The Undead Symphony: Recent Episodes

Darren

A undead podcast discussing all things zombie. Movie reviews and TV shows, franchises and chats with fans and the guys and girls who bring us this much loved genre.

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Wading through TUBI again this weekend and the stink is under my fingernails. Johnny Gruesome is next up, a story of a revenant coming back to wreak revenge on those he thinks did him wrong.

In this case it is D student metal head Johnny Grissholm, a drink driving, pot smoking thug that they try (and fail) to portray as a victim. He isn't he is a dick. Along with his slutty GF Karen, backstabbing dope dealing buddy Gary and nerdy virgin Eric.

Johnny, a son of a drunk father, lives in a Podunk town, and one night, after being suspended from school, and beating a kid up in the parking lot of school, drives like a maniac whilst drinking. Gary can't stand it so chokes him to death in front of the others and they agree to make it look like an accident.

And he comes back and starts killing everyone. Not that you notice, the deaths, the makeup, the acting, the music, and the cinematography is so you can't even think about the minimal plot.

Don't waste your time. Watch The Revenant instead, which is also on TUBI.

3/10

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Not to be confused with the 2014 movie of the same name with Brenton Thwaites and Laurence Fishburne this is a mixture of the movie we watched before this, Cell, with a signal/pulse turning people homicidal, like The Crazies. So if you liked The Crazies this is for you.

It is written by and directed by 3 friends who each took a third of the story, but what this does is give us a slightly disjointed film.

Part one tells the story of Mya and Ben who are having an affair and cheating on Mya's husband Lewis. It is New Years eve, although that isn't really used enough given NYE is a huge thing and it is barely mentioned, and Ben wants them to leave Terminus, their home city and move to the country to start afresh. Mya is still new at this infidelity lark and heads back to her husband, only to find cellphones, phones, radios and TV are all broadcasting this weird psychedelic signal. And that signal is turning people crazy homicidal.

She barely escapes the building with one of her husband's friends, Rod, and there are some nasty kills, baseball bats to the heads, pruning sheers to the throat. All fun stuff. Before they crash the car after Rod goes nuts and starts attacking Mya.

Part two tells the story of Anna and Ken and their landlord Clarke as Anna tries to throw a New Years eve party. Looking for Mya Lewis arrives with Ben tied up and unconscious in his van, and we have a comedy house invasion, complete with talking decapitated heads and cocktails.

Before part 3 has Ben and Clarke looking for Mya as Lewis chases them into Terminus.

I have to say, despite the switch in tone for the second part I genuinely enjoyed this movie. Far better than Cell, not quite as good as the Crazies, but still a very good indie take on it. The acting was great, the practical FX too. The dialog was snappy and funny when it needed to be and the violence bloody when it needed to be.

This joins Savageland and Interlopers in the very small club of movies on TUBI I have enjoyed and made 8 times it's budget.

6/10

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John Cusack, Samuel L Jackson and Isabell Fuhrman from The Orphan movies, based on a Stephen King novel about zombies created by a pulse and linked to cellphones, and directed by the director of Paranormal Activity 2. Should have been a slam dunk. Was it? Well, no.

The book purists slammed it. The movie reviewers panned it. And me? I remembered it quite differently. The Mandela Effect and all that.

Clay (Cusack) is a bit of an ass, who walked out on his wife and son to pursue his dream of becoming a graphic novel artist. He works on a story about a raggedy man, a harbinger of doom and after selling it to someone heads to the airport to tell his son in person, regardless of his ex wife telling him he can't simply do that, as he walked out of them. He plans to anyway, see earlier comment about him being a bit of an ass.

At the airport anyone with a bluetooth headset on or on their phone suddenly screams and convulses in pain, foaming at the mouth before turning homicidal, a la The Crazies, and killing people. Clay escapes as a plane flies into the terminal and joined subway driver Samuel L Jackson and others in heading out.

We then have this idea of heading to see if Clay's family is still alive, they can't call, so it becomes a cross country apocalyptic road movie.

There is a lot of dislike, but it had it's moments. 5/10 from me. I shall discuss with Michael next week as he hasn't seen it before.

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I am back once again with the renegade master Michael Avery as we talk kids names, the education system, and other random nonsense before embarking on a lengthy chat about Colony the latest zombie movie from the man who brought you Train to Busan. Is it simply Train to Busan 2? No. It is Peninsula 2? No. It is something in between, a hive mind evolving zombie story with a villain and enough there for it to be top 50 but also plenty of USPs that will turn some viewers off.

Did we like it? Yes.

Would we recommend it? Yes.

Would we watch it again? Probably.

Colony 7/10

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Recently Michael and I were lucky enough to catch up with part of the talented team behind Employee of the Dead, the new British zomcom currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo. It was our absolute pleasure inviting Ellie Rae Winstone, star/associate producer, and co-writer/director/producer Aaron Truss onto the pod for a game of Virus or Voodoo and to talk all things Employee of the Dead.

And we were blown away by their passion for this project and the high end production values of what was essentially a proof of concept. How is it even possible that their proof of concept footage was better than most of the movies we have seen for the Undead Symphony? And it can only bode well for the actual production itself.

This project, with deep personal ties for Aaron, feels like it must be made. It simply must and that can be helped by you, dear listeners. It has a great cast in Joe Acres and Dani Harmer, as well as the lovely Miss Winstone, and a crew who are all coming off high end projects. It feels, after seeing the footage and SFX created that they really know their stuff.

So check out the links, and help align the planets for this project, Employee of the Dead.

Here's the link to their Indiegogo, go check out their perks:

https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/q-cumber-films/employee-of-the-dead

Main website:

https://www.eotdmovie.com

And their socials: @eotdmovie (Instagram and TikTok)

And Youtube:

https://youtube.com/@qcumberfilms?si=M0mS6T2xJ40ou0g6

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An African-American led pair of modern zombie movies from TUBI this time around, my 17th and 18th movie from the streaming channel leaving just three movies for me to watch before I can say that I have completed it.

In Bloodthirsty we have Brian and Sarah, a 20-something year old couple of college students about to celebrate their first year anniversary when Sarah is called back into work. When there the zombie shit hits the proverbial fan and the loving couple try to get back to each other amidst the chaos.

Ok, not strictly true. Brian picks up Sarah for their anniversary date, but she is called back to work. He drops her off and goes home. At home, the neighbours turn zeke and carnage ensues. He kills a couple with a 20KG weight but mostly runs away, and makes bad choices that gets other people killed. He then drives to Sarah's place of work, where he twice cannot beat a zombie, twice goes down and is gonna be killed, before twice being saved. So much for the hero.

In the blurb it talks about him fighting his way across the city to rescue Sarah, when in reality, he just drives from location A to B then back to A then back to B.

Profoundly average but still better than Air Shift, and EVERYTHING is done off camera. And I hate that.

Urban Flesh Eaters is somewhat better, telling the story of an apartment building that has to come together to beat the zombies. We have widow Cyn and her two kids, her friend Lu, a newcomer who is seen a being an ex-con, a gay brother, an OTT African god-fearing woman, a mad janitor, a madder Whiz Kid, a youtuber and others, not limited to inconsistent zombies.

It was really going down from the apartment to the ground floor, then back to the apartment when the zombies swarm in, then back down to the basement when the apartment is overrun, then back up to the apartment when one of the kids loses his asthma inhaler, before going back to the basement to save him, before heading to the roof for the inevitable off camera rescue. Given they used stock footage of NYC combined with a daytime soap opera apartment building they were def not getting a chopper for the finale.

There was a lot more going on, too many people at times, Cyn came over as crazy, then ok, then crazy seeing her dead husband, then after supposedly losing a kid almost kissing the con, the kids were good, as were some of the others, but by tomorrow I would have forgotten about it all.

In the end Bloodthirsty was a 3.5 at best and Urban Flesh Eaters 4.5. The latter being the better of the two. Neither I would really recommend.

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There are three radio station based zombie movies and this is by far the worst. Writer/director Chris Maes creates an absolute shambles of a movie that only stretches to 76 minutes thanks to repeated use of the same shots of zombies slowly heading to the radio station, the same record on the turntable and the moon. Filled with continuity errors, scenes where everything happens OC or OS, and then more of the same shots again this time with VO from the main characters, TEMU Kirsten Stewart local radio DJ Lisa and should have been a comedy character but wasn't serial killer who has killed 4 or 5 women John.

I watched this only to save me from Bloodthirsty and Urban Flesh Eaters on TUBI and I am regretting that choice. I nearly fell asleep, I went shopping half way through, I fast forwarded a third of the movie, and I even had to hide my eyes from the cringeworthy slow motion Guardians of the Galaxy walk down the corridor that couldn't have felt more out of place.

A movie this bad needs to be turned into a parody or a comedy. It could have worked as a Night of the Living Deb style comedy, just with a serial killer, and a pointless TV news plot line. But no.

The hazmat suited guys? Oh, yeah, and the whole this is caused by the radio station being built on a secret nuclear storage facility with uranium that glows green and turns people into zombies, except it's not a comedy, read that as it's a serious plot.

3/10 and I feel it should be less.

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Mexican so the second Mexican zombie movie we have seen after Some Be.

The sudden outbreak of an unknown virus turns people into rabid and hungry creatures. Marcos, Claudia, Renato, and little Zoe, a 5-year-old girl; decide to run away and hide on a hill; but the infected begin to appear near them and they hunt by sight, sound and smell. Leave no trace, make no sound and leave no odors behind.

In the end this is pretty standard low budget zombie survival junk. I have seen this movie in two dozen languages the world over. Marcos is infinitely unlikable. We don't know anything about anyone, or their motivation. Marcos as lead we see a single almost pointless flashback to Mexico City and that is it. Claudia is in half a dozen scenes max. Renato is ok but pointless. And the girl, Zoe, is noisy, and keeps running off all the time. Annoying. They all deserved to die.

Now, there are a few saving graces for this movie. Firstly, it is only 75 minutes long. Thank fuck. If it was a 3 hour 70mm IMAX Christopher Nolan job, I may have tried to end it all by jamming my head in my Nutribullet. And secondly, regardless of the ok acting, and cinematopgraphy, there is one outstanding scene. A scene that could grace any of our top 10 zombie movies and The Walking Dead too. It this scene had been in the Walking Dead people would still be talking about it.

The scene: After little Zoe runs off whilst Claudia is looking in her backpack Marcos finds he and hides from the infected with Zoe behind a tree. Claudia then lands with a thud the other side of the tree and is being eaten by unseen infected. She turns and sees Marcos and Zoe but cannot let on she sees them and so is eaten alive and dies, keeping silent to protect her daughter. Again, below average movie, but impeccabl scene.

That being said, I wouldn't recommend Los Infectados, or The Infected. It was a dull, slow low budget standard story with unremarkable unlikeable characters.

3/10

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A shorts day today, I am going to find and watch half a dozen zombie shorts and give you my thoughts. Did that rhyme? Woah, I'd better not break into song.

FIRST WAVE 2014 6 mins 55 on Youtube

The blurb - Following the outbreak of an aggressive virus, a young woman awakes in a hospital bed. As the horrifying events that led her there are revealed, it becomes clear that the cure is just the beginning.

Night. A man and his daughter are running from zombies towards a school or hospital building. And then a woman wakes up in hospital, cuffed to the bed. She screams and has flashback to being one of the zombies chasing the man and girl through a building, I think. Getting a hammer to the head in the process. She has a semi circular blood patten on the white of her eye and I have seen that in a zombie movie before. And I have in the 2017 horror film The Cured. In the movie, characters who are infected with a zombie-like virus and successfully treated with a serum are left with a visible mark: a distinct, semi-circular crescent of blood in the white of their eyes. Was this the short that allowed the Elliot Page movie The Cured to be made?

The doctor tells her she was the first, a great hope. More flashbacks. Her in a cell now. Good jump scare with a zombie outside and more flashbacks. The little girls dad is killed and she hides. And the doctor tells her they will all be released soon.

He asks her what she remembers…. No in the movie they deny remembering anything from their time as zombies, but do. She just cries though. A she remembers being a zombie and then seeing the little girl and as a zombie getting more and more excited… end

Very good, this was definitely the short that became The Cured. Excellent. Watching it on YouTube saw the comments from people saying this is what needs to be made rather than Hollywood nonsense. And indeed they did make it.

Next SURVIVORS 2025 7 minutes When the unexpected side effect of a trial cancer treatment brings about the apocalypse, one man with his BMX and a Baseball bat, must use his martial arts skills to survive the infected hordes.

A cyclist in armour cycles around a quiet city. Overturned buses. Quarantine zone. This is a proper action short. Excellent zombie effects, as he rides into one and hits it with a baseball bat before being chased by a running horde.

It is proper BMX stunt riding to Are you gonna be my girl by Jet.=, jumping over barriers, riding up walls, clobbering the zombies. He gets knocked off his bike and his backpack comes off. He is then torn as zombies charge in, does he grab the backpack or get on his bike and leave? He goes for the pack and there is an awesome leg severing shot in slo mo. The violence is fun and OTT like the Bill Skarsgard Boy v World, but the blood and gore is all done in post that does let it down. I did laugh out loud when he hits the kid zombie.

He rides out and across town, and there are high up shots with zombies running after him. Again, done really well. He is heading towards other survivors, but comes off his bike. Is he gonna be killed? No the other survivors are as badass as him.

And after a cool drone short of their hide out… the biker opens the backpack and he has… a playstation… who wants a game fo FIFA? Who said the apocalypse couldn’t be fun? Well done the Kirby brothers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gQc06lHkC0

PASTIME 3 minutes by John Blankenship aka Matinee McCabre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy5Oq9OJz1c

In 1968 the recently deceased mysteriously began to rise from the dead. There was no time for preparation, no time to draw battle lines. The plague ravaged our nation, our world. One by one our towns fell. No government could protect it's citizens from the virus. Until one of the only survivors was just nine years old.

It is beautifully shot, as a young boy walks around a forest, collecting water in a jar, walking around a town in the 60s with old cars out and rusted. He goes into a house and finds baseball cards and comic books. Taking them, as well as baseball. He heads out into a field and hits the baseball out and away, the tink sound of the hit waking zombies in the field who move in on him as he raises his M16 machine gun.

End. Wonderful and to the point.

SEVERED 2025 9 minutes

After a zombie bite, Hannah’s only chance for survival is a brutal amputation with James’s machete. But when he fails to return, her infected mind conjures a horrifying rescue—forcing her to question what is real, and what is a final, cruel hallucination.

Very walking dead a couple of teens, a boy and a girl fight off a horde in the forest. The boy saves the girl, pushing her into a car, as he goes down under the horde. He then gets in but she has been bitten on the arm so they have to hurry. He then apologises and chops her arm off.

The boy finds a gun in the glove compartment. She gives a heartfelt monologue about committing suicide and not being torn apart or being one of them.

I had the end of The Mist vibes as he has the gun to her head but then the zombies move away. Or are killed and blood sprays up the car windows.

Them being in the car is reminiscent of The Battery, if you have seen it, about the two baseball players surviving in the car.

We then get very 28 Days later piano as the door opens and it is a ripoff Negan complete with Lucille, you kids want some help?

She then wakes up in the car alone and still bitten. And her boy is a zombie. I did think he was under the horde. So she screams and blows her brains out.

Well done, well filmed, great acting and special effects, just all done before somewhere.

Moving onto Dead Line from 2022 20 minutes

During a zombie outbreak, a recently bitten call-center employee working for a specialist 'Survivor Hotline' must help a young woman escape her infected mother and get to safety before he becomes one of the undead.

A British comedy with too much music, as a guy on a support line takes calls from the public. He tries to sell decapitation kits etc, listening to people wanting to deal with the dead, or spreaders as they are know.

After an off camera attack on the office, he is bitten and wounded. A woman then calls for help after her mother was bitten. He goes through his procedure booklet which has funny airline style diagrams.

The whole thing is on him, at his desk, and was filmed during COVID, so it is just voices on the phone and him, as he starts to react to the bite on his hand. She hides in the bathroom from her zombie mother. And he says jump out the window, jump and roll.

He is dying, and trying to help her get to safety. Again, it is all over the phone. He calls a military rescue centre who have orders to shoot to kill anyone out. And he gives them shit, saying in death he will find the officer and eat his heart.

It is tense as lucy makes it to the military post, we hear shooting but she is ok, and the guy turns overnight but remains at his desk with the headset on even when a zombie,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jHA2i90Ndc

All of these zombie shorts were thoroughly entertaining, some original, some less so, but all done well. There is a huge amount of zombie entertainment out there in the short movie space and we should, as a community, support them all.

And finally, a special shout out to two zombie shorts I feel deserve some love, one of which is on the Disney channel no less, THE LAST MARRIAGE, and the very British STILL.

Next up I am going watch the 30 zombie shorts on ALTER, a fantastic high end Youtube channel, if you haven’t heard of you must check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtmNpo8LSL8ZUANvP8S54oAkURYsLFr9V

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And so I am back into the second half of the show, the 2019 Zomboat! available on Amazon, an ITV2 show of 6 20 something minute episodes. So to break it down, it is set in Birmingham, for those not in the UK, it is the second largest city in the UK, in the middle of the country. We have Kat a movie and gaming nerd, her self-obsessed vacuous sister Jo, nice but lazy guy Sunny, and nice but a bit vain guy Amar.

Episode one the escape

Episode two trying to find a car and a phone

Episode three the hotel

Episode four the supermarket

Episode five the fuel

Episode six the shelter

Each episode had a zombie movie trope to use as it's and it didn't always do it well.

In the end there is a decent twist at the end of episode 6, and the acting, FX and most of the writing was fine. I would question how long the show could have gone on after this season. And ultimately it was a comedic show on par with Dead Set, if a fraction below it.

I still would recommend it to anyone that hasn't seen it. It is a 5.5/10 for me as there was nothing really wrong with it. Kat reminded me of Night of the Living Deb a little, and the boys a bit of Riz Ahmed in Dead Set.

Could they have made a second season? Maybe, but it would need to have really gained something new to keep you attention.

Again, 5.5/10

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This one passed me by completely. A British zom com set in Birmingham on the Grand Union Canal to London. Made in 2019, it is about four characters Kat, and her sister Jo, Amar and Sunny, surviving the zombie apocalypse on a canal boat. And, I have to a feeling I may echo GertieFlyyyy from Reddit when they said Zomboat! was great. It was campy and dumb, but it was fun and enjoyable. I mean, there's some stupid shows out there (including Lucifer. Come at me.) And the stupid show that I enjoyed gets cancelled. Figures.

One season, 6 20 something minute episodes which is a very British thing, BBC, channel 4 and ITV all produce shows in Seasons of 6. Why? Well, back in the day you could fit 3 episodes on a C90 VHS cassette, so to sell the video cassette series it would be two cassettes at 9.99 each from WH Smiths or HMV and it just hasn’t changed. We wont get the US 13 or 26 episode a season here. So we are limited to higher quality shorter seasons, think The Young Ones, Blackadder, Spaced.

The premise

The aftermath of a zombie onslaught being unleashed on the British city of Birmingham. Sisters Kat and Jo, together with unlikely travel companions Sunny and Amar, flee for their lives by canal boat.

Episode 1. Nerdy Kat is a computer game, horror movie and zombie nerd talking Walking Dead and Romero, and her sister Jo, played by the actress who played Ellie from Ibiza Undead, who is a bit of a vacuous slapper escape Jo's latest zombie shag, before heading to Jo's ex's canal boat. On there they find the zombified version of the Jo's ex's new girlfriend and have to kill her. Meanwhile Sunny and Amar are also trying to escape Birmingham having been there for a stag do. The banter is good, the zombie effects too, it is't quite Shaun, but it isn't far from the original zombie episode of Spaced.

Episode 2. Jo and Amar get off the boat, as Amar wants to escape in a car, whilst Jo wants to find her phone so she can find her ex. Meanwhile Kat takes the boat to find an online friend whilst getting progressively annoyed with lazy Sunny.

Episode 3. With the boys wanting to see if any of their friends survived in the stag do hotel from the night before, Kat sees a resource run side quest and Jo, covered in blood from the episode before wants a shower.

Episode 1 was genuinely funny, and as a zombie nerd I loved it, but the next two episodes, other than a few good lines, were already petering out.

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"Forgive me father for I have skinned." - Cancer spelled Kansa.

A movie so terrible I had to take five sitting to finish it including a nap and a work call I didn't even need to be on, a movie so bad it needed narration and constant music, a movie so bad I had to double check it wasn't made by Uwe Boll, a movie so bad the highlight was a closed caption that said "Fabulus pants."

What movie are we talking about? GallowWalkers, for some reason one word, starring Wesley Snipes mid tax evasion jailcell as a cursed gunslinger who's woman is raped, dies in childbirth, and he hunts down and kills the rapists only for them to come back as piss eyed zombies that need to murder and skin their victims and wear their skin else they end up looking like human jerky.

A lot of awful blond wigs, some of the worst dialog in the history of cinema, and all this could have been Chow Yun Fat as a zombie hunter called The Wretched. Alas, we shall lament what could have been.

This? One of the worst movies I have ever seen.

2.5/10

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Our first (and potentially second) zombie movie from Barbados. It is really a post COVID, post vaccine, anti-vaxxer load of tosh in which we barely see anything from the government or the mysterious military chemical facility in the description, and instead are treated to the incompetent Kyle, Kelly-Ann and Bryan as they stumble from one zombie to the next, tripping over their own feet and being inconsistent in their abilities and belief systems.

Now, the gore is good, reminiscent of the 1970s Italian gore-fests from Fulci, and the zombie effects are in keeping too. But the acting and writing is so, so poor. When it is set in a single house, and one room in said house, and the rest is woodland and waste ground surrounded by corrugated iron panels, we aren't in for a fun time.

It was country 46, which was the highlight. The rest was poor. 3/10

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2017 and from Hong Kong this movie is a bag of cats. It is all over the place. A supposed comedy movie with two slackers Lone and Yeung, living in a run down Cantonese opera house run by their aunt, thinking they are the Heavenly and Earth dragon, the double dragons. Instead they are an unsuccessful sleazy fit Lothario and a chubby, bespectacled man bun of a loser.

Add the cute girl Yit who is part of a paranormal investigation agency, supposedly, Lone's dad returning from 15 years in prison and wanting Lone's aunty Shen who runs the opera house to slice him with a machete, and the villain, a square supernatural chicken that fires souls into people turning them into zombies, and can send human-seeking eggs into the city that kill you instantly, and this makes absolutely no sense.

We have a manga start and ending, and it just doesn't know if it should be funny, or not, or serious, or not. It was too comedic to be serious, too serious to be a comedy, and too stupid to be anything else.

Other than Lone shouting FUCK! and the subtitles saying he said "quickly!" this was a wash out for me.

4.5/10 if you want to watch a Hong Kong zombie movie, instead watch the 1998 Bio-Zombie or Hong Kong Zombie.

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Always happy to talk Dead Zero, having followed the project for so long, and in this episode we have the man himself, Lee Donaldson, back now we have seen the first chapter. We talk the future of the project, and funding options for fans and followers alike.

Follow the project here

https://www.instagram.com/dead_zero_feature/

and watch it here

https://whop.com/lee-don-productions-ltd/dead-zero-chapter-1/

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In a post-COVID Japan we get four stories that make up the anthology Everyday of the Dead. Pretty dreadful acting, pretty awful writing, pretty awful cinematography. We have Punch of the Dead, where a dumped guy comes out of lockdown to go see his girl, only to be dumped over the phone. He decides to limp over, and fight his way to get, giving every one of the slow moving zombies a punch, before discovering that she has been cheating on him. She does get her comeuppance, and our guy limps off. In Chain of the Dead a couple who are having an office affair find themselves chained to each other a la Saw. Although the reason is much more simple and no one has to go delving into baskets of dirty syringes or have their head ripped off. The wife of the man wants a divorce. But she also has left poisoned water in the room, so when the man drinks it he turns zeke and goes after the office girl. In actor of the dead, a poor man's Still, an unemployable actor inadvertently walks into a couple of zombies and, so stop them killing him, he copies their behaviour and acts like one of them until, that is, a sniper hunting zombies gets them in his sights. And then we have the last story, as a man thinks he is immune, but isn't really, a TV crew follow a vigilante around who is killing zombies. The two will collide. But what will happen?

It was poorly acted, poorly filmed, the animation was terrible, the writing, the makeup, well, everything was terrible.

2/10

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Once the Bone Temple was released we looked at the calendar and the next big ticket item for zombie movie fans wasn't the gender swap NOTLD remake (another one!) or the scene by scene remake of ROTLD, no, sir, it was the next zombie movie by Yeon Sang-ho the write/director of Train to Busan - Colony.

Colony tells the story of a bio-terror attack in a building that has office and conference spaces in the top floors and a shopping mall on the lower levels. Disgraced awkward professor Kwon and her ex-husband Han are invited to a presentation by Chain Bio, who are using natural design in their technology, most notably, using the idea of Mycelium to allow electronic components to communicate instead of using wires, carbon, optical cabling.

An overly villainous villain played by Peninsula's Koo Kyo-hwan injects the CEO with the virus and with some classic South Korean bone cracking, body morphing, goo spewing changes he is patient #1. Or is he?

The infection spreads through the building and we have the normal rag tag group of survivors including a cop on a mission, a business suit, a teen and her bullies, and a security guard and his disabled sister, joining Kwon and Han as they try to escape.

Fast paced, with a lot of excellent new hive mind elements, I found I didn't need the villain to be so villainous, and I didn't need the Jason opening his eyes at the bottom of the lake ending, but the rest is superb. Is it better than Train to Busan? Not in my eyes, but it is very good. Certainly better than the other movies we have seen this year.

7/10 and def worth a watch when you can, despite it's shortcomings.

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The time has come. Our friend Lee Donaldson is now finally showing off the labours of his hard work, Dead Zero. In a windy hotel on Southend seafront Michael and I attended the Horror On Sea movie festival, meeting up with Lee, and watching the first 31 minutes of Dead Zero. What did we think? You will have to listen to find out, but as a little taster, it was a lot better than many of the movies we have seen in the genre. It needs work, and it needs the backstories of the characters, but it was still thoroughly entertaining.

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Michael has caught up, watching Tyler Posey and Donald Sutherland in Matt Naylor's Alone (Final Days in the UK), the western version of #ALIVE. Will he like it more? He is also tattooed. He also likes rock music. Listen to find out.

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As we excitedly prepare ourselves to head to the Horror On Sea movie festival at the weekend and the premier of Dead Zero, Michael and I go wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy back, back into time, to the first episode of The Undead Symphony Pod. Back then I didn't have a Michael, didn't have a format, didn't have the theme tune and didn't have the celebrity intros.

In episode one I watched the #Alive and Final Days, both based on the same script Alone by Matt Naylor, who worked on both movies. It was that whole Let Me In, Let the Right One In, kinda scenario where two movies came out at the same time based on the same script, one American and one not, and both very good.

After discussing #Alive today, we shall reconvene for Final Days tomorrow, but in this lunchtime chinwag, we ended up expanding our chat to South Korean horror as a whole and it's place in the world of zombie entertainment.

Check it out here.

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From the people who brought you Deadlocked (2020) comes an upgrade of sorts. Despite the comic undertones of the title, and the comedy lines from douche nozzle Toby as well as the "come to daddy," goading by the lead as he takes on the undead this is not a comedy. This is a zombie drama set in the rest room at a coffee shop, where tall, handsome, but mostly pathetic hunk Iverson and his newborn baby hold out with madman Harry, sarcastic barista Brie, fitness freak Annabel and absolute ass piece Toby as zombies pen them in.

There are precious view zombies, it is mostly the people who you are trapped with turning on you. And the baby crying puts them all on edge, turning one against the other whilst Iversen, who is a clear foot and easily 50 pounds bigger than all the others and could kill them all, is just too much of the wimpy kid. The CGI veins also sucked.

5/10

When I saw Deadlocked, which is set in an elevator, I was rather watch The End? from Italy, which is much better. This is a toilet zombie movie, so I would rather watch Stalled, again much better.

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And I have my dog walker and post man disrupting me too.

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Somme-bies!

Yes, that is actually one of the many Battle of the Somme jokes made by Marcus (played by the patchy bald soldier from 28 Days Later). Somme-bies! Somme-er Holiday. Somme-body get me out of here.

I do hate found footage. I really do. I know some people love it but when it is done badly it is so bad. And this was bad. Given we have seen Live! Escape, Live! Survival, Godforsaken, The Bay, Zombie Diaries, Diary of the Dead, Savageland was more documentary style, but then the REC and Quarantine movies, I can easily spot the mistakes made. In this the mistakes are many.

If you like camera glitches, camera glitches that somehow make you jump to past footage as filler, lots of people running about and screaming, but actual action and deaths off camera, if you like an annoying condescending director making unfunny Somme jokes and actually easy to kill zombies that for some reason are from the allies as well as the German ranks, and zombies obsessed with a van, then this is for you.

It was the locations of Trench 11 meets Nazi Zombie Death Tales with the poor footage skills of Zombie Diaries and Goforsaken.

It may not be the worst found footage zombie movie I have seen, but it is Somme-where around there.

World War Dull! 3.5/10

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In this episode I shall be reviewing a zombie movie that I had seen before I started this podcast. And yet somehow 4 years into it and nearly 400 movies from 42 countries into it I haven’t gone back and reviewed the black and white Japanese movie Miss Zombie.

Directed by Sabu and released in 2013 this multi award winning zombie movie takes it in a different direction, in a post apocalyptic Japan zombies exist and are caught and domesticated as either slaves or pets by the humans. I am getting FIDO vibes here. Just tragic FIDO vibes. The blurb is simple, A wealthy Japanese family hires a female zombie to do their household chores. However, soon they realise that her presence is affecting everyone around. Hires? No she is bought as a slave, as all zombies are in this movie. So whoever wrote that is an idiot.

She is a slave. She is abused by the locals, stabbed everyday, raped, attacked. But yet the doctor who bought her is now falling for her slow moving, scarred wiles, and the mother is now getting more and more jealous of her after her son dies and is brought back as a zombie, by the zombie.

Filmed in black and white, with no music, and a repetitive style, each day Miss Zombie remembers more of her life before, and the tragedy of how it ended, as everyone else becomes more and more obsessed with her as we reach a violent climax.

Definitely unique in the genre, true, it is a little slow, but haunting.

6/10

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American made with Arab oil money from the UAE. Is that why the Ick, a monstrous alien lifeform that has been around for about 20 years looks like oil? Maybe.

Starring Brandon Routh, poor, poor, Brandon Routh, I do genuinely feel bad for him, this tells the story, kinda, of the Ick, and how it has always there in the town where he loses everything after being the high school star quarterback and prom king, with Mena Suvari as his prom queen, to being a crippled alcoholic janitor, then science teacher, before the Ick then becomes aggressive and takes over the country.

Nice idea? The Blob meets Venom in B-Movie madness? No, it is a fucking mess. Despite the acting, Brandon Routh, Malina Weissman, Taia Sophia, Zeke Jones, Jack Seavor and Mena Suvari are all great, a decent soundtrack, and Cold Storage level FX. A bag of cats no one should have opened.

This movie will cause severe brain damage to anyone higher up the evolutionary ladder than a demented bee. Despite a rocking early 2000s soundtrack (Good Charlotte, Blink 182, Wheatus, Toad the Wet Sprocket) this movie was put together by a director who makes music videos, so has a max attention span of 4 minutes, and an editor with extreme ADHD. No shot lasts more than 15 seconds, no scene more than 5 minutes, there are scenes crammed in that don't fit, or have some sort of relevance but are filmed so differently that it's like we have ad breaks mid movie and those ads are for TikToks of a different version of this movie.

I go back to my Hitchhiker's reference, "this movie will cause severe brain damage to anyone higher up the evolutionary ladder than a demented bee." 4/10 and very very disappointingly put together. Sorry, Brandon.

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Zombie Reddy is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language zombie comedy crime thriller film directed by Prasanth Varma and starring Teja Sajja, Anandhi, and Daksha Nagarkar.

The blurb
Mario, a game developer, and his friends, get caught up in the rivalry between two families and a mysterious zombie attack in Rayalaseema where they go to attend a friend's wedding.

That is the easy bit... but then we have two rival clans where everyone has the same name, and moustache, and there's a 25 year rift between the two, dishonour and bloodshed, all whilst a mad scientist with a God complex tried to cure COVID but ends up creating a zombie virus in the end.

I won't lie. I didn't enjoy this. Too much insanity. Too confusing. Too many of those slow mo shots with a fan blowing the central characters fringe.

Am going to score it 5/10 but it earned 4 of those points in the last half hour of it's 124 minute run time, thanks to non stop running and fighting.

If you want to watch an Indian movie watch Go Goa Gone.

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A random DVD find, and a camp as Christmas Asian zombie movie that scores high on IMDB and RT and pays tribute to George A Romero's Dawn 78. Yes, it is set in a shopping mall, yes the zombie makeup is pretty bad and yes there are amusingly memorable kills as well as comic scenes.

We join low level criminals Woody Invincible and Crazy Bee who operate out of a bootleg DVD and computer game store in the mall, alongside Kui the stolen phone salesman and his long suffering wife, the salon with Jelly, Rolls and Cindy, and the sushi restaurant. Throw in some cops, some mall cops, and a boi-weapon in a bottle of Lucozade and it's about to get crazy, as this isn't a huge American style Monroeville mall here, this is the small glass units in a rat maze like rundown Asian mall.

What did I think? It was fun, unexpectedly so for a movie made in 1998. I could see the exact movie made now in the exact same way. The characters were all fine, and the two leads Woody and Crazy Bee were absolutely fine, cheeky criminals.

If you are a fan of all Asian zombie movies then this is on par with Tokyo Zombie rather than Train to Busan, but it is an absolutely fun, camp as Christmas, decapitation and petty crime kinda story with an unforgettable ending.

5/10 from me

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In our first catch up in 2 month I pose Michael the question, "was the 2007 Spanish found footage movie REC a game change in the zombie genre?"

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It is actually surprising how many Australian zombie movies and shows we have seen thus far…

We Bury the Dead | 6.5
Little Monsters | 6.5
Wyrmwood: Apocalypse | 6.5
Cargo | 6
Wyrmwood: Road Of The Dead | 6
Undead | 5.5
Neighbours versus Zombies | 5
Last Hope | 4
Infini | 4
Plague (2014) | 4
Me and My Mates Versus the Zombie Apocalypse | 3.5
Zombie Brigade | 3

Over 3% of our 376 zombie movies and shows are antipodean.

And so to Residence, an enigmatic hero, a speechless child, and a ragtag motley crew of arguably the most poorly written and annoying characters ever to grace the screen journey through a zombie filled apocalyptic landscape to seek refuge in a medieval fun park, whilst pursued by an unstoppable, deranged lunatic. 6.2/10 on IMDB which ridiculously high, and probably inflated by the cast and crew, or friends of the cast and crew, or idiots given a watch link who don't realise you can still be critical even when it's free. Where is you objectivity, man?

Anyone recognisable from the cast? Libby and Harold from Neighbours

The humour is idiotic. I don't think I can even describe it here as it requires me to stop swearing loudly in my head and think about it sensibly. Is it as bad as me and my mates versus the zombie apocalypse? Or worse? It is definitely down there. You know when you fast forward you have the >> for twice the speed, the >>> and finally >>>>. Well I was wishing they had invested 5 speed >>>>> fast forwarding as this was utter shit.

KJ was horrible, the vacuum salesman was terrible, and the writer, director, and the king, Cyril… was about as funny as cancer.

And then even when we get a semblance of a story with the diabetic girl's dad being the monster we have a weird serious ending.

3/10

This movie is so bad I am glad it had adverts, as at least then I had the chance of a minute of entertainment every quarter of an hour when the ad breaks came.

Would I watch it again? I would rather shit in my hands and clap

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Set during the brokering of a deal in a top end hotel local sleazebag Fu Gui tries to use junior newsreader Cindy to seduce Director Wu, the university headmaster so he can make money on a demolition and relocation real estate deal. Booze is plied, and food, whilst Fu Gui's long suffering driver and handyman Gou Sheng is told to wait down in the underground car park. But the zombie apocalypse is bubbling in the background caused by food, or so we think.

Before long Director Wu's bitten driver bursts in, kills two of the guests and Gou rushes up the building to save his boss, Cindy and college buddy Dongzshi.

Based on the graphic novel by Ruibo Cao this is a two location survival story that really fits into the out of the frying pan into the fire idiom. The hotel in which they are trapped in in the beginning and need to fight and escape from the zombies, picking up 12 year old schoolgirl Xiao and losing a couple of others along the way, and then a warehouse complex of orange jumpsuit wearing criminals and their pedophile boss. Yes, there is a lot going on.

Not ground breaking but better than expected, a 5/10 from me, on par with the other YouTube offering of the weekend, Extinction: the GMO Chronicles, which was slower but had some good zombie elements, whilst this was faster paced but lacked anything new.

Both were 5/10 for me and both are free on YouTube.

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A 2011 German effort on YouTube for me now. Extinction: the GMO Chronicles. GMO = Genetically Modified Organism. And we meet hero Tom, a former Spec Ops operative who casually drove around the city on day zero, ignoring pleas for help, before taking up resident in a disused US missile base from the cold war era. He does that annoying and obvious Vlogging thing to a laptop, and says there are no other survivors. Cue the survivors!

We gain elderly American former NSA spook Bill, his estranged German daughter Lisa and her dickwad of a boyfriend Martin. Martin is a very "don't look at my girlfriend!" kinda guy. We then gain Zara a nurse, and then Max and his nerdy brother David before two separate zombie attacks drive them out of their camp. Why? In this movie the zombies evolve. We start with boring day walkers that nap at night, then get day runners, then night runners, then a blind screamer, then parkour zombies, and finally night vision parkour zombies. Phew! It is like Dead Island all over again.

Tom is looking for his sister, but she is zeke, and they gain a baby for their efforts, the most dangerous thing in the zombie apocalypse is a baby. And worse still, all the nuclear power stations are going to go critical soon. Shit!

Ok. This did have some good bits. I did like the blowing the zombie up in the car scene. I did like the zombie evolution. However, the terrible cuts, and making poor Germans act in English in a German film was cruel, and caused this to be scored down.

It is a 5/10 for me, so still ok. Better than a lot I have seen, but not that much better that I need to see it more than once.

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With a slightly different take on the zombie apocalypse this monochrome modern Indian American family story tells of three siblings surviving in their own different ways. Older brother Hari and his wife Barbara stay in the large family home drinking cocktails, playing piano and keeping safe. Younger brother Rishi cannot bring himself to kill the biters he sees around town, and Vinita lives vicariously through others, travelling long distances to record their survival stories for her podcast - Didn't Die.

Film in high def black and white, this movie leaves the zombie violence and gore behind to tell the story of how people survive. There is heart, and there are both tears and laughter, there were a couple of comedic moment I did laugh at, but maybe that's just me.

When Vinita's ex Vincent comes onto the scene with a baby he rescued, the delicate balance in the family home changes, but will it change for the better or worse?

After the arty nonsense of Ever After last time out and the crap of Stink of Flesh before that, this was a change. It was heartfelt, showing a Hindu family, the parents from India, the kids born in the US, or at least brought up in the US, with the memories and nostalgia of family meals and photo albums seen through flashbacks to home movies.

It's not a feelgood movie and the ending of the larger part of the movie annoyed the shit out of me, but still, I am going to be generous and give it a 5/10 score

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A 2018 German movie, our second after Rammbock: Siege of the Dead. Set two years after the fall of civilisation, it follows Vivi, a twenty something girl living in Weimar, one of two remaining cities. In Weimar they kill the zombies and anyone infected, in Jena they are trying to find a cure. No one lives outside of the cities, and they are linked by an automated shuttle train.

With some pretty gorgeous cinematography at times, and pretty decent acting, we follow Vivi and badass Eva as they leave Weimar and start on the journey to Jena on the train, only for it to break down half way. And from there they are on foot.

The tension is good, and there are some pretty decent action sequences, including the chase across the dam, Vivi getting a set of decortive antlers in the eyeball, and the mad zombie bride with her pet bird, however this movie is let down by having a mad lead character. Vivi is just too insane. She talks to herself all of the time, and nothing that makes sense, she is pretty useless, dresses inappropriately for survival in the zombie apocalypse, and makes the worst choices.

The ending is not remotely satisfying, and the near constant overly dramatic cello will get on your nerves.

There is enough to like, so it is a 5/10 for me, but I don't seen to see it again. It would have been better to follow Eva, who is hot, strong and capable.

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A Canadian effort to save me from Daniel Baldwin on TUBI. An eco-warrior group are demonstrating the logging of an island, but the company doing the logging, or raping the land as the hippies say, are doing far, far worse. They are pumping the trees with a chemical that makes them grow three times as fast.

The trees, understandably, as not happy about this and are not going to take it lying down, unless they have already been chopped down, of course, and start spitting out this red ooze. A logger gets the red ooze in his blood stream and we have a survival story where loggers, scientists and tree hugging hippies are having to work together to make it out of there.

TBF the acting was fine, the gore and zombie make-up was fine but the pacing was all off, the edit was messy and padded with scenes and shots that didn't work. We had way too many cuts away too soon, to show a fucking misty lake, or the tree tops, random POV night scope zombie footage once, and some awful repurposed footage.

It was a 4/10 for me with the idea of an eco-disaster causing it, and it being the trees. The trees! It is in the trees!

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Woah. Where to start with this one? Unpick this at your leisure; Matool is surviving the zombie apocalypse in Southern Colorado by killing the slow moving, blue faced undead with a hammer and long nails. Okay so far? I was.

Then after a zombie attack on the hut he is hiding in with others he runs out into the street and is knocked over by Nathan in his pickup truck. Matool is knocked unconscious, gaffer taped at the wrists and ankles and then driven back to cuckhold Nathan's home for his nymphomaniac trailer trash wife Dexy. And from there we learn Nathan and Dexy have an open relationship, an alternative lifestyle they have difficulty maintaining in the zombie apocalypse, hence Nathan kidnapping Matool and others.

Add Dexy's psychotic sister Sassy with a third sibling's face growing out of her side like an arsehole with teeth, and that Nathan is into screwing hot female zombies he keeps chained up in the shed, and this isn't going to give anyone sweet dreams.

I scored it 3/10 for uniqueness of story and the zombie gore was ok too. However, I would avoid this like you would Johnny Z.

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The Spanish team behind REC would have us hate the Americanized version of their movie, but that dog won't hunt, Monsignor. Much like #Alive and Final Days and Let the Right one In and Let me In, I feel the 2008 US remake of the Spanish game changing REC of the year before deserves a chance.

I am a glass half full reviewer and know that his has a decent cast, with Jay Hernandez, Jennifer Carpenter, a young Joey King, Johnathon Schaech and Gregory Germann, Bernard White, Rade Šerbedžija and Doug Jones sliding into the ill-fitting soiled painties of the monster at the end. It will have FX and tension on par with the original. It just isn't the original.

The ending does change, and it actually makes more sense, if you are no a fan of possession stories, but the rest is pretty much the same. I think some of the scenes they added add to the story, the brain drill for example, Randy the asshole and the dog, but I can's score it as high as REC as it just isn't original.

Still worth a watch at 6/10. REC (7/10), REC2, REC: GENESIS, REC:APOCALYPSE, QUARANTINE and QUARANTINE 2:TERMINAL (6/10)

and now this frees me up to watch this weekends diabolical DVD offering The STINK OF FLESH.

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And we are back with the sequel, taking place 2 hours after the end of the first as a SWAT team of four including an idiot cameraman played by the same actor as the idiot cameraman in the first movie go in with a doctor to assess the situation in the apartment building. It is obvious though that the doctor knows more than he is letting on, and it is true! The whole thing is demonic possession, with the virus allowing sufferers to be controlled by a demon.

It means we do get some cool voice changing from the kids and cops as they are taken over. And we do have some cool kills. However, this does suffer from the Jurassic Park issue. We had our mind blown by the T-rex in the first, in the second it was ok, and by the third it was meh. Here the hectic style of the first movie is persisted, we do have some good kills and a story loop. We also get a great ending that should have set up another movie between this one and the fourth, however, the third (GENESIS) doesn't continue the story of Angela Vidal.

I have scored the others higher now, the series being REC (7/10), and all the others REC2, REC:GENESIS and REC:APOCALYPSE 6/10 making it a consistently entertaining series and well worth the watch.

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I am going to say something controversial. The gamechangers that have shaped the zombie genre are well known to us all (White Zombie the first, Night of the Living Dead making it about survival, Dawn of the Dead making it large, 28 Days Later making it scary and giving us running infected, Shaun of the Dead making it funny, The Walking Dead making it mainstream TV and World War Z making it an A lister movie) but I am going to put forward this, the 2007 Spanish REC as a potential addition to that list. Why? Well sure, there were found footage movies before it, most will say Blair Witch Project of 1999 was the first but I would say Cannibal Holocaust was a pioneer in horror. But REC, in 2007, has been copied so many times, with the final shot of the lead being dragged back into darkness, that I would say this should take it's place in that list. If Shaun can be there with a simple zombie movie story, but is there as it was the first genuinely funny zombie comedy that others try to emulate, then REC was the first found footage zombie movie and now we have them coming out of the woodwork.

It follows Angela Vidal as young reporter for a lesser known show and her cameraman (I still have issues with just how useless cameramen are in horror movies, just filming rather than helping) as they head with a fire crew to a claustrophobic apartment building where an elderly woman is trapped in her flat. Angela is in the second and concluding movies, so her arc is pretty awesome, and much better than Alice in the Paul WS Anderson Resident Evil franchise movies.

And of course it all goes terribly wrong. Lots of face biting, blood, infection, screaming fast moving infected, lots of Spaniards shouting over the top of each other, as the authorities lock them in for 76 hectic minutes. There are some great bits, not least the final shot, and the mother being handcuffed and them not being able to do anything about it.

I do love the REC movies, I would say they are the most consistently good series of movies, and we have plenty in the genre. All four are good and definitely worth watching. Copied by the Americans with Quarantine, with its own spin-off sequel in Terminal. I would recommend them all. And am more than happy to be watching REC2 next.

7/10

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What in the Uwe Boll have I just seen? As I wade through the cesspool of TUBI trying to find something decent I, for my sins and completeness, need to tick this one off.

Not to be confused with Narnia Dark Island, 1962 BBC series or the Dark Island in the Thousand Islands, or the prominent feature of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, is located in the lower (eastern) Thousand Islands region, near Chippewa Bay in St Lawrence County NY. It is another shitty movie on TUBI from 2010.

When a defense contractor loses contact with its lab on a remote island, a team of soldiers and scientists is sent to learn what happened.

Rotten Tomateos say Terror awaits a team of soldiers and scientists who have arrived at a bioweapons facility to determine why contact was lost with the researchers there. 8%

IMDB says Soldiers and scientists visit a remote island, the site of bio-weapons research, after losing contact with the staff there. 3.3/10

Leterboxd says After losing contact with its researchers on a remote island, amilitary corporation hires a group of scientists and soldiers to find out what went wrong. 2.7/10

And none of those descriptions are technically right as a former soldier turned sulky boat owner, a scientist pretending to be a soldier, and blurring the lines, an actual soldier, a toxicologist pretending to be a medic, and a nerd head by boat to an island not dissimilar to the island in Boll's monstrous House of the Dead. Why? Well, a nasty company has been performing experiments that somehow turn people into zombies and then smoke monsters like the one in Lost. Also monster sounds like Lost.

So basically a Canadian TV version of House of the Dead meets Lost. Wanna see it? I wouldn't. If anything the highlight of the movie was realising I hadn't covered REC or REC2 yet for the pod, and both are free on Amazon.

3/10 don't bother

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I am sewer surfing on the stinky crest of a TUBI wave this weekend, with Dark Island tomorrow and this the 2010 Defiled.

OK, let me give you the premise and we shall take it from there. It is a 100 minute long silent movie inasmuch as the characters do not speak. The humans do not speak at all and the zombies each have a single noise, be it a yar, a grunt, or a high pitched eee.

Yar, his name is the sound he makes, much like Gnar from Delamorte Delamore, (1994) has gotten one of this 3 zombie friends pregnant. But, after an ill-advised feast of a dead camper that poisons the other zombies to death, including the mother, Yar must first, and I never thought I would ever write this, perform a C-section with a butcher's hook, before looking after his zombie baby.

He saves a non verbal human female from two other zombies and now has a nanny for his zombie baby. And then there is a lot of walking. Walking to the woods. Walking to a farmhouse. Walking along train tracks. Walking through fields. Walking to a factory complex. Walking... walking... zzzzzz.

But then, realising they are all poisoned, and wanting to save his baby, they head to find the human scientists and soldiers for help.

So, a black and white silent movie told from the zombie perspective? Sounds interesting or shit? Well, to be fair it is both. Conceptually it is a good idea, but it is painfully repetitive and slow.

Artsy for the sake of it? Or artsy because of budget and talent? Who can say. It was unique. I have seen hundreds of zombie movies and this was pretty unique. Good? Hm. Recommendable? Only for the uniqueness of it. A 2010 silent zombie movie.

4/10 an oddity.

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I was dubious, and rightly so. I have been burned of late by movies that were not zombie movies, like The Bay. And that has a lot more in common with Itch! (2026) than any of the movies we have covered. However, there is an actual zombie element to this too. A proper, back from the dead and attacking the living element. So, as a lay person, I can say this is indeed a zombie movie.

Written by, direct by and starring Bari Kang this tells the story of a NYC hardware store and a group holding up as a regenerative parasite causes people to first, scratch their own skin off, and then, after dying, return from the dead to scratch other people's skin off too.

A low budget effort we have a decent enough location reminiscent of The Mist (if you like depressing endings) and Bait (if you like shark movies), a hardware store in one of the boroughs on a hot ass day as Jay, his non verbal biter of a daughter, rude customer Henry and shop girl Lisa are joined by wannabe robbers Miguel and pregnant Gabriella. Outside, along with some overly used and overly loud external civil unrest sound effects, including a incredibly close plane crash, the "itch" is spreading. People are scratching themselves to death, or being shot by the police if they can't control their itching in 10 seconds. Only to come back from the dead a little later.

Time to batten down the hatches and survive, which seems easier said than done.

It is a low budget movie but a decent enough effort. They could have made a few simple changes to make it more uncomfortable viewing for the audience but it isn't gross, other than the miscarriage. If anything it could have been more uncomfortable if it was an intolerably hot NYC day, sans AC, and I was a little disappointed that most kills are off camera too.

