Book Review: Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Vol. 1 by Haro Aso

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead Volume 1 by Haro Aso

Akira Tendo is a twenty-something Tokyo resident who has spent several years in a dream job that turned out to be a nightmare--the hours were very long, the one cute girl in the office is not interested in him and has a thing going with the boss, and he's lost touch with all his friends. Getting out of bed in the morning is the first of many daily trials. Then, one day a zombie apocalypse happens and he does not have to go into work. He is overjoyed with his new freedom, probably the only happy person in Tokyo given the circumstances. He decides to make a bucket list of 100 things to do before he turns into a zombie. He sneaks out of his apartment, climbing down the outside wall and offering to get groceries for the downstairs couple, even though he's just going on a beer run so he can get wasted and watch TV all day. He meets another young, attractive woman at the supermarket who has no interest in him because he's collecting every type of beer while she is getting necessary supplies to survive. He does not have proper risk analysis or priorities. They part ways but by the end of this volume, she realizes he has something that no one else has...a happy attitude. Maybe she should team up with him?

The story has an interesting premise but it leans heavily into one of my pet peeves about manga. Women are almost entirely depicted as large-breasted sex objects with little other worth to any of the male characters. Even the sensible woman at the supermarket is in a non-sensically skimpy outfit and is somehow ultimately swayed by his shallow demeanor. The attitude is so persistent, it drags the rest of the story down. Also, the guy is not that compelling a protagonist. I am not interesting in reading any more.

Not recommended.

Movie Review: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dawn of the Dead (2004) directed by Zack Snyder based on the movie by George Romero

Nurse Ana (Sarah Polley) losses her husband and child as a plague turns people into fast-moving, ravenous zombies. She flees her suburban home, eventually joining up with a police officer (Ving Rhames) and an assortment of other characters. They go to Crossroads Mall, which seems moderately secure and out of the way from the destruction and death in the city. The mall security team, led by CJ (Michael Kelly), don't want them there but an uneasy truce develops. As they try to work out what to do, more people show up and they spot a guy on a roof across the street. He's on top of a gun shop, so making friends with him seems like it will work out well. Being a zombie apocalypse movie, things do not work out so well.

The movie has the basic story beats of Romero's version from the 1980s but does not start with the heavy-handed political messages. This plot rushes to the mall where the conflicts between the humans are intense, though the high-speed zombie conflicts are even more intense. Snyder has a strong visual style and makes exciting action sequences with extreme gore. The characters discuss the usual problems, like the morality of killing someone who is bitten and will turn soon--should the person be killed before turning, be sent away, etc.? A husband and pregnant wife have a very heartbreaking denouement. The actors do a good job though the movie has few great character moments. It's more of a horror action thriller and works on that level, if you can put up with the gore.

Mildly recommended--Romero's stuff has a little more substance but this has a lot more style. If you like Snyder's stuff you will probably like this a lot.

TV Review: Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes (2021)

Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes (2021) co-written and co-directed by Petter Holmsen

Live Hallangen (Kathrine Thorborg Johansen) has been killed in a remote area outside the small Norwegian town of Skarnes. Her family runs the local funeral parlor so they are used to dealing with death. The one thing they were not prepared for was Live waking up on the autopsy table. The police (Kim Fairchild and Andre Sorum) are apologetic about the mistake; Live's dad starts acting strange at the revelation. His behavior is not nearly as strange as Live's--her senses are very heightened and she has an insatiable urge for human blood. She works as a nurse at an old-age home, so maybe she can get her fix on the side?

The show starts off as a horror-comedy hybrid with some genuinely shocking and uncomfortable horror moments. Initially, the police are comic relief though the more viewers get to know them, the less funny they are. Their switch into serious characters gives them a lot more humanity and thereby sympathy. Unfortunately, Live's story arc goes from the tragic victim of the situation to a somewhat unsympathetic woman trying not to get in trouble for the things she does, some of which are not in her control. She finds out her mother had a similar problem that led to her suicide. Live's dad knows about what's happening and tries to cremate Live to stop the problem. She escapes and accidentally kills him, causing a lot of problems. The funeral home has a lot of debt and her brother Odd (Elias Holmen Sorensen) has a very hard time managing the situation. He's the most sympathetic character, struggling to keep his wife happy and his family business together. The situations slowly spiral out of control. The show has a lot of plot holes and very unbelievable moments (like her escape from the crematorium's incinerator) that don't help in enjoying the proceedings. I found the happy ending a little forced and unlikeable. It seems like there's room for a sequel but I have no interest in watching more.

Not recommended.

