The 1960’s brings us to maybe the best movie title ever The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? The movie is god-awful but it did lead to a classic episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The trailer gives a good taste of the insanity of the film, so just imagine that stretched out to feature length (or watch the film below). Let’s get to a post Romero era where there are decent zombie flicks (in fairness, 1966 did have The Plague of the Zombies a great Hammer Horror flick, but it is an exception). I also included a video with clips from the MST3K episode.
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Author Archives: Dunn
Fake Movie Friday – The God Particle
I was originally trying to make a Prometheus type movie where the film really wanted to address a big sci-fi concept/question but was way too dumb to do anything smart with it. I actually think I came up with something pretty neat, a sort of Prince of Darkness crossed with Pi. Enjoy.
The God Particle
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Park Chan-Wook’s Stoker Trailer
South Korean cinema was the most exciting thing happening to film in the early 2000s. It has taken about 10 years for it’s influence to be really felt in Hollywood. Oldboy is being remade, and Jee-Woon Kim is making his first English language movie, The Last Stand. Now Park Chan-Wook is making his American debut with Stoker. The Last Stand looks pretty cool, but Stoker looks incredible.
Via Aint It Cool
Jodorowsky’s Dune Poster
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune is the greatest movie that was never made full stop. Jodorowsky’s Dune would have completely changed the science fiction genre as we know it, and it indirectly did have a huge effect, Dan O’Bannon was hired to do the effects and H.R. Giger was hired to do some designs, and when the film fell through, they hooked up to make Alien. That’s just one of the many crazy stories (check out the Dali stuff) that you can read HERE
I’ve been aware of the documentary about it for a while now, but there hasn’t been too many updates. There was this trailer from a year ago:
But now there is a poster, and it is beautiful:
Via Boing Boing
Plan 9 From Outer Space
There aren’t a lot of great zombie movies in the 50s, but there is some cheesy fun to be found with cheesy Z grade science fiction stuff. The most iconic and fun filled of that type is of course Plan 9 From Outer Space. I’d recommend doing a double feature of Plan 9 and Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, Ed Wood is amazing, and in its own way so is Plan 9. The full movie is below, and I might as well add the trailer for Ed Wood.
King of the Zombies
The 40s were a bad time for zombie films. I Walked with a Zombie is widely considered the best film of that era, but I haven’t seen it, though I do own it. So instead, here is King of the Zombies. King of the Zombies isn’t that bad of a film, but Jesus is it racist. Black character actor Mantan Moreland plays a servant and is the comic relief, and while he does have some good lines, his style of acting is… let’s say troubling. The trailer should give you a taste of what you are in for. The full movie is below… if you are in to that sort of thing.
White Zombie
So I finished my top 5 zombie movies, so I’m now going to put up a zombie movie from every decade. For the 30’s the obvious go to is 1932’s White Zombie, the first zombie movie ever made. Keep in mind that this way before George Romero so these early zombie flicks are going to have more Haitian type zombies. These zombies are just mindless automatons that are controlled by Bela Lugosi’s character Murder Legendre (one of the best villain names). The trailer’s voice over is great, and definitely check the trailer out to get the tone of the film. Unfortunately the film itself does feel a bit like homework, but it is worth watching for Bela Lugosi’s performance. If you care about the history of zombie cinema White Zombie is required viewing. The full movie is below:
It’s Finally Here – Hobbit Trailer 2
I had to put this up. You guys already know I drank the Hobbit kool-aid, so I’m loving every moment of this new trailer. How do you guys like it? It definitely seems that it has a lighter tone than the Lord of the Rings. What do you think of Radagast’s hedgehog?
Shaun of the Dead
We have reached the end of my top 5 zombie movies (in no particular order) but I’m going to keep putting up other trailers. Shaun of the Dead is a perfect film. It has the exact right mix of comedy and horror, never allowing the comedy to defang or deflate the danger. It is one of the few zombie movies that would still be a great movie with compelling characters and conflicts even if the zombies were removed. Infinitely quotable and rewatchable Shaun of the Dead is the most fun movie on my list.
The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue A.K.A. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Here is the next movie in my top 5 zombie films. The early to mid 70s was an interesting time for zombie movies because it was before Dawn of the Dead had redefined the genre, making things more comic bookish, action oriented, and apocalyptic. If you want things more somber and that have settings such as crypts, vaults, and cemeteries, the 70s are a good place to look. The Blind Dead series is a great example of this, but the best is The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue. There is some great social commentary, an interesting mechanism that creates the zombies and some great zombie gore. Someone was kind enough to upload the entire movie on Youtube, so check it out: