Posted By John Sears on September 17, 2011

You know, as much flack as we get here at the ZRC for wading into politics, you have to concede that sometimes it’s completely necessary:

A new video game is giving players a chance to explore a post-apocalyptic Fox News studio and kill off zombies that resemble famous conservatives including Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck.

The game, called “Tea Party Zombies Must Die,” is project by StarvingEyes Advergaming, a website that provides games for online viral campaigns.

Brother.

Ok, first of all, a game where you defame your political enemies as ‘monsters’ is itself more than a tiiiiiiny bit squirm-inducing. But when you then openly advocate the slaughter of said monsterized political enemies you’re really pushing it into questionable territory.

Now, take it one step further, and attack an already-marginalized and misunderstood population here in the US by designating them as the type of ‘monster’ that justifies your audience killing people they disagree with on ideological grounds?

That’s just wrong, and the ZRC cannot support it.

Video embedded below. Honestly, it’s not that graphic as far as these games go, and the bizarre construction (no gunfire sound-effects, extremely minimal music) makes the whole thing look sad and slapdash too.

Category: Zombie Media | 1 Comment »
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Posted By John Sears on September 17, 2011

I’d heard about this at some point in the past but it’s out now and apparently pretty ghastly for the Differently Animated:

The comic Daybreak is a field trip through the zombie apocalypse

Brian Ralph’s graphic novel Daybreak takes a phenomenological approach to survivalist horror. Like the participant in a pick-a-path novel, the reader is abruptly plopped down in the middle of a garbage-strewn hellhole.

…

And what of the unnamed roamers in Daybreak? Because you experience the book from a first-person view, the reader never sees a splash page of a zombie’s rotting face. Why not? Because that would signify a ghastly end for your comic avatar.

Rather, we see glimpses of these wasteland antagonists — an arm here, a shadow there.

Oh, of *course* contact with the ‘roamers’, aka Zombies, must automatically end in violence and death! How silly of us to think otherwise! *sarcasm*

Yet another example of the pervasive Anti-Zombie bias in the comics industry, ‘Daybreak’ by Brian Ralph should be available now (but has sold out or some such) from Amazon.com, and presumably might be available from local merchants eager to cash in on the Anti-Zombie craze.

Category: Zombie Media | 1 Comment »
Tags: Comics

Posted By John Sears on September 15, 2011

We try to lend support whenever and wherever we can for Zombie Friendly public outings, and the ZRC loves Zombie Walks in general.

This event to raise awareness of brain-injuries, however, relies on defaming the Differently Animated to do so:

Zombies roamed the streets of Casper Saturday morning, shuffling, moaning, frightening children in passing cars with their gory visages.
But these zombies weren’t out looking for brains to eat, they were looking to help raise awareness about brain injuries and money to finance education and support activities.

Saturday’s “Zombie Walk” was the brain child of the Brain Injury Alliance of Wyoming, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent brain injuries and provide support for survivors of those injuries and their families. The group was looking for a way to attract young people to their annual walk, and the tie-in with brain-eating zombies just seemed a natural, said Jason Waugaman, community resource director for the alliance.

One of the things that hurts most in this line of work is when other activist groups resort to bashing OUR clients in order to advance their own message/cause. Why can’t Zombies be concerned for the health of the Living without an ulterior motive, Mr. Waugaman? And why shouldn’t Zombies also be included in the conversation about traumatic brain injuries? Even if you’ve bought into the negative stereotyping hook, line and sinker, protecting their own brain is critical for your stereotypical movie Zombies.

After all, we’ve raised an entire, emotionally stunted generation to associate the Undead with head-shots.

The ZRC cannot condone the advancement of prejudice toward Zombies even or perhaps especially in the course of working toward other, socially laudable ends. We therefore cannot approve of this Casper, Wyoming Zombie Walk.

For shame, Brain Injury Alliance of Wyoming. For shame.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Anti-Zombie Public Event, Social Justice

Posted By John Sears on September 15, 2011

Well, I guess Sony knows which side their Zombie-hating bread is buttered on, and hopes to buy off their still-seething customer base with some very cheap Anti-Zombie gameplay:

In addition, today’s update grants free access to five games: Plants vs. Zombies, Astro Tripper, Altered Beast, Bashi Blocks (Minis), and Jet Moto (PS1).

Plus subscribers will be able to get additional games as part of their membership later in the month. However, the most noteworthy additions come from the Resident Evil franchise.

On September 20th, all three PS1-era Resident Evil games will be free to download for PlayStation Plus members. That includes Resident Evil Director’s Cut, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3.

In addition, the remastered HD versions of Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica X will be half-off exclusively for Plus members. That means you’ll be able to get every major RE game, from 1-4 for only $20 total with a Plus membership.

