2012/2013 Golden Zombey Awards

Season 4 of Zombie Movie Night has come to a close, which means that it is time to hand out the coveted Golden Zombeys! Celebrating the best and the worst that ZMN had to offer. Eligible movies were any that were viewed as part of ZMN between October 2012 and September 2013. It was quite a year, and it really seemed like the quality outweighed the crap by a huge degree. Here’s a quick rundown of the winners. For a more detailed presentation click the link:

12:13 Zombeys PDF

ZMN Lifetime Achievement Award: Night of the Living Dead

Best Zombie Movie Night Feature: Warm Bodies

Best Actor in a Zombie Movie: Alexis Diaz de Villegas – Juan of the Dead

Best Actress in a Zombie Movie: Sarah Spencer – Harold’s Going Stiff

Best Supporting Actor in a Zombie Movie: Rob Corddry – Warm Bodies

Best Supporting Actress in a Zombie Movie: Danielle Chuchran – Osombie

Outstanding Zombie in a Zombie Movie: Fucko the Clown – Scary or Die

Best Villain (Non-Zombie): The “Zombies” – Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead

Best Zombie-Fighting Duo: Sloan & Goldie – Insane in the Brain

Best Zombie Comedy: Juan of the Dead

Best Nudity: Bloodlust Zombies

Best Foreign Film: Juan of the Dead

Most Memorable Massacring of Zombies: Dead Alive – Lionel & a Lawnmower

Most Original Zombie Origin: Insane in the Brain – Funky Pheromones

Best Soundtrack: Detention of the Dead

Most Bizarre Zombie Behavior: State of Emergency – Giving Up

Best Unintentional Comedy: Black Swarm – Romantic Backstory

Biggest “WTF” Moment: John Dies at the End – John Doesn’t Die at the End

Worst Ending: DeadHeads

Best Poster Art: Humans Vs. Zombies

Warm Bodies (the movie)

Warm Bodies

A little while back, I reviewed Isaac Marion’s zombie romance novel, Warm Bodies. It has since made it to the big screen. And, for me, any time a zombie movie gets a theatrical release, it’s a big deal. My brother was less excited, and worried that going to see a girly romance movie with another dude would hurt his super-manly image or something. I was finally able to convince him to get out to the local multi-plex in what I think was Bodies’ final week in theaters. Turns out we were both glad we made it, because Warm Bodies was better than both of us expected.

I’m not going to recap the movie, as it stays pretty faithful to the book. You can read that review by clicking the link up in the first line of this review.

THE GOOD: This is one of those cases like The Running Man or The Bible where the movie is actually better than the book. The movie highlights the good stuff and cuts out some of the stuff that didn’t really work in the book. Gone are the Bonies’ church ceremonies, R’s zombie wife, and zombie kids in school. The movie does a better job of illustrating how the zombies are stuck in a state of limbo. They can either lose their humanity completely and become Bonies or try to recapture their humanity and start to feel again. A bit touchy-feely to be sure, but it really works on film. One could see it as a metaphor for survivors of trauma. When a person experiences a traumatic event, specifically when they’ve been harmed by another human being, they can choose to become cold and callous to the world, whether out of fear or anger, or they can take the risk of trusting people again, reaching out and making connections; living life. It’s not always obvious that you have a choice, especially if you’re numb to the world; like a zombie. It’s not until the zombies see R changing that they realize that they too, can change.

In addition, the actors in the film really do a nice job. Nicholas Hoult as R puts in a good performance, considering most of his dialogue is done in voiceover and his on screen acting consists of single syllables. Teresa Palmer (looking very much like a young Alicia Silverstone) is good as Julie; good enough to make the viewer overlook the fact that she is falling for a rotting corpse. The supporting cast really stands out though. Film veteran John Malkovich breathes life into a character that could really otherwise be a cardboard cut-out. Analeigh Tipton shines as the best friend and Rob Corddry steals almost every scene he’s in.

THE BAD: Julie is holed up in an airplane for days, yet her skin and hair look fantastic. How is that possible?! They could’ve mussed her up at least a little.

THE ZOMBIES: see Warm Bodies

VERDICT: I read the book and was still surprised with how good the movie turned out. It’s certainly different, but it stands up to the better calibre of zombie movies out there. I’m not sure how well it did in theaters and I’m not sure that I’ll want to see a host of “zombies in love” knock-offs pop up, but WB really deserves better than to be written off as the Twilight of zombie movies. If you didn’t see it in theaters, check it out when it comes to DVD. And watch it with your girlfriend! Grade: A

Current ZMN Rank: #4 out of 107

Golden Zombey Watch: WB may be all over the awards this year. My brother has already advocated for Corddry for Best Supporting Actor, though I might like Malkovich in that spot as well. WB may end up with contenders in every acting category as well as Outstanding Zombie. I’d look for it in Best Soundtrack as well, this is the first zombie movie that I know of to feature a Bruce Springsteen song.

