New: Thoughtful Dead

Thoughtful Dead.... Zombies who always send you a card on your birthday? Who always wash the dishes after dinner? Who let you watch to the end of the movie before they eat your eyeballs? Who let you pee before sending you off into the afterlife (where, of course, there are no toilets)?

Well, not quite.

Thoughtful Dead: The Good and Evil Dead (directed by Ira Cooper) is a short, 10 minute zombie noir film about a zombie, aptly named Brains, who unlike his fellow undead, has retained his ability to think.

"The walking dead do not think," Cooper explained. "They are vermin, an infestation, an annoyance. Brains is possibly the only of his kind who can think. Unable to relate to his undead comrades or speak to people, who see him as a detestable subhuman, he is trapped within his own thoughts, his own internal conversations and a landscape of towering piles of books."

Teaser:

Okay, a thinking zombie? Not quite like a sparkling vampire, but what's the point? Cooper sees the concept of cognizant zombie to have significant metaphorical applicablility.

The idea of a thinking zombie comes from a very true place. Without getting into specifics, there are a plethora problems all around our globe now that fully cognitive and aware human beings are causing or letting happen. Brains, the thinking zombie, hates his own kind for their destructive nature, and yet that is just it -- it's simply their nature to do so. They don't think about killing, they don't pre-conceive destruction, they have not a single forethought. Brains holds up human beings on a plateau and yet when it comes to evil deeds that Brains detests about his own kind, humans are the only one's who can think and are therefore accountable for their actions. So you might say this is a film about the responsibility we have to our world and to others, to be able to think and act on our thoughts. In Brains' universe, zombies are a minority -- slow, thoughtless and easily spotted. The analogy there is obvious and yet it still happens in the smallest ways, where our perception of a group of individuals is jam-packed with pre-conceived notions based on folklore and stereotypes. 

Cooper describes his approach as noir, by which I assume he means shadowy and dark. When we asked, we found it was not only the typical noir film's basic aesthetic he was referring to but also the classic embattled Chandler hero.

Why noir? Well, Brains is stuck in his own head, quite literally, and what better classic gimmick than the ol' loner detective running narrative. Using that convention, I am able to have him converse with himself, as well as speak in a heightened era type of speech, lending itself to his outcast persona. Brains is not the reinvention of the wheel, no, there have been many Brains before. This is just a stylistic tweak on the archetypal tortured soul, in that this victim of circumstance has no soul.

I admit I'm intrigued.

Clearly though it's not all metaphysics. When asked about the production itself Cooper explained that it was being produced by Tape Mouth Films, and that "the cool effects" were variously done some post and some in camera. "All the scars, makeup effects, shot gun holes etc. were designs and put together by my brilliant makeup team," he added. "The flying blood from gun shots, pistols and a lot of the lighting compositions was done in post by me."

Cooper says of himself:

I started off as a little kid with a grandiose imagination who wanted to act. I took every acting class I could find in my city, went to theatre school in University, worked in local theatres here and around. I realised it was the creative forces behind the actors, the words that they say, the scenes that they were stuck in, that I wanted to be a part of.

[My earlier work] was a lot of absurdist comedy. That is what I liked creating in the theatre world, looking to writers like Alfred Jarry and Nickolai Gogol for inspiration. It was the same for my film-world inspirations. I was intrigued by the boundless, limitless ideas of auteurs like Buster Keaton, Luis Bunuel, Guillermo Del Toro and Orson Welles to name a few. I made shorts with my friend Angel under Fortunato Films for short film competitions, with titles like Time's A Dick, Bird Poo, Talk Block and The Immigrants. I also delved into the world of comedic horror, making films such as Ghoulfellas (Best Script), Green Streets and Raging Bieber for the Bloodshots 48 Film Festival.

I started to want to make films more obscure, more Mel Brooks, more off the wall. I wrote and shot a few veiled satires such as Anti Porn, a film about the over-sexualization of relationships and the responsibilities of "being in the moment." I've screened this film many times. It has a few fans and A LOT of polite people approaching me after watching it, saying they had no clue what was going on. I also completed a film dealing with our perception of homelessness, which is very swept under the rug topic in Vancouver. I'm also an avid cyclist, who is working on a film about positive globalization through shared experiences, couch surfing and travel. 

