Zombie Kid

This reporter made the mistake of expecting a zombie to make any sort of rational comment for her news story.

My Top 10 Zombies

In the mobs of mindless walking dead, it can be hard to tell one zombie from another.  But certain ghouls have risen above their peers with certain charms; becoming 'undead celebs' if you will.
Here's a list of my favourite zombies who don't just shamble with the crowds, but stand out and moan on their own.

10) Zombie Leader - Land of the Dead (2005)

 

Coming in last place is a type of zombie that I'm not a big fan of, from one of my least favorite zombie movies.

George A. Romero created Land of the Dead as an evolution of the zombie, in which this guy gains intellegence, and eventually leads the rest of the zombies against the humans.

While I'm not a fan of intellegent zombies, I've got to give Zombie Leader credit where credit is due.

He's a revolutionary.  He feels sadness when his fellow undead get their heads blown off, so he banded them together, taught them to use tools, and invaded the human's stronghold.

The ironic part is that he probably achieved more in death than he did in life as a gas jockey.

9) Zombie Stripper - Zombieland (2009)

This zombie only had a brief appearance in the opening credits of Zombieland, but I'm sure she caught some attention for it.

Zombie Stripper confused young boys around the world about their feelings towards animated corpses covered in blood, and she did it in slow motion.

8) Singing Zombie - Shaun of the Dead (2004)

This zombie proves naysayers wrong about the undead having rhythm.  Granted, he won't be the next American Idol, but he moaned in-time to Shaun and Ed's rendition of 'White Lines' by Duran Duran.

7) Burt Reynolds Zombie - Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Not much to say about this guy.  In Dawn of the Dead, the characters succumb to boredom with their life trapped in a mall.  They begin to search for zombies that look like celebrities and pick them off with rifles.

This unfortunate ghoul happened to look like the Bandit himself, and that's enough to get him in my top 10.

6) Zombie Hulk - Marvel Zombies (comic series)

I felt like the Marvel Zombies needed to be represented in my list, and who better to do it than The Incredible Hulk.

After Bruce Banner gets infected, everytime he gets hungry for flesh, he transforms into the Hulk and devours everything in sight.

But, once he has satisfied the hunger, he reverts back to scrawny Banner, still with a belly full of flesh.  Needless to say, Banner's stomach erupts open in the first issue.

5) Zombie Clown - Zombieland (2009)

Zombies: terrifying.  Clowns: terrifying.  Enough said.

4) Executioner - Resident Evil 5 (video game) / Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

One bad as motherfucker, the executioner from Resident Evil is the last zombie I'd ever want to have to deal with.

Complete with a mystery inducing hood over his face, nails sticking out of his head and shoulders, and the biggest axe he could possibly carry.

3) Zombie Cyclist - The Walking Dead (comic series) / The Walking Dead (TV series)

While only making a brief appearance in both the comic and TV versions of The Walking Dead, I put this zombie at number 3 because of the amazing make-up and special effects job on her in the show.

She showcases the great work the guys on the show are doing as she crawls legless across the grass, and she is one of the only zombies I have ever truly felt sorry for.

2) Cemetery Zombie - Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Although there's nothing special about him, and he looks like a regular human, Cemetery Zombie deserves to be high on the list.

He's the one who started it all.  The first one we saw stumbling in hunger.  He opened the door for all zombies who would come after him.

Respect.


And now, my #1 favourite zombie of all time:

1) Tarman - The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Tarman is the shit.  I loved him from the moment I saw him.  There's just something about the way this melted ghoul looks and moves, so I will let the following clip do the talking.  I give you...
Tarman:

Zombugs

The closest things to real life zombies seem to keep popping up in the insect kingdom.  I have now come across three seperate ways that bugs can lose control of their minds, and begin to infect their communities.

Artists rendering of a zombie bug.

Zombie Making Fungus

The first phenomanon I found while watching Planet Earth.  There is a fungus called cordyceps, which does something as terrifying as it is amazing.  It infects bugs, and takes over their brain.

In the Planet Earth video below, they show ants being infected, losing their shit, and starting to climb.  They just start climbing what ever's around them.  Somehow the fungus makes their brains want to do it.

Once they get up high, they clamp down with their jaws, and die.  That's when the fungus grows out of their dead bodies, and shoots spores down to infect the other ants.

Not just ants are at risk either, there are all kinds of cordyceps that attack all kinds of different bugs.

