Zombie Strippers: A cult classic??

You guys might remember a while back I wrote a post about Jenna Jamison and her big screen debut (well, the one that did not involve porn anyway.) I was on the fence as to whether or not I intended to watch the movie.....

......well, I watched it; and I gotta confess, I kinda liked it.

Cause & Effect

In an attempt to increase our dwindling troops in the Middle East, the government decides to "re-animate" corpses to aid the fight against our evil foes. Like all good intentions however, things go horribly wrong at the testing compound and an infected soldier manages to escape unnoticed.

He shows up at a nearby underground strip club with an impressive lineup of hot strippers headed up by none other than porn star Jenna Jamison (what a perfect place for a soon to be zombie to end up in!)

About the time Jenna is about to perform her second dance (yes, you get to see the first one) the soldier guy decides to go full blown zombie and decides that Jenna is his menu's main course.

Result

Jenna is now a zombie, and apparently it agrees with her. The crowd of sweaty, excited males goes batty for her revamped, reanimated, striptease, and when the cash runs out, resorts to writing checks as gratitude for her performance.

Her boss, played by none other than Robert Englund of Nightmare fame, is ecstatic, and doesn't even mind cleaning up the bloody mess Jenna left for him after her "dance" left her famished. After all, its a small price to pay for all the untold wealth her zombie-fied gyrations promise to rake in.

Too bad the other strippers have to go and get jealous of Jenna's increased popularity. Becoming a zombie is starting to have a certain appeal and before you can say "holy ta-ta's" more than one stripper arranges to be "turned" resulting in a lot of money, and a heck of a lot more blood shed.

Conclusion

What I found interesting about this movie is that it changes up the zombie rules, at least for the strippers. They can talk and carry on conversations; they can discern when and who not to eat (such as their boss or fellow strippers,) they feel emotion such as jealousy, and their zombie status actually serves as a type of aphrodisiac to humans. They are also exceptionally agile and quick! Twists which actually prove kind of interesting...

This movie is gory, so be prepared. I was surprised with the amount of blood an innards spilled for such a stereotyped cast. It was also very graphic. Another big surprise.

And yes, this movie is exceptionally corny. Forget cheesy; forget campy. think corny. But I liked it.

Recommendation

I realize I will probably be in the minority when I say that I can see this movie becoming a cult classic. I would not be the least bit surprised to see it having a kind of "Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town" cult following.

Will you like it? I can't say. But if you like gore, and you like really cheesy movies with gratuitous boob shots, then this movie may be for you. Just don't blame me if you watch it and don't like it.........

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Doodle Animal for Doodle Week

It's Doodle Animal time over at Doodle Week. Here's my contribution.

I've never drawn a Zombie. I may have only drawn one or two rabbits in my life. Usually I draw Snoopy (which I am rather good at if I must say so myself) or a cartoon poodle. Never body parts..... this guys ears are too small. But I'm on vacation, so its allowed.

"Wind-Up Zombie Bunny"

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FIDO: He’s not a dog~he’s a Zombie

Ok, so I am pretty convinced that Bob the Enzyte guy is the guy who plays the dad on FIDO. I'm too lazy to look it up on Google so if anyone out there in cyberspace could confirm or deny this for me accurately, please do so as it is starting to drive me insane in my obsessive ponderings..... he's probably not, but I'm convinced he is.

Anyway, FIDO is a Canadian Zombie comedy directed by Andrew Currie, a more or less unknown director outside of his immediate family. I must confess though, that I am very glad he introduced himself.

Cause & Effect

Years ago the Earth passed through a cloud of space dust which resulted in the reanimation of the dead. The also developed an insatiable desire for human flesh. Thus the Zombie War began, with the living struggling for survival against the dead. In the aftermath, a corporation known as ZomCon was born.

ZomCon is a revolutionary corporation who defeated legions of undead in the Zombie War, and ultimately engineered their domestication, making them a productive asset to society as industrial workers and domestic servants. The key to Zombie domestication is a snazzy collar that renders the zombie subservient and complacent - as long as the collar doesn't malfunction, that is.

The movie focuses on the little town of 1950's Willard, and Timmy Robinson, an 11 year old who gets picked on at school, ignored by his father, and pretty much has no friends.

Timmy's family is about the only one in Willard who doesn't have a zombie as a servant and when ZomCon's head of security moves in next door, Timmy's mother feels pressured to "fit in" and brings home a zombie servant, much to Timmy's fathers disapproval.

Result

When the Robinson's new zombie servant saves Timmy from the bullies at school, Timmy finds he has a new best friend and names him FIDO (Lassie would have been more fitting, but being as Lassie was a girl, I'm thinking FIDO works fine.) Unfortunately however when Fido's collar malfuncions, he proceeds to eat a cranky old wench, and Timmy has to deal with the bloody remains.

Not wanting to have this unfortunate event cause FIDO to have to go back to ZomCon, Timmy cleans him up and hides the "evidence" by severing the victims head and burying the body in the park's flowerbed. Sadly though, the clean up comes too late as a snowball effect of people turned zombie becomes harder and harder to hide.

Conclusion

FIDO is a satirical spin on modern day zombie movies, but it also offers us a movie with heart and hope. Hope that zombies can exist in modern day society as a part of the family, and hope that family values, although somewhat slightly askew, still exist in a world gone mad.

Recommendation

FIDO is definitely worth watching. In my case, it will probably end up in my drawer of go-to movies but thats mostly because I really dig flicks not of the norm.

It's rare to find a movie that can mix zombies, nostalgia, and kids with guns, and leave you feeling happy you watched it. That's what FIDO did for me. It even brought a tear or two to my eyes. And for me, that makes for a movie definitely worth the cheese.

