Choosing A Halloween Movie Marathon

As a dedicated Horror fan; every October I try to get some friends over to my place to check out some Halloween-themed movies.

Rather than watching a series, or specific production company of movies, I've opted to try for something a little different.

I'm going to try and catch up on some classic horror titles I've never got around to see before.

First up (and as a guy who spent a year reading/watching/playing all sorts of zombie-themed stuff this is a little embarrassing), I'll be screening George A. Romero's 1985 film, Day of the Dead, the third of his original Dead Trilogy (after 19689's Night of the Living Dead and 1978's Dawn of the Dead) which honestly I've just never had the opportunity to check out before.

Honestly, as a zombie fan I really don't have an excuse for not seeing the film before, it just never came up as an option for me, and when I watched my largest amount of horror films (Junior High and High School), I was more focused on Slasher and Ghost movies.

I'm still working on deciding which other classics of Horror I should finally get around to seeing, but I think this may be a pretty fun way to spend my Friday's this October.

Book Review: Book of the Dead

One of my favourite things about reading any kind of story is the fact that it came from somewhere, and not just the mind of the author, but often something the author read, saw or experienced led to the creation of the story.

In zombie apocalypse literature, that story is Night of the Living Dead (1968), the George Romero black and white classic that really changed popular cultures perception of zombies from people under a voodoo curse to the reanimated corpses risen from the grave we all know now.

In 1989 Editors John Skipp and Craig Spector put together The Book of the Dead, a collection of zombie apocalypse stories inspired by the classic George Romero film.  Contributors included Stephen King, Robert R. McCammon, Richard Laymon and more.  In terms of zombie apocalypse literature, this short story collection is really where it all started.

It is important to say that these stories are incredibly graphic, stomach-turning and filled with sex and violence.  Honestly a large number of these stories were incredibly hard for me to get through and I'm a big fan of zombie stories - without going into too much detail, lets just say there are more than a few zombies that do stuff you'd rather not think about in these stories.

The stand out for me, and the reason I'm glad my wife got me the book (It had been sitting on my used-bookstore watch-list for five years before I gave up the hope of finding it and asked for her help) is the Robert R. McCammon story Eat Me.  It won the 1989 Bram Stoker award for best short fiction and honestly, after reading a number of nihilistic stories about the undead taking over the earth, it was a surprisingly beautiful tale that really blew me away.

The book (again not for the faint of heart) is really something anyone who likes to claim loves zombie stories should read - I know from personal experience that it's hard to find, but trust me, it is totally worth the effort.

Genre Character of the Week: Ben

Last weekend my daughter Kaia and I watched the original Night of the Living Dead, you see, she's become a pretty big fan of horror comedies, and as she has her eye on Shaun of the Dead, I figured that she should actually see some of the movies that those guys were parodying.

Anyway, as we watched the movie I realized that I hadn't done many classic horror characters as genre characters so I thought I would look at the one I liked best from that film, Ben.

Here's the thing about the characters in the film, with the exception of Ben (who's last name we never learn) everyone is pretty much ruled by their emotions or in a state of shock. Understandable, yes, but useful in a zombie apocalypse scenario - not really. Ben shows up about 20 minutes into the movie and up to this point we've just had Barbara freaking out by all the zombies chasing her. Taking shelter in an old house, she meets Ben, who begins to systematically set up the place for a siege.

What I like about Ben, he's pretty no nonsense, he's clearly the best guy to put in charge and he's working to save everyone's life. Also I'm fairly certain that he was the inspiration for the character Greg Preston (my personal favourite character in the reboot of Survivors - also a pretty no-nonsense guy who makes sure his first stop after the end times come is a camping store).