5/10

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With the upcoming gender swap Vivica Fox version of Night of the Living Dead coming up in November, I thought I would have the NOTLD league table in place before then, but with the title and story now in the public domain it means any twonk with a camcorder can make a version.

This version from 2015 is the CGI animated version aka Night of the Living Dead:Origins and Night of the Living Dead:Origins 3D and stars Tony Todd reprising his role of Ben from the Tom Savini 1990 version, Captain Rhodes himself Joe Pilato as Harry Cooper, Bill Moseley as Johnny, and scream queen Danielle Harris as Barbara, and is set in a modern NYC over the winter.

A few really odd nods to the original, with the old truck, TV and radio, and the building, all look out of place for NY compared to the other locations, but some excellent additions, with the flashbacks to Ben and his wife and son dying in the diner, and Tommy and Judy, as well as Johnny's demise by getting a plane in th face.

The one thing that you will notice is the poor quality of the CGI characters, who don't blink, and look like the actors but with a stocking pulled over their head, squishing their face, ears and nose. Given this is 2015, that is only real negative.

5/10 for me. The action scenes were decent, the tension, but the animated characters were just poorly created.

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Based on Courtney Summer's award winning YA novel of the same name from 2012 we are in a small Canadian town as the zombie apocalypse starts. Annoying teen Sloane is considering committing suicide because of her drunkard violent father, absent mother and now vacant sister. But then after a bang on the door, we get the noises of the apocalypse and well, darn, it is the zombie apocalypse.

After losing her dad after ignoring his advice on staying alive not once, not twice, but thrice, Sloane joins up with the only other survivors from town, who all are from the same class at high school. What are the odds?

We get some decent effects and tension, I thought. Sloane is, if anything, the pain in the ass, and being the central character we see too much of her walking off by herself before she causes numerous deaths.

Plenty of naysayers moaning about this one, but I actually liked it. Anna and the Apocalypse without the singing, Breakfast Club without the John Hughes factor. You do feel like you've seen this before and that it is all derivative, until you realise the book was written 14 years ago.

What can I say? I enjoyed it. It felt like an elongated episode of Black Summer.

6/10

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I should have known better. When a fellow movie reviewer lists their worst zombie movie of all time, I should have thought, well, if I listed our worst zombie movies (Attack of the Flatulating Dead, Oasis of the Zombies and Hsien of the Dead) I wouldn't then expect them to go out and buy them on DVD before watching them. But guess what I did?

Yes, this was bottom 3, on par with the aforementioned bags of steaming horse dung. Zombinator! A documentary style movie where the camera crew are mute at times and just film people being eaten, stabbed, shot, you name it, and don't give their opinions despite them being the only adults in the room of 15 fuckwit wannabe fashionistas.

And this was before the zombie apocalypse, created by the "company" and a mad colonel, and before the idiot fashionistas are saved by the Zombinator, a man so tough he wears sunglasses at night, a man who's shotgun doesn't need reloading and a man who's dialect coach should be shot.

If I could liken this movie to a liquid it would be the liquid at the bottom of a garbage can, bin juice, in taste and smell.

Avoid this one like the syphilitic sore on your pervy uncle's lip as he comes in for a kissy hello.

1.5/10 absolute badger shit.

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In Wellington, New Zealand the only known survivors, out of work actor and Lothario Morgan, computer game nerdy accountant Ash and wannabe rock star Jonny enjoy the apocalypse the right way; by living in mansions, drinking beer and playing computer games. But when they run into Stef, a rather delightful scientist who is working on a cure and needs to get to Stewart Island, they have to finally get serious.

Okay, so it wasn't Proust, but it wasn't the bottom of the barrel either. Akin to the Dutch Zombibi or Kill! Zombie! this was amusing, a few funny bits but nothing laugh out loud. A simple premise well acted but with some poor cinematography.

90 minutes on the dot of low budget unoriginality with a couple of fun kills, and an unsatisfying ending. Still, watchable.

5.5/10 from me. I enjoyed it a lot more than Cold Storage.

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Finally! I had been waiting for this one since pre-ordering it a month or two ago. COLD STORAGE with Joe Keery Georgina Campbell and Liam Neeson. A comedy horror movie that looked great in the trailer. And the thing about that cast is Georgina Campbell if anything has the horror chops of the three – Barbarian, the Watchers, Bird box, Influencers, Psycho Killer and has The Shepherd coming out too. We also have Ellora Torchia from Midsommar as Abigail

So to the plot, when a highly contagious mutating fungus escape a sealed facility, two young employees joined by a grizzled bioterror operative must survive the wildest night shift ever to save humanity from extinction, as the microorganism spreads and destroys everything in its path...

After a strong start in Australia with Sosie Bacon it fell away. I thought it was entertaining but weak, not in any way better than the Bruce Campbell Black Friday effort. The repeated jokes like about a suitcase bomb felt flat, Travis’s talking ghetto, and all the deaths just seemed just ok given the opening in Australia including Hero's suicide.

In short the trailer had all the best bits.

Black Friday I scored 4/10 and I am going to give this the same. Despite some good bursting, the effects were weak, akin to Black Friday, the plot line of Abigail having to help as Richard Brake's Colonel hated Neeson was strange. The dialog was poor and cheesy. I am a bit disappointed to be honest.

Now, it is still head and shoulders above the TUBI shit I could have seen, but I am very disappointed by it and wish I hadn't prepaid for it.

So, yes, it is a 4/10 for me. Very meh. Average at best.

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PLAY THIS MOVIE LOUD!

The soundtrack is by Pungent Stench, Evit 13, Dead World, Brutality, Disrupt, Mortician, Pyogenesis, Candiru, Winter, and Dismember. If you don’t know who they are, just check grandma's record collection, and it follows a group of bad acting metal heads Brad, Tony, Johnny, Kathy and Angel as Brad wins a contest to get the latest album by his favourite band Living Corpse. The cassette includes a unique song that is not available anywhere else in the world. A song, that when played turns Brad, Tony and Kathy into zombies at the beckon call of the band.

So is it virus or voodoo? It is definitely voodoo. And this makes sense to me as the zombies are just slow shuffling looking humans, staring and with dark rings around the eyes. Whilst some reviewers slagged the FX off for not being either bloody Fulci zombies, or blue Romero zombies, I think this is absolutely, and probably accidentally, in keeping with the style of voodoo zombies.

Anyway, Angel must save the guys by playing the song backwards, and all the while a serial killer is bear hugging people to death in a Richard Nixon mask. Tricky Dicky indeed.

I would have hated it more if I hadn't just seen Hsien of the Dead, and so this is going to be a 2.5/10 for me, on par with Pro Wrestlers versus Zombies. Which may sound bad, but there are over 30 movies below it in our list.

Maybe not avoid if you like bad b-moves with a heavy metal theme.

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The elation of finding a movie from our 42nd country was short lived within the first ten seconds of Hsien of the Dead, Singapore's Shaun of the Dead from 2012 and a supposed comedy. Although it was as funny as a road accident. This was awful, just plain awful. The 5.4/10 on IMDB is a reflection of a few idiots giving it 10 and then plenty of people giving it 1/10, and that was only because you can't give 0.

With the worst level of amateur acting, bad shot choices, poor camera quality, terrible effects, and pointless plot lines, Hsien, a young army enlistee, Ah Huay a cosplaying martial artist, Edward a porn sensor in the ministry of propaganda, and receptionist Hana all fight their way to meet up in a parking garage, before going out, then back to the parking garage, with the idea of getting off the island on a boat.

There is very little to redeem this movie. It is as if random people from the street were asked to ad lib scenes without talking about it before, and with total strangers. The toy helicopter, the cardboard chainsaw, and the terrorist were all low lights in a movie that had perhaps two amusing jokes, dozens of extras, and that I hated. This was 73 minutes of my life that I won't get back, and you can thank me for taking this one for the team.

It is the worst movie we have seen since Oasis of Zombies, that at least has the permanence of still being around 50+ years later. Avoid this one. It was not one of those movies that are so bad it was good. This was just so bad.

1/10

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A little chat-ette to start the week, as Michael appears in the rear view mirror to discuss the short-lived Netflix Resident Evil series and the first season of Black Summer amongst other things.

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I am going to be lazy here. These two reviews summed this movie up for me.

A review 5/10 Some decent elements, but felt like it would never end

Once you get past the cheesy low budget acting, there are some good parts to this movie. Some creepy scenes and the guy who played Chris was great and genuinely creepy. Chad's mum was also a good character/ actor.

But the last 30 minutes felt like 4 hours, I thought it was never going to end. Just non stop running and screaming and shakey camera. I got bored.

The girl, Katie, was pretty annoying in the 2nd half just constantly crying. I was relieved when they finally all died.

When the 3 of them were trying to hide, why did they seem to make as much noise as humanly possible? Stop screaming and make a plan maybe.

2/10 Demonic Zombies

I watch about 3 horror movies a day searching for those hidden gem ones.... This was not one of them!! I feel like this movie had a good idea but it was poorly executed. The acting was soooooo bad!! The fake crying was awful and constant for about the last 25 minutes of the movie! It's hard to like any of these characters by the end. Also jerking the camera, yelling and screaming like a blubbering idiot isn't an enjoyable watch! Whoever wrote the dialogue for this movie did a terrible job! I really couldn't wait for it to end...Awful...just Awful! Also a cat and a dog get killed, they're eaten and it's very bloody!

In short, the best thing about this movie was that it was 77 minutes long, and that was still 65 minutes too long. A very unconvincing found footage movie where the idiot filmmakers basically filmed everything, including driving there, going to a bar, walking to a friends house to get stoned, and even when a first aid kit is needed, picking the camera up to go find the first aid kit. The two reviews captured it, this was shit, they were annoying and too loud.

It is a 3/10 for me, the worst movie I saw this weekend, and that includes two movies from Pakistan

Out of the found footage and documentary style movies I have seen recently this was a poor, poor, poor Canadian cousin to the others.

Savageland 6.5/10

The Bay 5

this piece of shit 3

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Two movies from Pakistan in this episode, all prompted by Ollie Eats Brains who had just discovered Altered Skin but hadn't seen it. Taking a look into it further Pakistan doesn't have too many horror movies and the list of zombie movies is even thinner on the ground. They do have their own webseries version of The Walking Dead called Zombistan but I am here for the movies.

After a bit of research, i.e. I googles Pakistani zombie movies, I got two, these two so decided to watch them both.

The idea for both of these movies is that the pharma and chemical companies through corruption in government just dump their waste into the waterways and the horrors that follow.

Hell's Ground is a 2007 gore fest apparently that tells the story of 5 teenagers from Karachi that bunk school to head to a concert and end up lost in the woods and preyed on by zombies and a family of psychopaths. It is widely classed as Pakistan's first gory movie.

And it was alright. We see people demonstrating about the water quality and it causing zombies that look like they have leprosy as the groovy gang of Roxi, Ash, Simon, OJ and Vicky get lost in the woods whilst stoned. Simon is bitten and one by one they end up running into the darkness for one reason or another and are preyed upon by a spiked ball and chain wielding psychopath and his family. So, it all gets a bit Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

5/10

And Altered Skin was just dull. It was a conspiracy story with investigative journalists getting kidnapped and murdered, as an American ex-pat tries to find the truth to why he wife is in a coma. My interpretation of what the zombies could be was more interesting than the movie itself and other than about 8 minutes of chase scenes and a final battle, the most poster was the best thing about this one.

3/10

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Despite the sneaky rebranding of this movie, from changing the title from Chrysalis to The Living Dead, to making the DVD box look very The Walking Dead including the font and the colour scheme, and including the tag line about day of the ghouls making us think of both Day and Night of the Living Dead, this 2014 low budget post-apocalyptic zombie effort is actually ok.

It was referenced in one of the reviews of The Cove aka Escape to the Cove as being so much better and that reviewer was right. I mean, there was plenty to annoy me throughout, mostly that this is set 30 years post the end of society and still todays events, thoughts, attitudes and knowledge is referenced by people who were not even born when the world came to an end.

It tells the story of Penny and Josh who are ambling around the post apocalyptic US, occasionally coming across running infected as they camp out in broken down warehouse after cliched broken down warehouse. They then meet Abira, who is heading to the city to meet a group who want to rebuild society by taking the city back block by block. A truly stupid notion if you ask me. And Abira has secrets.

I actually thought it was well done. I have seen far worse. I have also seen better. The acting was fine from the 3 leads, and the tension was palpable. Would I watch it again? Probably not. Would I recommend you see it? if this is your bag, then yes. Strides better than The Cove and Zombie Warz, and the like.

5/10

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I hated this one.

It wasn't that the writer/director/producer thought he was suited to play the vulnerable, although not really, overly macho nihilistic lead. It wasn't the 5 minute cameo of Eric Roberts in a setting wholly out of character with the rest of the movie, remembering this is a post apocalyptic zombie movie where 99% of people are dead and those that are still alive are scavenging for food and eating cold beans out of a can and Eric in a suit is taking phone calls in a shiny clean bright lit office in front of a working computer. It isn't the appearance of US Navy planes twice with no explanation. Or that the whole thing is a bag of cats set in a marina. Or that the characters wore sleeveless tops and didn't carry weapons. Or that the slow moving blood stained white contact lensed zombies were replaced with glowing eyed fish zombies at some point. It was that Cairo, the supposed lead was an absolute pussy.

He is a useless, whiny, weak, pathetic character who wouldn't survive a weekend in a 2 star motel let alone the zombie apocalypse. No weapon. Doesn't even know how the zombies hunt. Doesn't scavenge in houses. Doesn't know anything. Doesn't fight back. You know Berkeley in Zombieland 2? This is not him. Cairo was just pathetic. Why do we join him months or years into the apocalypse, at a point where the streets of LA are empty and this idiot has survived with zero survival skills?

Grr.

2.5/10 bottom 25 for sure, out of the nearly 400 we have seen. Fuck you, Cairo.

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Following on from a mention on a review of the far superior Savageland, this fake documentary/found footage horror was helmed by Barry Levinson. Yup, Oscar winner Barry Levinson. Good Morning, Vietnam, Rainman, Bugsy... etc etc and the list goes on.

It tells the story of 2009, 4th July weekend in Claridge, Maryland, and a horrific outbreak of something that causes lot of nasty side effects, not least having your tongue and liver eaten from the inside. But is it a zombie movie?

I asked Google.

Yes. The Bay (2012) can be classified as a zombie movie, specifically within the subgenres of body horrorecological horror, and infected/rage-virus cinema. While the antagonists are technically mutated sea parasites (isopods) rather than undead corpses, the film heavily utilizes zombie tropes and is often cited as a modern "infected" film.

And to be fair the cop who kills the chief before offing himself and the woman attacking the mother and baby in the cop car at the end were in so much pain they were not in control. But Trench 11 (2017) and Viral (2016) this was not. Check those two out for proper parasite zombie movies.

This wasn't as good as Savageland despite costing a hell of a lot more and having an Oscar winner directing and the Insidious guys producing. Watch that instead

5/10

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A rarity for me, as this is a found footage documentary with a difference. An acted docu-drama where a town of 57 people are massacred and a man, Francisco Salazar, an illegal immigrant from Mexico is the only survivor and therefore the only suspect for the heinous crime.

In true crime documentary style this movie follows the case, taking perspectives from a glory hunting writer, corrupt local law enforcement and the family and loved ones of the victims whilst we see Salazar being interviewed by the police.

And then it flips, as this is a zombie podcast, to Salazar saying the first victim died then attacked him which is why he had to kill him. And from there we are shown the order or events by a former border patrolman, combined with 36 photos taken by amateur photographer Salazar on the fateful night.

Not what I was expecting, hadn't heard of it until I saw a reel by Chris Short listing it as one of the top 10 TUBI zombie movies at the moment. So thanks, Chris, and this one did well for me, 6.5/10, and I would seriously consider a drama of what really happened, so you can watch the two movies in either order.

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The first Tamil zombie movie sees mustachioed tough guy traffic cop Karthic take on the zombie hordes after a chemical spill. In true Bollywood style you will need to see past the bright red blood, cartoon sound effects, and at one point a full on pop video complete with backing dancers in a garden centre, as well as a sea of mustaches, to enjoy this zombie movie.

In a nutshell it is very obvious, chemical spill, spread, response, then a cure, with a shopping mall, some scenes stolen from other movies, and characters that are purely comical despite it trying to be a serious piece. Or is that their way of making movies, it is a bit of everything. Funny, sad, cheesy, horrific?

I am not a fan of Bollywood style movies, or the cheese, or the overly macho mustache hero, flying jump attacks, songs, overly sentimental flashbacks, however, I need to appreciate it for what it is - a bang on average middle of the road zombie movie with a Tamil cultural lean.

5/10

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This is one of those movies, like Outbreak with Billy Burke, like Herd, that appeared on the Amazon feed from nowhere.

Made in 2025, and doesn't mention the z word at all, instead describing itself as a socially charged horror story about the lingering effects of environmental contamination and corporate denial.

So basically it tells the story of a family, lawyer dad, heavily pregnant artist mom, and MS suffering teen daughter who inherit a farm. Although we see the previous family go bat shit and kill each other, very The Crazies but more gross, after a couple of guys dump drums of a chemical into the ground. And it is this chemical, via the water and the fruit that turns everyone white goop drooling, and homicidal.

Where in most zombie movies I want everyone to die, the family are ok, other than the trailer trash sister of the lawyer and her pointless son after they turn up.

Whilst some of the script and the cinematography is great, we get terrible scenes from time to time, and awful plot devices and design decisions. The green plant penis was straight out of a Troma comedy, or Night of Something Strange. The hit men for the chemical company were comically bad from their car, their outfits, their choice of weapon and cliched deaths.

That being said, it was ok. A bit daytime TV drama, a bit of The Crazies, with the family dynamic of the Griswalds and Cousin Eddie, and some Troma goop.

5/10

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In this episode Michael and I chat Daisy Ridley's We Bury the Dead, a movie we have been looking forward to for such a long while. Both huge fans of not only Ridley but also Brenton Thwaites (Teen Titans, Office Uprising, Ghosts of War).

Ava and Mitch are having marital issues, that they plan to address when Mitch returns from a work conference on Tasmania. But the US military accidentally drops a weapon of mass destruction off the coast wiping out the entire population of the islands.

Ava wants to know what happened to Mitch so volunteers to be part of the human relief programme that in conjunction with the Australian military with the idea she will be able look for him when she can. She is part of the effort to find, identify and dispose of the hundreds of thousands of bodies.

From the off the military explain in a briefing that some of the dead come back. And they do... and we see them...

Hear our thought here.

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We have had zombie outbreaks whilst on international flights, we have had zombie outbreaks at a wedding, at a school trip to a petting zoo, and here, we have a bad daytime TV soap opera affair story, set in LA, at Christmas during the zombie apocalypse.

The menage-a-trois, complete with daytime TV soap piano, and awful dialog is between overly macho and difficult asshole cop Frank Talbot, his yoyoing wife Sarah who goes between Frank and his younger more handsome, but clearly morally questionable partner Nash.

There is too much of this going on. We start with Sarah separating from Frank and going to Nash, but when Nash loses a toe, that Frank cauterizes, she ends up in bed with Frank, then Nash when he wakes up, then Frank again after she shouts and attracts the zombies, then Nash again when they get drunk and Frank heads out to supposedly find supplies but never gets any, before Frank again when he is back after shooting Nash by mistake, and Frank needs a wound cauterized. Too much cauterizing, not enough using the first aid kit in their squad car outside.

We do get Lew Temple (The Walking Dead and Zombex) and Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) and Vernon Wells (Commando and Mad Max 2), but they are but fleeting moments of IMDBery. None of them bringing much to the movie at all.

And the zombies? Lumpy faced contact lens wearers, the colour of the lenses denoting if you are a runner or a shambler.

It was poor, none of the characters likable enough for you to care if they live or died.

3.5/10 instead get three TVs and set them up in the same room. Put Days of Our Lives on one TV, a bad cop show on another, and a bad zombie movie on the third and get stoned looking from one TV to the next for similar effect.

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"For a horror movie "The Curse of Hobbes House" was just unfathomably devoid of anything remotely scary."

Hm.

2020 British, only 3.4/10 on IMDB.

Hm.

The blurb is that “two estranged sisters visit their ancestral home and are confronted by an ancient curse of the undead following a storm.”

The Horror Society, who I rate. wrote about this one that... " this is not a gory flick that most genre fans are looking for. We get some make up effects and a few splashes of blood but nothing that will stand out. Overall the Curse of Hobbes House tries to do what Roger Conner's Rebirth could. Its not a fun or entertaining retelling of a Romero classic. Instead it borrows heavy from the story without contributing. Skip it.”

Hm.

Another reviewer I listen to, The Irish Film Critic gives it 2.5 stars out of 5 mentions a twist… that I kinda want to find out and says that "overall, despite some inventiveness with its zombie iterations, the story is cliched and predictable. The character deaths are not shocking or surprising. If you are a zombie fan you may find merit in it but I found it pretty forgettable."

Great.

So I didn't go into it with high hopes. And I am I didn't. The characters, other then the old woman who puts a gun in her mouth in the opening the scene and her Syrian groundskeeper, were infinitely unlikable. Nigel deserved death from the start and his comeuppance I truly enjoyed. The odd choice for central character was Jane. Jennifer was the much nicer half-sister. I didn't like Jane at all.

The zombies are blue eyes screaming zombies, the exterior shots are often reused daytime history or news worthy, the acting wasn't great, the whole thing really didn't do anything for me. It was a few scumbags trying to make some money off a cursed house. And how many times have we seen that?

4.5/10 and they should thank me for that.

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And so we are back at it. As I mentally prepare myself to watch the potentially abysmal The Curse of Hobbes House, Michael and I catch up to talk about the zombie entertainment we have seen recently, and what we plan to see in the coming weeks.

Michael needs to finish the Netflix Resident Evil series, Daisy Ridley's We Bury the Dead and then move onto the first season of Black Summer. And from there we look forward to season 2 of All of Us Are Dead on Netflix with the first seasons being a top 20 for us, and Colony, from the makers of Train to Busan. That trailer looked amazing. And we give a nod to our buddy Lee Donaldon over at Dead Zero.

That was looking forward, looking back at recent watches, we talk Uncontained, which had a lot of clever elements, but ultimately the redneck militia plot ruined it, and I Sell The Dead, with Dominic "Merry" Monaghan and Ron "Hellboy" Perlman, yet another movie compared to Shaun as the best zombie comedy (spoiler it isn't).

Enjoy

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So just to make sure, this isn’t Red Planet, with Carrie Anne Moss, Val Kilmer, Terrence Stamp, Simon Baker, Tom Sizemore and Benjamin Bratt. That is very different. Robot dog going nuts. As is the Ghosts of Mars the Ice Cube, Jason Statham, Pam Grier effort. That was demonic possession by, I wanna say, the previous inhabitants.

This is Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas and Olivia Williams with space zombies. Yeah. SPACE ZOMBIES! The 8 ma crew is looking for life on Mars. There is a song in that. And one of them chances upon bacterial life. Amazing as it's their last day before they head back to Earth and they were pissed about heading back empty handed.

Not amazing as the bacteria turn them into space zombies, and the claustrophobic story takes a dark turn.

Reviewers complained about it being low budget but I have no trouble with the cast, the effects or the sets. It all looked very Martian to me. And I enjoyed it. As Space Zombie movies go this one is alright.

5.5/10

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There were moments in this show where I really loved it. I thought Lance Reddick as Wesker was inspired. Paola Núñez's unhinged Evelyn Marcus too grew on me. It has tension, and the dual story lines of the teens learning more about Umbrella in New Raccoon City and the post apocalyptic world would, and I stress that word, WOULD have been great IF we had seen the end of the world, IF we had seen why Jade thinks Billie died, and the T-virus spreading across the planet.

If anything this felt even more removed from the games than the Paul WS Anderson Milla Jovovic efforts. But ultimately Netflix cancelling it after one season meant we were left unfulfilled.

I have seen it twice now. I won't a third time.

5.5/10

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Sorry but after a Scooby doo episode in the basement, another fucking boat being the base, World War Z and Shockwaves being ripped off, future Billie becoming Chinese, and Wesker turning out to be a clone, I am a bit done with this one... but here you go... enjoy

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In 2022 Constantin the production company behind the Paul WS Anderson and Milla Jovovic movies worked with the asshats at Netflix to create this show that has literally nothing to do with the movies, or Welcome to Racoon City, the movie reboot of the year before.

It follows Jade and Billie Wesker as teens as the outbreak is about to happen after their dad, Albert Wesker (brilliant played by the much loved and missed Lance Reddick) and his evil boss and daughter of the original Dr Marcus, Evelyn Marcus, pushes a new happiness drug from Umbrella called Joy, that includes small elements of the T-virus. Why doesn't this sound like a good idea.

And Jade as an adult, 14 years later in a post-apocalyptic world, is trying to get home to her husband and child after being in the field in the UK and trying to get samples of something or other before being chased across Europe by Umbrella and a fat beardo in a grey suit.

We will be doing this as a three pod breakdown with our chat in the third. In this pod, I cover parts 1 to 3 of 8. Enjoy.

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And we come together to talk two movies high on our watch list for the year, Tina Romero's Queens of the Dead, and 28 Years Later The Bone Temple. What did we think of them? You will just have to listen to find out.

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So I saw 28 Years Later The Bone Temple and, unlike it's prequel, I loved it. This is the movie we all wanted 28 Years Later to be from Jim to the old theme tune, to villains getting their comeuppance, to the virus not only being the red eyed blood spewed rage virus we loved, but also some progress in its study and cure.

I would question how a bicycle courier has somehow become a history teacher (that bit was stolen from the History Boys), and how Jonno was turned with a simple old school 28 days/weeks infected blood spray, and the Jimmy's aren't affected at all by it.

Some iconic scenes inc the Number of the Beast, and the train fight scene, but for me, oddly, it was Jimmy's upside down view of the stars and the bone temple looking like pillars I found the most stunning.

It is a bit of an off the cuff ramble, but I scored it 8/10 and will definitely see it again.

The Franchise for me is 28 Days Later, 28 Years Later The Bone Temple, then the other two equal third.

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Michael has gone rogue, going to not only watch 28 Years Later The Bone Temple but also he recorded an episode of the podcast whilst Darren writes and appears in The Fallen Diaries episode 1. Questions will be answered, including but not limited to:

Does Michael like the look and feel of prosthetic penises?

Has he ever joined a cult?

Did Jimmy Savile fix it for him?

What other BBC presenters and DJs does he think could be pedophiles?

And many many more.

Check out his review of Bone Temple, the movie in the franchise that he scores 7.5/10 and describes as "second only to Days."

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The things I do for you fucking people.

Where am I going with this? Well, since We Bury the Dead and Uncontained, both decent movies, with the Daisy Ridley effort immediately cementing itself in my top 50 zombie movies, we are back on the slippery downward slope with this one – Bong of the Living Dead, not to be confused with Bong of the Dead, although, yes, for you dear listeners I am watching Both! Yes both! The 2011 Canadian movie BONG of the Dead, where Although the world is dealing with a zombie apocalypse, two friends decide to make the best of it. They use zombie brains as fertilizer to grow powerful cannabis. And the 2017 AMERICAN Bong of the living dead Friends fighting for survival realize that the zombie apocalypse isn't all it's cracked up to be.

BONG OF THE DEAD from 2011 an experience akin to being the only sober person in a room full of drunk and stoned exhibitionists who think they’re the funniest people on Earth.

What a bag of shit… that was bad, like one of those really bad episodes of Z nation that felt like the writers were drunk, high or both, as it had nothing do with the main storyline.

3/10 avoid

And so onto the second wind of this podcast, we have slept off the 2011 Canadian bong of the dead and now have the American BONG OF THE LIVING DEAD from 2017

It gets a surprising 5.3 on IMDB and although it didn’t have enough reviews on RT to create a score, the two critics that watched it seemed to like it.

Tries to be Shaun of the Dead and fails at being remotely funny, despite some decent zombie movie references. Then becomes serious when they run out of weed and fails at that too. In the end it was far better than Bong of the Dead, but it was still shit.

4/10 avoid also

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Winter. A fly over of near black trees. The wilderness in winter seen from above and below. From under the show a shirtless man appears. It is Morley Nelsons Dan. Long hair. Blade. Ominous music.

Morley Nelson writes, directs and stars as Dan a bit of a cliché, former spec ops soldier who found the woman of his dreams, and then lost her and their baby, kinda thing. And Dan is confused and lost in the snow as he stumbled upon 7 year old Jack and cute as a button 2 year old Brooke living in a huge house by themselves. What is going on? And this is after a couple forced themselves into the house and were killed by someone, or something.

So this zombie virus has two strains, you either turn standard running zombie, I am thinking Black Summer, and will die when killed, these are Deaders, and then there are the Changers, that turn, then turn back, a la zombie versions of werewolves or, more recently, like EAT BRAINS LOVE, but more serious.

With the main story being less about the zombies and more about the head of the local militia looking for his daughter, who was part of the couple killed earlier, it does detract a little from what this could have been.

It scored 4.6/10 on IMDB and I can see why people would put it around there. I am going to round up to a 5/10 as I found it quite interesting, a fresh take to a degree but with room for improvement. As this was Morley Nelson writing, direction and starring in this well done to him pesonally, it is certainly better than a lot of indie zombie movies we have seen on the pod.

If you want to move away from the second rate Romero clones out there, give this a go. It was a few new scenes and a little bit of better writing and acting away from being Blood Quantum ish.

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I have been waiting for this one for a year. Or so it seems. It has certainly taken its sweet ass time in coming but finally I get to cross off Daisy Ridley's We Bury The Dead.

The story follows American Ava (Ridley) as she heads to Tasmania after a US weapon of mass destruction accidentally wipes out the entire population of half a million people. Ridley's husband Mitch was there for a work thing, and she wants to find him/his body.

We learn though, as she is volunteers with thousands of others to identify and retrieve the dead that some of them are coming back. And we do see them. Although the are tragic grey skinned, opaque eyed hollow people, grinding their teeth into sharp splinters.

The military are overseeing the whole thing and the returned, the undead, are immediately and ruthlessly dealt with.

Enter Brenton Thwaites' Clay, a bit of a loser, and so far away from the clean cut, pretty boy US roles he is famous for (Teen Titans, Office Uprising, Ghosts of War) you have to double take to see the unkempt, long greasy hair and swearing Aussie is him. Clay offers to take her to the other side of the island, 200 miles, to where Mitch was at the time of the tragedy.

And so this becomes a road movie, interspersed with flashbacks to Ava and Mitch's troubled marriage, right through the payoff at the end.

It is quite haunting, but not the Australian 28 Days Later that some of the trailers hinted at. A sad story about her and him. A story of loss before and after death. Moments of the Schwarzenegger Maggie. Scary moments. Don't get me wrong. Mark Coles Smith from Beast of War, was truly scary as Riley. It will stay with you. But those wanting a bloody, zombie fest will be disappointed.

I liked it though, and given this is my podcast, I score it 6.5/10. Well done all.

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There are sub-genres within the horror sub-genre of zombie horror, oh yes there is. Other then the obvious, the apartment survival horror, the South Korean zombie horror there is this, the romantic comedy set in the zombie apocalypse. And if you think that Shaun of the Dead was probably the first, and Warm Bodies is likely the best example, it is a good segue into the genre if you have a reluctant partner who doesn't want to see Zombie Flesh Eaters on date night.

There are a lot of examples, and we enjoy the light-hearted nature of the sub-genre. We have covered Better Off Zed, Death do us Part, Life after Beth, Burying the Ex, The Last Marriage, Eat Brains Love, Newtopia and Night of the Living Deb. And there are more out there.

The question is in the balance. Directors tend to lean towards one or two of the elements in the zom rom com equation and either make a romantic comedy with little zombies, or a good zombie comedy with barely any romance. It is a tough nut to crack. But they do keep trying in this entry level sub-genre.

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It is battle of the shit biscuits tonight as I pit Amazon against TUBI, the slop bucket of cinema versus the cesspool of slime with Night of the Living Dead Resurrection and Deadlocked.

What can I say about Night of the Living Dead Resurrection on Amazon, a Welsh movie that tries to steal as much from Romero's 1969 classic as possible whilst retaining nothing? A movie that ends with the line "throw her in the rape van" when the zombie apocalypse literally started the day before. A movie with a black character called Ben, in a white shirt and trousers, who has Karen Cooper from the original as his phone background image, but then blows his brains out after 15 mins and we are left with a pointless Welsh family who we have no sympathy for. Rubbish. Unoriginal.

2/10

And from TUBI we have Deadlocked. Not our first zombie movie set in an elevator, but certainly the worst. TBF compared to NOTLDR this is fucking Shakespeare, director by Spielberg, scored by Morricone. It isn't, of course, it is an overly dramatic but of annoying characters with more drama than a season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as cop Lee, perp Mason, wannabe actor Connor, runaway Jacqui and alcoholic Olivia get stuck in an elevator as the zombie apocalypse happens outside.

Not as good as the Italian movie The End? but certainly better than is rival in this episode.

4/10

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After a destructive asteroid ushers in the apocalypse and Trump invades Venezuela, the dead begin to rise and Satan's army is unleashed onto the world. Meanwhile, seven archangels attempt to save mankind from evil....

And Michael has gone Han Solo for this one. As Darren talks to Captain Magenta about all things pirate zombie, Michael went off-piste and watched the 2018 French biblical zombie movie ANGELS VERSUS ZOMBIES. Is it PRO-WRESTLERS VERSUS ZOMBIES. Not quite! How dare you!

Darren saw the trailer and that was enough, but Michael decided to throw himself onto the grenade and embraces the suck that is Angels versus Zombies.

4/10 and it doesn't even have any Baldwins.

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Recording in Progress...

Kirk, Birdseye, Scarlet and Stabbin, we know a few captains, but in this episode I finally get to talk to friend of the pod Captain Magenta, the only Captain that matters.

We talk his first, last, best and worst zombie movies. He tells us what he really thinks of the 28 Years Later ending and Jimmy Savile, and why he loves South Korean zombies the most. We give him a shortlist of new movies to watch, and new TV shows and we have just come off the recording and are already planning a follow up. It was that good.

So give the man a listen, hook hand, parrot on the shoulder and skull and cross bones flapping in the wind, this is the one and one Captain Magenta...

And you can listen to the Captain's podcast here on Spotify...Spilling Brains and Gossip, go check it out. You won't be sorry.

https://open.spotify.com/show/0Z3oo1X6h4el0459Mc6yXG?si=IL-yZG5PTlud2AWqmaLPmA

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The film follows a group of drag queens, club kids, and frenemies who must put aside their personal dramas and use their unique skills to fight the flesh-thirsty undead when a zombie apocalypse breaks out on the night of a giant warehouse party.

That is the premise and we start with a spectacular drag queen Yum heading to church to light a candle for Nana before heading out… however she gets a ping on her hookup app and holy moly it is a ripped chunk of Jesus lookalike who bites Yum on the neck, turning her into the Zombie Queen.

Oh before we continue just to say we can play ROMERO bingo here with the old school legends…

GAYLEN ROSS was the stern doctor who had words with Sam at the start.
TOM SAVINI is the mayor personally and references George A Romero on the TV.
Lizzys car is called BARBARA and it looks like a Pontiac LeMans 1967 which is the car johnny and Barbara drive in 1969.

And this is a fun one. Katy O'Brian is Dre, nightclub owner, who is let down by both spectacular diva Yasmine, and once reliable friend Sam (Sameonce) as Kelsey, Ginsey Tonic and backup dancers Jax and Nico practice for a big Glitter Ball event. As Dre's brother in law Barry, a down to earth New Yorker has trouble with everyone's pronouns the glittery green makeup wearing zombies start to cause havoc, and her wife Lizzy and a drug addict Jane Doe try to make it across town.

It is fun, it is light-hearted. The music is great, the characters are all fun and OTT. I had been waiting for 6 months to watch this one and was glad I did.

Tina Romero has done her father proud with this one.

Make a cocktail, get your favourite wig down from its velveteen box, pull on your highest sequined platform shoes and enjoy Queens of the Dead

6/10 watchable and recommendable for sure

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We do love our Zom Rom Coms. Shaun of the Dead, Warm Bodies, Life after Beth, Burying the Ex, all good. All funny in their own way. All with their unique charm. And then there is this... 2014, Night of the Living Deb.

It stars Maria Thayer as the incredibly awkward, infuriatingly so at times, Deb, and Michael Cassidy (Jimmy Olsen in Batman v Superman and Sgt Kelly in Army of the Dead) as organic produce eating, bike riding, eco-friendly traditionally handsome Ryan.

After a 4th July party hookup Deb wakes in Ryan's bed (fully clothed thankfully), and after some very awkward behaviour (too awkward, what she says and what she does, smashing things by accident) they head out to find their are in the middle of a zombie outbreak.

Despite her character being over the top in all ways, the movie is quite funny in places, look out for the graffiti gag, and mom's phone call. Reading the reviews it is polarising, people loved it, or people hated it, and the reason they hated it was Deb's character. People were 7/10 or 2/10, and I am going for 5.5 as I think it was watchable, once you got used to her forced awkwardness, and he was great. Nice little new take on the outbreak too at the end. Decent cast. I'd recommend it if you like ZOM ROM COMS.

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After I cover the best (MadS) and worst (Oasis of Zombies) in the intro, giving you the top 5 to watch and bottom 5 to avoid, we watch the New Zealand animated web series Bloke of the Apocalypse by Charlie Faulks. It was quirky in an early Adult Swim way, and I enjoyed it so much I wish there was more.

5/10 watchable for sure

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There is a comedy zombie boxed set, you may have seen it, you may know it. On it you will find three zombie comedies, the Christmas themed Stalled from the UK, we liked that one, I survived a zombie holocaust from New Zealand starring friend of the podcast Harley Neville, and this… Me and My Mates versus the Zombie Apocalypse from Australia.

The premise?

During the Australian zombie apocalypse, Darryl (played by Alex Williamson) - a mid-twenties telecom tradesman - and several of his co-workers get trapped in a telephone exchange. It is a comedy. But, what do we say, dear listeners, about comedy? That for a comedy to be funny the jokes have to land. And they do not always land.

The trailer looks pretty low end. I am thinking Danny Dyer’s Dog House meets New Kids Nitro from the Netherlands. But lets find a review and see if we agree with it.

It was shit. Not funny

The constant running gag of Daryl wanting to be on roys cricket team – not funny

The constant running gag of Daryl having thrush – not funny

The running gag of Daryl’s tiny cricket bat – not funny

Hitting women zombies and apologising, not funny

The toolmaster multitool, not funny

Daryl confusing vampires and zombies, not funny

Script was poor, the acting was poor, Jim Jeffries, the main draw, just disappeared, it was like he thought, fuck it, let me die.

Remember New Kids Nitro?

3.5/10 by far the weakest of the 3 movies on that DVD. No way near as funny as I survived a zombie holocaust, and not as good or original as stalled, and that is set in a womens toilet. But it isn't the worst Australian zombie movie, that award goes to Zombie Brigade from 1988, which looked like it was made in 1978. This was just shit. No wonder Jim Jeffries got out of it half way through.

Avoid. This sucked diarrhea through a bum's sweat sock.

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Ho ho ho dear listeners… and we are santa deep in the festive season here… and as everyone sits down with their loved ones to enjoy a rom com after a hefty Christmas dinner, I am doing the same… well not a rom com you understand, this is a rom zom com, a zom rom com, a romantic zomedy… a subgenre of the subgenre we have time for having seen.

| Shaun Of The Dead | 7.5
| I Survived a Zombie Holocaust | 7
| Newtopia | 6.5
| Warm bodies | 6.5
| Life After Beth | 6
| The Last Marriage | 6
| Dead Heads | 6
| Burying the Ex | 6

And so to this weeks offering, EAT BRAINS LOVE… I like the title, a play on eat pray love, that everyone in the world owned, it is directed by Timothee Chalomet's uncle Rodman Flender, Based on the 2013 book of the same name by Jeff Hart and is one of the DVDs that will to Michael with my spare region free dvd player… merry Christmas, mate.

Two high school opposites, stoner Jake Stephens and popular cheerleader Amanda Blake, become infected with a virus that turns them into zombie-like cannibals. They travel across the country looking for a cure. Cass, a teenage telepath, and her partner Tom work for a government agency charged with hunting and killing the infected. Cass develops feelings for Jake as they track the high schoolers. Tom dies in an attack, Cass turns against her agency and joins Jake and Amanda, forming a contentious love triangle as they journey forward, still searching for a cure.

5.2/10 on IMDB which isn’t bad

It is a 5/10 for me.

An annoying ending. It had moments but it was poor. The acting, the story, the obvious plot, I mean why have Jake and Cass have voice over but not Amanda? Why not at least take it to the conclusion? Wouldn't watch it again. It would be ok for some.

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In this episode, the 300th anniversary we go off-topic again. After Dog Soldiers and werewolves in episode 100, Hellraiser in space aka Event Horizon for 200 we are covering The Thing universe.

We read, or listen to, Cambell's 1938 source material Who Goes There? before watching the 1951 cold war classic The Thing from Another World, the seminal 1982 John Carpenter The Thing and the 2011 Mary Elizabeth Winstead prequel The Thing.

Was MacCready infected? Was Child's? Did the prequel suffer from the CGI comparison to the 1982 effort? Was The Thing in the ice the pilot of had The Thing assimilated it? And will we ever know it's true form?

Join Michael and me as we discuss all things Thing, the claustrophobia, the snow, the long johns.

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After a surprise effort from North Macedonia we are returning to our favourite source of zombie entertainment – South Korea. A country that has delighted us for many years and 2 entries in our top 10 with train to busan and all of us are dead, if we are including tv shows. And they really get it with period shows like Kingdom, and the movie version Rampant, modern series such as Newtopia and Happiness, and mock reality shows like Zombieverse.

The blurb for this one - Arriving at a reformatory school, a group of students sent there to work on their attitude issues try to stand up to the teachers trying to control, but when a diseased pig from an undisclosed pandemic awakes and turns the faculty into zombies the students are forced to find a way out of the school.

We follow three kids, a fighter, a thief and a spoiled brat party girl, as they are taken by boat to a reform school on an island. It is run by a bully boy principal, who kicks down, bully his VP, who in turns bullies Mr Park a teacher, who in turn bullies the pupils. No one bullies the kids like the gym teacher though, he is a violent piece of work.

After a slow start where it's all about the thief being bullied by Chicken Hair, and the party girl bullied by Red Hanky, in the space of a few minutes the Principals cat is killed, then he is bitten by a rabid pig that turns him into a zombie. He kills the nurse, who kills the canteen lady, who then combine to kill the gym teacher and before long we just have the cowardly VP and the kids left.

We get carnage. And it does have poor man's Battle Royale vibes. It wasn't the worst zombie movie I have seen. And it is encouraging that a bad South Korean zombie movie is still better than a bad US or UK zombie movie.

Oh, and we get a cover of Cranberries zombie as the final theme song.. oh my

It was better than the Japanese Junk and much better than the lowest scoring South Korean Gangnam Zombie. I wouldn't watch it again.

Probably a 4/10 for me

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The blurb

Marko, shielded by his father's iron grip, must face a shattered world shrouded in silence and peril along with a boy with Down Syndrome.

Or

Beyond the Wasteland follows two kids who form an unbreakable bond in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies.

Or

The world has been ravaged by a pandemic. Alone and outside the safety of the forest, Marko faces a shattered world shrouded in silence and danger.

5.8/10 on IMDB which is very good and 3/5 from the UK Film Review

And it is from Macedonia and you know what that means dear listener it makes it the 40th country we have covered movies from.

Set in the woods after a global pandemic turned virtually everyone zeke a 8-10 year old Marko lives with his dad in the woods. It had a lot of surviving with dad in the woods. Practical survival stuff. Hunting. Traps. Silence. It felt a little at times like the movie Here Alone, but then with the whole Huckleberry Finn meets The Peanut Butter Falcon but, you know, with zombies and in Northern Macedonia.

Innocent and endearing. I felt like the sections of JoJo Rabbit when JoJo and Elsa are hiding together after JoJo's mother was hung. But with plenty of menace from the overbearing and quite frightening father, the infected, the marauders, and the soldiers. The hunt for mom, and going to the hospital felt like Apocalypse Z: The Beginning and the end was very tense for me, as you just didn't know what they were going to do.

In the end this was a very watchable 6/10. I liked it!

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Take a really good actor, like James Remar, give him a bad script, awful CGI, terrible co-stars and some of the worst green screen I have ever seen, and you end up with a sub-par Remar. And that is what we get in Glowzies, yes, glowing zombies. And it is the sort of glowstick/predator blood glowing too.

After an alien goo related incident 30 years earlier a bunch of pointless influencers come to investigate an old steel mill in a Colorado valley. They go to the local diner where a huge chef plies old men Remar, Tech and Smelly with food. The guys have no memory of the day before, their lives, or anything and don't think it is weird at all. But they agree to go with the kids to the mill.

There their memories start to come back and it turns out they were there when the incident happened, alien goo etc, and since then have been used as canaries by the Department of Defense. They have been drugged every single day for 30 years? Yes, makes no sense.

Anyway, the zombies are part of a glowing alien hive mind, and we have about 5 episodes of plot elements from Rick and Morty crammed in.

A glowing gooey zombie episode of Goosebumps. Below average. I liked the drugging idea, but the rest was pish.

3.5/10

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One of three DVDs in the Christmas box this year, along with Eat Brains Love and Zombie School, and all three nowhere on any list I have ever created. They were all very randomly found. After watching the Thai Zomvivor (still an awful title despite the show being awesome), I tried to find any South Korean zombie movies I hadn't seen that had good ratings and discovered Zombie School. Unavailable to download in the UK so I got a DVD from Korea. Eat Brains Love based on a novel of the same name next. Again, unavailable so a DVD came from the US. And then this... All You Need is Love... sung to the theme of All you need is love? by the Beatles?

It is written and directed by Bucky Le Boeuf and is one of those lower budget awkward movies that have cringe elements, cheese but ultimately appeal to some... like Gentlemen Broncos, or Evil Alien Conquerors. And if you loved those you may well like this.

16 year old Bucky lives with his alcoholic pest control officer widower dad, and the talking urn holding his mums ashes. He is a filmmaker, making overly arty pieces with his mute Indian friend Nish.

But when Walter Herzog-esque Franz von Franz comes to town to judge the local horror cinema contest, Bucky must swallow his pride and get gorey to win the $2000 first prize. What to do? Well, the meteor crashing into the garden and giving dad space AIDS and turning him zombie helps.

Add Menu Suvari as a coke head trailer trash diva, Eddie Griffin as a detective , and Emma Chasse as a stage fright suffering wannabe actress, and we soon have a zombie movie within a movie... not original I know, see Reel Zombies, Diary of the Dead, Zombies are Coming to Town, and the list goes on... Is it any different? Yes, it doesn't take itself seriously at all, and is amusing rather than laugh out loud funny, with running gags throughout...

A 4.5/10 for me. I wouldn't hurry to watch it again, but I would recommend those who like awkward indie movies like Gentlemen Broncos give it a go.

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More Thai chaos at the university as the zombies run amok. We have too many characters still and now we learn more about the evil Patron and his evil son Joe. Shall we call them Donald and Don Jnr?

Lots of lying from the central family, we learn all the mom in a coma's back story and we also have the most unique element of a zombie story I have seen in a long, long ass time - zombie factions and a hierarchy. Just brilliant really.

I went into this show on Netflix thinking I would hate it, but I didn't. I actually really liked it. Although none of the characters really appealed to me other than Lily and actually Aunty Jit, poor lass, I was engrossed. Netflix is full of hits and misses, but this was a hit for sure.

Check it out now. Not as good as All of Us Are Dead, but not far off.

7/10

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I am loving this show. It may not be at the height of some zombie cinema, it isn't better than All of Us Are Dead, but it ain't far from it. I was skeptical after seeing over 30 pretty Thai boys and girls on the poster. And there a lot of characters. A lot of red shirts. A lot of extras to be eaten. Although, that being said, the deaths are getting more and more from the main cast now.

I have to contradict the IMDB reviewer who said there was nothing new here. There actually is. Alphas. We have seen a lead zombie in many many movies, 28 Years Later, House of the Dead, Army of the Dead, Land of the Dead to name but a few. But in all those cases the Alpha is the biggest brute of the horde, the huge monster from 28 Years Later, the original soldier in Army of the Dead, the Mechanic in Land. The Alpha here is very intriguing. And the use of emotion too, zombies fearful of the Alpha without the Alpha being a physically dominant specimen. Great stuff all around, I am loving it.

The whole storyline of the menial staff being used is sad. But it is a harsh reality of life. Zombies now self repairing. And getting stoned. This show is better than Happiness, better than Newtopia. It isn't far off All of Us are Dead. And that is saying something.

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There are over 30 characters on the poster for this Thai Netflix effort, and none of them are zombies. That's right, it is a Bangkok university based zombie outbreak story with effectively half a dozen boy bands all vying for the attention of 3 girls - the bright top of the class Ning, the arrogant actress Lily and the morbid goth Prau. The guys all have slightly different outfits and haircuts, a la battle of the Asian boy bands however, that being said, it's alright.

After one episode it is clear this is not ALL OF US ARE DEAD. Nowhere near. Not even close, Bud. Is is better than BLOCK Z? I think so. Ning and her group meet up with her brother Noon and her boyfriend?? Zan's group, making 16 of them escaping the zombies across campus to hold out at the under construction library. They put out a message on the PA system forwarding a military signal on the radio about chopper rescue, before water and power go down. And her message is heard, by the armed boy band in the rain, and the scaredy boy band in the hallways. So I will have another 8 boys to learn the names of in the next episode. As the power going out means the zombie will no longer have bright lights to stare at in a docile manner, so now head towards the living meat at the library.

It's ok. I have seen far worse. Onto Episode 2...

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A twofer from 2011 this time around with The Zombies are Coming to Town and Schoolgirl Apocalypse.

Zombies are Coming to Town, which needed to be Zombie Hordes are Coming to Town so it can be sung to the tune of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, is a pretty dreadful movie in a movie, where they are making a low budget zombie movie with some of the worst acting you have even seen and even worse cinematography. I am aggrieved to call it cinematography.

