On the night that Survival of the Dead opened in theaters, I watched the film on DVR, thanks to the sneak preview on HDNet Movies, (My favorite movie channel.) and live Tweeted my review of the film. Here is what I posted.

• As far as I'm concerned, George Romero can make zombie movies forever. He was born to do it & by now the films feel like a cozy blanket.

• First zombie head explosion within the 1st 3 min. of the film, I like how this is beginning.

• Just tied it to last film, Diary of the Dead, the lead soldier in this one, had brief cameo in last as same character

• Why are we in Ireland?

• I like this line: "Putting the dead to sleep, before they put all of us to sleep."

• Got ourselves an ole fashion family fued, its the O'Flynns vs. the Muldoons & Patrick O'Flynn just got booted off island

• Why don't zombies eat politicians? ............ Professional courtesy.

• O'Flynn is offering people to come join him on island. Soldiers & wise-cracking kid they just picked up are on the way.

• First Zombies on a stick. Now fishing for zombies. What's next?

• @OfficialRomero - I hope you dont mind my live review of Survival of the Dead. I'm doing it out of love for your films. Enjoying it so far!

• Might just be the most original way to kill a zombie... Fire extinguisher to the mouth!



• Zombie driving a car. Is that some kind of social commentary there George?

• Muldoon is trying to train the zombies to behave & eat something besides human flesh. Kinda hearkens back to Day of Dead

• Zombie just bit her twin sister, now there's a shoot-out going on & all the zombies were released, must watch, not type.

• Perfect final shot for film! I won't spoil it for those that haven't seen it.

• @OfficialRomero - Just finished Survival Of Dead, please keep making Dead films & I'll keep watching them!

• Very fun, if you like zombie films it's a must see. Funny & thought provoking, well-made & gory in brilliant ways.

I figured Zombie Strippers was nothing but a crass cash-in on the recent trend set by the Tarintino and Rodriguez Grindhouse films. Indie-filmmakers using the device of making purposely cheesy movies, with strong streaks of sex and violence to sell it; something fairly easy to pull off on a low-budget. And I was right, but I didn't expect the film to actually be somewhat inspired. Don't get me wrong, the film is trashy as hell, but it's got a fun, easy-going spirit to it, that raises it slightly above other films of the like. While watching some of the special features, they mentioned writer/director Jay Lee's previous film The Slaughter, a film I'd been on the fence about watching. Not knowing whether it'd be something fun or a total waste of time; but after enjoying Zombie Strippers, I quickly gave it a chance to entertain me as well, which it did to a lesser degree.

Strippers starts out like most zombie movies, with a mutant virus that causes the dead to rise escaping from a secret laboratory. The twist with this film, is the eventual zombies are all contained to an illegal strip club. There's a good joke at the beginning of the film, George Bush is currently in his 4th term, leading America into a military state existence, thus the illegality of strip clubs. Jenna Jameson plays Kat, the top stripper at The Rhino, owned by Robert Englund, who appears in yet another horror film as one of the few recognizable faces. In stumbles an infected grunt from an elite special forces group, who cleaned up the zombie-filled secret laboratory in the opening scenes. When he makes a turn for the undead and brutally kills Kat on stage, England thinks that's the end of his club. But she quickly re-animates and decides to strip for the stunned crowd anyways, which in this world is apparently the sexiest thing possible.

Soon being a zombie is the best thing to ever happen to naked women. The male crowd goes nuts, throwing bills around without regard. Even when they're taken backstage and eaten by one of the new zombie strippers, there's another ten horny guys ready to take his place. I'm not exactly sure what the appeal of rotting flesh is to these guys, but being a zombie gives these girls some mad dancing skills. They twist and turn on the stripper pole, like they're competing for Olympic gold. Englund and his crew are a little taken back by it all, but the money keeps rolling in, and as long as the girls only kill the customers they seem fine with it all. Eventually it all begins to get out of hand, with zombies piling up by the hundreds in the club's basement.