Currently (March 2024) streaming only on Netflix. 

Book Review: Z Is For Zombie by Theodore Roscoe

Z Is For Zombie by Theodore Roscoe

John Ranier is ship's surgeon on a cruise line going back and forth from New York City to Haiti. He was a hot-shot doctor but ran into some trouble. His new career has him handing out seasick pills and hangover cures. Naturally, when they are at port he heads to a local bar to deal with his troubles (or maybe perpetuate them?). He gets a little plastered and has a fight with Haarman, a passenger from the ship who is also having drinks. Haarman throws Rainer out of the bar, knocking Ranier out. He comes to quickly and returns to the bar, where a large group of passengers has joined Haarman for a drinking party before they drive to Port au Prince for some business. Haarman looks deathly pale and doesn't say much. The group discovers that Haarman has been stabbed in the back and is dying! They rush him to a nearby hospital of Dr. Eberhardt and his nurse Lais Engels. The doctor is out and Ranier, who has hitched a ride on the big car carrying everyone, is pressed into service to help the near corpse. Haarman dies and the nurse identifies him as a man who died fourteen years ago on Haiti during a small plague outbreak. She and Dr. Eberhardt buried the victims in a string of cemeteries so as not to worry the local population. Things get weird as the local lore of zombie resuscitation is brought up and, in the distance, locals start incessantly drumming. The group discovers the upstairs laboratory has been ransacked, with some human hands boiling over a bunsen burner and a frog impaled on a nail where usual the doctor should have left a note of his whereabouts for the nurse. Everyone starts pointing fingers. They decide to investigate the cemeteries for some sort of clues.

The book is a blend of horror and crime noir. Ranier is in the role of the Sam-Spade-like detective though he is not as familiar with doing investigations and is still a little inebriated. He has a thing for the nurse which does not go anywhere other than providing a dame for him to protect. The mystery is quite convoluted requiring several chapters of exposition at the end to explain what really happened. It's not the most convincing, especially given Ranier's lack of expertise, but ties up most of what seem like plot holes in the story. The atmosphere is rich and noir-y, pairing well with the horror elements of the story. The attitude towards the locals is a little racist, though the bigotry is in the characters, not the narrative. The story is told from Ranier's perspective though he is not giving a first-person narration. The book has a bit more noir than it does zombies.

Mildly recommended--this isn't quite satisfying as a zombie story or as a crime noir but makes for an interesting blend.

I read this as part of Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! edited by Otto Pensler.

Book Review: Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! ed. by Otto Pensler

Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!  The Most Complete Collection of ZOMBIE Stories Ever Published edited with an introduction by Otto Pensler

This 800-page tome contains dozens upon dozens of stories about the living dead, the unspeakable horrors that rise from their graves and shamble around. The first excerpt is from W. B. Seabrook, who describes practices in Haiti where the dead are brought back to life and made to work on the plantations. The only way for these zombies to return to their graves is if they eat food with salt, then they realize that they are dead and return to the cemetery where they belong. These people are not insatiable cannibals, nor do they have any intellect or will. This first concept of zombiehood dominated the culture until the 1960s, when George Romero introduced a new type of risen dead--the ravenously hungry who had a taste only for human flesh. The whole "brains" thing didn't start until the 1980s with Return of the Living Dead, an uneven horror-comedy with one zombie who explains why they have an insatiable hunger. In the 2000s, the virus/high-speed zombies showed up in movies like 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. This book reflects the cinematic history of zombies, with stories from the 1800s (pre-dating the term "zombie" with stories from Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant--the undead was a thing long before the z-word came along) up to the 2000s.

Like any anthology, the collection is a mixed bag. Some stories are strictly gory (which I don't find interesting), one or two were borderline pornographic (which is also not to my taste). Most were more palatable, focusing on horror and dread. A few were comic, like Robert Bloch's "Maternal Instinct." Some classics are in there, like H. P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West--Reanimator" and Henry Kuttner's "Graveyard Rats." Other famous authors like Stephen King and Harlan Ellison have contributions. My favorite stories were F. Marion Crawford's "Upper Berth" and Hug B. Cave's "Mission to Margal," with at least twenty other ones that I really liked. The book ends with the short novel "Z Is For Zombie" by Theodore Roscoe, which will be reviewed separately. The mixed bag definitely favors stories that I enjoyed. I am hanging on to this volume!

Recommended for a scattershot of zombie goodness and badness, but mostly goodness.

