Posted By John Sears on September 26, 2011

We could get behind this I think:

AUSTIN, TX, Sep 22, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — The SOLD OUT Zombie Ball that was held at the Seaholm Power Plant last Halloween, has gone upstairs to Austin’s best new venue next to the W Hotel. Zombies and celebrities will be greeted with flash bulbs and verbal daggers dropped by the Rhymanese Twins on the Red Carpet Review. Hosted by award-winning wardrobe stylist and founder of Kitsch Trading Co. Sandra Antoun, the Zombie Ball promises to be the Haunte’d Couture event not to be missed.

Yes I know, it’s a soulless press release, but doesn’t that sound like fun? And not one unkind word about the Differently Animated!

Checking out their website it looks even cooler:

And so this year we roll out the Red Carpet and take the party upstairs. We’ll enter the party with the wealthy underbelly of high fashion and flashbulbs. The lights and glamour of the red carpet review will be captured dead or alive by our friends at the Austin Chronicle. Bring on your DEAD SEXY and strike a pose!

What better way to celebrate Halloween than sipping a gin martini and getting down with to the sexy haunted funk and rotting disco rock. This year we have Austin Music Awards -Band of the Year, Bright Lights Social Hour headlining the show on the main stage. Moving throughout the building we’ll have performers flying from the ceilings, playing with fire, splashing in oversized cocktail glasses and whenever appropriate….removing their clothing. We love to have fun, we encourage you to join us in celebrating the ridiculous and mortal process of death in the most delightful way!

I’m a bit confused on using Zombies to help celebrate the process of death, since Zombies are sort of conscientious objectors to dying, but wow, doesn’t it sound fun and inclusive?

It’s on Saturday October 29th and Zombie Allies and Zombies alike in the Austin area should seriously consider attending. We encourage it. Get pictures!!

Category: Zombie Media | 1 Comment »
Tags: Zombie Public Event

Posted By John Sears on September 24, 2011

This article is all well and good but doesn’t really give us the details we need to determine definitively if this new Zombie novel is friendly to the Differently Animated (though it hints that no, it isn’t):

Happy Place is a “brainless” read, according to Al Leduc. The author said he would be hard-pressed to find a more fitting word to describe the zombie novel he recently had self-published.

The spoof, which “makes fun of every B-movie you’ve seen,” was written in the typical “overused Hollywood formula,” using all the traditional players expected to appear in a zombie story.

“Zombie movies — they’re all bad, right?” Leduc said with a smile.

I wouldn’t say ALL, Mr. Leduc. Most, surely. But we’ve seen a few that were legitimately Zombie Friendly.

The novel apparently has a lot of small town flavor from the Northerly climes, along with what appears to be some demagoguing against the Elderly Undead:

Before long, Alfie and John are both revealing secrets about themselves, while trying to outrun a horde of elderly zombies (who still have perfectly functional digestive tracts). “Hopefully you’ll get a laugh out of it,” Leduc said.

I know that it can be difficult to bridge the generation gap with senior citizens but I fail to see how running from them just because a few have temporarily died and been reanimated will help!

At any rate, the book is available online and in Canada, for those interested in evaluating the latest potential literary menace against the Undead.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Books

Posted By John Sears on September 24, 2011

I was all prepared to rip into this new trailer for ‘Resident Evil: Revelations’ for the usual litany of (perfectly valid) complaints about the rampant Living Supremacism of the RE Series, but I have to admit in all honesty I was distracted by something else: truly rampant to the point-of-anachronism, classic b-movie sexism.

Check it out:

Yes, that’s right, the new commando-heroine of the RE series goes on board a ship with a skintight jumpsuit that shows off her cleavage, runs around with her hair in her eyes bemoaning why this is happening to her, then uses up all her ammunition, throws her gun at the ‘Monster’ and.. promptly falls down when she tries to run.

Wow. That’s like three bad movies worth of horror movie cliche in less than 2 minutes! Outstanding efficiency!

And then… PSYCH! Turns out that wasn’t the new heroine, it was a random victim.

Who, what, boards an abandoned cruise ship armed and in a skintight jumpsuit? Is this a world where people routinely pull this James Bond-meets-Charlie’s Angels routine? I mean, that’s what it implies.

Good grief.

