August News '21

 Hello to all you beautiful rotting corpses!

Welcome to the August installments of BRAIN BITES! I hope you enjoyed July's Romero month reviews of the later trio in the DEAD franchise. These and the more popular earlier movies will always hold a special place in my unbeating heart and I had loads of fun revisiting them. If you missed them then please take a quick look back and see if you agree with my thoughts on these fun and inventive later offerings.

The zombie movie rumour mill has been rife these last few weeks with some interesting news flying around like the eyeballs and entrails in a feeding frenzy. The juiciest of all being the new series coming to the SyFy channel in October entitled DAY OF THE DEAD. A ten episode series which seems to have nothing to do with Romero's original tells the tale of 6 strangers surviving the first 24 hours of a zombie apocalypse and is written by Jed Elinof and Scott Thomas writers of The Banana Splits Movie (2019). Understandably on the first news of this series my eyes rolled so far back in my head they almost didn't roll back but I have to admit on seeing the trailer I think it could be a lot of fun! It seems to have a quirky sense of humour to it,  kind of like Z NATION and some great looking Walker-esque zombies. Bit heavy on the CGI mind you and the fact that's it's 10 episodes is quite concerning as it will inevitably get drawn out and would possibly be better if they halved the amount of episodes but I am certainly keen to watch it.

Speaking of DAY OF THE DEAD there are newsings of the new unofficial sequel (yes, another one) of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD II. According to recent news articles this also has nothing to do with Romero's original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD apart from in name but it does have Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander and Jarlath Conroy on the cast who as we all know played surviving characters in Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD (1985). Certainly looking a bit older these days, so could this be more of an unofficial sequel to DAY instead? Not like we need another one of them either right?? In a recent article from ScreenGeek they also talk of this starring survivors from DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) hinting at the fact that this could be a true Romero crossover movie and state that it could be "The AVENGERS: ENDGAME of zombie movies", their words not mine. I don't wish to be a negative necrotic here but I approach this offering with trepidation more than anything else but look forward to seeing the team of Cardille, Alexander and Conroy back on our screens.

The season 11 trailer for THE WALKING DEAD has dropped and I think it looks really good... I am excited! I just hope it doesn't do what it did at the end of season 10 and just kind of fizzled out. I accept that times have been strange this last year so I can only hope they have bucked their ideas up a bit. From the looks of things Alexandria is on the brink of destruction, the Commonwealth are closing in and I'm almost certain we will see a Maggie and Negan stand off... finally! Annoyingly here in the UK the show will now air on Star through Disney + but that is the kind of shit they like to pull on us lot when there is only one season left!! This will probably mean they will lose viewers but I don't think they really care about that. I'm still debating whether to get Disney + which will probably be only for TWD or just wait til the season is over and buy it on disc?! Do I have the will power to wait that long??? Naahhhh who am I kidding??!!!

One final bit of zombie news, and this is also up for debate as to whether it is a good idea or not but either way it would seem that Zack Snyder is already working on one of those ARMY OF THE DEAD prequels and sequels... erm, hurray?? ARMY OF THIEVES has already dropped it's trailer on the world. Directed by Matthias Schweighofer and produced by Zack and Deborah Snyder amongst others. It is a prequel to ARMY and described as a romantic comedy-heist movie that includes zombies. So many alarm bells start ringing when I hear that statement, buuutttt if you are unaware Matthias Schweighofer played the character of Dieter the screaming, German safecracker who was by far the best character in ARMY. So in my opinion a Dieter origin story is a welcome thing I just don't know how they will fit any zombies in to this effectively. One thing is certain though... it will once again divide the zombie community.

That's enough random zombie movie news for the time being, it is time to tell you what is happening this month on BRAIN BITES! Things get ridiculously exciting as I begin the first of 3 (or should that be 4??) album reviews from Thrash Metal 'Zombiecore' ghouls SEND MORE PARAMEDICS!! We are starting this month with their first full length album A FEAST FOR THE FALLEN (2002). My reason for this is to reintroduce the band as they prepare for their 20 year reanimation celebration gigs falling on Halloween. This and the fact that it has been officially confirmed that the band have recently entombed themselves in a studio to devour souls whilst recording some new material means they are well overdue some attention. In case you don't believe me I have this official statement from the bands social media site; 

This August zombie thrashers SEND MORE PARAMEDICS will hit the studio to record a new album- their first in 15 years! The band will be recording at The Stationhouse Studio, home to recording maestro James Atkinson (Voorhees, Gentlemans Pistols). 

"We've created a monster- nine prime slices of our most savage thrash to date- with plenty of the creepy atmospherics and punky singalongs our benighted fans have come to crave" reports vocalist B'Hellmouth. 

The album is set for release in autumn 2021, to coincide with the bands near sold-out run of one-off reunion shows in Leeds and London this Halloween. No decision has yet been made on a label for the release. Follow on social media for more info!!!   

I hope you enjoy the reviews, seek out their albums and hit them up on Facebook and Instagram over the coming months, the zombie crew await your arrival to the ranks!!

I will of course be doing my usual and reviewing a couple of zombie movies. The entries this month are both gut munching and glorious horror/comedies from the mid 2000's in the form of Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse style PLANET TERROR (2007) and the campy teen Z flick from Gregg Bishop DANCE OF THE DEAD (2008)!!! So, as you see, August is all about Thrash metal cadavers, Rose McGowan's machine gun leg and zombies leaping from their graves! It truly is exciting stuff fiends.

Until next time...

*Huge thanks to Dan Phillips for the SMP pics and additional information.*