Movie Review: Peninsula (2020)

Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula (2020) co-written and directed by Sang-ho Yeon

As people are fleeing the Korean zombie outbreak seen in Train to Busan, Jung Seok (Dong-wan Gang) is getting his sister and her family out on one of the last boats leaving for Japan. As they drive through the countryside, they bypass a family whose car has broken down. On the boat, one of the passengers is infected and mayhem breaks out, resulting in the deaths of Jung's sister and her children. His brother-in-law (Do-yoon Kim) survives. They wind up in Hong Kong as refugees with nowhere to go. 

Four years later, they are recruited with two other people by some Chinese criminals for a heist. The four people are to go back to zombie-infested Incheon, find a truck full of money that was left near a bridge, and bring it to the port. The Chinese will split half of the twenty million US dollars, enough money to make everyone comfortably rich. The brothers-in-law agree to go, but in true heist-film fashion, the plan does not go off without a hitch. The hitch is two-fold. First, there's a group of ex-military running around capturing supplies and survivors whenever they can for their own entertainment. So the truck gets snatched the them with the brother-in-law inside. Second, the family Jung left behind at the side of the road is also running around collecting supplies and looking for ways to escape. They save Jung from the military folks. He immediately recognizes her though his long hair and injuries make him unrecognizable to her. The family had been with the military people but split after the military went all Mad Max. The survivors in Korea quickly realize that the truck is their ticket out of the zombie hell they've been living in for four years. Everyone schemes to escape, though few scheme together.

The movie is presented as a sequel to Train to Busan though no characters are in both films. The setting has become more post-apocalyptic as the people try to survive the zombies and each other. They also drive around in cars that have been armored and adapted for fighting with zombies (so definitely Mad Max vibes). The abandoned city has lots of junk in the streets and zombies hiding all over the place. Thematically, this movie is no where near as strong as the first film. The family here is less compelling than the father and daughter in the first film, which was the real heart and purpose of the original. The action is more frequent, creative, and destructive (probably due to a higher budget?). Some moments do not make much sense and seem in the movie to heighten the tension. The tension does not get high enough to distract the viewer from the inconsistencies and melodramatic happenstances. The movie is more like Army of the Dead than Train to Busan.

Mildly recommended. Peninsula is entertaining but I don't think I will watch it again (I did rewatch the original in preparation).

Movie Review: Kung Fu Zombie (1981)

Kung Fu Zombie (1981) written and directed by Hua Shan

For October (Halloween month!), I am reviewing a sampling of Asian horror, working my way from least to best of the films I watched. Enjoy!

A criminal wants revenge against Pang (Billy Chong), the guy that put him in jail. He hires a wizard to help him but the magician is more bumbling than brilliant. He can raise corpses, thus creating zombies, but they do not do very much. The criminal sends his lackeys into town to lure Pang to the graveyard. They've dug a pit trap with knives at the bottom. The criminal winds up in the pit, getting killed. The soul of the criminal torments the wizard, hoping to get put into another body so he can get his revenge. Meanwhile, another criminal (a much more serious one) has come to town to get revenge on the whole family because of what Pang's grandfather did. Pang has been training with his father all his life for this fight. The dad is not interested in fighting, so Pang does the job. The wizard and the ghost wait outside, hoping to take the loser's body and put the ghost in it. That doesn't work out so well--Pang's dad dies from overcelebrating the victory and the ghost of the serious criminal winds up in the body of Pang's dad. The regular criminal, as a ghost, teams up with the serious criminal, as the zombie dad, to take down Pang once and for all.

This movie capitalized on two crazes in the early 1980s--kung fu movies and zombie movies. The kung fu fighting is plentiful and entertainingly over the top (many characters make impossibly high jumps in the air as they fight), though the bouts don't always make sense. The zombies are fairly low-gore and not very scary at all. As you might guess from the description above, the dominant genre for this film is comedy. Most everything is played for laughs and it easily passes the six laugh test. The production quality is low and I watched it dubbed on Kanopy (also available on Tubi). The dubbing is not that great either, but it does help in the comedy department. The movie aims to entertain and, with the right mindset, delivers the goods.

Slightly recommended--this is a rainy Saturday afternoon movie or a late-night indulgence, not great cinema.

TV Review: EXHUMED: A History of Zombies (2020)

EXHUMED: A History of Zombies (2020) directed by David Schulte

The PBS-sponsored show Monstrum had a series of three episodes about zombies that have been put together as a 50 minute documentary on Kanopy. I was intrigued enough to watch it. Doctor Emily Zarka is an English professor at Arizona State University who hosts the series about various folkloric monsters. 

