Posted By John Sears on October 23, 2012

The Zombie Rights Campaign has sadly attended its last Dark Carnival Film Festival in Bloomington, Indiana, this year, as the 2012 edition was the last that will be hosted in that fair city.

We’ve been going to these things for a long time, even before the Zombie Rights Campaign started its bold mission to protect the rights of the Differently Animated. It’s been a great time and very informative, and from a Zombie Rights perspective, the Dark Carnival was special.

The ZRC saw more unique, thought-provoking, and sometimes surprisingly sympathetic portrayals of Zombies at the Dark Carnival than anywhere else. From an audience perspective, this didn’t seem to be because the Dark Carnival was editorializing in favor of the Undead (much as we might appreciate that), but rather because of all the film festivals we’ve ever attended, The Dark Carnival presented the widest variety, the most interesting and innovative films.

And they stayed ahead of the curve too. By going to The Dark Carnival we could observe trends in films about Zombies; if Anti-Zombie movies were big at the DC in fall of a given year, then NEXT year you’d see a ton of films like that. The same went for more nuanced or Zombie Friendly stories. Our annual trip to Bloomington was a fantastic barometer of the difficulty of the year ahead for the Campaign.

We saw so many important Zombie films at The Dark Carnival: ‘A Break in the Monotony’, ‘George’s Intervention’, ‘Dead Friends’, ‘Fitness Class Zombie’, ‘W.O.R.M.’ (later compiled into the anthology ’3 Slices of Life’), ‘A Chance in Hell’, ‘The Loving Dead’, among others.

This year was no different, although there were few overtly Zombie movies on the schedule in 2012. We saw:

Vadim
This short film from Austria may be about the Undead, or it might not, but assuming Zombie involvement it could provide a thought-provoking take on the issue of Undead child labor.

Other
A grim short about the pursuit of survival at any costs via mad science, ‘Other’ gives us valuable insight into the mad scientific impulse, which of course has led to the creation of many Zombies in the past (which we generally support) and their subsequent mistreatment and/or abandonment (which we oppose).

Mother Died
Will be discussed in a separate review to avoid spoilers, but the ZRC has things to say about this one, oh yes.

The Weight of Emptiness
A terrifying, haunting and beautiful film about a mother and her struggle to raise a very Differently Animated (though non-Zombie) son. Definitely has teaching potential to improve awareness of parenting issues for all Differently Animated kids, Living or Undead.

And of course we saw ‘found.’ for the second time, and it will get a full ZRC treatment (with special emphasis on what it has to say about Zombie movies) in an upcoming post.

As great (and informative!) as the film-going experience was, The Dark Carnival wasn’t just movies. It had live entertainment, circus acts, stand-up, monstrous horror hosts, costume contests, theater performances and more over the years.

A sample from 2012, in pictures and video:

We’re going to miss our annual trips to Bloomington. The Zombie Rights Campaign learned a lot, picketed a lot, and always, always had a great time.

Here’s to you, Dark Carnival.

Category: The Dark Carnival, Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Movies, Public Appearance, Social Justice, ZRC Reviews

Posted By John Sears on October 22, 2012

The Zombie Rights Campaign is back from The Dark Carnival and we survived the madness! Freaks, fire, movies, some of which were quite offensive. Lots of reviews and such coming soon, and I’ve been uploading HD videos to youtube today so we’ll have a full post for the blog, tomorrow hopefully.

Then this Saturday: Nightmare on Chicago Street! Very excited.

Category: Zombie Media, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Public Appearance

Posted By John Sears on October 20, 2012

We made it down to Bloomington, Indiana for the Dark Carnival… somehow. Our trip is a tale of woe! Long walks through rain and drizzle! Missed directions! A bridge out in small town Indiana! A detour through the set of Wrong Turn 8!

When the ZRC arrived we discovered The Dark Carnival had arranged a showing of Night of the Living Dead as a warmup to Friday evening’s feature, ‘found.’ Which I intend to review for the ZRC someday as it is both an excellent movie and touches upon Zomsploitation in the horror film genre. More on that later.

So yes, we survived, somehow, and are off to set up our informational booth. Michelle Hartz will be available for book singing and general chit-chat about how great Zombies are! Give her your money!!

Category: The Dark Carnival | 1 Comment »
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Posted By John Sears on October 16, 2012

Zombies as a community face a lot of trials in our contemporary society: open scapegoating and fearmongering from a hostile media, overtly violent attacks by Survivalists, governmental oppression. It’s also worth noting, however, the way private sector institutions discriminate against the Undead, depriving them of vital services.

