Suffering from Partially Deceased Syndrome in In the Flesh

Zombie stories have all but saturated pop culture. They’re everywhere—28 Days Later, The Last of Us, Warm Bodies, just to name a few—and thankfully for those of us who love zombies, they’re not going away any time soon. However, since there’s so many of these stories, they face a huge challenge: being both unique and interesting to audiences that have already consumed dozens upon dozens of zombie narratives. Some of them, such as The Walking Dead and The Last of Us, succeed. Others, like the Resident Evil movies, do not.

Of course, there don’t seem to be too many places to take these narratives, and that adds to the challenge. Often, they will follow a group of people attempting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Warm Bodies switched this up a bit by creating a cure for the zombies. In The Flesh goes a similar route; it follows Kieren Walker, a zombie who’s been cured of his feeding urges, as he struggles to fit back in with society—but whereas Warm Bodies was a comedic love story, In The Flesh has a much darker narrative to follow. It’s also a giant allegory for LGBTQ+ discrimination.

Right now I’ve only watched the first season of In The Flesh, which is only three episodes long. I also have no idea how I’d never heard of this show until last week, because its first season is quite possibly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

Spoilers be ahead.

Fanfiction Fridays: Never Getting Over The Walking Dead

Let it be known that before I even started reading, I knew exactly what I was getting into. Maybe I’m a masochist at heart, but with the recent teaser of Telltale’s sequel to their acclaimed The Walking Dead game, I was feeling some zombie fic something fierce. No, that’s a lie. I was feeling some Clementine-and-Lee-family fic something fierce. If you’ve played or watched through the game, you already know that’s a recipe for tears.

Feels bad, man.
(art by JhonyHebert @ deviantArt)

[Spoilers beneath the cut]

The Walking Dead: “30 Days Without an Accident” Review

Well, I can’t say that I was particularly excited for this season. Last year, I had started reviewing this show weekly, but I held off on giving my thoughts on the final episode of season three and ultimately neglected to review it. Partly, I chose not to write the review due to being really busy at the time, but mostly I chose not to write it because I thought it was a huge disappointment.

Thankfully, though, I at least didn’t hate this season’s opening episode, “30 Days Without an Accident”. Maybe there’s hope The Walking Dead and I can rekindle our relationship.

Spoilers after the jump.

Movie Review: Warm Bodies

Can’t believe I’m the first one out of all the writers here to see this one, since neither zombie movies nor rom-coms are my wheelhouse, per sé. Spoilers abound after the jump. Not much happens in this movie to start with in my opinion (which is my usual opinion about all rom-coms), so I’ll spoil almost all that there is to spoil.

Trailer Tuesdays: World War Z

This trailer for World War Z looks awesome! I mean, zombies and Brad Pitt? But that doesn’t mean it’s without its problems.

First, I should address that this actually is a zombie movie. The trailer ironically seems to try to hide the fact that this actually is a zombie movie until almost the very end, and even then you still might be able to assume that it’s a natural disaster movie. World War Z is a pretty popular book about the zombie apocalypse. So if done right, it should be a pretty excellent movie. However, zombie movies cater to a particular type of nerd. Not that most nerds don’t like zombies (see: The Walking Dead) but many of the recent zombie movies have been cheesy Resident Evil movies or parodies of zombie movies. So perhaps the trailer is trying to down play the zombie element in order to distant itself from these types of movies. But make no mistake; World War Z is a zombie movie. There will be zombies and it will be awesome.

The other concern I have with this movie is representation. Brad Pitt is the only character the trailer focuses on along with his family. His wife seems like a stock character, and his daughters seem to be about the same. Are we going to see any other female characters? Also the movie is World War Z. That means a zombie apocalypse is all over the earth. Are we going to see some awesome minority characters? I love Brad Pitt and all, but I’d like to see more than just him fighting zombies. After all, The Walking Dead made a name for itself by being an awesome zombie show with many diverse characters. It seems to me that maybe this movie should take a tip from that.

In Brightest Day: Questions About the Undead Disease

Zombie movies, television shows, and comics have been part of mainstream pop culture for a while now. Society loves a story about humans trying to fight off hordes of undead. It’s a sexy story.

I assume that, at least in most cases, becoming undead is caused by a virus instead of a genetic disability. This is not always the case. In The Walking Dead, it turns out that all humans are carriers of the zombie trait. When a human dies, he turns into a zombie unless the human’s brain is destroyed. There is no other way around that.

 

Trailer Tuesdays: Warm Bodies

I am so excited for this movie it is ridiculous. A lot of big name movies came out recently, but I really think Warm Bodies is going to be one of the most severely underrated movies this winter.

Warm Bodies seems to be an awesome spoof of the paranormal romance craze. Pairing the romance between the hot blonde and the gross undead zombie is hilarious in and of itself, but for me the best thing about this movie, at least from what I can tell about the trailer, is the inner monologue of the zombie.

The fact that the zombie has an almost completely coherent inner monologue, but still acts like a normal everyday zombie is perfect, and really something that has been missing from various zombie spoofs in general.

I’m definitely going to check out Warm Bodies. You should too.

The Walking Dead: “Made to Suffer” Midseason Review

The Walking Dead continues to be one of the best—if not the best—story set during a zombie apocalypse. And the midseason finale went to every length to leave us wanting more. And like most midseason episodes, it also ended on a cliffhanger, so unfortunately we’re just going have to wait until February to find out what happens.

The World is a Wonderful/Crazy Place

So one of CNN’s headlines for today is that Zombie Bullets are selling out fast. I shit thee not. Apparently, due to all the flesh-eating bacteria and people eating other people’s faces nonsense, the Center for Disease Control felt compelled to issue the following statement:

The CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms).

However, one ammo manufacturer did not want to take any chances.  So, they decided to start selling ammo that “specifically designed to vaporize zombie varmints.” And apparently it’s selling out like it is nobody’s business. People with guns and people who just thought it was a fun idea are buying it.

Not going to lie, I find this hysterical. I mean, we all do need to be prepared for the zombie apocalypse, but this is taking it to another level. And it isn’t toy ammo; it’s for real guns used by real people. I just find this entirely crazy and wonderfully ridiculous.

is a full article by someone else if you thought I was joking. And below is the promotional video in case you really thought I was just messing with you.

The Walking Dead: Seasons 1 and 2 Review

Spoiler alert!

Well, I’d say waiting two seasons to watch Shane die was certainly worth it, but that might imply wanting him dead to be my only reason to follow this show. The Walking Dead certainly differs from other mainstream zombie shows and movies, probably due to its focus. Most zombie things tend to concentrate on showing, you know, zombies. The Walking Dead, on the other hand, will go almost entire episodes without bloodthirsty carcasses stumbling across the screen to eat the random extras.

The lack of zombies—or walkers, in this case—has caused a bit of an outrage among some of the fans. This is probably in part due to the comics the show is based off, where the writers stated that they wanted the story to follow the character Rick around and chronicle his life during this tragedy. I cannot quote that exactly, as most of my comics are being borrowed at the moment, but you get the picture.

If there’s one thing I have to give The Walking Dead credit for it would be that, first and foremost, it’s one of the few things I’ve seen that’s portrayed people with real human reactions. I always find myself comparing it to something like the Resident Evil films, where Alice will meet an unimportant extra and watch that person get eaten with little to no emotional reaction to it. Like, it’s just a person, who cares, right? On top of that, not everyone in The Walking Dead is some badass with super fighting skills. They’re real relatable people having real relatable reactions.