Zombie Tunes Part 1

Tunes to nom brains to!

* Zombies by Lacuna Coil



This song is a little different than the usual zombie song. Zombies are the downtrodden and ignored that can unite to rise up as one. It's nice to see a song that personifies zombies. Lacuna Coil sets itself apart from other metal bands with the contrast between Cristina Scabbia's beautiful high voice and Andrea Ferro's much rougher and deeper voice that is sometimes almost a gutteral scream.

* Dead and Bloated by Stone Temple Pilots



This is another song from the point of view of a disgusting, rotted zombie. The melody has an almost country lilt that highlights the humor of the ironic lyrics. It seems to be about some kind of betrayal that other people are dismiss as being part of life. This one's a fun listen even though the subject is morbid.

* Carrion Flowers by Chelsea Wolf



Carrion flowers refers to those bizarre flowers that smell like corpses, but this song also uses it to refer to zombies. They are definitely creatures of habit, mindlessly eating and attacking, and grow from repeated crimes as the dead rise from killings or from the crimes of society that caused it. Slow and relentless, they are after you. The unique style features her ethereal soprano vocals over electronic music that evoke heavy metal. I found Chelsea Wolfe looking for zombie songs, but I'll definitely check out some of her other songs.  

Upcoming Zombies Sneaking Up Behind You Part 1

These zombie books are almost here!

* Nanoshock by K.C. Alexander

The sequel to K.C. Alexander's Necrotech, second in the SINless series, is called Nanoshock. Riko's cred is still in the toilet and she's fair game for anyone to try to take down despite her new position. She's still trying to fill in the gaps in her memory and will have to push a lot of boundaries and break a lot of rules to do it. I am excitedly awaiting Riko's return and I predict this book will be better than the first since most of the world building will already be established. Nanoshock comes out November 7th.

* Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Dread Nation sounds amazing. The dead started to walk after the battle of Gettysburg, throwing the Civil War by the wayside as this threat is much more immediate. Legislature goes through to allow Native Americans and African Americans to go to combat school to fight the undead scourge. Jane McKeene is almost done with one such combat school when she's entrenched in a conspiracy that has her fighting for her life. I assume it has something to do with the eastern states wanting to return the country back to its "glory days," but I'm not sure. I can't wait to read this, but it won't release until Aprl 3, 2018.

* Cotton Crossing by Lilith Saintcrow

Cotton Crossing is a small town that no one ever leaves. Ginny Mills plans to move back to a bigger city when she gets some experience in the library system, but her plans go awry when the power goes out and the woods are full of bizarre creatures. She and Lee Quartine, the guy who has a crush on her, unite with a band of survivors against huge odds to try and survive. Lilith Saintcrow is one of my favorite writers and I never thought she would write a zombie book. Cotton Crossing is out in paperback and will be released as an ebook September 19th.

What are you most anticipated zombie reads?

The Rezort

* spoilers *

It's after the zombie war and life has returned to normal. Zombies are destroyed everywhere except in a luxury Rezort located on a remote island where rich people pay thousands to hunt zombies for entertainment. A group of strangers go together on essentially a guided hunting safari until security fails and the zombies are set free to roam the island. Can this group comprised of mostly civilians survive real encounters with the walking dead?

The zombie war claimed the lives of 2 billion people, but the world seems to have been rebuild. The Rezort was created when an island was found populated by zombies. Instead of calling authorities to get rid of it, Valerie Wilton saw an opportunity to have guests pay tons for the controlled experience of hunting the undead on the Rezort. The public is concerned about zombies escaping and creating another zombie war, but precautions are put in place so the island will be obliterated if it's ever compromised. Wilton's speech at the beginning of the film talks about providing people the opportunity for revenge for their experiences and the people they've lost. It's an effective speech, but I'm sure her motivations are purely monetary. The Rezort is worth the price as everything is luxurious, branded consistently, and safe when everything works.

The cast of characters have very different motivations for being there. Melanie with her boyfriend Lewis plans to get over the trauma of seeing her father turn into a zombie in front of her during the zombie war. Veteran Archer is quiet, but shoots with deadly accuracy and makes the correct choices under pressure. Jack and Alfie are obnoxious teenage gamers who are much better in first person shooters than they are in real life. Sadie rounds out the group as uninterested in shooting zombies, but attended to spite her ex-fiance who dumped her before their wedding. She isn't what she seems and introduces a virus into the Rezort's system, causing it to fail and release the zombies. Her interests lie in activism, working for a group that believes zombies should be respected as people.

The zombies in this world are the typical slow shuffley type, but they seem to have a gleam of intelligence. They can't speak or anything like that, but they can recognize individual people and even show some emotion. As usual, they are driven by hunger for human flesh and won't let anything come between them and their meal. One big question about the island and its zombies is how are there enough for people to keep killing indefinitely? The answer is revealed as a charitable refugee program used as a front to lure refugees, make them zombies, and age their skin and clothes to make them match the rest of the zombies. This one aspect elevates the film to social commentary in my eyes especially with the current conservative opinions of refugees. There's a particularly satisfying set of scenes between Valerie Wilton and the zombies. She teases a specific zombie by staying just out of reach for a bite. Later on, that same zombie bypasses Melanie to tear into Valerie due to its treatment as human and as a zombie.

