Our Favorite Cinematic Zombies

All zombies shuffle in their own special ways, but these zombies devoured a special place in our hearts.

Number Five

Tarman is the kind of zombie that wakes up ready to party. Gooey and gross in Return of the Living Dead, this fellow dug into our brains and never let go.

Number Four

In the original Dawn of the Dead, human Steve was a pain in the ass, but he got super obnoxious after turning zombie. The creepy creep led the zombie horde to the secret door so they could eat his woman and friend. Not cool, man.

Number Three

Bub was the most civilized zombie. Not to mention, the most likable character in Day of the Dead. The gruesome guy loved music and remained patriotic even after turning undead. He was an inspiration to all those zombies who forget their cool after the change.

Number Two

This scary bastard never gets his props, but Billy was a weird looking dork before getting bitten in Return of the Living Dead 2. Is there anything more terrifying than a nerd zombie complete with braces?

Number One

Roger from the original Dawn of the Dead was our favorite character. When he was bitten and changed, our hearts were broken. Mostly because he never had a chance to chew into any of his annoying companions. Our choice would have been Steve.

Honorable Mention

In Night of the Living Dead, Karen ate her mom and dad. Pretty impressive for a kid. Though truth be told, her parents were idiots.

In Return of the Living Dead 3, Julie loved her man so much she fought the urge to eat him. Instead, she spread a zombie infection and took self mutilation to a whole new romantic level.

Deadly Dee's Review of "The Most Uncommon Cold"

The Most Uncommon Cold by Jeffrey Littorno

 

Book Summary

Imagine a world in which nothing is as it should be. Those we love no longer recognize us. The basic laws of society no longer apply. And the dead do not remain still. That is the world in which reporter Kevin Turner finds himself. Now finding the facts surrounding the story do not matter as much as simply finding a way to stay alive.

 

 

Deadly Dee's Review

 

This is a very unusual, and confusing zombie book. There were several points in the book where I thought maybe the main character, Kevin, was having a nightmare, on drugs, in a mental institution... or pick your poison, because I sure couldn't figure it out. Small details kept changing, places seemed to shift, and he seemed to go from one emotion to the next with no build up. There were times I was so confused I actually had to go back and reread a few passages thinking I had become confused, but it turned out it wasn't me - it was the book itself that just couldn't seem to decide where it wanted to go. (I'm trying to be kind here by saying book instead of author.) The zombies in the book talked, which was a unique twist (not quite as brain dead as everyone else's zombies...)

 

Unfortunately, I can't find any way to get around the ending, 'cause there was none. None! I thought maybe I'd had a glitch in the DL on my Kindle, but it turns out that Littorno intentionally ends the book basically mid-stream. I don't even know how to describe it... the action is still taking place, there's absolutely zero resolution (not even a lead in to another book) and then bam! You run out of pages. It was like he'd run out of ideas and just stopped writing or something...I've never seen anything like it. It leaves you very unsatisfied and disgruntled. At the very least, finish the book dude.

Zombified Interview with author GB Banks

GB Banks is the deadly dude behind many zombific stories. Now, he and Blaine Hislop have unleashed Zombie George Washington: The Zombie President and His Zombie Army March to Retake DC. GB took time from horrifying grateful readers to allow us to dig around in his brain...

Ang: When were you first bitten by the zombie affliction? Can you take us back to how the infection began? What’s the most difficult part about sharing this ghoulish love as an indie?

GB: Honestly, I’m not sure when I first got bitten. I have loved dark fantasy and horror most of my adult life. I mean between vampires, werewolves, and the ever-present, loveably undead zombies, how could you not love any of them?

The most difficult thing as an Indie is to come up with something fresh and original. Seems like everyone and their mama is writing zombie stories now, and getting one’s head above the writer-filled waters to be noticed is extremely hard.

 

Ang: If you had to dumb down the plot of your series so a zombie could understand, how would you explain it?

 

GB: I’d probably just say: “President. Washington. Resurrection. Army. Corruption. Murder. Pissed. Justice. War.”

 

Ang: Describe the lucky survivors who engage with the festering horde of the dead.

 

GB: This book is actually written from the zombie’s, in this case the clone-resurrected President Washington’s, perspective. As he begins to realize the true reasons he was brought back from the grave, he initiates a plan to take back the government and return it to the people. And without giving too much away, the people respond en masse.

 

Ang: What was the most important aspect when writing your non-zombie characters? Realism (losers, assholes, and cowards) or fantasy (Rambo or the guy/gal who has a Rambo hiding inside them)?

 

GB: While the story is primarily an epic action adventure told from the zombie perspective, realism was the biggest concern because in many ways the story is an allegory for so much of what’s actually going on in Washington, DC today. When President Washington learns that the government is no longer “by the people, for the people”, all hell breaks loose.

