Poltergeist Activity Explained?

'They're here': The mechanism of poltergeist activity - fundamentals - 01 April 2008 - New Scientist

Best line:

We contacted Brian Josephson, a Nobel laureate physicist who is on the editorial board of Neuroquantology.

"This looks distinctly flaky to me," Josephson commented.

Freaking Brilliant!

Wooster Collective: Street Art At Its Best #3: Plastic Bag Animals

I wish we had a subway around here.

Cool Picture of the Day Observation

It kind of looks like Malcolm X is watching Pres. Bush from that window.

I'm very tired.

Cool Picture of the Day #2

Cool Picture of the Day

It's Over At Last...

Well, that was fun.

Zombie marathons are something I should do more often. But maybe not for a week and a half at a time, though. I'm exhausted. It'll be nice to just sit and not watch a movie tonight.

Although, we've already begun planning a special night's double feature to celebrate the birthdays of Peter Cushing (May 26) and Christopher Lee (May 27). Since we just watched Horror Express, that's out, so we need to find a couple of good movies with the dynamic duo in them. Preferably things we haven't seen before.

I'm pretty sure this means a Hammer Horror night.

The search is on!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Marathon Grand Finale!!

Les Revenants / They Came Back (2004)

It's French. Do I need to say more?

Okay.

It's French and intellectual. But seriously. This was pretty good, even if there was no brain munching. Essentially, everyone who's died over the past 10 years just suddenly came walking out of the cemeteries where they were buried. No decay or strange hungers; just absent stares and an urge to go walking around at night, meet up with other previously dead folks, and mumble to each other. It's kind of like suddenly having millions of autistic people suddenly wanting back into your life after you've gotten over the whole grieving process and moved on with your life.

There were quite a few genuinely creepy moments, and a few just plain odd ones. It's well worth a viewing, especially if you have some wine and cheese to accompany the creeping ennui.

Out! Out Damn Nipple!

I was just mentioning something like this to The Girlfriend the other day at the store. I was wondering if magazines could show topless ladies on their covers without fear if the nipples were airbrushed away.

Looks like some places even get rid of mens' nipples.

Cool

Someone at Marvel knows my name.

Secret Invasion is Coming

This is actually looking pretty interesting.

Splatterday

Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love (2003)

Well, that was cute. Another very short (78 minutes or so) Canadian zombie flick bites the dust. This one, however, was actually worth a look. It wasn't great, don't get me wrong, but the writer/director, Elza Kephart (the only woman filmmaker on the list), was actually able to frame her shots, use dramatic lighting, and generally make the film look a lot more expensive than it probably was.

She also stuck to black and white film, which was a seriously good idea. Not only did it allow for easier multiple use of redressed sets to save money, they were able to get away with cheaper effects.

This is the story of a lonely, nerdy nurse who falls in love with a sick woodsman. The woodsman has a strange disease that causes him to decay, stink, and really want to get laid. He caught it by being bitten by some small creature he found inside a tree he'd cut down. We never see the creature, but it sounded cute.

Anyway, the janitor of the hospital knows all about zombies, so he takes care of zombie woodsman; but not before he nips Nurse Patsy's finger. Then, as you may have guessed, Nurse Patsy goes from nerdy to sexy. Well, nerdy-sexy, I guess. All the guys want her, but she has her unbeating heart set on the engaged Doctor Dox. Romantic troubles ensue, along with flesh-eating troubles.

This really wasn't bad for a very low-budget film. I mean, the performances weren't great, and the script was pretty simple and avoided a lot of dialogue. There were quite a few parts of this that felt like a silent film. But then someone would say something silly, awkwardly, and the spell would be broken. But it looked very good.

And it kicked the crap out of Enter... Zombie King, that's for sure. Somehow. I'm still kind of confused about how a Zombie Nurse in Love beats out Mexican Wrestlers Fighting Zombies. It's a world gone all topsy-turvy.

Festering Friday

Enter. . . Zombie King! / Zombie Beach Party (2003)

You would think that a film made in Canada about Mexican Wrestlers fighting zombies could be entertaining for at least part of its 75 minute runtime. But in fact, that is not the case.

Even with the smattering of boobies and scantily-clad ladies throughout, this film was about as lifeless as, um, well, you know.

I really don't understand how this couldn't be something I could recommend. It has everything and it's not even very long. But that was one long hour and fifteen minutes, let me tell you.