This documentary traces how the concept of zombies came to America, starting with the African spiritualism that came to Haiti via the slave trade. In the New World, the slaves' native spirituality embraced an overlay of Catholicism (to make it seem less suspect) and became known as Vodou. After the slave revolt in the early 1800s, several people (slave owners, ex-slaves, and slaves) moved to New Orleans where the practice morphed into Voodoo the term more commonly known in American pop culture. Of course, pop culture vastly oversimplified and sensationalized Voodoo, looking only to the dark parts of the practice, including rituals to make the dead into mindless slaves. The show then looks at early Hollywood films that were inspired by the descriptions found in William Seabrook and Zora Neale Hurston. The films definitely went in their own directions with the concept. 

The biggest cultural shift was with George Romero's Night of the Living Dead which inspired a new wave of zombie films in the 1970s and 1980s more focused on gore, horror, and (sometimes accidental) social commentary. A later revival happened in the late 1990s with the Resident Evil video games that introduced apocalyptic settings where survivors struggled to exist in a world overrun by zombies created through chemical accidents or other scientific causes (often by sinister companies or rogue elements of governments). Zombies became a staple of pop culture in the new millennium, spawning ongoing stories, comedies, and an endless variety of zombie types, from sympathetic to horrific.

The show starts with an interpretation of zombies as an expression of fears around slavery. The Haitian slaves wanted to preserve their identity. A minor element of West African religious practices is stealing souls from people to use them as mindless workers. The show stays with that interpretation throughout, giving only occasional nods to other ideas (like fear of world-wide diseases). The show ends with a look at Jordan Peele's Get Out as a zombie/slave allegory. The terrible treatment of Africans brought forcibly to the Western hemisphere is important to remember and is a seminal facet of zombie lore.

I felt like the narrow focus on racism became a crippling lens that leaves out other issues and even deeper issues around zombies. Other issues include the fear of a horrible afterlife, the transformation of loved ones into something unrecognizable and horrible (a rotting corpse is bad enough; a reanimated one is worse), and the worry over medical research and weapons research that may get out of control. The deeper issues are the loss of free will and human dignity. The only thing worse than living a life of a slave is having to live it eternally as a mindless corpse. A lot of the early Hollywood films feature someone trying to take over a woman who is otherwise unreachable, denying her free will and the respect she should deserve as a fellow human being. The lack of human dignity works both ways--the zombies treat human as merely food and the humans treat zombies as monsters only to be destroyed (or maybe exploited like a government looking to weaponize zombies or like white liberals seeking immortality in Get Out). While this show is good as far as it goes, there's a lot more that can be said about zombies.

Recommended--even with my want for more, I still learned a lot and enjoyed the show.

I found this on Kanopy but it is also available from PBS's website and on YouTube.

Book Review: iZombie Vol. 4 by C. Roberson et al.

iZombie Volume 4: Repossession written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred, J. Bone, and Jim Rugg, colors by Laura Allred, and letters by Todd Klein

After the massive zombie outbreak in Eugene, Oregon, an even worse apocalypse is about to befall our heroes. Galatea, the evil scientist, is trying to speed up the arrival of an inter-dimensional being that will eat the entire world. Various forces are trying to stop that, including the government-backed Dead Presidents (a group of vampires, ghosts, and other monsters), the ancient society known as the Gravediggers (including Gwen's boyfriend), and Amon the Mummy who has personally fought Galatea before. Gwen is caught in the middle when Amon explains that she has the power to send the being back to its own dimension by sacrificing everyone in Eugene. Too bad her brother and parents just showed up in town, huh? The story races to a dramatic finale with Gwen finding another way to defeat the bad guy.

The apocalyptic story is imaginative and pulls a lot of different elements in the story together. Unfortunately, the book gets saturated with romantic intrigues between various characters, creating a lot of soap-opera style subplots that are a lot less interesting. To me, they read like filler. The art style switches in a couple of issues that were drawn by guest artists. I found the change distracting. The story ends well, or as well as a horror-comedy comic could.

Mildly recommended.

Movie Review: The Return of the Living Dead (1984)

The Return of the Living Dead (1984) written and directed by Dan O'Bannon

A medical supplies facility has a new employee, Freddie (Thom Matthews). As he is shown the ropes, his co-worker (James Karen) takes him to the basement where some military containers are stored. They are full of corpses from a zombie outbreak. They accidentally release some chemicals from one of the containers, starting to bring other things in the facility to life, including a human cadaver in cold storage. They think they get things under control when the mortician next door burns the parts of the corpse (the had to hack it up to get it to stop attacking them), but that only makes the toxins airborne. Wouldn't you know it, a rain storm comes up and drops those toxins on the cemetery across the street which is full of punk teenagers who have nothing better to do than party at night in a graveyard. Things spiral out of control from there.