So they’re literally giving away Plants vs. Zombies and 3 Resident Evil games. Giving them away! I just.. wow.

How is Zombie Friendly media supposed to compete when an extremely-deep-pocketed multinational just decides to shovel the Zombie hating content out the door for literally nothing?

And that’s not even mentioning the huge 50% discount on the HD remakes of later, newly remastered RE titles!

I’m shocked. Shocked and appalled. For shame, Sony. For shame.

I guess we know where they stand on the issue of Zombie Rights.

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Tags: Videogames

Posted By John Sears on September 14, 2011

Even for fans of this evil, Zombie-hating show, developments like this cannot be comfortable, to say the least:

Last weekend, the cast of The Walking Dead took the stage at Dragon*Con and fielded questions from the audience — with one big restriction. Dragon*Con attendees were told eight times not to ask about former showrunner Frank Darabont.

io9 reasonably speculates that this is a very sad attempt to keep the feelings of the cast about Darabont’s abrupt departure under wraps. In which case, err, drawing attention to it with grave pronouncements and forbidden topics of discussion was a poor tactical choice.

Nothing to see here folks! Hey, we’re gonna have Zombies on a farm in the next season! With a slashed budget! Err wait, forget that part!

Meanwhile over here in the admittedly far-less-lucrative Zombie Friendly market we’re all getting along swimmingly, thanks for asking.

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Tags: Robert Kirkman, Television

Posted By John Sears on September 14, 2011

First they discarded the cerebral and engaging, if still permeated by hatred, narrative structure of ‘World War Z’ in favor of a cut-down Hollywood blockbuster approach.

Because thinking is not something you should do while watching a mainstream film?

Now news comes that they have discarded pretty much all that was left of Brooks’ unique take on Zombie bashing for the movie as well:

Someone managed to capture this insane zombie attack while WWZ was filming in Glasglow. What have we learned from this footage? One, the zombies are fast. Two, they’re angry. Three, the victim’s zombie change-over rate from bite to full member of the undead appears to be very fast, and quite violent. So, Brooks loyalists. Are you not entertained? Or is this movie still zombie blasphemy?

For those who haven’t read ‘World War Z’, literally the ENTIRE STORY is dependent on precisely this not happening. The ‘infection’ spreads in the novel in a slow and methodical fashion, and the book’s cynical indictment of human inaction and apathy rather depends on it not being a supernaturally fast, unforeseeable, unstoppable juggernaut of doom. There’s no moral dilemma if you cannot realistically prevail, and no indictment if you’re not to blame for any of your own misfortune!

Many of the remarkably complex plot elements in the book take as a prerequisite a slow-moving, slowly progressing ‘disease’. In the novel large sections are dedicated to describing checkpoints to weed out the infected from the Living, which is obviously unnecessary if the disease incubates in five seconds; organ donations can spread the illness, which is absurd since by the time you’d removed the kidney the guy on the table would be eating your face (apparently); the military and governmental response to the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ underreacts in no small part because the enemy seems, at first glance, so unimpressive (from a military perspective).

Instead of that very Romero-esque take from Max Brooks, we are presented here with a very obviously Boyle-esque idea. Only, we already HAVE ’28 Days Later’, thank you very much, and one very poorly-advised sequel to boot.

Why, exactly, did Pitt et al bother with licensing ‘World War Z’? What precisely about the book have they decided to *keep*?

I can’t wait for the revelation where it turns out they’re not actually Zombies, but Vampires or Wendigos or something. Good grief.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Brad Pitt is a Jerk, Max Brooks is a Jerk, Movies

Posted By John Sears on September 13, 2011

Seriously? Who out there hates the human race this much?

Uwe Boll continues to bring little known video games to the screen. This time he’s producing a movie version of Zombie Massacre video game.

The film will be directed by Marco Ristori and Luca Boni who made the recent low-budget zombie flick, Eaters, for Boll.

Yes, THAT Uwe Boll. Infamous director and producer of unimaginably awful films, extremely loosely based on videogames.

Uggh. Wow.

Where did he get the ‘idea’ for his latest atrocity? Well:

Zombie Massacre (AKA Gloom 4) is a 1998 computer game for the Amiga computer. It was a clone of the immensely popular first person shooter Doom on the Amiga.

I guess it was inevitable that Boll would run out of original games whose owners were STUPID enough to let him near their intellectual property, but still, adapting last-ditch copycat games from the Amiga?

Wow.

Anyway, Doom was about demons, but I guess for this, ahem, variant they remade them into Zombies? That’s atrocious. I guess all unconventional sentient life looked alike to the development team? For shame.

Looking on the bright side, if I get any really dire medical diagnoses in the next few weeks, I won’t have to review this movie for the ZRC!