The whole film is played tongue firmly in cheek, they know you can't take any of this serious, so they don't try to scare you at all, but instead go for some good sick laughs. That doesn't mean these guys skimp on the zombies in the least, in fact, I'd put a few of these up with the best that Tom Savini ever created. I particularly liked the zombie missing his lower jaw, tongue wagging menacingly. There's a disgustingly hilarious scene that 99% of the population would rightfully call offensive, where the top strippers battle for supremacy, it ends with Kat shooting pool balls out of her hoo-ha, ripping through bystanders flesh and bone. This and a few other sickeningly genius scenes rise the film up a few notches.

There are more zombies to be found in Jay Lee's first feature film The Slaughter, but they're the Evil Dead, Sam Raimi sort. This is another film where they take a typical horror situation and turn it on its head, trying to play it more for laughs than scares. The film opens with a horribly executed scene, where we see a group of naked girls, lamely overlaid one another in editing, performing a ritual to raise an ancient demon woman with bad teeth and a boob-job. I thought I was in for some brain torture, but the film thankfully gets better with the next scene, the only one in the film that is executed to truly scare. A woman is woken in the middle of the night, she goes to her daughter's room, where everything seems okay. Another poorly done double exposure of a creepy hand rising out of the floor, tells us it's not. The scene has some actual suspense, with the mother and daughter, eventually meeting gruesome ends.

The film drags on a bit from here, with the introduction of a group of kids who've come to clean up the murder house 40 years later. They're the typical horror movie fodder,there to do a little work, party hard, smoke pot, have sex, take baths in darkened rooms, and be re-animated from death. They find a book that looks exactly like the Necronomicon from the Evil Dead, of course one kid decides to read a few passages from it out loud, a few minutes later, a couple having sex upstairs seals their fate for the worst. The demon-woman rises and begins to kill everyone off in rapid succession, with each one returning as a zombie to torment the few left alive. Again the crew does a good job with the zombie make-up, these guys are easily the highlight of the film.

There are some awkwardly staged scenes where the few alive characters have long discussions while they're being attacked by the zombies. The main guy Iggy plays the Randy from Scream role, he's full of smart-ass remarks, a ton of pop-culture references, nothing you could possibly believe somebody would say if actually being attacked by zombies. Meanwhile, the zombies stand-by in the background while the characters are having their conversations, holding back their attack until their mouths stop spouting gibberish. It's a ridiculous way to stage these action scenes. Some of it is forgivable, because what they're saying is actually fairly funny, but there's a lot of groaners in there as well, making you want the carnage to pick up again. The whole demon-woman thing, is fairly weak, the actress is artificially beautiful, she gives a lame performance, you can't buy it for a second.

If you're into horror films, both are worth checking out. Just be prepared for a high dose of ridiculous comedy. Zombie Strippers is more polished, with a better storyline, cooler looking zombies, the action scenes staged with more pizazz, and slightly better acting. Neither film is anything I'd call a must see, but if you like your brainless-fun soaked in gore, you could certainly do a lot worse. I'm looking forward to Jay Lee's next film, I think he has a great horror-comedy in him. With these two films he's proven that he and his crew can do a lot with a small budget. The films are each pretty well photographed and edited, the make-up is top-notch, and he's got a great eye for gore and good ear for comedy. - Zombie Strippers - Grade: B - The Slaughter - Grade: C+

If you've read this blog at all, you know I'm a huge zombie fan. Of course it all started with Night of the Living Dead, zombie movies I mean, not my obsession. Although I do remember a childhood viewing of Night that freaked the hell out of me. My zombie fetish actually started with Return of the Living Dead, I must have watched it 20 times when I was younger, and it's still my all-time-favorite. It's the film that should be credited with the first "fast-zombies", not 28 Days Later, as everyone wrongly says.

But I should be talking about the old, lumbering, shoot-em-in-the-head zombies, that George A. Romero invented and made famous in Night, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead. Each of which, I've seen numerous times and love for different reasons. I love how Night sets up the new zombie invasion, we're just learning about and dealing with them for the first time. In Dawn, humanity is fighting and losing the war against the zombies. In Day, the zombies have won, and we're stuck with one of humanities last outcrops, trying to figure out a way to turn back the tide.