As you can probably tell, I like to write and find it hard to place a stopper at an appropriate point. I never wanted to make a career out of film. There are just too many nasty associations that come along with tainting my love of it as a career. I enjoy working with local filmmakers with no budgets, to evolve ideas as a collective and to make wonderful stories to entertain whoever is willing to watch. I make art so that the audience and artists can benefit and that's the whole concept behind self-financing and self-promoting my own films. I don't promise my crew a simple DVD copy for all their hard work or that I will try to get it into festivals. That simply isn't good enough. 

In this day and age, it is more possible than ever to find creative ways to get your film out there and self distribute. That is my goal with Thoughtful Dead: The Good and Evil Dead -- to get it seen by as many crazed zombie aficionados as possible. That is my inspiration to keep making films, the possibilities that the films in their very nature encapsulate the vibrant human spirit that every soul I work with exudes and puts into each project.

Crew

• Director/Writer/Editor: Ira Cooper
• DOP: Patrick Shannon
• First AD: Amanda Wolski
• Lead Makeup: Andylinn Stockman
• Makeup: Cayley Giene
• Makeup: Sapphire Kozak
• Makeup: Nicole Pilon
• Catering: Rachel Chiasson

Cast

• Brains: Aslam Husain
• Terry: Jeff Kaiser
• Harold/Huckleberry: Teddy Kellogg
• Maude: Katie Copeland
• Coriander: Mishelle Cuttler
• Katie: Barbara Kozicki
• Finn: Eric Carbery
• Amethyst Saunar: Intensia the Zombie
• Bear Mackenzie: Draggie the Zombie

There are also a slew of extras and people who assisted me with this project as well:

• Mireille Urumuri (Thanks for getting THAT location!!)
• Victoria Angell and Ian Gustafson - Weapons

Extras:

• Julia Franco
• Ian Torn
• Kiel Skriver 
• Juno Nguyen
• Cory Jong
• Bronwen Marsden
• Katie Fournell

Source: Ira Cooper via Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood.  Cooper's website.

Getting Together for the Zombies: Dead Team

So some sort of zombie "event" happens and a large area of the US is declared a disaster zone and blocked off from the rest. Those inside are either dead, and shambling around looking for someone who isn't dead to eat, or they're in trouble. So a bunch of ordinary folk get together and take action, the aim of which is to free others who have got themselves cornered -- and maybe to escape from the dead lands. They are the Dead Team.

Writer/producer/directer Wes Young is the inspiration behind the new zombie apocalypse horror/action flick, which is currently in existence as a concept trailer, with money being sort to produce the full feature-length film. The trailer looks well-film and promising, despite some rather pointless quibbles on the part of some commenters on its YouTube site -- "pointless" because most of the criticism doesn't recognise the fact that a feature-length film is likely to have more detailed development than a teaser allows for.

 

Undead Brainspasm newshound Avery Guerra sought out Young to ask about both the film and the in-progress IndieGoGo appeal for funding.

Why this film?

I've been producing my own films for about 6 years now. I shot a short zombie film Dead Exit a couple years ago, which went to a bunch of festivals and won several awards. I also produced a pilot webseries A Cure for Dead that was pretty popular online. I came up with Dead Team because I wanted to continue with zombie films, but I also wanted to do something a little more like an Action Adventure movie. So Dead Team is a combination of Horror and Action Adventure.

Can you tell us what Dead Team is about?

In response to the viral outbreak five strangers discover that their everyday mundane skills can be adapted into hardcore zombie killing techniques. With the lack of military support for rescue, they use their combined skills in extraordinary ways to fight their way through the hordes of undead and make their way to a military safe zone.

Their journey to make it to a safe zone brings them across other non-infected citizens who are trapped by the undead. The group overcomes their fear and decides that they have to help. They put themselves in harm's way to save the people. The further they travel the more undead they encounter and the more people they rescue. Their trip gets detoured even further when they discover that the wife of one of the group members is trapped in a city 300 miles away. It becomes a race to save her and escape the dead lands alive.

Who's to be in the cast/crew?

Right now the only actor cast is Ilea Matthews. I've worked with her several times and she really fits this role perfectly. She was just in the film The Violent Kind and she recently finished shooting Sprawl with Michael Madsen and Jennifer Taylor. I also have brought on music composer Jeff Duran whom I have worked with exclusively since I started making films. He is extremely talented in picking up in the subtle emotions of a scene and he emphasizes them with his music. Ryan Goff who co-wrote and co-directed Dead Exit with me is coming on board as my master prop builder. He has skill making almost anything you can imagine and making it cooler than you thought it could be. He built his own full size R2D2 from scratch. Yeah, he's got skills.

How about telling us more about yourself?

