Kevin David Anderson's Blog, page 9
December 4, 2012
Stocking Stuffer
I’ve learned a few things in my short life that I think are, for the most part, absolute truths; Never get involved in a land war in Afghanistan or Southeast Asia, The police never think it’s as funny as you do, Never get attached to a Red Shirt on Star Trek, Coke is better than Pepsi, A cell phone is only as annoying as the person using it, A diet drink does NOT offset the calories in French fries and a cheeseburger, and the Zombie Tarot deck from Quirk Books may be the perfect stocking stuffer this year for fans of the undead and the mystic arts. 
Based on the classic Rider-Waite set, I assume, this unique tarot deck first seizes your attention with some retro 50’s style artwork by Paul Kepple. Amazing, beautiful, creative, stylish are adjectives that come to mind not only in attempting to describe the cards themselves but the packaging. The box that the deck comes in is so well done, I proudly display it on my bookshelf. I particularly love the image off bullets simulated along the sides, giving a hint to just how loaded this set is. The cards themselves look spectacular with a very pulpy Cold War feel chock-full of vintage and apocalyptic iconography.
Set in the midst of the zombie apocalypse the Zombie Tarot deck has all the familiar elements; Swords, Wands, Cups, Hazards, The Fool, The Hangman, etc.., but of course with a twist. Writer Stephanie Graham (The Girls' Ghost Hunting Guide) provides that twist with a deep knowledge of tarot and a macabre sense of humor. Her 96 page instruction booklet can teach even the uninitiated tarot card reader how to extract advice to help you and your group of survivors make the right choice in any undead apocalyptic scenario. For example; should you stay on the move or barricade yourselves in a basement, should you head north or south, will little Timmy be okay or should you put the kid down before he turns and takes a bite out of mommy.
Having insight into possible futures during the apocalypse may be the difference between you experiencing a long threadbare life on the run in the aftermath of mankind, or your easy demise as you become a zombie chew toy. The Zombie Tarot will give you that insight. And what better way to say you care about someone than to give them something that will perpetuate their survival. Or at least perpetuate it long enough so that they can occupy the ravenous horde while you make your escape. Either way, they’ll appreciate the sentiment.
In all seriousness, I found the Zombie Tarot deck a lot of fun. It’s the perfect holiday gift for that special Zombie, Tarot fan in your life. Avaliable at Amazon.
December 3, 2012
BookNosh - Author of the Month
Booknosh, an independent book review website has named me their author of the month. Not sure how I got the honor but I'll take it. There is an interview, with some talk about Trek, future projects, and a possible follow up to Night of the Living Trekkies.
Link to the Interview
Link to their review of NotLT
Just for fun I through up some graphics at CafePress, should anyone feel an overwhelming need to possess a NotLT coffee mug or T-Shirt.
I'm starting our annual NotLT Holiday Wreath craziness over at our FaceBook page. Already have a few making the Internet rounds, and a fan, Jo Jaquinta, put together a kind of audio track for The Wreath of Khan, then uploaded it to YouTube. You can listen to it here - Wreath of Khan on YouTube
Link to the Interview
Link to their review of NotLT
Just for fun I through up some graphics at CafePress, should anyone feel an overwhelming need to possess a NotLT coffee mug or T-Shirt.
I'm starting our annual NotLT Holiday Wreath craziness over at our FaceBook page. Already have a few making the Internet rounds, and a fan, Jo Jaquinta, put together a kind of audio track for The Wreath of Khan, then uploaded it to YouTube. You can listen to it here - Wreath of Khan on YouTube
October 29, 2012
Night of the Living Trekkies infects Disneyland!
Yes, the Night of the Living Trekkies infection has spread to the happiest place on Earth - Zombie Trekkies have been spotted at Disneyland. NotLT fans Lindsay Stanley and her fellow Tomorrowland co-workers, Bri Bower and Kara Rickert, decided to appear as undead Trekkies at an event at Disneyland. Truly a breathtaking look for the land of tomorrow. Thank you ladies. Well done!
Just a few more days left to check out my Monster Movie collection on display this month at the Temecula Public Library. Since I lost my office space a few years ago, it was nice to have the opportunity to unbox these poseable creatures and let folks take a peek. Happy Halloween, be safe and have fun.
