Zombies are going Mainstream… Again

Hop in my time machine and come for a ride with me.  It’s a quick journey, since me and you are only going to go back a few years to  2002 when the freewheeling ways of the early aughts were in full effect under a umbrella of asinine political correctness.  Also in 2002, a infected zombie film called 28 Days Later was released and it showed the world once again that zombies are awesome (Us horror fans always knew that).  Then in 2004, a very good remake of Dawn of the Dead blew up on the scene proving those lame ass mainstream clowns that zombies are really awesome.  Then a whole bunch of zombie movies came of both good and of dubious quality.  Like any other period in horror history, the zombie trend started to fade out and now we are smack dab in the middle of a huge vampire rush.  But two little projects in the pipeline look like Hollywood isn’t ready to give up on zombies just yet.

First off, both chronologically and in my heart is the live action TV show adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s "The Walking Dead" comic book.  Now I like comics just fine, but I would in no way shape or form say that I am a comic book geek.  Not that I’m slandering people that like comics, I’m a geek in a whole lot of ways, I’m just saying that comics is not my preferred dialect of geek.  I read a few things here or there and there is only one comic book that I buy every single trade the day it comes out.  Yup you guessed right its The Walking Dead.  I’ve been into it since volume 2 (volume 12 comes out in august) and every single time I finish one, I’m ready to immediately go into the next part of the saga.  It’s an insane rolling story about a group of survivors trying to survive the zombie apocalypse in a nut shell, but there is way more to it than that.  Many people come and go in the group, some by death and some by going their own separate ways.  The story is about people and how they react in a crisis, but at the same time it never forgets it’s a comic book and does have quite a bit of absurdity in it.

What I’m getting at is that the fat cats in Hollywood are going to pervert something I love by making a crappy CABLE TV show out of it.  When I first heard the news I was upset, but then hope was quickly restored when I found out three key facts.  1: Frank Darabont is putting the whole thing together with the help of some very talented people. 2: It’s on AMC. 3: There will be blood.  Frank Darabont, for those of you who haven’t been keeping track directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist so needless to say the man knows how to make an adaptation.  Of course he isn’t going to have everything to do with every single episode, but he’s directing the first one and setting the tone for the series.  The show is going to be on AMC which means they won’t be dropping the F-Bomb (fuck), but there will be gore.  If any of you have seen the episode of Mad Men where a John Deere lawnmower ran over a guy’s foot spraying blood everywhere (it was pretty gnarly), or a very graphic headshot (twice!) on Breaking Bad, you damn well know there will be more than enough gore to satiate anyone.  Obviously being on TV, there won’t be any nudity which considering the comics’ content it doesn’t really happen anyway.

So if you haven’t heard of this (hopefully) gem of a show dropping on AMC in October, then know you know, and you best watch it every week so it will get renewed for more seasons.  Also you show know that the other two shows currently running on AMC called Breaking Bad and Mad Men are both constant Emmy contenders which in their combined 6 years of existence, they have taken home 13 Emmys between them.  Breaking Bad is unarguably the best show on television now (and in the running for best ever, it is really that good) and AMC took a chance on it being a show about a High School Science teacher who can’t afford his cancer treatments and starts cooking crystal meth. .. and it’s fantastic.

In addition to the show the Walking Dead, it was just reported recently that Brad Pitt will be starring in the movie World War Z, which will be released in 2012.  For anyone who hasn’t read this book (and I don’t know how any zombie fan could live with themselves if they hadn’t) it’s an oral history of the great zombie war.  It’s a collection of stories from all over the world being told by the people who lived them involving such scenarios as a teenage internet addict who uses a sword to get out of his high rise, a blind Japanese man who survives alone in the wilderness only using his cunning, a downed pilot who has to escape to a safe house after crashing in occupied (zombified) territory, and a world that is willing to do whatever it takes to keep humans alive.  It’s gripping and in all honestly, absolutely terrifying due to the epic scope of the book and how people would react should (when?) something like a zombie apocalypse happens (Redeker Plan, look it up).  Brad Pitt is set to star and I have no idea who he is playing.  I would love to see him and the interviewer who is traveling all around the wasteland collecting these oral stories and to see him take it 100% seriously.  That would be glorious.

In conclusion, I like many horror fans love zombie films but am kind of burnt out from seeing so many bad projects.  Now, in the next year we are going to see two very high profile projects with big names attached to intellectual properties that are absolutely outstanding in their original medium.  I am extremely excited right now because even if World War Z and The Walking Dead don’t live up to my expectations, they will still be amazing.  The source material is that good.

So go good people, read World War Z and the Walking Dead and watch Breaking Bad! 

Because things are gonna get good…..