During the filming of a low budget zombie movie in Maine (how original), a tank of biohazardous chemicals is punctured by two teens (how original), and as real zombies appear and attack the production (how original) the director decides to incorporate the real zombies into his movie (how original). 64 minutes. 8 of which is the credits. And at one point we get the entire movie replayed beginning to end at 3x fast forward >>>. Hated almost every second of this one. The only slightly redeemable thing was that the zombies in the movie didn't have as good a makeup as the actual zombies.

2/10 and definitely not the 7/10 it gets on IMDB.

And then we watched Schoolgirl Apocalypse. And this was ok. Japanese but directed by an American. A high pitched signal turns the men into women murderers in a small Japanese town, as schoolgirl Sakura tries to get a blind scientist, and a mute western boy in wheelchair to the sea.

Not a lot of blood, not any gore really but there is a lot of tension, very atmospheric at times. A decent movie making debut from the director. It felt a little like a very tame version of The Sadness. And the Squidward alien jellyfish ending and constant use of animated sequences when Sakura was unconscious didn't do it for me.

4.5/10 for its oddness. Odd like Junk was odd and odd like wild zero was odd. Japanese odd.

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It gets worst. Sure, we see them call the zombies sleepwalkers, or toe tags, or chompers. There was only one memorable episode in keeping with The Walking Dead universe and that the Dee/Alpha. The rest of this anthology series has been god awful.

To finish off the terrible end of the seasons here we go...

Episode 4 Amy/Dr Everett - Anthony Edwards plays a scientist studying the walkers in effectively a nature reserve. He learns more of their herding and migration and other behaviours. He then end up saving Amy, who is loud and annoying, and doesn't listen when he says she and all her camp will die. Which they do. Because she didn't listen.

4.5/10

Episode 5 Davon - Memento meets Oh Brother Where Are Though? as Jesse Usher from The Boys wakes up with no memory, and too many red tinged flashbacks, as he is accused of murdering Embeth Davidz. It is bad. Nothing good I can say about it other than it isn't as bad as the final episode.

3/10

Episode 6 Eric and Idalia - Two blood stained thugs (Danny Ramirez and Daniella Pinaeda) head to a witches house in the woods. They kill her and then it is a ghost story, haunted house nonsense with them ending up part of the roots of the house. Absolute horse shit.

In Summary the show gets 4/10 as an average and outside of the comedy elements of the Parker Posey episode the only episode to watch is Samantha Morton reprising her role as Dee/Alpha. The rest of it was shit.

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I did love the Walking Dead at the start. The first 3 to 4 seasons I binged. I have the DVD boxed sets. I lent them out. I converted people into TWDers. But then I lost interest when Negan showed up and ruined everything. I then turned to Fear the Walking Dead. Loved Nick. Hated Madison. Watched that for 3 seasons then. I lost interest. The World Beyond I gave a go when no one else I knew would. But then it was kinda done for me. I didn't bother with the Rick and Michonne show. Likewise Daryl Dixon. I did see the first season of Dead City, as TWD in NYC really whets the appetite. But then I can't be arsed with season 2 and so TWD was dead for me again.

Then I chanced on this. A 6 episode anthology. 45 minute episodes. A great cast including Terry Crews, Olivia Munn, Samantha Morton as Dee/Alpha, Parker Posey and more. So, as I am trawling through the shit that is TUBI I thought I'd give it a go.

Episode 1 Joe/Evie - Terry Crews is a loner in a bunker, doing well. But his dog dying sends him on a fools errand to meet a woman he talked to on the internet when they were buying their bunkers. Annoying elements like the state/town billboards and Olivia Munn's Evie is nauseating. 4/10

Episode 2 Blair/Gina - Parker Posey is a mean insurance company boss, and Gina is her put upon receptionist. No word of a lie, this was comedy TWD in the style of Groundhog Day. They keep living the same day over and over, remembering the day before. Awful. Just awful. Awful and obvious. 3.5/10

Episode 3 Dee - Samantha Morton back as Dee/Alpha for more killing of people and walkers whilst gaslighting and mentally abusing her daughter Lydia. This time on a paddle steamer. Felt much more like TWD. Better feel. Better characters. Characters we know. Because we know Dee is going to start killing at some point. 6/10

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Spain mostly gets it right. The REC series, four pretty good movies in isolation, even better when binged. Valley of the Dead. Nightmare City. And probably the best of them all Apocalypse Z the beginning.

And then there is this. The Winter Hunger on TUBI from 2021.

Absolute horse shit.

Five of the most inept and unlikable characters you could ever meet (meek and mild teacher Mario who gives us an annoying voice over and too many nightmares, angry old women Sofia and Negra, less angry old woman Nur and her special needs ward Equis) end up leaving the safety of their candle lit basement to head out of the city to find safety, only to end up sharing a house with four characters who are even worse (bully boy Jairo, a nasty woman in a wig, a slutty woman and a woman with arm).

We have a lot of nonsense behaviour from another group with decent machine guns but illogical motives, and no backbone, we have obvious cannibalism, but we mostly have Mario capitulating all the time and, despite them drugging Jairo and discovering they have been eating Equis, a la Eddie in Rocky Horror, rather than killing the bad guys and escaping in the Range Rover, he fucks the one armed woman and lets Jairo kill the others.

I hated this one. I spent a lot of time shouting at the screen,

Decent photography esp the drone shots over the building they stay in, but absolute asshole characters, none of whom survive, and none of whom you want to survive. They are all assholes. Even one armed girl ends up being a loony tune. Add the constant OTT music, Mario's annoying voice over as well as their totally inconsistent and illogical behaviour and you cannot score it more than a failing 3.5/10

A typical TUBI movie

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A surprising find on TUBI. Now, before I start, let me repeat myself yet again by giving you m definition of a zombie. A zombie is someone who is no longer in control. They could, like in the movies of the 1930s to 1950s, be controlled by a voodoo priest. They are under a spell. And no longer in control. In the 60s and 70s radiation was the enemy and so it was radiation sickness warping the brain, causing them to be homicidal and no longer in control. Chemicals too. Think of The Crazies. What next? Aliens? Parasites. Alien parasites causing you to longer be in control. The parasites control your actions so they can take over other people. Give their little worm buddy a warm host to ride around in. Viruses came next. Rage virus, stops you being in control. Those numerous variants of rabies or COVID-19 that make you lose control. What about Pontypool? The sound takes you over.

A lot of the reviews for Interlopers that are negative will say it is not a zombie movie. Based on my definition it is. And so the movie it told in 3 parts, before, during and after a biological revolution.

It is smart. It is well filmed. Well acted for the most part. I felt, if I can describe the emotions of watching this movie, a little like Darren Aronofsky's Pi, or Twelve Monkeys. I felt similarly when watching those movies.

So why is this is a zombie movie? For me? Those exposed to the parasite are no longer in control. The parasite is controlling them. And making them infect other people with more parasites.

I liked the payoff at the end. Well done all. 5.5/10

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Not to be confused with Zombie For Sale, this is a comedy for the most part. It stars Merry from Lord of the Rings and the Beast from the 1980s Beauty and the Beast.

Not really a zombie movie. There are 4 1/2 zombies in it, a vampire, and an alien. And it tells the story of Willy and Arthur, two Victorian era grave robbers who are about to be executed. After Willy gets the chop, Dominic Monaghan's Arthur is visited by Rob Perlman's Father Duffy to take his confession.

With the confession in the cell being the only scenes in the movie without constant bloody music, and an obvious plot twist you can see from a mile away this movie is NOT as suggested by the DVD box, "a horror comedy that surpasses Shaun of the Dead." Get in the sea! Go on! Get in the sea!

Also there is a woman called Fanny. (Stop laughing at the back)

For what it was I gave it 5/10 as it is on par with the Australian The Undead, whilst having a few annoying gimmicks such as the freeze frame and illustration of the scene to look like a comic book we have seen in loads of other movies.

I can see why it cost $450,000, I can also see why it only made $8,000 at the box office. It was quite forgettable, despite the two jokes I have already forgotten, and a woman called Fanny. (lol)

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It is described on the DVD box as one of the greatest zombie movies of all time. This is a huge exaggeration. There are 2 zombies. 2 and a half really come the end. It tells the story of 3 survivors, Ana, perky and inconsistent, dull engineer Jonathan and creepy weirdo Axel. Axel is tattooing dead flies on his entire body, with the idea that he will leave once covered. That level of weirdo.

Apartment survival horror at it's worst. The picked a one bedroom shack with a fly problem and no real security as a home. They surrounded it with microphones that play the noises of outside to them via huge Tannoy speakers.

They live by rules. No one leaves alone. Someone must always stay behind. All votes must be unanimous. And I can get on board with some rule making the apocalypse to survive.

But we soon lose focus, as Jonathan wants to leave, and therefore wants Ana to be with Axel, the creepy weirdo tattooed with dead flies.

Not a lot happens. They capture a zombie. They sneak into their Big Brother style video confession booth to watch each other's videos. And they play Risk. That's about it.

I was more interested in seeing the US 20 minute long short with the same name but can't find it anyway. This one? Avoid. All 3 Argentine zombie movies we have seen are not great, despite what is written on the DVD cover.

4/10 a long ass slog

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Mirror Life Modern zombies

With the tag line FIND CURE ESCAPE LAB TELL EVERYONE…

Doesn’t always work out that way

I got it on DVD from the US rather than waiting. I thought Id throw some cash to the guys,

Not much has been written about it. So I hope to change that.

From HorrorDNA: Jordan opts to enroll in a medical study for a promising new drug called Dumitor, reputed to cure virtually any disease. When his cousin Tracy doesn't hear from him for several weeks, she brings in a documentary filmmaker to track down the doctors, find Jordan and bring him home. Meanwhile, the test subjects are exposed to this new drug, but something goes wrong and there are unexpected side effects. Jordan manages to escape the facility, but soon an outbreak spreads to pandemic levels and his city is quarantined. Is there a cure on the horizon or is society doomed by the “evils” of science?

Courtney Cavanagh as Tracy she was in Chicago fire
Kazy Tauginas as Jordan former boxer and restauranteur – is there anything the cant do?

Tauginas co-wrote, co-directed, co-produced, stars in, sings the theme tune, etc etc and some of the reviews pick up on this, saying it is a vanity project and his acting is the weak link. I don't subscribe to that.

I also don't subscribe to 75% of all reviewers on IMDB giving it 10/10. The Godfather doesn't get 10. Empire Strikes Back doesn't get 10. Citizen Kane doesn't get 10. Come on now.

The plot is relatively simple. A group of people volunteer to be part of human trials of a ground breaking new drug that cures all ills. Great. However, they need the cash of a dubious businessman who wants it all run like a black op. At some point it all goes wrong and the virus cures what was wrong with them but causes surges in adrenaline and epinephrine meaning they become, effectively, one of George A Romero's Crazies. The business then decides to shut all down. Everyone gets killed. But then one gets out. And the virus goes airborne and starts a pandemic. No one pays attention to the stay at home, don't go out, as it's airborne warnings. And a lot of people go mad. And whilst all this is going on Jordan's cousin Tracy investigates his disappearance.

However, although all of these elements are fine in isolation, the edit is a mess. It is a bag of cats. Although each cat is very nice, pretty to look at, enjoys a saucer of milk and a nap on your grandma's lap, together, they are a big old mess that makes little to no sense.

We needed more about how this went bad. We needed more to explain about the cure. We needed more about how it went viral and became a pandemic. But we didn't get it. And so we ended up with a big old mess that needs an edit.

In it's current form, like it was edited by someone with ADHD for the TikTok generation goldfish attention spans, it is just a 4.5/10

If the transitions between the story are handled better, as above, and it is re-edited to make some sort of sense then it would score higher.

Shame as I was looking forward to this one.

And for a final note, this episode where I try to explain where it goes what and what it gets right, is 1 minute shorter than the movie itself.

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Finally the planets aligned and Michael and I managed to catch up, talk what we have seen, what we plan to see, but mostly we talk Newtopia, man.

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OK so to recap – DEAD SEASON 2012, we had Elvis and TWEETER meeting up during the zombie apocalypse and arriving on the small Caribbean island of DE SANTOS or something along those lines, getting a boat from florida. Now the write ups said there was a murderous cult, WRONG! And the pair had to fight for their lives daily. WRONG! It was 16 people, 13 guys led by Call of Duty silver fox Curt, 2 prostitutes and Curts daughter rachel. The guys were all generic thug types who don’t deserve to have names in the credits, just thug 1 through 13. Despite being on the island for 10 months they haven’t cleared it at all. And they eventually get overrun when the zombies the zombies are now runners and not just walkers. But the good guys get away on a boat, a la dawn 2004, however, there is no end credits nonsense to ruin the whole movie for me. So, Elvis, Tweeter and Rachel all made it…

Fast forward 11 years to 2023 and what comes out… DECADE of the DEAD… the sequel…

Ten years into the apocalypse, a group arrives on an island ruled by a deranges cult leader and must fight for their lives…

Hold on a minute… surely that is the exact description of the first movie…

Moving on…

It stars Shaun Patrick Thomas from save the last dance, cruel intentions and the barbershop movies as Ben… as we appreciate a Ben in a zombie movie. Corsica Wilson and Marissa Merrill are back as rachel and tweeter respectively but we gain Jenna leigh green as stacy, dean geyer as remy, Renegades Branscome Richmond as wyatt and most importantly Shane Johnson from ghost, the power movies and others as a genuine cult leader and loony tune Grinner… so they made a sequel so they could reuse the description of the first movie… same running time I think too, under the hour and a half…

The cinematophraphy is so much better but this movie fell into the trap that the zombies are no longer the problem, people are the problem. Zombies are a tool the people use, or a catalyst to make the people change their plans. However, the zombies are almost always forgettable. If this was a vampire we would be focused on the vampire not killing us. A werewolf the same. Aliens the same. A flood even. A shark movie. A tornado movie. A fire. You don’t want X getting you. Here through an over convoluted plot its one group of people trying to use one person from another group of people to exert pressure on another group of people. And that doesn’t feel like a zombie movie at all.

In many ways, despite the much bigger budget, the far better fight and chase scene choreography this movie is inferior to the low budget original.

4/10

apocalypserules

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And so… onto this, a zombie movie, another new offering from Amazon, Dead Season… well when I say new it is 2012, but I haven’t see it on offer before. And it has a sequel Decade of the Dead which has a very similar plot and Tweeter. appears in both

4.6/10 on IMDB which isn’t awful.

On Amazon the description is… during a zombie outbreak, two strangers find themselves stranded on a remote island with an aggressive cult.

or

Elvis and Tweeter escape a zombie catastrophe and land on an island. They meet a group of fellow survivors, but soon find themselves fighting a daily battle for survival against their own kind.

After a zombie outbreak, a group of survivors retreat to an island, only to discover a blood-thirsty cult planning to rule what’s left of civilization.

Ok...first up, there is no cult... there isn't a cult. It is just a military dad type, a few obvious henchmen (fat one, bearded balding one, long haired one, one who bases his look on Fidel Castro), 2 prostitutes and the leader's daughter, a 17 year old shut in who thinks bringing her sketch pad is more important that provisions.

It wasn't all that bad. The only really bad element was the piss poor fight choreography and chase scenes. The zombies were fine, the practical gore was ok, the cult-free plot was ok. Island survival. A few practical things.. Made no sense that they hadn't cleared the island in 10 months of being there. And the boat guy and cannibal story line wasn't explored. There was a sense of dread, especially when the shambling slow zombies turned into fast moving runners...

I am actually looking forward to the sequel, Decade of the Dead next up, as the trailer suggests that they fixed the fight choreography.

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The latest in a line of hit or miss Netflix zombie movie and shows that included #Alive, Kingdom, Valley of the Dead, Black Summer, Army of the Dead, Outside, Betaal, Zombieverse, All of Us are Dead, Cargo and Zom100: Bucket list of the Dead, comes this Indonesian effort. Now, you may think that Indonesia would become country #40 for us, but no, we have seen an Indonesian zombie movie already in Zeta, The Dead Awaken which was okay to be fair. We still have Zombiepura from Singapore and Z-Mom from Cambodia for that mantle.

In this, Elixir, a patriarch businessman who owns a wellness drink company creates a new elixir of youth that hasn't been FDA approved. He takes it and, after a short time with dark hair and supple skin, he turns zeke and starts ripping out throats. These are fast moving, fast turning, bloody, throat ripping, grey eyed, black veined Asian zombies, with all the cracking bones and slathering and howling to go with it.

From there the action is limited to the house he shared with his lounge-about son Bang, his very young second wife Kar and an army of staff, and as his daughter, spoiled shit and former classmate of Kar, Nes, yes he is diddling someone his daughter's age, her young son Han and her soon to be divorced if he lives husband Rudi joins the mess to argue about inheritances.

There is a lot of good gore, quite a few nice overhead drone shots, and a great scene where three of the protagonists in riot gear hide behind riot shields in the middle of a horde, but ultimately there isn't anything new here. I gave it 6/10 because it was watchable. Nes was horrible, and when she wasn't being a spoiled brat she was whining and squealing. The cops were dumb. And no one seems to have an ounce of sense when it comes to survival. Too much shouting! Not enough shhhh!

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The better half of the series if you ask me and we are back with Young-Joo and a chainsaw working her way through subterranean Seoul, as Jae-Yoon and his squad mates descend the tower.

I actually really liked how she was out and about and then trying to get across the city, juxtaposed with him just trying to get out of his building from the roof to the street.

There are some great kills, a lot of dramatic sequences and scenes that would fit in any Korean zombie drama, and it almost feels a little wasted in a comedy, not that it is a pure comedy, it is more of a comedy-drama, that very few people in the community will watch.

I think the effects and story were great, loved the elements where they worked out how quickly people turn, and how you delay it, and all the characters, outside of Young-Joo and In Ho's whining and whimpering were great.

A solid 6.5/10 from me, putting it equal 4th in the table of South Korean zombie entertainment

| All of Us are Dead | 7.5
| TRAIN TO BUSAN | 7.5
| Zombiverse | 7
| Newtopia | 6.5
| Happiness | 6.5
| #Alive | 6
| Rampant | 6
| Train To Busan Presents: Peninsula | 6
| Seoul Station | 6
| Project Wolf Hunting | 5.5
| Zombie For Sale | 5.5
| Gangnam Zombie | 2.5

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In the first of many (hopefully) we are joined by Michael's oldest son, Harris, fresh off of watching Scouts Guide and World War Z. We talk the movies he has seen and those he will now be subjected to as part of his indoctrination into the sub-genre. Pray for Harris.

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We do love Korean zombies. Train to Busan should be in everyone's top 10, All of Us Are Dead is probably per minute the most intense zombie TV show ever made. Then we get Peninsula, Kingdom, Zombieverse and Happiness and this, Newtopia. 2025, on Amazon, telling the story of a young couple Young-Joo and Jae-Yoon, an office girl and a soldier as the zombie apocalypse takes hold of Seoul.

It is very entertaining, 8 parts, just under an hour per episode, however, In Ho is far far too slapstick and comedy shouty, and Young-Joo and her boss are far far whiny.

At times you beg the question "can Korean whisper?" Or "can Koreans even speak in a quiet tone?" Or "can Koreans actually STFU?" as no one seems to be able to be quiet, even with hordes of zombies around them.

Still, half way through and I would put this up there on par with Happiness, however, I would say that if this was a drama and not a comedy, it would be even higher in my ratings.

Def a 6.5/10 at half way with a chance for improvement.

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Simple premise. A cursed TV that shows only one movie, the very 1970s style Romero-eque Zombie Blood Nightmare is in fact a portal. A very 1980s plot device. the zombies from the movie come out of it and rampage a rural community, including TEMU Eric Stoltz Rocky Duvall as Jeff, his sister Zoe and their neighbour April.

The acting is awful, there are some cliche elements such as disposing of a hand in the garbage disposal, 1980s lightning indoors effects and a lot of dry ice. However, with the plot being simple, and a change of cast this could have been a classic. It just wasn't.

If we had Roddy McDowell as Daniels, Eric Stoltz as Jeff and Jennifer Connelly as Zoe, and the real David Bowie and Zombowie this would have been cult. We just didn't.

I am still going against my earlier prediction and scoring it 5/10 based on what could have been.

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Despite Richard Roxburgh, Lily Sullivan and Callan Mulvany, the beautiful New Zealand landscape and, at times, very Lord of the Rings, music, this was annoying… slow, obvious and ultimately unoriginal and disappointing…

I have seen all the elements of this movie before in one form or another. An antipodean western, I guessed how people died, we have no real explanation why Mulvaney was such a dick. It was just pretty, but slow and dull.

We had a child infected, then had to wait for half the movie for a glimpse of another. Then we get a handful at the end. The practical effects were good, what there was of them. But I have seen more zombies on a London bus after a night out.

Shame as I was looking forward to it and had been for ages. 4/10

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Contracted has always been on the Z list, but I have been avoiding it as body horror isn’t really my thing. But given we are ploughing through 2025 at a rate of knots I thought I would watch both contracted and the sequel. Looking on amazon I could only find the sequel and part one was no longer on TUBI so, SOL I decided to watch the sequel first, with the idea of getting to the original at some point.

In part two the story follows the story of Samantha who suffers from a mysterious and degenerative disease. The film centres on Riley, played by matt mercer, one of the last people to come into contact with Samantha,as he scrambles to track down those responsible for the outbreak before the highly contagious disease consumes his body and the world as we know it. And it stars much of the cast of the original including Najarra Townsend as Samantha.

It was ok. Sort of a serial killer investigation to start with, with the bald guy spreading his demon seed throughout the city after raping Samantha in the first movie. We see weak body horror stuff from him, pustules, maggots under the skin, red eyes, a finger nail left in the scratches on his back? Like you wouldn't notice.

I needed the cop to survive and the bad guy to get his comeuppance, but clearly I don't get what I want when I see poor sequels.

Alice come drink from the chalice is played not once but twice.

Mid credits scene more bald guy. Awful ending… and I didn't need to watch the first one. Although I can guess it was slightly better.

4.5/10 average at best. Meh!

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In a post-apocalyptic wasteland a group of scientists are rescued by a military ops team so they can fight zombies for control of the planet. Sounds shit. I'm in.

1.9/10 on IMDB now that is something, this could be a challenger to bottom of the barrel.

From an IMDB review - Everything is poor in this movie: story, screenplay, dialogs, direction, performances, lighting, special effects, camera, fighting choreography, location and sets, nothing works. Richard Grieco resembles Michael Jackson and his ham performance with gestures and grimaces are annoying and never funny. The zombie having intercourse with a human is the best moment of this awful film. My vote is 1 out of 10.

No wonder 58% of all reviewers have it 1/10

My thoughts? Everything about this movie is bad. And not so bad its good. So bad its bad.

If I had trodden in this movie I would have thrown out my shoes and bought a new pair. I am giving it a more than generous 1.5/10 which makes the bottom 5 of the 315 zombie movies and shows we have seen which is in the bottom 0.95% that is some going. If I have to position it in that final grouping it would be:

311th Zombie with a Shotgun

312th Transit 17

313th Raiders of the Damned

314th Attack of the Flatulating Dead

315th Oasis of the Zombies

Definitely

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Please don’t feed the children 2024 starring Michelle Dockery of Downton and The Gentlemen Fame and Giancarlo Esposito from Breaking Bad and directed by Directed by Destry Allyn Spielberg… hm… joining the NEPO BABY horror gang with Brandon Cronenberg and Ishana Night Shyamalan

Seriously don’t feed the children

1) don't expose them to bright lights, 2) don't get them wet, and 3) never, ever feed them after midnight. No that’s gremlins, but seriously don’t feed the children

I saw this on TUBI but then watched it on Amazon. The trailer doesn’t feel like a zombie movie. It is mentioned however that after mankind defeated the virus

The blurb

A gang of orphans travel to the south, in a quest for a new life after a virus decimates the adult population, only to find themselves at the mercy of a psychotic woman who is hiding a perilous secret

Hm

No Z word there. Lets look deeper.

Ok

"Please Don't Feed the Children" is a 2025 post-apocalyptic horror film directed by Destry Allyn Spielberg, where children are carriers of a devastating virus that turns adults into cannibals, leading orphans to search for safety but encountering a deranged woman who holds a sinister secret about feeding them to her zombified husband.

Ok there it is… the Z word.

What did I think? I just didn't feel like it went far enough. There was one memorable scene, the blood bath, but there was no real jump scare, the tension wasn't ramped up even when Vicky or Mary could get caught. It was all a bit weak.

5/10

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An hour with Michael in which we catch up about:

Neighbours vs Zombies 5/10

Zombiecon Vol 1 5.5/10

The Crazies (1973) 4/10

The Crazies (2010) 6/10

A wide ranging chat about our zombie viewing of the last week or two.

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EPISODE 271… still waiting for Michael. And I have been waiting a long time for him. But, much like London buses, am sure after waiting for ages 3 Michaels will then come along.

In this episode, I want to start by talking about the Neighbours Halloween special, Neighbours versus Zombies, 5 episodes of 6 minutes or so, equating to a normal half an hour episode of the popular Australian soap opera. And this was Michael’s recommendation.

It was entertaining, they didn’t ham it up, it was played the same way as the soap opera, same set, same cast, same everything just with zombies. Well done those involved. With the nostalgia of the characters chosen, and the ingenuity of bringing back cast members who actually died, I have to say I enjoyed all half hour of it. and am going to give it a solid 5/10 and tell anyone who is a Neighbours fan to give it a watch.

And now onto the main show… Zombiecon vol 1.

Now, I heard about this movie a long time ago. When it was first completed, not even released. I discovered the US release date but saw there was no UK or international release planned and so I binned the idea of watching it. Shame as it was, conceptually fun. Zombie apocalypse at a cosplay convention. Seems harmless fun.

But then the Zombiecon guys, Erin really who plays Claire, contacted us when they did others to ask if we would watch it, and have them on. So why not. Let’s watch it first then have them on depending on what we think. We do give all movies a fair shake of the stick, fuck I just watched Neighbours v Zombies so we have to give it a go.

Ignore the 10/10 scores on IMDB causing a fabricated high score, and absolutely ignore the grumpy elitist naysayers in the community who didn't even want to review it when given a free link. Fuck them in the ear. This movie is fun. It is four cosplaying friends in LA causing and surviving the zombie apocalypse. Claire, Javier, Punkie and Rocket. The zombies are done well. Nit picking I would say there were plenty of scenes that were too long, the sound when all four are shouting and squealing over the top of each other was too much to take, and the camera dipped out of focus from time to time. That being said, it is around the same standard as Dead Before Dawn, with elements that reminded me of Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Dance of the Dead and Burying the Ex. It is fun. A 5.5/10 for us so recommendable and rewatcheable.

You you have to remember we see hundreds of zombie movies, the good, the bad and the ugly. And, if I was sticking this in one of those three pots, it would be good.

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2007 3.7/10 on IMDB and 12% on Rotten Tomatoes

A microscopic alien form is secretly used by the army to resurrect dead soldiers. After an experiment gone wrong, a scientist steals the last specimen and hides out in a residential building hoping to reverse the damage. One fateful night the alien lifeform is set loose and turns the residence into the walking dead. He must find a way to destroy the alien possessed before the end of the human race.

When an alien life form resurrects the dead and turns them on the human race, a young scientist must fight to contain the catastrophe and eradicate the alien menace.

Or

EVILUTION is another vague military zombie movie with little plot and pedestrian execution. Nothing that happens in this film is original and everything will have been seen before, many times. It's a typical zombie straight-to-DVD flick with little to distinguish it in an already overcrowded sub-genre.

Sounds shit! I’m in.

It stars Eric Peter Kaiser as Darren, cool name, I like him already, the door gunner from Full Metal Jacket, GET SOME! And most recognisable star is type cast as a hispanic gang banger all the time it is Noel Albert Gugliemi who has quite the zombie movie having appeared in one episode Dawn of the Zombie apocalypse, a show I haven’t heard of.

Didn't make a lot of sense. 3/10

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A 4 part, 2 and a bit hour What If? where lesser Marvel characters run about trying to defeat the Red Witch and her zombie hordes. If you liked What If? it is ok. If you hated everything since End Game then you will hate this. It is Ironheart, and Ms Marvel and the girl from Hawkeye, plus a few comedy characters, a confusing Moon Knight/Blade combination, Valkyrie, although she looked more like Lady Sif. Namor, Zemo, FBI agent Jimmy Woo. Worth it? Probably not.

5.5/10 from us at the Undead Symphony.

Next up The Crazies and The Crazies. Two for the price of one.

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A lovely evening chatting with Paul from the Black Country about all things zombie, from Michael Jackson's thriller to being not so thrilled with Brad Pitt's World War Z, crying over his Virus versus Voodoo score and Michael going to a parents-teacher evening for one of his brood.

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Good morning dear listeners, Shana Tova and happy new year to my Jewish listeners. In this catch up Michael and I discuss our movie of the year so far MadS, as well as Neighbours versus Zombies, strewth! And lots of other stuff as we prepare to talk to Paul from Yammityville Horror Podcast and Andy Beglin. Grab a half-espresso soy milk mochaccino and come listen.

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Ollie mentioned this one, BLOOD BROTHERS LIFE HARVEST and I said I would watch it. Much like the Dexter Fletcher Dead Man Walking aka Autumn is it based on a novel by novelists in my zombie community. 93 minutes. 2025. Looks shit. He is now saying that he recommended we skip it, he did not recommend that we watch it.

The trailer is a scene where two floppy hair teens with pistols fail to fight off a basic zombie. One is blond one has brown hair and I put this off for over a week, rather reading in-flight magazines that watching it.

Here is a excerpt:

Aaron - there's a swarm coming. (Swarm in this movie means about 10. Max.)

(They talk about staying out. Again what happened to the little sister?)

We can camp

Are you crazy?

Maybe a bank with a vault

(What? So the options are staying outside… or a bank vault…and how are you going to get into said bank vault. Also how about this? go home! Or stay in your car. Also how is your car still running?)

The idiots get to a gate. Get out of the car, don’t notice a dozen zombies including screaming zombies approaching, then when raising the shotgun Aaron cant shoot as he needs to keep brushing his annoying teen floppy hair out of the way. As Enoch, who pledged to look after his family, inc little sister we haven’t seen for 2/3 of the movie, and his brother, just stands there until someone throws a grenade into the horde. Awful CGI explosion as a zombie tries to eat it and the boys wake up tied up. I mean a grenade would have shredded them all not just conveniently knocked them out.

This was awful. Two awful teens with floppy hair, unarmed in the apocalypse, with the whole solitary premise of Enoch looking after his family when he can't fight, and spends the movie putting his brother in harms way, getting his teenage girlfriend pregnant and ignoring his little sister. Dakota was the worse character I have seen in a movie for a while and I have seen Zombie Night 1 and 2.

Not sure what the life harvest was…but it was shit

3/10 at best. I have seen better poop bags run over in the street.

It is shit like this and Autumn/Dead Men Walking that make me fearful of ever selling the rights to my books, or letting someone make them. As this shit is embarrassingly bad.

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Hello there and welcome to this, the 265th episode of the US with ME DS in which I will review WE ARE ZOMBIES a 2023 Canadian French zombie horror comedy film based on the comic series The Zombies That Ate the World and there is a tale with this one. It is officially the last physical media of the year and you know what that means? Yes, after reviewing it we box up the entire years physical media collection and send it to Steph from Listeners of the dead who will get to expand her library and hopefully enjoy them more than last years box…

Canada is a mixed bag when it comes to zombie movies. We have seen a few. This will be the 15th. And they range from well done, superb movies like Blood Quantum, one of my sleepers, The Revenant, love that one and the incredible Pontypool. Also Fido, great cast and concept. But they also gave us the two Zombie Nights and Dead Men Walking, that we covered last time out. Three of the worst zombie movies have covered.

Do I have high hopes? 5.3/10 on IMDB isn’t bad, 100% on RT is misleading and 2.8/5 on letterboxed equating to 56% kinda means it is watcheable and above average.

Freaks of nature meets Death Shack meets Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse but not as good as freaks or scouts…

Freaks of Nature was a 6, scouts guide 7, death shack was 5.5, so I kinda think it is better than Death Shack but am going to score it the same 5.5

I liked the idea of living in harmony with the dead, and them being like talking road kill. And I liked anyone that died came back almost immediately so we get two chances for each character. I did laugh out loud at least three times, which could have been when Rocco killed himself and the later grandma, but this was completely watchable. I would say it didn’t step up, it could have. It wasn’t as polished as office uprising, that also had the three leads running about. It had some sort of feeling like that though. I don’t think Hannity was a strong enough character, or Coleman. But hey it is a zombie movie, it isn’t perfect…

So WE ARE ZOMBIES is 5.5/10 of Canadian fun. Check it out where you can.

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DEAD MEN WALKING. Pfff! Where to start with this one? I went into it with high hopes for the 2009 Canadian movie starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carridine, and zero hopes for the 2005 maximum security prison lockdown story. How wrong can a man be?

Ok, so neither was great. The 2005 movie tells the story of a guy who kills 4 friends with a shotgun because they are clearly infected with a biotoxin. He is sent to maximum security prison where this becomes a prison movie. Asshole guards, a nice guard, the overworked warden and his son, the dubious doctor, and prison inmates thinking the killer Travis is fresh meat. The issue being Travis was smeared in infected blood and is now highly contagious. Enter squeaky voiced CDC agent Beckett and her inability to be taken seriously. The gore is well done, the practical effects and the locations are all fine. The Lieutenant in charge of the guards had some great lines. All in all I was surprised.

4.5/10

Our second DEAD MEN WALKING is also known as AUTUMN 2009 Canadian horror film directed by Steven Rumbelow, written by David Moody and Rumbelow, and starring Dexter Fletcher. It was based on Moody's self-published novel Autumn. Fletcher plays a schoolteacher who must survive in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by evolving zombies. This was the final film of David Carradine before his death. I think seeing this movie may have killed him.

Inconsistent. Awful music. Poor shot choices. Repetitive elements. Outside of Dexter Fletcher this was a bag of shit. The mostly negative reception of Autumn led him to direct his own films from then on, which were better received.

2/10

If this movie had been made based on something I had written I would change my name and move to a different country

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Taking a break between the Zombie Night double bill, Re-Animator and MadS in this episode of the podcast we are delighted to share airtime with writer/producer/actor and all round nice guy Lee Donaldson. We talk his zombie history, his top (I think it was 8 or 9) zombie movies and the inspiration for his zombie not-so-short DEAD ZERO. As well as his plans for the full feature.

We share movie suggestions (he has to see Girl with all the Gifts) that we think Lee will enjoy, reference Michael's short lived OnlyFans account, and get excited after being invited to come along as extras for the BIG scene of the movie.

A great chat with a creator that wants to create something new.

Give it a listen! And follow Lee and the Dead Zero movie on Instagram and TikTok for BTS and all other DZ news.

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Re-Animator (1985), directed by Stuart Gordon, is a cult-classic horror-comedy that blends gore, dark humor, and science fiction. Loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft’s serialized story Herbert West: Reanimator, the film follows medical student Herbert West, played by Jeffrey Combs, whose obsession with conquering death drives him to develop a glowing green serum that can reanimate the dead. His experiments, conducted with fellow student Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), spiral into grotesque and chaotic results as corpses return with violent, uncontrollable impulses.

What sets Re-Animator apart is its unapologetic embrace of outrageous gore effects combined with tongue-in-cheek humor. From severed heads to rampaging cadavers, the film pushes boundaries with practical effects that remain shocking and entertaining decades later. At the same time, it never loses sight of its satirical tone, poking fun at both the arrogance of scientific ambition and the conventions of horror cinema. Barbara Crampton’s character, Megan Halsey, provides a tragic emotional anchor, though she too becomes caught in the film’s increasingly bizarre and macabre spectacle.

Critically, the movie occupies a unique space in 1980s horror. While contemporaries like The Evil Dead and A Nightmare on Elm Street also mixed humor with horror, Re-Animator leaned harder into black comedy, creating an outrageous energy that set it apart. Jeffrey Combs’ performance as Herbert West has since become iconic, capturing both the manic brilliance and chilling amorality of the character.

Though not a mainstream hit upon release, Re-Animator quickly developed a strong cult following. It spawned sequels, inspired comic books, and cemented Gordon’s reputation as a director willing to push horror into daring, taboo-breaking territory. Today, it stands as a quintessential example of “splatter” cinema, simultaneously disturbing, funny, and inventive, a film that embodies the fearless experimentation of 1980s genre film making.

A clear 6/10 for us from a period in film where every movie was a banger. In this episode we give it the love it deserves.

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Oh this one is on you, Stephanie Grant. This one is all on you. Zombie Night and Zombie Night 2. No, not the zombie night with Daryl Hannah, Alan Ruck and Anthony Michael Hall written and directed by Murphy from Z Nation. Nope. That scored a flat tire of a 3.5/10. This, the 2003 Canadian movie, its Sequel and then that mockumentary about the making of it were all written and directed by David J Francis, and it’s sequel may be something else entirely. Reel Zombies, the mockumentary we scored 2.5.

The blurb - Following the end of World War III, the dead have risen and are eating the living after sunset. A group of survivors are holed up in a building fighting off the undead. One night though, the zombies break through, forcing the group to evacuate. They find themselves running through the woods, trying at all costs to stay alive.

So my money is on running along corridors, running down tunnels, running in the woods. With probably night vision. And bad zombies. However I could be wrong…. But I am not normally when it comes to zombie movies. It stars nobody other than the director as, and I am being serious “man peeing.”

Oh Jesus that left an aftertaste, like sucking diarrhea through a bums sweat sock

I will review both at the end….

Hold your nose, we are going in again

Zombie Night 2: The Awakening

Mosquitoes spread a zombie plague, and humanity is devastated. Denied shelter with a heavily armed group of survivors, Keith and Shelley attempt to clear out a marina and use it to escape to a better location. Amid attacks by nocturnal zombies, the previous group begin to raid them for supplies.

Susan Walker of The Toronto Star rated it 1.5/4 stars and wrote that it "might be enough to satisfy a loyal fan base" but is not a good film.[3] Ulises Silva of Quiet Earth rated it 4.5/10 stars and called it "a suspense-less, ineffective zombie film" that could have benefited from a higher budget.[4] Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2, academic Peter Dendle said, "There are at least a few interesting touches in the zombie conceptualizations here, unlike the depressing and tedious vision in the first feature.

Zombie night… 2/10

Zombie night 2 the awakening 2.5/10

Seriously they make the Daryl Hannah Zombie Night look like fucking Shakespeare.

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In a genre that can go from the ludicrous to the sublime to the horrific, from farting zombie versions of the founding fathers to our daughters slow decline into zombification to your face being ripped off and eaten in front of you, there is room for a bit of everything. We have seen Attack of the Flatulating Dead, The Sadness, Maggie, and we have seen those out there over the top productions, I am thinking Wild Zero and Tokyo Zombie and New Kids Nitro. Never to be outdone, we have this Planet Terror is a 2007 horror film that serves as a pastiche of 1980s splatter and zombie movies. Part of the Grindhouse double bill with Death Proof, this was cinephile madness with an all-star cast brought to you by Quentin Tarrantino and Robert Rodriguez.

Planet Terror stars Rose McGowan, Freddie Rodriguez, Bruce Willis, Josh Brolin, and Naveen Andrews… with bit parts for Tarrantino and Rodrigeuz favourites Danny Trejo, Tom Savini, Michael Biehn and Cheech Marin.

Set in Texas, the film follows the survivors of a biochemical outbreak as they battle zombie-like creatures and a rogue military unit. Simple.

Planet Terror is rated 77% on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 30 reviews. The site's critics consensus reads, "A cool and hip grindhouse throwback, Planet Terror is an unpredictable zombie thrillride."[23] Rotten Tomatoes lists the film on its 100 Best Zombie Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer and 7/10 on IMDB.

For me though it is just a 6/10. This doesn’t have the finesse of a Tarrantino movie. It does feel like a Robert Rodriguez movie a la Once Upon a Time in Mexico and From Dusk Til Dawn with a few Tarrantino-esque characters. The cast was great, but the grindhouse gimmick with the fake bad film with wobbly colour grading and fake flecks and tears and scratches in the film.

It has an audience. And the audience is that of fans of OTT violence, gore and cheesy contrived dialogue and story lines...The closest thing we have seen to it, it probably Wild Zero.

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And I am back from a few nights in a cabin in the woods to work on the book and today I was at Frightfest 2025 down in Leicester Square were slasher 213 Bones was showing as I turned up for my merch, and now I am home and onto something different, French, 2024, MadS on Shudder.

August 4th 2023 Party night. One single shot, (although like the show Adolescence, it took several takes, 5 in this case to get it 100% right). Is it a bad trip? Or is it something else? One thing for sure, its only the beginning of the night.

From the trailer I got Summer Camp and Unhuman in a club scene feels, where they are drugged and seeing or acting like zombies because of it.

It stars Milton Riche, Laurie Pavy and Luceille Guillaume as Romain, Anais and Julia respectively

It gets a very impressive 6.4 on IMDB 94% on RT

The story follows Julia (portrayed by Lucille Guillaume), Anaïs (Laurie Pavy), and Romain (Milton Riche), who all snort an unknown powdered substance that causes them to grow increasingly erratic.

Taking inspiration from the 2015 film Victoria, Mads is presented in real time and was filmed in one continuous shot. Production took place in and around Mulhouse over ten days, with cinematographer Philip Lozano also serving as the lone camera operator. The cast and crew filmed five takes, with the final take being used for the film.

Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com described the film as "George A. Romero's Run Lola Run", praising its pacing, originality, "viciously bleak" tone, and "moments of sharp, wicked humor"

What did I think?

Incredible cinematography. Superb acting. Unique story line.

I wish I’d made this movie

Again, initial take…

7/10 the best movie I have seen in ages certainly the last couple of years

However then I slept on it… and kept waking up to make notes

The movie is my Darren Ted Talk on what a zombie is, a zombie for me is control. It is losing control, no longer being in control. That can be because you are being controlled by a voodoo priest a la the 40s and 50s. It could mean your brain has been fried with radiation a la 60s and 70s. Or a parasite. Or an alien. Or more recently a virus, on in this case a drug and or virus. You lose control, and each of the three leads, over the duration of their story lost control

I am still enamoured the next morning, and when you stop amidst the bloody chaos and then remind yourself this whole movie, spreading across a city, told by 3 people, with car rides and bikes and mopeds, taking in a dozen locations from remote farmland to up and up a residential tower block, is one continuous unbroken shot. Sure, it took 5 takes, but this was that, this was One cut of the dead and final cut, the French and better version in my opinion.

So how highly do I rate Mads?

I’ll use michaels logic – It is at least a 7 for me, personally, but putting nostalgia aside is this better than a 7 and as good as some of the other 7.5s? Is this movie top 10?

Looking at the 7.5s that do include Dawn 2004, Army and Double tap, is it a better movie than those? Yes I think so. This was fresh. This was unique, and the way it was told added even more to the weight of scoring and personal enjoyment. Damn you David Moreau, you have upturned the apple cart of my zombie scoring, put

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Title card – the more a thing is perfect, the more it feels pleasure and likewise pain – rolls eyes at Dante quote

HI def black and white we open with a radio, piano music and spoken word recording about the end of the earth, we see a knife and a bottle of booze is on the table.

Then we cut cut grainy colour home movie of a woman walking and smiling at the camera to awful fiddle Ode to Joy...

This 50 minute movie is listed as the 31st best zombie movie of all time by Rotten Tomatoes as scored by the critics and as one of the 10 and MovieWeb included it in the list of Top 10 Zombie movies you haven't seen. Both of those things couldn't be more wrong and misguided.

You see one zombies, and it isn't even a decent zombie for one scene. And it is a short scene.

This pretentious Eraserhead meets Dr Strangelove and Waiting for Godot wannabe wankfest reminds me of the novel by the "European sissy writer" in David Mamet's Speed the Plow, The Bridge; or, Radiation and the Half-Life of Society. A Study of Decay. That was a joke with Mamet thinking of the most ludicrous pseudo-intellectual content.

Whilst it was interesting, and I mean that in the same way you'd look at a weird shaped turd, or a dog that hiccups with a Mexican accent, it was NOT a zombie movie, good or otherwise. It was a disappointing pretentious art house movie that would have been better put on as an off-off-off Broadway play. If you think listening to Ode to Joy played on a screechy fiddle, documentaries on planarians whilst the shouty male lead says things like "There is no good antonym for instinct." is entertainment then this is for you.

It wasn't for me.

4/10

FIN

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An inconsistent bag of cats from 2010. Cast wise we have the Iranian-American director's dad, who cannot act for toffee, Sydney Sweeney's debut aged 12 and Doc from Z Nation.

Is it a comedy? Kinda. Is it a drama? Kinda. We have a lot of political discourse from both sides of the house, the tiny island of Port Gamble has the right wing, church going gun toting ass hats as well as the lefty dems who won't even hold a gun. Pro and anti gay, pro and anti abortion, pro and anti gun, levels of obvious.

The story, what there is of it, is that this small island community in Washington State is under attack from zombies. We have two gay boys from the city there so one of them can come out to his mother, the Iranian-American daughter of the local Persian restaurant owner subjected to constant casual racism (they think she is Iraqi and then she is tortured for half the movie as the TV news blamed an Iranian terrorist) and we have a mayoral election where the current mayor, aligned with the local firebrand reverend is being challenged by the cheery high school teacher.

The practical effects are good, there is a screaming face peel, before the face is eaten, and a knife upwards through the face that are both done very well. However, we have lengthy nasty torture scenes that do not feel funny, the completely out of place Scary Movie getting run over death, arms off, heads blown off, a lot of blood, but then gross eating eyeball a la that terrible Ving Rhames, Nick Cannon Day of the Dead, and a Clockwork Orange style gay conversion therapy scene.

In short, a bag of cats from a director who wanted to make a political statement and cast his dad in too major a role.

5/10 Worth a watch if you have nothing else planned

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In this episode Michael and I talk Zom Rom Coms, the zombie romantic comedy sub sub-genre of this sub-genre of horror. Avoiding the obvious Shaun of the Dead, we discuss those we have seen and scored well. Burying the Ex, As We Know it, Warm Bodies and the most recent Life After Beth all scoring in the 6s and 6.5s. So high scoring for us.

Come listen to us chat about why this much maligned sub-genre should be bringing all the hardcore zombie movie fans, and the romcom fan base together.

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I am still waiting for FORGIVE US ALL, Z MOM and QUEENS OF THE DEAD but in this episode, a spin of the wheel, a roll of the dice, a shake of the magic 8 ball brought me here to Rotten Tomatoes list of the top 100 zombies movies… which is…

… so we haven’t covered…

Reanimator at #4

Autopsy of Jane doe at 16

Corpse bride at 18

We are zombies at 27

Friend of the world at 31

Dead dream at 44

Last man at earth at 45

Planet terror at 48

And this at 49

VERSUS

2002 Japanese

A relentless one of a kind sensory assault chock full of hyper kinetic fight scenes, gangster shootouts sword slashing violence and gory zombies… or a nameless prisoner, a nameless female and her Yakuza abductors fend off zombies in a forest that resurrects the dead while the Yakuza's mysterious leader attempts to open a supernatural gate hidden within the forest and seize its dark power.

It gets a respectable 6.3/10 on IMDB

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes has a 73% approval based on 15 reviews with an average score of 6.5/10.[11] The Rolling Stone called the film "A Japanese zombies-vs.-gangsters action-horror comedy that plays like Quentin Tarantino remaking THE EVIL DEAD while on a speed binge". Sight & Sound praised the film by commenting "With Kurosawa-style swordplay, martial arts and elaborately choreographed gun battles". Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News commented on the film "I've never seen anything like it, it's a new kind of movie."

And it is directed by Ryuhei_Kitamura who would go on to make several well received US movies including Midnight Meat Train, The Doorman, Downrange and No One Lives. I like that last one.

In this movie we have an evil priest trying to open a portal to Hell and fighting his own brother over the centuries, as a samurai, as a future punk and, for much of the movie, an escaped prisoner. We have an army of undead gangsters, and a motley crew of living gangsters. It is very OTT, with a lot stolen from the Matrix including the exact Bullet Time movie, and it goes on for 30 mins too long. I can see why people like it. But it wasn't for me.

Still gets a respectable 5.5/10 though

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Life After Beth is a 2014 American zombie comedy film and it has a great cast of Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser, Matthew Gray Gubler, John C. Reilly, and Anna Kendrick.

A young man is shocked to find his deceased girlfriend Beth alive, who is no longer an adorable woman but a walking zombie.

5.7/ 10 on IMDB On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 46% "In spite of Aubrey Plaza's committed performance, Life After Beth remains a sketch-worthy idea that's been uncomfortably stretched to feature length."

Regarding its classification as a rom zom com

Not very rommie

Despite it starring comedic actors

Molly Shannon from SNL

Anna Kendrick from Pitch Perfect

John c Reilly from Step Brothers

Aubrey plaza from Parks and Recreation

Paul Reiser from Mad about You and My Two Dads

It wasn’t all that commie

It was a bit zommie

However

It was still good in places. I do find Dane DeHaan in the same category as Scarlet Johansen, the dull monotone voice and lack of emotion. I don’t have a problem with him, and I've liked him in some movies, but if I am looking at comparing this to say Burying the Ex, Anton Yelchin did a far better job.

I tell you what it was, I was expecting this to be like The Voices, or some other movie where we follow the sad lead, who is mourning, and everyone else thinks he going mad, and he actually is. Maybe he killed the people he sees. Maybe he even killed Beth, kinda twist. Like…. The Voices.

As a zombie movie, the elements are there, as a rom zom com, they are there just not done in a comedic enough way. A waste really of the talents of all involved.

6/10

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This one was dumb. Trailer park mullet sporting, C-word over-utilising Dutch thugs from opposing villages face off at the soccer games, drag races and facials over the local alcoholic pregnant prostitute. Until they have to join forces after an alien meteor crashes into farming country, causing the cows to overproduce zombie making milk.

It is dumber than is sounds. Best not watch if you are offended by gratuitous sex, violence, swearing, making fun of the disabled, or running over dogs. If you do like those things you may well love it.

5.5/10 for me. It was so dumb and OTT you can't score it as like it was anything else.