October 11, 2012
Top 21 List of Zombie Comedies - Kevin David Anderson
Horror Comedy, when done well, is a rare and wondrous thing. Delivering real terror and side splitting laughs in the same scene is a daunting task. I don’t think any filmaker hit the ball further out of the park in this genre than Jon Landis, with An American Werewolf in London. The film is a steady stream of gore, terror and laugh out loud funny moments. But in the sub-genre of horror comedy, there is one specific incarnation that I truly love – the ZomCom, sometimes called Zombedies or more simply, Zombie Comedy. Whatever you call it, there is no type of film I enjoy more. It’s a genre that says, just because it’s the apocalypse doesn't mean we should stop laughing.
I’ve compiled a list of what I think are the twenty-one best Zombie Comedies to date. It’s not based on anything other than my humble opinion. To keep the list to twenty-one, (I started off trying to do a top ten list) I had to eliminate films that were not really zombie films. These distinctions are all debatable, but I decided not to list the Evil Dead films (deadites), movies like The Signal (people turned into murderous lunatics), or the Re-animator films. All great movies, but you have to draw a line somewhere.
21) Hide and Creep(2004) – Unexpected visitors wake up the sleepy town of Thorsby, Ala., when a bloodthirsty army of the undead wreaks havoc in the streets.
20) Bio Zombies(1998) – A Japanese cult favorite that pits unwary shopping mall strollers against a horde of ravenous zombies. Two clerks who work at the mall -- unwittingly raise an army of ghouls when they slam into a biochemical company employee with their car, creating a wholesale infection. Better charge it!19) Deadheads(2011) – Undead slackers Mike and Brent are reborn as part of a major zombie outbreak in this gore-happy comedy and love story. While searching for Mike's missing fiancée, the two monster pals find themselves quarry for bounty hunters.
18) Boy Eats Girls(2005) – Resurrected by his mother after a tragic accident, 17-year-old Nathan awakens with a taste for human flesh. A run-in with a school bully sets off events that spread Nathan's "condition" all over town. Meanwhile, the undead Nathan tries to curb his appetite for his dream girl.
17) Aaah! Zombies!(2007) – A group of undead -- who think they're living -- are just beginning to grasp the implications of their horrific new existence.
16) Cemetery Man (1996) – Rupert Everett stars as an oddly unflappable cemetery watchman fighting off zombies in this droll send-up of 1950s drive-in horror flicks. With the dead on the rise, Francesco Dellamorte (Everett) and his half-wit sidekick (Francois Hadji-Lazaro) must be always at the ready to crack the corpses' skulls and send them back under.
15) The Mad(2007) – On an outing to the country, a doctor and his daughter stop in a town known for its organic beef. But the travelers run up against a mutated virus that turns people into the undead and hamburger patties into ravenous killers.
14) Night of the Living Dorks (2006) – the three biggest dorks at Frederich Nietzsche High School get a chance at coolness when they're killed in an auto accident and reanimated as flesh-eating zombies. Thanks to their rapidly decomposing bodies, there's no need for eating or sleeping, which leaves plenty of time for partying, girl-chasing, and getting even with their enemies.
13) Undead or Alive(2007) – Fugitive soldier Elmer teams with lovelorn cowboy Luke to rob a crooked sheriff and skip town with the help of an Apache warrior princess. But robbing the sheriff proves easy compared with surviving a zombie plague that's sweeping the old West! Former "South Park" writer Glasgow Phillips makes his directorial debut with a new undead twist: the zombie western comedy.
12) Undead (2003) – When an intense meteor shower covers the countryside, it spreads an incurable infection among residents of a peaceful fishing town, turning them into flesh-eating zombies. Running for her life, Rene finds refuge in an isolated farmhouse. There, she meets four others who survived the disaster. Together, they fend off the walking dead and learn the truth about those they're fighting.
11) The Return of the Living Dead II (1988) When a barrel of mysterious gas rolls off an Army truck, the lethal contents wafts into a nearby cemetery, reanimating a horde of ravenous zombies. Kind of a rehash of the original but one that never takes itself seriously, and even pokes fun of itself.
10) Dead Snow(2009) – A group of friends run into Nazi zombies, armed with machine-guns. A quirky comedy horror, shot on location in the mountains of Norway.
9) Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009) – When flesh-eating zombies assault their idyllic town, a ragtag group of locals -- including a gay couple, an Iranian American college student, and a conservative Reverend join forces to repel the brutal onslaught. Set in a paranoid post-9/11 America, this film offers witty social satire as well as an abundance of blood and guts.