The movie is a comedy-horror hybrid of the sort that came out a lot in the 1980s (like Re-Animator). It has the excessive gore, the naked women, and the state-of-the-art visual effects that look a lot less convincing forty years later. I found it a bit much to take. The comedy is sporadic and, again, feels a bit dated. The movie is noteworthy because it introduced the idea that zombies want to eat brains specifically, not just any old human flesh. The zombies do a lot of talking along with their on-screen eating. One zombie is even made to explain how eating brains eases the pain of being dead. So the movie has had a big impact on zombie lore. I just did not find it satisfying as an action film, a horror film, or a comedy film.

Not recommended unless you want a bit of history or have a fondness for schlocky 1980s horror.

Book Review: iZombie Vol. 3 by C. Roberson et al.

iZombie Volume 3: Six Feet Under and Rising written by Chris Roberson, art by Michael Allred and Jay Stephens, and colors by Laura Allred

See my review of Volume 1 here. and Volume 2 here.

Gwen, the intelligent zombie, is fulfilling another dead person's unfinished business when she's invited by local mummy and seeming villain Amon for a special event. They celebrate her birthday with Ellie the Ghost and Scott the Were-Terrier. Amon makes another pitch for Gwen to help his schemes but she says no. He want her to take innocent lives and eat more brains but hasn't quite explained all his motives. The action picks up when Gwen's monster-hunting boyfriend starts fighting local vampires and zombies who are becoming more numerous. Scott falls through a sinkhole at the graveyard and discovers underground caverns that are full of zombies. While Gwen mounts a rescue effort, her boyfriend's partner gets more monster hunters from their secret HQ in London to bring back to Eugene, Oregon. If that wasn't bad enough, this issue introduces The Dead Presidents, a federal government secret agency that also hunts monsters (though the agents are all monsters, but the good(?) kind). They have some non-Oregon adventures but soon enough are drawn into the zombie outbreak in Eugene. 

The story is still interesting and weaves in a lot of different narratives of the ever-expanding cast of characters. There's hints that Amon knew Gwen before she turned and that a mad scientist is involved with summoning a world-ending elder god/monster. None of those are resolved because there's still another volume to go.

Recommended--this is a different zombie story that throws in enough new stuff to keep it interesting.

Movie Review: Kingdom: Ashin of the North (2021)

Kingdom: Ashin of the North (2021) directed by Seong-hum Kim and written by Eun-hee Kim

In the world of the Korean historical zombie drama of Kingdom, this prequel story is set in the north of Joseon (the medieval kingdom that is now Korea). Japan has threatened invasion in the south so enemies in the north are emboldened, specifically the Pajeowi of Jurchen. They are a tribe that lives across the border though some of them moved into Joseon over a century ago. The Jurchen living in Joseon are accepted by neither the Pajeowi or Joseon, essentially making them orphans. When some Pajeowi are discovered dead in one of the kingdom's forests, blame is put on a tiger. 

Ashin is the daughter of the head of the "orphan" village. She's a young girl who has wandered into the forest. She's discovered something entirely different--an old temple with drawings showing a certain plant that can bring the dead back to life. She wants to cure her terminally-ill mother, but her efforts are swallowed up by the political situation. A Joseon leader tells the Pajeowi that the village is to blame for the deaths, so the Pajeowi burn down Ashin's village. She returns after finding the plant only to see every last member of her family and tribe wiped out. She goes to the Joseon leader and asks for revenge. He puts her off, letting her stay and do menial tasks for the military compound as she learns both how to fight and, eventually, what has really happened to her family. Her path of revenge is terrible, more so because she brings zombies into the mix.

The plot starts with a lot of political intrigue (much like the first two seasons of Kingdom), a little action, and minimal gore. By the final third of the story, the action is full-on, as is the gore. Ashin is an interesting character, morphing from an innocent and intelligent child into a Clint-Eastwoodesque silent avenger. The story fills a hole or two from the other narratives while it stands on its own (i.e. you don't need to watch the previous content to understand what is going on).

Recommended, though the gore level gets high. If you liked the other Kingdom series, you'll like this one-off special.

As I write this (December 2021), this is only available streaming on Netflix.

