BRAIN BITES

 ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) Japan 2hrs 8mins Director: Yusuke Ishida "If I can't live my life the way I want. I'm better off as zombie food!" - Akira "Zombies can't have bucket lists." - Shizuka ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (2023) is the live action remake of the anime series of the same name which came out about a month before this did. Not that this really makes a difference to me as I am not much of an anime fan so had the movie not come out, I would probably would never have watched it. The film (and series) is about a young guy called Akira (Eiji Akaso) who gets his first job and is really excited. His enthusiasm soon wears off as he is made to work all hours, do everyone else's  job and gets no appreciation. He loses all connections with his friends and goes from a being a happy, lively person to a tired, depressed "zombie like" shell of his former self. When the zombie apocalypse hits the city where he lives he bare...

  For this instalment of Brain Bites I thought I would make a slight deviation from the norm. I wanted to do this purely because this movie franchise is just as dear to my heart as zombie movies are. In fact, when I was a kid I thought that Deadites were zombies. Yes that's right... I would like to talk, for a moment, about our lord and saviour Sam Raimi who brought us his vision of a gory, splattery possession movie about a cabin in the woods, a book bound in human skin and a hapless doofus that becomes an unlikely hero. He created an unapologetic trilogy of humour, slapstick and horror with monsters, madness and a whole host of inventive camera work and practical FX. The first movie THE EVIL DEAD (1981) got banned in most countries for its depiction of a woman getting violated by foliage in the forest plus various acts of violence and scenes of people getting dismembered, EVIL DEAD II (1987) is a kind of reimagining of the first movie but with less tree rape, instead revamping th...

  DEAD RISING: ENDGAME (2016) USA 1hr 36mins Director: Pat Williams "Since when do Z's move that fast!!" - Garth "The virus will wipe us all out." - Dr. Rand DEAD RISING: ENDGAME (2016) is a direct sequel to  DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER (2015) and is again set in between DEAD RISING 2 & 3 in terms of the video game but I'm really not sure of it's relevance to the video games this time around. There certainly isn't that style of the video game shooter camera POV's like there was in the first one at all. It does however follow on WATCHTOWERs story, so reporter Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe) is back and is as determined as ever. Sneaking around the ruins of East Mission trying to uncover more plans by corrupt military leader, General Lyons (Dennis Haysbert). This time Chase has stumbled upon some kind of human trafficking ring that involves human test subjects being given to mad scientist Dr. Rand (Billy Zane) who as well as working on a cure is als...

  DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER (2015)  USA 1hr 58mins  Director: Zach Lipovsky "Only an idiot wants to see a zombie" - Crystal O'Rourke "How much hope do you have? You're basically fucked!" - Frank West I am not much of a gamer myself but I am aware of the DEAD RISING games and I appreciate this movies nods to them and the video game style camera work. It's helpful to know that you don't need to have much knowledge about the games to get what is going on in the movie. Having done a bit of research though I did find out that DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER (2015) is set in between games 2 & 3 in terms of timeline. It follows journalist Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe) and his camera woman Jordan (Keegan Connor Tracy) as they unwittingly uncover a major government/military conspiracy against the citizens of East Mission, Oregon, whilst filming what seemed at first to be a fairly normal day post numerous zombie apocalypses. Filming at an evacuation point as reports...

Our second celebration of all things zombie during Zombie Awareness month this May is happening right here in UK. Not unlike our first featured event last week of the zombie fashion show taking place in Oswego, NY.  Zombiefest could be Liverpools answer to an undead London fashion week as we break out the cameras once more for a SFX make up artists dream of a zombie horde showdown. It's time to shake off the rigor mortis and give a rotten round of applause to our next event organiser, Richard Fletcher!   Welcome Richard, please start off by telling us everything about Zombiefest... where, when and what is it all about? Zombiefest is a new event that is set for 14th October and is really all about the fun side of zombies. The day is meant to be a fun one with sfx makeovers and photography, sfx tutorials, stalls selling cool stuff and the cosplay competition. All that and the day will be topped off by a live band and DJ. It's being held at The Swinging Arm pub in Birkenhead...

  To celebrate all things zombie especially during Zombie Awareness month, we here at Brain Bites thought it would be an awesome idea to spread the word of the efforts being made by people all over the world organising zombie related events. We are all familiar with zombie assault runs and the gatherings of hordes for zombie walks through cities but there seems to be another trend occuring that puts the spotlight and emphasis on walking corpses. Think glitz, think glamour... think zombie???!!! With this in mind please give a huge grumbling moan of welcome to  event organiser, John Grouber!  A little worm told me that John is  organising a gathering of elite undead fashionistas for an evening of gore and glamour this October in the form of a zombie fashion show!  Hi John, would you mind telling us everything about your event and what your vision of a zombie fashion show entails? Well, Mash, the Zombie Fashion Show is a culmination of different ideas that have bee...

  RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005) USA/Romania 1hr 28mins Director: Ellory Elkayem "Whenever there is an outbreak of zombie reanimation we lead the charge in containment" - Hybra Tech advertisement. "Lead, follow... or get out of the way." - Julian "Send more security guards" - Zombie. The first three RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movies are true classics, yes... even part two, but unfortunately they fall outside of my review catchment being made before the year 2000 so luckily for them, they escape my pitiful scribblings of which I am sure they are grateful for. However, twelve years later writers William Butler and Adam Strongoni decided to resurrect the franchise. They enlisted the help of EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS (2002) director Ellory Elkayem and created two more RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD movies but the question here is did they do them justice and did we really need them in the first place? RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD: NECROPOLIS (2005) is set 10 ye...