8) Dance of the Dead(2008) – On the night of the big High-School Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance.
7) Doghouse(2009) – Six guys hell-bent on having a raucous weekend away from wives and lovers arrive in the remote town of Moodley-- but something is amiss in the quaint hamlet. Where are the men? And why do all the women look as if they want to feast on male flesh?
6) Dead and Breakfast(2004) – Six friends on their way to a wedding, stop for the night at a quaint bed and breakfast in the sleepy town of Lovelock. But after a night that ends with both the inn’s owner and his chef dead, the gang finds themselves fighting for their lives when the already bizarre residents of the town become possessed zombies.
5) Dead Alive(1992) When a Sumatran rat-monkey bites Lionel Cosgrove's mother, she's transformed into a zombie. She begins killing (and transforming) the entire town while Lionel races to keep things under control. Events culminate at a house party that turns into a blood-drenched zombie buffet. NOTE: try to see the Peter Jackson’s original uncut version. Many great scenes were cut for an American release.
4) Fido (2006) – A young boy, Timmy Robinson has a very unusual pet -- a loyal, lumbering zombie named Fido, played by Billy Connolly. Problems arise when Fido breaks loose and noshes on a neighbor. Timmy is suddenly forced into damage-control mode while he tries to persuade his parents not to put Fido down.
3) Zombieland (2009) – Looking to survive in a world taken over by zombies, a dorky college student teams with an urban roughneck and two grifter sisters. But after making their way to an allegedly safe Los Angeles amusement park, the quartet learns that no place is safe. 2) The Return of the Living Dead (1985) – The freshly risen undead are ready to party in this horror-comedy that finds two employees of a medical supply company unwittingly releasing several zombies from cylinders in which they've been trapped for years. Soon, the local citizenry is forced to deal with a large-scale zombie epidemic as the nasty, brain-eating creatures go on a rampage
1) Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Zombie rise in the streets of London, and slacker, Shaun and his well-meaning best mate try to save his girlfriend and mum. I’m not just a huge fan of this film, but of the filmmakers as well. Coming off their BBC series Spaced, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost,and Edger Wright put together what I believe is the best Zomcom to date. Not only is the film brilliant in every sense of the word, it rekindled my interest, as it did for many others, in the zombie genre.
Because I had to cut the list off at some point, here are some Honorable Mentions: The Stink of Flesh (2004), Slither (2006), Night of the Creeps (1986), My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), American Zombie (2008), Chocking Hazard (2004), Dead Heat (1988), Dead Moon Rising (2007) Tokyo Zombie (2009) Zombie Strippers(2008)
I’ve compiled a list of what I think are the twenty-one best Zombie Comedies to date. It’s not based on anything other than my humble opinion. To keep the list to twenty-one, (I started off trying to do a top ten list) I had to eliminate films that were not really zombie films. These distinctions are all debatable, but I decided not to list the Evil Dead films (deadites), movies like The Signal (people turned into murderous lunatics), or the Re-animator films. All great movies, but you have to draw a line somewhere.
21) Hide and Creep(2004) – Unexpected visitors wake up the sleepy town of Thorsby, Ala., when a bloodthirsty army of the undead wreaks havoc in the streets.
20) Bio Zombies(1998) – A Japanese cult favorite that pits unwary shopping mall strollers against a horde of ravenous zombies. Two clerks who work at the mall -- unwittingly raise an army of ghouls when they slam into a biochemical company employee with their car, creating a wholesale infection. Better charge it!19) Deadheads(2011) – Undead slackers Mike and Brent are reborn as part of a major zombie outbreak in this gore-happy comedy and love story. While searching for Mike's missing fiancée, the two monster pals find themselves quarry for bounty hunters.
18) Boy Eats Girls(2005) – Resurrected by his mother after a tragic accident, 17-year-old Nathan awakens with a taste for human flesh. A run-in with a school bully sets off events that spread Nathan's "condition" all over town. Meanwhile, the undead Nathan tries to curb his appetite for his dream girl.
17) Aaah! Zombies!(2007) – A group of undead -- who think they're living -- are just beginning to grasp the implications of their horrific new existence.
16) Cemetery Man (1996) – Rupert Everett stars as an oddly unflappable cemetery watchman fighting off zombies in this droll send-up of 1950s drive-in horror flicks. With the dead on the rise, Francesco Dellamorte (Everett) and his half-wit sidekick (Francois Hadji-Lazaro) must be always at the ready to crack the corpses' skulls and send them back under.