Also in the news, this latest RE is being used to push the newest hardware accessory for Nintendo:

Known as Biohazard Revelations in Japan, Nintendo announced an early 2012 projected release date for the horror survival game. Resident Evil Revelations is one of several upcoming titles that Nintendo revealed will use the Expansion Slide Pad accessory. The Expansion Slide Pad will provide a second slide pad for the right side of the Nintendo 3DS portable game console and retail at 1,500 yen (about US$20).

I’m a bit surprised as to how cheap this accessory is. Seriously. Is Nintendo looking to make these really flimsy, or to lose money selling the hardware?

Knowing Nintendo, it’s the latter, and that means they’re taking a loss to help promote Anti-Zombie hatred.

Tragic.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Videogames, What's Up with Japan?, Youtube Mischief

Posted By John Sears on September 22, 2011

We’ve covered the promotion of the odious and seemingly-Living Supremacist game ‘Dead Island’ extensively here on the ZRC blog, but perhaps I should mention something about its recent high profile release, and why I have no intention of buying it for review anytime soon:

They released an incomplete and unfinished game, one that is ludicrously full of bugs, to the Anti-Zombie gaming public. The PC version was out-and-out defective by the company’s own admission. Seriously:

Update Deep Silver has sent us the following statement: “We deeply regret that an incorrect version of Dead Island was inadvertently made available to players on Steam launch in North America. We are very sorry for any issues you may have experienced while playing the game—the correct, patched version will be made available to North American players ASAP. Other territories are not affected by this situation, the fully patched game will be available on Friday as announced.”

…

We were given a list of fixes that were coming in a day-one patch, and it was extensive. I haven’t had a chance to play much with this patch, but many of my issues haven’t been addressed. I have a feeling we’re going to see an extensive number of additional patches coming in the coming days and weeks. Graphical and gameplay issues plagued my time with the game to the point where I decided to walk away after ten hours or so.

Apparently a lot of the issues that make the PC game unplayable are not related to the release of the wrong, still-in-development version of the game, either; they’re just poor design decisions.

Not that they forgot to include rampant Anti-Zombie violence the same way they forgot to check their code:

The combat is nice and personal; you use blunt weapons to break the arms and legs of the undead. The aiming system is imprecise, however, and it’s hard to judge where a blow will land, even with practice. When you place your aiming reticle over a zombie it begins to slide around, as if it’s trying to lock onto different parts of the zombie’s body. This may also be a holdover from the game’s console roots, but it leads to frustration and missed shots. The slow strafe controls, rarity of health kits you can carry with you, and tricky combat systems make it hard to get out of bad situations if you are surrounded. Don’t worry, if you die you’re merely revived a few feet away, less some money. This system does a great job of sapping any tension from the game, since there is so little to be lost by your death, unless the game spawns you in another group of zombies.

Oh good, a game where you get to viscerally dismember people just because they’re not like your character. That’s healthy!

Judging from the online buzz and reviews, the developers behind ‘Dead Island’ managed to completely neutralize its cultural impact in a way that the ZRC only hoped to achieve. Good job fellows! It’s almost like you’re secretly working *for* us, to discredit the Anti-Zombie gaming movement. (Although for the record, we do not support deception as a method for changing the minds of the public re: Zombie Rights)

Based on all this, we’ll be waiting for, you know, a finished version of the game to review. Might take a while. On the other hand, prompted in part by conversations we had at a recent convention, the ZRC is currently playing through Fallout: New Vegas, which apparently will feature some very noteworthy Zombie characters!

And is probably slightly less buggy, despite Bethesda Softworks’ reputation on these matters.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Videogames

Posted By John Sears on September 22, 2011

This story about prejudice and the negative framing of the so-called ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ (instead of the much preferable term ‘Global Reanimation Block Party’) is more than a little bizarre:

“Debbie Does End of Days”?

San Fernando Valley porn purveyors Pink Visual may be the only adult film company equipped to release such a title, as they are planning on “riding out the 2012 apocalypse in style” by building an “enormous underground bunker” in anticipation of the December 21, 2012 apocalypse.

“Our goal is nothing less than to survive the apocalypse to come in comfort and luxury,” Pink Visual spokesman Quentin Boyer told CBS’ Los Angeles affiliate. “Whether that catastrophe takes the form of fireballs flung earthward by an all-seeing deity, extended torrential rainfall, Biblical rapture, an earthquake-driven mega-tsunami, radioactive flesh-eating zombies, or some combination of the above.”

An end of the world bunker? Well, at least they’re hedging their bets against all sorts of ludicrous end of the world scenarios, but the prejudice against Zombies is striking. Comparing an entire subgroup of people to natural disasters? That’s highly offensive, Quentin Boyer. Highly offensive.

