A World On Fire – A Zombie Blog » Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Survival of the Dead
Here’s an old movie review I wrote before my extended vacation. If you are interested in seeing Survival of the Dead, it’s currently streaming on Netflix with plenty of clips available on Hulu. Some time ago in the quaint state of Pennsylvania, a group of young filmmakers had the idea of creating a new type of horror movie. They all pitched in five hundred bucks and formed a company called Latent Image. Their idea centered around flesh eating corpses. A young filmmaker named George Romero was tasked with writing and directing it. They shot the film in a little farmhouse and called it Night of the Flesh Eaters which was later named to Night of the Living Dead by the distributor. Little did … Read entire article »
Filed under: George Romero, Movie Reviews, Movies (offline and online)
Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide – Chopper Chicks in Zombietown
If you are looking to get you hands on a good zombie movie, but you don’t know what to see, do yourself a favor and pick yourself up a copy of Glenn Kay’s excellent book, Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide. In it, Glenn covers the wide expanse of zombie movies starting with the genre’s roots back with White Zombie and continues to review zombie movies until the book’s publication (2008). Glenn pretty much covers everything even remotely zombie related such as movies that aren’t even technically “zombie movies” but might contain walking dead people. Well, thumbing through the book, I pulled up a review of a classic that I missed while in highschool. Had I known about this tour-de-force, I imagine I would be quoting … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books and Short Stories, Movie Reviews
Dead Snow – Kill Me Before the Snow Melts
I gotta say, when I first head about this movie, I think I did a cartwheel sitting down. It’s one thing to have regular zombies, but Nazi zombies? I was sold. Hardcore. Give me two copies, I said. Hell, give me three. I was sure to be blown away. How wrong was I. Dead Snow tells the story of a group of medical students who travel to some distant cabin in the woods to drink lots of beer and have lots of sex. During the middle of one late night party, a strange man shows up at the door and tells them an old story about Nazis and curses and how these dang nabbit kids are all idiots for not knowing about a fifty year … Read entire article »
Filed under: Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Ponyo – A Post Apocalyptic Children’s Story
Bringing children and the apocalypse together is a risky business, especially if the children are less than four years old. After all, apocalyptic stories can depict some pretty awful situations that would leave a pretty strong imprint on a young mind. God … I can remember seeing the end of Jaws when I was four years old and the image of Quint spitting out a mouthful of blood as the shark drags him into the ocean haunted me well into my teens. I also remember seeing the end of the Shining where a torrent of blood spills from the elevators and that image also stayed with me. Yes, I grew up in an age when Sesame Street and Friday the 13th shared the same time spot … Read entire article »
Filed under: Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Avatar
Since my daughter was born two years ago, going to see a movie is now a big deal. There’s babysitting to organize for a large block of time. Just getting in the door sets us back twenty bucks, so we eat beforehand and smuggle in snacks under the watchful eyes of the cinema police. If we’re meeting friends, multiply this process times two and you can see why I rarely see movies in the theater these days. And when do I see one, it had better be good. So was Avatar worth all the time, planning, and headaches? Absolutely. From the moment I stumbled into my seat in the darkened IMAX theater, I was sucked into a story about a marine who discovers … Read entire article »
Filed under: Movie Reviews
Horror Yearbook’s Top Ten Horror Flicks of 2009
Popular blood letting blog known as Horror Yearbook posted its top ten horror movies of 2009 and would you be surprised to learn that there were zombies in the midst? Actually, some of you in the room may find this list to be a little controversial especially with Dead Snow making it so high. I have yet to see the movie, but from talking to other zombie lovers out there, it sounds like a high octane ‘meh’ production. The list also includes Zombiegirl and of course, Zombieland. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Chemical 12-D
If you think a film only seven minutes long wouldn’t be worth your time, then it would be a sure bet that you haven’t seen Chemical 12-D. There is not a moment wasted in this short. Each moment builds upon the next until we discover the true effect of this mysterious chemical. I wrote about this film some time ago, and I was fortunate to be contacted by director Mac Elridge and director of photography, Dave Wagenaar. Both were kind enough to set up a screening of the film and I have to say, it knocked my socks off. It’s one of those films that sticks with you long after the credits have rolled and the theater emptied. The story takes place in the aftermath of some … Read entire article »
Filed under: Movie Reviews