15) The Mad(2007) – On an outing to the country, a doctor and his daughter stop in a town known for its organic beef. But the travelers run up against a mutated virus that turns people into the undead and hamburger patties into ravenous killers.
14) Night of the Living Dorks (2006) – the three biggest dorks at Frederich Nietzsche High School get a chance at coolness when they're killed in an auto accident and reanimated as flesh-eating zombies. Thanks to their rapidly decomposing bodies, there's no need for eating or sleeping, which leaves plenty of time for partying, girl-chasing, and getting even with their enemies.
13) Undead or Alive(2007) – Fugitive soldier Elmer teams with lovelorn cowboy Luke to rob a crooked sheriff and skip town with the help of an Apache warrior princess. But robbing the sheriff proves easy compared with surviving a zombie plague that's sweeping the old West! Former "South Park" writer Glasgow Phillips makes his directorial debut with a new undead twist: the zombie western comedy.
12) Undead (2003) – When an intense meteor shower covers the countryside, it spreads an incurable infection among residents of a peaceful fishing town, turning them into flesh-eating zombies. Running for her life, Rene finds refuge in an isolated farmhouse. There, she meets four others who survived the disaster. Together, they fend off the walking dead and learn the truth about those they're fighting.
11) The Return of the Living Dead II (1988) When a barrel of mysterious gas rolls off an Army truck, the lethal contents wafts into a nearby cemetery, reanimating a horde of ravenous zombies. Kind of a rehash of the original but one that never takes itself seriously, and even pokes fun of itself.
10) Dead Snow(2009) – A group of friends run into Nazi zombies, armed with machine-guns. A quirky comedy horror, shot on location in the mountains of Norway.
9) Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009) – When flesh-eating zombies assault their idyllic town, a ragtag group of locals -- including a gay couple, an Iranian American college student, and a conservative Reverend join forces to repel the brutal onslaught. Set in a paranoid post-9/11 America, this film offers witty social satire as well as an abundance of blood and guts.
8) Dance of the Dead(2008) – On the night of the big High-School Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance.
7) Doghouse(2009) – Six guys hell-bent on having a raucous weekend away from wives and lovers arrive in the remote town of Moodley-- but something is amiss in the quaint hamlet. Where are the men? And why do all the women look as if they want to feast on male flesh?
6) Dead and Breakfast(2004) – Six friends on their way to a wedding, stop for the night at a quaint bed and breakfast in the sleepy town of Lovelock. But after a night that ends with both the inn’s owner and his chef dead, the gang finds themselves fighting for their lives when the already bizarre residents of the town become possessed zombies.
5) Dead Alive(1992) When a Sumatran rat-monkey bites Lionel Cosgrove's mother, she's transformed into a zombie. She begins killing (and transforming) the entire town while Lionel races to keep things under control. Events culminate at a house party that turns into a blood-drenched zombie buffet. NOTE: try to see the Peter Jackson’s original uncut version. Many great scenes were cut for an American release.
4) Fido (2006) – A young boy, Timmy Robinson has a very unusual pet -- a loyal, lumbering zombie named Fido, played by Billy Connolly. Problems arise when Fido breaks loose and noshes on a neighbor. Timmy is suddenly forced into damage-control mode while he tries to persuade his parents not to put Fido down.
3) Zombieland (2009) – Looking to survive in a world taken over by zombies, a dorky college student teams with an urban roughneck and two grifter sisters. But after making their way to an allegedly safe Los Angeles amusement park, the quartet learns that no place is safe. 2) The Return of the Living Dead (1985) – The freshly risen undead are ready to party in this horror-comedy that finds two employees of a medical supply company unwittingly releasing several zombies from cylinders in which they've been trapped for years. Soon, the local citizenry is forced to deal with a large-scale zombie epidemic as the nasty, brain-eating creatures go on a rampage
1) Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Zombie rise in the streets of London, and slacker, Shaun and his well-meaning best mate try to save his girlfriend and mum. I’m not just a huge fan of this film, but of the filmmakers as well. Coming off their BBC series Spaced, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost,and Edger Wright put together what I believe is the best Zomcom to date. Not only is the film brilliant in every sense of the word, it rekindled my interest, as it did for many others, in the zombie genre.