I expected a cheesy good time akin to Zoombies and Jurassic Park, but I found an unexpectedly enjoyable film. Some of the characters are well developed enought that I actually care if they die. The refugee aspect is timely and well done to show how monstrous it is to treat refugees as if they aren't human and condemning them to die in their war torn countries. It also means, in context of the film, that the zombie war has made human life expendable. Even the production value was much higher than expected with more reliance on practical effects over CGI. The ending has zombies invading from the ocean, not fully destroyed by the firebomb, of course leaving it open for a sequel that I would gladly watch. The Rezort is a much better zombie movie than I expected that actually had some moral complexity, compelling characters, and social commentary.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Necrotech

Riko wakes up in a lab with no memory of how she got there. She manages to fight her way out, witness her lover Nanjali's death, and pass out outside the building. Then, she wakes up in police custody. When she finally makes her way home, she finds the reputation she painstakingly built over her years as a mercenary is completely shot. Her crew acts like she betrayed them when they previously trusted each other. Her memory loss actually spans months rather than hours like she thought. Riko has no memory of any wrongdoing, but she wants to make it right, regain her reputationm and figure out what truly happened to her girlfriend.

Necrotech is not like a lot of other science fiction or horror novels. The world is what might happen if we keep going like we are. Entire swathes of the United States are uninhabitable due to electromagnetic radiation from the sun and the extreme levels of pollution. Water is so precious that showers are mostly placed with radiation blasts to kill off anything harmful. The areas that have sun shields are incredibly packed with people that each level has its own rules and politics separate from the others. Technology has gone cybernetic as everyone who is born is implanted with nanotechnology to maintain their health. Broken bones are a minor inconvenience quickly fixed and cancer isn't even a possibility. A SIN or social ID number is carved into the brain to track and hook people into the grid that assaults the user with constant obnoxious ads, bright colors, and loud noise. The SINless or saints have had this removed to keep from being tracked and operate outside of society both physically and digitally. Although I found some of it a bit hard to follow, the world is well established and fascinating, taking technology and environmental ramifications further than I've seen.

The zombies represent the dark side of this technological world. The nanos are meant to heal, but if they are too overworked and stressed, it can lead to nanoshock, which is when the nanos reproduce faster than they die off. This overwhelms the system and leads to possible corruption, which is when the nanos inadvertantly kill the person and power their corpse. These are called necrotech and prove to be incredibly dangerous even in small numbers. Corruption can also occur with newly integrated tech, faulty tech, or too much tech. Nectrotech only have the need to kill. Their skin and fluids typically turn black with necrosis and their bodies convulse uncontrollably. They have strength and speed with the inability to feel pain and breathe. Unless the base of the skull is destroyed, they will keep coming with whatever parts they still have. Nanjali is anomalous as a necro that appeared to be her normal self despite some physical symptoms, but the reason wasn't discovered in this installment.

Riko is a saint and works as a splatter specialist, essentially killing, maiming, or hurting for money, with a cybernetic arm. Her entire world came crashing down when she woke up with a huge hole in her memory, PTSD, and a wrecked reputation. Reputation is everything for her as a saint and her livelihood is essentially gone if no one will associate with her anymore. She'll do anything to find out what happened and restore her rep. I enjoyed Riko's curse laced narrative because she's brash, direct, and capable. Her emotions can get in the way, but she can look past them to see what's practical. Riko won't apologize for her actions and doesn't take anyone's shit. Her softer side isn't seen as much, but it's there, leading her charge to find out what happened to Nanjali. It's refreshing to see a character like Riko with her confidence, power, anger, and sexuality. Bisexual characters aren't often seen at all in media and it's good to see representation that validates her feelings for all of her partners.

Necrotech is quite the thrillride. It has action, intrigue, fight scenes, futuristic technology, an environmentally devastated world, and kickass Riko in the middle of it all. The action scenes are particuarly insane because of the nanos. People can take a lot more damage and many are seen pushing through fatal injuries, bone breaks, and other extreme injuries. I have two points of criticism. Too much of the middle was Riko playing through the same scenario of getting angry, fighting, and eventually unhappily compromising. Secondly, not a lot is resolved at the end because it's setting up to be a series. A few things being tied up or discovered wouldn't have left the ending so up in the air. Other than that, if you want an irreverant hero with colorful language and crazy skills, look no further.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

iZombie Season 2

The second season of iZombie has a lot of twists and turns plus it keeps the show moving forward and the characters changing. Liv Moore continues using the visions she gets from brains to solve murders every episode. The brains she eats are prepared in much more creative and delectable looking ways like Her behavior changes drastically to fit the person's brain and visions are usually triggered when she sees or does something similar to the dead person. The most hilarious instances are Old Man Liv and Frat Boy Bro Liv. She decides once and for all that her relationship with Major can't work and finds new love in Drake, a mysterious zombie with a double life. In some episodes, Liv is a little to zealous and uncaring about protocol and stealth, so she learns the hard way that being cautious can be better.

