Posted By John Sears on July 13, 2015

The Zombie Rights Campaign has, along with America, watched a lot of Walking Dead. More however is on the way, and the plight of Rick, his questionably-led survivor band, and the many innocent Zombies they oppress, is about to be unleashed once more on our nation.

Yes, there’s a trailer for the next season of The Walking Dead:

Although the internet has gone a bit crazy over this video, what’s most remarkable to the Zombie Rights Campaign is what it doesn’t show: any real changes.

Rick’s still crazy. The Walkers are still cruelly excluded from his violently gated community. Everyone who doesn’t trust him is in danger of being eaten, except for Michonne, because she has a magic sword.

Admittedly, magic swords are handy.

Also, everyone and everything is terrible forever, aka the premise of The Walking Dead.

The Zombie Rights Campaign will tune in to the show as it airs this fall, of course, because it is our solemn duty.

Our solemn, difficult duty.

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Posted By John Sears on July 13, 2015

It’s been a long road for the [REC] series. The first two movies were set in a creepy apartment building in Barcelona which was apparently the site of some very Anti-Zombie experimentation by certain parties (avoiding spoilers, but it’s not Umbrella). The third movie, which the ZRC saw on the big screen, shifted locations to a wedding and ditched the found footage format of the first two movies, courting controversy and, in the humble opinion of your ZRC reviewers, losing most of the cinematic appeal of the first two films while lamentably not improving any in its depiction of Living-Zombie relations.

Tragic. And the critical response was not great either.

REC 4 therefore attempts to return to its roots, featuring once-again ‘imperiled’ reporter Angela Vidal, this time trapped on a quarantine ship at sea, once again supposedly menaced by the apparent Zombie Apocalypse.

It’s supposedly the last installment in the franchise, but such predictions are often premature, so take that with a grain of salt.

As for the film itself? Hmm. Well.

It’s profoundly Anti-Zombie, as one might expect, and tries to take the fear of the Undead in some new directions, such as fear of Zombie foodservice workers, for example. Hardly laudable behavior. [REC] 4 also represents an entry in the ‘Fear Zombies at Sea’ genre, which Resident Evil has also dipped its corrupt virtual toes into with ‘Resident Evil: Revelations‘.

Overall though, [REC] 4 represents more of the same, but muddled. It lacks the focus and unusual religiosity of the first two films, the big budget and occasionally action-movie focus of the third movie, and generally, the suspense of any of the previous films. Characters die off-screen, plot threads are picked up, abandoned, sometimes picked up only to be abandoned again. It takes a long time to even get to any Zombies, which is both a blessing and a curse for your ZRC reviewer.

Honestly, I have no idea why it is rated as highly as it is on Rotten Tomatoes.

The ZRC gives [REC] 4 our lowest score for Zombie Rights and declares it ‘Living Supremacist’. We also declare it pretty boring and easily skipped.

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Tags: ZRC Reviews

Posted By John Sears on July 1, 2015

The ZRC was recently pointed to this graphic and disturbing video purporting to show how to consume citrus fruit during the, ahem, ‘Zombie Apocalypse’.

Warning: Graphic Anti-Zombie Violence is present. Watch with caution.

How to respond to videos like this? Well, for starters, the ZRC fails to see why an orange cannot be shared with a Zombie. Maybe Zombies like oranges? Have you ever thought to ask?

Secondly, it’s an oddly prepared survivor who has a wall mounted, dungeon-like restraint system ready for his unwitting ‘friend’. The ZRC questions this entire scenario. It seems premeditated to us. Maybe the video’s title really should be, ‘How to Get Away with Murder AND Eat an Orange in the Zombie Apocalypse’?

Food for thought, if you’ll excuse the pun. Food for thought.

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Posted By John Sears on June 28, 2015

The ZRC has had many adventures in Chicago, and attended several of their annual Zombie Walks. We often cite the city as an example of how integration of the Undead and the Living is possible, even in a society as inundated with negative imagery and stereotyping of the Differently Animated as our own.

Last weekend your Art Director and myself were in Chicago on non-ZRC business and, by pure chance, I happened to spot some Zombie partygoers in their native habitat at a karaoke bar downtown. Around 2am, although whether this was due to a nocturnal habit (we’re not judging) or more ‘ordinary’ partying was not clear.