I saw Land of the Dead in theaters a few years back and wasn't totally impressed. Mostly because I didn't totally understand where the film fit into the series. Running across the film in the DVD discount bin, I couldn't pass up completing my collection. Watching it a second time, I actually appreciated the film much more. It's still nowhere near perfect, but it continues the story much better than I first believed, and Romero's idea of having the zombies learn and organize made sense. It's the next step in their evolution, and they're ending the war with the living for good.

Romero has never been a filmmaker that's impressed me with his style. He has a classic technique, letting story dictate the pace, the shots, and the look of the film. It's just enough to bring you into his messed-up-world. With Land of the Dead he really lets the actors carry the film, something which most horror films don't do, and they're mostly up to the challenge, offering up some fully realized characters. Simon Baker as Riley, wants to make a life outside of the city, away from the corruption that has overtaken what's left of society. John Leguizamo, as Cholo, is out for himself, always looking for a score, and wants to join the elite. Dennis Hopper, has some fun as the evil leader Kaufman, he gets a chance to chew some cheesy zombie dialog. The always entertaining Asia Argento, is a girl, who is simply trying to survive in this dog-eat-dog world.

I've always liked how Romero focuses on a few main characters among the world's chaos, it brings it to a much more personal level. With Land, he also focuses on a hero-zombie, the one that's smarter than the rest, that leads them into battle, that can figure out problems and seems to have feelings. It's a new wrinkle to the zombie genre; something he started with Bub in Day, but here you get a much better sense of where this world is headed. Although I enjoyed Land of the Dead more this time around, I'd still consider it the weakest entry into his zombie series. (I haven't seen Diary of the Dead yet.) But it's an interesting take on the genre, that probably won't be appreciated beyond anyone that enjoys zombie films. - Grade: C+ (Seen on 7/5/08)

I've written about this before (Black Sheep & Severance), but horror-comedy is my favorite genre of films, although I believe they're extremely tough to do well, just the right tone has to be created. I was a bit excited to sit down with The Mad, which came recommended, 4 stars, from Netflix. The film is a zombie-comedy, or uh, zomedy; and I have a weird thing for zombies, I'll never get sick of them. Another bonus was Billy Zane, I've always liked him and I think he got a bit of a raw deal from Hollywood. He deserves to be seen in more films, in this film he gets a rare lead role. He's fun to watch, the rest of the film, not so much.

It takes a little while to get going, too much step-mom/daughter drama, but the film lulled me into a false state of hope, with a well made, equally funny and gory first half. Topping it off with the best scene in the film. From here the film takes a sharp turn downwards, and devolves into a real mess, relying way too much on some horrible comedy routines and flaking out on the "zombie" action.

The Mad is about a family on a road trip together, stopping in at small town diner for a meal of famous organic hamburgers. Unknown to everyone, is the local farmer, who supplies the beef, has had a bit of mad-cow disease problem at his ranch, and decides to sell the meat anyways. While waiting for their meal, it's fun to watch as two customers behind them enjoy the burgers then quickly change into raging "zombies", and before you know it the step-mom gets a knife to the head and is being chomped on like something from the menu. Things quickly get nuts, as the entire restaurant is turned into a human slaughterhouse. Soon Billy Zane, his daughter, her boyfriend, the chef, and the cute-bad-ass waitress are the only ones left alive.

Billy Zane plays a great reluctant hero, showing a true flair for physical comedy. He manages to kill a ton of "zombies", but each time sort of bungling his way through it with a scared look on his face, eventually towards the end it's second nature. When the group decides to leave the diner to make their way to the farm, to stop the beef from getting any further, the film really starts to get bad. It turns on a dime, from well made, witty gruesome-humor, to poorly executed scenes of slapstick, with the "zombies" playing the fall guys. In one particularly bad scene, Zane and his daughter talk over their family issues while fighting off "zombies" like they were nothing more than bothersome flies. Even in the ridiculous world that the film has created, it was too far out of reality.