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After two seasons and 9 hours of dare I call it entertainment? Michael and I recap our time in Roarton. Did we love it? We certainly enjoyed season 1. Season 2 less so, but it is certainly worth a watch. There are precious few zombie shows out there, and even fewer that re worth your time. Our recommendation? Watch season 1. Maybe season 2 if you have the ability to filter out dozens of pointless and incomplete plot lines and inane unnecessary characters.

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We are back in Rourton for Season 2, and a sneak peek of what Season 3 would have become thanks to writer Dominic Mitchell as well as a possibly inebriated Ricky Tomlinson (Ken Burton from both seasons) telling us he never turns down a role. Bless him. But at least he responded to us, eh? Eh? Luke?

Onto the show. 6 hour long episodes with Kieren being less of a character in a far busier season. We gain Sinners and Loki's Wunmi Mosaku as Victus MP Maxine Martin, a nasty piece of work with an agenda. There is a lot more of Simon, a disciple of the Undead Prophet, and this whole idea of a second rising.

With Jem and HVF Gary dating, and mum and dad being very inconsistent with their behaviour, as well as too many towns folk, kids at school, it was just a bag of cats for me. Too many things going on, and no police! I still don't understand why there are no police to enforce the law.

TBF Simon is the best character in the show, he is a conflicted man with love in his heart and a sad back story. I am kinda glad it got cancelled, and season 3 looked even messier.

6/10

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Steph over at the Listeners of the Dead podcast said this 2014 running infected Australian effort would cause smoke to come out of my ears. It almost did. It was just a very basic story of a bunch of one-dimensional survivors living in a bad location in my opinion, a farmhouse (no windows!). They are either pathetic whimpering women (Marge says nothing, Sammy says 2 words, Evie just whines and whimpers) and dickish men (Charlie is a thug, Bob is a thug, John is a whiny asshole), and you won't care if any of them live or die.

The story, like everything else in this movie, is very basic. A group is in a farmhouse trying to survive. Despite starving one of them lets beans spill on the floor, and when they hear infected they leave dinner rather than taking it with them. They did just walk inside, and could have taken it.

The farmhouse is really just a corrugated iron barn with no windows and two doors. Not an ideal place, despite Charlie saying that it is later.

So Evie's husband John is missing but Bob, his mute wife Marge and Sammy decide they are going to leave, but only after Bob kills the only semi-decent character in the movie, Gary. Then John just turns up. He is as pathetic as the others, an entitled, pseudo intellectual academic who no smarts, or courage. He is going to kill himself, but then Charlie turns up and saves him and Evie. Charlie, however, is a nasty manipulative, violent rapist, and the movie falls into a pattern of sexual assault, and John being a whiny b*tch.

A particularly weak effort, following an almost clichéd story line with infinitely unlikable characters. If you like this small, indie style survival in a farm zombie movie then watch State of Emergency, or better still go back and watch any of the Night of the Living Dead versions. Avoid this.

As far as Australian zombie movies go watch Cargo, Wyrmwood 1 and 2, and Little Monsters. Don't bother with Plague.

4/10

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This is not the first Argentine zombie movie we have watched here on the Undead Symphony. Soy Toxico, I am toxic ambled in with a 4.5 a long while ago back in episode 61 over 2 years ago. This is episode 249 over 3 years in and this is El Ultimo Zombi which means, the last zombie and I found it on amazon amongst all the other shit in the bottom of the barrel.

It gets a respectable 5.4/10 on IMDB 2022 and it was a short, or there was a short of the same name a decade earlier.

The blurb is that a genetics specialist goes to an inn to find the origin of an infection that has started to spread. But it isn't that exciting.

With a constant soundtrack of dull moody piano, non-biting slow moving pathetic zombies that were 1. stolen from I walked with a Zombie, for the most part, but then 2. weak ass zombies that transmit whatever is the cause by breathing in purple steam. Purple steam! No biting! Bad constant piano!

I hated it. The colouring and actual film quality was fine. The acting, the writing, the music, the zombies and the purple steam were not.

3/10 at best

Hated it. Watch Soy Toxico if you need to watch an Argentinian zombie movie, but if you want something decent that is similar to this then watch Summer Camp.

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To quote Ewan McGregor's Obi Wan

"Hello there."

Yes, and I am back and this is the 248th episode of the US with me DS in which I watch Inifini from 2015.

In infini, not quite infinity, tells the story of an elite search and rescue team transporting onto an off-world mining facility to rescue whit Carmichael, the lone survivor of a biological outbreak.

Supposed to have space zombies. I am hopeful. I am hoping for Aliens meets Pandorum meets Event Horizon, but maybe I should lower my bar a little. It wont be Dead Space, that is for sure. Or even system shock

It is Australian and stars the least famous Hemsworth, Luke, Daniel McPherson as Whit Carmicheal and Grace Huang and scores a respectable 5.3/10 on IMDB

We open with a lot of title card to read

By the turn of the 23rd century, 95 percent of the world live on or below the poverty line. As a result of this many take dangerous jobs on interplanetary mining, military and space exploration sectors.

Off earth transit is achieved via slip streaming the process of turning matter into a data signal and transmitting it to a fixed co-ordinate anywhere in the known universe

Voluntary trained personal are fitted with an apex device that is fused into their central nervous system.

Sheeesh!

What did I think of it?

It was just a big old mess with a lot of elements stolen from a lot of other movies, a lot of Pandorum, Event Horizon, a lot from Aliens, and the Thing and The Abyss, the virus was from The Sadness but it was an organism like that in The Thing, and slip streaming (name taken from Slipstream) was stolen from Mike TV from Willy Wonka when he was turned into a data stream to appear on tv after The Matrix style head wobble, plus the time dilation from Interstellar as well. Now that is a lot of theft.

I am going to score the movie 4/10

And the succulent Chinese meal I had during it 5/10

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Ok this his one genuinely appeared from nowhere. And whilst I wait for Daisy Ridleys We Bury the Dead, and Richard Roxburghs Forgive us All, and the Cambodian Z-Mom, and plough through In the Flesh, I was looking at the other streaming services.

Netflix – nothing

Amazon – nothing

Apple – nothing

Tubi… well a lot of shit, but also this… APORIA

2019 from Azerbijan, so a new country. Goodness knows what it will be like but here we go

What was it like? It was one of the worst acted, poorly written pieces of shit I have ever seen. The worst flipflopping dialog, terrible characters, all the women are on dimensional and pathetically weak, the men are contracting themselves in the same sentence, as the villain and Arvin spout such crap as "hunger makes a philosopher of you."

What an awful piece of shit you created REC BEVAN

2/10

This is the undead symphony by me DS and this is episode number 247: APORIA

Avoid like the plague. If you want to watch a movie from Azerbijan stick to goat porn.

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This is all on Professor Kyle Bishop. Remember in the episode 245 when he said this… And yes this is me repurposed material with is very apropos

"I've got to say the worst one I've seen that I recall with any sense of vividly is Corona Zombies. which of course was produced during the initial lockdown, and so they were severely limited in their abilities to produce what they produced. But it is really bottom-of-the-barrel filmmaking. Now, the only reason it has any redemptive qualities is I think that their repurposing of other zombie films with new humorous dubbing is... at times effective, especially if your sense of humor is not particularly sophisticated."

Well, that and the fact In The Flesh Season 2 is 6 hour long episodes I thought I would take a break from it for an hour and watch Corona Zombies, or as we call it in the UK

Barbie and Kendra meet the Corona Zombies 2024

The blurb

Before they saved the Tiger King, stormed Area 51 and crashes Joe Bobs Drive-in, ditzy Barbie and her pal Kendra's first fandango was this prime piece of absurdity. Part irreverent satire, part gonzo Italian zombie remix, all full moon mania, Barbie and Kendra meet the Corona Zombies will have you smiling so wide you'll split your mask-strings.

It stars Cody Renee Cameron and Robin Sydney and scores 2.5/10 on IMDB

Stuart Heritage of The Guardian called the film "the sort of thing you'd watch drunk in your house at midnight. But then again, that's how you're going to watch all films for the foreseeable future, so it has to be worth a go."

And wow that was awful but... inventive

So many questions. So kendra was just a voice the movie? Barbie showers in her clothes? But mostly the question I have is why? But I get it, and I need to give them an extra mark for being inventive. Clearly barbie and the zombie could film together during covid. Kendra was just on the phone and the rest was redubbed stripper v zombies and zombies creeping flesh

Actually just dubbing over old films is much better entertainment. Kev and Nick, who played the zombie twins in shaun of the dead always loved it as a method of entertainment, hence their redubbing of the Battlestar Galactica movie Cylon Invasion of Earth, dubbed with all the cylons and gay yorkshiremen. The zombie strippers and barbie and kendra part was just weak.

Ok so lets compare it to the bottom of the bottom of the barrel

Where does this one float in a toilet bowl that includes:

Attack of the Flatulating dead

Zombie with a shotgun

Transit 17

Oasis of the zombies?

Hm, it was better than Oasis of the Zombies, that also repurposed bad Italian war movie footage.

It is actually better than Attack of the Flatulating Dead, that similarly had budget constraints.

And it was funny in places, so has to be higher than the other two… so I am going to give it a remarkable 2/10

Not the worst, but it was pretty bad.

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RECORDING IN PROGRESS!

In this special episode we get to talk with zombie scholar Dr Kyle Bishop about all things zeke. We talk his studies, we talk first, last, best, and worst, we talk top 10s and so much more. And, apologies to Michael and Curtis, he scored a winning 18/20 on Virus or Voodoo. The bar has been set high. Will that score be beaten?

Check out his work on Contributions to Zombie Studies here

https://mcfarlandbooks.com/imprint/contributions-to-zombie-studies/?srsltid=AfmBOop_pk9R9FXchem4xbfpovETDMZZ-j3pH7EGJZK2hep8rIQjsbD5

and his podcasting here

https://www.newhorrormovies.com/dead-man-still-walking/

He does have to still watch Pro-Wrestlers v Zombies.

HOW DARE YOU!

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This is a special episode in which I look at the two seasons of the BBC zombie Drama IN THE FLESH as recommended by Kieren from Eerie Earth podcast, writer and narrator of The Fallen. Now, I never saw this, didn’t even know it existed to be fair, it ran for two season over two years in 2013-14 and has 9 episodes that I think add up to an hour each.

The premise. Set after "The Rising", which is the show's take on a zombie apocalypse, the drama focuses on a reanimated young man, Kieren Walker, and his return to his local community.

The show, set in the fictional village of Roarton, Lancashire, though filmed in Marsden, West Yorkshire,[7] depicts life several years after "The Rising". This period, in (fictional) 2010, was a time when thousands of people who had died in 2009 suddenly re-animated as mindless, homicidal, brain-eating zombies world-wide.

By the time of the series, normality has begun to return. A full-fledged zombie apocalypse has long since been prevented by armed resistance from the living, especially from armed local militias who patrolled their communities and actively hunted the re-animated. Meanwhile, a scientific solution for the zombie phenomenon has been found, with the development of a medication to restore consciousness to the undead, allowing them to remember their time alive and who they once were.

So… basically that sounds like the Elliot Page movie THE CURED, except rather than fast moving infected these are shufflers mixed with the Australian show THE RETURNED

It stars Luke Newberry as Kieran, maybe that’s why Kieran from Eerie earth like it

With Ricky Tomlinson, Hellraiser 2s Kennth Cranham and Black Mirrors Francis Magee

Ratings

IMDB give it 7.9/10 which is inordinately high and 97 on RT

And I gotta say, I did Like it. It did feel very BBC. Or Channel 4. Very Being Human. Much better than that shat GEN Z from Channel 4. I think the acting was superb. The villains were villainous. The good guys were good but compromised. Luke Newberry was very good. The mothers were amazing. I would highly recommend it.

7/10 from me. Well done, Kieren.

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Oasis of Zombies aka Grave of the Living Dead aka Bloodsucking Nazi Zombies.

When a student Robert at university in England hears his father has died he gets ready to go back to Africa. While going through his fathers diaries he finds out a secret stash of gold is hidden in the Sahara. Taking he friends along they search for the treasure only to discover its guarded by the undead.

Widely considered two of the worst zombie movies of all time with:

awful awful cinematography
awful sound and music
terrible acting
the worst effects I have ever seen
even the repurposed war movie footage was bad

And in the end Robert is asked what if he found what he was looking for and he replies "mostly myself." Hold on, so despite 10 people dying, including 2 of your college friends in the prime of their life, your father, discovering you are the illegitimate child of a Bedouin woman and not adopted after all, and not finding the gold or defeating the zombies, you "mostly found yourself" like it was a fucking spiritual retreat in the countryside with overnight oats, salads, afternoon yoga and wall to wall finger cymbals? Twat.

This movie is, in keeping with the desert theme, a distended piece of camel rectum.

A record breaking 1/10 the worst zombie movie I have ever seen! I tell you what. A very very very poor Shock Waves in the desert. CHATGPT said the worst zombie movie of all time was ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE with ADAM WEST and SHAWN LEVY. Compared to this that is Citizen Kane.

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A terror you wont want to remember!

In a film you wont be able to forget!

From the makers of American Graffiti, we have… Messiah of Evil from 1974 recommended to use by Andy Beglin.

Film Comment called it "one of the top 10 classic, overlooked horror films of all time." LA Times dismissed the film as a "thoroughly dismal horror picture that is sleep-inducing rather than hair-raising" and it gets 6.3/10 on IMDB and 100% on RT.

A young woman goes to look for her missing father. Her trip takes her to a strange California coastal city ruled by a mysterious cult of the walking dead. And it stars Marianna Hill from High Plains drifter as Arletty and Michael Greer as Tom.

Personally I found it to be very dated but interesting. Not in any way as good as Dead and Buried. The supernatural element of the dark messenger seemed added very late. The zombies all dressed up felt like the Transylvanians from rocky horror. But I can see why people like it. I have seen plenty of movies that feel similar, like Zeder, the beyond and Dead and Buried, and Plague of Zombies.

It is a 5/10 for me.

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Shatter Dead (1994) is a low-budget, independent horror film directed by Scooter McCrae. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead no longer die, the film explores themes of mortality, religion, and gender through a gritty, surreal lens. The story follows Susan, a gun-toting survivor trying to make her way home through a world where the dead have not only returned but are evolving—no longer mindless zombies, but conscious, organized, and increasingly militant.

The film is notable for its unique take on the zombie genre. Rather than focusing on gore alone, Shatter Dead blends exploitation, philosophical musings, and transgressive imagery. It incorporates graphic violence and nudity to challenge social and religious norms, particularly surrounding death and sexuality. The film’s DIY aesthetic, grainy visuals, and minimal score enhance its underground cult appeal.

Though polarizing due to its extreme content and technical roughness, Shatter Dead has earned a dedicated cult following. It stands as a provocative piece of ’90s outsider cinema—ambitious, raw, and uncompromising. Its depiction of a world where death has lost meaning turns traditional horror tropes on their head, making it an enduring artifact of transgressive, no-holds-barred filmmaking.

That and it starts with Susan being fucked from behind by a female angel of death with a strap-on. Not something I have seen before.

4/10

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In this episode of the undead symphony in which I will be watching the Netflix Thailand movie ZIAM. Siam being the original colonial name of Thailand. Now, this isn’t our first zombie movie from Thailand, it will actually be the fourth after Operation Undead, that WW2 movie, Paradise Z, with the two hot models living in a swanky hotel during the zombie apocalypse, and zombie fighters, which I get mixed up with zombie fight club, but then remember it was the one with the very loud idiot twenty somethings who all deserved to die. The actual zombie fighters appearing right at the end.

Operation Undead 6
Paradise Z 5.5
Zombie Fighters 4

I am hoping this will be better, although the premise annoys me. AS if it is a blood borne virus spread by cuts and scratches and bites, then the idiot main character fighting them all with bare fists will just annoy me.

The description is that a dystopian apocalypse. A swarm of horrifying zombies. A thrilling fight for survival Can an ex-muay thai fighter escape danger before it is too late? OK THERE ARE CHECKBOXES THERE

5/10 in IMDB and ScreenRant so…meh at best

This feels a lot like BLOCK Z, from the Phillipines and Day zero, also from the philipiines, but with the stupid muay thai and annoying kid.

The USP the unique selling point of this movie is the weakest link. Whilst the FX is great, excellent makeup and gore. It was shoe horning the muay thai in that ruined it. Single punch or kicks for each zombie with bare fists from the hero?

That dog wont hunt monsignor. What next sumo wrestlers v zombies? How dare you!

And fish zombies!

6/10

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After having Steph from Listeners of the Dead on last week to explain the thinking behind her 4/10 for the much anticipated 28 Years Later, we have Brian from Zombpocalypse to discuss the rationale behind his 10/10.

Michael really liked the movie but only gave it 7/10.

Darren thought it wasn't as bad as some people have made it out to be, but it wasn't the movie he wanted. There was just much wrong with it, pointing at Alex Garland dialing it in as he was too focused on his own movies.

We talked Steph up to a 5/10 I think. Will Darren brow beat Brian down? You will have to listen to find out.

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Outbreak is a 2024 zombie mystery thriller film by the screenplay of Lance Ochsner and Jeff Wolfe and directed by Jeff Wolfe in his directorial debut.[1] It stars Billy Burke, Alyshia Ochse, Taylor Handley and Jessica Frances Dukes and the incredible Raoul Trujillo. Grappling with the disappearance of their teenage son, Ben, a park ranger and his wife face a mysterious outbreak that threatens not only their relationship, but their grip on reality.

4.4/10 on IMDb and 72% on RT

And apparently, based on a lot of the reviews it is basically a rip off of the movie Collapse from 2010.

Neil (Burke) is a ranger in Mourning Rock, we learn that his son is missing and there is a rabies outbreak. Despite having the support of workmates and friends, Neil has flashbacks to being with Ben. Abby (Oschse) his wife is a drunkard mess unable to deal with it at all.

After receiving his son's watch from one of his friends, and the chief ranger's daughter, Neil goes to a nearby lake to throw it in only to see a woman drowning. he saves her and she turns out to be a zombie.

The movie then switches to a paranoid and panicked Neil trying to keep Abby alive as there are zombies all around, probably linked to the rabies outbreak, and he has to kill them wherever he encounters them.

There is a huge twist at the end that would have made me score it higher if I hadn't read about it when preparing for this episode by reading the IMDB reviews. However, despite knowing the ending, the stupid constant eagle shots, zombie eagle, and the annoying as hell piano score, I still give this 5/10. Worth watching for completeness.

5/10 Burke and Osche were superb as people grieving, with Burke's mental breakdown and Osche's drunkard stoned mother trying to numb herself both well acted. It did feel a bit daytime TV at times though.

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In this special episode of the Undead Symphony we are joined by Kieran Begg the writer, director, narrator, host and driving force behind the Eerie Earth Podcast. We will talk all things podcasting, and a lot of things zombie, including his first, last, best and worst, his top 10 zombie movies and TV shows.

We will also be discussing the three seasons of his wonderful dramatised audio play The Fallen, as it follows Dani and Cal Cunningham as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse in Edinburgh. And Michael auditions to play face down corpse #3. Highly recommended.

You can find Kieran on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/@eerie_earth_official/featured

Follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/eerieearthofficial/?hl=en

And listen to Eerie Earth Podcast and The Fallen on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast media

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ZOMBIES OF WAR AKA "War of the Dead" from 2010 although it is actually Horrors of War from 2006

OH MY

Hitlers desperation to win World War II at all costs, combined with his obsession with science and the paranormal give rise to a deadly type of warfare. Hitler unleashes his secret weapons Unstoppable Nazi super soldiers onto the advancing Allied army. After suffering great losses the American army reassigns soldiers to a mission to destroy Hitlers weapons labs. After they are shot down in occupied France, the soldiers find themselves caught between the German army and a creature that cannot be destroyed.

Just a note... it is NOT that movie.

On the DVD box we have a Zombie SS officer and a platoon of zombie Nazi soldiers… but in the movie there is no zombie SS officer and no platoon of Nazi zombies… You have 4 zombies in the whole movie, and two werewolves, which were unexpected. It is a repetitive bad WW2 movie with Halloween store zombie and werewolf masks and the sort of acting that would get you shot or sent to the front lines.

We follow OSS lieutenant Schmidt as we walks through woodland in multiple ambushes, heading back to HQ after each of them, having lost more men and butted heads with an ever increasing line of Captains who hate him. Awful CGI planes, awful CGI full stop.

Would I recommend this? Hell no! Although I would rate it higher than Nazi Zombie Death Tales, and I guarantee Steph will put this one on first when she receives the box of DVDs.

3/10

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And so here we are, a week after seeing a movie we have waited 18 years for (or 23 year for some), a movie so eagerly anticipated we bought the themed beer and drank the kool aid. But the reality was very different to the trailer. So what did Stephanie from Listeners of the Dead, Michael and I think about the Danny Boyle and Alex Garland blockbuster 28 Years Later? Well, you will need to listen to find out.

SPOILER WARNING: We didn't agree.

Michael 7/10

Darren 6.5/10 but he was ok with upping it by half a mark

Steph 4/10 but maybe, possibly ok with moving it up to 5

Next week we talk to Brian over at Zombpocalypse about the movie and question his 10/10 rating

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A married couple are confined to only their small property during a zombie invasion and they must make do with what they got.

Or

A lazy 30-something is happy to sit out the zombie apocalypse in his living room until his wife puts pressure on him to become a zombie killer.

It gets 4.5/10 on IMDB and 25% on RT and even has a soundtrack on Spotify. An OST.

And it stars Christine Woods and Paige and Graham Sibley as Guy. Now the whole reason we are watching this, or I am watching this, is Graham Sibley was in Zombie Honeymoon as the zombie husband. I gave that 4/10 so I have high hopes for this. It sounds like Death Do Us Part, but a comic version. So we shall have to see.

DVD in. It did come with 2 free movies, which says a lot about it. And the DVD load screen had a house with zombies out the front, and it has two zombies mirrored, to they are the same photo. I hate that.

It is the day to day story of a couple, he is enjoying the lack of responsibility of the apocalypse, where she hates it. He hides potential rescue from her, as he enjoys the slacking. A few good bits. The ending annoyed me. But was alright.

5/10 Not as good as As We Know It, but not terrible

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There will be a nice balanced conversation about the franchise to date with Brian over at Zombpocalypse and Michael. There will also be a Michael and Darren catch up that will cover Transit 17 (now equal worst scoring with Night of the Flatulating Dead) and ChatGPT's worst zombie movie of all time Zombie Nightmare with Adam West and Shawn Levy. But that is not this episode.

In sunny Corfu I went to see the much anticipated 28 Years Later, the sequel we have been waiting 18 years for, and in some quarters 23 years for. I did like it. But I am not one of the foaming about the mouth crack babies giving it 10/10 or 5/5 stars. It is definitely not in that territory. Even with the most basic understanding of what a comparison is this is a poor cousin of 28 Days, arguably the best zombie movie ever made (sorry Ken Foree, yours is my second), but still some people out there are going bananas. Others poopood it. They didn't like it at all. And I did like it. But given the sheer volume of movies we see, this isn't up there for me.

What I liked? I think the main characters were all superb, and a special shout out to Alfie Williams in his debut as Spike. I think some of the action sequences were great and what we needed. We needed the start, and the farm, the Happy Eater and the train. The Happy Eater was a great bit of nostalgia for me.

Erik was very funny. But his death was obvious, stupid, and taken from Predator.

I really didn't like all the dream sequences. There was a lot of them and they were out of keeping with the first two movies. I didn't like the filler of the Laurence Olivier movie being used. The black and white imagery. The Kipling. Again out of step with Days and Weeks. I could see the variants, the bloater and alpha mutations, but it felt 1. stolen, and 2. the Jurassic Park thing... we had a T-Rex in the first movie, now we need something bigger and better and not in keeping. The alphas were good, just not original. And you don't need variants. Zombies are zombies. The thing about zombies, whether running infected or slow shufflers if there is a whole mass of them and they get you by sheer volume.

And then there is a somersaulting cult of ninjas dedicated to a massive pedophile. The mighty morphing power pedoes. Given the rage virus was spread by bodily fluids, how are they chopping up infected sending blood everywhere? Makes no sense.

That being said, I still liked it, it was still a good movie. It wasn't as bad as some made out and it isn't as good as many are making out. I think it is a solid movie but out of keeping with the other two. My least favourite of the franchise and a 6.5/10 for me. Harsh? Well it isn't 10/10 either.

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When I asked the mouthpiece of our future AI overlords CHATGPT for a list of the top 10 zombie movies of all time, it was that. It was spot on. I asked it for the best zombie movie and it gave me 28 days later. Fair. And so we agreed. The best and the top 10. So I then went there an asked it for the worst zombie movie of all time. It’s answer was the 1986 ZOMBIE NIGHTMARE starring Adam West. It was directed by porno movie director Jack Bravman, which explains a lot.

“Widely panned for its laughable acting, incoherent plot, and painfully low production values, Zombie Nightmare is often cited as a textbook example of how not to make a horror film. Even a cameo by Adam West couldn’t save it from becoming an unintentionally comedic cult disaster.”

2.7/10 IMDB 15% RT

And so that is this episode.

Now, I have a German version of the DVD and for some reason the language setting isn’t changing to English, and so am watching it in German. Starring Adam West who was only on set for 2 days, Tia Carrera in her debut movie release, Jon Mikl Thor and an over the top Shawn Levy who would go on to direct the Deadpool movies. The soundtrack for you metalheads has Motorhead, Girlschool, Thor, Deathmask, and Fist.

It was very 1980s. very very 1980s. Not as bad as CHATGPT reported. It is certainly better than Night of the flatulating dead and Transit 17. I would put my zombie movie credentials on the line and say it’s a 3.5 putting it above 40 and more movies. It was basic. But I liked parts of it. The idea that a voodoo priestess can use a zombie for revenge was good, and that the zombie can get revenge for its own death. The deaths were not great. None of the acting was other than OTT Shawn Levy and Adam West, and Frank Deitz as Frank.

3.5/10 not as bad as AI reports.

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TRANSIT 17

Before I even start I know this movie is going to be bag of horse dicks. It is going to be so bad my apartment will need fumigating.

After a virus infected France, Belgium and the Netherlands a team of resistance soldiers trying to safe a young girl who seems to be their last hope for a cure.

3/10 on IMDB

A terrible movie, absolutely mindbogglingly bad. The plot is muddled at best, although I shouldn't say that since to be honest, there is really no plotl. It is just a mess of different locations where the protagonists travel through and meet new characters you will not care about nor ever see again. With the lack of a plot you will not care about any of the characters, except maybe to root for their deaths and even when characters die it is still so unsatisfying. Also the camera shots are so dull and grey, that's it's like somebody put a polarizing film over it. And the acting is so wooden that actual planks with faces painted on them would have done a better job and you would have cared more about since a plank getting shit is a waste of a good potential coffee table. As a final now, I'm pretty sure that the writers of this piece of crap completely do not understand what an open ending means. Here's a hint to them, it's not just cutting it off and fading to black.

How was this movie made? That is the first question. The zombies are incidental. And the elite resistance alpha squad led by the very unconvincing director/writer/star Tex get wiped out or captured easily. Their status as the best squad in the resistance is ludicrous, but not as ludicrous as the muscle bound freak of a villain, known as the commander, who walks around in a tactical vest so pumped up on steroids he can barely move.

What a bag of shit. If I could liken this movie to anything it would be the vanity project of an untalented Dutchman. Made no sense. No one was any good. Nothing was redeemable about this. I want the time back I wasted on it.

I have two words to saw to Tex, (in awful Dutch/Texan accent) FUCK OFF!

1.5/10

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Now I do have the TUBI list of movies to work through… the detritus of the channel… Transit 17 and Age of the Dead and 5 years after the fall and the like… utter horse dung and I do have DVDs coming

Better of Zed starring Graham Sibley from Zombie Honeymoon
Messiah of Evil, that we are going to be watching then reviewing with Andy Beglin next month
And what ChatGPT listed as the worst zombie movie ever made Zombie Nightmare with Adam West from 1987

But whilst I am waiting for them to arrive in the post I have one more DVD kicking about, and it has been put off for quite a while. Months even. And it is Zeder

Stefano, a journalist, finds that there is a terrain that can bring people back from the dead. His wife is murdered and he buries her in the same zone in the hope of bringing her back.

Or

The story is about a young novelist's discovery of the writings of a late scientist who had found a means of reviving the dead.

Hm sounds like Pet Cemetery to me

1983 Italian

62% on RT, 4/5 on amazon (meaningless) but a very telling 6.1/10 on IMDB

A zombie movie in the loosest sense. It was a sprawling conspiracy that everyone was involved with from their university professor, to their cop friend, to Alessandra's doctor friend, and all to bring loved ones back from the dead. Ending with him bringing his wife back from the dead, only to kill him. So this was pet cemetery it just took 99 minutes to become Pet Cemetery and was then Pet Cemetery for a minute.

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I zombie

Very I Claudius or I Robot

And no not the crappy tv show either this a film which was released by Fangoria Films in 1998; it was written, directed, produced and scored by Andrew Parkinson. It tells the story of a young man who gets infected by being bitten by a zombie and gradually starts turning into one himself.

HIS SOUL WAS THE LAST THING TO GO

Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club wrote that the film is too dull to appeal even to Fangoria subscribers.[3] Writing in Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide, Glenn Kay called the film overly serious and predictable.[4] Peter Dendle, author of The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, described it as "more competent and compelling than most of its small-scale Yankee predecessors."[5]

Marc Price, the director of Colin, said that if he had known about the existence of I, Zombie, he probably wouldn't have made his film… so in another timeline in the multiverse Michael wouldn’t have had to see that monstroslity

Commendation Award for Best Independent Feature, Festival of Fantastic Films (1998)[

5.3/10 in IMDB 45% RT 3.2/5 on letterboxd

According to the trailer

Uncompromising real vulnerable and chilling

A brilliant, provocative sobering horror film

Quite gruesome… one of the years best horror films… um, carnival of souls, blade, species 2, children of the corn 5, sometimes they come back 2, I still know what you did last summer, bride of chucky, Halloween h20, prophecy 2, urban legend, the faculty and the psycho remake… so no…

In the tradition of cronenbergs fly? That’s the second movie in a row using that comparison…

And it was an ideal time for indie music, I had just come out of university and was loving life in the big city

From IMDB

I give this movie an "A". "A" as in awful.

I first thought this film was going to be entertaining because Fangoria made this movie. But I was definitely let down. This was one of the worst movies I've seen. I fell asleep through most of it because it was so boring and it should have been a documentary instead of horror. I had to watch it again to see the stuff I missed and I'm very glad I was asleep during that time because I could been traumatized for life.

I warn all horror fans, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Awful. Dull. Repetitive. Boring. Repetitive. Awful. Repetitive. And Dull. And repetitive.

Fangoria magazine you should be ashamed. This was college student quality at best. Guildford, where it was filmed, art college.

2.5/10 This is the sort of movie that makes you want to get on with your life.

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You know when the New York Times, Variety and Salon.com say something is hilarious that you have had funnier dental work. You also know that when the New York Times, Variety and Salon.com say a very low budget zombie movie is hilarious the critic didn't write the review, that their intern did. And that their intern has shit for brains.

So this movie is 2004 and tells the story of newly wedded couple Danny and Denise. First day of honeymoon down at a beach house Danny is clambered onto by a zombie from the sea who spews blood into his mouth. Danny dies and is called as dead at the hospital. But he comes back from the dead and is just discharged the same time, despite being dead for 10 minutes. Nonsense.

Punctuated with some of the worst music ever to be created, Danny will chomp his way through his hospital roommate, three cops, two best friends and a travel agent, and all the while being protected by a screaming wife.

Is it bad? It is no Zombie with a Chainsaw. Is it good? No. Is it worth watching? Only if you want to see every zombie movie ever made. The acting was ok. The effects were meh. The music sucked donkey dick for nickels.

4/10 and they should thank me for that.

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We have TUBI and Michael to thank for this episode, as we go to a small island off of Ireland where death row prisoners are injected with all manner of nastiness to try to find a cure for Alzheimers and cancer. However, as Stone, our special forces Sinead O'Connor and Ellen Ripley a la Alien 3 skinhead sporting heroine discovers, the medication turns everyone fast moving black blood spewing zeke.

With decent practical effect and some good cinematography, a few good tense moments and kills, this is still average at best. The acting is ok. The costumes from some era before this, but we don't know when. The zombie effects and zombie acting is very good. Top notch actually. But ultimately this movie was missing something. I needed more of a determined escape. A better plan. And the island to be carpet bombed at the end a la Rezort.

4/10

Also Patients of a Saint? As in Patience of a Saint but they are like... patients in a hospital wing? Awful.

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Anton Yelchin (we love him) and Oliver Cooper (we love him) as half-brothers from the same sack star in this Joe Dante (Gremlins/The Howling) rom zom com and we loved it. It joins Shaun of the Dead and Warm Bodies as an entry level zombie movie you could watch on a date, with grandma or the kids. Here is the chat! With special guest intro from the man we love, Bruce in As as know it and Travis in this... the wonderful Oliver Cooper

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After my scathing review of World Ends at Camp Z Michael tries to defend it, whilst CHATGPT throws up a very obvious top 10 zombie movies and a new worst? We shall have to see.

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A change of plan. We had that list of zombie movies on TUBI. Michael was given the reigns and I asked him which one to watch next. He said Transit 17, a French/Belgian/dutch effort. I agreed then saw the trailer and reviews and now he has had his choosing privileges revoked again.

That being said TUBI has redeemed itself by offering up this, a rom zom com, and there aren’t many of this… Burying the Ex

2014

Directed by Joe Danto who gave Gremlins and Small Soldiers, both good films, and it stars the late and great Alton Yelchin, Green Room, Star Trek, Terminator Salvation, a lot of good things. A true loss to Hollywood that one.

It stars Anton as MAX

Ashley Green from the Twiglight movies as Evelyn, the zombie ex

Alexandra Deddario from a really good list of movies, San Andreas, Texas chainsaw 3D, we summon the darkness, percy Jackson…as new gf olivia

And Oliver Cooper who we loved in As We Know it as Travis, not that he is being typecast as he nerdy best friend in zombie comedies at all

The plot

Max, a young man, starts dating Evelyn, but she soon dies in an accident. Things take a dark turn when she comes back as a zombie and find out that Max has moved on with Olivia.

Is it Warm Bodies? No. But it still one of those sought after entry level zombie movies that you could watch with the new significant other, the wife/gf/partner/kids/homeless man you met at the bus station called Malcolm

It feels a little more As We Know It, with movie references and movies watched including I Walked with a Zombie dotted throughout.

Speaking of which Oliver Cooper is funny as ever. And despite Evelyn being so obnoxious you wanted her dead before she actually is killed, the cast and the plot is ok.

5/10 which is good for us

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More than a pleasure to chat all things zombie with zombie online horror community member and all around good guy Andy Beglin (beastonthehorrorexpress79 on insta). We talk Dellamorte Dellamore, and his top 10, notable mentions and the dreaded remakes. He has yet to see Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies (how dare you!) but we forgive him enough to invite him back for a movie review episode in the future. Enjoy!

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WORLD END AT CAMP Z

A campground owner learns of a prospective buyer's evil intentions concerning the land. A zombie uprising might help him stop the sale.

3.3/10 in IMDB urgh

No overall score in RT as it doesn’t have 50 people who could be bothered to watch it

1/10

The Mess at Worlds End

Whoever rated thus dog over 3 is either high or part of the film crew. It's a wandering mess without clear purpose or point. The premise was suppose to be about survivors enduring some zombie apocalypse. What we got fell far short. Horrendously awful acting, I mean some actors seemed to either forget lines or adlib them. The plot and story was none existent. The film is supposed to be about zombies, yet we somehow get some tripe about environmentalist trying to prevent some company strip mining the Camp for precious metals?! Worse still is the first zombies dont show up until 60% of the movie is shown. And then some of the worse makeup sgx ever. Yikes this thing is painful to watch. I couldnt finish it. I spent 3.99 for this dog, moneyand time I cant get back. Do yourself a favor and stay away

Thanks michael

And it stars Age of the Living Dead's Anne-Carolyne Binette as Vanessa, and a bunch of Canadians as Clay, Julian, Max and Aaron

What an awful piece of shit this movie was

Don’t get me wrong, it is certainly no Anger of the Dead

But the characters were inconsistent vanessa was a badass or pathetic, loving aaron or loving julian, the douches were all douches…

It felt like a bad cheap Festival of the Dead so it is going to be less than that for sure

The zombie storyline was minimal

The effects were poor

The acting was bad

The music choices were atrocious

But I am glad I got it done… as I will never need to see that bag of shit again

Canada you should be ashamed

It is a 3/10 at best

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The film was first released under its original title of Last Rites at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 30, 2006. It was later released direct to video on May 1, 2007 under the new title of Gangs of the Dead. In both Germany and Italy, the film was released under the title of City of the Dead. In the United Kingdom, the film was released under the title of 48 Weeks Later, in an effort to capitalise on the success of 28 Weeks Later, which had been released in 2007.

The film takes place in the city of Los Angeles, California, and follows two intertwined plots.

The main plot concerns a meteorite that crashes in Los Angeles. It carries alien spores that spread across the city, transforming humans into flesh-eating zombies.

The other story is about two rival gangs, "The Lords of Crenshaw" and "El Diablo", who continue to fight for dominance of Los Angeles even as it falls to the zombie hordes.

3.4/10 on IMDB and 19% on rotten tomatoes

1 star review

Nothing special. Nothing to do with 28 days/weeks later.

First of all, I am an avid horror film fanatic, I have around 400-500 horror films, I have seen well over a thousand. I am very fond of the zombie films... Unfortunately, 48 weeks later, at absolute best, is a mediocre film, that's being extremely generous..

Nothing unique or original. Meteorite hits homeless people, they turn into zombies. Some people are trapped inside a warehouse thing, lots of arguments, they disagree about what should be done. Most of them die. Bla bla bla.

Poor acting, poor storyline, absolutely nothing about this film is exciting, it's boring at best. Also, terrible sound and picture quality, rubbish effects. I don't mind poor effects, or poor picture quality, as long as the film is entertaining, as this was not, it just added to the misery of sitting through this.

There are some good zombie films out there, this is not one of them. I wouldn't waste your time. I would not recommend to anyone.

OK so back to shit biscuits being dunked in my tea

Thoughts?

Alarmingly this isn’t the first Hispanic gangster zombie movie I have seen with the Cholo Zombie movies, and it isn’t the first LA movie with the Live Escape/Survival movies… but I think it was done as well as it could be with the amateur cast. I think the gang members were good. They tried to make the gangs sound, act, dress differently and drive different cars. It could have been good, but it wasn't as bad as they make it out to be.

The Asian informant and GF was the weakest link here. And the weatherman and his end made no real sense. I think he needed to be seen to be going progressively man. I also think if they had stayed in the dumpster with the bitten brother it would have made for a better more tense story. Imagine 3 of you in a dumpster and one has been bitten.

If you class it as Gangs of the Dead it is a 4/10

If you class it as part of the 28 Weeks/Months/Years series it is a 1/10

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I know I know I promised Michael I would watch World Ends at Camp Z, but I really don’t want to, so I am sneaking in DEATH SHACK. DEATH SHACK BABY DEATH SHACK DEATH SHACK BABY THAT’S WHERE ITS AT.

2017 from SHUDDER

Gets a respectable 5.5/10 on IMDB

And 82% on ROTTEN TOMATOES

Yup. How do you like them apples?

Three teens and a drunken father on a cabin getaway discover their mysterious neighbor is harboring a house full of zombies.

While staying at a run-down cabin in the woods, three children must save their parents from the neighbour who intends to feed them to her undead family.

The gore is ok. The story is ok but basic. The cinematography is great. However, the characters, every man jack of them, is an asshole. All of them. This is a group of the most unlikable Canadians you can imagine. Roger is such a drunk asshole, noisy, useless, drunk. Lisa the same. Summer is a horrible sarcastic girl. Colin is a bully and a dick. And Jason is pathetic. Really, horrible people. If this family rolled up to the hotel you are staying it, you would move hotels. Utter scumbags.

That aside, there is about 5 minutes or proper zombie movie deaths and killing at the end, including a very surprising death, so kudos for that, and that it is only 73 minutes long.

Definitely not 82% def not 5.5/10. I will give it 5/10 as people may, and do like it, I just found all the characters sounding the same, and all of them as careless, loud, sarcastic, brash, brutish dicks, being a turn off.

5/10

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We do this from time to time, we see a movie that we need to discuss. Despite it being a B-movie set in Brighton, with annoying students, bad CGI helicopters and arguably the worst sound mix of any movie, there is enough there to like. Infected (2021) or Darkest Day (2015). It was no Pro Wrestlers v Zombies. How dare you!

4.5/10

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Looked very 28 Days later in the trailer

In a country ravaged by a deadly virus that has triggered a zombie apocalypse, the military is on the hunt for the man rumoured to have the cure

Well, I am getting a bit of déjà vu here - much like the movie Zombies!f from 2016 Which was repackaged as Zombie Christmas Apocalypse in 2024 this is actually the 2015 movie Darkest Day

And, more déjà vu, on IMDB

3/10 Its your average low budget zombie conspiracy. Acting, filming and direction are all ok but the writing needs help.

1/10 From the outset, terrible focusing of the camera was annoying. Constant blurring of images was (at best) bad cinematography.

2/10 The cover is what actually got my attention to watch this movie. Right at the start I already knew it was a B movie when the camera panning and blurry unfocused technique was used which was very amatuer. As I continued watching I noticed there's not much dialogue and conversations are simple few word sentences.

After watching that piece of crap Dead Genesis, this looks to suffer from the same issues in quality.

The sound mix is so bad, the sound guy deserves shooting. Loud music. Loud FX. Almost inaudible dialog. What there is of it. CGI helicopters were shit. The whole students living in this house and not having stockpiled supplies and instead drinking and eating crisps and playing loud music months into the apocalypse made no sense.

The acting was sub par. But again better than DEAD GENESIS. And the plot was much much better so I think this was, for the UK zombie movie fan, almost recommendable but not quite. A 28 Days and Weeks later rip off, with a few decent elements. The zombies running and makeup was good. The rest was ok.

4.5/10

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3.4/10 in IMDB

20% on rotten tomatoes

What did people say?

A sadistic, immoral film that is utterly contemptible and repulsive. To say this is sick cinema without any redeeming elements at all is an understatement. The beginning sequence is one of the most morally offensive ever filmed. The consumption of a living child by a zombie, dining on the innocent's stomach while the child blinks his eyes uncomprehendingly, is the definition of torture porn and possibly the sickest sort of child pornography. The exploitation of a child and depiction of the worst child murder imaginable is beyond anything ever portrayed in a so-called legitimate film. Of all the disgusting, repulsive, and sick movies made, this one is about as depraved as possible.

1/10.

Not a good start.

Terrible 1/10

Wait, there wasn't an earthquake?

this is the shakiest film ever made, and to be avoided by anyone who doesn't want to be motion sick in the first 20 min (several times)

If the shaking doesn't get you, the terrible acting and effects may actually come close to destroying any love for the entire genre. I've heard that the UN is declaring this movie to be a crime against humanity.

1/10

Ok, what is the best review?

Total Romero

This is one hell of a zombie movie. It's been along time since any zombie flick that I've seen has managed to capture the spirit of those classic Romero movies. It's got the social commentary angle going for it and that traditional zombie spirit as well. Dead Genesis also manages to have one of the most graphic and gory openings to a zombie film that I've ever seen. Many have the grand epic openings, this is much more personal and disturbing.

10/10

You sir are a jackass!

Ok, lets get this bass of horses dicks done

A bunch of randoms walking around the woods aimlessly killing zombies that creep up on them is joined by a monotone, clueless reporter (sorry! I am not a reporter), I mean documentary film maker, walk aimlessly around the woods shooting zombies that creep on them. There is no mission. No grand design. No purpose. Just aimlessly walking around the woods, then stopping to talk and be filmed by the reporter (I am not a reporter!), and have zombie creep up on them. No guards. No lookouts. No radios. No map. No direction. Awful cinematography, and a group of individuals where only one of them seems ok. And only 2 can act.

Hated it.

2/10

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I had been looking forward to this one, to be fair. Handling the Undead (2024) based on a novel by John Linqvist who brought us Let the Right One In, a clever and modern take on the vampire story. Scandi, arty, modern, starring Anders Lie from one of our favourites The Night Eats the World about the dead coming back. It had the right ingredients but this was not a zombie movie. It was a treatise on grief, told through three depressing, slow stories all linked to an unexplained event when the dead return in a small Scandinavian town. Pace-wise, it makes Maggie look like Snyder's Dawn 2004.

We have an old woman who is mourning her recently deceased lover, a family who's mother just died in a car crash, and an old man and his daughter mourning a grandson and son. So three different scenarios, with three different stages of grief, about dead of different ages, mourned by different groups.

Slow. Depressing. A zombie movie inasmuch as they are dead and they come back from the dead. That is about it.

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Ok, we finally made it through the confusing world of Paul W S Anderson's Resident Evil, an inconsistent bag of cat if ever there was one.

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And it is finally here. We have managed to survive 14 years of the T-virus with Alice and a host of heroes and villains that changed more than the weather. Paul W S Anderson flip flopping constantly, we have one villainous doctor in this movie, then a different one the next movie, we have number of computer game heroes this movie, and they aren't even mentioned in the next. It was all a big mess and if anything, it shows that one person should have total control of a franchise, with no one pushing back on his insanity.

Am glad it is over. The Netflix show was good, but then those a-holes cancelled it. The new movie was ok but they just used the computer game characters' names and nothing else.

Next up Michael and I will talk about the experience. But until then, here is me ranting about how much I hated the last two movies.

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Silent Zone, a 2025 horror movie about a post-apocalyptic world where people have been turned into savage, zombie-like creatures called ferals. A resourceful teenager, Abigail, and her protector, Cassius, fight for survival against the ferals. The film follows their journey as they encounter other survivors and face relentless dangers. 5.9/10 IMDB so not bad at all.

or

In a zombie-ravaged world, a resourceful teen and her protector fight for survival, facing relentless dangers and testing the limits of hope and loyalty.

Sound familiar Joel and Ellie?

And it is Hungarian, making this our 38th country from which have enjoyed, is that the right word, zombie movies, and stars Matt Devere from the martians, extinction and robin hood, lords of chaos he plays Ccassius, a toxically macho neanderthal who wears a tactical vest the whole movie and Luca Papp as Abigail ,nice choice the daughters name in the Undead Symphony book, available on Kindle and paper back from Amazon.

Not awful, but the electronic gadgetry of a character that was a pure comic book super villain/mad scientist almost ruined the whole movie. I have seen much much worse. So I would say give this a try.

5.5.10

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Festival of the Living Dead is a 2024 American zombie movie made by the Soska Sisters Jen and Sylvia. So the sisters also made American Mary, a remake of Cronenberg’s Rabid, and a few WWE funded movies. None of which I will, and none of which I have intention to see.

Quite bombastically it is labelled as the spiritual successor to the game changing George A Romero 1968 night of the living dead. No one in their right mind would really link any movie, no matter how great they think it is with the early Romero’s surely? Well, by creating a character in Ash, played by Ashley Moore as Ben’s from the original’s granddaughter, that is what they have done. I may well mark you down because of that fact alone.

I HATED THIS MOVIE!

4/10 for the bits that were good, but it felt like it was written by, starring and was for illiterate teens…

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In this wide ranging catch-up we talk all the things we have been up to, the movies we have seen, plus 28 Years Later, Festival of the Dead and the main point of the pod, selling each other Zombie Repellent and Zombies Christmas Apocalypse.

A fun chat was had

Zombie Repellent 5/10

Festival of the Dead 4/10

Zombies Christmas Apocalypse 3/10

28 Years breaking even at the box office? Unlikely

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A solo episode from Michael this time around, other than me interjecting with a HOW DARE YOU! We split to watch Zombie Repellent (Me and a 5/5 in Amazon) and Zombies Christmas Apocalypse (Michael and a 2/10 on IMDB). Was it fair? Well, no. But hey ho! All is fair in love and zombie warz.

So this bag of shinola was a repackaged 2016 Tony Todd piece of shit zombie movie repackaged in 2024 with a Christmas theme and credits.

I shall let Michael give you the rest.

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One of the new zombie movies and shows on Amazon, this and the Zombies Christmas Apocalypse, and Newtopia. Gets a staggering 5/5 but we know that Amazon scoring is a shit show.

This one would have been better as a drama than a comedy, as none of the actors really have the comedy chops. However, it was watcheable. A big twist, which again, would have been better if this was a drama than a comedy.

The story? I kinda hate to say I liked it. It wasn't a 5/5, it was a 5/10 but that is alright, right? A couple, Chad and Liz are eloping to Vegas to get married when their car breaks down in bumblefuck nowhere. As their car gets repaired they but a difficult Rosie the Riveter style mechanic and the sheriff has taken their stuff they are sent to a local boarding house where things go wrong. The town has zombies. And the locals are trying to keep it quiet, whilst using zombie repellent on them.

5/10... I would think it would work better as a drama, but it was entertaining enough to be watching in 3 sittings.

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When a fast food chicken restaurant is built on the site of an ancient Native American burial ground, the displaced spirits unite with the ghosts of exterminated chickens and transform into Native American chicken zombies seeking revenge!

Episode 208: Poultrygiest Night of the Chicken Dead

oh my…

We have the usual suspects appearing including Lloyd as a future Arbie, Arbie is the main character played by Jason Yachinen, Wendy played by Kate Graham, and Mega Hertz as Jared

Awful song after awful song… from the General Lee Roy about big business, chicken bunker is more popular than Jesus, a toilet explosion, topless lesbian members of C.L.A.M. and a terrorist cook.

And holy fuck I just saw this movie is an hour 43…

Right let’s skip ahead

And another song as the workers blend the left over chicken bits into slop, before the Mexican employee Paco jerks off in it. Arbie from the future comes back to see Arbie. We find this out that as he has the same ass tattoo.

A POV poultry pushes the guy into the mincer and blood and guts spray everywhere. Denny and the General come in and blame Hamas.

Another song from the two arbies in tutus, lots of showing their arses.