Tragically, I did not have any literature on me that day, but if anyone knows these Undead Americans they should direct them to our site post-haste.

Sing on, Zombie citizens. Sing on.

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Posted By John Sears on June 6, 2015

They say all good things come to an end, but it’s always sad when the really good ones do.

The Diabolique International Film Festival, formerly The Dark Carnival Film Festival, has been a big part of the ZRC’s existence since the very beginning, always bringing us the latest and greatest in Undead Cinema to review and frequently be offended by.

But this year will be the last.

The Indiana University Cinema hosts the the ninth and final year of the Diabolique International Film Festival. Join us for one last celebration of the horror, science fiction, and fantasy genres, featuring guest filmmakers, special events, and screenings of the best independent shorts and features from around the the world.

Apparently the festival will probably run from Thursday to probably Saturday this year, which is fairly typical, and no doubt provide a healthy slate of films to evaluate for Anti-Zombie prejudice.

The ZRC will be there, with our signs and our passion, in the spirit of the good old days, to give it a proper sendoff.

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Tags: Public Appearance

Posted By John Sears on June 6, 2015

It’s been a very busy spring for your ZRC advocates, but we have important announcements to make.

First, one of the longest-running and most distracting ZRC-related projects has finally been completed, and we are ready to share it with you all. This, more than anything else, is what has kept the blog so quiet and our public appearances so sparse over the last couple of years.

Your ZRC President is now also, to our knowledge, the world’s first Zombie Friendly Attorney.

Yes, last month after a grueling 3 years of law school, and a lengthy and difficult character evaluation, I got word that the State of Wisconsin had decided to admit me into the legal profession after all.

There was, of course, a mountain of paperwork to complete, and a swearing in ceremony to attend.

Nothing like having to appear before the state supreme court to make you re-evaluate your life (or Unlife!) choices.

But lo and behold, last week I was sworn in, and now I can officially call myself a Zombie Friendly Attorney at Law.

Plus I got that shiny pin, which I can wear to formal events! Like our protests!

(Just kidding, our protests are informal and friendly. I might still wear the pin though)

What’s next for the ZRC? Well, frankly, a little vacation for me might be in order, but Undead Advocacy has waited long enough, so we hope to make some announcements about events shortly, maybe spruce up the website, offer some new, thought-provoking merchandise and the like soon.

It’s been a long and strange trip for The Zombie Rights Campaign, and we hope it only gets stranger, and more Zombie, in the years to come.

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Posted By John Sears on March 26, 2015

Hey loyal ZRC readers, just making a brief update here about goings on at ZRC Centrale.

As previously discussed on the blog, things have been a bit on hiatus here for your premiere Zombie Activism organization as your ZRC President pursues his law degree. Good news on that front: I am almost done. I anticipate graduating in about a month and should shortly thereafter be able to practice law and represent the rights of the Differently Animated as needed.

Which is important, because tragically, the government’s typical response to the Undead is, well… headshots.

Totally unfair.

Now that the bulk of my law school education is over and all that’s really left is a few 3 hour long exams, we’re starting to look further afield for outreach opportunities and chances to Make a Difference (for the Differently Animated). We’ve got some things in the works. Secret things.

Thank you for your patience.

–Future Zombie Rights Lawyer

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Posted By John Sears on February 12, 2015

Zombies can be superheroes too. This much seems obvious to the ZRC as a matter of fairness, but also as a matter of, say, comic book history. Recently, Marvel Zombies turned that a bit on its head and tragically took the position that if a superhero becomes a Zombie they will (with few exceptions) also have to become a supervillain.

Which is just mean.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s DLC unfortunately seems to follow the ‘Marvel Zombies’ approach. Humans with superheroic equipment (exo-skeletons, in this case, a bit like Iron Man) are zombified and turn… evil, for want of a better word:

On top of that, Exo Zombies introduces the expanded range of movement that features into Advanced Warfare‘s campaign and multiplayer modes, compliments of Exo Suits. The four, playable protagonists — who are brought to life here with help from John Malkovich, Rose McGowan, Bill Paxton, and Jon Bernthal — get the suits, but so do the zombies. The walking dead don’t shamble in Exo Zombies; they leap, clamber, and flat-out run in their endless pursuit of delicious brain meat.