I keep writing "zombies", because these aren't zombies, much in the same way that the "zombies" of 28 Days Later aren't zombies; they are in fact infected humans, with zombie like qualities. To truly qualify for zombie status, you must come back from the dead. These people never died, they changed, and once they're dead, they stay dead. The film doesn't claim they're zombies, in the scene I mentioned before, they pontificate on what they're truly dealing with. I simply get annoyed when the film's marketers and other reviewers insist on calling them zombies. Just like when most everyone claims that 28 Days Later was the first film to have running-zombies, when Return of the Living Dead had it beat by nearly two-decades. See, I told you I had a weird thing about zombie flicks. I'm getting off tangent.

If you're a horror fan, there are enough redeeming qualities to make The Mad worth seeing. The first half is some well made fun, and Billy Zane remains pretty great throughout, despite the ridiculous things the filmmakers have him doing. The rest of the cast is okay, I didn't particularly care for the actress playing his daughter, but the tough-waitress chick mostly makes up for her. I wish the film had kept the tone they had set in the first half, it could have been a much better film, and potentially gone down as a minor cult-classic. As it is, it's too big of a mess to be considered anywhere near a good film. - Grade: C-

If you're looking for a good zomedy, with true zombies in it, check out the far superior: Fido

Read more Horror Film Reviews

Sometimes you run across a film that despite not being a very well made film, there is a magical quality to it. Nightmare City is just that kind of film. With the perfect amount of cheesiness, mixed with great gore, nudity, a certain ineptitude in front of and behind the camera that is endlessly entertaining, but also enough skill in certain areas so that it's not too horribly painful to watch, and a deadly seriousness that becomes unintentionally hilarious. You honestly couldn't set out to make a film like this and make it work this well; many have tried and many have failed. You can't force your way into the label cult-classic, you sort of have to stumble your way in, and director Umberto Lunzi and crew tripped right into a masterpiece.

The film starts with reports of a nuclear accident; meanwhile our dashing-news-reporter-hero Dean Miller is at the airport where he's supposed to interview the scientist in charge of the power plant. Once the plane lands, a horde of zombies disembark with axes-swinging, knives-a-stabbing, and guns-a-blazing. Yes, guns. These aren't your typical zombies, they're quite proficient in using a number of weapons. Well, they're not technically zombies either; they're radiated and mutated humans, with zombie like qualities; rotting flesh, cannibalistic tendencies, and quick transfer of infection. They messily dispatch the rescue team sent to their plane, while Dean and his cameraman happily watch the blood-letting, only when one of the zombies (I'll continue to call them zombies for simplicities sake.) gets too close for comfort do they decide to run for it.

Dean rushes back to his TV studio and tries to interrupt his channels "disco show" for an emergency announcement; this was released in 1980 towards the end of the disco movement, this scene is painful to watch now, but the dancer get what's coming to 'em; he is unfortunately overruled by the military, who wants to pretend that everything is hunky-dory as the city is overtaken by the ever growing number of living-dead. When the zombies show up and start munching on all the dancers, Dean decides to escape the city, but first must find his wife who's an emergency room doctor. Where of course, the dead and infected are being rushed to in waves. Dean battles his way through the zombies, to save her and drive off into the country; where they're unable to find peace, as the military is hopelessly inept at stopping the radiation-infection from rapidly taking over the world.

The zombies, or seriously-pissed-off-radiated-humans are just too cool. Instead of trying to make them look like they've freshly risen from the grave, they're supposed to look mutated, which is achieved by basically slopping a bunch of green-crusty-goo on everybody's face; which ranges from slightly dis-nerving to hysterically inept. I love their use of weapons, instead of biting at people's hard skulls, they gouge them with knives and suck at the blood. They also have a tendency to rip girls shirts open, none who bother to wear bras; I mean if you're mutated and angry at the world, you might as well get some cheap thrills while your at it.