The script has good bones, I'll give it that. The idea here is that Ulysses, the all-American hero, has been driving cross-country to visit friends. Although the film is set in California (I think), it was filmed in Canada and there's snow everywhere. This is played off as some sort of possibly apocalyptic event, where the weather is unpredictable and crazy with 80 degree temperatures but snow! I liked the idea, but it doesn't actually have anything to do with the plot (what there is of a plot). It's just a throwaway excuse for having snow everywere.

Anyway, Ulysses' rival, Tiki, is traveling around wrestling zombies for money. What people don't realize though, is that Tiki's zombies are domesticated and really aren't dangerous. So when there is an actual zombie killing, Tiki's zombies get blamed, so Tiki goes off to find out who's behind it. Blue Saint, the brother of Ulysses' "girlfriend' Mercedes, goes off half-cocked to find Tiki, who he thinks killed his father years earlier.

Needless to say, they all meet up and make peace, so they can fight the real enemy... Zombie King! He also used to be Ulysses' partner I think. I had to go pee during that part and really didn't see the need to pause the film.

Zombie mayhem ensues, enhanced by liberal flashes of boobs and the occasional rockabilly song. Everything happens just like you imagine it would, only a lot more amateurishly and with worse acting and direction.

Surely it's not that expensive to borrow a Mac and some editing software and at least try to make your film look interesting. Just some flashy dissolves and playing around with the color correction could have livened it up a bit. They should have used all that money they spent on cheap special effects, because that was sure wasted. I mean, look at that poster. If half as much creativity went into the filming as went into the poster, this would be a classic.

Although it pains me, I have to rank this one on par with the Piece of Shit That Shall Not Be Named. This wasn't as offensively stupid and did have some good ideas and a couple of funny moments, but PoSTSNBN had a lot more gore. It's a trade-off. If I had to sit through one of them again, though, it would be Enter... Zombie King.

Tribulation Thursday Double Feature

Fido (2006)

This was excellent! Very funny alternate 1950s set after The Zombie Wars. If you liked Lassie movies (or didn't like them at all), this is pretty cute. But then it's Billy Connolly as the "tame" zombie, Fido, so it's going to be good, right?

You know I am.

This is the story of a "weird" kid named Timmy (played by K'Sun Ray (no, seriously, that's his name)) with no friends, a dad with a zombie phobia, a mom (Carrie-Anne Moss) with social-climbing anxieties, and their new servant zombie, Fido.

But it's not just cute zombie jokes. There are some just freaking wrong things going on here; most notably, Tim Blake Nelson's relationship with his young female zombie slave, Tammy. Granted, she was kind of hot, for a nasty dead cannibal, but still. That's just not right.

And I just couldn't stop imagining Timmy's dad (played by Dylan Baker of Happiness) explaining to young Timmy why he would never fuck him, just his friends. But he still loves him.

Moving right along...


Battlefield Baseball (2003)

So I thought this would be more serious. Which I know sounds kind of dumb in itself since the film is called Battlefield Baseball, but really. I was expecting something with jokes, but with action and violence more along the lines of Versus, since it was written and directed by that film's co-writer, Yudai Yamaguchi, or at least something more like Kung Fu Hustle (but I guess that's just because that director, Stephen Chow, is responsible for Shaolin Soccer). But this is pretty much a straight on comedy, with zombie undertones and plenty of off-screen violence.

But, with that said, I still laughed a lot. It played with many of the conventions of sports films, especially the whole "Dads and Baseball" meme that apparently can make just about any man but me cry like a baby. It's based on a manga, and most of the acting and effects are exaggerated to match the comic's original presentation.

It's the story of Jubeh, a troubled kid who's sworn never to play baseball again, after his super-pitch blew a hole in his dad, killing him. Now he transfers from school to school, starting fights and creating a reputation for being a troublemaker. In fact, he's a noble baseball warrior and is recruited by his new school's principal to join the baseball team because they are about to play the evil Gedo team, who always kill all of their opponents. That's all I"m going to say about that.

All in all, if you're not looking for lots of zombie gore and violence, but just want a pretty entertaining comedy with unexplained zombie elements, this is one to check out. It was everything that the Piece of Shit That Shall Not Be Named wanted to be. Maybe the Japanese are just funnier than the Germans?

Could be.

Lord Jesu, Yet More Aftermath!

