The Walking Dead – Episode 5: Wildfire

There are two basic rules when it comes to killing zombies: Act fast and aim for the head.

Unfortunately, in “Wildfire”, things became far more complicated for the group of survivors as everyone was forced to deal with the painful consequence of previous week’s zombie attack.

First, Andrea declined to leave Amy’s side. It was great seeing Amy resurrect as a zombie and struggle to bite Andrea. I was expecting Amy to take a bite at her sister but I was surprised when Andrea shot her sister in the head. I was glad that it was Andrea who finished off her sibling, but she didn’t have to be that close. Despite the need of closure with her sister, I think it was a really risky move on her part.

Carol had to deal with her husband’s death, and she went to town on his head with a pickaxe. Viewer discretion was definitely necessary here, as Carol repeatedly hit her husband’s head and parts splattered everywhere. I guess he was simply taking out her anger over the abuse that she had received from him or maybe she blames herself for his death.

Lastly, the group found out that Jim had been bitten. We got a chance to see how a small zombie bite can affect someone. Zombie nightmares and delusions don’t seem like fun. I just wish Jim had been around a little longer instead of playing a crazy gravedigger one moment, and sick zombie victim the next.

Rick and Shane on the other hand, were at odds over how to deal with their situation. Rick wanted to lead the group to the Center for Disease Control but Shane simply wanted to keep the group out of harm’s way. A little difference of opinion is sometimes a good thing, but not when it causes Shane to consider shooting Rick. Maybe he’s still hung up on Lori.

Overall, aside from the dramatic tensions that seeped into the character driven moments, the story progressed well. The group of survivors finally decided to head up to the CDC.

The CDC scientist’s introduction added some short background information on the zombie outbreak. The video journal logs looked great, but for some reason it reminded me of the film, I Am Legend. I guess it is hard not to make comparisons with other great zombie/apocalypse movies.

Like the previous episodes, the ending of Wildfire had me glued to my seat. The impending darkness, lack of food and shelter, and the threat of more zombies approaching added to the tension of the group. As Rick began to break down and the rest of the survivors panicked, I was expecting more zombies to come around the corner. Instead, the CDC’s door opens up and a haunting image of a flooding light encased the group as the minutes closed out. What a great cliffhanger!

Will there be assistance and answers inside? We’ll have to step into the light to find out on next week’s season finale.

Scary Movie You May Have Missed: Darkness

Forty years have passed after cult-like ritual killings occur in a rural area in Spain, Mark and his family move into a house close to his doctor father. As various bizarre events occur, resulting in the hospitalization of Mark and leaving his son Paul all bruised, it is up to Mark’s daughter Regina and her friend Carlos to solve the mystery behind the strange occurrence that surround the family house.
As much as Darkness is a sort of Pitch Black in a haunted house, it still manages to be unexpectedly entertaining. Even with the stereotypical clairvoyant little child role, it still looks pretty original. This is apparently a “scary movie”, so where are the scares? The elements are present. The performances and the story are pretty solid, the creepy gags work quite well but there just aren’t enough frights. It is all nail-biting suspense with no out-of-the-blue-jump-out-of-your-seat moment. There was at least one loud KABOOM and it was simply an “I didn’t mean to scare you” kind of a horror scare. The ending is quite clever, but it also too obvious to really be the last scream before credits ending. Rather it only raises an eyebrow at best.

I give credit where it’s due, the movie stuck to its ideas. The mood and atmosphere is befittingly dark. It’s just the right kind of darkness that works; there are many movies where all the lights are off in the house but everything inside is conveniently moonlit. Darkness really has great darkness.
Anna Paquin does a pretty good job as this movie’s scream queen. Some familiar faces make up the rest of the cast. Giancarlo Gianinni plays Dr. Rua, grandfather of “Regina” and “Paul” and Iain Glen is the troubled son of Dr. Rua. Although everybody here fits, I just find it strange that while it takes place in Spain, everyone speaks in English and all the accents sound Italian.

The cast does a decent enough job, the story is strong and the suspense is there but this “scary movie” just isn’t scary enough. Darkness may be worth a rent this coming weekend, but make sure to turn the volume up… maybe then you’ll really get scared.

The Walking Dead – Episode 4: Vatos

It’s about time for Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead, to come forward with an episode from his own hand and one that features the least material from the original source. With this episode it is almost as if the series is saying “Yes, this might be The Walking Dead, but it’s not The Walking Dead you are used to.”

It seems that my fears about the series’ slow pace following episode three were baseless – Vatos picks up the pace perfectly, continuing on from Tell It To The Frogs, with our hero Rick (along with his small group of survivors) still in Atlanta trying to retrieve the bag of guns he left behind when he was being chased by zombies in the first episode, only with a minor complication… another group of survivors!

Vatos spends a fair amount of time on character development, but unlike the previous episode it isn’t at the expense of the pacing and the action – showing just how much of a handle Robert Kirkman has on the universe he created, striking a perfect balance between character, story and action in much the same way as the comic. And although Vatos does have a lot of similarities with the original comic in the aforesaid terms, where it does differ is in the introduction of the second group of survivors in Atlanta.It is an interesting idea, and one that may pay off in the future in this television iteration – but for now, in this episode, the new characters and the circumstance that leads from their introduction is definitely used to great effect, showing us just what type of leader Rick Grimes is, and will be.