The character that really grows this season is Major Lilywhite. I found him pretty insufferable last season and he doesn't improve at the beginning hooked on drugs and refusing help. Once he cleans up his act, he works as a trainer at Max Rager, the company headed by the new villain Vaughn du Clark. Vaughn forces Major to kill zombies on his list or he will kill Liv. Instead of murdering people, he sedates them and puts them in a deep freeze to be thawed out when it's safe. I gained a lot of respect for his character doing the best he can in a horrible situation and not becoming a murderer. One new ability of his, created when he was cured, is getting goosebumps when zombies are around, making his Chaos Killer (as he is dubbed by the media) duties easier. I hope Major improves in the next season as well.

This season has a few people being cured and then reverting back to being a zombie due to Ravi's experimental cures. It gets a little old after a while, but Liv is never cured, mostly because other people are in a more urgent state than her and the show wouldn't really be the same if she weren't a zombie. The newest cure causes memory loss, resulting in a much more tolerable and nice Blaine, a refreshing change from his Barney Stinson-esque stint running a funeral home while selling brains and dealing drugs out of it. So, after the his legal troubles, Major has to decide if he values being human over having his memories.

Max Rager and its CEO Vaughn du Clark are the main villains of the season. I really enjoyed his weird macho but affable version of evil. The company doesn't care that it created zombies and only wants to destory them to save themselves from being blamed or having to shut down production. Zombies are experimented upon in the underground labs of Max Rager, causing full blown zombie apocalypse situation where zombies are in full mindless rage hunger mode and can't be brought out of it. The ending is a huge game changer as Vivian Stoll bought Max Rager in order to save zombies and make Seattle into a safe have for them. She unfortunately seems to an absolutist view which could prove bad for Liv and company next season.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Return of the Living Dead

Freddy just got a new job working at a medical supply warehouse. While his boss Frank shows him around, they look at the military drums full of the remains of a failed experiment. Frank kicks a drum to show how solid it is, but it springs a leak, spewing a mystery substance everywhere including all over Freddy and Frank. Frank wants to try to cover it up so he won't get in trouble or lose his job and they keep arguing back and forth until it becomes clear that all the cadavers come alive. They try to incinerate one of the living corpses after conventional means doesn't destroy it, but they just spread the substance to a nearby cemetery. Now a huge horde of zombies is roaming the city,  eating anyone that crosses their path.

This film is a kind of sequel to Night of the Living Dead. Return of the Living Dead acknowledges the existence of the previous film, but claims facts had to be changed so the government wouldn't block its production. Zombies reanimate because of toxic gas from a failed military experiment. They can speak when fed and have the ability to run, the first to do either of these things. Each zombie feels unimaginable pain that is only sated temporarily by brains. Destroying their brain or any other part of their body doesn't destroy them. Only incineration is effective, but the smoke contains the gas that will animate even more dead. I don't mind the new zombie rules, but I do mind practically indestructible zombies with no real solution.

I only just found out that there are two series of film that offshoot from Night of the Living Dead. One is George A. Romero's "of the Dead" series that are much more serious and keep consistent with the rules of the original film. The other series is John A. Russo's "of the Living Dead" and follows these new rules. It's much more comedic and zany with over the top characters. Besides the two warehouse workers, the film follows a group of teenage punks who curse constantly, rage against their boring lives, and strip naked to dance in cemeteries. These characters are the type you want to see eaten by zombies because of how annoying they are. They were all one dimensional caricatures of punk types plus two preppy outliers. I felt no sympathy for them at all.

Return of the Living Dead is a fun ride with a different type of zombie, a lighter tone, and shallower characters than the original film it's based on, Night of the Living Dead. I much prefer Romero's films and the more serious tone with his spot on social commentary. This film is fun and much different than most zombie films. The effects are usually pretty impressive with some moments of obvious badness. I enjoyed the film even with its flaws and I wouldn't mind seeing the next one in the series.

My rating: 2.5/5 fishmuffins

September Zombies 2017!

It's that time of year again! Zombies everywhere! I know many are burned out by the influx of zombie stories, but I am frolicking among the undead. All of them are not great, but I love many of these stories. I only recently realized that my love for zombies started with George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, which I watched in high school on Halloween. I was completely enthralled in the story. The sight of the zombies tearing through flesh around the burned pickup truck haunted me. Plus zombies were the very reason I started this blog. There will always be a place on my shelves and in my heart for more zombie stories. Look out for flesheating fun here every day in September!