I have always wanted to be a part of the film industry. I originally wanted to be an actor/stuntman. When I was younger I wanted to be Bruce Willis in Die Hard. After dreaming about it for a long time I tried to find a way to make it happen for me. I read an article in Back Stage West and it said that a good way to get known as an actor was to make your own movie and star in it. I ended up making my own Star Wars fan film called “A Deception of the Force”. I quickly noticed my lack of skill as an actor and realised it’s not what I wanted to do. I did however LOVE producing and directing my own movie. I knew quickly that I was going to be a director.

Who are some of your influences?

My earliest influence would probably be James Cameron. Mostly from back in the days of Aliens, Terminator 1 and 2, True Lies and The Abyss. I am a huge fan of action movies with a really solid dramatic subplot. Cameron has a real knack for that and that is one of the most important things I want to inject into my projects.

You have just put up a proposal for funding through IndieGoGo, with a target of $10,000. Why is it necessary?

We are looking for final development and pre-production funds. We have done a lot of the major steps to get this project fully funded but its an expensive process just to get a film moving along. While on the "no-budget indie" level you can get away with a lot by using people who will volunteer their time. We want to take this movie to the next level and actually hire professional people to help make this project amazing. Imagine that!

One of the biggest things that we need is to hire a legal representative. Movies are a huge business and there's a lot of paperwork and legal matters that need to be handled.

While we have some people attached to the project, right now I am heading up production development mostly myself and it is time to get some other professional people involved with the process. In film production it takes a good number of talented crew members to be hired on in the development stage to make the project go smoothly. We need a UPM, script consultants (to help make sure the script is perfect before shooting), budget consultants, makeup artists need to be brought on early to start designing the zombies, Special Effects experts need to be consulted to figure out the gags. Storyboard and animatic artists to get to work conceptualizing the look of the film, location scouts and other key personnel to put together a professional project.

Is $10,000 enough? That's just start-up, I guess.

Yes. If we can exceed our goal, any money we get over the amount will go into the actual final movie budget. Movies are expensive which is why we are seeking investors. However the more money we can raise through crowd funding the more we can bring to the table when speaking with investors. 

It would be amazing if we could fund the entire movie through crowd funding and create a zombie movie made by all the amazing fans out there. We ask you to look over the incentives and make a donation and help us fund this project!

If anyone reading this is interested in exploring investment in this exciting new zombie venture, you can read more about what you get for your dollar here. Meanwhile check out this campaign pitch:

Source: Wes Young via Avery Guerra; Official website.

Update on POISONED

A Backbrain Exclusive

Undead Backbrain revealed info on the Israeli zombie comedy Poisoned (Israel-2011; dir. David Lubetzky [ דידי לובצקי]) back in March when it was in post-production (read the article here). We just received an update from director David Lubetzky, which includes an English poster and some teasers. In essence, after a successful premiere in its home country, the zomcom is now setting its sights on the West.

Lubetzky says:

Poisoned's international premiere was on the Icon TLV science fiction and fantasy film festival in Tel Aviv. It was later shown in the fringe section of Israel's Haifa film festival "fringidir". Since then the film has had late-hours cult screenings in cinemateques throughout the country.

Until now the film has not left Israeli borders. We applied to several film festivals and keep our fingers crossed. In the meantime it's a hell of a ride, with good reviews, a big local buzz, with audience members coming back for second and third screenings.

 The picture below shows lead actors David Shaul and Orna Shifris in action on set.

Meanwhile, check out these new teasers:

Source: David Lubetzky via Avery. Article by Robert Hood.

New Zombie Flick: Wataha

Those damn zombies are everywhere. Here's a new one from Poland. It's only short, but from the images and the trailer it looks like it might have potential.

Wataha [trans. pack] (Poland-2011; short [35 min.]; dir. Victor Kiełczykowskiego)

Synopsis:

Near future. The world as we know it is on the decline, dominated by the so-called "transformed". Four survivors of an army squadron under the leadership of the "Colonel" (Jacek Dewódzki) cross Europe from West to East in search of a place safe from the plague. In the middle of a big forest that stretches for miles, their transport breaks down. To wait out the night, they take refuge in an old abandoned hotel where a family is hiding. Unbeknown to the Colonel, his men have a plan, which they intend to implement that very night.

Cast:

• Jacek Dewódzki as the Colonel
• Robert Wrzosek as Waltz
• Peter Mocarski as Roch
• Anna Jażdżyk as Marina
• Robert Oleszczuk as Henry
• Martha Lacko as Basia
• Agata Nizińska as Alice

Teaser Trailer:

Gallery:

Three Alternate Posters:

Sources: Via Avery Guerra. Facebook; Wikipedia entry.