Zombie Making Virus

The second occurance is even closer to the common idea of zombies.  This one works with an actual virus instead of a fungus.

Gypsy moth caterpillars are the specific target of a type of baculovirus.  The virus, like the cordyceps fungus, causes the caterpillars to climb trees.  Once up there, they also die, but instead of sprouting spores, they begin to melt.

Their bodies melt into a virusy ooze that rains down on all their unsuspecting buddies, infecting them, and causing them to climb.

Liquidy caterpillar guy.


Body Snatching Flies

The third example was recently brought to my attention be fellow CreCommer Corinne Rikkelman.  She shared with me an article from Scientific American about the decline of honeybee population.

It turns out, these little fly guys will lay eggs in the bees.  A couple days later, usually at night, the bee will just take off, flyin' solo, to nowhere.

It seems like they aren't even in control of their own bodies, as they will walk around in circles.  Eventually the bees die and the fly babies are born safely away from the hive, or at least that's what I assume the purpose of the strange night flight is.



Merry Christmas

Wise Words

From the back cover of The Walking Dead comic series:


How many hours
                 are in a day
                             when you don't spend
            half of them watching television?

                                        When is the last time
                                                       any of us
                                               REALLY
                                                   worked to get something we wanted?

                                  How long has it been
                                            since any of us really
                                                     NEEDED
                                                         something that we WANTED?

                The world we knew is gone.

                          The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been
                 replaced by a world of survival and responsibility.

                                      An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept
                 the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living.

                 In a matter of months society has crumbled.
                            no government,
                                                  no grocery stores,
                            no mail delivery,
                                          no cable TV.


             In a world ruled by the dead,
                               we are forced to finally start living.

Blog Post of the Living Dead

Here's a list of zombie flicks that use the terms '...of the dead' or '...of the living dead'.  It started off of course with:

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

George A. Romero and John A. Russo worked on the film together, but then parted ways, creating two separate series of sequels.  Russo retained the 'Living Dead' naming rights, and wrote a novel called The Return of the Living Dead.  He then hired Dan O'Bannon to direct it as a movie.  O'Bannon joined on, but insisted he rewrite the script.  The movie ended up being completely different than the book, and far from Night of the Living Dead.  But it was fairly successful and spawned several sequels.

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)
Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis (2005)
Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (2005)

Romero decided to just drop the 'living' in his series:

Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Land of the Dead (2005)
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Survival of the Dead (2009)

These led to many parodies, homages, remakes, and rip-offs:

Revenge of the Living Dead (1973) - reissued title of Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.
City of the Living Dead (1980)
Hell of the Living Dead (1980)
The Treasure of the Living Dead (1981) - Nazi zombies.
Raiders of the Living Dead (1986)
Night of the Living Dead (1990) - remake.
Night of the Living Bread (1990) - a short film about killer bread.
Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D (1991) - the makers of this mouthfull took Night of the Living Dead and dubbed in their own audio for comedic effect.
Children of the Living Dead (2001)
House of the Dead (2003) - based on the video game of the same name I used to play at the arcade at the cheap seats.
Dawn of the Dead (2004) - remake.
Shaun of the Dead (2004) - a brilliant parody and one of my favorite movies of all time.
Day of the Dead 2: Contagium (2005) - Romero had nothing to do with this 'sequel', which seems to have nothing to do with Day of the Dead.
House of the Dead 2 (2005)
Hood of the Living Dead (2005) - zombie gangstas.
Gangs of the Dead (2006) - although the original title was Last Rites, it was changed for the DVD release.
Brunch of the Living Dead (2006)
Flight of the Living Dead: Outbreak on a Plane (2007) - like Snakes on a Plane, but you know, with zombies.
Island of the Living Dead (2008)
Opening Night of the Living Dead (2008) - a short about zombies watching a zombie movie.
Graveyard of the Living Dead (2008)
Zone of the Dead (2009)
Weed of the Living Dead (2010) - zombie stoner flick.

Zombie Protagonist

Ever have an idea for a movie and one day you see a trailer for it?  That's what happened to me with my idea for a movie where the main character is a zombie.  Oh well, back to the drawing board...

Here's a trailer for Colin, the UK movie in which I'm sure writer/director Marc Price must have sent spies overseas to steal my idea...

Time traveling spies... since the movie came out in 2008... and I just thought of the idea...