Mail Order Zombie: Episode 114

Download Mail Order Zombie Episode #114 here!

While Brother D and Miss Bren are away, the mice will play. . . or at least one BIG mouse in the form of Need-A-Nickname Scott who puts his own twist on the podcast.

Once his shenanigans are complete, we'll go live (via digital tape) to Miss Bren and Brother D discussing the films in the Resident Evil franchise.

Feedback will return next week in Episode 115 - if Brother D is released.

Mail Order Zombie forums - http://tinyurl.com/mozforum

Email us at MailOrderZombie@gmail.com or call us at 206-202-2505!

Vote for us at Podcast Alley at http://tinyurl.com/mozvote/

The Walking Dead is Greenlit
Dead Set on IFC
De Masticatione Mortuorum Manuscript
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies on iPhone
L4D2: The Passing Pushed Back
Plants vs Zombies on iPad
Devil's Crossing Movie

(Various production music produced by Kevin MacLeod)

Trailer - 'Devil's Crossing'

Another Zombie Western - the film's homepage is: http://tinyurl.com/DevilCrossing

Last week to vote in the Rondo Awards!

This is the last week to vote in the 8th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards! If you haven't already done so, head over to http://www.rondoaward.com to cast your vote for your favorite movies, DVDs, blogs, podcasts, etc.!

Mail Order Zombie is honored to have been nominated for Best Podcast, and we wish all the nominees the best of luck!

Need more Brother D?

Not getting enough Brother D in your life? Well, this week you are in luck as Brother D joins Vince Rotolo on the B Movie Cast to talk about Val Lewton’s I Walked with a Zombie from 1943. This episode was recorded back in October, but the Brother D is still fresh.

Check it out a The B Movie Cast

Mail Order Zombie: Episode 113

Download Mail Order Zombie Episode #113 here!

Brother D and Miss Bren are about to take to the skies and head to HorrorHound Weekend Indianapolis 2010, but they're not leaving you without your recommended daily weekly dose of Mail Order Zombie! In Episode 113, Brother D reviews the just-released-in-the-UK/soon-to-be-released-domestically Survival of the Dead. The Romero-love continues when Ghastly Guy writes in about the Dawn of the Dead boardgame, and Headshot Heather and Zombie Hunter Tony join Brother D and Miss Bren for a runthrough of the game itself (provided courtesy of Bald Zombie). Finally, Richard from Wichita calls in his thoughts of Romero's original film The Crazies and then compares it to the remake (which he reviewed on the show previously). In addition to this Romero coverage, this episode of MOZ brings you survival tips in the form of another installment of Zombie Hunter Tony's Staying Fed in the Land of the Dead, and some knowlede in the form of the ABCs of Zombies courtesy of Mathew from Shelbytownship, Michigan.

Mail Order Zombie forums - http://tinyurl.com/mozforum

Email us at MailOrderZombie@gmail.com or call us at 206-202-2505!

Vote for us at Podcast Alley at http://tinyurl.com/mozvote/

Daley Plaza Zombie Flash Mob
Brew and View in Alton
Dates for Zompire 2010 announced
Humans vs. Zombies waiver
Gametrailers - Left 4 Dead news
Left 4 Dead tank Benny Hill mod
The secret origin of Plants vs. Zombies
UK politicians go zombie for Zombieland
Night of the Living Kevin Smith - Portland, OR

(Various production music produced by Kevin MacLeod)

MOZ Presents: The Munchies 011 - Spike

Download MOZ Presents: The Munchies #011 here!

In this episode of MOZ Presents: The Munchies, Brother D takes a look at the short movie Spike, written and directed by Jason Hoover.

Jabb Pictures - http://www.jabbpictures.com

Mail Order Zombie: Episode 112

Download Mail Order Zombie: Episode 112 here!

March of the Zombi(e) continues with a look at Zombie 6: Monster Hunter, aka Horrible (as well as at least another half-dozen titles!) And then to change things up, Brother D gets musical when he reviews Bill Arnold's Night of the Musical Dead. Need-a-Nickname Scott and Miss Bren and hanging out for the Zombie Beat and the Feedback Discussion respectively, and remember, we're still taking answers for the current Zombie Aptitude Test!

Mail Order Zombie forums - http://tinyurl.com/mozforum

Email us at MailOrderZombie@gmail.com or call us at 206-202-2505!