New: Germ

In the tradition of 28 Days Later... comes a new zombie apocalypse flick where the undead epidemic is basically a viral infection, as the title suggests. It's called Germ (US-2011; dir. John Craddock) and is in the final stages of post-production.

Synopsis:

The military's attempt to shoot down an orbiting satellite unleashes an alien virus on a small town in upstate New York, an epidemic that frees humanity's most primal urges -- such as cannibalism -- and turns its victims into "zombies". A deputy named Max and his girlfriend Brooke must battle their way through an army of infected townsfolk and soldiers as they struggle to save themselves and their loved ones from a horrible death.

Trailer:

Germ stars Marguerite Mitchell, Michael Flores, and Mark Chiappone.

Some commentators argue that the term "zombie" refers to those who aren't actually dead but have lost their self-control and hence identity to madness. I'm not one of these commentators. The not-really-dead type I refer to as "Near Dead" and consider the films that use such cannibalistic maniacs to be related to the zombie apocalypse sub-genre, in that they utilise many of the same tropes, but not actually zombie films. Pedantic, I know, but sorry, folks, zombies are dead by definition.

We're yet to discover if we're dealing with the not-quite-dead-but-crazily-cannibalistic or the dead-but-cannibalistically-re-animated in Germ, but finding out looks like it might be fun. The orbiting satellite idea is reminiscent of a scenario suggested in Romero's seminal Night of the Living Dead (1968), which of course started the whole zombie apocalypse thing and changed zombies from Haitian slaves or vengeful ghosts into cannibalistic -- and virulent -- corpses.

The "zombies" of Germ are clearly of the non-shambling kind, at any rate.

Short Production Film:

• Sources: John Craddock via Avery Guerra; News item; IMDb. Written by Robert Hood.

No Budget Horror: One Dark Night

One Dark Night is a short [10 minute] sci-fi/horror film that came about when three UK school friends dreamed of making it big in Hollywood -- and then decided that a step in the right direction was simply to make some enjoyable films and have a good time while doing so.

The plot is simple. When fragments from a small meteorite come crashing down all across the UK, all hell breaks loose -- in the form of alien bugs that hatch from the fragments and subsequently have a rather deleterious effect on human victims: the bugs bite and paralyze them, then crawl inside and take over the body. Victims' eyes go black and the skin turns pale. The creatures' main plan is, of course, to enslave mankind. And there's a lot of the little buggers.

 

 

 

 

Oblivious to what's happening around the country three guys are having a lad's night in watching their local football team playing on TV and drinking a crap load of beer. Their game suddenly gets disrupted when the picture on their TV dies.

Trailer:

Original Test Trailer:

We asked producer/director Paul Dowers about the project.

The script for this film and the film itself was originally written and shot in 1998 in hi8 format. As it was one of our very first attempts at making a horror/scifi film, we were never really satisfied with the outcome and our abilities at the time. Twelve years later I stumbled across the original script and decided that the time was right for a remake. Everyone else seems to be remaking old films, so why not us.

This time around we are slightly more experienced, with many short films under our belts.
Technology has also moved on so much in the last twelve years, which makes it easier for a bunch of amateur film makers like us to add our own special effects, such as the motion-tracked CGI zombie makeup, the meteor and bugs in this film.

The original "One Dark Night" was 9 minutes long.

Note: you can see the trailer for the first 1998 version of the film on Vimeo here.

How did Barking Mad Films come about?

At the time there weren't any video clubs in our area so we decided to start one ourselves. Our first film was called "Life's a Bitch", a comedy about an under-the-thumb husband who hires a hitman to kill his wife but forgets to insure her. Our second film was the original version of "One Dark Night". On and off we have made many films since these, each better than the last -- learning as we go and meeting some great people along the way.

The Future?

We plan to continue what we enjoy doing, that is, making movies and one day in the not-too-distant future we will be releasing a feature film. The script is being working on as we speak.

Meanwhile, the "remake" version of "One Dark Night" was completed about two months ago and Dowers is waiting to hear if it gains entry into the Newport international film festival. "If accepted," he commented, "it will be premiered in the first week of December at this festival. But it's early days yet and I plan to enter the film into other festivals, too."

Several early films from Barking Mad Films are currently featured on Undead Backbrain's Weekend Fright Flick: Paul Dowers Festival.