Case in point: Life Insurance. Clearly Zombies have a need for insurance to take care of their families in the (all too likely) event that they perish, perhaps at the hands of a Robert Kirkman-inspired mob of zealots. But can they qualify for ‘Life’ insurance?

Probably not.

Tragic, isn’t it? This sort of thing happens all the time in a society structured to take care of the Living, and ignore the Undead (or worse). Zombies need insurance too! Maybe life insurance isn’t technically appropriate, but can you buy Undeath Insurance? No! You cannot.

Which is yet another reason we must continue to strive for full Undead Equality. Until society admits that Zombies are fully functional, qualified members of the larger human community, until we change the hearts and minds of that larger community, this second-class treatment of Zombies will sadly continue.

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tags: Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on October 16, 2012

When I was a small child so long ago, far back in the mists of time, we had computers in our elementary school classrooms, and those computers had games. The game I remember most, as is true of many of my generation, was the famous ‘Oregon Trail’. In that game you play as the leader of a stalwart band of pioneers (or colonizers, if you prefer) setting off on a gruesome, arduous journey to Oregon to set up a homestead.

Mostly, it was a chance to play a videogame and claim we were learning. Some things never change.

Which brings us to a modern, even less educational, and far more Anti-Zombie version…

In OreZom Trails you have to save the world from a zombies curse. You have a book that contains the key to save the world, but it can only be used in Oregon, and you, unfortunately, are stuck on the east coast.

You’ll have to find supplies to keep yourself fed, fueled, and healthy while you roadtrip across the US to save humanity.

Along the way, uncover the mystery of the curse by recovering beautifully rendered journal pages, illustrated by Robert Case.

It’s a hard, lonely journey, and along the way you’ll meet other survivors who will help you – or at least make life more interesting!

You only have 30 days to use the book, so make sure you use your time wisely!

I don’t know about you, but I’m outraged. Encouraging the use of black magic to commit genocide against the Undead? That’s less of a game and more of a crime against humanity!

Amazing the stuff Kickstarter will allow these days.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Videogames

Posted By John Sears on October 13, 2012

In what I can only presume is an attempt to prepare Bloomington visitors and Dark Carnival attendees for their stay the Atomic Age Cinema crew have been posting ‘Getting to Know’ videos about each of the AAC members.

Forewarned is forearmed, as they say.

However the ZRC was alarmed by the video for our former Zombie of the Year, Baron Mardi, as it reveals perhaps far too much about some of his… what I can only describe as deviant and unwholesome behaviors. Not safe for work or anywhere else.

In the interests of full disclosure The Zombie Rights Campaign must include the video below. We caution blog readers that it is potentially highly disturbing. Watch with caution. Probably not at work.

Yikes. Just.. yikes. The Zombie Rights Campaign has a STRICT Zero-Tolerance policy on Twilight, Baron Mardi! For shame. For shame.

The other AAC videos, disturbing or alarming in their own (albeit Non-Zombie) fashion, are included below. If anyone from Bloomington’s tourism board is reading, please direct your angry emails elsewhere.

Videos below are also NSFW and may depict international criminal behavior. Please be advised.

Category: The Dark Carnival, Zombie Media, ZRC News | No Comments »
Tags: Zombie of the Year 2010

Posted By John Sears on October 11, 2012

You’ve probably seen those ultra-cheap Jakks Pacific games in the toy aisles at your local big box store, the sort that plug into a TV using old-fashioned RCA cables (red, yellow, white) for a quick gaming experience sans the usual console. Usually they’re compilations of old 8-bit games, and often they come with a specialized controller, the only controller you can use (since it’s built into the gaming apparatus).

Why do I bring this up in regards to ‘The Walking Dead’, which has various gaming products for the shiniest and newest consoles? Surely they aren’t competing with themselves and a super-low cost alternative, right?

Well, wrong:

The third season of “The Walking Dead” doesn’t start until Sunday on AMC, but right now, for eager fans, there’s the Walking Dead Zombie Hunter video game.

Part of Jakks Pacific’s Plug It In and Play TV Game line, Zombie Hunter is similar to the company’s Big Buck Hunter games, except this time, your quarry can eat you before you have a chance to shoot it.

I guess this is a new level of insult for the Differently Animated: being the substitute targets for a glorified deer hunting game.

Sigh.

For pictures of the gun and such (and extremely enthusiastic editorial coverage) you can also see this site. Although for the record, these graphics were last ‘console-quality’ when I was in middle school.