This movie is awful, and the songs make it worse… if that is possible to a point when I can no longer watch the rest… it is just terrible

I cant finish it ... so read the rest on Wiki

3.5/10 and it is a no from me

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Ollie and I are more than friends, we are a really, really small gang. Technically 2 is the minimum number of people needed for a gang. And so here we are talking all things zombies, including our first, last, worst and best, sleeper hits, we play the expanded Virus or Voodoo or Aliens, and spitball ideas for his Discord writing collective. Give it a listen. Or else... or else we will tape you down on a chair and force you to watch Zombie with a Shotgun on loop. A movie so bad I would rather sit on my tv and watch my couch.

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And whilst Ollie Eats Brains and Michael are in a holding pattern prior to tomorrows recording I am back on the DVDs and somewhat of a classic in the genre, THE BEYOND, a movie that has terrified audiences across the world, lucio fulci face melting, blood oozing, gory glory.

1981 it was also released as And you will live in terror! The afterlife

Set in new orleans Its plot follows a woman who inherits a hotel in rural Louisiana that was once the site of a horrific murder, and which may be a gateway to hell. It is the second film in Fulci's Gates of Hell trilogy after City of the Living Dead (1980), and was followed by The House by the Cemetery (1981). The BBFC the British film classification body passed it with an X rating demanding several cuts and subsequently it was considered a Video nasty.[36] It would not be released in the United Kingdom uncut until 2001 on home video.

It stars English actress Katherine McCall, she appeared in the trilogy as Liz, David Warbeck as Dr John McCabe and Cinzia Monreal as Emily. Fulci makes an appearance as the town clerk

6.6 on IMDB and 68% on RT

People have said

The Beyond' is sensational and a bona fide modern horror classic. Absolutely essential viewing!

The atmosphere was very dreamlike and nightmarish. I've heard criticisms of this film for it's loose plot, but that didn't bother me too much.

This is a better than average Italian horror but a below average horror. There is just no sense of horror or fear.

URGH!

3/10 hated this one

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Well, hot shit, we are back for another episode. Well I am, hi. This is the Undead Symphony with me Darren Smith. And in this episode I am watching Dead Zone, not the Stephen King paranormal movie with Christopher Qalken, or the show with Anthony Michael hall, this is a zombie sci fi tech armour movie starring Michael Jai White, of Spawn Fame, Jeff Fahey of Lawnmower man fame, and Chad Michael Collins from the Sniper movie series.

The blurb

An elite team of soldiers who, to stop the collapse of humanity, descend on a radiation-poisoned town and perform the ultimate stealth mission using high-tech weapons and armour. IMDB 3.6/10 and on Amazon it only gets 3.7, which is unheard of. Incredibly low.

And that description? Doesn’t it sound like the Crysis C-R-Y-S-I-S computer games? It does to me, and prompted me to download them for the PS4. And I am glad I did, as they are now 9.99 for all three remastered versions, down from 40 pounds. Result

But back to the movie…

Nah. I give it a generous 4 out of 10.

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In this episode we welcome back the wonderful Stephanie Grant from the Listeners of the Dead Podcast for a chat. No real agenda, more a chat about what we have seen and liked, what we have seen and didn't like, what we are looking forward to, and what we've been up to and future plans. We also take the top 25 or so most recognizable TV and movie zombies to get to a consensus of our top 3.

It's relaxed. Come get relaxed with us. And if you are very, very good, we will let you sit on the floor in front of the couch as we watch Last of Us season 2. If you are bad, then it is Zombie with a Shotgun, Night of the Flatulating Dead and Nazi Zombie Death Tales and bed with no supper for you.

Enjoy.

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Die Alone is a 2024 Canadian horror thriller film written and directed by Lowell Dean. The film stars Carrie-Anne Moss, Douglas Smith, and Frank Grillo. It tells the story of a young man with amnesia who joins forces with a hardened survivalist during a zombie like outbreak, as they set out to find his missing girlfriend.

And fortunately for us, it is on AMAZON at the moment, so saves me wading through the DVD cesspool I have at the moment.

People have likening it to Memento with the amnesia element, we have seen other movies where the main male character has lost his partner, probably in a car crash and cannot remember what happened.

90 minutes on the nose too, so easy to get through…

5.7 on IMDB 75% on RT and 3.1/5 on Letterboxd

It was a bit too slow

A bit too miserable

The twists were good

It was nice to look at, well acted, atmospheric, the creature effects were good, but they were barely used.

Didn’t leave me feeling happy

It felt like a cheap indie Memento meets the Last of Us and Annihilation with someone feeding loved ones, a la Donald Sutherland in Final Days, or Hershal keeping the infected in the barn in the walking dead. With hints of Maggie.

5.5/10 at best, closer to a 5/10

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Welcome to RACCOON CITY

It is reboot time

Johannes Roberts of 47 metres down and The Strangers: prey at night wrote and directed this 2021 reboot set in 1998.

We have a new cast and a lot of familiar characters, with most of them coming from the games including Clare, Chris, Wesker, Jill, Dr Birkin and his family, Richard, Leon, Vickers, Irons, Ben Bertolucci and Lisa.

However, they are NOT the characters from the computer games, they are just using the names.

The movie is dark, certainly darker than the Paul WS Anderson efforts. Set at night, raining, locals with their hair falling out bleeding out of their eyes, game locations such as the mansion and police station, a lot of death. And yet, Clare is too headstrong for me to care about her, Chris is also, Leon is too useless for me to care about him, Jill is too rough, Birkin too creepy. TBH out of all the characters in the movie, the poor experimented on Lisa and the one on the slab in the lab are the only characters I felt sorry for.

A bigger nod to the games, rather than a constant spotlight on his wife at the time (Milla Jovovic) as per the Anderson efforts, this was a decent enough escape from a city movie, not too dissimilar to the second Anderson movie, Apocalypse, however rather than having OTT comic strip computer games characters like the Anderson series, these are all quite weak and forgettable.

I gave it 6/10 because it was so much better than the others. It is watchable for sure, with some decent elements, but it isn't resident evil really, despite using all of the names.

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Ok we are here and back after the 200th episode extravaganza, back on the zombies, and the DVDs too.

Now this is THE DEAD NEXT DOOR

1989 written, produced and directed by JR Bookwalter. His debut too. And he did the soundtrack… another one of those

Steph described this as another from the bargain bin 2/10… which is a really bad sign…

The blurb is that

In the near future, the world falls victim to a plague of violent carnivorous undead humans, and a black-ops elite team of soldiers, nicknamed the "Zombie Squad", has been enlisted by the government as exterminators to control the growing epidemic. While on a series of routine containment missions, the soldiers stumble upon a mysterious religious cult which wishes to protect and enable the zombies, believing them to be a punishment ordained by God. Within their compound may be a cure to the virus causing the plague.

It actually gets 5/10 on IMDB which is somewhat surprising

It cost $125,000 with Sam Raimi some of the money of Evil Dead 2 t produce, Bruce campbell has a voice role and Evil dead 2 co-writer scott Spiegel appears as Richards. The film was shot on Super-8, which is an amateur grade film generally only used for making home movies. Everyone involved worked on the film for a deferred salary.[3] The film is notable for highly graphic gore effects.

Thoughts? Well the title is awful. Next door being the church in relation to Bow's place? And the DVD cover is very misleading.

It had ambition, a lot of people, and I think it deserves more credit for trying to make something on a shoes string. With a proper budget this could be classed alongside many of the 70s and 80s zombies, but wont be because of the poor camera quality.

4/10

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Our 200th episode and the end of season 6 of the podcast. It is a like a gender reveal party, but rather than blue or pink powder it is just blood and guts in pletiful supply.

Before the Resident Evil series Paul WS Anderson actually made decent movies, starting with Shopping starring Jude Law he went onto making the popular first Mortal Kombat, the one with Christopher Lambert as Raiden. And then came this, 1997, and it was, as Darren describes it "Hellraiser in Space."

So with a lovable cast of Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Jack Noseworthy, Sean Pertwee, Jason Isaacs and Richard T Jones, and a director before he became lazy and/or jaded, we have this.

Set in 2047 (so not long to go) it follows a crew of astronauts sent on a rescue mission after a missing spaceship, the Event Horizon, spontaneously appears in orbit around Neptune, only to discover that a sinister force has come back with it.

We talk when we saw it, when we owned it, and when I met Jack Noseworthy...

libera te tutemet ex inferis - save yourselves

We love this movie... it is a solid 7/10 for us

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The film uses color footage to show the action from the zombies' point of view in which they see themselves as normal humans and occasionally switches to black-and-white footage to show the zombies from the point of view of normal humans

55% on RT and 5.7/10 in IMDB th DVD box suggests it could become an instant cult classic. We shall see about that.

It stars Matt Davis from The Vamepire Dairies, Legally Blonde and CSI as Mike

Michael Grant Terry from Bones as Tim

Juliana Robinson as Venessa

And Betsy Beuler from the awful Scrubs interns as Cindy

The root menu has an infuriating college rock tune Barricade by the Random Class Collective so had to mute that.

...

...

Urgh..

A classic? No

Cult? No

Was it ok? I suppose.

3.5 is the score of the year so far… as bad as the amateur Codename: Yin Yang and the last 3 resident evils… I feel this tried, it was quite clever with the flipping of the story but this was no where near as good as Dead Heads or the Revenant which scored 6 and 7 respectively, or even the massively skewed Fido thanks to Jen's score… so what was this? Was it 3.5 again? No it’s a 4

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2006 something is rotten in the state of denmark

Codename: Yin/Yang is a fan-made movie. 6.2/10 on IMDB Some say it has great plot ideas and characters, but poor editing and low-budget effects.

One reviewer says the movie is "horrible" but that the fun they had making it shines through.
Another reviewer says it's "beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema".

The US President (Daubjerg) unleashes a zombie virus on Denmark, apparently confusing the country with Iraq [maybe this joke makes more sense in Danish?]. To finish the job off, he sends in Special Forces icon Bobo Moreno (Penstoft), to oversee the mop-up work. But against him are Yin and Yang (the other Penstoft and Louring), two opposing sides of the same lethal coin. One is dark, dresses in black and is an expert with firearms. The other is blonde, dresses in white, and wields a mean Samurai sword. They are Denmark’s last hope, and have to slice and dice their way through the zombies, to reach Moreno’s headquarters, where he and an amazingly over-acting mad scientist are holed up.

Sounds shit… IM IN!

Directed by Penstoft

Outtakes of the zombies

Written and filmed by Penstoft

Yin was Penstoft wife in real life

Penstoft as gaffer, FX, set design, colour grading, trandlster, subtitles and the computer work….

Looks like they had a lot of dun making this even though it was bad in places they did put more effort in that some of the movies we have seen. It may have been cheap and fan made, but it scored better than many professional movies with a budget. Well done, team.

3.5/10

To be fair that is the same score as the last 3 resident evil movies and way better than Night of the Flatulating Dead and Johnny Z and Pro Wrestlers Zombies HOW DARE YOU!

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After a mmm, and urgh and a "brain candy" in the first three the movies the last three are categorically dog shit with credits. We hated apocalypse, retribution and final chapter for a reason. As Lurch in the Addams family says "Urrrrrrrrrrrr."

3.5/10 dont bother unless you need closure

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Now I know what you are going to say – Darren you are hopping all over the place man…. Stay on track…

But no, I saw REC4 Apocalypse back in Episode 62, and in Episode 139 we saw the second of the US Quarantine movies. REC and Quarantine are virtually the same film. But yeah, I get it, I am all over the place, but what are you going to do about it? I just watched 6 resident evil movies in order, in a row, and got progressively depressed about how inconsistent, bad, and full of thievery they were.

So, REC3 Genesis, on Clera and Klodo's wedding day, a guest is bitten by a dog and thereafter he soon turns deadly due to a virus that was transferred to him. The virus spreads and the situation goes out of hand.

Ok, remember REC4, it had the journalist from 1, the SWAT guy from then too, and the granny from this one? I will need to keep an eye out for her.

5/10 on IMDB, 44% on RT

5.5/10 from me

Well filmed, well acted, great tension, excellent gore, but the story is a bit obvious

I would definitely recommend the 4 REC movies over the US Quarantine movies and those 6 Resident Evil movies. If you haven't seen them, I would highly recommend them.

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Cannibal Apocalypse… 1980 so right in my wheelhouse when it comes to the classics. John Saxon, a man with a stalwart wig that managed to endure movies with Bruce Lee and Freddy Kreuger. Came from nowhere really. I don’t know what prompted me to find it. But find it I did. I think it was referenced in another movie I saw recently, the write up for it anyway. And I got this on DVD. Why? To send to our pod sister across the pond, Steph at listeners of the dead.

So to it…

Cannibal Apocalyse Apocalypse domani, lit. 'Apocalypse tomorrow', also known as Invasion of the Flesh Hunters and Cannibals in the Streets and was directed by an Italian director using an Anglocized alias for the US market. We have seen that a lot.

The plot A group of POWs get infected with a dangerous virus that turns them into cannibals. When the cannibal instinct becomes strong, the veterans create havoc on the streets of Atlanta.

It stars John Saxon (Enter the Dragon, Battle Beyond the Stars, Nancy's dad in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies) as a Vietnam veteran bitten by infected POWs who stars in a movie described as both "interesting" and "silly" and that the film "contains enough blood and gore to make Eurocult fans happy, including some graphic flesh munching, a French-kissing scene that will scare the hell out of you, and a shotgun blast that has to be seen to be believed."

I liked it. The PTSD element and the vetsploitation made it a lot deeper than the normal late 1970s early 80s zombies fare.

5/10

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After the joy of rewatching Overlord last night, I am back on the dog shit trail. Or am I? Daylights End, 2016, After a plague turns a huge section of humanity into bloodthirsty creatures, a drifter finds few survivors and reluctantly decides to help them. And this is one of those movies pushed by Amazon. It is there in the list when looking at Romero or Zombieland. Daylights End. It feels like a vampire title. Apparently its not.

It stars Johnny Strong. Now I have attempted to watch this a half dozen times, maybe more. But it is Strongs firm jawed model looks that turn me off it. Now it does have Lance Henrikson, but he’ll do anything for a sack of change. And Strong, after looking him up, was one of the sniper spec ops guys who sacrificed themselves in Black Hawk Down. So for that alone I need to give it a fair shake of the stick.

There are many movies like this one. A bad episode of the walking dead It is formulaic. A macho hero, probably emotionally detached, rolls into town and is the saviour before eventually leaving and going his own way. Actually that is the plot of the 1970s Incredible Hulk TV show and the Littlest Hobo. A tonne of westerns. When it comes to zombie movies and movies we have seen this one felt a bit of a mishmash, a mashup of zombie hunter, Navy Seals vs Zombies, The Last Hope, Rise of the Zombies, Amityville Uprising, Zombie Warz with a z. We have an overly macho hero Thomas Rourke killing zombies because they turned his wife and he ended up killing her. This was actually done by an alpha that is following Thomas, but somehow Thomas is following it? I didn’t get that, it was there days before he arrived. That one is different. It watches. Ok. A well armed group of former police officers led by Lance Henkrison and a lot of civilians they have sworn to protect. Hard nosed Henrikson and Thomas don’t agree. Cops that are trained and armed by taken to task my a bunch of marauders until Thomas wipes the lot of them out in one go?

Thomas was too macho. And they gave him the gun from Black Hawk Down. In fact Strong uses the Black Hawk Down photo as his headshot. He was invincible and refused to be wrong, even when his foolhardy mission, the only way we can get everyone to the plane, ends up killing everyone he went with and let the infected into the police station, killing even more.

For people who had surviving for so long they didn’t last very long as soon as Thomas arrived. I guess the lesson is don’t listen to the know it all handsome macho guy who has been doing everything solo since the virus started.

Henrikson was underused. Louis Mandylor was the best thing about this movie. Not a lot happened. He saves Sam and goes back to the station. They put him in a cell. They are attacked. He escapes and is then allowed to stay out. He goes on a foolhardy mission. He beats bad guy in the softest of ways. He leaves.

The sunlight thing was more of a vamp thing.

It was watchable but poor. A bit better than the aforementioned crop of bad macho hero movies and cop movies… so I would give it… 4.5/10 worth a meh. But don’t feel bad if you turn it off. Def not worth paying cash money for.

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JJ Abrams' Bad Robot brings us this underrated WW2 super soldier zombie movie from 2018. And I had been putting off watching it for the pod as I had until I appeared on BPs Let's Talk Horror Channel the other night. BP is watching and reviewing movies this year that he believes aren't getting the credit they deserve. He and I talked Cooties, but he also talked Overlord and it prompted me to watch it today.

You can watch BPs episode on Overlord here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQEzZswm3_k&t=9s

Ok. So for me this was a decent WW2 movie, akin to Band of Brothers, and Saving Private Ryan. It was made well, with an excellent cast, superb look, feel and effects. The zombie super soldier element really doesn't appear until an hour in. Until then this is a group of US paratroopers in occupied France planning to take out a German radio tower to enable D-Day to go ahead.

From when Iain de Caestecker is killed by the Nazi commander and then injected by Jovan Adepo's Boyce, the movie changes. It still have the sabotage element, but now we have something new, something out of Project Wolf Hunter.

Whilst the super soldier thing isn't new, having seen it in Valley of the Dead, Frankenstein's Army, Output 1 to 3, recently Operation Undead, The Revenant, Army of the Dead and the aforementioned Project Wolf Hunter, this was a decent war movie with the super soldier thing added. I guess that is why I didn't watch it for the pod... until now, and the intervention, or inspiration from Let's Talk Horror Channel.

It is a solid 6.5 for me, 6.6 on IMDB, and 82% on RT. So, if you haven't seen it, and don't mind the WW2 plot and story for a third of it, then give it a go.

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And onto resident evil extinction, part 3 of the franchise that we are working our way through. We will watch the movies, then Welcome to Racoon City the reboot and the Netflix show. But before that, this is the 3rd movie on the bounce and it admittedly my favourite, and think that is because it is no longer hamstrung by being tied to the games, and therefore has to play to the audience of gamers. It can just be a movie

It opens as the first movie does with Alice in the shower waking up after the EMP wiped her and James Purefoys memory. However this is not Alice it is one of many clones created by the evil Dr Issacs. Which is a good thing as she ends up getting killed, but only after the res dress boots, photo, and laser corridor of the first movie, along with a lot of her clone sisters. What a waste of a good Alice. Nasty ditch full of alices.

This is an umbrella lab under a tiny shack in the middle of the Mojave desert, surrounded by zombies in the thousands.

So the t-virus got out, and took out the world. It is no longer limited to Racoon City. Within weeks the USA is gone, within months the world. And lakes rivers and seas dried out… which is cool for this movie, but in the later ones, the ones with the planes and aircraft carrier etc it is a fertile looking green Canada.

I like this one, it is brain candy along the lines of Paul Bettany's Priest and Carl Urban's Dredd. It is a fun movie, but it doesn't need to be a Resident Evil movie as we end up with super telekenetic Alice. It is now removed from the games, and this is, as Michael says, part of an Alice v Wesker and Umbrella, as it the rest of the Milla Jovovic series.

6.5/10 as it is a fun apocalyptic jaunt in the desert.

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2004 and a bit of a mess Resident Evil Apocalypse seems to be the last of the Paul W Anderson Res Evil movies that pays back what it is to the computer games. With movie character Alice joined by Jill Valentine, Oded Fehr's Carlos and The Nemesis we get some cheesy one liners, and the plot of Escape from NY embedded in the events happening right after the first movie left off.

Did we like it? Well you will need to pull up a chair and find out

5/10

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SEOUL STATION – 2016 written and directed by Yeon Sang-ho. who wrote and directed all three Busan movies. It is the second released installment in the Train to Busan film series, and a prequel of its eponymous film, the aeni (South Korean animation) explores how the zombie epidemic began in South Korea before the latter's events,and revolves around the three main characters; Hye-sun, a young woman and prostitute who is attempting to survive in the world who sees her as disposable, Suk-gyu, her father who searches for his runaway daughter with help from her boyfriend, Ki-woong.

I started this once, a long time ago but this time around, for you dear people, I shall stick with it.

RT said it was thrilling and relentless from start to finish, Yeon Sang-ho's Seoul Station is a layered and vicious entry into the zombie genre

The Hollywood Reporter called the film "a simple, thrilling ride through a fiend-infested world."

Some asshole in China echoing the thoughts of the government there went on about it being more about south Korea's homelessness and prostitution problem, and gave it 3/5 but that’s the Chinese for you. They hate their neighbours.

The guardian (a wanky arty newspaper) described it as "desperate souls trapped in life's margin"

And it made over 2 million for a ½ million budget pretty good

What did I think?

A lot of shouting, screaming and loud wailing that annoyed, both hye and asshole BF did not grow at all, they couldn’t stand up for themselves and fight back, or even close doors

I recommended it to Steph and Michael

6/10

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A man takes extreme steps to protect Maggie, his daughter, who is slowly turning into a cannibal after a zombie attack. He spends time with her, reminiscing about her childhood, dreading the future.

It stars Arnold scharzenegger, joely Richardson and Abigail Breslin in the title role as Maggie. Although I have time for all three – esp Breslin in the Zombielands, final girl and little miss sunshine

I have been putting off watching this because it looked over sentimental. Arnie in a non action role.

But, after Harold’s going stiff last time out I thought I would give it a go

60% on Rotten Tomatoes

5.6/10 IMDB

Arnie's limited range is shown for what it is here. His emotional scenes are the equivalent of him being given a particularly tricky quadratic equation to solve. But the filming is crisp and beautiful. Stunning in place, but thoroughly depressing. It is a shadowy shot of Maggie, with the net curtains blowing in the breeze in the blistered window of a grey farmhouse under a miserable grey sky.

Essentially it is the story of a kid with an incurable disease, dying, and her father having to deal with it. It is all very depressing. Well filmed. Well acted for the most part.

6/10

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Harold's Going Stiff 2011 British

Lonely pensioner, Harold Gimble, has become the first man to suffer from a new neurological disease that is slowly turning him into a zombie-like state. Harold s hermit-like existence is shaken up when a vivacious nurse, Penny Rudge, is sent along to alleviate his stiffness. Her special massage techniques work a treat on Harold and they become close friends.

Harold agrees to trial a possible cure for the disease at a private institute, and the initial results are excellent. But the following day he's in an even worse state than before, and after Penny accidentally overhears the doctor s dire prognosis for Harold she decides to sneak him away the next morning.

Word soon gets out, and before long a small group of bloodthirsty thugs are pursuing Harold and Penny across dramatic moorlands in the hope of a kill.

100% from fans onRT

5.8/10 on IMDB which is pretty good I think

It was alright

5/10 from me

A sad metaphor for dementia and other degenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s Parkinson’s etc

The hunters were annoying and unnecessarily comedic which is out of place with the rest of the movie

Flipped as you could tell between a documentary style and not… it was inconsistent

Good to see something from that angle, I think Maggie is similar with arnie? I don’t. Know

In the end it was a sad story about a lonely man at the end of his days in a lot of pain, who is given some hope, before the inevitable happens. Yeah, 5/10 is fair.

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Rememeber Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter? Ben Walker, Anthony Mackie, May Elizabeth Winstead, Dominic Cooper, Rufus Sewell, Jimmi SImpsom…. 2012 5.9 on IMDB 34% on RT? Well, this isn't that.

Abraham Lincoln Vs Zombie also 2012 but that is the only thing in common, starring…. Well nobody. Horror movie stalwart Bill Oberst from circus of the dead, werewolf risin, painkiller, scary or die, a haunting in same, dismal, valley of the saquatch, ditch day massacre, Krampus and nude nuns with big guns (seriously) as Abraham Lincoln 3.2 on IMDB 22% on RT

Produced by Asylum and release direct to video. Apparently it is a Mockbuster of the proper Vampire movie by 20th Century Fox. So jumping on the Vampire hunter marketing coattails.

Looking at the reviews. Jason Adams said it was extremely repetitive, with a script full of terrible lines. Other than Oberst the actors pretty much suck post colonial wastewater.

Dread Central said Oberst was good but overly written scenes, wildly uneven pacing and confusingly staged scenes prevented it from living up to its potential.

Connect Savannah said it was terrible.

Starburst said it was sluggishly directed from a weak script.

Everyone praised Oberst.

Even with the adding of Stonewall Jackson, Pat Garrett and Teddy Roosevelt, in the end, unlike Exit Humanity that has Brian Cox, Bill Moseley ,Stephen McHattie and Dee Wallace it doesn’t work.

The reviewers were right. Oberst was the only thing that worked. He gave a decent performance as Abe. Everyone else was average at best. The effects were poor. The constant speeches, the repetitive standing around, speech, then running about to orchestral music, then standing around got to much. It was haphazard in its timing.

3.5/10

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Not a lot is written about this 2004 movie for a reason. The cast and crew appear nowhere online in headshot form for a reason.

Conceptually it is an ok premise. The hadron collider has an unexpected dump of radiation. A team led by the chief scientist is heading down into it and 4 twenty something junior scientists volunteer to monitor it for the weekend. The radiation causes the research team to turn into zombies, and the volunteers need to escape the tunnels of the institute whilst malevolent forces from outside hamper their escape.

What do we get? 4 awful British actors walking tunnels slowly. They are jumped from nowhere by a zombie, fight it off. Run around the corner, then start to walks really slowly again. Repeat and rinse.

There is one decent scene/shot.

And the highlight was when one of the characters asking "did you get through to anyone?" and the subtitles stating "3 2 1".

Could have been done well but wasn't. Had a Cornetto in the freezer as a nod to Shaun of the Dead and some very loose 28 Days Later music at some point. But, all in all, this was a very poor effort deserving of it's 2/10 score

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Zompocalypse Therapy Sessions

Follows Erica, an agoraphobic therapist, and her anxious clients who must fight to overcome their personal problems and the zompocalypse. Erica is a therapist with problems. In particular, the walking dead. She doesn't know what to advise clients in zombie situations. Between the zombie-virus lockdown and her agoraphobia, she's afraid to leave the house. Her husband Bob is cranky about being confined with her, and a zombie attack doesn't improve his mood at all. Warren, a street-smart zombie slayer, can't believe her lack of survival instincts. Erica and her anxious clients (the ones who didn't get eaten yet) must process the changes brought by the zompocalypse. And survive zombies.

How was it?

Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.Awful.

It took 3 sittings to struggle through this horse shit. It is made awful by Blaze Lovejoy the writer (awful), director (terrible), producer (well it was made), executive producer (awful decision making) and star (ON SCREEN FOR 95% of the movie!!!!).

Conceptually the movie could be a cult classic. If it was more like As We Know It this could have worked. But no, it is not like that at all. She hogs the screen for 95% of the movie. She cannot act. She looks down the lens on a dozen occasions. She cannot direct. The writing is awful. You just want Erica to die.

If this was a comedy there were no jokes. It is not funny, other than conceptually.

There are some movies that are so bad they are good. This is not one of them. This movie is so bad period. I want a refund, and the 90 mins of my life back.

2/10 (and they should be thankful for that)

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During Thailand's WWII involvement, a Japan-engineered chemical weapon creates a voracious superhuman horde of Thai soldiers leaving a blood-soaked path of ultra-violence and destruction. Yet the greatest victims are the abject undead themselves. Friendships, dreams, and lives devoured... nothing remains.

The trailer looked good for this one so I grabbed on blu ray as there was no other alternative. The gore looked good, the zombies looked good in a Far Eastern fast movie Korean zombies go.

It has a lot of good elements. Basically, those fiendish axis of evil Japanese invaders, including an OTT anime style commander, let a chemical/virus loose on the poor unsuspecting Thais. It takes over a close-knit unit of recruits, who all grew up together, turning them into bloodthirsty monsters that kill without thinking and then regret it afterwards. And that is the new element, the zombies cannot control their rage, wiping out their own people, including kids, and then feel awful the next day. Talk about killer's remorse.

There were a few elements I didn't like; turning to dust when reaching a point of karma, still functioning with literally no head, and it did seem repetitive as we went through the same scenario a few times.

But overall a pretty decent effort from the same country that have us Paradise Z and Zombie Fighters. I would give it a go.

6/10

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You remember those meals where you didn't really have everything you needed? Maybe it was a few days before payday and you need to make something with what you have? So you have kosher chicken hot dog wieners, Marinara sauce and 2 minute noodles for dinner? Well this movie from 2015 is that meal.

In a town where Dennis Leary's factory dominates the skyline, and he sponsors everything, using the money he makes from selling the Ribblet, a processed meat product with a chemical found on Saturn (WTAF?), humans, vampires and zombies live peacefully and in harmony.

We have all the high school nonsense, bullying, the pretty guy pressuring the girls into having sex with aggressive manipulation, stoners, uptight teachers, and friendships gained and lost.

Nerd Ned, awkward baseball pitcher Dag, and slutty girl Petra are all human. Although Ned is bullied and sees the zombies are totally chilled about everything, so lets himself get turned, and Petra is pressed until she lets the handsome lead vamp turn her too.

Aliens then turn up and the vamps think the humans called them to wipe them out, the humans thinks the vamps called them to wipe them out, and the zombies... well they just wonder why no one brought the days supplies of brains.

Everyone turns on each other, and the 3 main characters are thrown together trying to work out what is going on, whilst rekindling friendships. Oh and there is a alien voiced by Werner Herzog, and a family of werewolves.

In the end it was that meal. Was it tasty? The comedy was very funny, maybe too funny. Michael-Keegan Kay, Patton Oswalt and Bob Odenkirk, and Ned, were hilarious. Kay too funny at times, because it didn't balance with the heavy teen stuff of losing parents, forcing someone into sex and bullying. The drama was too dramatic for the comedy, and the comedy was too funny for the drama.

If you like two minute noodles with your kosher hot dogs and marinara sauce you will love this. I thought it was ok.

5.5/10

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1983/4 and a Troma effort back when a Troma effort looked on par with the likes of Zombie Flesh Eaters, Zombie Creeping Flesh and Zombie 4: After Death. In this movie a group of American tourists unwittingly fall foul of unseen forces on a small island after witnessing a voodoo ritual. Some gore, a couple of jumps, but a lot of nonsense otherwise.

Is this a zombie movie? Until the payoff. But, should I be hard on it for that? Maybe. Unhuman was also not really zombies, Summer Camp too. However, we go into it based on the idea that it is. And Zombie Island Massacre made in the early 1980s screamed zombie movie to me. Do I feel cheated? No, really, I have seen worse.

I watched it, so you don't have to.

3/10

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In this festive time Michael and I talk gifts, and the gift that is the 28 Years Later trailer that dropped this week and made the online horror community wet themselves. In short, we are both excited, but not convinced. After all, it is no Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies. How dare you!

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We bring season 7 to a close with this effort from Channel 4 in the UK, a channel with a pedigree that includes Spaced, Drop the Dead Donkey, Trigger Happy TV, Black Books, Big Brother and more. It brought us Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, and Dead Set by Black Mirror's Charlier Brooker. Although I would insist you watch the Brazilian remake Reality Z instead.

This steaming turn left in a bag on my porch my Michael Avery does not live up the aforementioned billing. It is not good at all, despite Robert "Citizen Smith" Lindsay, Sue Johntsone and Johnny "Balls deep in carp" Vegas. Acting is awful, writing is some of the worst and they have to pad with with constant radio chatter over the top. The characters are lamentable. Constant switching of locations and then location banners telling us. This is clearly for the tiktokkers with the attention span of a demented bee.

The story? Stolen from Return of the Living Dead 1 and 2 the military are driving a dangerous gas in a canister through the countryside. They get to a town and the truck rolls over and the canister ruptures and the gas comes out.

Stolen from Cocoon, the town is made up of retirement homes and the gas gives the old crumblies a lust for life... mainly taking it by killing people and animals and eating them.

But it is poorly written, directed, the locations are shit and the acting is sub par from a lot of the cast, a but like Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks.

By the end of episode 1 I couldn't take any more. I think 20 or more location banners in a 45 minute episode was enough for me.

3.5/10

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The 2003 Australian Undead is one of the many movies marketed at the SHAUN OF THE DEAD FROM (insert country). We have seen many of them, Go Goa Gone from India, Juan of the Dead from Cuba, New Zealand's I Survived a Zombie Holocaust starring friend of the pod Harley Neville and, of course, the awful American Dead and Breakfast. You know I hate that one, despite it having Oz Perkins, Jeremy Sisto, Diedrich Bader and David Carradine.

The interesting thing about Undead being classed as the Australian Shaun of the Dead is that it came out a year before Shaun of the Dead. Shaun came out in 2004. And there are similarities. So you have to ask, is Shaun of the Dead the UK's version of Undead?

To the insane plot. In the small outback town of Berkeley meteors are falling out of the sky and turning people into flesh eating zombies. Renee, who is saddled with debt and the jealousy of the town, tries to get the hell out of dodge as the bank forecloses on her parent's farm but can't get out. She is saved my Marion, a triple barreled shotgun toting lunatic who claims to have been abducted by aliens. Add Renee's very pregnant rival SallyAnne and her idiot BF Wayne, a shouty bully of a police sergeant and is inept rookie partner and we have the making off a zombie survival story.

Until... well, the acid rain turns people back from being zombies before they are taking up into the sky by intense alien lights, and the zombies keep getting up. The actual cause of the first zombie apocalypse, and the second subsequent zombie apocalypse will surprise followers of the genre but hey ho.

As it is this movie was alright, it felt at times like an early Peter Jackson with the comedy and gore and other than the constant music I liked it.

5.5/10 would recommend and watch at least once more.

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It just a 3 hour episode of the Walking Dead with Negan and Maggie heading off without the others, and into Manhattan. What else is there?

I mean, acting is good, writing was good, a few decent twists, too many of TWD equivalents of the red shirts in Star Trek, nameless victims. I don't believe the writers of any of the Walking Dead shows can write for children. They are either mute, even when up to a teen, or a brat. My niece is 3 and won't STFU, so goodness knows why they have all these silent kids?

Negan is Negan, Maggie is Maggie. I stopped watching TWD before Negan and Lucille pulverised Glenn and Abraham because of that. And thanks to this show and Maggie's tortured dreams, I have seen it a dozen times. Thanks for that.

I mean. It was an ok offshoot, that has a longer second season greenlit. So we shall have to see.

6/10

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I waxed rhapsodic about this movie in the last episode and, after interrupting Michael's DVD stack, got him to watch this so we could talk about it today.

7/10 all day long. Can't wait for the other parts. Come on, don't disappoint me now, Amazon.

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Spanish, based on a trilogy of books and new on Amazon, I was excited for this one. The trailer looked great, and boy, did it not disappoint.

In what I think of as a top 20 worthy zombie movie, certainly the best new zombie entertainment I have seen since Last of Us, and before that, All of Us Are Dead. This had it all, a decent led character who wasn't invincible and overly macho, great writing, great acting, superb camera work, great tension. It looked and felt like it was the apocalypse.

It ticked all my boxes. I had the realistic spread, the government and military trying to shut the place down from What We Become and FEAR the Walking Dead, it had the survival elements of Night Eats the World, Rammbock and #Alive before expanding out with a lot of World War Z style chase tensions, then more traditional survival elements.

I don't want to wax rhapsodic about this but I loved it.

7/10 for me and hoping the others will watch it too, so I can go gooey over it for a second time.

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My issue with this movie was not the plot. It was basic, but it was fair. Zombie outbreak, I am guessing the zombie outbreak from the original 2006 movie that cost £8100 to make and made £2M at the box office, and soldiers holed up at a camp. The country is going to be fire bombed scorched earth style, and they are told on the radio to get to a camp on the coast before heading to the Netherlands.

Ok, plot holes and stupidity. Just find another boat. Use vehicles. Use the humvees in the camp, not the broken down WW2 style truck but that aside.

We meet Jonesey, a pathetic creature of a soldier who has a handheld home movie camera. And it through the lens of this handheld movie camera that we see the whole gory story, including, but not limited to:

the camp being overrun seen through the camera with nightvision - during which Jonesey does not fire a single weapon, or help his colleagues
investigating noises in a house, during which zombies chase one of the soldiers, and Jonesey just films it
Leane, a journalist with the party, nearly getting raped by bandits, and despite him being a soldier, Jonesey just filming it
Leane, and Nicholson going down under a hoard and just filming it rather than helping them
Kayne being shot, the Corporal carrying her, and Jonesey just filming it under fire rather than... you know... shooting back, or helping Kayne
Them getting to the camp and Jonesey filming it all rather than helping anyone doing anything

I HATE this subgenre with a passion, POV wanky handheld cameras, and used for the entire film! THE ENTIRE FILM! Even when they are captured by the bandits when one of the bandits picks up the camera to film a rape and torture.

3.5/10 and that is because Jonesey being pathetic the whole movie and not helping in any way to a point where almost everyone dies, and does nothing to stop it.

Jonesey, you are a twat.

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Netflix 2024, this Filipino effort joins Block Z and Day Zero as modern zombie movies from the Philippines. Following a family Francis (dad), Iris (mom), Josh (teen) and Lucus (younger tween) escaping the zombie apocalypse and going back to Francis' childhood home, a huge plantation house surrounded by sugar cane fields.

The issue, and the zombies are well done Korean style black eye, black veined, fast moving zombies, isn't the undead at all. It is the enemy within. Francis was abused by his bully of a father in that house, in the basement of that house. On top of that it turns out Iris had an affair with Francis' handsome younger brother Diego and Josh is likely the outcome of that.

This is more about the mental deterioration of Francis as what little of the family unit falls apart, as he remembers his abuse at the hands of his father and starts to become him. It did feel very Harrison Ford Mosquito Coast. He is more dangerous than the zombies, becoming more and more isolated until he pops. And there is carnage, oh, is there carnage? Yup. Just wait for the breakfast scene.

Superbly acted, tense when it needed to be, no music, great special effects and cinematography. My issue with it, is that it was just too long by half an hour or more.

Still, a solid 6/10 for this one.

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Scottish 2008 and set in a desolate farmhouse in the middle of nowhere during a global pandemic where the infected are violent, jabbering crazies. We meet Daniel, who has lost his wife and child to the infected version of his mother but didn't have the courage to kill his own mother. His car runs out of fuel and he seeks shelter in the farmhouse that is protected by a particularly barky dog.

The farmhouse is home to hunting rifle toting teen April, who runs very hot and cold, or luke warm and cold. Her range is from apathetic and disinterested to shouting and storming off. There is on in-between. So, practically all teenagers then.

April's story doesn't really make sense, there are a quite a few plot elements introduced but not used, such as an attic, a white van with boxes of old knickknacks, and a wheelchair, and we soon learn April is not April, April was her mum, and this was her grandparent's farm.

The infected are around the countryside, screaming, and shouting and jabbering. When they get caught on the barbed wire around the farm April takes care of them. And it is obvious that she is immune.

Enter Kay, a woman closer to Daniel's age who Daniel wants to stay, but April wants to leave and it all kicks off... to a degree.

It isn't particularly well acted. The cast didn't go onto great thing. In fact the writer/director didn't either. However, even with poor cinematography at times, and dull, emotionless performances, this was tense, atmospheric and watcheable.

4.5/10 Not as a good as the US Alone, but better than the UK Alone.

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Celebrating the 20th anniversary, Michael and I are joined by Brian from Zombpocalypse for a wide-ranging and rambling talk about all things Simon Pegg, UK-US translations, finding and then annoying a friend named Pete, Spaced, Channel 4 vs BBC comedies, and the legacy of the 2004 game changer that was Shaun of the Dead. Have you run it under a cold tap yet? We hope so. So come join us at the Winchester for some hog lumps, a pint and a game of darts so we can wait til this all blows over.

Always a solid 7.5/10 and a game changer for the zombie genre. The first best comedy, and one that many have tried to emulate, not least I Survived a Zombie Holocaust, Juan of the Dead, Dead and Breakfast and Go Goa Gone.

Enjoy.

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I loved this movie from the moment I saw it. 2019. First Nation characters being downtrodden by the white man finally getting their chance for a better life when mother nature infects mankind with a zombie virus that they are immune to.

Beautifully shot, with some scenes reminiscent of art house cinema, and a growing tension that puts it up there as a mashup of True Detective and Fear the Walking Dead, and an excellent First Nation cast this stood out to me so much it was in my top 10 for a long while. It is certainly one of the highest scoring recent movies and part of a selection including Yummy and It Stains the Sands Red that are just head and shoulders above a lot of zombie entertainment out there.

Michael's first viewing of the movie, and he is being spoiled at the moment with this, Yummy and ISTSR on his watch list, and he and I both loved it.

If you haven't seen it, check it out on Amazon.

For us a solid 7/10

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It is zombified tortoise meets trailer trash hare in this 2016 indie zombie horror. As the zombie apocalypse rages in the background trailer trash lovers Nick and Molly head out of Las Vegas to catch a plane with Nick's associates. The plan is to fly to Mexico. Do they get there? Do they f*ck! After their Porsche gets stuck on a desert freeway Nick is killed my a shuffler and Molly has to head out on foot across the sands.

This movie is great. Brittany Allen from The Boys, Jigsaw and 13 Eerie (we reviewed in ep 59) stars as Molly, who has to survive with no training or supplies, or even basic survival skills as she is pursued by the zombie killer of Nick, who she dubs Smalls.

But over time her talking to Small, akin to Tom Hank chatting with Wilson!!!!! We learn more about her, about her addiction and losing her son to social services, her bad life choices. This is a zombie therapy session. And we care about Smalls too, in a Bub kinda way.

I always list this movie along with Yummy and Blood Quantum as one of the three zombie movies that people maybe haven't seen and need to.

Check it out.

6/10

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We are both back and Micheal is playing catchup. He is watching the DVDs of movies we have covered in previous episodes. Here we talk the Canadian 2017 Canadian Death Trench aka Trench 11, a particularly dull WW1 parasites themed zombie movie. It should have been good, it could have been good. It was wasn't. It was dull. The parasites were good practical effects, the acting, cinematography and story was ok. But the claustrophobia just wasn't there in the tunnels, the zombies were few and far between.

Our score 5/10

And we also talk Zombie Wars from 2007. This was a mess. Stolen mostly from Planet of the Apes the zombies are smart and are farming humans for food, by breeding them. Set 50 years after the zombie apocalypse somehow everyone still talks, dresses, acts and is armed and equipped like modern day. Soldiers taught to fight zombies from birth get killed easily. There were no kids to show the breeding program worked. And there was nothing good about this.

Our score 3/10

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This was awful. What drew me to it? The name? Zombie Town. Tick. It was made in 2023. Tick. It starred Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase and Henry Czerny. Tick, tick and tick. But...

It was a 12. A 12! Not even a PG. A 12! Which meant no gore at all, no violence even, no blood, no swearing, no nudity, none of the good stuff. But then what did we expect from RL Stine the creator of Goosebumps.

In this overly convoluted nonsense of a movie zombie movie director Carver (Ackroyd) lives in a town where he is so revered the townspeople renamed it after him. The townspeople are desperate for him to make a new movie, as it brings success to the town and he reluctantly does. However, his movies are all cursed. All the b-movie actors from his zombie movies are never seen again. Why? Well, it is a load of horse shit about ancient Egypt, and movie reels turning people into zombies then sending them to the netherworld.

There is a lot to ate about this movie. Too much actually. What was there to like? Czerny, I guess. Amy's Zombie 1982 t-shirt. The soundtrack including Sparks and The Hollies. The rest? Horse shit of the highest order. I can see why this isn't being promoted at all in zombie movie circles. The zombies don't even bite or want brains.

IMDB 3.8/10

Rotten Tomatoes 43%

The Undead Symphony 2.5/10

The zombies take over people using a "soul suck." When I think of the movie, the word "suck" does come to mind

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Heading away for a few weeks but wanted to get all my DVDs seen. This will just leave me with the Negan and Maggie show to watch when I am back. But onto this:

1966 and made by Hammer House of Horror, we have Plague of Zombies, starring Quatermass himself Andre Morrell as Sir James, a professor of medicine who head with his daughter to investigate a dozen unexplained death in a small Cornish village.

Add a pretty daughter, a former star pupil, Servalan from Blake's 7, and a dodgy local Squire who "spent some time in the Caribbean" and you have a pretty good forerunner to a lot the movie we see nowadays.

It was probably one of the first movies to have zombies looking dead, even though they are voodoo zombies. They don't look like sleepwalkers as they did in other voodoo movies from the 40s and 50s. They look like decaying, blue faced undeads. The dark plot and the Squire and his use of the zombies felt quite White Zombie, combined with the sear Dr Who's in particular the Dr of Hammer stalwart Peter Cushing.

It is dated, not for everyone, but better than most of the crap that would come out in the 1970s. It is said it had an influence on Romero pre-NOTLD.

A solid 6/10 from me 6.6/10 on IMDB and 83 on Rotten Tomatoes. Check it out.

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Belgian 2019 and even though it is the first Belgian zombie movie this was done superbly well. I watched this back in Episode 46 BM (before Michael) and since then it has been a firm favourite. It is one of those movies I have seen over the last couple of years that are not on other people's radar.

Joining It Stains the Sands Red and Blood Quantum in my top list of movies most haven't seen, we meet Michael, Alison and her mother Sylvia from Belgium as they head into Eastern Europe to go to a cheap cosmetic surgery hospital. Nervous Ninny Michael doesn't like and ends up passing out, being anesthetized, and electrocuted before being taken away by local Lothario Daniel into the bowels of the hospital. Daniel is looking for drugs but they discover a woman strapped to a bed in a locked room. The woman is a zombie. And once she escapes all manner of craziness breaks loose.

We have top notch gore, a lot of comedy without losing the dramatic elements, and, despite you hating the characters, or not liking them and caring if they live or die, you enjoy it. Michael is annoying (the one in the movie), Sylvia is a witch, Daniel is a scumbag, Yulia is dodgy, Schultz is an animal and Oxsana is the only on you care about.

A solid 6.5/10 from both of us, recommendable and rewatchable

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Now he is catching up with the DVDs Michael and I are discussing them. In this episode we cover Automaton Confusion, a movie that cost $30,000 to make and yet, up until the stupid its a giant experiment nonsense, was thoroughly enjoyable, punching way above its budget. It had fast paced zombies, genuine scares, and 80% of the story was basic but decent.

And we have Summer Camp, a movie from the producers of Annabel, The Conjuring and REC. So Spanish. It starts as a pretty generic, four American counselors at a summer camp for kids kinda thing. It could have been anything, slasher, aliens, demonic possession, then from about 20 mins in it becomes a pretty unique frenetic chase and survive story where the monster changes from one person to the next.

Both scored 5.5/10 from us, which makes them recommendable, and re-watchable, which is a rarity at the moment given some of the crap we have watched recently.

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From the producers of [REC], Annabel and The Conjuring comes a bit of an anomaly. 2015. It is called Summer Camp, which is why it was never on my zombie radar, as that suggests it will be a slasher movie where perfect American teens and young adults are chopped up by some mask wearing former student or camp counselor using a [insert random weapon here]. It is not that kind of movie, although the first 20 mins of getting to know the Lothario Antonio, the other Lothario bespectacled Will, home troubled Michelle and uptight rich girl Christy suggests it will be.

In a camp set in an old run down, I want to say monastery in rural Spain with no phone signal and a house keeper and maintenance man who don't speak a word of English, they are preparing for the kids to arrive. But something is not right. A family of magic mushroom peddling druggies have moved into the woods. There are spores in the air, and the water from the nearby well, well, well, it turns the animals in the petting zoo on each other.

A comment on the petting zoo. Cute white rabbits. TICK. Cute lambs and goats. TICK. Bloody great German Shepherd the size of a horse? Uh-huh.

Antonio turns first, going after Will. And we learn that the spores from the mushrooms and the mushrooms themselves now in the water supply turns the infected into a bloody rage monster but, and this is the catch, only temporarily. So the movie becomes a game of TAG. One is infected, and trying to kill the others. Then recovers, doesn't remember a thing and is then chased by someone else who has turned, but only temporarily.

The infected makeup is CGI but done well. The acting, sets, music, tension, everything was good with this one. And a good ending, the first ending not the second one.

I would recommend it with 5.5/10 and probably would say watch it with Unhuman, as it had a similar feel.

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A double bill from the DVD bargain bucket here. I will try not to let the disappointment come through but I had high (ish) hopes about these two. We had, for starters SNL alumnus Chris Kattan, a profoundly average member of the cast, and James Denton from Desperate Housewives and the Good Witch as unlikely partners in this Cowboys v Zombies western.

Was it funny? No. Did it have any recommendable moments? I saw this about a week ago and I am struggling to remember anything good about it. The plot is that Geronimo, knowing he is going to die and with him the last hope for the native American people, curses the white man with the white man curse. It is basically a voodoo curse that means anyone white could bite anyone else who is white and they will turn zeke. They somehow keep their motivation, voice, brain, but just want to eat people. Kattan plays this idiot, Denton mostly plays it straight, and it was just weak.

The annoying thing is that after two movies (Zombie King and Zombex) where the Hollywood names were in it for barely a few minutes, Kattan and Denton were in this the whole movie and it was still horse shit.

3.5/10

Zombie 4 aka After Death is one of those Italian zombie movies that looks like it was made in the late 1970s but was in fact man in 1989! No! Say it ain't so!

On a random jungle island a group of western scientists are trying to cure cancer. Really? On a crappy island? Anyway they try to cure the local Voodoo priest's dying daughter but she dies. The priest then sends his own wife to Hell to be with her, and curses the scientists who are then killed by the priest's wife who has gone full on Demons rip-off, other than a 5 year old girl.

20 years later the girl returns, not sure how, or why, but she is with some mercenaries and a few other randoms. At the same time an archaeological group (we think) including a porn star from Can I be your bratwurst, please? (genuine movie) also arrive. The zombies are fast runners but in stupid ninja costumes, and they can talk, and when hit oof, ow, urgh...

A few ok bits but mostly shit. Like I said, made in 1989 but looks like 1979

3.5/10

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Michael and I talk about two films starring 80s superstar Corey Feldman - Zombie King and Zombex.

Zombie King - He plays a Haitian voodoo demon that is summoned by Edward Furlong's widower to bring Ed's dead wife back from Hell.... for about 3 minutes.

Zombex - He plays a scientist in the last 2 scenes along with Sid Haig and Malcolm MacDowell and Lew Temple. MacDowell is in about 5 scenes. Haig is in 1.

So we know we have been conned when the big names are not in the show. Remember Tom Everett Scott and Harold Perinneau in Z Nation? They are on the DVD box, the poster, the cover and how long do they last?

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Coming in probably the most fabricated DVD box I have ever seen, this British movie came with arguably the worst acting, zero originality and, well, let's read the box again shall we?

Can't wait for Zombie Undead! - George A Romero. Either a lie, or they paid him for a quote.

