Guest Blog: The Weirding Dead – Author Jamie Russell’s Top 10 Strangest Zombie Movies
Debi Moore
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Zombie A-Hole (2011)
“There’s a good-for-nothing bastard out there with a face like hell and a smell to match.” Ohio auteur Dustin Mills made this “blood and boobs B-movie” between his debut Puppet Monster Massacre and the delirious Bath Salt Zombies. It’s grungy and rough around the edges, yet shot through with fun bad taste and inventive verve. In other words, it’s a fantastic antidote to the deluge of brainless micro-budget ghoul flicks that lazily cannibalise Romero. Frank Fulci (Josh Eal) and mysterious one-eyed, one-handed Mercy (Jessica Daniels) are on the trail of the eponymous pinstripe-suited ghoul who’s slaughtering twin sisters – usually when they’re buck naked. Riffing on ‘70s exploitation flicks, Mills delivers a punk DIY treat. High points include miniature Haitian voodoo puppets, slithering intestines and energy beam welders. The director has a bit part as Voodoo Bob, a hawker of magic artifacts with terrible negotiation skills.
The Necro Files (1997)
A crazed and crazy low-budget “erotic” horror movie, The Necro Files redefines bad taste. When serial rapist Logan (Isaac Cooper) is shot and killed by the shambolic cops on his trail, everyone thinks his reign of terror is over. They’re mistaken. After he’s resurrected by some clumsy Satanists, zombie Logan escapes from the local graveyard and continues his rape spree as a zombie with a decaying face and over-sized penis. The Necro Files features some of the worst acting ever committed to celluloid, lots of sex and bondage, a blow-up sex toy (which the zombie hilariously takes a shine to) and several living dead rape scenes. It also has a flying zombie baby – clearly just a kids’ plastic doll on a string – which zips through the air attacking people at random. The Necro Files defies film criticism. It’s also about as “erotic” as cholera.
With over 300 new movies added since its original April 2005 publication date, Book of the Dead charts the history of the walking dead from the monster’s origins in Haitian voodoo through its cinematic debut in 1932’s White Zombie up to blockbuster World War Z and beyond.
Synopsis
Covering hundreds of movies from America, Europe, Asia, and even the Middle East, Jamie Russell examines zombies’ on-screen evolution from Caribbean bogeymen to flesh-eating corpses and apocalyptic plague carriers. With an exhaustive filmography covering the history of the zombie genre, Book of the Dead explains our ongoing fascination with the living dead and how this shambolic monster has become a stumbling, moaning metaphor for our age.
The ultimate resource for zombie fans everywhere, Book of the Dead includes an exclusive interview with “Don of the Dead” George A. Romero.
