They Came Back: Resurrection can be Inconvenient for the Living

When a horde of Romero-esque zombies attack the living, groaning and biting and eating brains, society’s response is predictable- fight or flight.  But what if the dead return peacefully, undecayed, and ready to resume their former lives?  How does society react?

This is the question posed by They Came Back, a 2004 French film directed by Robin Campillo.  The film explores the relationships between a group of the living and their dead spouses and children.  Instead of joy or horror, the resurrected dead are met with unease, and the government treats them as unwanted refugees from the beyond, illegal immigrants who take up jobs and state resources. 

It’s a great premise, and there are some very nice touches in the film (particularly the cinematography and the soundtrack), but overall the film is oddly unemotional, abstract, and slow, and the questions it raises are never fully explored. 

"Isopod" is now "The Bay"

Slightly more information on Barry Levinson's upcoming thriller here.


Apparently it is actually an ecological horror film involving a viral outbreak in a small Maryland town.  So, the bay in question would be the Chesapeake (although they're shooting next to Winyah Bay in Georgetown, South Carolina, probably for tax purposes).

It also appears that they're using the pieced-together-footage technique of Cloverfield, etc., which can work well if it doesn’t give you motion sickness (I had to close my eyes during parts of The Blair Witch Project, and not because it was too horrific to watch).

At the audition for extras, they were specifically looking for one year old twins, amputees for a hospital scene, and expert blue crab eaters.  The latter should be easy to find around Georgetown.  

Wild Zero: Rock and Roll and Zombies

A Japanese rock-zombie spectacular, Wild Zero (2000) is essentially an extended music video for the band Guitar Wolf.  Consisting of Guitar Wolf, Drum Wolf, and Bass Wolf (since deceased and replaced), the band slouches around combing their pompadours, abusing substances, and shouting “Rock and roll!”  

Aliens are invading Earth and creating zombies left and right (shades of Plan 9 From Outer Space).  What's more, the band's former manager (Makoto Inamiya, resplendent in a pageboy wig and short shorts) is after them.  The rudimentary plot concerns Guitar Wolf’s number one fan Ace (Masashi Endô) and the very special girl he falls in love with (Kwancharu Shitichai).  With the help of a magic whistle, Ace can summon Guitar Wolf's aid when he's in danger - but can the rockers fight off the zombie hordes and their alien masters?

It’s not meant to be good, it’s meant to be trashy camp, and it succeeds admirably, aided by a soundtrack that includes Guitar Wolf's own Ramones-influenced tunes and a suite of others, from Dick Dale to Bikini Kill.  Wild Zero serves up a big helping of dumb fun.  The DVD menu even includes an in-movie drinking game for those who wish to quantify the number of exploding heads and flaming tailpipes with alcohol.  

Isopod Extra Auditions

I spent an hour this morning at auditions for extras for the upcoming "indie sci-fi thriller" Isopod, to be directed by Barry Levinson.  A pretty simple process:  wait in line, fill out a form, staple your picture to it.  About 600 people showed up.  Filming should run mid-September to mid-October in Georgetown, South Carolina.  

There's very little information on Isopod so far, just the director and genre, announced by a Production Weekly Twitter message on August 10.  The bare IMDB entry gives you an idea of how little is known about the film.  Isopods are crustaceans, mostly very small.  Pillbugs are the best-known:








probably followed by the "giant" deep-sea ones:

which do look a little scary but are only about a foot long.  My speculation is that if the film involves actual isopods at all, it'll be a ginormous version of the deep-sea ones or a horde of the parasitic isopods which suck fish blood, suddenly bent on destroying humankind.

We shall see.  Maybe it'll be like one of those 1970's ecological horror films like Frogs ("Today the pond!  Tomorrow the world!) or Night of the Lepus:

Bio-Zombie: Hong Kong Horror-Comedy

A 1998 feature from director Wilson Yip, Bio Zombie follows the misadventures of Woody (Jordan Tan) and Bee (Sam Lee), slackers who unwittingly set off a zombie plague at the mall where they sell bootleg DVDs.  Along with their fellow retail workers, the pair battle the undead with everything from hacksaws to power drills.

The result is a little like a Shaun of the Dead/Dawn of the Dead combination, but while Woody and Bee are engaging protagonists and there are some genuine laughs, a lack of substance and lame zombie effects make Bio-Zombie a pale and sickly creation compared to either of those films.     

Dead-Alive: Peter Jackson's Zombie Movie

Along with Meet the Feebles (1990), 1992's Dead Alive (also known as Braindead) proves that Peter Jackson has a twisted sense of humor, and we can all be relieved that he didn't direct The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy as some kind of ghastly parody. 

In Dead Alive, the zombie plague is transmitted by “Sumatran Rat-Monkeys”; a zoo specimen in New Zealand bites Lionel's (Timothy Balme) domineering mother (Elizabeth Moody), who infects others, starting a chain of walking corpses.  Lionel tries desperately to keep his romantic interest Paquita (Diana Peñalver) and his small town neighbors from finding out by confining the zombies to his mother's house.  At first he succeeds, but in the end the film turns into a gore fest in which Lionel fights zombies by the hundreds, at one point with a lawnmower strapped to his chest. 

The actors are pretty cheesy, but this is in keeping with Dead Alive's aesthetic theme.  There’s an engaging 1950’s feel that adds a lot to the film. Dead Alive is reminiscent of The Evil Dead movies in that it's full of over the top slapstick humor and creative bloodiness.  Unique and entertaining, it's definitely worth checking out.     

Harper Cemetery

I've never found cemeteries very spooky unless they're on film and zombies are clawing their way up out of the ground.  Instead, they (the older ones, anyway) are full of historical interest ("stories in stone") and tend to be peaceful, sometimes beautiful places.  I have yet to visit any historic cemeteries that compare to those in New Orleans, but I recently went back to an early favorite, Harper Cemetery in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.

Looking at Harper's Ferry from Maryland Heights across the Potomac River, Harper Cemetery is on the hill on the upper right.  Named for Robert Harper, who founded the town, the cemetery has graves dating from the late 1700's (including Harper's).

There are no ostentatious tombs or statuary, and the stone below is probably the most elaborate.

All in all, a pretty pleasant spot to be buried.