Happy October...Halloween Season.....Season of the dead. Call it what you will, it is what is usually my favorite time of year. Though I'm still quite aroused by the chill in the air, color in the change of leaves and the Halloween decorations that are slowly starting to pop up all around the countryside, my thoughts are still with friends dealing with some rough times.
Though I won't be celebrating in the mad, obsessive, immersive way I usually do. I'll still celebrate it here in my Blog of Geekdom.
And what better way to ring in the season than with Zombies!
I've been on a real zombie kick as of late. It started when I bought "World War Z" by Max Brooks. Then I purchased books I and II of the "The Walking Dead" comic book compilations. I don't know why, but lately the whole Zombigeddon mythos has me quite intrigued. Perhaps its the intense evaluation of human nature it brings out. Or perhaps it's just a good dose of creepy, brain eating gore that always seems to spew forth from it.
For whatever the reason, I'm pretty full blown into the whole zombie thing right now.
That's why I treated myself to a viewing of Zombieland earlier this evening. So here's my first Halloween movie review of the season...
Zombieland - There's been a hell of a lot of hype over this Zombie movie within the last week. Many fan boy web sites are touting this to be one of the greatest zombie movies of all time. Now, when I started to get into zombie movies, the first one that I truly loved to death was Return of the Living Dead. A great horror comedy for the mid '80's. I held many a zombie movie up to that filme for a very long time. Then came Shawn of the Dead. That blew me away in every way a zombie movie could. So then I held every zombie movie up to Shawn of the Dead.
Tonight I saw the much touted Zombieland. After reading a lot of the online reviews, I was expecting the second coming of the zombie film. So, does it hold up to Shawn of the Dead as a zombie / comedy movie? It's pretty darn close, that's for sure! Zombieland does not disappoint in any way shape of form when it comes to grisly, gore infested, head shooting fun. But, for some odd reason, my heart is still with Shawn. I'm not sure why and may have to see both movies again to figure that out
On it's own, Zombieland is everything you'd want a zombie / comedy film to be. If for nothing else, Woody Harrelson's character of Tallahassee kicks ass! Much in the same way that Big Trouble in Little China's Jack Burton does. Both are machismo, action induced, adventurous ass kickers. The only difference in the two are that Tallahassee actually succeeds in his ass-kickery.
Harrelson really runs away with this movie as a vengeful zombie killing machine. He is one of 3 other survivors that team up together to travel through the zombie infested world that was once modern day earth. At first the team is not a match made in heaven. You have the geek, the ass kicker, the babe and her little sister who are actually two female con artists. Jessie Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin round out this incredible ensemble cast that work quite wonderfully together.
Then there is a 5th cast member who's cameo role, albeit brief, will go down in history as one of the funniest cameos in a horror movie ever. I will not give it away.
The only real problem I had with the movie was it was only 80 minutes long. I wanted to see more zombie killing!!!
In the end, I did really love Zombieland and it will go down as one of the best zombie movies out there. I do feel the on-line, fan boy hype was a little overdone. Perhaps just bit. It's not quite Shawn of the Dead, but it can certainly sit right next to Shawn with great glee and pride as a darn near, equally as good zombie flick.
Try and see this jem before the Halloween season is over.
One more zombie story.
Not long ago I had this weird dream I'd like to share with all of you. In the dream, the friends I usually go to haunted attractions with came with me on a trip to a small, quaint little berg that was sort of a resort / vacation / tourist spot. It had more of a Door County vibe rather than a Wisconsin Dells flavor to it. There was a nice, quaint little main street filled with antique and gift shops. Down the street was a larger warehouse looking building that was all boarded up.
Myself with my friends Iris and Roberto decided to investigate it. It had "KEEP OUT" spray painted all over it in big red letters. There just so happened to be an old timer sitting outside of the building.
We asked him what the building was used for. He told us a story of how a few years prior there was some sort of nuclear power plant not far from town that had a leak and many of the residents had turned into the undead. The local sheriff and his crew were lucky enough to herd them into the building were they have been sealed up ever since.
Now most normal people would view this dream as a nightmare. But let's see where this dream heads in my sick, twisted little brain.
At that point my friends and I start discussing the situation. Instead of seeing this a horrible place, we view it as a financial opportunity!
We decide to buy the building and turn it into one of the premiere haunted attractions of all time. Instead of using animatronic props and scare-actors, we decide have patrons really run for their lives using real life zombies.
My friends and I learn to herd the zombies around without getting bitten while at the same time reworking the warehouse to look like a haunted house.
It is at this point that I woke up unfortunately.
I don't know what that dream tells about me, but I may be headed to the asylum soon.
That's it for me tonight. Watch for more Halloween hi-jinx and horror movie reviews coming soon.
And remember that rustling outside of your window isn't the wind. It's an undead zombie coming to eat your brain. Sweet dreams!
Zangz.
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