28 Days Later (2002)- Oh, Danny Boyle, you crafty man. After a string of critically acclaimed flicks including Shallow Grave (another one of my all time faves) and Trainspotting, Danny decided to up the ante and make a zombie movie… and a running zombie movie, to boot. Sure, ‘the running dead’ had been in films like Nightmare City (1980), but this one introduced the mainstream to a whole new threat level.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)- It may seem like a cheat throwing a remake on the list but what the hell, it’s one of my faves. Zack Snyder surprised the hell out of me by making this remake of the classic sequel. It’s got everything you’d hope for in a remake of the Romero classic: The mall, the memorable characters and strong visual style. What sets this one apart is the sea of running zombies. This one really took what Danny Boyle did with 28 Days Later and turned the volume up. Plus, you know, the zombie baby is pretty funny.

Evil Dead 2-Dead by Dawn (1987)- Sure, it’s more of a haunted house movie, but there are enough walking dead in this to consider it a zombie movie. Sam Raimi refined his directing chops with this sequel (or is this another remake?) of his 1981 cult classic movie. This one is played more for laughs, and Bruce Campbell embraces the role with a comic genius rarely seen on film. Raimi and Campbell have moved on to greener pastures, but Evil Dead 2 and its sequel Army of Darkness stand as high points in both of their careers. 

Shaun of the Dead (2004)- Since we’re talking about the funny, no zombie movie has ever been funnier than Shaun of the Dead. I know that Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright carved out their careers on the BBC with Spaced, but this was the first time I had heard their names and it wasn’t but five minutes into this movie that I knew I’d be searching out their work for years to come. This movie is genius genius GENIUS!

Deadgirl (2008)- This is the nastiest movie I’ve seen in a while… and that’s a good thing. This coming of age story is about two teenage boys who find the body of a girl chained to a table in the basement of an abandoned insane asylum. It isn’t long before they discover that she isn’t quite dead, and decide to ‘keep’ her. If you think the premise is twisted then you haven’t heard anything yet. Go find this gem, just don’t expect to feel uplifted after watching it!

So that’s it for this week. Next week there is more zombie action as the clock ticks down to Halloween. If you know me, you know I’m a  huge fan of this time of year, and I have something special planned at the end of October. And if you want more horror themed goodness, check out my podcast The Geek Savants every Sunday in October!

–Dave

Tags: Canadian Television, Canadian TV, comedy, Deadgirl, Space Time Condo, Space-Time Condominium, STC, television, The Geek Savants, Walking Dead, webcomic, Zombies

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 1:00 am and is filed under Comic, Season 1 Episode 08. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.