Makes zombies terrifying again - NOPE

Destined to become a cult classic - NOPE

Fantastic - NOPE

A brain munching classic - NOPE

The Purest British Gore you can find - NOPE

And there are no zombie zombies, like the box, there are no soldiers fighting zombies in the hospital, no buildings on fire, and no skin stripped zombies. There is even a picture that isn't from this movie on the box.

Jay's constant over gesticulation will annoy you, he can't speak without throwing his arms around, Steve can't emote or even dress a wound despite being an ambulance driver, and Sarah was pathetic. You wanted them all to die.

3/10

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Zombie Wars- 2007 – 2.8/10 from IMDB 20% on Rotten Tomatoes

And it has a unique selling point – the zombies are organised. They breed and farm the humans for food and it reminded me of Planet of the Apes, the original Charlton Heston version.

We have a female voice over, Apparently the zombies came alive 50 years earlier. NO one knows why. Awful awful credits with a warped camera and bad music. Written directed and edited by David Prior. The guy already has a lot to answer for.

A group of women, uneducated in rags are leg in a chain by zombies. They roped together. Two heroes, Briana and David save them as they are being guarded and led by zombies. Smart organised zombie. They have guns but let the zombies get so close they have to wrestle them. NICE SHOOTING MAN. And after shooting one in the head and looking through the whole. How did you do that bro? Both are man. Totally man. They guys are in fatigues and army vests and t shirts with M-16s and pistols. They say SMILE and NIGHT NIGHT when they shoot the zombies.

Camp has kids being trained as soldiers. A war of never ending battles. A war that cannot be won.

6 minutes in and I was struggling.

David Walker of DVD Talk rated the film 1/5 stars and said, "Zombie Wars is not a terrible film in the sense that it is not completely unwatchable. It is, however, a terrible film in that the script is bad, the direction is lackluster, the acting is marginal and the premise, which has hints of Planet of the Apes, is laughable in its execution."

Peter Dendle wrote that the film is "conceptually ambitious" but dragged down by its poor writing, acting, and production values.

Me? I actually gave it 3/10. I have seen a lot worse but a lot better. The 50 year thing made no sense. The zombies being organised made no sense. The farm made no sense. The soldiers dressing, being armed, and talking like it is now made no sense, when it is 50 years after the zombie apocalypse.

And we have Trench 11 or Death Trench. Another movie where they put Nazi zombies on the cover despite it being set in WW1 (when there were no Nazis). Misrepresentation.

2017 – modern, a quite extraordinary 5.4/10 on IMDB. That is the highest we have seen for a while, although am not going to get my hopes up. 92% on Rotten Tomatoes! Gott in Himmel. And it is Canadian. Won some awards in a quiet year.

The blurb

INGLORIOUS BASTARDS meets OVERLORD meets OUTPOST in this terrifying, blood-soaked, gore-filled, stomach-churning zombie horror. In the final days of WWI a shell-shocked tunneller leads an Allied team into a hidden German base… 100 hundred feet below the trenches. The Germans have lost control of a highly contagious biological weapon that turns its victims into deranged killers. The Allies find themselves trapped underground with hordes of the infected, a rapidly spreading disease and a team of German Stormtroopers dispatched to clean up the mess. The only thing more terrifying, is what lies beneath it.

OK so it stars a lot of people I don’t recognize, and the late great Donald Sutherland's least famous son Rossif, who I didn't recognize and didn't even know existed.

Didn’t like the ending

The locations/sets were drab

Could have been better but I have seen worse. Not the 92% RT gives it. More like the 5.2 IMDB gives it. Was tense at times. Dark.

It had the same feel as another Canadian zombie horror Eiree 13. Was done well but felt like a slightly duller slower version of a UK or US movie.

5/10 from me

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Spanish. Dubbed with over the top macho American voices despite it being set in England this overly campy voodoo tale looked like it was a script Hammer House of Horror turned down, with the star Paul Naschy playing not one, not two, but three roles, and all of them poorly.

The plot: In England heiresses are being murdered by a mysterious man in a mask, cowboy hat, cape, before being brought back as a zombie to kill their families. Why? Well, it is a revenge kick by one of the three Paul Naschy characters. Add a lot of 1970s breasts, a chain smoking daddy of a psychologist, a few weird scenes, awful camera work, terrible acting, and that is before the terrible dubbing, and a snuff scene with a chicken, and you have a movie that they put on at the same time as The Exorcist with a more devil themed title, and Dawn of the Dead with a zombie title, to blatantly ride the coat tails of the infinitely better movies to make a bit of box office cash.

For a man dubbed the Spanish Lon Chaney, I was disappointed in Naschy's perfomance(s), and took three sittings to get through this. Not even as good as the 1940s voodoo movies. Deservedly in the bottom chunk. Worse than Burial Ground. And that is saying something.

2/10 okay, maybe 2.5 as it was better than Zombie with a Shotgun and Night of the Flatulating Dead. But still very poor.

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2012 and a more than generous 2.6/10 on IMDB this is a three part movie, well, three separate stories and none of them containing as the title of the collection suggests - Nazi zombies.

The first story is a weird bag of crap that tells the story of a cowardly British soldier George during WW1 who, after seducing a fan dancer, writes a condolence letter from the army saying he had died. For some bizarre reason her father is an American army major, who tells him his daughter tried to commit suicide and then was kidnapped by the Nazis (again this is WW1) including Hitler (again this is WW1)'s lead occultist who is in the SS (again this is WW1) and that if George doesn't go an save her he will be killed, shot, poisoned, turned into a zombie, who knows? It was a bag of cats, including at one point a fight between the zombie Red Barron and a Japanese Kamikaze pilot zombie.

The second story felt a bit Dr Who-ish as a very hoity toity lady paranormal investigator arrives in a tiny village where a murder has been committed. A pair of lovers were attacked in the woods by a blindfolded Nazi ghost. The local priest is skeptical, but the local yokel police constable is happy to help the investigation.

And finally, you know the phrase "save the best til last?" Well, they didn't. The third story is about demons being attracted to the chaos of war. Hm, original? No. But the demons in question look like Boggles. Remember Boggles from the 1980s? Those rubber ugly puppet today? Too awful to even describe.

2/10 for me and that feels generous looking back on it. I would suggest the title is unrepresentative of the content. There were NO Nazi zombies in this whole movie.

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This awfully titled debut by Steven C Miller (Silent Night, Deadly Night, Extraction, Werewolves) was hailed in 2007 by Bloody Disgusting as being one of the best zombie movies in decades. I was skeptical. Why? Well, 28 Days later (2002), Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead (2004) and 28 Weeks Later that year. According to BD this was the holy grail of true independent horror films featuring the leanest, meanest, fastest zombies ever filmed in a non-stop horror masterpiece. Bold.

What it was was a pretty frenetic zombie movie, well filmed, well acted, superb practical effects, tense, full tilt in terms of running to literally survive. I could see Miller's potential showing through. Akin to Neil Marshall's talent coming through in his debut Dog Soldiers.

We follow some high schoolers that look like high schoolers, not 20-30 somethings. We have 3 friends, Chris, Scott and Tim, who have normal lives, Tim likes a cheerleader, the jocks hate this, Scott protects Tim, Chris is a stoner who dates one of the cheerleaders, and they all live in a podunk city in the middle of nowhere as people start to get sick and turn into fast moving, thinking, feeling zombies that want to kill and kill and kill again.

I liked it. Other than a couple of elements that were added late in the day. The effects and everything felt well planned and executed. Until the last bit with the janitor and then at the morgue, I was planning to give it 6, but ultimately it let me down. High hopes dashed.

However, it was recommendable and certainly better than most of the shit I watch. It was, for example, much better than that Nick Cannon version of Day of the Dead.

5.5/10 check it out, my people

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The DVD box looks like The Walking Dead, it stars Sig Haig, Malcom McDowell, Corey Feldman and Lew Temple who you may remember as one of the prisoners from The Walking Dead season 3, and the subtitle is The Walking of the Dead. I shit you not. They make such a big thing of Temple's casting that there is even a blood splat at the bottom of the cover containing the phrase Starring Lew Temple from The Walking Dead. Is this The Walking Dead? Is it fuck?

This is an 80 minute nightmare. The editor clearly has ADHD as no scene lasts more than a minute. Hundreds of quick cuts are edited in between scenes too. Random shit, and zombies running, and the weather, aerial shots of cars. All nonsense. It will make your head hurt as it is like a TikTok movie.

McDowell is in it for 5 minutes, Feldman and Haig for one or two.

This is a story that isn't original, didn't need to be told, and is told badly. After Hurricane Katrina a nefarious drug company supplies the depressed population with a drug (Zombex) to help them. Personally, I would say don't ever accept a drug with part of the word Zombie in it. The company is in cahoots with the government (obvs) and need to get the "cure" out of New Orleans to a base (where Haig, Feldman and McDowell are) as there is a no fly zone.

And so Lew Temple, did you know he was in The Walking Dead, two short shorts and boob tube wearing supposed security specialists and a square jawed squinty Lothario head from one random place to another where they end up getting drunk and partying loudly until the zombies arrive.

It was awful. If you have the attention span of a gnat or you are on a three day speed binge then this one is for you.

2.5/10

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Michael and I talk the classics this week; White Zombie, I Walked with a Zombie, and King of the Zombies. And these movies have all had a significant influence on the horror genre. White Zombie, released in 1932, is considered one of the first zombie films and is credited with popularizing the concept of zombies in popular culture. It introduced audiences to the idea of the undead being controlled by a master, a theme that has been revisited in countless zombie films since.

I Walked with a Zombie, released in 1943, is often praised for its atmospheric and moody cinematography, as well as its exploration of voodoo and Caribbean folklore. The film has been cited as a major influence on later zombie films, particularly those that focus on the spiritual and supernatural aspects of the undead.

King of the Zombies, released in 1941, is a more comedic take on the zombie genre, featuring a group of characters who stumble upon a mysterious island filled with zombies controlled by a mad scientist. While the film may not be as well-known as some of its contemporaries, it has still had an impact on the genre, particularly in terms of its blend of horror and humor. Overall, these films have helped shape and define the zombie genre, influencing countless filmmakers and writers in the years since their release. Their themes and imagery continue to be revisited and reimagined in modern zombie films, making them enduring classics in the horror genre.

Did we like them? Have you seen them?

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How to unpick this one? Toyko Zombie first. 2005 Japanese and based on a Manga of the same name that is classed as one of the best.

It certainly hit a lot of the zombie movie themes. We have the reluctant hero, the cause, it happening in the background, societal collapse, and then the rich controlling the poor, before marauders take it for themselves.

But I found it quite slow, a little dull in places. Maybe, like Zom100 Bucket List of the Dead, the manga/anime is better and it just didn’t translate as well as it should.

The school boy/girl perversion at the start with the school teachers, and old man was limited to then, if there was any depravity I would bet it would have been later, after the collapse of the rule of law.

A few too many random characters, the guy from TV becoming the prince, the bald guy who stole the van wanting Calpis and becoming the marauder leader.

The oddest thing was seeing Tadanobu Asano from the Thor movies, Mongol, Shogun and Mortal Kombat in a stupid role.

And Burial Ground, 1981 Italian by Andrea Bianchi. In a nutshell a bunch of Italian couples descend on a remote rundown villa for 70s style soft core sex whilst perved over by creepy supposed teen Peter Bark's Michael. He is a truly weird and creepy character as he is playing a young teen but he is clearly in his late 20s or early 30s and looks older. Think the Martin Short movie Clifford but a really, really creepy version

Everyone is an idiot. They stand transfixed as full body suited rotting zombies slowly close in, then only react when they are within spitting distance.

It will annoy you. Janet screamed the whole time. The boys couldn't fight for shit. It has such little plot that they had to tack this final explanation blurb on the end.

If you watched Zombi 2 (Zombie Flesheaters) or Hell of the Living Dead (Zombie Creeping Flesh), or any of the other European movies from the same time and think you will give it a go, then sure, but it is the weakest by far.

4.5/10 for both from me, and will talk about them in a discussion episode with Michael soon

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A king related episode. No, not THE King (Elvis not Charles), but the zombie king, or the king of the zombies. Same naming, very, very different movies.

Zombie King was filmed in 21 days in the UK in 2011. It looked awful in the trailer and it was.. It has a milkman (the writer) and a postman as 2 of the main characters. It also and this was the draw stars former child stars Edward Terminator 2 Furlong and Corey Lost Boys/Goonies/Stand by Me Feldman as the Zombie King and the spirit Kalfu, aka Papa Legba a Luwa from Haitian voodoo respectively.

It gets an overly generous 3/10 on IMDB and the blurb is “in an attempt to bring his dead wife back to lie (aka Pet Sematary) Samuel performs black magic that backfires and turns him into the zombie king. Hordes of zombies soon wreak havoc over the human race. 0/10 for originality there.

It is awful and despite the two Hollywood actors being top billed and on the cover, Furlong is in it for about 6 minutes in total and Feldman for not even 2 minutes of screen time.

Watch it at your peril. It is a 3/10 at best, and probably should be marked lower.

As for the 1941 King of the Zombies, I thought it was ok. Black and white. Voodoo. A lot of comedy mixed in with it. But one character in the middle of everyone else playing it straight. Certainly better than White Zombie and I waked with a Zombie. I Walked with a Zombie gets a staggering 7/10 on IMDB and 85% on Rotten Tomatoes making it the best scoring of the old old 30-50s zombie movies.

A plane crashed onto a Caribbean island, the three survivors (Mac, Bill and Jefferson) meet a Doctor Sangre who used voodoo to control the locals, and also to extract information from a US Admiral who went missing on a secret government mission. Sangre is totally a Nazi.

It wasn't as well thought of as White Zombie or I walked with a Zombie.

This however, despite the political incorrectness, was really entertaining at times. Jefferson was the star. He played it well. The Doctor as over the top. I hate it when my villains are clearly villains. But Henry Victor is camping it up.He was a silent movie star. And, coming back to White Zombie, Bela Legosi was meant to play the Doctor but was busy, so they then wanted Peter Lorre, but negotiations failed so they ended up with victor. Purcell, who played Mac, was also Captain America. Cool.

It is a 6.5/10 for me

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After a month hiatus for summer breaks we are back with a new intro from Zombpocalypse, and a new DVD player to play new DVDs. How exciting? Physical media!

With a stack of DVDs off eBay we are back on it, and I am starting Season 7 with the 1943 classic I Walked With A Zombie, a film that has had an influence on the horror genre that cannot be overstated. While some critics have criticized the film for its stereotypical and sensationalized depiction of voodoo, others have praised it for its respectful and authentic portrayal of the religion. The film's use of actual voodoo rituals and practices adds a level of authenticity and depth to the story, making it a unique and groundbreaking film for its time. It remains a classic of the horror genre that continues to captivate audiences to this day and it gets 85% on rotten tomatoes and IMDB gives it 7/10 and Stylus magazine in 2007 listed it as the 5th best zombie movie of all time. High praise indeed.

And I liked it, certainly more than White Zombie, maybe less than The King of the Zombies, and it is a 6/10 for me.

As a juxtaposition we have Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! Imaginative title. According to the DVD box this is laugh out loud funny and a successor of Shaun of the Dead. Made in 2008 he blurb is that When an experiment goes awry a horde of flesh hungry zombies go on the rampage and face-off against some tasty strippers.

So strippers… again.

So I cant help but compare it to all the other zombie movies with strippers. Peelers, Zombie Strippers, Stripperland, see also parts of A scouts Guide to the zombie apocalypse, the opening credits of Zombieland, etc etc. I feel like it was more Zombie Strippers and Peelers than anything else just a poor version. The strippers don't even strip, like their did in the aforementioned.

It may not be a critical darling, but it has found a niche audience among fans of zombie movies and cult horror films. If you enjoy cheesy, low-budget horror movies with plenty of gore and zombie mayhem, this film may be worth a watch.

Personally I think it was poor, certainly the weakest in the zombie sub-genre of zombie movies set in strip clubs. Definitely as weak as Stripperland, Zombie Strippers and Peelers so will give it 4/10

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Ok this one is for Oliver, Oliver Gray, out there on the west cost. He mentioned we didn’t have Zombie with a Shotgun on our list. Well it wasn’t on the list of movies we’d reviewed, but it was on THE list. The Z list. Ollie is making the definitive Z-list and I look forward to him sharing it with the zombie horror community. SO we can complete a very lengthy box ticking exercise.

Before that, Zombie with a Shotgun came out in 2019. It gets 3/10 on IMDB, 2.5/5 from Voices from the Balcony, and we always ignore the Amazon score as it is always massively over inflated.

It stars Braeden Baade, or Bade, or Ba-ade or Bard as Aaron, he is infected with what he and his whiny OTT gf Rachel believes is the zombie virus, but it turns out it is a half dose, and he ends up with powers, the ability to speak to zombies. Dr Doolittle meets Rick Grimes, or, that’s just Matt Smiths character in Patient Zero. A far far superior movie.

It was shit really shit

Bad acting bad writing bad sets bad action sequences bad sex and rape attempts bad costumes, inconsistent across the board, including his ever changing zombie makeup

If you ask yourself was this virus or voodoo, how could you tell? The weird big pharmaceutical company overseas (WHAT?) said it was a virus, the police and police radio and even Aaron and Rachel called it a virus, but then Angela was a witch doing magic on Aaron's sister and ex gf and even cut his heart out. I mean WTAF?

It was a mess

There were too many poor choices, the random drone shots were awful, any use of stock footage of NY streets was terrible, and it did jump all over the place time wise, as well as dream sequences, and at times narration.

It is winding up now.

I am going to give it the equal lowest score, along with Attack of the Flatulating Dead, Zombie with a Shotgun and Zombie with a Shotgun : The Beginning get 1.5/10

Avoid this movie like you would a big pharmaceutical company overseas, someone trying to film with a drone or an OTT New Yorker who wants to sit down with you and talk about how crazy your old man was.

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Rampant, South Korean, 2018, one of those top 50 zombie movies that you haven’t necessarily gotten around to seeing. Like I walked with a Zombie for me. And it is set in feudal Korean, which is a rarity. It is a topic I broached with Brian at Zombpocalypse. This is a zombie movie set a long time in the past. Why is a zombie apocalypse a modern day or a futuristic phenomenon? 99.99% of zombie movies are modern day or in the near future.

How would you survive a zombie apocalypse in the middle ages? Or as a neanderthal? I suppose back then hunters were real hunters, not some asshole taking an AR 15 to shoot tame deer in the woods. Back in the day they had to know how to use their weapons pr they would die, and their weapons, for the most part, were reusable. You had a sword, axe, polearm, halberd, bow and arrows, with the arrows being reusable unless damaged when firing them. Oooh coming back to the caveman thing, no one has done a caveman zombie movie. I need to write to Troma. Zombie Caveman Apocalypse, or Sabre Tooth Zombie. To quote George Takei, “oh my.”

Anyway the blurb is that a darkness looms over ancient Korea, murderous creatures known as night demons have overrun the country. Returning from a long imprisonment abroad Prince Ganglim discovers it will take the strength of his entire kingdom to stop the bloody rampage across the nation in this fresh take on zombie horror from the studios that brought you Train to Busan.

The reviews talk about spectacular sword sequences, swarms of zombies, and lack of character development. And we have talked about character development before. Or lack thereof in zombie movies. It seems to be a thing. The critics also said that the tension is built with the zombies but then too much human drama draws away from the tension.

And it is true. Too much business business. Overly convoluted plot. Too many characters. And far too much of the unnecessary comedy man servant of the prince. He ruins every scene he is in.

6.3 on IMDB, 62% on Rotten Tomatoes 4.2/5 again meaningless, on Amazon, and a 6/10 for me.

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"Little girl?"

Has there been a more iconic pilot episode? Maybe Lost, but they are few and far between. The Walking Dead, 177 episodes, plus 5 spin-off shows, plus numerous computer games, and not to mention the tomes upon which the show is based. It took over people's lives, it made zombies mainstream by creating a universe on TV. This wasn't the Romero's, you didn't need to be a horror fan to enjoy this, it was more like Star Trek, where one iconic cast and show spawned others in a whole universe.

In his episode we, as two die hard "Grimies", a new name I made up to describe Rick Grimes fans, talk that uniform, Coral!!!, Little Girl, Dead Inside Don't Open, the legacy of Rick and Morgan, and everything that came after. A show that rightly is classed as one of the game changers in the genre of zombie entertainment, perhaps the most important of them all.

Corallllllllllllllllllllllll!

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I went into this expecting to get progressively more and more angry about a 2022 French remake of the 2017 Japanese hit One Cut of the Dead. I was ready. Fists and teeth clenched. But then I watched it. And it was brilliant. Sure, it was almost a scene by scene remake of the original, but 1. it looked better and 2. it included references to the movie on which it was based.

We follow a small movie production creating a live 30 minute movie in a single take for a new online horror channel. Very similar to the original. We have the diva star who argues about everything, the drunk, the guy with the dodgy belly, the model actress, the actress who goes loony tunes thinking it is all real, and the director, trying his best to be cheap, and decent.

7/10 and I genuinely do think they improved on the original with this one. Highly recommended and free on Amazon at the moment.

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***He's done it again
He's done it again
Uwe Boll has done it again

We can't believe it
You can't conceive it

How'd he achieve it?**It's the worst show in town*
Another Boll movie (bad) and includes the guys responsible for Anger of the Dead (bad) and Beautiful People (bad). Boll appears as the least convincing President of the US without the hint of a US accent, the Secretary of State is Italian, we have a very unconvincing US General from Yorkshire, and all the other US soldiers are from Europe too and don't hide their accents (bad).

The plot - the US military send a musclebound "elite" team of mercenaries and a muscle bound prisoner into a small Romanian city to set off an atomic bomb next to a very unconvincing nuclear plant that doubled up as the secret US lab that created a biological zombie toxin to hide the evidence. The mercenaries have no equipment for some reason, barely any bullets, and a gun each at most.

Utter nonsense, typical angry Boll/Rosti/Boni misogyny. The women are silent, topless, dead or raped. The men are bearded and overly angry and macho. So much nonsense. I ranted for over an hour about this shit. Shit, I hasten to add, they renamed to Apocalypse Z to ride on the coat tails of World War Z. The colouring was ok, the zombie effects other than the weird giant one at the end were good. The rest was a bag of dicks with credits.

2.5/10 at best. It made me angry and feel like a bad person.

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In this episode we watch, review and try to justify the 2021 Night of the Animated Dead Starring Katie Sackhoff and Josh Duhamel. It is a pretty poorly drawn scene by scene remake of the 1968 original with a few added elements. We would recommend it for the connoisseurs of the genre, but not those starting their zombie journey.

Did we like it? It was ok.

Dd we need it? No

Steph's podcast on Night of the Living Dead - https://open.spotify.com/episode/50ue2vNXwPJbhU9YlAnOx8?si=u1-bctTtT0CmvhC9Bo4AnA&nd=1&dlsi=a82dff73310b4294

The GoodBadFlicks link - https://youtu.be/NxPK3sYb90w?si=7iu50Nf9ND9Am8aV

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My weekend plans seemed so simple. I would enjoy the sun, chill out with the dog, do a few chores with the impending arrival of the parental unit coming up - they will find something in which to find fault and so I try to preempt it with some target tidying. I had loosely planned to watch the next Uwe Boll produced bag of crap Zombie Massacre but then Bloody Babble poked the bear by asking if I had ever seen this, the 2011 Chilean Zombie Dawn. Had I seen it? It was one of the many slop bucket productions that Amazon Prime charge you for. And I had seen the opening 5-10 minutes before binning it for something better.

But now I was prompted into action, and had to get closure on this horse's dick of a movie. The premise was simple and we have seen it many times before, not least the original Resident Evil, and House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim and I want to say the Dolph Lundgren Dead Trigger. The idea being a group of soldiers/mercenaries are sent into the zombie hot zone to find x, ordinarily a scientist, or the vaccine, or patient zero or a sample from patient zero, you name it.

And that is the plan, a rag tag group of wholly unlikable shouty Chileans grumpily walk into the infected zone. Which, and now I am thinking about it, makes no fucking sense. There is no zombie apocalypse outside of this area, so take a jeep, a tank, a truck, a helicopter. Why did they have to go in on foot? Now that has annoyed me as I didn't include it in my review.... I may have to add an addendum.... in fact I will...

Anyway, this was shit. 2.5/10, lots of shouting, no character development, confusing plot elements and a bit of unnecessary rape. Not a fan.

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The recipe for Gangnam Zombie

Cooking time 81 minutes

1 young handsome male debutante with Taekwondo skills and a crush on the female lead
1 difficult female lead who hasn't made a movie in 7 years and wears the noisiest shoes ever
A dick of a boss
A bigger dick of a building owner
A chubby workmate of the male lead
2 useless security guards
1 petty criminal as patient zero
A dash of COVID from a Chinese cat
80 minutes of constant incidental music

Add the dash of COVID to the petty criminal via a cat bite and steep in the river overnight before delivering him to Seoul, making him patient zero

Mix the male and female lead, but be careful as these ingredients do not go together, the add the mix to the office environment with a dick of a boss, the chubby coworker and the asshole building owner chasing them for the rent

Patient zero gains some attention by getting worse in public before heading to the office mall mixing the COVID virus through bites to the neck for everyone

Add a couple of comeuppances for the idiot boss and the building owner

Before bringing it all together for a very bland and obvious movie we have seen dozens of times before and better accompanied by constant annoying music

3.5/10 and I feel that is generous

Arguably the worst Korean zombie movie we have seen so far - US Magazine

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The first movie was a double shit pizza with a stuffed crust. The crust stuffed with shit. And if you think nothing in the 2003 House of the Dead made any sense at all, despite it being a very simple premise, and losing all of the Uwe Boll insanity of the first, this the 2005 sequel is better, but it's still not great.

We lose the cheesy race music, fighting action stolen from the Matrix, terrible editing where the characters were use one gun, then a different one, then another different gun in quick cuts, all interspersed with shots from the actual game this just has a lot of unrealistic and stupid decisions.

The premise: after an outbreak caused by Sid Haig, he is Rudy from the first movie's dad somehow, AMS send in their crack team of Ellie, Ed Quinn's over the top macho, cliche of a man, with a recently dead brother and Nightingale, in with the most incompetent US Marines, led by Sticky Fingerz to get a sample of a first gen zombies blood before they flatten the place.

Lots of annoying inconsistencies, the soldiers are all killed easily and one on one with fast, nimble, capable zombies, whilst Ellie and Nightingale just walk through hordes, lack of radios, the missile just hits one building when the campus is overrun, the zombies are already in town, so where's the roadblocks and quarantine zone? I got progressively angry with a lot of it, but, to my first point, it was still much much better than the original.

3.5/10 at best. Definitely wouldn't watch it again. On par with Aquarium of the Dead, and that had a CGI zombie walrus.

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It could have been so good. Take a movie director, give them a computer game franchise movie and say go for it. The problem is they chose Uwe Boll a man who has spent his career making utter crap. Bloodrayne, Alone in the Dark and this House of the Dead (2003), three games turned into movies that really didn't work. Sure, computer game movies don't work, certainly not with him at the helm.

He also gave us zombie movies Apocalypse Z, the diabolical Anger of the Dead (rape and sex slaves), Beautiful people (rape), Zombie Massacre 2 Reich of the Dead (haven't seen it but can guess the women will be topless and at some point raped), making me think Uwe Boll should just stop. Uwe Boll the director who VideoHound's "Golden Movie Retriever" described as a "cinematic train wreck".

This movie is so bad I think the $1.8M it made more than its cost was purely fans of the arcade game, fans who would be very disappointed within the opening moments. It was so panned that as Snyder made Dawn of the Dead, the studios wondered if the public had lost interest in zombie movies. No, we just hated this one. In fact his average is just above 3. And this is being generous.

| Anger of the Dead | 4.5
| Dead House/Beautiful People | 3
| House of the Dead | 2

My thoughts?

"House of the Dead" is an abomination of filmmaking, a festering sore on the landscape of cinema. From its wooden acting to its laughable dialogue, every moment is a testament to incompetence. The plot, if one dares call it that, is a haphazard mess of disjointed scenes stitched together with all the grace of a drunken surgeon. Special effects resemble a middle schooler's first foray into CGI, and the direction is as lost as a blindfolded toddler in a labyrinth. This cinematic catastrophe serves as a warning beacon, signaling the dire consequences of relinquishing artistic integrity for a quick cash grab.

2/10 and you should be thankful for that too

Where were you when you first saw the poster of Dawn 2004? Did you have the 1978 poster on your walls at college? What's your favourite Shaun quote? You got red on you? Do you have a local Winchester where you can hold up until it all blows over?

In this episode Michael and I talk Shaun of the Dead and Snyder's Dawn of the Dead 2004 and the original Romero. We talk favourite scenes, zombies, legacy, game changers, how we would change 2004 to better suit our taste, guilty pleasures and more in this episode imaginatively titled Shaun of the Dawn or Shaun of the Dawns.

A real mess of a movie from Joe Chien who brought us Zombie 108 (another real mess of a movie). Taipei, and in a high rise building reminiscent of every other high rise building from every other zombie movie criminals and the locals live side by side. We have stories running in parallel, kidnappers have kidnapped a businessman for ransom, a drug dealer gets his new stash as he is visited by a rapper friend, a birthday party for a local teacher is attended by nubile friends of his daughter, and a SWAT team that is 99% corrupt head in to take out a drug gang.

Not that we see it but the drug turns you into a standard flesh eater, and then anyone bitten turns into one too. The violence is brief and good when it happens, the CGI effects are all computer games circa 2000 level, and the last third of the movie makes so little sense in the scheme of things we get 4!!! Title cards an hour in to explain what has gone on. I won't ruin it for you here, you will have to listen.

There was no obvious lead characters for a chunk of the movie, we had Jessica C who missed 7 people being turned and eaten and killed in her small apartment as she is listening to her headphones, and Andy On, the 1% good cop who does ask if they should even be there... what? Stealing a hold all of money from drug dealers after killing them all? But neither were decent enough characters. On was only straight laced, but was good in a fight, and C was just too painfully thin and painfully whiny, screaming and whimpering at everything she sees. I cared more for his character than hers, and neither as much as the kidnapper and his GF, who Chein wrote out of the story with hackneyed pointless side plots.

3.5/10 and now I need to watch something that makes sense. Naked Lunch anyone?

Troma movies are just fun. You can't get angry that the effects are bad or the story line doesn't make much sense, just sit back, grab a beer and enjoy. And that is what I did for this, the first Troma movie produced in Portugal.

And we follow Maria as she rescues experiment TS-347 from the labs of a cruel military cell that has been trying to create a super soldier. Enter Pedro, a bit of a loser, who's birthday party ended with a zombie attack and losing all his friends. He teams up with Maria, accidentally kills TS-347 and starts a chain reaction of events that includes, but is not limited to, 10 nuclear bombs, a psycho zombie experiment TS-504, a French half human half lobster, a dolphin samurai, a 6 foot lactating rat monster, and all manner of radioactive friends trying to fight the zombie hordes.

Sound fun? I think it was. A solid 5/10 for this Troma fun.

I was happy to be Troma-tized.

Special Thanks to Troma co-founder and Toxic Avenger director LLoyd Kaufman and Toxie for the audio.

If I said to you that Shed of the Dead is a British zombie comedy movie in the ilk of Shaun of the Dead, co-starring Michael (The Hills have Eyes) Berryman, Kane (Friday 13th) Hodder and Bill (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) Moseley in which Trevor spends all his time in the shed at his allotment fantasizing about being a wizard and drinking moonshine before the zombie apocalypse kicks him into action, it would sound alright. And on paper it is alright.

The reality though is something completely different. For us to care whether our protagonists live or die they need to at least be likable. NOT A SINGLE CHARACTER IN THIS MOVIE IS REMOTELY LIKABLE. I would go further and say they are all so unlikable that you want them to be eaten. Bobbi is one of the most caustic and just mean characters we have seen in the history of the show and Trevor, the wannabe Shaun, is an argumentative, unemployed unemployable whiner who has virtually no redeeming qualities, to a point of just letting his best friend be attacked and infected and doing nothing to help him.

The writing was poor. The fantasy scenes, of which there were many, were god awful and pointless. There is no moment where they notice the zombie apocalypse is happening. It is in the background and then they are just ignoring it. We spent 45 minutes ranting about how much we hated this.

It is a Shaun wannabe, but it really is a point and a half below Stalled, that had similar budget and size, but was much much better.

We gave it 3/10. Watch Stalled or Anna and the Apocalypse instead. This was pants.

This is a bit of a mixed bag of predictability. Take a really bad rip-off of The Walking Dead, make the township's mayor be the doctor, who can banish people by just saying they tested positive for the infection. Throw in a douchey goatee sporting psycho henchman with designs on the pretty girls in the town, a bunch of rednecks, a congregation of cultist loonies, Dee Wallace dying of cancer in a trailer and never leaving her bed for the movie, and Billy Zane in a cowboy hat and neckerchief training beautiful 20 somethings to fight zombies by playing paintball and driving around on quad bikes to poor rock music.

I think the 10% on Rotten Tomatoes is harsh

I think the 2.9/10 on IMDB is closer to the mark

I think Horror Society saying it was an awesomely acted slow burn just goes to show where the meth went that day

It is a 3.5/10 at best that had far to many inconsistencies. So the zombie apocalypse is caused by whatever was on the meteor that killed the dinosaurs and came up from a fracking site? And whilst the idiots under the doctor staying behind a thin fence and send paint balling teens on quads off with Billy Zane for supplies, a whole other community has Apache attack helicopters and dozens of redneck gunmen and women and are positioned right next to a giant hole in the ground.

A hole in the ground? The one the zombies are trying to get to because it is like a.... duh duh duh... elephant's graveyard.

On paper it should have been good. It had a Hollywood cast of Jeremy Sisto (Clueless), Oz Perkins (Legally Blonde), David Kung Fu Carradine, Harry Dean Morgan... no...Rob Downey Jnr... no... Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Walking Dead) and the trailer was hilarious.

A group of young handsome and beautiful friends including Ever Carradine, Jeremy Sisto, Oz Perkins, Gina Philips and Eric Paladino are heading to mutual friend, Portia De Rossi, get lost and end up staying at David Carridine's bed and breakfast. Carridine's son has died and Carridine uses an old Asian enchanted box to bring his spirit back. The spirit is evil and uses the box to turn all in his wake into zombies, leaving the friends to join forces with Jeffrey Dean Morgan's sheriff and fight off the horde.

This unoriginal Evil Dead 2 rip off is so far from the much touted "American Shaun of the Dead" label it has on the DVD cover that it had to be marked down.

With graphic novel and musical transitions, it is a bitty mess. The trailer was awesome but they put the best bits in the trailer. The other 130 minutes was crap, other than the Night of the Living Dead siege, the dancing, and the improvised shotguns.

We could only give this 4/10 and neither of us would recommend it or watch it again.

Do you like Korean cinema? We do.

Do you like K-Horror? We do.

Do you like K-Zombies? We do.

Do you like overly brutal bloody violence including numerous mass stabbings, infanticide, feeding bodies of test subjects to pigs, graphic beheadings, super soldiers with no eyes beating rooms of men and women to death with anything it can get is hands on, and killing someone by forcefully face f~cking them whilst receiving a blowjob? Not so much.

Still, that is Project Wolf Hunting. 5.5/10.

If I can use Michael's salad analogy, it is Universal Soldier, mixed with 2009 The Revenant, with a dash of Deadpool, a heavy side of The Sadness level bloody violence, a sprinkling of Con Air and 2012 Lockout all topped with a very unvegan dressing.

A bit of a mixed meal this week. You know when you are traveling through a foreign country, say somewhere in Asia, and you want to eat but can't read the menu and so you pick a couple of dishes based on the photo next to it on the laminated wipe clean menu? The two courses could be anything. You could have thought the Kaeng Tai Pla looked good but when the bowl of fish entrails soup arrived you gagged and threw up into your napkin. Where the Adobo looked like a soy soaked car crash but was, in fact, one of the greatest things your taste buds have ever experienced.

That is where I find myself as I watch Block Z from the Philippines and KL24: Zombies from Malaysia. But, which one was the rancid fish entrails, and which one the wonderful chicken?

Block Z. From the Philippines. At a university hospital a woman comes in suffering from a bite, and rabies. The bite is actually human. She comes back from the dead, bites one student doctor, then several nurses and before too long we have a university campus version of All of Us Are Dead. Well done, tense, with about half a dozen kids, a parent, a security guard and an obvious villain, this was a good watch. Well done, some excellent kills and despite this being my second watch I would recommend it and watch it again.

6/10

KL24: Zombies. Malaysian, so country number 35 for us, a flu like infection has taken over KL which turns into a zombie outbreak as we follow three intersecting stories of survivors fleeing for safety. Is listed as an action comedy on Amazon and scores 3.5/5 there. It is neither full of action or comedy. It is more like a bad Malaysian daytime light drama where the Muslim way of life will guide you to either your salvation or your doom as Farah has a truly awkward meal with her boyfriends secular family, before saving her brother and then the country, whilst her father's four wives end up fighting, turning zombie and killing him before Farah's brother Imri kills them all. Note: I make it sound better than it is.

3/10

Welcome, dear listeners, to Episode 133 of the Undead Symphony where in this episode we dive headfirst into the cinematic masterpiece that is "Zone of the Dead." Yes, you heard that right, we're delving into the deepest, darkest stench filled depths of Serbian horror cinema. (Serbia is country 34 for us). URGH! And I know I know, A Serbian Film is a far far worse movie, I could barely bring myself to read the plot on Wikipedia. This is just a bad movie.

Picture this: a gripping tale of undead mayhem, so intricately crafted that you'll wonder if the filmmakers stumbled upon a cursed VHS tape buried in the backyard. You can picture it, because this ain't that.

Join us as we navigate the labyrinthine streets of a Serbian city overrun by zombies, where our intrepid heroes—including the wonderful Ken Foree —must contend not only with the walking dead but also with the budget constraints that rival those of a high school drama club production, awful dubbing and the kind of writing and directorial misogyny that means all the women are 1) hot 2) useless and 3) easily controlled by their male counterparts.

Marvel at the stunning special effects that will make you question whether you're witnessing cutting-edge CGI or a discarded Halloween decoration brought to life. And let's not forget the riveting dialogue, delivered with such gravitas that you'll swear the actors were plucked straight from the finest community theater. Or... so badly overdubbed I turned the sound off and just read the subtitles.

So grab your popcorn and your sense of disbelief, because "Zone of the Dead" is about to take you on a ride that's equal parts shit and shitter. Let's dive in, shall we? Because in the zone, no one can hear you scream...with laughter.

Disclaimer: No zombies were harmed in the making of this podcast introduction.

3/10 at best. And I had a feeling it would be shit. It was the same feeling I got when picking Ving Rhames' lesser zombie movies, Day of the Dead and Zombie Apocalypse. Both were shit and forever tarnished Ving for me. This? I made me feel a bit sad that Ken was taking these shit roles in shit movies, and it was only made better by him being in it and them referencing a shopping Mall, Savini and Bottin.

Country number 33 for us is Mexico for the 2022 Some Be. This survival story is on Amazon for free (thank God, as I wouldn't pay for it) and the blurb is that Sarah and Esteban will try to survive amid a post apocalyptic society collapsed by the appearance of an unknown virus that overrides human will and consciousness. Ok, sounds familiar.

Sarah and Esteban somehow survive long enough to find each other, and then somehow survive numerous scrapes with the undead hordes that just appear our of thin air. For a very annoying 86 minutes they do not scavenge, they do not pick up water, food, weapons, medical supplies, a change of clothes, or even a bag to put it in. Sarah leaves her front door open AFTER seeing a zombie outside. Esteban does not treat the huge open wounds on his leg and head. They do not barricade where they sleep. They sleep at one point right next to glass doors AFTER they didn't close the gate behind them.

As zombie survival movies are my thing- see Among the Living, State of Emergency, Here Alone, The Battery, Rammbock: Siege of the Dead, Night Eats the World, Final Days, #Alive etc - this just annoyed me. They didn't scavenge in buildings or cars, they didn't have a bag. They dropped a weapons once used. In fact only 2 zombies are killed, both by Sarah, both with bits of wood.

It could have been better as it was well acted and filmed. It did look desolate but... I can only score it 3.5/10 and it is marked down because of their poor survival skills, inconsistency, Esteban's narration and the stupid title

And we are back and I genuinely don’t know what to expect with this one. 2001, and starring two Stalwarts of the late Brat pack era Lou Diamond Philips and Lori Petty. I mean, normally I would rattle of 3 movies the stars had been in, and I would be listing Mega Shark v Mecha Shark and Sex School 8 Mr Long Comes Back, or something similar, BTW only one of those movies was made up. But with Lori Petty and Lou Diamond Philips do I need to do that? I mean he was in La Bamba, Young Guns, and Stand and Deliver. True, it then dropped off and he played minor roles but he was always good. And Lori Petty, Tank Girl, she was Talk Girl, and in the original Point Break and Cadillac Man. They are both instantly recognisable. But I am losing the plot a little here.

I am losing the plot as Lou Diamond Phillips sent us two sound snippets, anecdotes about working on the movie and Fear the Walking Dead, an episode he directed that caused a bit of chafing. Listen out for Lou at the start and about 28 mins it. Very very cool. And the amazing Lori Petty sent us a file too, telling us about having to act as stand in AD when the director went walkabout. And she loves her concrete monsters. Who doesn't? But back to the movie..

After an assignment to retrieve a mob informant Rabbit (Steven Williams) leads them into the Arizona desert, federal agents Jack (Lou Diamond Phillips) and Steph (Lori Petty) opt for a seldom-used road in order to evade hit men. The highway that they take, however, has a storied past involving a chain gang that met a horrible fate -- the men still walk the road as the undead. Can Jack and Steph ward off the restless zombies and survive their desolate journey?

Let’s see shall we?

[that’s the sound of the men working on the chain…. Ga—a-a-a-ng)

Overall, while "Route 666" may not have been well-received by mainstream critics, its cult following demonstrates that it has found an audience that appreciates it for its quirks and shortcomings.

And we like cult – so I am going to score it 5.5/10 for the whole Dale Midkiff, Lou Diamond Phillips, Lori petty thing, but mostly for Steven Williams as Rabbit. He was superb.

It is our 30th country from which we have enjoyed zombie, undead and infected entertainment. Aren't we an international bunch of luvvies? And isn't the genre global? I think so.

How did this one appear? After back to back episodes of the floating turds of Amazon I needed something that I knew was good. No, not Dead and Breakfast. Michael still needs to see that one. And no not Route 666 with post Brat Pack stalwarts Lori Petty and Lou Diamond Philips. So, trusting in my overseas zombie entertainment, I looked for lists of the highest rated foreign language zombie movies. Surprise Surprise Train to Busan was at the top, but we had also seen Night Eats the World, #Alive and Juan of the Dead. The two I hadn't seen on the list were the South Korean The Wailing starring fireman dad from All of Us are Dead, and this, the 2012 Swedish Wither.

Sure, it is cliched up the wazoo. But it is done very very well (hot 20 somethings, cabin in the woods, nerdy one, slutty one, handsome misogynist, cute couple, wizened old hunter, lack of cellphone coverage) enough to keep you smiling but throw in an unexpected final girl, well, final boy and some top notch violence and gore and you have a pretty decent movie in a genre saturated with copycats.

I know the Sam Raimi purists will drone on about Evil Dead and I get that, the Romero cultists do the same. But I thought it was totally watchable so I will give it a solid 6/10

Check it out on Amazon for free.

An aeronautical themed episode now as I try to recover from the Bottom of the Barrel and the Bottom of the Bottom of the Barrel on Amazon, as I watch two zombie movies with planes as the central location - Flight of the Living Dead (the name annoyed me): Outbreak on a Plane, and Quarantine 2: Terminal.

In Flight of the Living Dead (the name annoyed me, like Ridge War Z did) we have a group of scientists including Pet Sematary's Dale Midkiff, bringing his infected wife on a Paris bound plane in a pressurised coffin, and guarded by horror stalwart Brian Thompson. Throw in Frank o'Connor and Erick Avari from The Mummy, Kristen Kerr, Richard Tyson and David Chisum and the zombies soon take over the plane, nesting in the cargo hold in this daytime TV feeling effort.

5/10 at best

And even though I would rather watch the REC series, I followed it with the second American Quarantine movie, Quarantine 2: Terminal, starring Fear the Walking Dead's Mercedes Mason and Lost in Space's Ignacio Serricchio.

As the first movie plays out on the TV news, a member of the doomsday cult takes infected lab rats on a plane and soon after a nip here and there, we have nasty infected zombies running about screaming until they lane and are quarantined in the baggage handling building at a small airport.

I enjoyed it. I gave it 6.10, but that may be a little elevated because it followed 7 turd movies that made up the prior two episodes.

I think I need to kill some time watching all four REC movies in order and both the Quarantine movies. Just not yet.

Finishing off the second part of the shit feast on Amazon with The Bottom of the Bottom of the Barrel.

Reel Zombies - a self-referential movie within a movie within a documentary will rarely work, and it definitely won’t work if everything you’ve produced is shit. At one point the producer is wiping blood off his windshield saying “my girlfriend is dead and now I’m wiping zombie blood off my windshield with her panties. Everyone is bad here.”
2.5/10

Cholo Zombies - a giant metaphor for immigration and inclusion that seems to get lost in a nonsensical story of Hispanic gang bangers and a demon box poured into a micro brewery
4/10

Attack of the Flatulating Dead - probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen. I could take a shit on a glass topped coffee table and film it from underneath and it would be better than this.
1/10

and finally COVID 21: Lethal Virus - a pointless shouty race over fast changing days and nights where an angry loner shouts his way through the woods with a squealing scientist. You can tell she is a scientist because she wears a bright white lab coat all the time. We have the most incompetent officer, who's every single decision costs the lives of his men and the scientists they are meant to protect. You can tell they are scientists because they wear bright white lab coats all the time. The adverts in the movie as it was Amazon were the highlights.
3.5/10

We watch them so you don't have to.

We are scraping the bottom of the shit barrel this week with a two part crap feast of the lowest of the low, the dregs from Amazon, the what's left when you've watched the good movies, the cult movies, the recommended movies.

It's not like they didn't have redeeming qualities too. Ridge War Z had the premise of an author documenting the experiences of 3 soldiers who survived the bloodiest battle of the zombie wars. The reality? 4 guys walk up a hill to a ridge in civvies as the monotone author poorly narrates, and 3 of those guys and 3 more in uniform walk slowly up the same hill before shooting off screen. Much like FEAR last time out we didn't get any zombies for over an hour, then it was 5 mins of frenzy, then it's over. 2/10 for Ridge War Z and I was going to plan to take a further point off them for stealing the name of a far far superior movie (World War Z).

Eyes of the Dead was marketed as an immersive POV experience. It was, but again it was done really badly. The POV was not natural behaviour. Rather than looking around, you know, to see what's coming, the asshole through who's eyes we see the outbreak, spends his time looking at his hands, the floor, a radio, anything other than around. It annoyed me, as did their pathetic lack of action. The zombies are bursting in, one guy is holding the door, and POV asshole is just watching rather than helping. 5/10, could have been better.

And finally Breakdown Lane, Kirby breaks down on a desert road. Her only communication is with the guy at the end of her breakdown company's lifeline. Clever, and it felt often like It Stains the Sands Red, but with cars. Very good. However, it was a Jekyll and Hyde piece where the tattoo parlour waiting room rock music starts and we get Max Max level assholes with guns, a weirdo with zombies as pets, and lots of other shit, as well as these constant comic book transitions that just looked bad. If they had persisted with the well acted, well filmed desert movie of Kirby and Max and the car it would have been solid, but all the rest, all that shit, brought it down to a 3.5/10

"The Walking Dead Meets the Revenant." That is how they describe it. Lofty. Delusion of grandeur much?

When a virus ravages a mountain community the survivors must flee from the monsters it created into the barren wilderness. Scavenging, freezing and dying one family will fight for their lives against marauders hellbent on revenge. A humanity clings to hope, their only chance for survival is forming an alliance with the monsters that came calling.

Disclaimer - this doesn't sound like the movie, there is no alliance, and until 1 hour and 33 mins we had seen 1 zombie, and that was in the opening scene.

It was snowy, it was well photographed, but it was bleak and the characters were either too inconsistent, being McGuyver one minute and the Marx Brothers the next, too much of the shouty kid. How have these people survived for so long in the apocalypse when they are so incompetent and noisy?

It felt like a lost episode from season 2 of Black Summer, with the snow and the cinematography and the bleakness of it all. Ethan, the lead male, who also co-wrote and co-directed this is a more masculine version of Lance from Black Summer. Remember him? A fuckwit who somehow survived season 1 only to be bitten, turned and killed in the opening scenes.

The villains (Desree and Lionel) are too villainous. The kid is too shouty. The flashbacks are unnecessary. But, all that said, it wasn't awful. I don't need to rewatch it and I wouldn't recommend it, so by default it is less than 5/10. So I will score it 4/10, almost the same as IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes and the Guardian, who described it as a scenic zombie adventure that lacks bite. How true.

In 1992 the movie genius that is Peter Jackson gave us this cult classic, Braindead, aka Dead Alive. Renamed in the US because of a Bill Pullman movie Brain Dead. It is messy, gory, fun, a classic tale of a Sumatran Rat Monkey (stop motion) infecting humans in 1950s Wellington, New Zealand, with its bite.

If you like your blood in tidal waves, and your intestines with a mind of their own, if you don’t mind seeing zombie babies ripping their way out of a woman's head, or exploding pustules bursting and the rancid output being eating with custard then this is for you.

With Simon Pegg listing this as one of his influences for Shaun of the Dead (you can see it with the tram scene with Lionel and the homeless guy and the pigeon and the bus in Shaun), it can be seen why this was one of the major players in the comedy zombie horror genre.

Was it a game changer? I don't think so. But it's influence was huge, and can be seen in Zombieland, Bed and Breakfast, Shaun and many more.

A solid 6.5/10 from me. If you haven't seen it, then you really have to.

It was blasted for being misogynistic, basic, unoriginal, stealing from Shaun of the Dead, and a poor competitor when compared to Lesbian Vampire Killers (seriously? with James fucking Corden), but some class this the 2009 Doghouse Danny Dyer, Noel Clarke, Stephen Graham and Lee Ingleby as a guilty pleasure and one of their go to horror comedies.