Movie Review: Maggie (2014)

Maggie (2014) directed by Henry Hobson

A world-wide disease has devastated crops and people. Infected humans slowly lose control of themselves and are sent to "quarantine" where they are "cared for." Most people understand but won't say it's a death sentence, though maybe the infected are dead already. For loved ones, it's hard to give up on an infected child. That's the problem for Wade Vogel (Arnold Schwarzenegger). His daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been accidentally bitten. He had to search for two weeks in the city to find her, taking her home to their midwestern farm. The local police are concerned. Loved ones can come home for a short period of time and then they are expected to go to quarantine voluntarily. Wade sees a lot of the hardships caused by the disease. But he still loves his daughter and wants to keep her safe and with him as long as he can.

The movie is a departure for Schwarzenegger. There are moments of violence but they are brief and not the focus of the story. Zombie mythology or zombie fighting is not even a concern for the filmmakers. The movie is more a portrait of the love between a father and a daughter, especially dealing with a horrible situation. They clearly love each other and share a deep connection. Depicting that relationship is not so easy and the movie does a fairly standard job. Schwarzenegger and Breslin give fine performances. It's not outstanding nor is it terrible. 

Mildly recommended.

Movie Review: Resident Evil (2002)

Resident Evil (2002) written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

A secret underground laboratory called "The Hive" goes into lockdown because a virus is released. The workers and scientists panic but don't escape. Up on the surface, a woman (Milla Jovovich) and a man (James Purefoy) wake up in a mansion with no memory of who they are. Some commandos break into the mansion, kidnap the couple, and take them into a secret basement that has a subway train to The Hive. The commandos are going in to find out what happened; the couple were a pair of operatives who were supposed to keep the mansion secure but they were dosed with nerve gas which caused temporary amnesia. They still don't have their memories back. The group sneaks into the facility and shuts down the artificial intelligence running everything, only to release all the workers and the lab experiments (mostly dogs) who have mutated into zombie-like horrors. A lot of action and mayhem follows (or continues).

The movie is based on the video game series. The plot moves along at a brisk pace with some more or less obvious holes. Information is given on a need-to-know basis with the A.I. providing most of the exposition. A lot of jump scares are sprinkled throughout the film. The boss zombie at the end looks very CGI and thereby less menacing. Also, it's highly flammable for some reason? Even with its flaws, the movie is entertaining as a summer popcorn horror flick. The ending is a bit bleak but fits with overall tone and naturally sets up a sequel.

Mildly recommended.

TV Review: Black Summer Season 2 (2021)

Black Summer Season 2 (2021) created by John Hyams and Karl Schaefer

See my review of Season 1 here.

The fight (though it's more of a race) to survive the zombie apocalypse continues with the reunion of mother Rose (Jaime King) and daughter Anna (Zoe Marlett). The story jumps four months into the future, which apparently lands the characters in the middle of winter. They have also moved out of the city/suburbs. The action is now in a rural area that features few buildings, so very little shelter from the elements and the zombies. Other characters are involved in this plotline. Two or three groups are in conflict, trying to grab resources and shelter. Everyone seeks a plane that has been dropping supplies in the wilderness. Presumably the plane can take them to safety, if they can make it to the landing strip.

The storytellers use the same techniques from the first season. There's a lot of long, handheld shots that works well with the action and tension of zombie apocalypse survival. Often an episode opens with a dramatic bit from the middle or end of the episode, creating some suspense or intrigue about how the characters will get to that point. This particular technique is a little overused, especially in a few instances where it highlights moments that don't make a lot of sense or are much less significant than the editing indicates. Some episodes have all the scenes put together out of chronological order, which could work to heighten the drama. I found it merely less coherent. The actors do a good job but the characters are underdeveloped. I was much less invested in their fate than I was in the first season.

Not recommended--the first series was fairly average and this one is a step down in storytelling and coherence. 

Streaming on Netflix as I write this review (July 2021).

Movie Review: Army of the Dead (2021)

Army of the Dead (2021) co-written and directed by Zack Snyder

While moving a super-secret asset in Nevada, a military convoy has an accident and the asset escapes. That asset is a super-zombie, extra-strong and extra fast, and also extra-intelligent (well, probably just normal-intelligent, which is extra-intelligent for a zombie). The zombie bites and turns some of the soldiers, then the group of zombies heads to Las Vegas. The city is overrun and eventually sealed off with a wall of cargo containers, with one military crew led by Scott (Dave Bautista) just barely making it out in time. Months later, Scott is flipping burgers at a diner and mourning the loss of his wife (who he had to kill because she was infected) and his daughter (who left him because both he and she could not handle the situation). A private investor recruits Scott to go into Vegas for one last thing. A vault under one of the casinos has two hundred million dollars in cash. The president of the United States is planning to nuke Vegas to ensure the zombie infection does not spread. They have four days to go in, get the loot, and get out. Scott reluctantly agrees since he will get fifty million for himself and his crew. He recruits some ex-military friends and a German safe-cracker. The investor sends his own military guy (Garrett Dillahunt) who knows the layout of the casino. Scott runs into his daughter at the refugee camp just outside the Vegas wall. She wants to go in because the mother of some kids is lost inside. She argues her way into the crew. The group heads in, sneaking and fighting their way to the casino.

