Department of Black Swan Management

Kevin Smith must be a fan of zombie movies – first the homage to Dawn of the Dead in Zach and Miri Make a Porno and now this limited edition “inaction” figure. The toy features zero articulation, but it does look pretty cool and comes signed by the acclaimed director. Available for pre-order now from Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

Once again we have ThinkGeek to thank for this hilarious and awesome t-shirt!  Get your Star trek zombie fix with this great t-shirt for only $15.99 and up (depending on size).

A new book written and edited by young adult authors Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier might just answer the age old question: who’s better, zombies oir unicorns? Find out in their book, aptly titled Zombies VS. Unicorns. Here’s their description of the book:

In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories.  Half of the stories portray the strengths – for good and evil – of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?

This books seems so absurd, but I must admit different scenarios ran through my head when I heard it’s title, so they must be onto something. Available September 21st 2010, for $16.99,  from Simon & Schuster.

HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY GEORGE A. ROMERO!

FEARnet celebrates George A. Romero’s 70th birthday this Thursday, February 4th, with an all day zombie party. Here’s what they have planned:

Tributes to Romero from such horror luminaries as Guillermo Del Toro, Mick Garris, and Max Brooks.

Video interviews with Romero and cast members of his Dead films.

Full-length, free streaming movies featuring the consequences of zombie-like outbreaks, including Mulberry Street, the aptly titled J-horror film Infection and David Cronenberg’s classic Shivers.

Zombie American, a short starring The Hangover’s Ed Helms.

A Jobs of the Damned video lesson from our old friend actor Doug Jones on how to move like a zombie.

A review of Kevin Hamedani’s post-9-11 political horror-comedy Zombies of Mass Destruction, part of this year’s After Dark Horrorfest.

Original zombie haikus penned by visitors to our site.

And since no birthday is complete without cake, FEARnet will serve up a gallery of the best zombie-themed birthday cakes from around the web. To top things off, we’ll “tweet like a zombie,” retweeting zombie-related comments from horror fans and notables all day long.

A.D. trailer (2009)
Running Time 1:29

Out Tuesday on DVD and Blu-Ray, Zombieland!

The two disc Blu-ray collection includes:

Commentary with Actors Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg, Director Ruben Fleischer, Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Go Behind-the-Scenes with “In Search of Zombieland”
“Zombieland is Your Land” – The zombification of the United States
Deleted Scenes
Visual Effects Progression Scenes
movieIQ
Exclusive to the Blu-ray: “Beyond the Graveyard” Behind the Scenes Picture-in-Picture Track
Theatrical Promo Trailers
PS3 Wallpaper

The two disc DVD collection includes:

Commentary with Actors Woody Harrelson & Jesse Eisenberg, Director Ruben Fleischer, Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick
Go Behind-the-Scenes with “In Search of Zombieland”
“Zombieland is Your Land” – The zombification of the United States
Deleted Scenes
Visual Effects Progression Scenes
Theatrical Promo Trailers
Woke Up Dead Episode “Up and At ‘Em”

For being a mainstream Hollywood zombie film, I enjoyed most of it. I did find the ending to be horribly rushed and to obvious (with one small saving grace), but found a lot of the film to be refreshing change of pace to an often tired genre (I’m talking about Hollywood horror standards here).

This film came out during our down time here at the ZRC, so we never had a good discussion about it. So what did you, the ZRC reader, think of this film?

*** WARNING: SPOILERS MAY END UP IN THE COMMENTS, SO DON’T READ THEM IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS FILM AND ARE PLANNNING ON WATCHING IT WITHOUT IT POSSIBLY BEING RUINED FOR YOU! YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN FAIR WARNING!

Another free comic preview, this time from friend of the ZRC/ comic book writer Gary Reed! Check out the preview of Deadworld: Slaughterhouse HC, from Desperado Publishing, once again over at comicmonsters.com.

Check out this preview of 28 Days Later #6, from Boom! Studios, over at comicmonsters.com.