios] (Spain-2006; dir. Ricardo Ribelles) — a Spanish scifi sword-and-sorcery fantasy featuring giant monsters, alien puppets, gigantic chests (both sexes), really big spaceships, swishing swords, evil zombies, diabolic overlords … in short, everything an avid schlock fantasy fan might desire.

Here is the official “retro” trailer:

But this one doesn’t really give you a sense of what’s in store, giant-monster wise. For that, try this one:
If nothing else, it seems totally unfit for the lactose-intolerant.

Here’s the official website, with all the cheesy details.

Posted in Daikaiju, Film, Giant Monsters, Trailers | 5 Comments

Got a Giant Hunger?

Posted on Thursday, February 21, 2008 by Robert Hood

Jess has drawn my attention to this Guide to Giant Monster Country Cuisine. Very appetizing!

Visitors to Giant Monster Country often express an interest in sampling the delightful native cuisine. Here are some things you need to know.

First, it is not possible for the natives of Giant Monster Country to decide in advance which giant monster will attack. Thus it is important that the visitor understand that no matter how reasonable their requests the people of Giant Monster Country can only prepare the monster that is available. Most monsters are peanut-free but many are glutinous. One can expect several kosher monsters to attack in any given month, but a giant monster suitable for vegetarian consumption (e.g. a vampiric plant, radioactive plant, or evil plant) attacks only three or four times a year. The diet of Giant Monster Country is generally unsuitable for vegans unless they are visiting during Giant Robot Month.

Check out the entire menu here.

Posted in Daikaiju, Giant Monsters, Weird stuff | Leave a comment

No Ghosts Allowed

Posted on Monday, February 18, 2008 by Robert Hood

ghosts banned ghostbusters symbol

Monsters unite! Seems like a case for the anti-discrimination board: ghosts and monsters are not welcome at the Beijing Olympics!

In an attempt to make the city respectable in the lead up to the Olympics — that symbol of Unity, Freedom and Right Behaviour — the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publications has banned the production of films that feature such anti-social subjects as “wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals, strange and supernatural storytelling for the sole purpose of seeking terror and horror.”

Chinese ghost

The aim is to “control and cleanse the negative effect these items have on society, and to prevent horror, violent, cruel publications from entering the market through official channels and to protect adolescents’ psychological health.”

Ah, yes… horror films and books will rot your brain and destroy society. Life was much safer, more decent and more moral before Dracula.

For the full story as reported by Reuters, go here.

Posted in Ghosts, News, Weird stuff | 2 Comments

More New GM films

Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2008 by Robert Hood

If I seem a tad fixated on Giant Monster films recently, there’s good reason for that — a reason I hope to be able to reveal soon enough. But at the very least it’s indicative of the fact that there’s nothing like box-office success to lure the giant ‘roaches out of the woodwork.

Latest off the rank is Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent (US-2008; dir. Amir Valinia). This one is much less microscopically budgeted than some that have surfaced of late and features a decent-looking giant snake of supernatural origin. It also features a seemingly inevitable black rapper, DMX, who gets to be the repository of plot-necessary esoteric voodoo knowledge and to race around with a rocket launcher, saving the usual vacuous twenty-something / post-pubescent party animals who are doomed to become snake chow. Personally I’m sick to death of the “bunch of guys and gals who are off for a weekend of fun but will get attacked by a monster, slasher or ghost instead” trope and would like them all to get eaten — but I probably shouldn’t be surly about the stereotype. Sometimes it works — and sometimes their presence is merely token. Maybe this is the case here and other, more interesting things are going on. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I like the look of the beastie. From the trailer the filmmakers are smart enough to keep it in semi-darkness in order to hide the inevitable flaws in the no-doubt low-budget CGI.

You can see the trailer here. Hang around to the end to catch a glimpse of the snake.

I was also going to tell you about Jim Wynorski’s latest effort — a soft-porn parody of Cloverfield called either Cleavagefield or Chestyfield. I was going to mention that it arose from an idea “developed” on Fred Olen Ray’s chat group. I was also going tell you that it features a bunch of bimbos holding a going-away party in Los Angeles for one of their number who’s off to star in a porn film or something, when the city is attacked by a giant monster infested by lice that have a penchant for dropping off the monster and eating the clothes from the nubile bodies of beautiful young women as they race through the streets filming the event with a hand-held camera.

But I’ve decided not to say a thing about it.

Posted in Film, Giant Monsters, News | Leave a comment

New: A Giant Something or Other

Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008 by Robert Hood

Then there’s:

living hell

To see the full story, go here.

Posted in Daikaiju, Film, Giant Monsters, News | Leave a comment