While the whole story has more than a little of the old ‘media stunt’ feel to it, the ZRC nonetheless condemns the construction of any end of the world bunkers that are designed to exclude the Differently Animated.

For shame.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Movies, Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on September 21, 2011

When you hear things like ‘the spirit of the Book’ you should know by now that the final product will bear extremely little similarity to the literary work that you loved (or in our case, hated):

You had to guess he’d say things like that. The book doesn’t have an easy, straightforward narrative ripe for adaptation like most popular books. It’s told almost completely in flashback meaning very little is ever at stake for the main character. Plus, the main character isn’t that “main.” He’s more of a conduit for the other characters. “Your humble narrator,” if you will. If you cast Brad Pitt in a zombie movie, he can’t just walk around talking to people the majority of the time. He needs to be in the action constantly. So, changes had to be made and – thankfully – they’re incorporating some of the imaginative and horrifying scenarios Brooks filled his book with.

Actually, no, they’re incorporating basically *none* of the Brooks scenarios, since ‘World War Z’ is a snarky and bleak social satire primarily focused on attacking human apathy in the face of easily identified but difficult to solve problems.

A slow moving ‘apocalypse’ is very different from a magical pandemic. The one humans can plausibly be blamed for allowing to proceed, and thus be held morally culpable (as Brooks does in his book). The other is a judgment from God, and there’s no point in condemning the smote as they writhe on the ground.

I mean, Max Brooks went one step further this year and made it EXPLICIT that the ‘World War Z-o-verse’ is an attack on apathy and inaction by writing a vampires-vs-zombies global warming story set in the same universe and releasing it online for free. We reviewed it here at the ZRC.

At this point he couldn’t make his critique much more obvious without taking to the streetcorners with a sandwich-board. ‘World War Z’ the book, dealing in dispassionate examination of the event after the fact, and the resulting traumas on survivors, lessons learned, and social changes, is by necessity a completely different animal from present-tense, super-speed super-Zombie ‘World War Z’ the movie.

Yet still the press coverage is devoted mostly to the ‘speed’ of the Zombies, rather than the complete jettisoning of the content of Brooks’ argument that results from this mass-market tampering.

I’m beginning to get the same feeling from the press on ‘World War Z’ that I often do when I talk to alleged fans of George Romero’s Anti-Zombie films: that I’m the only one in the room who actually paid attention to the what was happening on screen/the page. These are not subtle points that could be easily lost; they’re fundamental.

So why do they almost never come up in discussion? Did people really just read ‘World War Z’ for the splattery violence?

I wonder.

Category: Zombie Media | 2 Comments »
Tags: Books, Journamalism, Max Brooks is a Jerk, Movies

Posted By John Sears on September 21, 2011

Exercise is important, and I know I personally am trying to get more. This, however, is no way to induce people to get fit:

Indie developer Six to Start and Naomi Alderman are attempting to kick start their new app, aptly titled ZOMBIES, RUN! On the surface, the fitness app can be used to record the distance, time, pace, and calories burned on your run, but the meta-game within is what ZOMBIS, RUN! is all about.

The zombie apocalypse is underway, and it’s up to you to gather resources like medicine, ammo, and batteries to help rebuild your base to prevent a resurgence of the undead. During your run, you’ll collect these items while being guided by orders and a story delivered through your headphones, avoiding zombies in the process.

No offense, but in these (highly inflammatory and unrealistic) Zombie Apocalypse scenarios, aren’t the sort of people who don’t get supplies until the Apocalypse is underway the first guys who get eaten?

Not to negate the premise or anything :D

It gets better: the game is raising funds on Kickstarter… and there’s a promotional video just laden with ugly, brain-chomping Anti-Zombie stereotypes:

The sheer enthusiasm this game’s writer shows for hating on the Differently Animated is, I must say, extremely disturbing.

Someone get that woman to calm down, would you? She’s scaring us.

Needless to say, The Zombie Rights Campaign does not encourage you to donate any money to this outright evil and odious project, or to play the final game when it is released for that matter. We suggest instead that you find a Zombie partner to go jogging with, in the spirit of fitness and of course, tolerance.

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

Posted By John Sears on September 19, 2011

Out of all the things you will read on this blog about those who hold unfortunate Anti-Zombie prejudices.. is definitely the following. But at least it’s occasionally very funny, and even though the ‘Zombies’ are unfortunate stereotypes, they usually prevail over the treacherous and untrustworthy Survivors.