Because I had to cut the list off at some point, here are some Honorable Mentions: The Stink of Flesh (2004), Slither (2006), Night of the Creeps (1986), My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), American Zombie (2008), Chocking Hazard (2004), Dead Heat (1988), Dead Moon Rising (2007) Tokyo Zombie (2009) Zombie Strippers(2008)
Top 21 Zombie Comedies - Kevin David Anderson
Horror Comedy, when done well, is a rare and wondrous thing. Delivering real terror and belly rolling laughs in the same scene is a daunting task for any filmmaker. I don’t think any director hit the ball further out of the park in this genre than Jon Landis, with An American Werewolf in London. The film is a steady stream of gore, terror and laugh out loud funny moments. But in the subgenre of horror comedy, there is one specific incarnation that I truly love – the ZomCom, sometimes called Zombedies or more simply, Zombie Comedy. Whatever you call it, there is no genre of film I enjoy more. It’s a genre that says, just because it’s the apocalypse doesn’t mean we should stop laughing.
I’ve compiled a list of what I think are the twenty-one best Zombie Comedies to date. It’s not based on anything other than my humble opinion. To keep the list to twenty-one, (I started off trying to do a top ten list) I had to eliminate films that were not really zombie films. These distinctions are all debatable, but I decided not to list the Evil Dead films (deadites), movies like The Signal (people turned into murderous lunatics), or the Re-animator films. All great movies, but you have to draw a line of comedy death somewhere.
21) Hide and Creep(2004) – Unexpected visitors wake up the sleepy town of Thorsby, Ala., when a bloodthirsty army of the undead wreaks havoc in the streets.
20) Bio Zombies(1998) – A Japanese cult favorite that pits unwary shopping mall strollers against a horde of ravenous zombies. Two clerks who work at the mall -- unwittingly raise an army of ghouls when they slam into a biochemical company employee with their car, creating a wholesale infection. Better charge it! 19) Deadheads(2011) – Undead slackers Mike and Brent are reborn as part of a major zombie outbreak in this gore-happy comedy and love story. While searching for Mike's missing fiancée, the two monster pals find themselves quarry for bounty hunters.
18) Boy Eats Girls(2005) – Resurrected by his mother after a tragic accident, 17-year-old Nathan awakens with a taste for human flesh. A run-in with a school bully sets off events that spread Nathan's "condition" all over town. Meanwhile, the undead Nathan tries to curb his appetite for his dream girl.
17) Aaah! Zombies!(2007) – A group of undead -- who think they're living -- are just beginning to grasp the implications of their horrific new existence.
16) Cemetery Man (1996) – Rupert Everett stars as an oddly unflappable cemetery watchman fighting off zombies in this droll send-up of 1950s drive-in horror flicks. With the dead on the rise, Francesco Dellamorte (Everett) and his half-wit sidekick (Francois Hadji-Lazaro) must be always at the ready to crack the corpses' skulls and send them back under.
15) The Mad(2007) – On an outing to the country, a doctor and his daughter stop in a town known for its organic beef. But the travelers run up against a mutated virus that turns people into the undead and hamburger patties into ravenous killers.
14) Night of the Living Dorks (2006) – the three biggest dorks at Frederich Nietzsche High School get a chance at coolness when they're killed in an auto accident and reanimated as flesh-eating zombies. Thanks to their rapidly decomposing bodies, there's no need for eating or sleeping, which leaves plenty of time for partying, girl-chasing, and getting even with their enemies.
13) Undead or Alive(2007) – Fugitive soldier Elmer teams with lovelorn cowboy Luke to rob a crooked sheriff and skip town with the help of an Apache warrior princess. But robbing the sheriff proves easy compared with surviving a zombie plague that's sweeping the old West! Former "South Park" writer Glasgow Phillips makes his directorial debut with a new undead twist: the zombie western comedy.
12) Undead (2003) – When an intense meteor shower covers the countryside, it spreads an incurable infection among residents of a peaceful fishing town, turning them into flesh-eating zombies. Running for her life, Rene finds refuge in an isolated farmhouse. There, she meets four others who survived the disaster. Together, they fend off the walking dead and learn the truth about those they're fighting.
11) The Return of the Living Dead II (1988) When a barrel of mysterious gas rolls off an Army truck, the lethal contents wafts into a nearby cemetery, reanimating a horde of ravenous zombies. Kind of a rehash of the original but one that never takes itself seriously, and even pokes fun of itself.
