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G.O.R.E. Score: American Zombie

Posted by Tony Schaab on March 1, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews

American Zombie (2008)

American Zombie (2008)

Original Release Date: March 28, 2008
Run Time: 90 minutes

“American Zombie” is a very interesting concept of a movie – a faux-documentary that seeks to explore the plight of the zombie as a minority culture. In the realm of this movie, zombies co-exist with humans in everyday life, but their population numbers are fairly minimal; according to a civil servant in the film, there are an estimated 600 zombies in the greater Los Angeles area, meaning there are probably only a few thousand in the entire country, if the statistics are accurate and extrapolated based on the total national human population.

The movie follows a pair of filmmakers as they follow four different zombies and get a glimpse of the routines and struggles of their everyday lives. It culminates in the all-human film crew being given unprecedented access to shoot footage at “Alive Dead,” a zombie-only gathering of mysterious nature. Things get a little ugly at the end of the story, as things tend to usually do in a zombie movie.

As I mentioned, it’s an interesting concept for a movie, but one that ultimately gets bogged down both in the execution of the film and the basic opposing nature of the two genres being meshed together – viewers of a zombie film usually have a very specific idea of what they are going to get: fairly fast pacing, quick-hitting action, and lots of gore and carnage, and these are all things you just don’t usually get in your standard documentary film.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Planet Terror

Posted by Tony Schaab on February 26, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Planet Terror (2007)

Planet Terror (2007)

Original Release Date: October 16, 2007
Run Time: 105 minutes

I think I was born in the wrong decade.

Although I grew up watching the great horror movies of the 1980s, I seem to have a special affinity for the “groovy,” rough-and-gritty feel of the 1970s horror films. Maybe I just enjoy cinematic experiences from the times when the writing and characters had to drive a story and the special effects were a supporting player; nowadays it seems to be the exact opposite, with each new CGI-tacular movie trying to outdo the last. But every so often, a current film will come along that breaks the trend and gives its viewers both a good-looking film and a great story to boot. Throw in a healthy dose of retro feel with an homage to a bygone era of cinema, and you’ve got the makings of one amazing movie-watching experience, specifically known as “Planet Terror.”

Half of the ambitious two-movie “Grindhouse” project put together by directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez (Tarantino’s B-movie/exploitation homage “Death Proof” being the other half), “Planet Terror” is simply a good old-fashioned zombie movie made by people who know how to entertain. Rodriguez has actually said in multiple interviews that he came up for the idea of this movie while filming “The Faculty” all the way back in 1998.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection

Posted by Tony Schaab on February 11, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection

Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection (2009)

Original Release Date: October 14, 2009
Publisher: Chronicle Books

I have a bone to pick with my local bookstore.

They are a national chain whose name you probably know, but for the sake of anonymity, we’ll keep them nameless for now. Anyhow, my problem is this: they don’t have a Horror section. They have a Sci-Fi section, a Mystery section, a Reference section, a History section, a Politics section, a Teen section, a Romance section, even a section devoted entirely to Maps…but no Horror section.

This means that the zombie books have nowhere to live. Sadly, someone thought that it would be a good idea to put ALL zombie-related books not in the Sci-Fi section, or the General Fiction section, or even the Science section…no, they put all the zombie books in the Humor section! Humor!! I get it that titles like “Zombies for Zombies,” “Zombie CSU,” potentially even books with humorous premises like “The Zombie Survival Guide” and “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” could reside in the Humor section, but all the zombie books, really? Even the “serious” ones are there: David Wellington’s “Monster Planet” trilogy, Z.A. Recht’s “Morningstar Saga,” the uber-intense “World War Z,” anthology books like “The Living Dead” that are full of really gruesome and potentially scary zombie stories…all right there on the shelf, next to Dave Barry books and Calvin & Hobbes collections. Knowing what I do about some of the content in the non-funny books, I would be seriously concerned for any child who happens to pick up the “wrong” book and start reading. Or maybe that’s the Store Manager’s master plan all along, to recruit new, young zombie fans…maybe I’ve been looking at this all wrong…hmm…

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G.O.R.E. Score: Zombieworld: Champion of the Worms

Posted by Tony Schaab on February 5, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Zombieland: Champion of the Worms

Zombieland: Champion of the Worms (2005)

Original Release Date: November 1, 2005
Total Number of Issues: 3 (Mini-series)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

I guess I should have learned my lesson the first time.