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PhotoHunt: Twisted Zombie Leg

Ok, so Claire has me thinking I might give this once a week "Photo Hunter" thingy a try. I love photography but never make time for it so this might be one of those things that motivate me to be more proactive.

This weeks theme is "Twist(ed)." Since I could not readily locate a picture that I have taken to use for this weeks theme, I decided to create one.

I got a little happy with Photoshop's graphic options. I'm sure Photoshop is way better than this, but its all I could manage at first go 'roung......

Hope you think it's "witty." If you don't, then lie to me and say it is. I have feelings too, ya know.

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The Time to Prepare is Now

So I decided to take the advise of one of my commenter's by taking a trip to my local bookstore and checking out "The Zombie Survival Guide" firsthand. I must say, this book offers certain information and ideas that lend even more credence to my theory that Zombies may indeed exist. As well, it offers much by way of planning and survival for a potential Zombie infestation or take-over.

Think about it - do you really think Ving Rhames thought he would spend his last days on earth by being lunch to some verbally challenged, slow moving, brain eating hillbilly undead rather than winning an Oscar for his role in Pulp Fiction (not that he did, but rather that he would want to)??

Do you think that Duane Jones really wanted to spend his last night as a human warding off flesh eating, rotten smelling reanimated corpses rather than eating a nice pasta meal and catching an action flick with his sweetie? Of course not! And neither should you!

SO - I am going to share with you, in weekly installments, vital survival techniques, as published by Max Brooks in his "Zombie Survival Guide" so in the event we ever find ourselves in a situation where masses of the undead - Zombies - are trying desperately to devour our only brain, we will be prepared to prevent it from happening (or at least make a valiant attempt to slow it down.)

This first installment focuses on understanding how a Zombie comes to be. And if you doubt the importance of this then please allow me to quote Sun Tzu:

"Know the enemy and know yourself;

in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.

When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself,

your chances of winning or losing are equal.

If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain

in every battle to be in peril."

It's not just enough to know how they attack but why they attack. The advantage of knowing how they work, how they think, how they function, will help you to plan for it before it's too late.

Zombie-ism is caused by a virus, identified as Solanum in Mr. Brooks book, which travels through a person's blood stream, killing the body - cell by cell - as it travels toward the brain. Upon contact with the brain, the Solanum virus causes the brain to mutate into a "completely new organ" thereby sealing the Zombie state.

This will help explain how a person looks very "near death" or "deathly" just before they turn. You may think they have died being as the heart has stopped beating, yet the continuous activity in the brain lasting long enough to be transformed by the virus results in them being undead - or more commonly referred to as the "living dead."

So now that we know how the "dead" become "undead" you might be thinking to yourself, "ok fine, whatever, but why the intense desire to eat my brains?" This too eludes even the most expert of Zombie researchers.

It has been found that flesh has no nutritional value to a Zombie nor is it digested or transformed for another purpose. Actually, the flesh consumed by a Zombie sits in the intestinal tract, undigested, where it slowly builds up and over time, is either forced through the rectum or "literally bursts through the stomach or intestinal lining."

Be warned - this extreme result will NOT stop the Zombie from wanting to eat you!! Just because a Zombie with an distended belly seems to have his/her/its sights on you is no reason to become cocky or do something stupid because you think "No way could he/she/it still be hungry!" Zombies are always hungry and not selective in the flesh they eat, be it animal or otherwise, however please note that human flesh is the preferred; YOUR flesh is the preferred!

So now that we know HOW a Zombie comes to be, we will need to properly identify them, as not all Zombie's are so obvious. But I will save that information for my 2nd installment in "The Time to Prepare is Now" - be sure to grab my feed and STAY TUNED!!

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Movie Theme Songs

Got any favorites? I've got a few . On top of my list has to be the song from Disturbing Behavior (one of my all time fav movies back when Katie Holmes was cute). It's by a band called The Flys, and the song is "Got you (where I want you)" (I will add a video clip in my Buffy post since I can't find a movie synopsis version of the song on YouTube, just the band).

Another of my favorites is "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed from the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead

So many times movies offer songs for their soundtracks that really don't support the feelings or emotions of the story line. I think in those cases it makes the movie less appealing because for me, I want to feel what the characters are feeling (well... not literally. I think getting my neck chewed off by a zombie might ruin my entire day). Songs that fall short of this leaves me feeling empty, and that the movie was lacking (I hate to beat up on Cabin Fever, but its a prime example for a potentially good soundtrack gone bad).

I have several other favorites, but I want to hear from you guys. What are some of yours?

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Halloween-Rob Zombie Style

Anyone out there seen the Rob Zombie version of Halloween just released on DVD?

WOW - is this movie intense! As well, it does great for answering questions I've had for the last 20 years about WHY Michael turned out the way he did; where did he get that gawd-awful mask and why did he choose to wear it?

When the movie started, my initial response was not good. It gave the impression of being a movie that prided itself on how shocking profanity could be and how sad white trash really is. The result? I began to understand why Michael was the way he was; accepted it even (which I am sure, is the effect Rob Zombie was going for).

Zombie keeps true to the original for the most part with minor deviations I found I welcomed, as his version of Michael Myers made more sense, yet still scared the bejesus out of me even though I knew what was coming. I also liked that he added to the movie a level of gore that was not overly offensive as so many movies of today seem to do. It seems these days the suspense factor is replaced with repulsive factor, so when a movie keeps me on the edge of my seat (as this one did) without feeling the need to yak (think Cabin Fever), it automatically ranks on my list of "must see" movies.

I definitely feel this is one movie where the remake is actually better than the original. I can't wait to see what Rob Zombie comes up with for a sequel!

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