10) Dead Snow(2009) – A group of friends run into Nazi zombies, armed with machine-guns. A quirky comedy horror, shot on location in the mountains of Norway.
9) Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009) – When flesh-eating zombies assault their idyllic town, a ragtag group of locals -- including a gay couple, an Iranian American college student, and a conservative Reverend join forces to repel the brutal onslaught. Set in a paranoid post-9/11 America, this film offers witty social satire as well as an abundance of blood and guts.
8) Dance of the Dead(2008) – On the night of the big High-School Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance.
7) Doghouse(2009) – Six guys hell-bent on having a raucous weekend away from wives and lovers arrive in the remote town of Moodley-- but something is amiss in the quaint hamlet. Where are the men? And why do all the women look as if they want to feast on male flesh?
6) Dead and Breakfast(2004) – Six friends on their way to a wedding, stop for the night at a quaint bed and breakfast in the sleepy town of Lovelock. But after a night that ends with both the inn’s owner and his chef dead, the gang finds themselves fighting for their lives when the already bizarre residents of the town become possessed zombies.
5) Dead Alive(1992) When a Sumatran rat-monkey bites Lionel Cosgrove's mother, she's transformed into a zombie. She begins killing (and transforming) the entire town while Lionel races to keep things under control. Events culminate at a house party that turns into a blood-drenched zombie buffet. NOTE: try to see the Peter Jackson’s original uncut version. Many great scenes were cut for an American release.
4) Fido (2006) – A young boy, Timmy Robinson has a very unusual pet -- a loyal, lumbering zombie named Fido, played by Billy Connolly. Problems arise when Fido breaks loose and noshes on a neighbor. Timmy is suddenly forced into damage-control mode while he tries to persuade his parents not to put Fido down.
3) Zombieland (2009) – Looking to survive in a world taken over by zombies, a dorky college student teams with an urban roughneck and two grifter sisters. But after making their way to an allegedly safe Los Angeles amusement park, the quartet learns that no place is safe. 2) The Return of the Living Dead (1985) – The freshly risen undead are ready to party in this horror-comedy that finds two employees of a medical supply company unwittingly releasing several zombies from cylinders in which they've been trapped for years. Soon, the local citizenry is forced to deal with a large-scale zombie epidemic as the nasty, brain-eating creatures go on a rampage
1) Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Zombie rise in the streets of London, and slacker, Shaun and his well-meaning best mate try to save his girlfriend and mum. I’m not just a huge fan of this film, but of the filmmakers as well. Coming off their BBC series Spaced, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost,and Edger Wright put together what I believe is the best Zomcom to date. Not only is the film brilliant in every sense of the word, it rekindled my interest, as it did for many others, in the zombie genre.
Because I had to cut the list off at some point, here are some Honorable Mentions: The Stink of Flesh (2004), Slither (2006), Night of the Creeps (1986), My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), American Zombie (2008), Chocking Hazard (2004), Dead Heat (1988), Dead Moon Rising (2007) Tokyo Zombie (2009) Zombie Strippers(2008)
I’ve compiled a list of what I think are the twenty-one best Zombie Comedies to date. It’s not based on anything other than my humble opinion. To keep the list to twenty-one, (I started off trying to do a top ten list) I had to eliminate films that were not really zombie films. These distinctions are all debatable, but I decided not to list the Evil Dead films (deadites), movies like The Signal (people turned into murderous lunatics), or the Re-animator films. All great movies, but you have to draw a line of comedy death somewhere.
21) Hide and Creep(2004) – Unexpected visitors wake up the sleepy town of Thorsby, Ala., when a bloodthirsty army of the undead wreaks havoc in the streets.
20) Bio Zombies(1998) – A Japanese cult favorite that pits unwary shopping mall strollers against a horde of ravenous zombies. Two clerks who work at the mall -- unwittingly raise an army of ghouls when they slam into a biochemical company employee with their car, creating a wholesale infection. Better charge it! 19) Deadheads(2011) – Undead slackers Mike and Brent are reborn as part of a major zombie outbreak in this gore-happy comedy and love story. While searching for Mike's missing fiancée, the two monster pals find themselves quarry for bounty hunters.
18) Boy Eats Girls(2005) – Resurrected by his mother after a tragic accident, 17-year-old Nathan awakens with a taste for human flesh. A run-in with a school bully sets off events that spread Nathan's "condition" all over town. Meanwhile, the undead Nathan tries to curb his appetite for his dream girl.