Vote for us at Podcast Alley at http://tinyurl.com/mozvote/

Night of the Musical Dead

Epic Zombie March - Sydney, Australia
Deadlands 3
Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology
Zombie Film Festival - Cottage Road Cinema
Free chapters from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
The Zombie Diaries 2
Catherine Mary Stewart (Night of the Comet) added to HorrorHound Weekend Indianapolis
Jobs for the Zombie Apocalypse

(Various production music produced by Kevin MacLeod)

'Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology' - Coming in April 2010

Range - 2 - The Russian Zombie Short Movie

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

Quirk Books has released this teaser trailer for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls:

The 8th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards - Promo

Download the promo for the 8th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Awards here!

You'll probably hear this on Mail Order Zombie over the next few weeks, and if you have a podcast of your own, we encourage you to play it on your show as well as we're trying to spread the word about this "classic, fantastic" event!

Mail Order Zombie: Episode 111.5

Download Mail Order Zombie: Episode 111.5 here!

In this special episode of Mail Order Zombie, Brad Sykes returns to the show for the second part of the interview that began in Episode 110. Plaguers was reviewed back in Episode 104, and in Episode 111.5 of MOZ, Sykes talks about his experiences getting the movie off the ground, production of Plaguers and the movie's reception.

The Zed Word - Zombie Cuisine Week (March 15-21)

'The Evil Dead' in Clay

Evil Dead done in 60 seconds with CLAY - 2010 from Lee Hardcastle on Vimeo.

Mail Order Zombie: Episode 111

Download Mail Order Zombie #111 here!

March of the Zombi(e) continues with a look at José Luis Merino's Zombie 3: Return of the Living Dead, aka The Hanging Woman. Brother D tackles this movie review, and MOZ Family member Richard from Wichita phones in his review of The Crazies (2010) from director Breck Eisner. Need-a-Nickname Scott appears on the show multiple times this week - not only is he heading up this week's Zombie Beat, but he also joins Brother D in reviewing last month's ZAT answers. All this, plus a recording from the first public reading and book signing of Tony Faville's Kings of the Dead!

Mail Order Zombie forums - http://tinyurl.com/mozforum

Email us at MailOrderZombie@gmail.com or call us at 206-202-2505!

Vote for us at Podcast Alley at http://tinyurl.com/mozvote/

Night of the Living Trekkies
Grahame-Smith Q&A
The Living Dead 2
RE4 trailer coming
Survival of the Dead trailer
John Pogue on Quarantine 2
Pom Pom Zombies
Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 on the Mac

(Various production music produced by Kevin MacLeod)

Two book reviews - 'Dawn of the Dreadfuls' and 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'

(The following also appears in my column Papercut, a bi-monthly horror column that appears at Paperback Reader.)

---

I should make it clear up front that I did not like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith very much. When I reviewed it on Mail Order Zombie, I gave it a fairly low rating, describing the book as a joke that ran too long. There wasn't enough of a blending between the "classic regency romance" and the "zombie mayhem" to work as a balanced piece of fiction, and while I am enjoying Grahame-Smith's follow-up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies didn't do much for me.

However, the prequel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith (and Jane Austen) delivers on the promises of combining a piece of romantic literature with a zombie horror tale.

This book serves as a prequel in every way - the story takes place years before the events of the first novel, and right from the beginning, readers, and the main characters, are thrust into a world in which the dead walk.

Eventually.

The first zombie we meet - and the meeting takes place on the second page of the story - is unable to stand due to the accident that led to his death, but he still provides enough of a start, and a threat, to Elizabeth and Jane Bennet, as well as the rest of their family and those attending a funeral.

In Dawn of the Dreadfuls, those with a bit of age to them have encountered, or at least, heard of the "dreadfuls," and Mr. Bennet is one these folks. He recognizes the threat, takes control of the situation, and once it's resolved, decides to train his daughters in the martial arts. He even goes as far as calling his former master to help train them. All the while, Mrs. Bennet is more concerned with seeing her daughters married to good, wealthy families.

Obviously, Mr. Bennet and the zombies have other plans in mind.

I really enjoyed this book. I opened its covers with trepidation, expecting another clunky mash-up of a novel, but instead, Hockensmith opted to utilize a more modern writing style than the style I enountered in the first novel. Not only did this make the prose more approachable, but it also served to further draw the distinctions between the world of Mr. Bennet and the world of Mrs. Bennet. Dawn of the Dreadfuls is a zombie novel first and foremost, and Mrs. Bennet and what she wants out of life for herself and her daughters has no place in the world Hockensmith and Quirk Books present in near-300 fast pages.

On my podcast Mail Order Zombie, we rate books on a 1-to-5-Bookmarks scale, 1 being the lowest, 5 being the highest. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith earns an easy 4 Bookmarks. It's not high literature, but it's fun, it's easy to read and it doesn't skimp on the promised zombie action.