• Source: Paul Dowers; Barking Mad Films website; IMDb. Researcher: Avery Guerra. Written by Robert Hood

More Bikini-Wearing Samurai Chicks Killing Zombies

Yes, it's the sequel to Onechanbara: The Movie [aka Chanbara Beauty] (Japan-2008; dir. Yôhei Fukuda). As we mentioned earlier, it's called Onechanbara: Vortex. We've had the teaser; now here's the full trailer:

Source: TwitchFilm via Avery

New: ZMD

Apparently there are two films with this title. This is the one that was in production first and the first to issue a trailer. Rather than a RomZomCom (a genre famously exemplified by Shaun of the Dead), this one is a Pol-Zomedy! And it's not based on the comic of the same name. Apparently.

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (US-2009; dir. Kevin Hamedani)

Synopsis:

Life is wonderful for the people in the quiet island town of Port Gamble. Frida, a young Iranian-American college dropout, is back in town to help her father run the family restaurant. Tom Hunt, a Wall Street broker, visits his hometown with his outspoken boyfriend Lance in order to finally come out to his estranged mother. As Frida, Tom, and Lance take life-changing steps, the town faces a far greater challenge: a zombie virus outbreak!

Trailer:

The film is currently listed by IMDb as being in post-production.

• Source: Dread Central via Avery
• Official website

New Release: Platoon of the Dead

Platoon of the Dead (US-2009; dir. John Bowker and Joe Sherlock) -- released on DVD.

Synopsis:

Three soldiers must fight to survive the night in a seemingly abandoned house, when a zombie platoon attacks.

It stars ARIAUNA ALBRIGHT (Polymorph), TOM STEDHAM (Torment), CHRIS KEOWN (Uncle Bingo), MICHELLE "AME" MAHONEY, TYLER DAVID, AMANDA BOUNDS and JONATHAN JACOBY. Executive Producer is J.R. Bookwalter; Written by John Bowker; Produced and Directed by John Bowker and Joe Sherlock.

Nice to see a film abandoning the current fad for making the cause of the zombie plague an infection -- whether "natural" or by way of biological-warfare research gone wrong. This looks distinctly supernatural, which appeals to me.

• Source: Fangoria via Avery
• Official MySpace page

New: Brain Dead

Kevin Tenney, of Witchboard (1986) and Night of the Demons (1988) fame, has appeared at the helm of a newish zombie flick, about to be given a limited theatrical release by Monogram Releasing. It sports a title that's been used twice before, once by an excellent psychological horror thriller directed by Adam Simon (1990) and once (joined into one word) by Peter Jackson's brilliant 1992 zombie splatter comedy, known in the US under the naff alternative title Dead Alive.

Brain Dead (US-2007; dir. Kevin Tenney)

Synopsis:

A small rock crashes into Earth’s atmosphere and lands in the head of a fisherman. The rock however is not the problem; the trouble stems from the brain-sucking slime that hitched a ride in the rock. It turns its host into a zombie and reproduces, converting others into brain-eating monsters. Soon enough a group of wanderers, including a couple of jailbirds (Joshua Benton and David Crane), two med students (Sarah Grant Brendecke and Michelle Tomlinson) and a reverend and his secretary (Andy Forrest and Cristina Tiberia), hole up in a cabin in the woods, hiding from the knowledge-seeking creatures lurking outside.

The publicity for the film describes Brain Dead as a "gruesome and terrifying tale that brings good ol’ violence and T&A back to the genre" -- though from some recent cinematic experience I wasn't aware it had left. At any rate, this film is touted as: "Overflowing with gore, gratuitous nudity and special effects, Braindead is an over-the-top horror that delivers the goods, and then some."

Trailer:


It opens at select theatres on March 20th. It's not much use for my Aussie readers, but for those of you in the US, here's where you can see it:

Nova Theatres
Moline, Ilinois

Nova Georgia
340 Tanger Drive
Commerce, Georgia 30529

Studio 10 Cinemas
1624 E. State Highway 44
Shelbyville, Indiana 46176
Movieline: 398-FLIX(3549)

Georgetown 14 Cinemas
3898 Lafayette Road
Indianapolis, Indiana 46254
phone: (317) 291-3456

Nova 10
4353 Merle Hay Road
Des Moines, Iowa 50310

Movie Palace Cinemas
1231 Woodland Drive
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
phone: (270) 769-1505

Dixie Dozen Cinemas
6801 Dixie Highway
Louisville, Kentucky 40258
phone: (502) 935-3771