Category: Zombie Media | 5 Comments »
Tags: Movies, Videogames

Posted By John Sears on September 13, 2011

In the process of writing about Seth Grahame-Smith’s apparent quest to remake every cultural touchstone from human history recently, the ZRC came across this potential gem:

Night of the Living, a stop-motion animated film that Grahame-Smith might script, with Burton producing along with KatzSmith. A town of peaceful monsters must learn how to fight when it is invaded by humans.

I really don’t want to get my hopes up too far here; this could well be a too-cute-by-half scenario, where every joke in the film is about how zany it is that Living humans would behave this way when of course we *should* all know that only Zombies do that.

Still; *potentially*, even given the troubled heritage and baggage Grahame-Smith’s involvement could represent, this has promise. Maybe.

We’ll keep an eye out for future developments.

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Movies

Posted By John Sears on September 12, 2011

We’ve had our differences with Seth Grahame-Smith here at the ZRC; his ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ novel kickstarted the truly unfortunate trend of ‘Put Zombies Into Anything, Especially Public Domain Works No One Owns Anymore’ Trend. (Aka: the Zombie Flavored Creativity Substitute).

Don’t get us wrong; a thoughtful Zombified remake of a classic work can, at least in theory, reveal nuances and explore ideas that would go unnoticed in the original presentation, and for various reasons both historical and prejudiced, Zombies are tragically underrepresented in the Classics.

Still, perhaps those poor souls out there still unmoved by the plight of the Differently Animated will see Mr. Grahame-Smith’s apparent madness for rehash for what it is with this news:

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is one of the world’s most perfect movies, but does it really need an installment? Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author Seth Grahame-Smith apparently thinks so, and he’s developing a new version with his producing partner David Katzenberg (son of Jeff).

Yes, it’s a ‘reboot’, aka a remake, aka ‘When Hollywood has no new ideas’.

I dislike remakes, on the whole. It’s almost infinitely more interesting for me to see something new than, at best, a competent refashioning of an old idea. Isn’t that the case with most people? Even if, hypothetically, you can improve the original work, it’s still not a new thought, not a new idea. What drives creative people to stop thinking for themselves and start reaching for something that’s already been done?

If I knew the answer to that question I’d be able to explain a whooooooooole lot of direct to DVD Zombie-Exploitation movies.

I suppose Zombies might have been the canaries in the coal mine, and looking back ten years from now, our culture a blasted heath of innumerable retreads and not one original concept, we will raise our fists to the sky and demand of a God who has surely abandoned us to a well-deserved fate, ‘Why?! Why, Seth Grahame-Smith, why?’

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Movies, Zombie Flavored Creativity Substitute

Posted By John Sears on September 12, 2011

(our booth over the weekend, exhibiting a slideshow of past activism)

Sorry about getting this post up so late; we were beat and unpacking and all that today.

Somehow despite being in town the convention was pretty exhausting! We had three long but festive days of outreach.

The ZRC spent Saturday and Sunday all day in the convention’s dealer room, selling Zombie Friendly merchandise, raising money for charity and handing out a lot of pamphlets. A *lot* of pamphlets.

There will eventually be a post up about some of the difficulties we also had at the convention, but for now we’re focusing on the positives. The ZRC accomplished a great deal. By our count between this convention and Discworld Con we’ve handed out hundreds of informational pamphlets alone, and raised a nice chunk of change for the Lurch for the Cure too.

We got to meet a lot of anime fans and assorted varieties of geek this weekend and spoke with them all about the hurtful Anti-Zombie stereotypes prevalent in their favorite shows, videogames and movies, and how that basically should make them feel bad and change their ways. But, you know, we did this in a *friendly* manner!

I think our message reached quite a few people as well. Hearts were opened. Minds were changed.

The complete set of pictures from the Con is available for your perusal here, and below are snapshots of some of our favorite moments.

(We tried to educate this group dressed up as Left 4 Dead characters on Zombie Rights, and I hope we made a difference.)

(This fantastic Dalek patrolled the convention for a couple of days..)

(Along with this huge K9)

(Which the Dalek naturally took into custody alongside the Tardis)

(A Vault dweller from the Zombie Friendly Fallout videogame series! We love Fallout!)

(The kind of cross-narrative car-wreck scene you get at anime conventions. I love it.)

(Seeing Dr. Cancer again and talking Zombie Rights and marches in the hall Saturday night was nice.)

(As was informing the convention goers of Madison’s new Zombie Friendly mayor Paul Soglin)

And finally, the real lesson of the Convention, beyond Zombie Rights?

That it was children all along plotting our destruction and subjugation from inside Dalek casings. Not squid-aliens.

Dun-dun-DUN

Update: Video proving this revelvation:

Category: Zombie Media | No Comments »
Tags: Public Appearance, Television, Videogames, Zombie Public Event, Zombies Doing Good