 

Ang: Does your series begin just as the zombies start building their paradise or have zombies already gotten things rocking and rotting?

 

GB: It begins with the zombies as obedient soldiers working for the humans. It’s only later on that they start rocking and rolling (or I guess in this case, shooting and eating!).

 

Ang: Zombies are people too. They come in all shapes, sizes, speeds, and smarts. What types of the walking dead inhabit your series?

GB: These zombies are resurrected clones, the dead brought back to serve as mindless ultimate warriors for nefarious purposes. So technically, “these ain’t your father’s zombies”. But they may be a whole lot deadlier!

 

Ang: Will your infection spread to more books and series? How many blood and guts offerings do you predict in your future? How soon can our zombie and human readers expect to see your next festering contribution?

 

GB: I see at least two more books, but I think it could go on farther than that if the fans really support the story. I also don’t like it when an author takes years between sequels, so I expect that we’ll see ole Zombie George shuffling off in Book II in the first half of 2014.

 

Ang: What is your favorite way to kill a zombie? Shoot ‘em, hack ‘em, poke ‘em, burn ‘em, or something even more fiendish? ***Zombie readers please turn away to avoid having your putrefied feelings eviscerated.

 

GB: Better question: Is there a bad way to kill a zombie? Okay, so maybe death by tickling would be a bit silly, but anyway that involves much violence and copious amounts of blood is fine with me.

 

Ang: Do you have a favorite cinematic zombie? Example: My co-blogger Zombie Earl is quite fond of Zombie Roger from the original Dawn of the Dead.

 

GB: You know, I was just watching the cult classic film Lifeforce last night, and I realized that although the main characters were space vampires, the infection that they spread throughout the human population actually created zombies. And for a film made in 1985, these zombies were really cool! And who doesn’t love Zombie Ed from the end of Shaun of the Dead? And having just recently seen the film Warm Bodies, R has got to be one of my new all-time favorites.

 

Ang: Who is your favorite character from The Walking Dead (comics or TV show)?

 

GB: Rick’s son, Carl, because he’s just totally badass. He’s going to be crazy as hell when he grows up after everything he’s been through, but he’s also going to be the kind of leader it’s going to take to survive in this new undead-infested world.

 

Ang: Finally, how prepared are you for the zombie apocalypse that we all know is just around the corner?

 

GB: If curling up under my bed in the fetal position and whimpering until it all goes away is considered preparedness, then bring on the “Zompocalypse” right now.

 

*****

 

Claw into Zombie George Washington at Amazon.

Miranda Macabre's Review of "The End of the World Playlist"

The End of the World Playlist by Dan O'Brien
*****Currently Free at AmaZon*****

Book Summary
The world as we knew it had ended. Deep in the mountains of the west coast, six men survived. In the town of River’s Bend, these six friends continued on with their lives as zombies inherited the Earth. As they navigated the world that had been left behind, the soundtrack of life continued on.

This is short fiction.

Miranda Macabre's Review

Using song titles as chapter headings seems like a cheap trick when you make nothing out of it. There are no references to the songs in the single chapters, so why the fuck they are mentioned as chapters is anyone’s guess. The only real reference to music is a page, or maybe a page and a half, when two of those dudes discuss which bands and songs should be on a playlist the day the world ends. Or after an apocalypse. That of course the world has basically already ended and we are thrown into the middle of *something* where zombies are everywhere and survivors are few has nothing to do with it. The whole concept in this seems off and less than fitting to what it promises from the book title.

 

It does start good. A single scene with an omnipresent narrator. But the scene itself doesn’t seem to be connected to the rest of the novella. As a standalone it works. As a part of the whole not so much.

 

There are many "fucks" used, and I am not against swearing by any means and certainly not offended, but here the whole word usage seems simply cheap. Right in the beginning of the novel are scenes where the five or six guys who survived whatthefuckever are in the middle of a zombie attack. They are all tense like shit, clearly afraid even but they don’t yell, scream or shout at each other: do the fuck this, or do the fuck that. Nope, they *say* those things. It doesn’t fit to the situations described. Not that the guys really have to be afraid of anything. It gets clear very, very soon that those so called zombies are the dumbest things you can imagine. OK, they are not only dead, but also brain dead, nevertheless I would expect *some* sort of almost logical explanation for their idiocy, alas, there is none. They jump out of nowhere into the middle of the story just to get shot, run over by their cars or to get bolted onto a store register.

 

Awesome.

 

It should be grim, angsty, scary as hell, but since those dudes - can’t even remember their names, they are that kind of guys - are mere voices than characters they are hardly if any at all distinguishable from each other. They all melt into one, and if there are five or six of them, if they are called Dan, Kenny or whatever happened to them doesn’t really matter nor could I care about them. Also that the dialogues are rather wooden and stilted doesn’t help exactly to give them unique features.

