The SPACE Network’s new six-part documentary show Fanboy Confessional, which, not surprisingly, explores all aspects of fandom, delves into horror in next week’s episode. Producers turn their sorry sights on Toronto Zombie Walk founder (and Hamilton, ON resident) Thea Munster and Rue Morgue Magazine art director \”Ghoulish\” Gary Pullin. (Disclosure: I write for Rue Morgue and am friends with Gary.)
The DLB is looking forward to Rue Morgue Magazine‘s monthly Cinemacabre movie night tonight (June 16). Being shown is the Canadian premiere of the new Hammer film Wake Wood which arrives on DVD and Blu-ray June 28 through eOne Entertainment. (Look for a review on the 28th.)
The unfinished version of Kanye West’s “Monster” video leaked online recently, and while the DLB isn’t a big hip hop fan, the video should peak the interest of horror fans with its macabre imagery, including West holding a decapitated head, beautiful dead women hanging around Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj sporting fangs. No word yet when the finished video will be released.
RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE
Starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter and Shawn Roberts
Written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
If you’ve followed the Resident Evil movie franchise this far, odds are you have accepted the fact that they value action over horror, are not terribly well-written and don’t religiously follow the video game series that inspired them. With those expectations in mind, Resident Evil: Afterlife, the fourth live-action RE film, boasts some astonishing set pieces, impressive visual effects and a wholly ridiculous story.
That, my lovelies, is the gruesome cover art for Zombies! An Illustrated History of the Undead by ex-Rue Morgue editor-in-chief and friend Jovanka Vuckovic. It’s available for pre-order now on Amazon.com and is due out Feb 1 from St. Martin’s Press in the US and Ilex Press in the UK. The cover comes courtesy of The Walking Dead artists Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn.
We’ll be sure to keep tabs on this project, as well as Jovanka’s upcoming directorial debut, The Captured Bird. Follow that project’s development on http://www.thecapturedbird.com/.
Toronto Goth punk band Cadillacs and Cadavers (http://www.myspace.com/cadillaccadaver) provided the musical entertainment last night at Toronto’s Cherry Cola Lounge for the launch party of Andrea Subissati’s new book “When There’s No More Room In Hell,” an academic text which examines the zombie phenomenon from a sociological perspective.
From a press release:
The Dead Walk Again in 2010 and ODERUS URUNGUS is among them!
Oderus Urungus, chief scumdog of marauding mutant metal impresarios GWAR, will be dropping by Trinity Bellwoods Park on Saturday Oct. 23/10 to be given the newly minted title of Honorary Grand Marshal. Oderus will start the zombie walk by making an opening announcement to the ravenous undead hordes before sending them forth with the new tradition of The Throwing of the Severed Head.
The five-part British zombie series Dead Set premieres tonight (Sunday, Oct. 3) at 10 pm EST on Space and continues weekly through to Halloween.
The series, broadcast during October 2008 on Channel 4, is set in and around the Big Brother house as a zombie outbreak devastates the country. The first three episodes the DLB screened were pretty horrifying and engaging, with parallels drawn between the mindless audience who makes reality TV successful (including me) and the mindless undead. Not brilliant but at least funny.
Director George A. Romero
Survival of the Dead is George A. Romero’s sixth zombie film, and its imminent theatrical run in Toronto, followed soon after by its arrival on DVD and Blu-ray, meant that the legendary horror director, now relocated to Toronto from his long-time home in Pittsburgh, was available to talk.
Set a couple of months into the zombie outbreak, Survival follows a group of soldiers as they seek refuge on Plum Island, a remote piece of land controlled by The Flynns and The Muldoons, rival families whose decades-long enmity has barely been erupted by the outbreak of the undead.
Heavily influenced by the classic 1958 Western The Big Country, Survival is more black comedy than horror film, with Romero fully indulging his love of EC Comics and Looney Tunes cartoons in some of the more outrageous kills. As usual, Romero uses his zombies to help illustrate a larger social principle, rather than simply employing them as bringers of destruction.
The 2010 edition of Toronto After Dark kicked off last night to a packed house for the American horror comedy The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Chtulu, a rather odd choice given that it’s not very good.
Higher hopes are had for tonight’s slate begins at 7pm with Doghouse, a British zomcom directed by Jake West (Razor Blade Smile, Evil Aliens) where a bunch of guy friends on the outs with their women head to the small town of Moodley to drown their sorrows and mack on the local dames, only to find that they’re actually zombies.
The 9 pm slot is taken up by the Greek zombie film (!?) Evil in The Time of Heroes “starring” American actor Billy Zane which invokes Greek myths with an undead twist.
All screenings take place at The Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor St. W.).
