Agghhhhh!

I posted my list of top five zombie movies and realized that there is SO much zombie stuff right now.


Kris, who is not a big reader, devoured (pun intended) Max Brooks's World War Z and Zombie Survival Guide (which was actually a birthday present for me, thank you very much!). Brooks presents the zombie apocalypse as an eventuality that the world must prepare for and the Survival Guide instructs you on how to defend yourself against the walking dead. World War Z is the "history" of the life-as-we-know-it ending war against the zombies. If you are a zombie fan, these are essential for your library.


The Starz channel, which has some of the best documentaries on horror flicks (Fantastic Flesh is amazing . . . find it on Netflix), is currently running Zombiemania on Starz OnDemand. There are interviews with George Romero, makeup and FX specialists Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero, and Max Brooks, among others. It pretty much goes into detail about most of the movies I discussed in my previous post and discusses the cultural significance of zombies.


There are countless zombie fiction books out there, bordering on becoming a separate genre, but the most surprising example combines fine English literature and the awesomeness of zombies. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Seth Grahame-Smith, with a co-author credit for Jane Austen) inserts a zombie warrior subplot into the original text of Pride and Prejudice. I have read excerpts, but the cover alone is hilarious enough to want to buy it. (Also available from Grahame-Smith - Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters). There is also a wealth of zombie graphic novels, and capitalizing on the success of Zombie Survival Guide are books like Zombies for Zombies, etc.


There are, of course, the zombie video games as well . . . multitudinous Resident Evils and the more recent Left 4 Dead series.

And finally, while it's not technically about zombies, Stephen King's Cell is reminiscent of the zombie genre and offers the same social commentary found in most zombie fiction and films. Even if you are not a King fan (which you should be), it is an awesome book. The book on tape (available through bookstores and iTunes) is a great alternative due to the excellent voice work of veteran actor Campbell Scott.