My Reviews: Week of March 28

Dan Dare #5

Scalped, Vol. 1: Indian Country

Woeful Wednesday Double Feature

Italian Double Feature:

City of the Living Dead /Gates of Hell (1980)

Just a few quick comments. Maybe more later. I would have named this film Entrails Vomiting Maggot Storm. I liked that it took place in Dunwich, but jeez, after giving so much time and attention to the New Yorkers, I was expecting them to play a larger part, or any part, in closing the Gates of Hell.



Demons (1985)

We had company last night who had to leave before this finished. If you're reading this, you missed a guy on a motorcycle using a samurai sword to kill demons, while his girl rode behind him. Then a mad dash through a desolate city, chased by demons, while the music of Saxon played.

Awesome.

But only a little.

Terrifying Tuesday Double Feature

Bob Clark Double Feature:

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1972)

I really wasn't sure what to make of this film as it started. I hated the characters and thought they were way too quick with the insults and the melodramatic speeches. But then I remembered my time as a theater student and suddenly it all was much more believable.

In the film, a group of actors and actresses go to a little island off the coast of Miami in order to dig up a body and perform a magic spell, summoning corpses for their own personal use as servants. Of course nothing comes of their attempts until the final 20 minutes of the film, so if you watch this one, be prepared for a bit of a wait.

It is satisfying, though. Director Bob Clark (of Black Christmas, Porky's, and A Christmas Story fame), does a fine job with creating a mood with very little budget, and the screenplay by Alan Ormsby (writer/director of Deranged, and writer of films like My Bodyguard, Porky's II, and Cat People) is spot on with how theater people interact: meaning, lots of bitchy sniping, a constant barrage of snappy jokes that are only rarely funny, and the occasional breaking into song. It reminded me of why I got out of theater and into English.

By the time the zombies show up, I had actually begun to care about the characters and was really hoping that the pompous ass of a theater director, played by Ormsby, would get eaten alive. Unfortunately, he and the unhinged hippie-chick Anya (played by Ormsby's real-life wife, Anya Ormsby), are the last to survive, before an ending that brought Cronenberg's Shivers to mind. Only without the directorial rooting for the zombies to win.

All in all, this was a pretty good story, with an emphasis on character and manipulation. Alan uses the threat of firing everyone from his acting troupe to keep them in line and doing his bidding. It's a hammy performance, but fit the character. The ending is as bleak as any out there, with the added nice touch of being able to see the Miami skyline as the zombies pile onto a boat, ready to head off to the city.

My favorite line in the film: "I peed my pants," repeated over and over again when appropriate. Excellent timing. Nicely done.

Deathdream / Dead of Night (1972)

The Bob and Alan show continues with their later-that-same-year follow-up, Deathdream, aka Dead of Night, aka Night Walk, etc. etc. This was excellent from start to finish. In this variation on the classic "Monkey's Paw" story, Andy is killed in Viet Nam, but his mother wills him back to life without even realizing it. But suddenly he's home, pale, withdrawn, and harboring serious anger issues.

Most of the cast of Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things make appearances here, most notably Anya shows up playing Andy's sister. This is a family with issues, let me tell you. Watch this film and you'll start having serious doubts about all those times your parents told you they loved you and your siblings equally. Here, Adam is definitely mom's favorite, at one point even spilling out her resentment of her daughter for "going to your Father. You haven't come to me since you were five!" Yikes!

And dad (played by John Marley, famous for recieving a horse's head in his bed in The Godfather) apparently pushed Andy to join the military so he wouldn't become a momma's boy. I guess he didn't realize that NOT being a "momma's boy" means stabbing, clawing, and biting people to death and then injecting himself with their blood to maintain his boyish good looks. Hmmm. That does kind of sound like a momma's boy, doesn't it?

Good performances from everyone involved here (especially from Richard Backus, as Andy) are what really make this one special, plus the not-so-subtle criticism of the Viet Nam War. The subtext deals with familial guilt with sending children off to war, and the drug addiction and post-traumatic stress disorders that were fairly commonplace with returning soldiers. When Andy shouts, "I died for you! You owe me this!" before stabbing someone to death and injecting their blood, it's a ballsy and powerful moment.

This film gets special points for being the film debut of Tom Savini's make-up work, even if most of the work was done by Alan Ormsby. How can it be a zombie marathon without Savini's work being included at some point?

Merciless Monday

Dead & Buried (1981)

Dan O'Bannon delivers the goods with this screenplay. This film had three "Oh shit!" moments in the first 12 minutes. Four if you count the sudden appearance of boobies.