---

If Dawn of the Dreadfuls didn't completely leave me considering revisitting Grahame-Smith's original Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter gave me the extra prompting.

Set in a more "real world" alternative history than his Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith's novel from Grand Central Publishing presents a story built from the secret journals of President Abraham Lincoln. The novel opens in present day, and writer Grahame-Smith introduces us to character Grahame-Smith . . . who happens to be a writer. The first few pages of the novel paints a picture of a man who once had ambitions of being a writer but found himself getting caugbht up in the life of a small-town, working in a small shop, watching his small life pass him by. Grahame-Smith, and we the readers, meet a man named Henry who presents the writer with a collection of books, the collective journals of Lincoln himself.

But these journals tell a story that no history book ever relates. In these pages, Grahame-Smith (the character) discovers a secret history of America in which whatever perceived wrongdoings that ultimately led to the American Civil War were perpetrated by vampires. It's a simple premise, yet Grahame-Smith (the writer) takes these imagined journals and turns them into a compelling novel that even those familiar with Lincoln or American history will find surprising and in some cases, even moving.

Aside from Grahame-Smith (the character) who only appears in the first few pages of the novel, Lincoln is the singular viewpoint character in this book, but I never found myself needing to get away from him. His story from start to finish pulled me through the novel; in circumstances in which another novel might "cut away" and give us the point of view of another character, we just skip ahead in Lincoln's life, advancing anywhere from a few months to a few years until the vampires either turn back up in Lincoln's life, or Lincoln turns back up in theirs.

Inserted into the narrative are excerpts from Lincoln's journals, providing the more intimate thoughts of the main character whereas the bulk of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter's text rests on top of the character of Lincoln. Not only does his crusade against slavery, his fight to keep the Union in one piece, his hope to raise and grow old with his family weigh him down, so do the choices he makes to fight vampires wherever and whenever he can.

The inclusion of the Grahame-Smith character seemed a bit out of place to me as the character does not turn up again at the end of the book. Instead, we're given a view of a near-vampire-free world in the post-Lincoln years courtesy of another viewpoint character, rendering the opening pages in which the writer is presented with Lincoln's journal superflous and unnecessary. Unfortunately, this does leave the reader wishing for a bit more closure. Fortunately, it doesn't hinder the rest of the book, and I can highly recommend it.

---

You can win one of 50 Quirk Classics Prize-Packs just by clicking here! The prize-pack is worth more than $100.00, and includes the following: a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies journal, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies postcards, audio books of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, an advance copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, a password redeemable online for sample audio chapters of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls and a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls poster. Contest closes on March 10, 2010, with winners announced March 11, 2010.

Mail Order Zombie: Episode 110

Download Mail Order Zombie #110 here!

We've just about recovered from last week's Dead Letter Awards, and it's a good thing, because we're diving into Round Two of March of the Zombi(e) here at MOZ. This year, Brother D will take a look at some other zombie movies that have had the distinction of being called Zombie, Zombi or some numbered Zombie or Zombi sequel. To kick off March of the Zombi(e) 2010, Brother D reviews Jorge Grau's The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, aka Zombi 3 (and a number of other titles as well!). Also, he'll review Riffle Pictures' Motor Home From Hell, directed by Ross Payton. This week also includes the first part of a two-part interview with director Brad Sykes (The Zombie Chronicles, Plaguers) and a recording from a recent Max Brooks event in Salem, OR. Miss Bren helps out with the returning Feedback Discussion this week (and it's full of stars), a new ZAT question is posed to the MOZ listeners, and of course, Need-a-Nickname Scott has the news in this week's Zombie Beat.

Mail Order Zombie forums - http://tinyurl.com/mozforum

Email us at MailOrderZombie@gmail.com or call us at 206-202-2505!

Vote for us at Podcast Alley at http://tinyurl.com/mozvote/

Motor Home From Hell - http://www.rifflepictures.com/

How long until the electricity fails?

'Zombies' win appeal
Plants vs. Zombies is top-selling game
Comedy Central's "Ugly Americans"
Shaun of the Dead going to television?
Simon Pegg sets the record straight
J. P. Moore's Toothless to be published by Dragon Moon Press
Brian Keene's The Last Zombie

(Various production music produced by Kevin MacLeod)

Brother D as a zombie, courtesy of Flitzer of the Dead

'Survival of the Dead' poster at Bloody-Disgusting

Check out Episode 110 of Mail Order Zombie (hitting your podcatcher March 4, 2010) for our thoughts on this poster!

ZSL? Zombie Sign Language?