Though I imagine the shotgun prop is the most important part of this package in the minds of bloodthirsty ‘Walking Dead’ fans.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Anti-Zombie Products, Comics, Robert Kirkman, Videogames

Posted By John Sears on October 10, 2012

This short list of Zombie ‘parodies’ came to the ZRC today and, while we’re always happy to see alternative takes on the Differently Animated (in the hopes that they will encourage the general public to re-evaluate their stance on Zombie Rights), the ZRC has to object a bit here.

Zombies aren’t something you can parody, Paste Magazine. Zombies are people. Undead people, but people nonetheless.

As for the list itself, the works therein are a mixed bag, Zombie Rights-wise! Naturally the ZRC liked ‘Fido’ and hated ‘Zombieland’. ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is a bit more nuanced than you might expect on the Undead Equality front, and the Simpsons parody shows some (extremely unintentional) Zombie-Living equality.

But please, call them Zombie GENRE parodies. You don’t parody an oppressed and marginalized population.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Mainstream Media

Posted By John Sears on October 10, 2012

This post is just a reminder that the ZRC is looking forward to seeing you, the Zombie Friendly public, at TWO upcoming events in the month of October!

First is The Dark Carnival Film Festival from October 19th-21st in Bloomington, Indiana. We’ve been to every Dark Carnival film festival and it’s proven to be an invaluable resource for seeing where horror movies are going, what ideas people are having and how the creative community perceives our Undead clients.

Plus The Dark Carnival has shown the ZRC some of the most interesting and unique Zombie movies we’ve ever seen.

Then the very next weekend in Elgin, Illinois the ZRC will be at the second annual ‘Nightmare on Chicago Street’ spreading our message of Undead Equality and Zombie Tolerance where it’s most urgently needed. If *you* would like to spend an evening in a simulated ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ agitating for the rights of the Undead, the ZRC wants you in Elgin on October 27th at 6 pm sharp.

Do it for the Zombies!

Category: ZRC News | 1 Comment »
Tags: Movies, Public Appearance, Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on October 5, 2012

As activists working in the field of Zombie Rights, The Zombie Rights Campaign obviously has a lot to say about the work of George Romero. Mr. Romero’s film-making career has for decades helped to define the American, nay, global conception of the Zombie population, for better and for worse. Unlike many post-modern Undead haters like Max Brooks or Robert Kirkman, George Romero has offered a more nuanced and contemplative stance on Zombies, their personhood, and their quest for fair treatment and equality.

Romero Zombie films have ranged from the truly Living Supremacist, like ‘Dawn of the Dead’, to the outright Zombie Friendly, like ‘Creepshow’ and, arguably, ‘Land of the Dead’, one of the first films to ever feature a Zombie civil rights movement. Indeed, a full twenty years before ‘Fido’ popularized the ‘good Zombie’ archetype, George Romero put forward one of the first true Undead protagonist characters in ‘Day of the Dead’, Bub the Zombie.

To this day Bub is so popular among select horror fans that he is a perennial write-in candidate for President. That speaks deeply to us here in the Movement.

Granted, fictional characters can’t become President, but the impact is still heartwarming (for those whose hearts can be warmed).

And Mr. Romero himself has said he sympathizes with our Undead clients:

George Romero: To me, the zombies have always just been zombies. They’ve always been a cigar. When I first made Night of the Living Dead, it got analyzed and overanalyzed way out of proportion. The zombies were written about as if they represented Nixon’s Silent Majority or whatever. But I never thought about it that way. My stories are about humans and how they react, or fail to react, or react stupidly. I’m pointing the finger at us, not at the zombies. I try to respect and sympathize with the zombies as much as possible. (Laughs.)

Respect. Sympathy. We appreciate that, we really do.

So when our longtime adversaries at the Zombie Research Society informed us that they were launching an effort to get George Romero a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the ZRC wasn’t opposed. Honestly, my first reaction was, ‘George Romero doesn’t already have a star on the Walk of Fame?’

This mystery required some research. As it turns out, the Walk of Fame has over 2,400 stars, and the requirements generally seem to be that the recipient have five years of significant work in one of five entertainment fields, including film.

Which didn’t answer the question of how Mr. Romero has been overlooked for so long! Logically he’s been eligible since 1973, five years after ‘Night of the Living Dead’.

But, aha! There is one small matter of a $30,000 fee…

And that’s where the ZRS’ Indiegogo campaign comes in.

Of course we don’t agree with everything the ZRS says in their promotional video, what with Zombies being ‘monsters’ and all.

But the basic campaign is something we can, and will, get behind here at the ZRC. And to promote a future with more Bubs and fewer Walkers in our media, we suggest you, the Zombie Friendly reader, do as well.

Do it for Bub. Do it for history. Do it for the Zombies.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Movies, Romero, Social Justice, Zombies Doing Good