I saw a trailer for this movie and the "Zack Snyder" part turned me off but the goofy humor (they show a zombie Elvis impersonator and a zombie tiger, presumably from Siegfried and Roy's show) appealed to me. So I gave it a try. Unfortunately, the humor is very uneven and mostly absent for long stretches of the movie (which is two hours, twenty-eight minutes long). The movie is very gory and a little too glumly serious at times. Parts of it are creative and interesting. The safe is called "Gotterdammerung" and they use Wagner's work for some of the soundtrack (much like the "Ode to Joy" in Die Hard). The super-zombie has his own quirks and there's a sort of zombie society he runs, though he is mute and not much is explained. It's more of an excuse to pad out the film with tense zombie-menace scenes. The soundtrack is entertaining and well-used. The ending is a downer and the movie doesn't justify its long running time.

Mildly recommended for zombie movie fans, otherwise avoid!

Movie Review: King of the Zombies (1941)

King of the Zombies (1941) directed by Jean Yarbrough

Three American men (the pilot, his passenger, and the passenger's valet) crash their plane on a Caribbean island, only to discover their enigmatic host, Dr. Sangre (Henry Victor) has more than one secret. The Americans heard a radio communication with some strange language that originated from the island. The doctor denies the existence of the radio, as well as the existence of zombies on the island. The valet (Mantan Moreland) saw zombies when he was sent to the kitchen (in the basement) with the other servants. In addition to the questionable help in the kitchen, Sangre's wife also seems less than animate. His niece (Joan Woodbury) wants to help the Americans, her main motive being escape from the island. Sangre is from "the old country" and is still in touch.

The movie is clearly intended to be a comedy, not a horror. One of Sangre's servants uses voodoo magic to make the zombies, though Sangre isn't looking for spare help. The valet, who is African-American, has most of the action and most of the gags. Moreland's performance is a bit over-the-top and stereotypical, leaving a viewer with mixed feelings. The other guys are also stereotypical with little to make them interesting or memorable. I expected some sort of romantic subplot with the niece but I guess the 67-minute running time left no room for character development or side plots. Victor seems to be aping Bela Lugosi's creepy European aristocrat vibe, which works for the most part even if it isn't very original. The movie has nothing particularly remarkable about it other than the strong emphasis on comedy. It certainly passes the six laugh test.

Mildly recommended.

I watched it on Hoopla. 

Movie Review: Death Becomes Her (1992)

Death Becomes Her (1992) directed by Robert Zemeckis

Helen the writer (Goldie Hawn) and Madeline the actress (Meryl Streep) are childhood friends who are really more like competitors. In 1978, Helen brings her fiancee Ernest (Bruce Willis) to Madeline's Broadway show. The musical is a flop to everyone but Ernest, who falls for Madeline and marries her. Seven years later, Helen is an overweight couch potato who obsesses over Madeline. Meanwhile, Madeline and Ernest's marriage is on the rocks. His work as a plastic surgeon has morphed into work as an undertaker in Beverly Hills making the dead look good at their funerals. Madeline's acting career seems to be over. Seven more years later, Helen has slimmed down and written a best-selling book. She invites Ernest and Madeline to a swanky event in Los Angeles to meet for the first time. By this point, Madeline is extremely insecure about her looks--her quack of a plastic surgeon recommends she visit Lisle (Isabella Rossellini), who can make Mad's dreams of youthfulness a reality with a magic potion. Meanwhile, Helen seduces Ernest and convinces him to kill Mad with an elaborate scheme. The scheme never goes off because Ernest in an opportune moment pushes Madeline down their big marble staircase, breaking Mad's neck in several spots. While on the phone with Helen to celebrate the "accident," Madeline stands up with her head on backward and berates Ernest. The potion gave her eternal life along with eternal youth, but no protection from bodily harm. She's very mad about the situation. When Helen shows up, Madeline shoots her in the stomach. Helen doesn't die either, because she's had the same potion. They work out their differences and start plotting on how to keep Ernest in their lives since he can patch up their wounds. Even with Ernest's mousy cowardice, he's ready to leave because he can't handle the situation. Can he escape the fate worse than death that Helen and Madeline have fallen into?