17) Aaah! Zombies!(2007) – A group of undead -- who think they're living -- are just beginning to grasp the implications of their horrific new existence.
16) Cemetery Man (1996) – Rupert Everett stars as an oddly unflappable cemetery watchman fighting off zombies in this droll send-up of 1950s drive-in horror flicks. With the dead on the rise, Francesco Dellamorte (Everett) and his half-wit sidekick (Francois Hadji-Lazaro) must be always at the ready to crack the corpses' skulls and send them back under.
15) The Mad(2007) – On an outing to the country, a doctor and his daughter stop in a town known for its organic beef. But the travelers run up against a mutated virus that turns people into the undead and hamburger patties into ravenous killers.
14) Night of the Living Dorks (2006) – the three biggest dorks at Frederich Nietzsche High School get a chance at coolness when they're killed in an auto accident and reanimated as flesh-eating zombies. Thanks to their rapidly decomposing bodies, there's no need for eating or sleeping, which leaves plenty of time for partying, girl-chasing, and getting even with their enemies.
13) Undead or Alive(2007) – Fugitive soldier Elmer teams with lovelorn cowboy Luke to rob a crooked sheriff and skip town with the help of an Apache warrior princess. But robbing the sheriff proves easy compared with surviving a zombie plague that's sweeping the old West! Former "South Park" writer Glasgow Phillips makes his directorial debut with a new undead twist: the zombie western comedy.
12) Undead (2003) – When an intense meteor shower covers the countryside, it spreads an incurable infection among residents of a peaceful fishing town, turning them into flesh-eating zombies. Running for her life, Rene finds refuge in an isolated farmhouse. There, she meets four others who survived the disaster. Together, they fend off the walking dead and learn the truth about those they're fighting.
11) The Return of the Living Dead II (1988) When a barrel of mysterious gas rolls off an Army truck, the lethal contents wafts into a nearby cemetery, reanimating a horde of ravenous zombies. Kind of a rehash of the original but one that never takes itself seriously, and even pokes fun of itself.
10) Dead Snow(2009) – A group of friends run into Nazi zombies, armed with machine-guns. A quirky comedy horror, shot on location in the mountains of Norway.
9) Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009) – When flesh-eating zombies assault their idyllic town, a ragtag group of locals -- including a gay couple, an Iranian American college student, and a conservative Reverend join forces to repel the brutal onslaught. Set in a paranoid post-9/11 America, this film offers witty social satire as well as an abundance of blood and guts.
8) Dance of the Dead(2008) – On the night of the big High-School Prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance.
7) Doghouse(2009) – Six guys hell-bent on having a raucous weekend away from wives and lovers arrive in the remote town of Moodley-- but something is amiss in the quaint hamlet. Where are the men? And why do all the women look as if they want to feast on male flesh?
6) Dead and Breakfast(2004) – Six friends on their way to a wedding, stop for the night at a quaint bed and breakfast in the sleepy town of Lovelock. But after a night that ends with both the inn’s owner and his chef dead, the gang finds themselves fighting for their lives when the already bizarre residents of the town become possessed zombies.
5) Dead Alive(1992) When a Sumatran rat-monkey bites Lionel Cosgrove's mother, she's transformed into a zombie. She begins killing (and transforming) the entire town while Lionel races to keep things under control. Events culminate at a house party that turns into a blood-drenched zombie buffet. NOTE: try to see the Peter Jackson’s original uncut version. Many great scenes were cut for an American release.
4) Fido (2006) – A young boy, Timmy Robinson has a very unusual pet -- a loyal, lumbering zombie named Fido, played by Billy Connolly. Problems arise when Fido breaks loose and noshes on a neighbor. Timmy is suddenly forced into damage-control mode while he tries to persuade his parents not to put Fido down.
3) Zombieland (2009) – Looking to survive in a world taken over by zombies, a dorky college student teams with an urban roughneck and two grifter sisters. But after making their way to an allegedly safe Los Angeles amusement park, the quartet learns that no place is safe. 2) The Return of the Living Dead (1985) – The freshly risen undead are ready to party in this horror-comedy that finds two employees of a medical supply company unwittingly releasing several zombies from cylinders in which they've been trapped for years. Soon, the local citizenry is forced to deal with a large-scale zombie epidemic as the nasty, brain-eating creatures go on a rampage
1) Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Zombie rise in the streets of London, and slacker, Shaun and his well-meaning best mate try to save his girlfriend and mum. I’m not just a huge fan of this film, but of the filmmakers as well. Coming off their BBC series Spaced, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost,and Edger Wright put together what I believe is the best Zomcom to date. Not only is the film brilliant in every sense of the word, it rekindled my interest, as it did for many others, in the zombie genre.