New Trailers: World War Z & Warm Bodies

A couple of big new zombie trailers came out this week. First, we have the World War Z trailer, and it appears to make zombie fanboy heads explode all over the place.

worldwarz

OK, let’s start with the obvious. Fast zombies. Globetrotting family man, Brad Pitt. A pyramid of scrambling zombies. This is clearly going to be only loosely based on Max Brooks’ bestseller. Sacrilege, I know. But, honestly I don’t really think that the book would translate well to film. I have no problem with the producers taking liberty with the material. While what we end up with may not be World War Z the book, it may be something pretty entertaining.

Read my review of the book here.

The other new trailer is for the zombie romance, Warm Bodies:

warmbodies

This one looks pretty faithful to the book. Whether or not you think that’s a good thing is up to you. I’m encouraged by the presence of John Malkovich and Rob Corddry (although they’ve both been attached to some garbage in their times). This looks like it might be decent, though the crowd in the theater might be a little different.

Read my review of the book here.

Warm Bodies

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

What is the one thing that can make hardcore, apocalypse-prepared, gun-toting, gore-obsessed, zombie enthusiasts shake in their collective boots?

Twilight.

Nothing strikes fear in the heart of a zombie fans more than the prospect of tweenage girls daydreaming about finding a zombie who will love them even though they’re not the most popular girl in school. The Twilightification of the zombie, if you will. That’s the concern over Isaac Marion’s novel and upcoming film, Warm Bodies. Is that what Warm Bodies really is though, or could it be a welcome addition in your zombie library? I went ahead and spent over my 3 dollar zombie novel comfort level to find out.

Warm Bodies is the story of a zombie named R. At least that’s what he calls himself, as he can’t remember his name proper. You see, R has a very fuzzy memory, despite being a pretty highly functioning zombie. WB is told from his perspective, so we’re in his head for the entire book. R lives in a community of zombies who reside in an airport. Most seem to shuffle around most of the day, except for R, who is pondering the questions of the world, sometimes with his chauvinistic zombie buddy, M. While out on a hunting trip, R eats the brain of some dude and inherits a bulk of his memories and feelings. He then decides to protect the dude’s girlfriend from the other zombies and brings her back to camp. There’s no pick-up line quite like “I just ate your boyfriend’s brain.” Shenanigans take place from there as the girl hangs out at the zombie airport and then things switch as R hangs out at the human safe haven. Of course, they fall in love and try to save the world in the process.

THE GOOD: If you can accept some of the basic premises of this book, then it’s not a bad read. If you can’t handle zombies who think, communicate, and evolve then you’re not going to like it right off the bat. If you’ve read my reviews before, you know that I have a pretty inclusive stance on zombie characteristics.

The best parts of WB are entertaining and funny, if not a little sappy. I did enjoy R’s relationship with his buddy, M, and would have liked to have seen their interactions highlighted more. This might have worked better as a zombie-buddy story than a zombie-romance.

THE BAD: A human girl is falling in love with a dirty, rotting corpse. That’s kind of hard to get past, and I have the ability to suspend my disbelief pretty far. The ending is also kind of hard to swallow and lost some points in my book.

THE ZOMBIES: WB’s zombies have an odd sense of community. They all live together in an airport. They spend most of their time shambling around though they have rudimentary school and church services. They pair off and marry and at times have unsuccessful sex with each other. There are also a portion of the zombies who are nothing but skeletons, who appear to have some type of executive control of the community. When R begins to have feelings for a human, he unknowingly starts a zombie revolution and evolution.

THE VERDICT: Is Warm Bodies bad for zombies? I don’t think so. It’s not a bad book, though it does smell of someone trying to take advantage of the popularity of zombies and Twilight. I don’t fault Marion or anyone else behind the book or movie. It’s a smart move. I hope it’s a good movie. I’m encouraged by the presence of Rob Corddry and John Malkovich in the movie, though God knows they both been attached to some stink bombs.

I do think that you have better options if you want to read a novel about smart zombies (Zombie, Ohio) or a romance set in the apocalypse (Dead Living).

And, c’mon, will it really be the Twilight of zombie movies? I mean tween girls aren’t really going to swoon over a hunky zombie are they? I’m sure the movie won’t end up looking anything like the pasty, sparkly vampires we all love to hate….right?

OH DEAR GOD! NOOOOOO!!!!!!