So far during this marathon, we've seen a wide variety of zombie types and good range of approaches to the genre. But only 3 or 4 have really stood out as good films beyond their horror categorization. This is one of them. It is now second only to I Walked With a Zombie in our hearts.

If you're looking for plot twists and sneaky surprises, this one has them one after the other. Plus, the dialogue is believable and the characters are likable. Even the bad guys have enough personality to make them interesting characters beyond their questionable deeds. And there are some very questionable deeds.

I really like the fact that this is more of a voudou zombie story than the brain-eater variety, and that there are enough clues scattered throughout the story to allow for the viewer to figure out what's going on at about the same pace that the Sheriff does. In fact, about 10 minutes before the finale, I turned to my girlfriend and said "I know how I'd end this if I were writing it." As it turns out, that's how O'Bannon would have ended the story too. In fact, this was so well put together, that the story moved like clockwork and each new revelation built on what came before and laid perfect groundwork for what came next.

Can you tell I'm trying to talk about this without spoiling anything? It's hard to do since everything is so well crafted. Revealing any specific plot points could ruin others, so I'll just come to conclusion now and say that this was a good one. A very good one.

Plus, not only is it scary, surprising, and very strange (in an EC Comics kind of way), you can play spot the supporting actor, since there are quite a few familiar faces in this one. No one extremely famous, although Freddy Kruger is probably the most recognizable. If you're a Flash Gordon fan, you'll also see someone you should recognize in a pretty important role. Don't blink or you'll miss a Northern Exposure regular.

Resurrection Sunday

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue) (1974)

Aaaah. That's so much better than last night's piece of shit I don't know where to begin.

First, this film takes the time to establish and build the characters before sending them into a zombie nightmare. And there's a slow building up of tension as the film progresses. Characters have believable problems and interactions, and while they may not be the most admirable (in fact, the main character, George, is a bit of a prick at times), you can at least accept that you might run into people like this. You know, if you lived in London back in the very early 70s.

The cinematography is beautiful, and we get very nice shots of the English countryside as our main characters head away from the city and into the isolation that ratchets up the horror a notch or two. There's an ecological message to the film, that is characterized by George and his diatribes against technology. I also liked the conflict between George's beliefs and those of the hard-ass cop, who believes that the country's going into the shitter and what's needed is a "strong hand" to make things better. You know, like in the old days, before all these hippie faggots started spreading their filth.

There is enough art and style in the scene where our heroes are first confronted and trapped by the living dead to block out the memories of last night's piece of shit (the film what will not be named). These creatures are newly dead, and while they lumber along sometimes, they also pounce pretty quickly when they're ready to kill you, tear your guts out, and eat them over your corpse. Your corpse that will then come back to life sometime later and do the same to others, whether a hard-ass old bastard of a cop believes in you or not.

And when the gore starts, it's not overwhelming, but it's definitely disturbing. The guts-ripping is now a standard effect, but it's combined here with shots of the zombies actually pausing to enjoy their meal, munching on organs with vacant stares. It was pretty damn creepy. And when they get to the hospital, later in the film, pity the poor nurse. In what is a disturbingly misogynistic piece of violence, her breast is torn off and consumed, while at the same time, a zombie reaches down her skirt and pulls gory meat out. I can only assume that it grabbed her by the va-jay-jay and yanked everything it could out and up.

!!!!!!

Horrifying and with a nicely ironic, if bleak, ending. This is what a good zombie film should be. Even if there's fun to be had (as in Braindead or Shaun of the Dead), there's still a serious quality to the events. That's what make zombie films such existential classics when they really work. The humor and the horror go hand in hand in absurdist glory.

The Aftermath

Holy Shit Saturday

Premutos: Lord of the Living Dead (1997)

Well, that was a piece of shit.

No seriously. That was kind of like watching that Fox News comedy pilot that tried to be like a conservative Daily Show. You remember? It would do something really unfunny and then it's defenders would say something like "Well you thought it was funny when John Stewart did it." And you were like, "No, when John Stewart does it, it's funny. That wasn't funny. You don't know what you're doing, you unfunny piece of shit!" And they go, "You're just liberally biased and can dish it out but can't take it." And you go, "No you stupid fuck. That wasn't funny. It was offensive. You don't understand comedy you stupid stupid fuck."

Or something like that. But with splatter films instead of comedy. If that makes any sense.