Is it original? No.

Is it misogynistic? Absolutely.

Is it entertaining? It is.

And it is a 6/10 for us.

When we get to the country, we are gonna piss up all the trees to mark our territory, then we are gonna find a pub and get so drunk we can't remember how to speak, and we'll communicate in grunts like neanderthals, before passing out in the woods!

I don't know where to start. Small mercies? The movie isn't long. Conceptually? It is a funny premise. The Church of Scientology are trying to remove all other religions by creating tailored viruses that turn the believers into unkillable zombies. Their weakness? The things they weren't allowed to do in life due to their faith? That whole Mormons not swearing, no caffeine or alcohol thing.

The execute? Piss poor. It sits uneasily between Pro-Wrestlers v Zombies (2.5/10) and Johnny Z (3/10) for us. Michael wanted to give it 2.51/10 but I overruled that as it would ruin my uniform scoring spreadsheet. It is worse than Ibiza Undead, but better than Pro-Wrestlers v Zombie. And I make it sound much better than it was.

Watch it at your peril. The opening credits are arguably some of the worst I have ever seen.

And it scored a more than generous 3/10 from us

The second half of the cancelled Netflix Ferris Beuller meets TWD The World Beyond, a young adult post apocalyptic zombie show that is as much Lord of the Flies as it is Dawn of the Dead. Actually scratch all that, it nothing like any of those. It can't compare. It has none of the depth. But what it does have is witty banter, great characters, and fun. It isn't 28 Days Later as Mickey Dolan says in his input. It isn't but it is still good.

The real tragedy is that the ghoulies, the adults, are turning into something nasty. Broderick's Principal Burr and Miss Crumble both are turning into something. But it not explored, and barely hinted at.

In this, the second 5 episodes of the show, we had filler for a good couple of episodes that we didn't need. We had a terrible show within a show Miss Crumble psychotic break that meant everyone was in a sitcom directed by Angelica. We had a whole episode dedicated to Josh trying to have sex with and eventually dumping Sam. And we learn he is a petty and awful ill-educated individual. We had flashbacks, dream sequences, dead parents, and cannibalism.

There was a lot to dislike in the second half of the show. Less Anglica being awful, fewer one liners, more filler and more Josh being just Josh and just boring.

I was angry by it being cut from the schedule when I first watched it, as I wanted a second season, like I did Cowboy BeBop and Dirk Gently, but during the last third of this watch I was kinda glad it was binned. It ended with more of a whimper than a bang, despite the nuclear bomb they set off.

6/10 for all the right reasons.

WITH NEW ADDED INPUT FROM GOLF TEAM GARY PLAYED BY THE WONDERFUL MICKEY DOLAN

Navigating a post-apocalyptic world full of zombies and "Mad Max"-style gangs, a teenage outcast searches for his lost love orrrrr Living his best life in post-apocalyptic LA, a slacker strives to find the girl of his dreams while outwitting mindless ghouls and cliquish gangs.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Glendale where a biochemical attack has turned all adults in blood thirty ghoulies and left the kids alone slacker and Canadian Ferris clone Josh Wheeler lives his best life, running into an assortment of characters including pacifist street samurai Wesley and genius with questionable morals Angelica, and all the while trying to find his long lost love Sam Dean.

Parts 1-5 in which, well, we discover the kids are in gangs, the cheerleaders in one, the jocks led by Turbo, a Mad Max-esque gang complete with spiked shoulder pads and vehicles, farmers, mathletes, the fashionista. And Josh, Angelica and Wes have to forge alliances as they take over the Mall and battle the evil child eater Baron Triumph.

Starring Colin Ford, Matthew Broderick, and Alyvia Ayn Lind, and our beloved Chester Rushing, this teen/high school/young comic book based show was cruelly killed by some ass clown at Netflix before it could reach it's potential. Shame on you.

6/10

WITH WONDERFUL INSIGHTS FROM THE SUPERB AS EVER CHESTER RUSHING AKA TERRY OF THE GOLF TEAM

From Wikipedia

"Set in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, struggling writer James Bishop grapples with the emotional shrapnel of a recent breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Emily. As James holds up in his Hollywood Hills home with writer's block, his eccentric best friend Bruce shows up with bad news. The city has plunged into chaos by an unusual and hilarious zombie outbreak, courtesy of tainted soy milk.

With the streets of Los Angeles swarming with the undead, James, Bruce, and Emily come together to barricade themselves in the house while reconciling their personal struggles. And occasionally, letting in the only food delivery service still operating, Abracadabra."

We loved this 2023 random find. The movie had zero promotion in the UK and that is criminal. I feel it would do really well on Netflix as a one off, like that Jamie Foxx vampire thing. It is crisply filmed, well written, superbly acted and criminally overlooked.

Starring Mike Castle and Oliver Cooper, this rom zom com should really be a rom com with zoms, as the zombies are there, but it is the caustic romantic comedy you follow as Castle's James tries to get over a break up, and his friend Oliver comes to look after him as the apocalypse unfolds.

Hardcore zombie fans will poo poo it, and TBH they are a missing out as the banter and the movie nods would win them over. Rom Com fans will be deterred by the zombie elements, but they are really soft peddled.

In short both Michael and I recommend this movie. It is on Amazon in the UK. And definitely worth a watch.

6/10

"Viral," a 2016 sci-fi thriller directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, follows the story of two sisters navigating a world consumed by a mysterious outbreak.

The film delves into the complexities of sisterhood against the backdrop of a viral epidemic that transforms humans into aggressive creatures. As the infection spreads, the sisters, played by Sofia Black-D'Elia, who is married to Joost, and Lio Tipton, struggle to survive and protect their bond.

Despite a lot of bad reviews I think the movie skillfully blends elements of horror, drama, and suspense, keeping audiences on the edge of their seats. With its tense atmosphere and compelling character dynamics, "Viral" explores the human condition under extreme circumstances, making it an intriguing subject for a podcast discussion on themes of survival, family, and the unpredictable nature of infectious threats."

A lot of people slagged it off, but I felt once it had switched from being a high school outbreak drama to a survival horror movie it picked up, with half a dozen jump scares.

Was good seeing Dawn 2004's Michael Kelly and Sofia Black-D'Elia's Emma and Evan were great as the teen leads (despite being in their mid 20s).

Parasites are probably my least favourite cause of zombification after voodoo, but I needed to give this a go. Compared to most of the shit we see this was well acted, well filmed, well written, had some jump scares too. People moaned it was PG-13 but outside of more graphic gore I don't think you lost anything.

For me the 2016 Viral is a 6/10, a little above the IMDB of 5.5 and Rotten Tomatoes 53% but worth an easy watch.

In this episode we are joined by Hannah from over at Hordes of Horror for a fun Japanese live action adaptation of the Kengo Hanazawa manga I am a Hero starring Yo Oizumi as Hideo Suzuki or Hero.

The put-upon, down-on-his-luck manga associate producer has a shotgun license, and a girl friend who has had enough of his day dreaming. But when the ZQN virus decimates his city, turning people into zombies our hero needs to buck up his idea, and take that shotgun and license on the road with Hiromi.

With the checklist of zombie tropes ticked this movie is a well produced adaptation with a killer ending, piles of bodies and The High Jumper, probably one of my favourite new zombie villains.

My usual preamble has all the watch along spoilers, commentary and minimal swearing and then Michael and I chat with Hannah about all things zeke.

A very strong 6.5/10

You can find Hannah and her work on Instagram as HordesOfHorror but more importantly on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@HordesOfHorror where her recaps and reviews are a thing of beauty. We cannot wait to catch up with her again on something obscure and Japanese.

The Children (also known as The Children of Ravensback) is a 1980 American horror film, directed by Max Kalmanowicz, and starring Martin Shakar from Saturday night fever, and the chuck Norris action movie, like he does anything else, Invasion USA, leave it to beaver’s Gil Rogers, and the multitalented grammy award winning singer songwriter and author, Gale Garnett.

It follows a group of five children in a small New England town when they are transformed into zombies who, after being exposed to waste from a nuclear plant, microwave any living thing they touch. The film received generally negative reviews from critics.

Upon its theatrical release in 1980 The Children received generally negative reviews. The Los Angeles Times called it a "despicable movie" that "reeks of a nasty, ill-defined dislike of humankind."[4] The Orlando Sentinel deemed the actors "the ugliest bunch of folks we've seen assembled on any screen at any one time."[5] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette criticized the writing, directing, acting and special effects; the latter slammed for burned bodies looking "exactly like a leftover pepperoni pizza, complete with black olives and anchovies.”

Jesus what would they think Passion of the Christ or Terrifier 2?

Personally this lands slap bang in the middle of a batch of movies from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Not as good as Dawn 78, or Nightmare City, or Dead and Buried, better than Creeping Flesh, Flesh Eaters and Zombie Lake and probably on par with Shock Waves. A definitely 5/10 for me.

Hot on the heels of Live Escape is Live Survival that takes place literally after the first movie with all the same elements - cops, head/vest cams, not using weapons, contradiction, slow pace stilted dialog.

There are issues with this one. The story does not progress. The slow moving around a maze like location continues. We gain a total douche canoe in Miguel and a constant screamer nothing burger in Kelly.

It should have built on the first one but it was far worse and the ending just annoyed me. Don't people lock car doors?

It was a swear rant this one (double figure F bombds). Watch the first one for the concept alone, avoid this. This is poor. It is our lowest scoring movie along with Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies and Another World. 2.5/10 and they should be thankful for that.

A new theme on the found footage horror genre, this is supposedly, but clearly not as we get time updates, a real-time footage horror movie. Written by, directed by and starring Joe Lujan as Pete, with Bryant Smith as his partner Jensen, two cops (bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do?) are called to a homeless shelter after the discovery of a body.

IMDB gave it 2.9 and I can see why, as an average of people who loved it or hated it. I can see what Lujan was trying to do. It was the same idea as those cop reality shows with car, hood, dash, vest and head cams recording the day of a number of law enforcement officials. Here they have headcams as they go into the shelter to discover that it is a maze of pitch black rooms they need to illuminate with their torches.

It is claustrophobic, it is quite a good idea, it is just executed poorly. The homeless shelter looks more like a storeroom for theatre sets. The homeless don't look homeless, they look like regular people. The screamers were good, the eaters, but the cops didn't do what cops would do. They had no non-lethal weapons - taser, pepper spray, night stick, and instead spend all their time walking slowly from dark room to dark room before being discovered and having to run.

There a lot of inconsistencies in the characters, their actions and their logic. I mean, if you have assessed the zombies hunt by sound, why not be quiet? Why shout?

Anyway, I watched the sequel before I recorded this, and would have scored it less based on the two movies as a pair. For this on it's own I will score it 4.5/10. I think it was an ok watch. A nice idea, poorly executed. If they had been more like cops with their weapons and tactics, and the location had been better, say an old motel, and it has been less repetitive, it would have scored 5.

In this episode I watch Return of the Living Dead 2 and 3 for the first time.

In, ROTLD2, the comedic horror sequel to the 1985 cult classic starring one of my first crushes Linnea Quigley, we follow Jesse, a headstrong little spitfuck of a kid, bullied by Billy and Johnny, and his sister Lucy, but somehow focused on saving the town with the Cable Guy from the hoard of Trioxin zombies.

It somehow maintains the irreverent tone of its predecessor but it's a campy blend of humor amidst zombie chaos is a distraction, as is Brenda's screaming, and Ed and Joey, who are basically Frank and Freddy from the first movie running through the same screaming rigor mortis schtick as before.

While lacking the freshness of the original, it compensates with slapstick humor and inventive zombie encounters, not least the awful pet store scene and a mass electrocution. I did not find it an enjoyable, or groundbreaking, experience and think 4.5/10 is generous.

Moving on to "Return of the Living Dead 3," released in 1993, this installment takes a darker turn. It explores themes of love and transformation as a teenage romance unfolds amidst the zombie apocalypse that was actually caused by the teens in the first place. Romero, Romero, where for art thou, Romero? Would a zombie by any other name smell as foul?

While departing from the series' comedic roots, "Return of the Living Dead 3" distinguishes itself with a unique blend of gross body horror and romance. It was better than the part 2, but it lacked the very key ingredient of Allan Trautman as Tarman growling "Brains" for me. And I do not do unnecessary body mutilation so it is 5/10 for me.

Together, they form what ChatpGPT describes as "a fascinating evolution within the "Return of the Living Dead" series" whilst I think of it as a downward spiral, or death spiral. And there were two more movies!

Welcome to this episode of the Undead Symphony in which we unravel cinematic gems . In the 113th episode, Michael and I dissect the 2000 Japanese zombie flick, "Junk." And it's name is very apt.

Whilst it was suggested that we immerse ourselves in a thrilling blend of horror and action as we explore the film's unique take on the undead genre, Michael and I were more disappointed than anything.

Join us as we delve into the less than captivating narrative, ignore any cultural nuances and pick on the cinematic techniques that the director blatantly stole from Alien, Aliens, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Zombi 2, Renaimator, and Return of the Living Dead.

We have watched a lot of movies recently and Japan is hit and miss. Wild Zero we liked, One Cut of the Dead too, Zom100 was not good and this was probably the worst of the lot. If it was a salad, created by the writer/director of the classic Ringu, it would have lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pencil shavings, cat food, furniture polish and Skittles. It tried to be one thing but failed by adding a lot of extra shit that wasn't needed.

In the end I wanted to be generous but Michael convinced me that 3.5/10 was a lot more realistic than the IMDB score suggested. This had none of the cult classic feel of Wild Zero, none of the cleverness of One Cut of the Dead, had none of the likeable characters of I am a Hero, but it did have someone annoyingly shouting all the time like Zom100: Bucketlist of the dead.

Join us in this thrilling podcast journey into the world of 'Anna and the Apocalypse.' This unique film seamlessly blends genres, offering a perfect mix of musical, comedy, and zombie apocalypse chaos all set at Christmas and in their final year of school.

Anna, a high school student, navigates the challenges of teenage life with humor and resilience, but when a zombie outbreak hits her small town during Christmas, she faces an unexpected battle for survival. As the undead hordes rise, Anna and her friends belt out catchy tunes while fighting for their lives. We delve into the film's infectious energy, its heartwarming moments, and the creative fusion that makes 'Anna and the Apocalypse' a one-of-a-kind cinematic experience.

Steph from Listeners of the Dead joins Michael and me to love on a movie that didn't get any of the credit or attention it deserved. We loved it, will you?

7/10

Indonesia 2019 (our 30th country covered) - high schooler Deon (Jeff Smith) lives with his mother, who suffers from early onset Alzheimer's. His estranged father is a scientist working for the government. A waterborne parasite starts turning people into zombies or Zetas, with two variants and we see Deon head home from school and attempt to survive the zombie outbreak with a mother who wanders off, does not understand what is going on, and causes them both to be in danger.

In a race against time his father and the military have to work out what is going on, and to find a solution. At the same time Deon and his mother fall foul of Reza and his criminal brother Rayham (the humans are always worse than the infected), who forces Deon's mother to retrieve armaments for him, as it turns out, much like WWZ that the infected will not attack a potential host if they are unwell. In Zeta - When the Dead Awaken as the parasite takes over the brain of the infected, anyone with a brain injury or degenerative brain disorder like Alzheimer syndrome are left alone, it is a shiel, an invisibility cloak to a degree.

It will all come to an emotional end. There were a few things that annoyed me, but not massively, namely the makeup FX and music, but the rest of the movie was pretty solid and Jeff Smith carried it well on his young shoulders.

6/10

"Night of Something Strange" is a horror-"comedy" film that plunges its audience into a nightmarish and hilariously grotesque adventure. The story unfolds as a group of friends embark on a road trip, only to encounter a mysterious and deadly STD that turns its victims into sexually ravenous and far too rapey zombies.

As the night progresses, the group faces increasingly bizarre and stomach-churning challenges, blending elements of classic horror with dark humor - tentacle penis and alien mouth vagina. Fueled by absurdity and gore, the film takes a unique approach to the zombie genre, delivering a wild and unpredictable ride that keeps listeners on the edge of their seats. Prepare for a podcast episode filled with laughs, shocks, and an unforgettable night of something strange (Mrs Brown, Professor Stephen Hawking and Ken Foree).

From the team that brought you Johnny Z, Empire State of the Dead, Ms Cannibal Holocaust and the unforgettable House Shark, and starring many of the crossover cast member, this movie was found under the Comedy section - a place that didn't fit. For a comedy to work it has to be funny, the jokes have to land. Jamming a slip on shoe up someone's vagina, and a tsunami of ejaculate may seem funny, but it just isn't.

It is better than the other movies they made, and thanks to James (HorrorNerdUK) for the recommendation. The movie is a 4.7/10 on IMDB, 50% on Rotten Tomatoes and I have to agree with the mid-point scoring. 5/10 for me too.

"Wild Zero" is a rock'n'roll explosion of hilarity and zombie mayhem. Picture this: Alien invaders, rockabilly rebels, and the undead collide in a Japanese chaos-fest. Ace, a wannabe rockstar, finds himself battling not only extraterrestrial threats but also a zombie apocalypse. As chaos reigns, his only hope lies in the power of rock music and the love for his favorite band, Guitar Wolf. With more guitar riffs than coherent plotlines, "Wild Zero" is a wild ride through a world where rock 'n' roll transcends the boundaries of life and death. It's a head-banging, gut-busting, and brain-munching extravaganza that leaves you wondering, "Did that really just happen?"

Yes it did just happen and I just watched it, all thanks to James for the recommendation

5.5/10

Oh this one is solely on me. I thought I would be smart and create a simple juxtaposition between the fluffy bunny rabbits K-Drama Happiness and The Sadness, a gore ridden Taiwanese splatterfest.

So it is my fault that I had to watch 13 hour of Happiness, getting progressively more and more incensed with the societal aspects of the show, and the annoying haves (Mr Oh Ju, the wannabe building representative and the smarmy lawyer) looking down on the have nots (basically everyone else) and turning them on the central characters Sae-Bom and Yi-Huhn. Strong female lead with a male counterpart.

13 hours over 12 episodes where the actual zombie virus story was pretty good, a drug, NEXT, that was supposed to be a mental and physical booster turned people into blood thirsty infected that had a thirst they needed to quench. But for each hour of the show you get 40 minutes of the annoying other cast members being annoying, none less so than the whiny old man who won't shut up.

Still if you persist the show is alright, despite a thoroughly explained ending or updates on half the characters.

6.5/10

I am also to blame, the blame squarely landing on my shoulders, for choosing The Sadness as a counter to Happiness. It was solely on name, you understand?

In this young lovebirds Jim and Kat, a not so strong female lead and a not so strong male foil, live in Taipei. They do their separate ways at the start of the work day and then the bloody shit hits the fan. A psycho granny melt a chef at the the cafe Jim is in with the chip fat fryer, and then peels off his skin before getting run down by a psycho driver. Jim has to run away before losing a finger or two to the Thai basil growing neighbour, whilst Kat is chased through town by a psychotic businessman who openly says he wants to f*ck her to death.

So much blood, so much gore, rape, body mutilation, and nothing nice. And then again a poor pay off at the end. Happiness we learn nothing about how we ended up where we did, and in The Sadness everyone dies. So bloody annoying.

If it your thing then give it a go, it is basically a modern version of the Crazies, made in Asia with sexual violence and a LOT of fake blood.

6/10

He was here for our 80th episode to review the first season of Fear the Walking Dead and he is back again. As he sits next to Michael at work there is no escaping the torrent of film recommendations and this one he paid attention to and watched, not once, but 3 times, it is the Train to Busan, a riveting South Korean zombie apocalypse film directed by Yeon Sang-ho, released in 2016. The movie unfolds primarily within the confines of a high-speed train traveling from Seoul to Busan, as passengers grapple with a sudden and catastrophic zombie outbreak.

It stars The Silent Sea and Squid Games Gong Yoo as a distant father who plans to take his daughter to her mother in Busan when the zombie apocalypse hits Korea. It is a breakneck speed adrenaline rush as the survivors try to escape the city on a high speed train full of infected.

I reviewed this back in episode 7 way before this podcast became such a thing, and I am more than happy to rewatch such a great movie and review it with Michael and Arvind.

7.5/10

All the stats from the year, thoughts, and a recap of the movies we watched.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us at the Undead Symphony, and we hope to catch up with you in 2024

A festive episode with music and mayhem, jokes, japes, Jesus, and Johnny Z, an absolute shit kicker of a movie. It was bad on so many levels it took two attempts to record the preamble let alone watch it.

A half-man half-zombie Johnny Z escapes a lab and is trained by JonRay a martial artist zombie hunter mourning the death of his son. It could be a good Adult Swim Metalocalypse style animation but no. Definitely not. With a group of bad guys named like your crazy auntie's cats (Frank, Mr Clark, Vinnie and Monster Boy), a belching alcoholic side kick and 1980s dramatic music we hated it.

3/10 and that is being festively generous.

Worst still there is room for a sequel as Frank got away, Dr Lars (chika bow bow) was never rescued, the company was not taken down and Johnny Z doesn't know who he is.

In this festive episode we watch and review one of only two festively themed zombie movies we can think of "Stalled" (the other being Anna and the Apocalypse), both British, with this one part of a three movie DVD boxed set along with the NZ movie starring friend of the podcast Harley Neville, I Survived a Zombie Holocaust, and the Australian Me and My vs The Zombie Apocalypse.

And the comedy does feel in-keeping with the pair of them inasmuch as it is happy to show gross out body comedy, blood and guts, raunchiness, and physical violence with a comedic element, as well as peppering the audience with one liners.

The 2013 Stalled tells the story of WC (played by the writer Dan Palmer), a lowly maintenance guy who gets stuck in a stall in the women's toilets of an office building when the charity Christmas party being held there turns into the zombie holocaust. Short on locations, but big on laughs, this is no Shaun of the Dead, but it is very much watchable, funny, and we are happy to sing ding dong merrily on high and give it as solid and recommendable 5/10.

Bill Moseley as a shock jock (recently we saw him in Exit Humanity alongside a shock jock from a very similar zombie movie Pontypool, Stephen McHattie), Patricia Tallman (Barbara in the Tom Savini remake of Night of the Living Dead where Moseley played her brother Johnny - they're coming to get you Bar-ba-ra) as his ex-wife and producer at the radio station. Directed by LA Law's Corbin Bersen (recently seen in Herd) with a cameo for him in a dodgy beard and LA Law buddy Larry Drake over the phone.

A middle eastern terror cell set off a biological weapon at a basketball game. The biological agent turns people into homicidal maniacs that bleed from the eyes.

Often compared to Pontypool as it is set "mostly" in a radio station Moseley stays on the air, taking calls from the public and sending his co-host to look for and save his family, it is a poor relative to a far better movie.

It was particularly rabid in it's breakdown of terrorism and the US foreign policy FUBARs that fuel the fire, and loses it's way often. It is not one thing or another. Is it a terrorist movie or a zombie movie? It isn't great if it is either. It certainly pales into insignificance compared to the far superior Pontypool. I would recommend you watch Pontypool and the most recent version of The Crazies to be a lot happier with your life choices.

It is a 4/10 for the pair of us. Michael considered giving it a 4.5 but the meandering storyline and the poor plot choices marked it down.

It is a meh from us.

This week, to start the new season, Michael and I are comparing old to new. Fair? Maybe not, but it is our show and it seemed a reasonable enough premise. And so a real-time game of Virus or Voodoo as we watch the 1932 Bela Lagosi "classic" White Zombie and the 2023 Herd.

Back in the black and white days of cinema men were real men, women were real women, and zombies were almost entirely created by voodoo. Bela Legosi was the star of the time, Dracula in his caped finery and he plays Haitian voodoo priest Legendre, hired by jealous aristo Beaumont to turn blonde bombshell Madeleine into a zombie who loves him. Did we like it? It was very dated. It is a classic and should be afforded the status as such, but slow and obvious, it was never a game changer, it was just one of the first. If it didn't have Legosi in the lead would it even be classed as a classic? Probably not. And thus we can only score it 4/10. And a generous 4/10 in that.

Coming out this summer we have Herd, virus not voodoo, and stars Ellen Adair, heading out with here partner on a camping in canoeing trip to repair their relationship. Does it work? Well, do we care? We kinda do after a while as both Jamie and Alex are well played. After a canoeing accident that was telegraphed they try to head to town to find help only to discover the zombie apocalypse under way. It has some very very good scenes, clever shots, but is let down by awful action sequences, red necks and paramilitary types who can't shoot for shit and the heavy overtones of a dead mother, abusive drunk father and an intolerant community. Still, most of it was shot well, and we scored it an above average 5.5/10.

This movie doesn't have a wikipedia page, a bad sign. It is supposed to be a comedy but that would involve it having some jokes that are funny. It has a few jokes, typical sophomoric nonsense, but no laughs. In fact the funniest thing about this movie is that when you Google Dug Up Movie you get images from the Pixar movie Up of the golden retriever named Dug.

It tells the story of a bunch of rednecks who go searching for gold in a local cemetery, between perving over sunbathing neighbours, sex and strip joints, only to find an old magic dial, a necrometer, that will bring the dead back from the grave, and raise an army for the Devil.

We have seen about 30 zombie comedies and this sits somewhere in the middle. This was filmed ok, mostly, the CGI weaponry and awful green screen driving scenes aside. A 5/10 at best, and we know that is a generous score.

For our 100th Episode we have sausages under the grill, pork stew on the stove and input from Janine Pipe, author of Sausages - the making of Dog Soldiers, and pal of Neil Marshall, the writer/director of one of both of our favourite British horror movies the 2002 Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd and Liam Cunningham Dog Soldiers.

Yes, we are branching out, and not the branch that Bruce impaled himself on, away from zombies to the furry fun ride that is werewolf movies, for this 2002 cult classic. Infinitely quotable, one of Michael's personal favourites, and with the feel of so many other good movies it brings together Predator, Aliens, Assault of Precinct 13, 30 Days of Night, Black Hawk Down, with great banter from the boys and fun practical effects that make it stand out from the pack. Not that there is much of a pack as outside of the Wolfman, American Werewolf in London, and then Paris, The Howling and Ginger Snaps we are pretty hard pressed to name many more.

So please enjoy our chat, and look the movie on Amazon Prime, and Janine's book on Amazon too and any reputable book stockists.

This week two very different movies.

2 years before Brad Pitt brought his perfect chin line and blond bob to the mainstream zombieverse in World War Z someone made Exit Humanity, which does seem to have been based on Max Brooks' book, just that it is set in 1865 after the US Civil War. We do have a pretty decent cast in Brian Cox narrating the book (as the central character keeps a journal about the plague and it's origins and how to beat the dead) which is 100% stolen from the WWZ book, Stephen McHattie and Chops Moseley as the villains.

We follow Edward Young as he survives the zombie apocalypse of slow moving, pale faced silent shufflers, meeting up with Dee Wallace's witch Eve, and fellow confederate soldier Isaac and sister Emma. A fine replacement for Young's dead wife and son if ever there was one.

Not as bad as I thought, but with the near constant music, ultra high def filming which I hated, and it is clearly is a WWZ rip off.

5.5/10

And I have been waiting for Day Zero, with Filipino kickboxing champion Brandon Vera racing around fast moving infected slums looking for his family, since I saw the add in the Summer.

Well it is is here now, and I liked it. Not hugely, it isn't a game changer, but it was fun, fast paced, constantly tense as Vera does some damage with fists, guns and knives and, well, anything he can get his hands on.

Claustrophobic, tense, with Korean like zombies of the cloudy eyed, blue veined, screaming running variety, if it was in a bigger tenement building and more like Dredd or The Raid, it would have been even better. Definitely worth a watch. It is nonstop.

6/10

This was a fun one, I am not going to lie. It was a game of "What's in the Bloody box?" a mystery game where I watch a movie (Anger of the Dead) and Micheal watches a different movie (Colin) that the other hasn't seen and we have to sell it to the other via a preamble and Q&A session.

Anger of the Dead, hated by Steph at Listeners of the Dead podcast, a misogynistic and misanthropic Italian movie with knock-off Negan Captain Rooker trying to populate the world with immune warriors by basically turning all the women he meets into sex slaves. Not a fan. The cinematography was good. The FX were ok. The script, and the acting were found lacking.

4.5/10

Colin, made for £45 and it showed. Potentially a clever idea but executed badly. Normally movies that follow the zombie (Fido, Warm Bodies, Dead Heads, and The Revenant) are comedies, but this was a drama (we think). Cheap, poorly acted, poorly scripted. Must try harder.

3.5/10

With special thanks to our fellow podders over at Let's Talk Turkeys podcast.

And special thanks to our musical guests Combat Sports, a 3 piece band out of Colchester Essex, with gritty guitars, fuzzy basslines, and the opinion that if you hit drums harder they sound better. It's a mix of nostalgia for 90's alt-rock/grunge sound, and a modern edge with production at the hands of Tom Donovan.

Their new track Social Fallacy expresses their frustration for what social media has become and how it now penetrates every part of life.

They have just released our debut EP 'Natrium' that you can find on Spotify

And you can find them here

https://www.instagram.com/combatsports_band/

here

https://www.facebook.com/people/Combat-Sports/61551212364313/

and here

https://www.youtube.com/@CombatSports-band

Please check them out.

No this isn't the wonderfully filmed documentary on the Amish teens heading out for Rummspringa, it is a knock off of several other zombie and infected movies and stars, for want of a term, Danny Dyer, Craig Fairbrass and Colin Salmon "Chunks".

Released in 2010 this British movie looks at the use of a performance enhancing drug trial that goes wrong. 30,000 people were given the drug, and 29,999 ended up suffering terrible fevers, multiple organ failure, bloody faces, blue veins and ultimately the insatiable desire to spread the disease by biting people after chasing them down using parkour.

In an unnecessarily convoluted plot top billed Danny Dyer is a former police officer who killed a kid, and gets out of jail just in time to enjoy the apocalypse, the 1 patient out of 30,000 not to turn is his ex-gf Angela who is immune, and pregnant, and her blood could be the key to the cure.

Craig Fairbrass is the tortured former head of security at the company who now wants to find Angela and protect her before delivering her to doctors to find a cure, and all within 54 hours as he has been bitten and has three 18 hour suppressants he can take.

Add a tarty backstabbing friend, two manipulative city wankers, Sean Pertwee with a giant moustache and set a chunk of it on the Thames or in a rundown garage in Essex and what you have is a movie that is wholly unoriginal and pretty Dyer... I mean dire.

They should have made Fairbrass the hero/villain more as that is the character, and binned Dyer completely. A lot of the choices didn't make sense. And it annoyed me.

4.5/10

Off the back of our Dead Snow review with Curtis (one half of Gravely Serious) Michael and I are back to review the Dead Snow 2, the sequel in which sole survivor of the first movie Martin must go into battle a second time against the villainous Nazi Herzog and his zombie horde as they try to fulfil their purpose and complete their final order from Hitler, and kill everyone in the nearby town.

It is bigger, badder, gorier, but overall worse despite the critics preferring it to the original (what were they thinking?). The knives of the first movie have been replaced with hammers, the kills are bloodier and more numerous, and they have a tank (he says, doing his Boromir "They have a cave troll" voice).

Still worth a watch though 6.5/10

And check out this great track Drop Dead by Sorry About the Noise! that you can find on the links below. We highly recommend you check the guys out.

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/1idWdmytfmFefblfODy7iq?si=LhtYdMn_Rc64cUAfB4Pekg

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@sorryaboutthenoise

Instagram - @officialsorryaboutthenoise

Arguably the best computer game survival horror crossover that then led to a series of zombie movies that made a billion dollars at the box office, and spawned further reboots, and 4 animated movies and a prequel show on Netflix that the assholes cancelled a season early - yes is it Resident Evil.

Paul WS Anderson brings Milla Jovovic's Alice to life, an amalgam of Ada, Claire and Jill from the games with Matrix style high kicking and a rocking soundtrack. This, the original, follows Colin Salmon "Chunks", Michelle Rodriguez and their spec ops team as they investigate the lockdown of the Umbrella Corp facility under Racoon City. They find Alice and James Purefoy, two agents the the roles of a married couple as cover for their true purpose, without their recent memories and bring them along with Eric Mabius (supposedly a cop but no one is buying it) to discover what the Red Queen, the AI controlling the facility has done.

Containing iconic scenes such as Salmon Chunks with a laser, roundhousing zombie doberman pincers, and the Red Queen's deadpan "You're all going to die down here," it is cracking movie that has survived the tests of time and is still very watcheable.

7/10

Where to start with this one? It had potential, the acting was mostly OK but the shot selection by the DP was terrible, the CGI was laughable and consistency was just not there in the behaviour of some of the characters. And as for the ending? That annoyed the shit out of me. You see two alternate endings one after the other without any explanation. Piss poor.

So, to the movie? Six friends meet up for a weekend away at one of their parents' houses. But a terrorist organisation fires a ballistic missile with a chemical warhead at rural America, somewhere near Baton Rouge. The chemical turns the locals into rabid crazies, the titular demented, who want to beat anyone they see to death. The 6 then have to escape, and then find salvation.

It had a few good moments but that ending did me in. The bad outweighed the good, and I couldn't give it more than 4/10, which is still better than the 3.8 on IMDB and Amazon and the 7% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Maybe watch it with low expectations.

This week we are joined by Curtis Ghoul of the Gravely Serious Podcast to watch and review the 2009 Norwegian Nazi zombie splatterfest Dead Snow. And it was a surprisingly fun time (both the recording and the movie) with thrills, kills, a lot of gore and more than it's fair share of Evil Dead influence.

The blurb - a party of eight Norwegian medical students travel to a remote Arctic mountain for an Easter weekend filled with skiing and relaxation. After one of their group disappears while on a solo cross-country hike, a mysterious Wanderer tells the remaining visitors that, in the waning days of World War II, a battalion of Nazi soldiers disappeared into the nearby woods after the residents turned on them, and that their zombified corpses remain on the prowl in the area.

We then get head splits, head stomps, death by grenade, knife, stick, disembowelling, machine gun, chainsaw, axe and snow mobile, some post poop sex on the toilet, and more than our fair share of intestines. And we scored it collectively as a 7/10, meaning we would recommend it to not only fans of the genre, but fans of fun gory comedies. Maybe if it's a night in, and you have a group of people around don't want to watch the classics yet again, you'll pop this on for some Scani punk fuelled fun.

And talking of music we have the single Boneyard by Russ Tafari as dessert.

You can find Russ' work on https://solo.to/russtafari

and by looking for Russ Tafari on RussTafari.com | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

and his Youtube Channels

Russ Tafari TV

Underground Mastermind Productions

Oh this one wound me up big time. A South African zombie movie from 2018 where the main character is a blonde blue eyed American (played by a South African). It had a few good scenes but a lot of it is stolen from other sources, for example, main character is in operating theatre during the outbreak and wakes up hospital, is also wearing scrubs for a chunk of it, etc.

It is let down by setting itself in Southern African (whatever that is), having an obnoxious white American central character, that lies to the local people trying to save him and themselves, several times, and some things that just don't make any sense such as:

Not wiping bright red blood off your face for the 5 days over which the movie is set
Not arming yourself with anything more than a single crowbar
Not even looking for food or water for 5 days
Not checking houses for food, water, weapons, supplies
Not getting in the convoy despite the vehicles being empty
The convoy having no guards, and one person per vehicle
Henry's GF from being a bit of a bimbo and being evacuated to running the convoy
Only taking a GPS and a flare from the convoy and not food, water, weapons

I apologise in advance for the rant this movie review became

5.5/10

After the conversation with Michael and Steph on the top 10 Undead Symphony zombie movies I went looking for other people's top rated movies. IndieWire had a good one, but then I found the IMDB top 50. Outside of Re-Animator and White Zombie I had seen most of them, other than Dead & Buried from 1981 and Cemetery Man from 1994.

Dead & Buried is a nasty, dark story of a small coastal town where the locals murder anyone that ventures there, as Sheriff Dan (James Farentino) tries to solve the murders. But then the dead are found seemingly alive and well. What is going on? Why is his wife (Flash Gordon's own Melody Anderson) acting so weird? How has he not noticed that his home town is populated by psychopaths who video and photograph the murders as they happen?

Dated but good. 6/10 and there is an acknowledgement of an error I made with a character, who I thought was Meloda Anderson playing a second role but was in fact someone else entirely. I should have worn my glasses.

And in Cemetery Man, aka Dellamorte Dellamore, Rupert Everett is a cemetery keeper who has to put down flesh eating zombies in a town he has never left. With his loyal and mostly mute sidekick Gnaghi he keeps the dead at bay until a chance encounter with a beautiful widow and the angel of death sends Dellamorte into a downward spiral of murder and insanity

Could have been better (as a comedy) 6/10

This week we have been joined by the awesome Steph from Listeners of the Dead podcast as she and Michael get to watch for the first time one of my favourite movies The Girl with all the Gifts starring Paddy Considine, Glen Close, Gemma Arterton and Sennia Nanua as Stephanie, I mean Melanie!

I reviewed this back in Episode 13, so didn't include the preamble/summary plot, you can find it there if you want to listen.

This is us chatting all things zombie, with movie preferences, observations of US vs other markets, and then a classic game of Mastermind where Darren and Michael go head to head on their knowledge of Dawn of the Dead 1978 and 2004 as well as the all important review and scores on the doors for the movie (7.5/10).

Enjoy!

And finally, we at the Undead Symphony are proud as ever to be in a position to showcase musical talent with a zombie/undead theme, and this we have Sean Rowland (@the_panic_broadcast) and his song Dress Up like the Dead, a spooky love letter to his wife, a dark way of saying something light.

You can find Sean as the Panic Broadcast on Instagram, Spotify and wherever you get your music.

All good things come to an end, well, everything comes to an end and I am glad of that fact as the snidey Hong Chul and conniving Din Din, and squealing idiot Tsuki were really starting to grate on my nerves.

Conceptually the South Korean Netflix show Zombiverse was brilliant, with an immersive experience for the cast of 10 in this unscripted reality show set within the backdrop of the zombie apocalypse, but the cast let it down. Outside of Dax and Song Young Il, and at a pinch Patricia, the others were pretty terrible.

As Din Din and Hong Chul concede during a final task, it would be best if the cast never sees each other again. And I agree. It would be best.

7/10 and a unique concept worth watching and remaking with a more likeable cast.

For this hit and run of an episode I chanced upon a post on Instagram about an Italian zombie movie. We have not covered Italy yet and so I was intrigued. More so when the poster showed an elevator open a crack (6 inches) and a pile of zombie bodies outside. And so I found the trailer on YouTube and it looked fun, tense, claustrophobic. I was in.

And so we follow Claudio, a high flying, uptight, angry, misogynistic Italian slave of commerce as he leaves home and heads to the office for an important presentation. After abusing a couple of female workmates he ends up stuck in the elevator and berates anyone he can get on the intercom or on the phone until the zombie apocalypse starts.

From here the movie changes drastically. Claudio is trapped in a lift, the door is open 6 inches and he is stuck between two floors. He can see up the corridor but that is it. And the zombie outbreak is happening in full view, workmates killed or turning, SWAT shooting people and being killed themselves. It is a low budget, limited location zombie flick done very well.

6/10

What do I always say? The people who you meet in the zombie apocalypse are probably far worse than the zombies themselves. And the gang find themselves prisoners of the evil mayor of the small town. DinDin, Song Young il, Tsuki, Jonathan and Dax are asleep and tied up in a room in the dark, Na-Rae and Dr PeePee are banished to another room without blankets, and asshat Hong Chul and Patricia are being fed to the mayor's undead mother.

More fun and games to come as the gang need to escape from the house, and then make a daring rescue as squealing idiot Tsuki is caught, before Jonathan is bitten and turns, and the gang meet a new character who can teach them how to evade the zombies and fight them. But can he be trusted? Given the last person they trusted drugged them to feed to his zombie mother, I am going to say not.

This episode we are joined by Arvind who suggested we all watch the first season of Fear the Walking Dead, the spin-off series that came our about 5 seasons into TWD and was like a breath of fresh air. We meet the dysfunctional Clark/Manawa family in LA as the zombie apocalypse hits, and hits hard. We are there at day zero, without really seeing the origins, but we see the fall of society to a degree as the characters experience it. This was something always missing in TWD as Rick slept through it.

We chat comparisons with TWD, Black Summer and Z Nation as well as our regular likes, dislikes, favourite (Tobias) and least favourite characters (Chris).

7/10

Michael was over excited about the musical guest we are showcasing this week. It is the earworm that is Don't Get Bit! by The Zeroes. And we are very grateful to Dunc and the gang for sending it on.

Unfortunately this track isn't up on their Spotify however, here's a link to a video they made using the song - based around the famous Stony Stratford Zombie Pub Crawl - https://fb.watch/mM3InrYaFb/

Their Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/TheZeroesMK

Linktree is https://linktr.ee/The_Zeroes?utm_source=linktree_profile_share which has the Spotify, Apple Music etc.

Finally, @duncthezero on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOTT9tO46ux19G903umK0qA

This week was a real treat. I hope I didn't gush too much, but we were joined by the wildly hairy New Zealand comedic actor and all around nice guy Harley Neville (not Harvey!) to talk about his movie I Survived a Zombie Holocaust (not Apocalypse) aka Cinema Never Dies. A film we scored with a solid 7/10.

We talk the choice not to remove the H word, movie inspiration, body hair and all things related to producing and starring in arguably one of the funniest films, let alone zombie films, we have seen in a long time.

You can find his work and follow his next big horror project take shape here on the YouTube channel he shares with his best bud and movie director Guy Pigden and we urge you to certainly check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/Pigville2

Finally, as a treat, and in our endeavours to showcase other talent in the space we are proud to include the Day of the Day inspired original song by Jimmy Dread titled The Death of Captain Rhodes, check it out on bandcamp below.

https://xjimmydreadx.bandcamp.com/track/the-death-of-captain-rhodes

Stay safe out there guys, the zombie holocaust is coming.

In this episode Michael and I spar with the Listeners of the Dead's Stephanie, learning all about her zombie movie fixation, her podcast and her thoughts on the genre that we all love.

We then take a sideways look at her movie choice, the 2008 Nazi ghost/zombie story Outpost starring the late, great Ray Stevenson and Richard Brake, and directed by Steve Barker who would go on to direct the sequel and Rezort starring Dougray Scott, one of our favourites.

We cover:

What song he sings with her brother?

Which is best? Dead Reckoning or the Dawn buses?

And what is the deal with Nazi zombies?

TO find out all this and more listen to The Undead Symphony.

Continuing with the South Korean reality-variety show the gang still need to escape the supermarket and then in the car park find transport by trying to match keys with the parked verhicles.

Hong Chul's true colours come out when he is willing to sacrifice anyone to save his skin, as well as lie, cheat and the bad mouth anyone behind their backs. He is a real piece of work and we here at the podcast can't stand him.

The sad thing is that he ends up causing two characters to get infected, and then jokes about it and bad mouths them some more.

But they escape and in Episode 4 things get even darker when then find themselves in a quiet backwater country village where the locals are acting weird, could they be drugging people and feeding them to their zombified relatives? If they are, then this show really has gone down a dark path.

A quite ingenious combination of reality TV and unscripted adventure from South Korea sees reality TV stars, YouTubers, singers and celebrities attempt to survive the zombie apocalypse.

With everyone else you see in the cast as zombies or survivors, the group must complete tasks to move from one location to the next. Starting in the green room of a dating show, the first 5 survivors must escape the TV studio, then get in a van. But it runs out of gas and so they reach a gas station full of zees. Here they now have to get the keys from the unfortunate driver, pump the gas and pay for it without getting bitten. When bitten they agree to become zombies.

They then end up in a firm zombie movie favourite of a supermarket, and need to make supply runs whilst avoiding self-promotion, belittling others or underhanded behaviour.

Do I like it? The concept is great, the production quality and tasks are perfect but their choice of reality stars is off. With Japanese singer Tsuki (Billie) squealing all the time, Hong Chul not taking it seriously, an injured Na-Rae, it draws away from the idea this could be good. I am thinking a second season with different survivors would score higher.

Still plenty to go, there are 8 episodes. And we only a quarter of the way in.

Bullied by his boss, Akira worked around the clock, he's nothing more than a corporate drone. All it takes is a zombie outbreak for him to finally feel alive! This is based on the Manga by the Alice in Borderland creator (also on Netflix) and I have to say I didn't like it.

The long 2 hour and 9 minute movie had zero character progression, and the characters were not likeable. Akira, and the central characters ran around completely oblivious of the danger he was in, shouting in both his inside and outside voice, making stupid choices, as his Lothario friend Kencho is a coward and Shizuka is a lonely hard nosed girl who opens up after a splashy splashy time at a hot spring?

The musical montage of them having fun made me bring up bile. The music was awful. And, just when I thought it was going to get better when Akira's horrible boss appeared as leader of a community of survivors, it disappointed.

The 8 legged zombie shark was one of very few highlights.

4/10

I am hoping Netflix's next effort Zombiverse is better

Starting the new season we are doing things differently. Most, if not all, of the episodes will involve watching and discussing all things zeke with a member of the zombie movie online community, or industry professionals, before reviewing a zombie movie of their choice.

For this, the first episode we watched the 2006 Canadian comedy zombie movie FIDO starring Blly Connelly as Fido, Henry Czerny, Dylan Baker and Carrie-Ann Moss with Jennifer, aka HorrorFan42 on Instagram, and discussed wine pairings when eating flesh and brains, first zombie experience, and movies where the undead are not our enemy.

Why not give it a go and let us know your feedback.

FIDO 7.5/10

There are good zombie movies, the top notch, high end, often mainstream, big studio efforts such as World War Z, Army of the Dead, the Zombielands, the Shaun's, the 28 Days and Weeks. Then you have the classics, modern and otherwise, the Romero's, the 70's and 80's Italian efforts. You have sleeper hits, the Blood Quantum and It Stains the Sands Red, the European hits like Rommbock, Yummy, The Night Eats the World. The Asian hits, the All of Us Are Dead, Train to Busan and Peninsula. And then you have this...

Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies. Michael's choice. #justsaying

If World War Z and the aforementioned hits are the cream of the crop this isn't the bottom of the barrel we are scraping, this is the barrel under it. The plot, what there is of it, is Shane Douglas kills a wrestler in the ring. who's brother sacrifices a nurse, and along with his dead brother's ghost raises an army of the dead extras and a few wresters to get revenge on Douglas and his wrestling buddies.

If you are a fan of wrestling and more so Shane "the Franchise" Douglas or Matt Hardy or Rowdy Roddy Piper or Jim Hacksaw Duggen this may appeal to you, but outside of They Live and a brief interest in WWE in the late 90's I couldn't give a flying fuck about it.

Michael is a fan but this movie is so bad we scored it 2.5/10 an all time step ladder over the head, tin tray and pasting table choreographed low.

Here we have two movies we didn't hate. And that is hard with the flotsam floating in the cesspool of the genre.

Both were not on the radar and were found thanks to a dumpster dive into Amazon Prime.

We have State of Emergency starring Station 19s Jay Hayden from 2011. A nice and simple infection story with some good survival bits and Jim tries to find shelter from the running infected at a stable before moving to a factory space with three other survivors. I was genuinely surprised with this one, and Michael and I both thought it was watchable a second time and recommendable, so a solid 6/10 from both of us.

And then there is the Scandinavian Death Do Us Part with Zoe Tapper from Mr Selfridge and Ed Speleers from Downton Abbey. Two pretty good actors with a gorgeously filmed apartment. Karen and John have had it hard since the death of their baby. Karen, a former police officer is now a drunk and wants to leave the cheery teacher John. But the zombie apocalypse happens forcing them to stay together in this brutal black comedy that isn't afraid to cover baby death, alcoholism, rape, murder, drug and drink addiction and suicide. Haunted me for days, but again a 6/10 from the pair of us.

The endings of both were a surprise, one happily so and one depressingly so.

The battle of the overly long titled and very dated 1970s zombie films this week as we watch, review and discuss Let the Sleeping Corpses Lie In Manchester Morgue (1974) and Children Should Not Play With Dead Things (1972) from the makers of Porky's.

Where to start? These two very dated movies are on the Z List. One had a cult status, the other lesser known, and but (interestingly) post Night of the Living Dead, pre Dawn of the Dead. So they aren't riding on the coat tails of Dawn like many of the 1970s and 80s European movies we watched. These were ahead of the Dawn era and took two very different looks at the cause of a zombie outbreak. In Children it is a satanic ritual, in Manchester it was modern technology and radiation causing ecological disasters. Both big topics in the 1970s.

Did we like them? You will have to listen and find out. One could be remade. But which one?

Utter shash.

Gangsters, Guns and Zombies didn't know if it was a drama or a comedy. If it was a drama it wasn't very dramatic. if it was a comedy it wasn't funny at all. Using the zombie apocalypse as a smokescreen to rob a bank (clever) the idiot gangsters (Q, Tony, Danny, Paul, Muscles and Crazy Steve) screw up, one get shot in the stomach and now they are on the run with a holdall of money, one (one!!!!) pistol and are in the need of a hospital and a safehouse.

99% of the action happens off camera (shit) and the acting and special effects are diabolical.

Saying that Gangsters (5), Guns (3) and Zombies (including swimming zombies and clowns) were infinitely better than the Taiwanese Zombie 108 aka Call of the Undead.

It was shit. Shit with a capital sh. We have SWAT, not just regular cops, SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) officers who cannot shoot zombies or gangsters from 5 feet away. The cops are all useless, the gangsters are all stupid, we have not one but two Japanese serial killers, including a rapist pervert zombie keeper serial killer who takes up far far too much of the movie with his raping and violence towards women, all the women are pitiful screeching idiots who trip over their own feet, and the underlying message here is that the Taiwanese police force make Police Academy look professional.

Hated it. Second worst movie we have reviews after Another World. Nothing is as bad as that.

A switcheroo here. I was planning to publish our episode on the battle of the 1970s long titled movies, with Let The Sleeping Corpses Lie at Manchester Morgue from 1974 and Children Should Not Play With Dead Things from 1972. However, Michael is playing catch-up and do we will publish that one next week.

And so it gives me, more of a fan of survival horror, to give my slant on the genre a chance. This episode I am therefore watching two movies with a heavy survival theme.