So much star power! So little sympathy for Zombies, and especially, Zombie gamers. And the casual brain slander again! Argh!!

Why can’t the Zombies with the superhero suits get some favorable attention? And if they are supposedly so evil and simple-minded, who is equipping them with super suits? How are they maintaining them?

It seems like a mess to us here at the ZRC. A starpowered and offensive mess.

But maybe we’ll pick it up for further review. The blog will keep you posted.

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Tags: Videogames

Posted By John Sears on February 12, 2015

We hate to sound like a broken record here at the ZRC, and new science is always fun, but the Zombie Community does not benefit from labeling every scary behavior in the animal kingdom as ‘zombie’, or even zombie-like.

Latest example in a long chain:

The green-eyed wasp Dinocampus coccinellae turns ladybugs into zombie babysitters. Three weeks after a wasp lays its egg inside the hapless beetle, a wasp larva bursts from her belly and weaves itself a cocoon between her legs. The ladybug doesn’t die, but becomes paralyzed, involuntarily twitching her spotted red carapace to ward off predators until the adult wasp emerges a week later. How D. coccinellae enslaves its host at just the right time had been a mystery, but now researchers believe the insect has an accomplice: a newly identified virus that attacks the beetle’s brain. The findings raise questions about whether other parasites also use viruses as neurological weapons.

Now, see, what about that sounds Undead to you, dear readers? Sure, there’s a virus, and many Zombie conditions are viral in origin. And there’s some behavioral alteration. But the ladybug isn’t Undead. In fact, sometimes, it even recovers and becomes a perfectly ordinary ladybug again:

A ladybug goes about her business for weeks as the D. coccinellae larva grows within her, feasting on her internal organs. Even after the larva emerges and turns her into a zombie bodyguard, a quarter of ladybugs eventually recover. Some even get parasitized again.

We’ve seen some recent ‘zombie recovery’ stories, like Warm Bodies, but generally, Undeath is a permanent state. That’s just one reason it’s so unfair to discriminate against Zombies!

But the most compelling reason to me is that this ‘zombie’ ladybug virus has a human analogue, which in no way causes Zombification:

On further inspection, the researchers classified the stowaway as a new species of Iflavirus, a type of RNA virus related to the polio virus. They dubbed it D. coccinellae paralysis virus (DCPV).

So unless we’re going to claim that polio is Zombie adjacent, the ZRC doesn’t see why the ‘Zombie Ladybug’ language is necessary. Or wise! Or fair to the Differently Animated!

‘Zombie’ does not equal ‘bad’, media. For shame.

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Tags: Don't Use the Zed Word, Journamalism

Posted By John Sears on February 12, 2015

B. Nektar is at it again! They really seem to like the Zombie themed beverages.

In this case, ‘Necromangocon‘ is a honey wine/mead, with a bit of black pepper and mango added.

The actual beverage is refreshing and unassuming. Perhaps a bit too unassuming; the pepper and mango don’t come across so strongly, and the overall flavor is very mild.

But aside from the drinking quality, what message is this bottle of booze conveying to the Zombie public?

Well, first, check out the front. Pretty standard depiction of the ‘Book of the Dead’ in the Zombie context, and specifically, a cheeky reference to the ‘Evil Dead’ movies.

Superficially, there’s no problem here for Zombie Rights. We have issues with the Necronomicon, and necromancy in general; it tends to be a hotbed of Undead Labor issues.

But still, the label doesn’t indicate, let alone advocate, any of that.

But as we saw with our last B. Nektar review, there’s also a colorful label description…

Aside from a reference to ‘terrifying forces’, it’s not overtly Anti-Zombie. It’s pretty Anti-Necronomicon, but we’re not the Necronomicon Rights Campaign.

On the whole, the ZRC can, at least mildly, recommend this beverage! It’s tasty and not obviously against the Differently Animated.

The Zombie Rights Campaign rates Necromangocon as ‘Zombie Tolerant’

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Tags: ZRC Reviews