I guess the writer/director, Olaf Ittenbach, has a love for good splatter films, since he tried to do little homages to a variety of them, but they're just awful. And there's a lot of "comedy" in this. A lot of very unfunny "comedy" that had me wanting to gouge my eyes out. It doesn't help that the DVD had two soundtracks, one in the original German (with no subtitles), and one in horribly dubbed English. And when I say horribly dubbed, I mean what the fuck were they thinking? It sounds like four guys doing funny voices while they watched the movie. And why did the one chick have a British accent? Who knows? Why was there a very long sex scene stuck in the middle of the film? Why didn't it ever end?

And what the fuck was up with that dinner party? It lasted for nearly half the film and all took place around a coffee table. Six people crammed around a coffee table acting drunk and talking shit to each other. I couldn't wait for the zombies to show up and kill all their asses. But instead of that, the horrible step-father with the weapon collection grabs his Conan Sword (I shit thee not) and starts hacking up zombies while everyone else runs to the barn.

Later there's a tank attack, too. Because he apparently kept a tank in the garage.

Don't get me wrong though. Reading over that, one might get the impression that this would be worth watching just for the crazy shit. It's not.

This was artless and annoying.

And those cool-looking ghouls on the cover up there? Not in the film. Nowhere to be seen. In fact, when Premutos, The Lord of the Living Dead, does show up, he looks like they wrapped the actors head in bandages and then covered him in gore and fake teeth. Then they added his blue lightning eyes in post-production.

Yes, I said it. Blue lightning eyes.

The only thing positive about this piece of shit movie was the scope of the story. Premutos has been trying to manifest himself in this world for centuries and we get flashback after flashback, showing him almost getting here, but being stopped somehow. Usually with the narrative grace of a kick to the nuts (and yes, there is a kick to the nuts in this film). And, in true Easter spirit, we got to see the crucifixion of Christ for some reason. Apparently it was the power of Premutos that resurrected him? I don't know. Maybe there was actual decent dialogue and motivations in the German version. But there were NO FUCKING SUBTITLES! So we had to watch it with the WORST DUBBING EVER IN THE HISTORY OF DUBBING!!

I shit thee not.

That was one of the worst viewing experiences I've ever had. And if you go to the IMDB page linked above and see some stupid fucks comparing this to Braindead (Dead Alive), just know that these stupid fucks knows nothing. They see blood and exploding heads and get hard. They know nothing of how a story works or what is funny. This was not funny. And the gore, while excessive, wasn't very impressive either. Mentioning this piece of shit in the same breath as Braindead is blasphemy. It is more in line, budget-wise, with Bad Taste, but Bad Taste was still miles better than this crap, because Peter Jackson knew how to set up a shot, how to light a shot, and how to tell a story.

Holy Shit Saturday, indeed.

Gruesome Friday

I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

This is a classic horror film, produced by the legendary Val Lewton and directed by the brilliant Jacques Tourneur, both of whom were also responsible for the original Cat People. Tourneur also directed one of my personal favorites, Night of the Demon. This film is a tale of two brothers, the woman who came between them, the nurse who's come to help out, and the mother who did something she regrets. It actually has more in common with Jane Eyre than with White Zombie.

This goes all the way back to the source, and we are dealing with Voudou folks. No brain-eating, or shambling horrors (although the one voudou zombie has the freakiest eyes I've seen in a while), or anything we've come to expect since Romero knocked it out of the park with his first try. Instead it's a reserved, character piece centered on love, jealousy, and family troubles. The setting is the West Indies on a sugar plantation and everything about this film is gorgeously shot.

There actually seems to be some attempt to treat voudou not as just some sort of freakshow, but as a folk religion, and there is never any real attempt to assert cultural authority one way or the other. By the end of the film, for all we know, magic and zombies are real. The central focus of the film is the inability to know Truth and the disruption of assumed Truths.

This is the best film we've watched so far, without a doubt. And it was only 69 minutes long.

Behind the Scenes

When prepping for the Zombie Marathon, we decided that we wanted to avoid films that we've seen before. This raised a small problem in that I've seen a lot of zombie films already. So we turned to Jaime Russell's Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema to guide us to some classics (and some not-so-classics) that had slipped by me.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It covers the history of zombies in film, from 1932's White Zombie right up to Romero's Land of the Dead, with lots of insight into thematic concerns, appreciation of gore, and heaping piles of pictures. I don't always agree with the readings Russell provides of the films, but so what? He talks about so many that it's worth the low low price just to have such a complete list of films to explore.