 

I can’t shake of the impression that is less a zombie book, but rather a post-apocalyptic view of the world gone wrong. But if you think now "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy you are mistaken as the whole book is off.

 

The zombies could be anything. Call them xyz or a blank space (_____) (insert here whatever you wish for your own amusement) and it’s all the same. Except from some rather gruesome description of arms missing and similar there is nothing that would make them stand out as zombies. If they would not been called constantly "deadheads" I would have never guessed those are indeed, well, zombies.

 

The writing itself is straightforward, raw and gritty, but it’s all telling and every little thing is spelled out while at the same time nothing is explained. There isn’t anything that would I call interesting. Not even the so called psychological insights into a world of survivors. A bunch of assholes who fight each other, talk crap and more often shit their pants.

 

The novel is not without humor. The before mentioned argument about which songs should be played at the end of world is the most remarkable scene. Nor did I expect exactly that they start to talk about Hello Kitty sheets.

 

As a whole it is not disturbing but rather depressing. Unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. The zombie apocalypse has to wait for another day and at the last page are several questions left that need to be answered. The most important one is this one:

 

What’s the fucking point of it all?

Deadly Dee's Review of Zombie Erotoclypse

Zombie Erotoclypse by Tamsin Flowers

 

Book Summary

 

If you're missing The Walking Dead, if you're the slightest bit fond of zombies or if you think they're smarter than we give them credit for, this is the book for you - in Zombie Erotoclypse the zombies have one thing on their mind and it ain't about eating your brain!

Have you ever wondered whether zombies have sex? Fall in love? Lust after humans? The five stories in this red hot collection of zombie erotica will answer all these questions and more. If you thought it was tough being a teenage virgin, try it zombie style or why not take a visit to the club where humans get to have their wicked way with hot young zombies - for a price... Meet the Peeping Zom, who develops an obsession with a hot human blonde. Who looks after new zombies and teaches them the art of zombie love-making? And how would you react if the love of your life came home one evening with a zombie bite?

 

 

 

Deadly Dee's Review
 

I went into this with an open mind. I like books about zombies. I like erotica. I even like books that have zombies, and characters who are fighting the zombies who later go on to have hot sex.

However, after reading this book, what I've discovered is, I definitely do NOT like reading about zombies having sex, and cannot for the life of me figure out how anyone can call it erotic, or erotica.

Zombie Erotoclypse is a series of short stories. They are, for the most part, well written. No glaring typos or grammatical errors that jumped out at me or made me cringe. They are also about zombies - dead, grey, slimy fleshed creatures, getting turned on and having sex. Very detailed, graphic sex.

 

In one story, two zombies get so horny after murdering a man, they kiss with their mouths still full of his blood and brains. This leads to them rushing back to their home, and engaging in wild zombie sex.

 

I dunno... maybe it's just me... but after the visual of a mouthful of shared brains and blood, my "oh yeah baby" meter was set at about negative 8000. I've read plenty of books that have totally grossed me out, but this was... different.

I guess for me, sex just shouldn't be grey and slimy.

 

Different strokes for different folks.  ;)

Red Dust: The Fall is Ready to Scare!

Gnaw into the new horrific offering by authors Ben Dixon and Sam Campbell. You can bite into Red Dust: The Fall at AmaZon.

 

Book Summary

Red Dust: The Fall is the first trilogy of short stories in the Red Dust series. These stories are The Lost Party, Feud and The Last Rider.

The Lost Party

When a party of settlers go missing on the Wasatch Mountains of 1846 America, a lone mountain man tasks himself with finding the lost pioneers. Upon the discovery of the remnants of a diary, George Masterson finds himself pulled into the dark story that befell the ill-fated travellers.

 

Feud

America 1853, seven years since the disappearance of the lost party, the undead have emerged from the wilderness crossing the Great Plains to assault the civilised world. Communication has broken down and settlements now stand alone as the Rising Plague spreads across the eastern border.

In the town of Little Rock inhabitants of the New World thrive to create normality in the midst of chaos. With the arrival of a mysterious rider named Griffin, the true dangers of the town become clear. The illusion of civilisation quickly dissolves as Griffin’s appearance sparks the violent conclusion of a deep-rooted vendetta.

The Last Rider

The Rising Plague continues to spread mercilessly across America, leaving the remnants of the US government to lead a desperate defence in defiance of the undead. Yet in the face of their doom, the beginnings of a civil tension arises, as the Southern State’s succeed, leaving a dire split across the US and its people hopelessly divided.