Recently I reviewed the Dark Horse graphic novel “Living with the Dead,” which garnered a G.O.R.E. Score of 0.75 and really didn’t impress me in any facet. It was a slim little graphic novel that was a compilation of a three-issue story, and I made sure to read it a couple of times just in case I had missed anything important the first time through (I didn’t). Well, I was meandering through the graphic novel section of a local bookstore last week and had another slim little graphic novel catch my eye by its title alone: “Zombieworld: Champion of the Worms” (Z:CotW).

Interesting title, I thought to myself, so I picked it up to see more. Only $8.95, I further thought, what a bargain! I can’t afford NOT to buy this. I let myself glaze over the fact that this graphic novel was made by Dark Horse Comics; maybe “Living with the Dead” was an aberration, and this one will be really good; plus, it’s written by Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, and those comics and movies are pretty okay…what could go wrong here?

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G.O.R.E. Score: Steve Niles Omnibus

Posted by Tony Schaab on January 28, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Steve Niles Omnibus

Steve Niles Omnibus (2008)

Original Release Date: November 5, 2008
Total Number of Issues: 16 (four different mini-series)
Publisher: IDW Comics

Steve Niles is a great writer. He is the man who brought us 30 Days of Night and he is credited as being one of the contemporary comic book writers to really bring horror comics back into prominence. That having been said, the “Steve Niles Omnibus” is a clear attempt to package together some of his weaker stories and offer them at an attractive price.

The Omnibus contains four different mini-series, which equates to sixteen comic books and a whopping 416 pages, all for a very attractive price of $24.99. The four mini-series contained within the Omnibus are included in their entirety, so you do get four distinct and complete stories in this tome. The stories included are: “Aleister Arcane” (3 issues), about a late-night horror host who gives an ungrateful town more than they bargained for upon his death; “The Lurkers” (4 issues), a story about the various incarnations of the living dead and how they exist in the shadows of our society; “Secret Skull” (4 issues), the tale of a supernatural crimefighter who discovers there is more behind her powers than even she realized; and “Wake the Dead” (5 issues), the story of a scientist’s attempt to reanimate the dead with predictably mixed results.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Undead

Posted by Tony Schaab on January 18, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Undead

Undead (2003)

Original Release Date: Sept. 4, 2003 (Australia “wide” premiere); Oct. 11, 2005 (USA)
Run Time: 104 minutes

All right, this is kind of a lengthy analogy, but stay with me here: I liken “Undead” to the first album released by a band that releases a really amazing second album. The second album brings the band more attention, more critical acclaim, and more fans, but the first disc will always be special to the “true” fans that have been following the band since the get-go. The first album shows the potential the band has, even though the band may not have actually reached that full potential until later discs.

The “second album” in the above analogy is, of course, “Daybreakers,” the movie currently in theaters set in the not-too-distant future where vampires have become the majority and humans must fight to survive. “Undead” and “Daybreakers” are the first and second movies written and directed by the Spierig Brothers, Peter and Michael. I had the opportunity to see “Daybreakers” over the weekend, and I was very impressed and highly recommend it; seeing that film made me want to re-visit “Undead,” a movie I first watched over a year ago, so I sat down and treated myself to a second viewing. Watching both films within twelve hours of one another spawned the above analogy, and I think it’s a fairly accurate one.

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G.O.R.E. Score: Dead & Breakfast

Posted by Tony Schaab on January 14, 2010 in G.O.R.E. Score Reviews
Dead & Breakfast

Dead & Breakfast (2004)

Original Release Date: March 2004
Run time: 88 minutes

On the DVD cover of “Dead & Breakfast,” Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News said that the movie is “the U.S. answer to ‘Shaun of the Dead.’” After reading that, I was a little concerned: “Shaun of the Dead” is an amazing film, and a rom-zom-com (romantic zombie comedy) is amazingly hard to pull off correctly, as evidenced by the piles of praise for “Shaun” and the piles of many other movies that have tried and met with varying degrees of success (see “Boy Eats Girl,” “Zombie Honeymoon,” and “Zombie Strippers,” to name just a few).

Imagine my relief when I found myself laughing out loud several times while watching the movie. “D&B” is in fact a very entertaining film with a surprising amount of fairly-good-looking gore included. It does have some shortcomings, including trying too hard to make some scenes too funny and issues with editing jarring the viewer in and out of moments, but on the whole it is a pleasant surprise for a movie that no one really seems to know or talk about too much.

For a self-proclaimed “independent film,” the cast is surprisingly recognizable and above-average, including David Carradine and his daughter Ever, Gina Phillips (of “Jeepers Creepers” fame), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (now best known as The Comedian from “Watchmen”), Portia de Rossi, Jeremy Sisto, and Deidrich Bader (most recognizable as the weird neighbor from “Office Space” and one of the main characters of “The Drew Carey Show”).

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