Who are playing themselves, kind of. Which says a lot about their self-image:

their last minute Christmas shopping there, nervous graduates would shop around for their first Interview Suit, teenagers would shoplift from the Claire’s Accessories. Not anymore though. Now there is no Claire’s Accessories.

Because in Friar’s Walk, everybody died. Usually more than once. Now it is a dark place, a quiet place, a graveyard of empty shop fronts, disused kitchenettes, and a tragically unused jungle gym.

But as you stand there, in the dark, if you listen carefully you can hear whispers. Because is Friar’s Walk the walls tell stories.

Stories about the massive Zombie LARP game that went on there last weekend.

These are those stories.

And what stories they are! Mostly stories of rank scheming, ruthless sabotage of one’s teammates and the frequent abandonment of colleagues to be devoured alive by the alleged Zombies that, on the whole, come out looking quite a bit better and clearly know the meaning of Solidarity:

We safely navigated our way to the saferoom, and called the helicopter. We now had to make it to the roof, fight off the hordes, and await salvation. By now we had a decent sized group, but we were woefully under equipped. In our rush up the narrow stairs, I was injured by a passing zombie. Limping, I bravely hid behind my fellow survivors, fighting off the neverending surges of the undead with nothing but melee weapons. Realising my importance in this scenario, I valiantly yelled “Look out there’s a fucking zombie” when it seemed appropriate. I even attempted to hide under the air conditioning units, alas the zombies had the same idea. I was left, cowering next to a dead pigeon, although still not regretting my generally traitorous ways. After what seemed like an eternity, the doors to the roof were open. Our rescue had arrived, we had survived! The high priest, regrettably, was taken at the last second, sacrificing himself for the greater good. The doors were closed, and relief flooded through me like some insensitive simile to do with a tsunami. We had survived, we had not been taken. My team had been…..but screw them, I was alive!

Disturbing video footage of the event is also available:

Zombie LARP – Station Zero from Antony White on Vimeo.

Particularly disturbing is the notion that Zombies are repelled by the ‘power of God’.

Hmm. What kind of God, I wonder? A devious one that isn’t much for teamwork by all appearances.

At any rate, the ZRC cannot approve of this Zombie Larp activity, as it sows unfortunate and counterproductive division between the Living and Undead communities, who clearly share a common love of abandoned merchant establishments and a fear of hobbies that don’t make one look a bit insane and/or heavily subsidize the Chinese plastics industry.

We rate it accordingly as Anti-Zombie. For shame.

Bonus: Observe the Twitter conversation between myself and one of our UK correspondents who helped document this unfortunate outing, where he gamely plays Devil’s Advocate and attempts to explain the (obviously faulty) reasoning behind the activity.

Category: Zombie Media | 3 Comments »
Tags: Anti-Zombie Public Event, Euro-zom, Youtube Mischief

Posted By John Sears on September 19, 2011

Honestly, I couldn’t believe this one at first:

John Malkovich is in final negotiations to join the cast of Summit Entertainment’s zombie pic “Warm Bodies.”

Jonathan Levine (“50/50″) is writing and directing the film, which will star Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and Rob Corddry.

…

Malkovich will play General Grigio, who’s obsessed with the destruction of the zombie threat.

…

Role will mark another villainous turn for Malkovich, who has made a career out of playing the bad guy with infamous roles in “Con Air” and “In the Line of Fire.”

Whee! John Malkovich as the Undead-hating *villain* in a Zombie movie!

‘Warm Bodies’ is seriously starting to pique my interest.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Movies

Posted By John Sears on September 19, 2011

I’ve hesitated to write this post about our ill-fated attendance at Geek.kon all week, despite interested parties, Zombie Allies and dear friends asking about it in the intervening time, because the ZRC is about positive change, working toward a brighter tomorrow for the Living and Undead alike. We don’t like burning bridges.

But, as longtime Zombie Ally Michelle Hartz pointed out to me via email, the bridge in question was already burned, from the other side, by Geek.Kon, so we have neither anything to lose nor any excuse for not telling the truth and warning other potential attendees (and even more so, potential charity auction donors) about what happened to us last weekend.

So here’s the long version, behind the cut:

(more…)

Category: ZRC News | 3 Comments »
Tags: Anime or Manga, Public Appearance, Social Justice, Zombies Doing Good