My only beef is that Blue Sunshine doesn't have zombies in any sense of the word, but is still listed in here. But, the film is such a cult classic that I guess it might as well be included. Especially since there's a bit of gray area where movies like Blue Sunshine, The Crazies and 28 Days Later are involved. I'd classify them separately as Plague or Infection Films, but there are enough thematic connections to justify inclusion.

Moldy Thursday Double Feature

Horror Express (1973)

So Horror Express is a Spanish/UK co-production set in 1906 and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, with a special appearance by Telly Savalas as a crazy Cossack. It features a Rasputin-like Russian monk, a frozen (then de-thawed) missing link, a space parasite that's lived on earth since life began developing in the ooze, and, eventually, some zombies.

It sounds like a lot more fun than it is, although it does have it's moments. There are quite a few goofy-ass moments as well. Especially one involving the zombie Yeti's eye. You see, Cushing and Lee discover that by drawing out drops of eye juice (after the creature has been "killed") and putting them on a microscope slide, they can see the images that the creature has seen; this includes his last few moments alive, a brontosaurus and a pterodactyl, and finally, earth from outer space. This is how they figure out that they're dealing with an alien organism.

Oh, and it all takes place on a train bound from somewhere in China to Moscow.

It's not great, or even all that good, but is worth at least a viewing. My favorite part has to be Telly Savalas ranting some nonsense that I'm sure sounded good to him at the time, and then Christopher Lee's character saying "What is this nonsense?" Was he in character or critiquing Telly's performance? We may never know.

Blue Sunshine (1976)

Well, there really aren't any zombies in this at all. There are, on the other hand, a bunch of bald psychopaths who are suffering from chromosomal damage and anger management issues thanks to a batch of acid they all took back in 67 or so. This was a cool little film by the director of the recent Satan's Little Helper (which is really more entertaining and which I would recommend over this one), Jeff Lieberman. This wasn't bad, but there were no zombies. But after years of hearing about his film, it was nice to actually see it.

If only there had been some zombies. Or even one walking corpse. It wouldn't have had to eat anyone or anything. Oh well. What it does have is a starring performance by Zalman King, the future maestro of erotic pay TV.

Eat of My Flesh Wednesday Double Feature

Let's Scare Jessica to Death ( 1971)

This movie is not so much a zombie film as it is a "resurrection" film. There's lots of nice atmosphere and Jessica is consistently on the verge of losing her mind. See, she's just out of a six month stint hospitalized with an unspecified mental problem, so when she starts hearing voices she's afraid to mention it to her husband and their friend. And it doesn't help that the hippie girl who's squatting in the house they've just bought looks just like a girl who drowned in the lake in 1880, or that she's hitting on Jessica's husband.

Throw in a bunch of hostile townies, all of whom are sporting odd bandages, and you've got a very odd little film. Turns out the ghost girl may be more of a vampire, since everyone turns up with ghastly scars later on. Or, maybe Jessica's just crazy. I'm not sure the filmmakers were really sure which way they wanted to go with it and thus, the ending lacks some effective punch, instead kind of draining away any tension and frightening energy.

Not a bad film, and very creepy at times, but disappointing in the end.

Zombie Honeymoon (2004)

I thought this was going to be a cheap bit of exploitation after the racy opening scenes of the young newlywed couple. But after the zombie shambles up out of the ocean and vomits black goo into Danny's mouth, and he dies but comes back to life, things get interesting (providing one can overlook details like the machine that goes ping reading no heartbeat - which shouldn't be a surprise as it's not attached to Danny). Danny starts eating people, but feels really bad about it and tries to hide it from his new bride, Denise. When she finds out, she has to decide whether to run like a sane person or stand by her man.

This was actually a pretty effective little film. Much more emotional than I expected, and not really played for the laughs that the DVD box led me to believe. It was actually much more satisfying than Let's Scare Jessica to Death, and actually had zombies. Bonus points for a romantic Last Supper on this most holy of days.

Unholy Week

So to celebrate Easter and the resurrection, we've decided to initiate a Zombie Film Marathon at our house!

My Reviews: Week of March 21

Incredible Hercules #115

Thor #7

War is Hell: First Flight of the Phantom Eagle #1

The Immortal Iron Fist #13

My Reviews: Week of March 14

Thunderbolts #119

Punisher #55

My Reviews: Week of March 7

The Boys #16

Punisher: War Journal #17

Cable #1

Why are People Having Fewer Kids?

Reason Magazine - Why are People Having Fewer Kids? Perhaps it's because they don't like them very much.