First we have Here Alone, where a woman (Ann) lives by herself in the woods after a viral outbreak. She uses tricks and methods learnt over time, and from her now deceased husband, to forage, and scavenge from local houses, avoiding the infected. But then, against her better judgement, she helps two fellow survivors who challenge her strategy.

And then we review the Danish What We Become. This did remind me a lot of the English movie Containment. And it follows the lives of a Danish family as a virus breaks out locally and the government contain them in their houses. Disinformation, misinformation and lies come from the authorities as they discover the truth about their predicament.

Both very good, both on the positive side of the scoring too. Check them out Here Alone and What We Become, both on Amazon Prime.

We aren't cheap by any stretch of the imagination and are more than willing to pay for our zombie entertainment. This week though we looked at freebies on our collective steaming services and discovered Ibiza Undead, a British movie that touts itself as being "Shaun the Dead meets The Inbetweeners and riotously entertaining". Their words, not ours. Both being British, fans of Shaun of the Dead, and Michael is a fan of the Inbetweeners and star Emily Atack who appears in this, we thought we would give it a try.

Before I watched it though I read about it on Wikipedia and discovered that people had commented that it bore striking resemblance to Hindi movie Go Goa Gone, which would be our first Indian zombie movie and become the second movie of the episode.

Go Goa Gone, where 3 friends head to Goa and end up a Russian rave where a new experimental drug turns the party goers into flesh eating zombies. And why not?

Wazzup! Woah, I haven't said that in years. But yes we are back for the second part of the Netflix series All of Us are Dead.

We have loved this show, as we have other Korean zombie movies (#Alive, Train to Busan, Peninsula, Zombie for Sale) as they get it. They really get it.

We have loved this show, with Gwi Nam the villain, and So Ju the fearless firefighter desperate to save daughter On Jo, her friend Cheung San and all their little friends from the zombie outbreak at their school started by the science teacher who just wanted to stop his son being bullied.

There will be cliff hangers, if you aren't bingeing it, and tragedy as the military work out the cause and realise their only solution is to bomb the city.

Michael and I talk characters, plots and the potential of Season 2. Check it out now.

Two movies I hadn't seen before and probably should have done.

Given I have seen most of the George A. Romero movies, including the remakes, including the awful remakes - the remake of Day (oh that is bad). I love the original Dawn and the Snyder remake. I love Land. Day was always weak, despite the cult status of Bub. And so it is wildly strange to me that I never watched the Tom Savini 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead starring Patricia Tallman is Bar-ba-ra and the incredible Tony Todd as Ben. And I wish I had a long time ago. Barbara (they're coming to get you, Barbara) is badass this time, not the weak pathetic creature of 1968. And Ben is great. Anyway, I loved the improvement.

And Demons, a Dario Argento production, Italian, filmed in Berlin in 1985, and for some reason listed in a lot of the top 50 zombie movies lists I have seen. having seen Zombie Creeping Flesh, Zombie Flesh Eaters, and City of the Dead, I thought I would give it a go. Would it be a dud? I mean, are they even zombies? Difficult to say. I watched it anyway.

I had watched Zombie Warz (with a z) ages ago, long before Michael and I started on the journey that is All of Us are Dead but due to life getting in the way I hadn't watched a second movie to create a twofer episode.

So this morning I skipped the gym and watched The Battery, an indie flick that cost $6000 to make, and reminded me a lot of the UK Among the Living, just with better acting, effects, and camera work. I liked it.

Zombie Warz : Falls the Shadow was utter dog shit. Hated it. Virtually everything about this movie was bad. Why do I think this? Take a listen and find out.

This week and we next we will be bringing you are review and commentary on the South Korean Netflix series All of us as Dead. My second viewing and Michael's first. How will our opinions differ on everything from hiding and surviving to trying to live you life, from whether Lee-Cheong San's mother was stupid or just being a mother, and whether the girl in the pink sweater was the most evil character we have come across in 70 episodes of The Undead Symphony. Guess you will just have to listen and find out.

It was an odd one this week. Something I tend to do is trawl YouTube or the web for the next month of zombie watching, or I read something, get a recommendation, ask Michael what he wants to watch but I ordinarily know roughly what I am going to watch.

You know what it's like? It is like you have done the weeks grocery shop. You eat the most exciting meals first and then a few days later even the idea of those chicken steaks makes you gag. And trust me, Jeruzalem and Zombie Warz: Falls the Shadow are making me gag.

And so, using the analogy of a road trip, as a lot of zombie movies are, I looked left and the road was littered with burning dumpsters of daipers and animal parts, to the left the body glitter and thongs of two zombie stripper movies - the truly imaginatively titled Zombie Strippers starring Robert England and Jenna Jameson, and the slightly less awful stripper themed Zombieland parody Stripperland, complete with narration from the Columbus character, the Shaun of the Dead fart apology, and cameos from Boyd Banks (Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead) and Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, and Linnea Quigley's Horror Workout).

Enjoy. If it is at all possible.

Trying something new this episode as I watch the steampunk Nazi craziness of Frankenstein's Army with Karel Roden, before Michael and I watch The Walking Deceased. A movie he recommended that takes us away from my path.

Am really glad Michael has joined this adventure, shouldering the burden of Twitter, whilst I handle instaface and the technical aspects of the recording. He also brings me new movies to watch that may or may not be scheduled, such as the Walking Dead, Warm Bodies, Zombieland parody The Walking Deceased.

One terrible, one not so terrible, but which is which? Give it a listen to find out.

Time to nut up or shut up. And Michael and I are back on it with one of the mainstream hits from the realm of the undead - Zombieland, starring a very bankable cast of Jessie Eisenberg (Squid and the Whale, American Alpha), Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers), Emma Stone (La La Land) and Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine). A mainstream cast for a mainstream movie that borrowed the red pupiled running zombies of 28 Days Later, and made them it's own.

We join Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock as they navigate they way hilariously through the United States of Zombieland, follow Columbus' rules for surviving the zombie apocalypse, and stop in on comedy great Bill Murray on the way to Pacific Playland, where there aren't any zombies (honest).

Before Michael formerly joins the Podcast, living in the relative idyllic calm of the mainstream zombie hits (28 Days and Weeks Later, Zombieland, Shaun of the Dead), I am back scraping the bottom of the barrel, and wading chest deep through the stagnant filth that is the low end of the Z List.

This week, as punishment for enjoying 28 Days and Weeks Later, I struggled (and I really struggled) through the Australian Zombie Brigade, aka Zombie Commando, and the Italian/Spanish Hell of the Living Dead/Zombie Creeping Flesh.

How as it? Painful.

Zombie Brigade was poorly written poorly filmed and very poorly acted. Very few highlights for that one, as the local councillors and Mayor want to tear down a Vietnam war memorial so they can build a Japanese Robot themed theme park, only to discover the memorial was a grave for the Vietnam war dead. But are they dead? No. They were affected my the Vietnamese biochemical weapon that turned them into vampires. As you do.

So with the Vietnam war war dead vampires killing the people of the town, they have nowhere to go. They are cut off by the military with mine fields and blockades. Not that we see any of the military doing this. The powers that be will just contain it, keep it out of the press, and then destroy the town in a "bush fire".

Who can save them? Well the local aboriginal Uncle Charlie can call on the spirits of the Great War dead, the honourable Australian soldiers who died in WW1 and WW2 to come back and fight for the white people in the town. And so we have Vietnam War Vampires against WW1 zombies? Is it good? No. Especially not when they join forces.

A lot of racism, more than anything else, is what I remember about this one.

And if that is racist, then the Hell of the Living Dead is a lazy, confusing misogynistic nightmare from 1980. It is classed by many as one of the post-Dawn European classics, that really took the genre to the next level. Those people are wrong. Whilst Zombie Flesheaters and City of the Living Dead had something about this had nothing of merit.

Famed for the overuse of stock footage from National Geographic that runs to about a quarter of the movie, and the sort of gaping plot holes you could drive a horse and cart though, this was not good at all. I had hoped the poor quality of Zombie Brigade would make me look favourably on this, but no. It was truly awful.

I now need to have a shower I feel so dirty.

And he is back by popular demand.

Off the success of his 28 Weeks Later chat Michael is back again to discuss the sequel 28 Weeks Later, it is bigger, it is bolder, it is more American, but is it in keeping with the original? Can Robert Carlisle, Idris Elba, Jeremy Renner, and Rose Byrne fill the boots of Cillian Murphy, Naomi Harris, Brendan Gleason and Christopher Ecclestone?

28 Weeks after the original outbreak the US-led NATO force in the UK has deemed the country is now free of the Rage virus. Led by Iris Elba, with Scarlet (Rose Byrne) as his chief medical officer, they look after 15,000 returning Brits, monitoring them closely at a facility on the Isle of Dogs.

When Tammy and Andy arrive, the first children to return, Scarlet has her doubts. Tammy and Andy's father Don (Robert Carlisle) is the caretaker of the facility, with access all areas, and he has a secret. He left his wife, Alice, Tommy and Andy's mother to die in farmhouse full of infected.

But when Alice turns up, bitten but not turned, infected by asymptomatic, a carrier of the rage virus, everything they have worked for is going to go up in flames.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. As the incredible Dead Island 2 game is released (high), but without co op play (low) we here at the Undead Symphony are working our way through the z list, as well as finding new movies.

This episode we watch Amityville Uprising, a movie so bad I had to air out the house after watching it. And that was a struggle too. Off the back of Amityville Moon (a werewolf movie) and Amityville something else (a vampire movie) they made this - one of the worst movies we have seen, with some of the worst acting and worst writing combined (low). Set in a police station in Amityville, a US Army base explodes sending chemicals into the air that come down as acid rain that kill people and bring the dead to life. The effects are awful, the rain is an effect added in post, and there is a constant red hue on the clouds. The acting is the real drag here and there is nothing redeemable about it at all.

In contrast the British Among the Living looks beautiful in places, akin to Eradication, which was set in the US forest, this is the British countryside, the stunning rolling hills and lakes. We follow Harry (Dean Michael Gregory) and his sister Lily as they head across the country to their father. At times a bit slow, and always mired by the dreadful choice in music, the rest of the movie is suitably tense, and dramatic. It makes the most of a small cast and limited locations to create a pretty decent post apocalyptic tale, where the cautious and nervous Harry tries to keep his sister safe from the infected and uninfected alike.

I am joined this week by Michael Avery, a long time follower of the podcast, who has supported us throughout. And we are excited to talk all things zeke, as well as review and discuss one of the true game changers in the genre (sorry John Carpenter) of zombie horror, Danny Boyle's seminal work 28 Days Later.

Starring Cillian Murphy, Naomi Harris, Brendan Gleason and Christopher Ecclestone 28 Days Later follows Jim (Murphy) as he wakes from a bike accident in a deserted London hospital to discover the rage virus has decimated the country, turning the people into savage infected hell bent on infecting anyone they come into contact with. Joining Selena (Harris), Frank (Gleason) and his daughter, they head north in the search for salvation and a cure for the virus. Will they find it? Why not take a listen and find out.

In this episode we take a look at Peelers, a movie that does not live up to the billing of "outrageous comedy" that we discovered in the Amazon Prime description. I would say it is an infected movie, it is on the "z list" of movies classed as zombie movies found on that global source of information, misinformation, disinformation and outright lies that is Wikipedia and so I have to give it a fair shake.

I would say that death by taxidermy gazelle, urination over an audience, and some of the worst acting I have seen since I tried to split up with my freshmen year girlfriends Charlotte and whatever the other one was called. A cop theme, a BJ theme (Don't call her BJ), and some stupid deaths as the near indestructible Mexican miner zombies wreak havoc in a boondocks strip joint where we saw at least 3 full strip dances, one with urination, one as a schoolgirl with odd shaped nipples, and one called Thunderc*nt who farted out of her verjayjay.

It could have been unique, but, much like the acting, it was overall pretty awful.

And onto REC4: Apocalypse. There really wasn't much apocalypse going on, other than when the evil Dr Ricarte says there may not be anywhere to go back to if they fail. Fail in what? I hear you ask.

Well, following on from the first movie the journalist who went into the apartment building Angela and a solider that saved her (Guzman) wake up on a freighter out at sea with a lab, dodgy scientists and an army of armed mercenaries. They are trying to find a cure and suspect that Angela had it in her blood. We have a lot of infected, plenty of claustrophobic chases in the darkness (a la the first movie) , a few good kills and an unlikely hero.

Did I like it? I didn't see REC2 or 3, I am guessing 3 is the wedding one? But still it was entertaining enough, even though a bit obvious.

I love finding hidden gems, diamonds in the rough, and given the utter crud some zombie movies are, or infected movies, they are few and far between. So, much like when I discovered Blood Quantum, I am excited to say that I have found another in the form of Eradication starring Harry Aspinwall. David (Aspinwall) is in isolation, in communication with his scientist wife Sam, he follows a strict routine of diet, exercise and blood drawing. He is infected apparently but shows no symptoms. Anyone else who has come into contact with the virus has died, and so the scientists with Sam are looking at how to turn his blood into a cure.

Throw a crossbow wielding HAZMAT suited maniac into the mix killing infected an now, drones, and gorgeous cinematography, a nice twist or two in the plot, and I really liked this one. Two solid thumbs up. If anything because it took me back to surviving lockdown.

And, as a juxtaposition, we have I am Toxic from Argentina. Mad Max with zombies effectively. Not brilliant. Not original in any shape or form. If you want to see an 87 minute South American post apocalyptic by the numbers story with just enough action to keep you entertained and arguably the most pathetically ineffective zombies then go for this one on Amazon Prime.

This week I am looking at two wildly different movies. Having moved on from the "zombie" search on Amazon, I started with "undead" and finally "dead". And this threw up two movies I hadn't seen.

Dead Rising: Watchtower is a low end Hollywood take on a first person shooter game of the same name. It stars Jesse Metcalfe, Virginia Madsen, Dennis Haysbert, and Aleks Paunovic, so a pretty good cast and a movie that would spawn a sequel in Dead Rising; Endgame.

In Dead Rising: Watchtower there have been several zombie outbreaks in the US and Big Pharma have got their greedy little fingers in the pie to make as much money as possible out the desperation and suffering of the people. Basically like they do anyway. To forward their agenda though, the meds they give people to stop turning Zeke stop working and the army, led by Haysbert's General Lyons has to push forward with a controversial plan as reporter Chase (Metcalfe) tries to survive the zombie zone, and Paunovic's biker gang to get the real story out.

And in Dead Inside, a British movie with a budget of £15,000 or about $18,000, we have a rather long, and ruined mostly by the poor acting of the teens and soldiers, movie with almost zero originality. It had a few moments that I liked, enough to give it a passing grade, but ultimately it falls short and looks and feels like it did indeed cost less than a 2017 Honda Civic VTEC with over 60,000 miles on the clock.

This is partially Brendan Fletcher's fault. Having seen him in The Last of Us as Robert I checked to see what else he had been in and, other than 3 episodes of iZombie (that I will not watch), 13 Eerie, a Canandian zombie flick appeared. It has a few names too, Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrel's Nick Moran, Stargate SG-1's Michael Shanks and Canada's 2008 Hottest TV Star Brendan Fehr as well as Ginger Snaps scream queen Katherine Isabelle.

Set on a small desolate island in a Canadian waterway that once housed a penitentiary where, unbeknownst to the cast, they experimented on the prisoners the forensic science students are doing an exam in the field, investigating 3 corpses whilst their performance is reviewed by their professor (Shanks). Except they are not alone...

And, mein Gott, Outpost 2: Black Sun, where Nazi scientists are bringing about the 1000 year 4th Reich using a machine from 1945 that will reanimate dead SS troops. We have Richard Coyne (Coupling) as an American scientist and Catherine Steadman (Downton Abbey) as a Jewish American Nazi hunter and a host of recognisable faces from British TV all with dodgy accents, be they German or generic Eastern European, Comrade.

It felt like the scene setting minutes at the start of a Dr Who episode where the TARDIS never turns up. It felt like a dragged out TV movie, with TV quality camera work, and sets. Das is nicht ausgezeichnet. Nicht at all. I didn't like it and will definitely not be watching the original, where there is a cheesy one of each Allie nation specialist squad going in, or the sequel with Russians as the bad guys instead of Nazis, which makes sense as they currently are the Nazi's of the modern world. It was directed by Steven Barker who directed The Rezort, with Dougray Scott, that we did like, but this... it is a nein from me.

We are genuinely both sad to bring the Last of Us three episode podcast to a close. It has been great fun reviewing and discussing the show of the game that gave us so much joy.

We look at the episodes back on The Last of Us: Left Behind giving us a personal arc for Ellie, as well the cannibal Cultists lead by the ominous, controlling David and then bring the show to a close as Joel hands Ellie over to the Fireflies and Marlene at the hospital.

And then there is a summary, as we detail what we liked, what we didn't, what we would have included from the game(s) and what we would have omitted, or changed to make the show better. I think it is safe to say we wanted (1) more infected, (2) more episodes, (3) the school and the first bloater, and (4) less of the Bill/Frank love story. But it is what it is, and what it is... is great.

Enjoy what we rated as a solid 8/10 show.

My brother Jeremy joins me for the second of three special episodes of the Undead Symphony podcast as we work our way through the second third of the HBO show The Last of Us starring Pedro Pascal and Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie.

Having set the pace and style of the show in the opening episodes, we are loving the little elements inherited from the game, as well as critiquing and appreciating, for the most part, the changes made to make the show work better.

So here it is, our second look as we descend into the world of clickers and The Last of Us Episodes 4 to 6.

Survive and Endure!

Joining me this episode I have my brother Jeremy, ardent fan of The Last of Us (TLOU) game series. He has played TLOU 1 and 2 on numerous occasions, as have I, and therefore will be coming into the HBO show starring Bella Ramsay, Pedro Pascal, Nick Offerman and Gabriel Luna with the same eyes as I do. We know the game back to front, the plot lines, he gimmicks, and everything the game had to offer. We love the game and have played in numerous times to fruition, and the show had better include the elements we love.

Adaptations of computer games do not traditionally go well, I am thinking Doom and Super Mario Brothers. I didn't mind Max Payne, or the most recent Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider, or Resident Evil (especially the new series with the wonderful Lance Reddick (RIP) as Wesker), and haven't seen the Tom Holland and Marky Mark Uncharted. But with the game writer co-writing the show, I have high hopes.

So let's get into it, my brother Jeremy and I, entering the QZ and dissecting The Last of Us Episodes 1 thru 3.

In this classic starring Peter Cushing and John Carradine, the Nazi's are at it again, creating their super soldiers that then go wrong (surprise surprise). 30 years after the war a pleasure cruise around a Caribbean island runs into a ghost ship. The ship has been sitting on the sea bed since it was scuttled at the end of the war by its commander (Cushing) to send the uncontrollable SS zombie stormtroopers to their watery grave, only for them to return with a vengeance after a weird solar event the movie never properly explains.

Cockneys vs Zombies with Michelle Ryan (Bionic Woman), Harry Treadaway (Penny Dreadful and Mr Mercedes) racing to save their grandad, Alan Ford (Snatch) and his friends at their old peoples home in the East End, including Richard Briers (The Good Life) and Honor Blackman (Goldfinger) as a zombie plague from 1666 tears through London. It was ok, not brilliant, but watchable.

In Zombie Resurrection, a British movie with a decent enough premise (the virus was created as a vaccine that then went wrong and now two soldiers are escorting the scientist that created it as a prisoner back to Imperium, the largest encampment to face justice. And then as they hold up in a school they find a zombie that can turn zombies back into humans). It is done badly, the acting is atrocious, and the main scenes happen off-camera or are skipped entirely and we have the characters elsewhere questioning, like we do, what happened. Awful start to finish. Avoid. Unless you like this kinda shit.

Day of the Dead Bloodline, one of those movies that aren't official sequels or canon, but rather are a "reimagining" of the original. Now personally I found the Day of the Dead weak, dated, and forgettable. Outside of "Bub" I didn't like it. And this, well, before I started I thought if anything it would have 1. the military, 2. the bunker and 3. an asshole commander. Tick, tick, and tick. In the end it was as many shots as possible of Zoe running in her bra or a bra top, and an attempted rapist hybrid zombie.

And Zombieland Double Tap, and yes, I am watching the second movie first because of circumstance more than anything. We gain a few new characters, but it is the same schtick, the kills are off the chart (376 in a 99 minute movie), the FX are great and the story is... meh. The guys are comfortable, then they split up, then they have to go meet up again, before one final battle. So, pretty much the first movie.

Two movies that couldn't be more different, but two movies I thoroughly enjoyed. After a dumpster dive into YouTube I chanced upon a bad Chinese zombie movie (The Way Home) that I had to skim, but then I learned of the sequel, well not really a sequel but same genre/writer/director I am guessing. Also not sure where the Home in The Way Home is, as in The Way Home 2 they are already at home, the zombie apocalypse has happened and widowed father of a baby Hu Bohin lives in a rotting tower block. He is smart though, using pulleys, and robots and cameras to provide for him and his baby daughter. Armoured doors, shelving units of water cooler jugs of water, all very smart. Until a woman enters their world.

6/10 from me

And it has been paired with Pride Prejudice and Zombies, starring the sort of cast that would grace any period drama, including the original Pride and Prejudice: Lily James, Sam Riley, Charles Dance, Jack Huston, Matt Smith, Sally Phillips, Suki Waterhouse, Lena Heady, and Ellie Bamber. A wonderful combination of a movie. It has the classic Jane Austin story of the Bennet sisters, Mr Darcy et al, combined with a zombie apocalypse, clever pre-rabid zombies, kung fu kicking petticoat wearing sisters, and lots of handsome jodhpur wearing men, and a lot of comedy. I genuinely laughed out loud half a dozen times. Give it a watch.

And a well deserved 7/10

It is an international episode this week as we watch joint Italian/Spanish production City of the Walking Dead, or Nightmare City, from 1980 and set in Madrid, and Cuba's first zombie movie Juan of the Dead.

In Nightmare City local TV journalist Dead Miller is there when radiated zombies, nigh on indestructible and able to use weapons, land at the airport and kill everyone, before drinking their blood. The blood allows them to regenerate. It is classed as a classic, and is in a few of the Top 50 Zombie movies of all time, despite the director even questioning if it is a zombie movie at all.

And then we have Cuban comedy Juan of the Dead. And, before you ask, or presume, no it isn't anything like Shaun of the Dead at all. It is a far better movie in my opinion. With the accursed Yankies supposedly funding dissidents to fight against the communist regime, low end criminals Juan, and his best buddy Lazaro, Lazaro's son California, Juan's daughter Camille, local transsexual prostitute China and his bodyguard El Primo carve out a new life in Zombie Havana. Their new business venture, Juan of the Dead, is they will kill your zombies for a fee. Very funny, and worth a look.

Two very different movies this week, one made by the British, one made in Britain by Americans. One very good, one pretty poor.

The Rezort takes the genre on a new angle. Several movies have looked at what happens to the zombies post outbreak. In The Cured they are second class citizens, trying to regain their rights, in Shaun of the Dead they are kept for menial labour, same for Fido. In The Rezort, they are used for sport. The rich can pay to head to The Rezort, an island where you can hunt the remaining zombies left over after the last outbreak 10 years earlier. It is unethical, and wrong, but people pay to get their kicks, and also as therapy to get over what happened to them in the war. But Ellen Rhys and Dougray Scott have a different opinion, that changes again once hackers take down the security controls on The Rezort and let the zombies out.

Redcon-1 is brought to you by the producer of Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, the co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the producer of Sin City: A Dame to Die For. And, speaking freely, they should all be ashamed of themselves. This steaming pile of macho shit takes place a month after the initial outbreak at a prison in London. Given the sheer size of the city, the sheer numbers of people who live here, the military and armed police presence, there is no way it would happen the way it does. The quarantine zone from the Essex coast, outside the M25 to the Kent Coast isn't possible, and the acting, cast and most of the plot is rubbish. There are a few good bits, but the poor choice of acting talent, the poor choice of location, the fact it is 40 mins too long, and this is rightly near the bottom of the pile of movies we have watched. That is 118 minutes of my life I won't be getting back.

Originally I had planned to follow my normal 2 movies per episode format but I just hated a lot of this movie so much my ranting took over the whole show. Rise of the Zombies, from the writer of Zombie Night (which we hated) and director of Zombie Apocalypse (which we hated), and starring Mariel Hemingway, Ethan Suplee, LeVar Burton, Chad Lindberg, French Stewart, and the headline act Danny Trejo.

Only 2 months after a viral outbreak with a source traced to the water purification plant outside of San Francisco, there are very few survivors, and a lot of zombies. Well, not really, not compared to how many there would be in the whole bay area was infected. A group including the aforementioned C listers are holding out on Alcatraz without using any of the security features that made it famous.

After zombies start washing up on the shoreline they decide to leave the most secure facility in the area to split up and head to an evacuation centre, or the lab where a slightly mad scientist is working on a cure.

Sound good? No. Was not a fan. Enjoy my ranting though.

This week, dear listeners, we are treated to a Irving Rameses "Ving" Rhames double header with the 2011 Zombie Apocalypse and the 2008 namesake Day of the Dead, I say namesake as it is not a remake at all.

In Zombie Apocalypse three useless survivors are two thirds rescued from certain death by 4 battle hardened zombie fighters who talk the big talk, but can they do the walk? Well, no! They are almost as useless, they just pontificate a lot. They are then saved by 3 actually useful archers and suddenly we have people who are not so useless in charge. Ving is Henry, a sledgehammer wielding horse lover in this one who doesn't think all tigers are grrrrrrrrrrr-eat!

And in Day of the Dead it is a flu outbreak that causes coughs, then nosebleeds, then an overriding desire to eat people's flesh in Leadville, Colorado. No worries though as the US military are there including subordinate Nick Cannon, bullet less Mena Suvari, and at one point a legless Ving Rhames. It has no bearing on the original, other than both movies have military involvement. It wasn't as bad as Micky made it out to be. Running, jumping, clever zombies that can run along the ceiling? No thank you.

Two new movies for me, neither rated very highly by critics and regular people alike, but I thought I would go into them with an open mind.

In Paradise Z, set in Thailand, we have more of a survivalist tale, dull routine, but stunningly beautiful to look at as Sylvia and Rose live day to day. It is a little slow for 3/4 of the movie but it builds and I liked the clever little things they did to hide their presence in the hotel from the infected.

And in Witness Protection, a comedy where the premise far outweighs the end product, two mob families are moved to the same city in California from New Jersey. A tainted batch of Italian sausage poisons anyone eating it, turning them into flesh eating infected. Not as funny as it sounds.

Two very different movies this week.

We have the comedy curse movie Dead Before Dawn starring Christopher "Great Scott" Lloyd and featuring a podcast favourite, It Stains the Sands Red's Brittany Allen, a rather obvious but fun romp where a bunch of college seniors accidentally create a curse that compels anyone they make eye contact with to commit suicide, and then come back as not just a zombie, but a demon possessed zombie, a "zemon". They will try to kill you by biting you and giving you a hickey, but you can control them but French kissing them. So, nothing out of the ordinary there.

And Belgium's first zombie movie, the claustrophobic, high pace Yummy, set in a fictitious Eastern European country, Alison and Michael head to a rundown hospital for cheap plastic surgery only to discover that Dr K's revolutionary stem cell treatment has been running in parallel to his work on a zombie patient zero. It is a bloody, gory mess and I really did like it. If this is what the Belgians can produce, they should make some more.

In this weeks episode we watch the Spanish Netflix offering Valley of the Dead, telling the story of Nazi experimentation during the bloody Spanish Civil war and Hard Line, aka Dead Rush, a POV modern day effort seen through the eyes of David, a regular guy as he tries to come to terms with the end of the world.

Sure, in Valley of the Dead, we have some dodgy CGI of planes, and driving scenes shot in front of a screen aside, I really like this. It felt formulaic in places when you lose a character at each location to the oncoming zombie hoards, but you could skim over that because it was well shot, the characters well played and fun, and who doesn't like trying to end Nazi experimentation? It is republicans backed by Russia verses nationalists back by Nazi Germany but in the end they are all Spaniards fighting for their lives and ideals when the undead return.

I hate POV with a capital P. Outside of the camera view in The Blair Witch Project it is always done badly, a gimmick, like the end of Doom, so it can be truer to it's computer game roots and when Neo comes back from the dead in The Matrix. So a whole 77 minute zombie movie shot entirely POV (other than two short scenes at the end and when the main character dies (SPOILER!)). Not as dumb as I initially thought, the acting is pretty limited, but this genre doesn't draw the best of the art, other than the TWD and spinoffs (obvs). They tried to make it immersive by making it POV, but in the end you are disappointed that you are David and not one of the others.

A different take on the zombie genre this week as we look at it from the side of the zees. Yes, we are on the dead side of the fence cheering on the shufflers against the human scum.

In Dead Heads we meet Mike, confused after a car accident and desperate to see his one true love Ellie. One small issue, he's a zombie, murdered by Ellie's father and has been dead for 3 years. Still, the path of true love is never easy and so with wise cracking sidekick *and fellow zombie Brent, and a huge shuffler called Cheese, Mike heads cross country to offer Ellie his heart, even though it doesn't actally work anymore.

And then we watch The Revenant, and no not the Leo frontiersman bear movie, this is another story of a normal man coming back from the dead and seeking his purpose. We meet Bart Gregory, a soldier in Iraq who is killed in action and then repatriated, only to come back from the dead. Confused initially Bart and his best pal Joey then become gun slinging vigilantes taking down the underworld of LA, and gaining their guns, drugs and cash, and some degree of notoriety as well.

Both very watcheable takes on the genre, with smart zombies you care about, much like my own Thombie.

Two movies this week that barely scrape into the zombie bracket for me, although google uses the z-word for both.

Alone, one of a thousand movies with the same title, is an incredibly slow, dull plague movie where a disease could potentially effect everyone and the only known cure has a chance of turning you into a homicidal maniac. Minimal cast, minimal location, minimal everything really. Production values were fine in terms of the acting, visuals and sound, but the story was just sooooooooooooooooooo boring I nearly nodded off a few times. Nothing happens. More happens in some movies pre-credits that happen in the whole 80 something minutes of this one. Avoid.

The Serpent and the Rainbow, however, starring Bill Pullman and directed by Nightmare on Elm Street's Wes Craven, has a lot going on, but falls to the edge of the genre because it is more about voodoo, with a bit of dream manipulation (it is Craven after all), and some zombie drug that puts people into a death like state. Not a zombie movie, but harks back to the voodoo ideas of the 1930s and 40s White Zombie and I walked with a Zombie, as well as the origins of the plague in the 1980s with Zombi. Watch once.

According to Douglas Adams 42 is the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything. In this, episode 42, we are not so lucky. But there was hope.

We had The Last Hope, a very poor Australian effort, where an immune soldier, the eponymous last hope, and others head across Australia to find a hospital to create a cure. Well, a very tiny, backwater part of Australia. No cities, no towns, not even a village. Not even two houses next to each other.

And then the Israeli Cannon Fodder: Battlefield of the Dead, a very grand, and large title for what was a 4 man mission, through a hole in a fence, some woods, a doorless house, a burned out hotel and then a beach. Could it score as badly as the Israeli Another World? The worst scoring movie so far? We shall have to see.

Put another shrimp on the zombie powered barbie and crack open a tall, cold Castlemaine 4X from the zombie powered fridge, as this week we are looking at the Wyrmwood series, the 2014 Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, where we are introduced to the new world, of zombies as fuel, and hazmat suited doctors and armoured soldiers killing the survivors to make their own serum, through the 2019 Wyrmwood: Chronicles of the Dead Teaser, for a TV series that never got made, to the 2021 bigger budget, better FX and honed Wyrmwood: Apocalypse.

Follow Barry and he looks for his sister Brooke, after she was taken by the soldiers for experimentation, before we join Rhys, on his quest for redemption.

All very watchable

We are baaaaack! Did you miss us? Well, we weren't gone for very long to be fair. But we are back with the second season of The Undead Symphony, starting with two international efforts, the cheesy, a bit racist, Shaun of the Dead rip-off Kill Zombie! from the Netherlands, where Aziz, Mo, Jeffrey, Nolan, Joris and Officer Kim must battle their way across an Amsterdam full of green foam spewing zombies to save the girl, and the Japanese One Cut of the Dead, a movie about a movie about a zombie movie where the original zombie movie crew was attacked by real zombies. It will be a wild ride, people, strap yourselves in.

A real cult classic this episode, The Return of the Living Dead. 1985, cool mid-80s punk music, odd mid-1980s fashion (shoulder pads, collars up, no sleeves and a lot of zips and chains), and a slightly comedic plot derived from The Night of the Living Dead that didn't really feel all that funny. Still, it is the movie that gave us the idea that zombies want to eat brains, and why. So it is cemented in zombie movie history that that alone, and less so the 4 ever-diminishing sequels.

This week, and the last of 2022, we watch Aquarium of the Dead that includes Vivica A Fox from Kill Bill Pt 1 and 2 in a terrible role, where the CGI walrus has the best range of the acting "talent on offer" and Dead Again, no not the 1991 Kenneth Brannagh and Emma Thompson effort. This is a bad 2021 British movie with bad special effect, sounds effects, alien space craft that advertises itself as a comedy but, truth be told, is anything but.

Brini Amerigo's writing and directorial debut is, to be fair, a piece of woman-hating misogynistic nastiness wrapped up in a half-assed house invasion where the house has real horrors in it story.

A gang of home invaders who make the household commit heinous acts at gunpoint before killing them pick the wrong house this time when they attack the Pontecorvo home. The seemingly meek and mild father is a scientist working on a zombie virus strain in his basement, and the home invasion unleashes the undead.

It is bad. There is graphic rape and murder, both wholly unnecessary, and probably highlighting the writer/director's own mental health issues. And you can see why, thankfully, he didn't get to make another movie after this.

3/10

The 2010 Ford Brothers production of The Dead, filmed in Burkina Faso and Ghana finds the hero (Rob Freeman) the sole survivor of an evacuation flight crash making his way across a dusty, African country in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

Meeting up with local soldier Daniel, who is trying to find his son, Freeman makes his way from unprotected village to unprotected village, airfields and through the bush in a battered Peugeot truck.

Awful continuity, bad overacting, bad eye overacting and a very very repetitive plot from a 12 week shoot that should have taken 6. I have seen worse, but with the potential this had, I can't score it very highly at all.

After the grim offering last time out I needed quality, and this spin off of Fear the Walking Dead was a perfect route back to decent zombie fare. Starring Nick Stahl as Riley, his character from FTWD (Season 6), during the opening of the show back in Season 1, the crew of the USS Pennsylvania is pulled from a NATO exercise to the Gulf of Mexico but then lose communication with command.

A crewman dies of septic appendicitis but then turns, biting three of the crew and by the next morning the 82 strong crew is dropping in numbers in the close confinement of the submarine. Then a message comes through that they have a target.

With a hint of Crimson Tide Stahl and the Captain wrestle with the idea of firing on US soil when we discover the target is Chicago, and that the US Army (not the National Guard) has been deployed. They try to work out what has gone wrong as they battle their undead crewmates, and Riley finally works out that he needs to be off the ship and head home to protect his family.

Two of the bottom of the barrel movies this week, one of which I couldn't comfortably finish.

The overly stupid, misogynistic, self-referential Range 15 starring a whole landing craft of celebrity veterans and cameos from William Shatner, Sean Astin, Keith David, Danny Trejo and Ron Jeremy. Funded by the "stars" and a indie-go-go crowdfunding page this is god awful.

But it is basically Full Metal Jacket meets 28 Days Later in comparison to the pile of shit that is Another World, an Israeli extinction movie that is so bad it doesn't even have a wikipedia page. With stereotypical characters The Colonel, The Wizard, The Doctor, The Daughter and The Mouser who flit between bad plans, an apartment, a parking lot and long boring discussions about god, government, civilisation, existence and purpose this is the sort of movie that can cause people to self-harm. My advice, avoid both like the plague and pray that the people who created these monstrosities get their bloody comeuppance.

Starring Elliot Page and with a more than a hint about the rehabilitation of terrorists detainees from the Troubles, this infected movie set in Northern Ireland poses the questions he have been wanting ask; what happens if the infected get cured? Do we take them back in? Are they the same person as they were before? Can we forgive them for the crimes they committed when out of control and infected, including murder and cannibalism?

Making the most of my Amazon Shudder account this week to watch a second Shudder Original (Virusl:32) as well as The Horde.

First we have the overly macho The Horse where a group of undercover cops head into the ghetto to take out the drug dealer who murdered their friend, only for the two competing elements to be forced together to fight the eponymous horde of zombies that are heading their way and escape the tower block they find themselves trapped in.

And Virus:32 a joint Uruguayan and Argentinian movie set in a claustrophobic abandoned sports club, with fast movie smart infected that for 32 seconds post murder/feed are dormant, so you have a tiny window to escape. Very tense, very 28 days later, very recommended.

Set in a First Nation reservation where the natives are immune to a zombie virus that affects the white population, fish and carnivores, we see local police chief Traylor and family try to survive with their people, whilst balancing saving those who could bring it all to an end.

The late Jeff Barnaby's movie is a superb take on the zombie genre with the back stories of racism and tradition. And it was arguably one of my favourite reviewed movies to date. Check it out on Shudder.

This week we look at Lucio Fulci's 1979 classic Zombie Flesh Eaters, aka Zombie, aka Zombi 2, an official sequel to Romero's, or at least the Argento edit of, Dawn of the Dead. Starring Ian McCullouch of Survivors, and Mia Farrow's less talented sister, we head to the Caribbean where the dead are rising from their conquistador graves to bit people on the throat before eating their innerds.

It has better effects, some terrible dubbing, but with excellent locations, and a shark vs zombie underwater fight, it really is up there as one of the classics of the genre.

Back to a double header this week with the macho men Dolph Lundgren and Michael Dudikoff facing off as we watch and try to enjoy the awfully named Navy Seals vs Zombies, where a crack team head into Baton Rouge to rescue the Vice President and a Scientist with the cure when the zombie plague starts, and Dead Trigger, the big screen version of the phone first person shooter, where a crack team of millennials... wait... what? Yes, a team of newly recruited 20 somethings join Lundgren, Oleg Taktarov and a couple of other old hands to go into a sparsely populated Terminal City to save, yes, you guessed it, a Scientist with the cure.

It is the battle of the bads. You will genuinely enjoy the podcast more than the movies. Thank God they were free. Small mercies and all that.

It has received cult status but then there is no accounting for taste. I can see why, but not really. High school prom, nerds, cheerleaders, a bully, a bullying gym teacher with a military past and an alcoholic principal. But then add a spill from the local powerplant brings the dead back and it is all gonna go wrong.

Favourite line. "Stare at the wall. It is the wall channel. All wall. All of the time."

The rest I was not a fan of.

A Thai movie where they get the zombie effects, the set and lighting and speed right but everything else wrong. Awful acting, annoying characters, ridiculous repetitive plot and in the end you even do a head tilt as to who the hell the characters in the final scene are. I hated this one, given that it got the look and feel so right, it could have been great. But with over a dozen shouty teens running the halls of the hospital shouting and screaming when they should be quiet, it just annoyed me. If you want to spent 90 minutes exasperated then pay good money to watch Zombie Hunters.

In this low level teen high school zombie horror from Blumhouse (Halloween, Insidious, Get Out, Black Phone) we follow the jocks and nerds trying to get extra curricular credit but going on a field trip. One small issue, the bus crashes, they are attacked by a metal head zombie, and their teacher killed, and the US is under a chemical attack, so find shelter!!!

And it is the nerds that step up, finding shelter and calling the shots. But nothing is as it seems. Well, that isn't true, they really telegraphed the plot. Ah well, still, give it a go. This is Unhuman.

A remake of Dead Set (covered in Ep 24) this is twice the episodes, twice the carnage, twice the characters, and well, as it is Brazilian, it is a sexified version of the UK show. In Rio the reality TV Show Olympus is a hit. The contestants are stars and Brandau is the all-powerful producer/director. Nina is a peon, a runner, a gofer, and then zombie apocalypse happens.

With the first 5 episodes are almost a scene by scene remake of Dead Set, just without the Riz Ahmed plot line, and with a corrupt politician plotline. And the characters from that take over when it all goes horribly wrong.

It is a lesson in the humans being worse than the undead, with their drives and decisions ultimately bringing about their end.

Set on the set of Big Brother UK Dead Set follows the contestants, production crew and they extended loved ones as they come to terms with the ongoing zombie apocalypse outside those gates. Starring Jaime Winstone and Riz Ahmed this infinitely watchable 2008 5 episode taster from Black Mirror's Charlie Brooker is post 28 Days Later fun and worth a watch.

In this podcast we watch two of the lesser known George A Romero zombie movies, the 2007 Diary of the Dead, in which George uses gimmicks including found footage, voice over narration, and CCTV, before the terrible 2009 Survival of the Dead, which could be summed up as being two backward Irish clans wipe each other out because they are dumb. The zombies were actually smarter.

In this episode I finally watch the first zombie I became aware of, the 1981 Zombie Lake. It has petrified me from 1982 and the moment I saw the poster in a video store window in Whitstable in Kent. I started watching horror movies in my teens, as we all do, but Zombie Lake was never watched. After Night of the Comet and the Romero's I forgot all about it, until now.... and boy, do I wish I hadn't.

And to counter the dreadful French/Spanish softcore porn with birdsong soundtrack, I am also watching the highly rated French-Canadian comedy Brain Freeze, described as being Shaun of the Dead meets The Bay. Not sure about that, but it looks good, and stars La Femme Nikita's Roy Dupris.

Two very similar movies this week with the theme of infection and locked down offices. In the first, Office Uprising, Titan's Brendan Thwaites is Desmond, a slacker keeping as low a profile as possible at Ammotech, a weapons manufacturer. When his co-workers are given a bad batch of Zolt, the new Army drink designed to up aggression they turn into homicidal maniacs and Desmond must fight to save his girl and this 3rd best friend in the office (Deadpool's Dopinder) from the Office Uprising.

And then we have the Walking Dead's Stephen Yeun (Derek) and Ready or Not's Samara Weaving in a law office building locked down by SWAT and the CDC infected with the ID7 or Red Eye virus that has a temporary effect on people of making them lose their ID, their inhibitions and lose their morals. They need to get all their revenge, save Samara's house and Derek's job whilst taking out as many of their workmates as possible.

In this episode I decided to dive head first into the cesspit of mediocrity. You see these movies and you avoided them. But we are not shy of making those decisions here at the Undead Symphony. We just watch them with gritted teeth and a stress ball.

And so to episode 20 where we watched the Austrian Attack of the Ledershosen Zombies, a movie wholly without any lederhosen wearing zombies, and a crappy snowboarding plot line, and Zombie Hunter, a Danny Trejo movie that will leave you wanting to shower afterwards it is so bad.

Still, we watched it so you didn't have to.

You're welcome.

A real yin yang of a week with the underrated It Stains the Sands Red and Zombie Night.

It Stains the Sands Red tells the story of a drunkard, drug user trailer trash Molly, racing out of a zombiefied Las Vegas with her cohort Nick. With the car stuck in the sand and a zombie slowly moving up he road Nick gets bitten and the zombie chases after the drunk and high Molly.

An anti-heroine Molly has put up with so much in her life she is not taking shit from the zombie, who she dubs Smalls. She has been abused, her drug use meant her kid was taken off her and was given to her sister to look after and one bad relationship after another has beaten her. She is not taking anymore shit though, not from anyone, and not from the zombie Smalls who follows her, chasing her into the desert. And it becomes a long slow chase.

With an unknown cast and a clever premise ISTSR is totally watchable. Zombie Night however is one of the worst films I have ever seen. Despite starring Anthony Michael Hall (Weird Science, Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, The Dead Zone), Alan Ruck (Succession, Spin City, Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and Daryl Hannah (Splash!, Roxanne, Kill Bill) and being written and directed by Z Nation's Keith Allen this is terrible. Some of the most stilted acting, and the worst hackneyed dialogue ever experienced. When the ad breaks are the main source of your entertainment during the movie, you know there is something wrong. I cannot illustrate just how much I hated this one.

In episode 18 we travel further afield to Venezuela for Infection, where a micro biologist father has to weigh up saving mankind and saving his son, whilst in Rammbock aka Rammbock: Berlin Undead aka Siege of the Dead, we revisit one of the original movies in the zombie sub-genre of being holed up in an apartment as the apocalypse happens around you.

In this episode we closed our eyes and stuck a pin in the menu and came out with two very different dishes.

We have the French football themed zombie movie Goal of the Dead, as the Olympique de Paris team and their captain Lorit head back to the pissant town of Caplongue for a cup clash. A clash that will bring Lorit face to face with fatherhood, his own father, and a zombie apocalypse caused by the town's doctor and his son, Lorit's former teammate and best friend and captain of Caplongue.

And the Korean Zombie for Sale. The sheister family of conmen and women, the Guls, live in a sleepy nowhere town, conning anyone driving through their district. They are all scammers looking to make a quick buck easily. But when a zombie escapes the local bio lab, and it's bite has rejuvenating powers the Guls see this as their way out of poverty and debt, and to bring the family gas station back to it's best.

This week, as part of our rehabilitation after Z Nation, we are back on the high quality movies starting with the Romeo and Juliet in Zombieland Warm Bodies, starring Nicholas Hoult as R, Theresa Palmer as July and John Malkovic as her zombie hating father. It is funny, it is warm, it is a zom rom com even your horror movie hating other half will enjoy.

And I have paired it with the French La Nuit Dévoré le Monde, or the Night Eats the World, probably the best, in my opinion, survivor stuck in an apartment by himself zombie movie out there, certainly superior to #ALIVE and Final Days, as we Sam making excellent decisions about his survival from day one.

Something new and a full season review. I will do the same for the other TV shows including the Walking Dead franchise, Dead Set, All of us are Dead and the new Day of the Dead, but in this episode I head for the trailer park for the low end Z Nation, where moments of childish hilarity and clever plots are rare nuggets to be found only by digging in a landfill of used adult diapers.

This week I have gone back to the shopping mall Zack Snyder remake of Dawn of the Dead, starring Jack Webber and Ving Rhames, and George A Romero's next instalment of his zombie series, Land of the Dead boasting Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo and Simon Baker in the lead roles.

When I watch the 1978 version of Dawn I always nit pick. There are plenty of things they do in the movie that I think are wrong; they waste a lot of ammo in body shots, they didn't plow into the zombies when they used the trucks, they made bad decisions, like storing the dead in the pantry with all their fresh food. All stupid, stupid moves. Those issues were all addressed by Snyder, who also gave cameos to the 3 male leads of the original, named a store after the actress who played Francine, and also had a shout out to Day.

And Land of the Dead is Romero in the 2000s getting a decent cast to put together a movie that made $46M worldwide at the box office, before heading to video. It has the zombie evolution, from communication, to planning, tool use. As Simon Baker says, they used to be us, and now they are learning to be us again.

Both solid movies and both worth a watch.

Paddy Considine, Emma Arteton and Glen Close in the British zombie movie The Girl with all the Gifts, where a fungus turns people into rabid monsters, and where the next generation has evolved.

And Extinction with Matthew Fox and Jeffery Donovan in another movie where the zombies have evolved from those at the beginning of the movie, in a snowy landscape and a story that was a mix of A Quiet Place, 30 Days of Night and I am Legend.

Back to the classics and one of the greatest zombie movies of all time, the game-changer that is the 1978 production of Dawn of the Dead. The first zombie movie set in a shopping Mall, with lines and themes that would be stolen by dozens of directors and writers in years to come. And the sequel Day of the Dead, the cheesier and angrier 1985 movie with a lot of issues that make it a weaker Romero and a more disappointing sequel than Land of the Dead (2005) but there's a few decent moments including the introduction of Bub, who will inspire The Mechanic in Land.

This week we are back on the comedies with Little Monsters and Cooties. Australian little monsters stars Alexander England and Black Panther's Lupita Nyong'o as they battle an army of shufflers at a petting zoo/farm whilst on a kindergarten field trip, and Cooties brings Rain Wilson, Alison Pill and Elijah Wood together in this elementary school based, infected chicken nugget of a story.

In this episode I move away from the dual movie idea and watch two seasons of the Netflix zombie drama Black Summer. The spiritual sister of Z Nation with none of the comedy or cheese. Instead it is break neck speed, frantic and frenetic with zero character development for any of the actors other than the lead, and then she goes the wrong way. Hope you enjoy it. Let me know if you have seen Black Summer and what you thought.

A real yin yang of an episode as the most incredibly cast The Dead Don't Die fails due to poor choices from director Jim Jaramush whilst Shaun of the Dead flies high with the help of my ex housemate James and twin buddies Kev and Nick. Let's go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over.

A comedy and a musical week, the jokes need to land when you are making a comedy, the tunes need to be memorable if you are making a musical, so let's see if the 4th July dead presidents comedy and high school music cuts it.

And tonight we are talking about the Korean movies Train to Busan, in my opinion one of the best zombie movies ever made, and it's sequel, more of a zombie heist movie Peninsula. Both good, one great, and both worth a watch, or at least a listen.

In which I relive the first two zombie movies I saw as a teenager, the 80s cliché filled cheese fest Night of the Comet and the granddaddy of them all, George A Romero's 1968 Night of the Living Dead.

Time to nut up or shut up, go big or go home, and we, dear listeners, are going big. We are looking at Zack Snyder's Netflix zombie Vegas blast Army of the Dead starring Guardians of the Galaxy's Dave Bautista, and Brad Pitt in the biggest grossing zombie movie of all time World War Z, based on the novel of the same name.

After a few poor movies recently, it is good to get back to decent effects and big budget bang for the buck.

A trip down under for Martin Freeman's Cargo and then best get in a crate of your favourite alcohol to cushion the blow of Ravenous, a terribly dull French Canadian effort that I really, really didn't like

it is a comedy week on the Undead Symphony as we look at the Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse with Tye Sheriden and Bruce Campbell in Walmart shopping horror Black Friday.

In the second episode I take a look at a couple of movies that take the zombie genre in different directions, adding new elements to the theme. We have Matt Smith, Natalie Dormer and Stanley Tucci in Patient Zero with smart, conniving infected and Stephen McHattie in the out there Pontypool and it's brilliant transfer mechanism for the viris.

In this, the first episode of the Undead Symphony, I look at the Korean Netflix movie #Alive starring Yoo Ah-in and Park Shin-Hye, and its American counterparty Final Days starring Tyler Posey and Summer Spiro, two movies with a very similar take on the hunker down survival story.