The movie works on several levels. The special effects were top-of-the-line (Zemeckis had just finished the Back to the Future trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) and for the most part still hold up. The age make-up is effective and the injuries are playfully used in the story. The dark comedy works as a satire of people's obsession with youth and beauty, but mostly themselves. The ending is set another 37 years later, with Ernest having lived a fulfilling life after leaving Helen and Madeline. The preacher says that Ernest achieved immortal life by having children and leaving behind benevolent institutions, a surprising insight into the nature of the person and the value of a good legacy. In addition to the dark comedy/special effects extravaganza there's a bit of philosophy thrown in. What's not to like?

Recommended.

TV Review: Glitch Season Three (2019)

 Glitch Season 3 (2019) created by Tony Ayres and Louise Fox

Click the links for reviews of Season One and Season Two.

Out of curiosity, I came back to the Australian zombie series Glitch. The first season was okay and the second was disappointing. My memories have gotten a little vague so I was more than willing to give the show another try.

This season opens with one character hoping his girlfriend will rise from the dead. Meanwhile, in another part of the cemetery, two other people come out of their graves. Belle is the daughter of some religious fanatics. She died 15 years ago and her family thinks she's possessed by a demon, so not a happy homecoming. Chi is a Chinese opera performer from the 1800s who came to Yoorana as a laborer in search of gold. He and Belle help each other throughout the show.

Their story intertwines with that of the main cast. Some people leave Yoorana hoping never to come back. Noregard, the chemical company that is involved with the resurrections, has some new bad guys running the show since the original ones were offed in the last season (and early this season). So all the characters get pulled back to town. Phil, who thought his purpose was to kill all the risen, has a change of heart and decides to be a family man. At the same time, William (who turns out to have been a pirate in a previous life) and local cop James decide that they do need to kill all the risen. They have a much more humane reason--since the resurrections violate the rules of nature, nature itself is unraveling and the world will end. Their zombie existence will cause the apocalypse. Signs are already appearing, like power outages, freak storms, earthquakes, and massive bush fires. 

The new reason for the risen to be rekilled is a bit of a stretch of credibility. Why didn't disasters start happening two seasons ago? The movement to the resolution of the series feels forced. The human drama of the characters is okay and more convincing than the larger apocalyptic picture.

Slightly recommended--I'm glad I finished the show but I'm not really interested in rewatching it.

All three season are currently (October 2020) streaming on Netflix.

TV Review: Kingdom Season Two (2020)

Kingdom Season Two (2020) written by Eun-hee Kim, directed by Seong-hun Kim and In-je Park

See my review of Season One...beware, spoilers for the first season are naturally part of the review below!


The Crown Prince (Ji-Hoon Ju) has to lead his forces as the undead hordes become active during the day. He fights out of one fortification and then heads to the capital to assert his birthright and to stop the zombie outbreak from breaking out further. He keeps his friends, including his trusted bodyguard (Sang-ho Kim), with him even though one of them is a traitor. The doctor (Doona Bae) leaves the group when she finds a resurrection plant and struggles to find a cure.

Meanwhile, the Queen (Hye-jun Kim) continues her plot to keep the throne for herself and her clan, though she is more in it for herself. The clan just does the dirty work for her. The big shocking revelation, that she's faking the pregnancy (she was originally pregnant but lost the child in utero), explains why a lot of pregnant noble women have been gathered to her family's home. It's not so much to keep them safe as it is to wait for a male child to be born who can be subbed in as the new legitimate heir to the throne. Unfortunately, there's been a string of female infants, leading to murders. One of the women escapes and tells about the crimes, though she doesn't know about the Queen's situation. Some officials investigate, putting the Queen's status in jeopardy. She does some political maneuvering to keep herself in control.

Like season one, the show does a masterful job blending the royal succession drama and the zombie action and mayhem. The political situation is fascinating and the Crown Prince is very much an ideal hero and leader. He works hard to save the people, even putting his own life in jeopardy. The Queen is cool and calculating, just the sort of villain that is highly effective and a sharp contrast to the Crown Prince. The fights are exciting and well-filmed, with the gore being on the mild end of the zombie-genre spectrum.

I only had two problems. First, they give more details about how the zombie infection works, which invalidates a lot of the behaviors of the zombies beforehand. This problem is common to many zombie stories--technical details are almost never convincing. The other problem is the series wraps up the royal succession story very well but then tags on some further content that will let them make a third season which looks a lot less interesting. Maybe they can pull it off. I will give it a try if and when it comes out.

Recommended.

This is currently available on Netflix (as of June 2020).