Because I had to cut the list off at some point, here are some Honorable Mentions: The Stink of Flesh (2004), Slither (2006), Night of the Creeps (1986), My Boyfriend’s Back (1993), American Zombie (2008), Chocking Hazard (2004), Dead Heat (1988), Dead Moon Rising (2007) Tokyo Zombie (2009) Zombie Strippers(2008)
September 1, 2012
Out Of My Comfort Zone
Six or seven years ago an editor got in touch with me and asked if I'd contribute a story to an anthology she was putting together. As a writer it’s a great feeling when the market knocks on your door as apposed to the other way around. Only problem with this anthology was that it was going to in the genre of Horror Erotica. For those not initiated, think blood and sex, sex and blood, and the ever popular sex, blood and sex. Not really my cup of tea as a reader or a writer, but not wanting to say no, I dove into the other end of the horror pool and gave it my best shot. Well, the editor loved it, accepted it, and a month later the anthology folded. That would have been the end of the story until I noticed a call for submissions to a charity anthology called Coming Together: Arm in Arm in Arm... a horror anthology of Tentacle Erotica (also called Tentacle Porn). Yeah, I’m not going to explain Tentacle Erotica. Use your imagination. Anyway, this antho edited by erotic writer and editor, Nobilis Reed will benefit Oceana, a charity that works to protect the world's oceans. My story is called, the Male of the Species, and it’s available in this collection, with eighteen other stories, on Amazon at Coming Together:Arm in Arm in Arm. 
In other news the web site Zombease.com is giving away a copy of Night of the Living Trekkies. Just make a comment or like their Facebook page and you’ll be entered in the drawing. And although summer is almost over Quirk Books has put together a summer sampler for download (okay they put it together a month ago, I just don’t blog enough) with sample chapters of some of their best books including: Taft 2012 by Jason Heller, The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Pride & Prejudice & Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth-Grahame Smith, Bedbugs by Ben H. Winters, and of course Night of the Living Trekkies! Get your free sampler here.Its an election year so there is no end to drama on the news. I'm finding it, for the most part, enjoyable to say the least. But as we get closer to November I'm sure things will heat up. As the lady (Margo Channing / Bette Davis) said "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!"
That's all for now. 
August 26, 2012
Movie Ideas
Had a few movie ideas. No scripts just posters.
August 11, 2012
Dusting off the Blog
It's an election year and I'm not really feeling it from either side yet, so there is a good chance I may write this ticket in. The ads are starting to run here in California which is kind of strange since I didn't think we were a battleground state. In any case, it should be an interesting election.
Not much to blog about really, just dusting some of the Internet dust off this thing, basically to see if it still works. I did place a short erotic horror story with a charity anthology, but I'll post about that when I know more about it. I have one manuscript with my agent, one on my desk, one in the works, and one being outlined - which may be a follow up to Night of the Living Trekkies. So lots going on, but at the same time, not much happening. Hope that will change soon.
May 3, 2012
Frak Me
"If Newt Gingrich is Captain Kirk, then I'm William Fracking Shakespeare!" - Kevin David Anderson
April 27, 2012
Why Write Fiction
Why write fiction? It's a question that's been on my mind a lot lately. Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to master an ancient craft, little appreciated, lacking mass interest. Just ten years ago I could be in a coffee shop or just standing in a line to pay a utility bill (usually late) and almost everybody had a book in their hand. I was recently in such a line, with about fifteen other people and with the exception of myself, no one was reading. Books have been replaced with electronic devises, little windows into an entire world of time killing mediocrity. It would give me some peace of mind if one or two of the folks in line with me were enjoying an eBook, but as I scanned the tiny screens around me, emitting bleeps, just over the tapping sounds of fast moving thumbs, I could see that wasn't the case. Cell phone games, texting and checking the latest FaceBook post from people they most likely have never met, seems to occupy the majority of people's free time. Free time that used to be spent enjoying a good book. Speaking of free time, here is something I created with some of mine - in between reading and writing.
