On July 19, Universal will release their movie adaptation of the comic R.I.P.D., a story about an afterlife police force. Ryan Reynolds plays a man who has just died and is assigned to the Rest In Peace Department, an organization that makes sure dead things stay dead and don’t interfere with the living world. To this end, he’s teamed up with Jeff Bridges to help him learn the ropes. Read more…
So, how about that World War Z? After a long and troubled production cycle, it’s finally coming out. The first trailer didn’t look very appeal, at least to fans of the book, and sadly I’m here to report that the new Super Bowl ad will do nothing to change your mind. It seems even the marketers are aware that people are sick of zombies, as they don’t even clearly show the zombies, and when asked about what’s happening a character simply says “we don’t know.” Sounds like a motto for the whole movie. Watch the clip below. Read more…
Zombieland has had a long and storied past. Initially it was going to be a TV show, but when stations passed on it due to “zombies not being ‘in’ right now” it was turned into a film. Then, the zombie fad began, and the movie arrived at the perfect time, riding the wave of popularity. So what do you do now? Grab those old Zombieland TV show scripts, rough them up a bit, throw in a few references to Twitter, and you’ve got yourself a hit series. Maybe. Casting calls have gone out, so possibly, we may see different actors in the character’s roles, which might throw people off. i09 has several more details about the casting call, but in my opinion, we don’t need to revisit our friends in Zombieland anytime soon. Read more…
Weren’t zombie games played out a while ago? At the start of this console generation, the world was experiencing a zombie renaissance, with the previously cult creatures starting to appear all over the place. But a few years back, it seemed like the zombie market was over-saturated. Zombies were just getting tossed in anything, showing up even in unexpected games like Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption. There have been less zombie games lately, since anyone not experiencing zombie burnout is playing DayZ or The Walking Dead, but that won’t stop Microsoft from tossing another zombie game out there! Read more…
Given the popularity of zombies, I simply must bring up the recent ARMA II mod: DayZ. It’s a hardcore, permadeath online game that almost forces the player to take on a role-playing position. Set in a post-apocalyptic world in which an infection has wiped out most of the population and turned the rest into zombies, you must survive and scavenge using only your wits. Anyone can kill and steal whatever they want, leading to most players playing as roving solitary bandits. However, some people band together with friends or even strangers to survive for longer periods. However, once you die, you must start a new character back at the very beginning, with nothing. This fan-made trailer, while overly-dramatic, will give you a good idea of how the mod works. Read more…
Need the perfect weapon for dealing with a few zombies? You’d need to have the foresight to own one of these things, but let’s face it, chances are you want one, zombie apocalypse or not. This gun combines an AK with a chainsaw – attempting to make all your Gears of War fantasies come true. It sure looks cool, but if zombies are getting close enough for you to need to use your chainsaw, you’re probably already screwed. And I wouldn’t put too much faith in it: that chainsaw sounds pretty cheap. Maybe you could slice some butter with it, though. Check out the video below. Read more…
I can’t believe these are actually a thing, but here they are — Tactical Bleeding Zombie Targets. It’s true, Zombies are totally played out, but you never know when an outbreak may occur, so why not be prepared? Nevermind that Zombies are entirely fictitious and that we would never stand a chance should a supposed outbreak ever occur. Still, if firing weapons at semi-realistic targets is your thing, Zombie Industries might just what you’re looking for. The offer a whole range of zombie targets from paper to busts that actually bleed when shot. What’s more, the sale of the busts have actually been banned from the Crossroads Gun Shows. Apparently they feel the targets pose a threat to the second amendment as they’re “too graphic, offensive, and ghoulish in nature,” hilarious, right? The products range in price from as low as $12 for paper sheets to ~$115 depending on the model and are available via their official website.
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Oct 11, 2011 in Cinema, Horror
A SWAT team takes on a horde of zombies? Not quite, but that’d probably be fun to watch. Instead, an actual SWAT team recently raided the set of Brad Pitt’s upcoming horror flick, World War Z — the highly anticipated film adaptation of Max Brooks’ New York Times best-selling novel of the same name. Apparently the team seized and confiscated 85 fully-functional guns capable of firing live ammunition, many of which were fully or semi-automatic in nature. For whatever reason, the production company decided to forgo the use of prop weaponry in favor of real ones without filing the appropriate paperwork. Amazing, right?
Earlier this year Deep Silver decided to release a trailer for the upcoming title Dead Island that critics hailed as both stunningly visceral and emotionally-engaging. The artistic nature of the trailer had many of us excited about a game that we all thought would take the survival-horror genre in a bold new direction. Unfortunately, what many of us had the chance to finally play at E3 and, more recently, San Diego’s Comic-Con hardly seemed bold, or new. Instead, we were treated to what amounted to little more than a clone of Valve’s Left-4-Dead franchise — albeit a shiny one. Initially this bothered me, but now I wonder, is that really such a bad thing?
I admit that I loved Joel Schreiber’s Death Troopers. It certainly wasn’t the most original concept I’ve ever come across, but the idea of taking Star Wars and adding a bit of horror to the mix seemed to work well enough. Better yet, the story gave us a familiar setting without relying too heavily on established characters — aside from a well-scripted cameo which I refuse to spoil for any of you. Unfortunately, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to read it again. Since its release, there has been an unfortunate increase in zombie fiction. So much so, that I feel it’s over-saturated the market — a shame since Schreiber just released his Death Troopers prequelRed Harvest. It looks interest enough, set in the Old Republic and centered around the Sith and the origins of the virus from the first novel. A few years ago, the very concept of zombie Sith would have sold me on the novel alone, but these days I can’t even bring myself to read a proper summary, let alone recommend it anyone else. I suppose if you’re big on zomibification, you’ll want to check out a copy at your local bookstore, or pick up the ebook online. There’s also an Audiobook for those of you who’re too lazy to read. At least it might have some creepy music in the background to help you through it.l