Theatres of Georgetown
401 Outlet Center Drive
Georgetown, Kentucky 40324

Branson Meadows Theatres
4740 Gretna Road
Branson, Missouri 65616
Branson Meadows Outlet Mall
Phone: 417-332-0464
Movie Hotline: 417-332-2884

The Amp Oxford Mississippi
206 Commonwealth Boulevard
Oxford, Missouri 38655
Movie Hotline: 662-236-4080

Portsmouth Cinemas
1623 Chillicothe Street
Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
Movieline: 355-FILM(3456)

Lake Geneva 4
244 Broad Street
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 53147

• Source: Official Press Release

Weird Japanese Zombies: Tokyo Zombie

Just released in Australia on DVD (through Madman Entertainment) is this piece of Nipponese weirdness:

Tokyo Zombie [aka Tôkyô zonbi] (Japan-2005; dir. Sakichi Satô)

Synopsis:

Looming over a future Tokyo is "Black Fuji" – a massive stinking mountain of garbage and a popular place to dump anything from toasters to dead bodies. However, something within the toxic mountain is bringing the dead back to life and infusing them with an insatiable hunger for human flesh!

Nearby at a fire extinguisher factory, two bored employees practice jujitsu while their boss is away. With enough practice, one of them reckons he can train the other to be a world champion. And certainly what better way to practice their martial arts – on the unleashed hordes of the undead!

Trailer:



Source: Madman Entertainment

Dozers, But Not That Mechanical Kind

Indie filmmaker Don Adams, along with co-writer/director/producer Harry James Picardi have just started talking about their latest collaboration, a non-traditional zombiesque apocalypse flick titled Dozers.



Adams commented:

“A few years ago, our homeless-zombie script URBAN DECAY was shot [by director Harry Basil] with Dean Cain, Meat Loaf and Brooke Burns... The producers dropped the ball on it and it’s still tied up in court. It’s a fun, singular take on the zombie genre that deserves a release. We wanted to do something on our own again, so we came up with another off-kilter ghoul story about a stress-relieving drug patch called Solace that has the side effect of driving people crazy."

Read more on Fangoria.com

New: Zone of the Dead

Zone of the Dead (US-[post-production, 2009]; dir. Milan Konjevic and Milan Todorovic)

Synopsis:

A police-escorted prisoner transport supervised by Interpol sets off to Belgrade. The route leads the transport through Pancevo, where they encounter an ecological disaster and infected people who are trying to kill them. Interpol agents Mortimer Reyes (Ken Foree) and Mina Milius (Kristina Klebe) soon realize that their only chance for escape from the zombie hordes lies in allying with the dangerous, mysterious prisoner. (Arrow in the Head)

Trailer:


Looks pretty gritty -- and it's good to see Ken Foree fighting zombies again after all this time.

Source: Arrow in the Head via Avery

Jane Austen's Zombies To Be Filmed?

Not long ago, Undead Backbrain revealed that a post-mortem collaboration between Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith has produced a novel called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It will be released in April.

Seth Grahame-Smith has taken the text of Austen's Pride and Prejudice and added scenes of "bone-crunching" zombie action. In the "new" novel heroine Elizabeth Bennett and her four sisters becoming zombie slayers and are taught how to fight like Japanese ninjas by Mr Darcy.

The Sun-Herald quotes Grahame-Smith as saying,

"It quickly became obvious that Jane (Austen) had laid down the blueprint for a zombie novel ... Why else in the original should a regiment arrive on Lizzie Bennet's doorstep when they should have been off fighting Napoleon? It was to protect the family from an invasion of brain-eaters, obviously."

Now, the Sun-Herald suggests, the "re-envisaged" classic may be made into a feature film!

We truly live in a world were anything is possible!

Update: Flowers for the Dead

Director of the in-post-production Night of the Living Dead homage, Flowers for the Dead, Joseph Barbarisi, has sent us an update on the progress of his film.

"We might have a chance to have Flowers for the Dead screened at 'The Living Dead Fest' in Evans City PA where the original Night of the Living Dead was filmed. It is planned that the Living Dead Fest will take place every year to celebrate what is one of the greatest horror films ever made.

"Meanwhile actor/special effect contributer to Flowers for the Dead, Rich Moschella, has put up a look behind the scenes of Flowers shot on the last two days of filming. Nice soundtrack to go along with it..."

You can watch the doco below -- or better still check it out in high definition on YouTube.


An extensive interview with Barbarisi and a detailed look at the film's inspirations are available on Undead Backbrain.

Information on the Living Dead Festival can be found here and on their website here.