Isaac, a young courier, volunteers himself to deliver a mysterious package for the Union military. His task will lead him deep into the heart of the unknown, through the decaying civilisation of a country that he can no longer call his home, as his eyes are opened to the horrors of the New World.

Book Horrorcase: Zombie George Washington

Check out this historically horrifying take on the zombie apocalypse by GB Banks and Blaine Hislop. Zombie George Washington: The Zombie President and His Zombie Army March to Retake DC (moan that title quickly, we dare you) is now available at AmaZon.

Book Details

World War Z meets White House Down...

He was the first President of the United States
Now he may also be the last...

When the resurrected general George Washington discovers the corruption now ruling the US government, he vows to do something about it. So President Washington wages war on the nation's capitol...with an army of zombie soldiers at his back.

Zombified Interview with Jonathon Kane

Jonathon Kane is the rotting rocker behind the terrorific novels The Calm Before (Corpse Days) and Corpse Days. The books are his first undead undertaking, but more horror hopefully awaits readers. Let's crack open up his cranium and dig around inside...

Ang: When were you first bitten by the zombie affliction? Can you take us back to how the infection began? What’s the most difficult part about sharing this ghoulish love as an indie?

 

Jonathon: I was bitten a number of years ago when I first saw the original Night of the Living Dead. Dawn of the Dead 2004 and Resident Evil insured the infection would take.

 

It’s difficult to convince people my zombie story is different from the rest. Maybe it isn’t. But it’s got the living dead. What more do you need?

 

Ang: If you had to dumb down the plot of your series so a zombie could understand, how would you explain it?

 

Jonathon: A cure exists, but zombies persist.  A certain group of people want to return the living dead to their former glory; however, the government is onto them. In particular, an Agent named Heather Storm seeks to foil their sinister plan.

 

Ang: Describe the lucky survivors who engage with the festering horde of the dead.

 

Jonathon: The main character is Heather Storm. She’s smart, attractive and knows how to handle herself in all things zombie. Another character central to the story is Stan Norton.  He’s a middle-aged man who does not prefer the company of others. That’s of little concern to Heather, though, who’s decided she needs him for help with her mission.

 

Ang: What was the most important aspect when writing your non-zombie characters? Realism (losers, assholes, and cowards) or fantasy (Rambo or the guy/gal who has a Rambo hiding inside them)?

 

Jonathon: Realism was definitely important to me. Yes, Heather’s pretty much just a badass, but Stan’s a troubled soul. He has issues, a haunting past and is forced to make difficult, painful decisions throughout the story.

 

Ang: Does your series begin just as the zombies start building their paradise or have zombies already gotten things rocking and rotting?

 

Jonathon: The story takes place in a time period where the zombies have already had their day, but like the mustache, they’re trying really hard to make a comeback.

 

Ang: Zombies are people too. They come in all shapes, sizes, speeds, and smarts. What types of the walking dead inhabit your series?

 

Jonathon: Speed-wise, they’re a hybrid. When they’re new, they can move. Over time, though, they deteriorate a bit and slow down.  Intelligence is non-existent. They rely on senses alone to track down and capture food.

 

Ang: Will your infection spread to more books and series? How many blood and guts offerings do you predict in your future? How soon can our zombie and human readers expect to see your next festering contribution?

 

Jonathon: It may spread. I left it at Corpse Days and The Calm Before (CD Part II), but I’m tossing around the idea of off-shooting an area of the plot into a different story. In the meantime, I’m wrapping up a new paranormal novel… sorry, no zombies in that one.

 

Ang: What is your favorite way to kill a zombie? Shoot ‘em, hack ‘em, poke ‘em, burn ‘em, or something even more fiendish? ***Zombie readers please turn away to avoid having your putrefied feelings eviscerated.

 

Jonathon: I like to cut through their throats  interesting sharp objects.

 

Ang: Do you have a favorite cinematic zombie? Example: My co-blogger Zombie Earl is quite fond of Zombie Roger from the original Dawn of the Dead.

 

Jonathon: Actually right now, it’s the zombie from the Sprint commercial. The one who objects to putting labels on people and finally admits he’s a zombie after his ear falls off.

 

Ang: Who is your favorite character from The Walking Dead (comics or TV show)?

 

Jonathon: I have to go with Michonne… mostly because of the sword. Gotta love a tough chick who knows how to use a katana. Quentin Tarantino knows what I’m talkin’ about.

 

Ang: Finally, how prepared are you for the zombie apocalypse that we all know is just around the corner?

 

Jonathon: I’m not, but my in-laws are. Guns, hunting gear, property. At the first sign of the dead returning from their graves, I’m heading for the hills.

Gnaw into The Calm Before (Corpse Days) and Corpse Days at Amazon.

 

Chase down Jonathon at his website.