The acting is painfully bad; which isn't helped by the fact that it's all been dubbed. I never understood these Italian horror films, where half the time they seem to be speaking in Italian, the other half English, whatever the actors native language is; and the entire thing is then dubbed over, it's an extremely odd effect. The dialogue is deadly serious; it's supposed to be some great warning against the use of nuclear power, but it's delivered in such a ham-fisted way, that it's hilarious. The gore and blood come in great waves, with breasts ripped off and eyes torn asunder. The photography is nothing special, but you can see what's going on, and it's not bad enough to be distracting. The movie moves along at a good pace; there is constantly something gross, funny or both to be watching. Nightmare City is endlessly entertaining for anyone with an appreciation for fine cheese. - Grade: A

I thought the first Resident Evil was decent, in a crappy story, overcome by fun effects, good photography and cool zombie-action, type way. The second was pure crap, I watched it once and trashed it from my memory almost immediately. I still had to watch the third one because: #1: It's a zombie film. - I try to watch all of them. #2: It's an end-of-the-world film. - Again, I try to watch all of them. #3: It had Milla Jovovich in it. - I've been a big fan of hers since The Fifth Element, even if she's been stuck in crappy sci-fi/kung-fu flicks for the last few years.

Extinction is a major step up from the second film, so much so that it makes the series relevant again. As a film it's about equal to the first, but the breadth of the scope makes it more interesting. By now the virus that kills everything in it's path, has spread across the world. And I like that it literally kills everything, humans, animals, even plants. The world has become a desert, where even the birds are dangerous zombies. There is almost no hope for the human race.

Milla's Alice has become like Mel Gibson in The Road Warrior, constantly on the move because nowhere is safe, always searching for food and gas, staying alive any way she can. And just like in The Road Warrior she runs across a group of survivors that reluctantly let her help them. The remaining pieces of the Umbrella Corporation, who created the virus, are after Alice for her mutated DNA, which may offer some hope for a cure. The leader of the search has more nefarious plans for her.

It all comes to a head in the sand-covered remains of Las Vegas. Alice and the survivors must stop there for gas on their way to Alaska, there's rumors of life still there, and the Umbrella Corporation leaves a trap for them in the form of a few hundreds zombies. This is where the film loses most of what it had going for it, by becoming a mindless shoot-out where you can barely follow what's what. If they had stuck to more of a low-key approach to everything, with story leading the way, like the first two acts, the film could have been a high-mark in the zombie genre.

I appreciate what they were trying to do in Extinction, to make a more serious film out of what had devolved into mindless video game adaptation. The zombies are cool, I particularly liked the animal versions. The action scenes are well done for the most part, and Milla has her role down pat. The other characters are completely forgettable, including the usually cool Ali Larter, which also could have made it a better film, if there was somebody other than Milla to care about. Of course they left the film open to another sequel, and if they keep the filmmakers from this one, I'm interested in seeing it. If you ever wanted to see the zombie version of a Mad Max film, this is it.

Fido is a completely different spin on the zombie genre. The best and most original zombie film I've seen in quite a while. The film opens with a fun news reel that explains the whole concept of the film. Instead of WWII, there was a war against the zombies. It's the 1950's and America is enjoying the fruits of their winnings, including zombie slaves that do the bidding's of any American that can afford them. A company called Zom-Con has developed a technology that pacifies the zombies into controllable beings.

The story involves a young, lonely boy whose family has just taken in their first zombie slave. After Fido protects the kid from some bullies, the two become good friends. The mother, neglected by her husband, starts to see Fido in a new light as well. A strange new family dynamic is built. Soon the kid is forced to cover up some of Fido's messiness. Carrie-Anne Moss is great as the mom, but it's Billy Connolly, who does a wonderful job with Fido; somehow making you believe he's a mindless zombie, but also has a heart.

Of course everything isn't as happy as Zom-Con wants you to believe. Every so often the "leash" the zombies wear around their necks break down and mayhem ensues, unleashing a new wave of zombies. The zombies and their gore, hold up with any film of the genre.

The film is very nicely done, the photography, set design and costumes make you believe in this alternate 1950's. It's darkly funny, brilliantly written, with a great concept that they carry through the film. If you enjoy dark-comedies or zombie films, I highly recommend this wonderful little film.