Zombies on the Horizon

I didn't get around to reviewing a movie this week, mostly due to a combination of class and Halloween preparations, but my Netflix doth overflow with zombie-related flicks nowish: 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later (both of which I've seen before) arrived in my mailbox yesterday, as did Land of the Dead (which I haven't seen before).  And although it looks like I'm going to miss the boat on Musical of the Living Dead (blast!), a good friend and fellow zombie aficionado is hosting a Zom-a-thon this very evening.  So it looks like there will be quite a few zombies on my plate (now there's a delightful mental image...) in the next few days.

So what say you, loyal readers (both of you)?  Should my next review be another Romero flick, or should I venture into the realm of speedy biozombies (like in 28 Days Later).  Or perhaps into a parody film like Shawn of the Dead or Zombieland?  I haven't really savaged a movie yet; should I start scraping the bottom of the B-movie barrel and issue a warning or two to would be zombie movie watchers?  

Choose [and perish]*.  But if I don't get any feedback, just know that I'll continue to review whatever I feel like and may never get to that movie you really want to see on the site.

* give yourself a gold star if you caught the reference

Review: Boy Eats Girl (2005)

"Do you want me to fuckin' box you?"

"Why would I want that?"


Summary:
 

Nathan (David Leon) is in love with his lifelong friend Jessica (Samantha Mumba).  But after a botched attempt at revealing his feelings to the girl of his dreams, Nathan dies, only to be raised from the dead by his mother (Deirdre O'Kane) in a voodoo ritual.  But the ritual goes awry, and Nathan awakens with a taste for human flesh, a taste that spreads once he has a run-in with a high school tough (Mark Huberman) and bites him during the altercation.

Nathan must fight his hunger to save his friends and get the girl, while his mother tries to find a cure for her son's condition.

Review: Dead Snow (2009)

"Where the fuck did you get hold of a machine gun?"

"Well.  Been busy."


Summary:
 

A group of Norwegian medical students are spending their vacations together at a remote cabin in the mountains.  But their revelry is cut short once members of their group start getting cut down.  After an initial period of uncertainty, the students learn the nature of their peril: an army of undead Nazis guards the mountains and the pillaged war spoils still hidden there, and the group has unwittingly disturbed that army...

Review: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

"They're us, that's all.  When there's no more room in hell..."

Summary:

 

The undead plague that swept through rural Pennsylvania in Night of the Living Dead has spread like wildfire in the close confines of Philadelphia.  As the city tears itself apart, Stephen, the weather chopper pilot for a Philadelphia television station, plans to steal the helicopter and escape to Canada.  His girlfriend Francine, who also works at the station, plans to go with him, as does his friend Roger, a SWAT officer.  Just before the group plans to leave, Roger convinces Peter, another SWAT team member, to join them.  The group eventually works its way to the material h[e]aven of a suburban shopping mall, but as the undead mass around the mall and the last remnants of society crumble on live TV, some in the group become enamored with their material surroundings while others begin to see their adopted home as an excess-ridden prison.

For You Chicago-Area Zombie Fans...

...I present Musical of the Living Dead, the show that has me more excited about musical theater than I ever thought possible.  Billed as "an original musical parody of classic zombie films and musical theater," Musical of the Living Dead already has visions of Cannibal! The Musical (Trey Parker and Matt Stone's hilarious first film) dancing (and singing!) through my head.

Now admittedly, the clip of Musical of the Living Dead's title song that I watched isn't all that impressive.  The lyrics are a bit navel-gazing and forced, and it's pretty raw stuff, but it's rehearsal footage after all.  And lines like "the ones who are dead are the living ones," while they feel a bit shoe-horned into the song when I hear it out of context, suggest that this is a cast who understand that zombie movies are about more than just blood and guts and ghouls.  Plus, as something of a connoisseur of parody flicks, I can safely say that if I heard 99% of musical theater parody songs out of context, my first reaction would be to think, "Man, this is a crap song."  It's the nature of the beast: musical theater has an awful lot of chestnuts in its music, and most good parodies will nail that.

If you, like me, are in the Chicago area and feel like mashing musical theater and zombies into the same evening, you can pick up tickets here.  The show opens next weekend (October 7th), and will be running through Halloween.  I suspect I'll catch one of the earlier shows (the first or second week), so check back here for a review soon!