As the group of heroes deal with the situation in Atlanta, there is another situation building back at base camp as insecurities, instabilities and tensions come to the fore and the survivors begin to crack mentally and emotionally – and as the series goes on I can see this coming to the fore even more, really giving an emotional human core in the television iteration of The Walking Dead.

Although the story in this episode does avert from the comic for the most part, it does not take long for it to come back to the source material for a horrifying and suitably gory denouement that leaves our group of survivors reeling. Suffice to say that in The Walking Dead no one is safe!

Game Review: Dead Nation

Dead Nation is an addictive and gruesome twin stick zombie shooter from the developers of Super Stardust HD. During the past couple of years several zombie shooters have been released, and have oversaturated the market depending on your tastes. Does Dead Nation have what it takes to stand up on its own? Or is it an infectious scourge on the PlayStation Store? Hit the break for my verdict.

Dead Nation will definitely be one of the most addictive and well-polished PSN titles you will play all year. Dead Nation occurs in a deserted city where everyone has been turned into flesh eating zombies. The main character, the only survivor, miraculously remains immune to the virus that has infected everyone in the planet. The story which focuses on your desire to survive is both cliché and well presented. Dead Nation features rough, yet beautifully drawn cut-scenes that are used to progress the story. Combine that with great voice acting and you have a story that is more intriguing than it should be.

Anyone that has played Geometry Wars and Super Stardust will be able to step right into Dead Nation. The right stick controls aiming and the left stick controls the player movement. Any player can step right in and start blowing chunks out of the infected. Dead Nation features a number of best looking dismemberment by any arcade game. Zombies are very eager to taste your flesh and a few require quick moves in order to be dealt with. Dead Nation has an amazing amount of enemy variety, which is essential to making a deep experience. Players can expect slow and burdensome enemy types all the way to extremely fast and frisky enemies. In fact, Dead Nation does a very good job of including every type of enemy you can think of.

Dead Nation is an exceedingly moody game, and features some of the best graphics and lighting in an arcade title. Despite the deep atmosphere, Dead Nation also brings about frequent breaks of humour, which helps the game from having an overwhelming amount of depressing tone. If all the previously mentioned elements weren’t enough, Dead Nation is also cleverly paced. Enemies, appear, hide and swarm you in the most inconvenient moments, helping to keep you engaged at all times. So many instances that developers have failed in one area or another, still even the sound design is outstanding. The ambient noise that plays in the background, combined with the sound effect, enemy chatter and music helps create another layer of fascination that is lacking from some retail titles.

Dead Nation features both offline and online 2-player co-op play. It was hard to assess if there were any latency problems since only a few people were online playing. Perhaps my favourite feature is the way Dead Nation handle their leaderboards. Not only does it do an impressive job of tracking stats, but it also counts your country’s stats. The more zombies you neutralize, the quicker you can help clear the infection from your country. This leaderboard does not only facilitate competition between players, but it also encourages competition between countries. It creates a unique sense of competition that I haven’t experienced within an arcade game in quite some time.

I highly recommend Dead Nation. I would encourage you to purchase it as soon as it gets released on November 30^th. It’s an impressively polished, very addictive, and highly atmospheric game that no one should miss out on.

Scary Movie You May Have Missed: [REC]

You mention the words “found footage” to most horror movie fans, and they immediately sigh and recall The Blair Witch Project, which was a huge indie hit at the box office, but is most often seen as lacking in entertainment value. So, it’s a victim of its own hype, but I don’t include myself as one of its detractors, and I’m fond of footage movies. Yes, they are made cheap, but when you strip a horror movie of a large budget and studio conventions, you usually end up with a thriller which relies on tension and creativity to be highly effective. There’s usually a heightened level of intimacy with these films, especially if the film is publicized as “real”, and the more emotions you invest in the film, the easier it is for you to be scared.

I’m not certain I would call three films in one calendar year a renaissance, but in 2007 there were three really good films in this genre: Paranormal Activity, The Poughkeepsie Tapes and, the best, the Spanish import, [REC] that I’ve seen this year. [REC] is, in my opinion, the best horror movie since Neil Marshall’s The Descent.

[REC] starts with young reporter Niña Medeiros shooting a segment for her late night TV show, While You’re Sleeping, at a local fire station. It was a slow night, as Nina tries to fill her segment with interviews and a basketball game. Until a call finally comes in, it’s just a low priority call – tenants in an apartment building are complaining about loud screams coming from one of the apartments.Both police and fire department respond to the call, and Niña and her cameraman, decide to come along for the ride. When they arrive in the building, the neighbors have all assembled on the main floor while the emergency staff and the television crew investigate upstairs and find an old woman in her apartment in an enraged state. While it appears that the situation is of minimal concern, everyone inside the building as about to come face to face the most extreme fear possible.  There is something evil in the building, and there is no way out, except for death.

The Walking Dead – Episode 3: Tell It To The Frogs

This episode of The Walking Dead follows immediately on from the end of the episode two as Rick and the group drive out of Atlanta and to the survivor’s camp. The first half of the episode slows things down – as Rick meets up with the other survivors, including his wife and son, and his best friend and former partner Shane, who just happens to have been having an affair with Rick’s wife Lori. The first meeting of Rick with his family is really a touching moment and is definitely the highlight of the series so far.

Tell It To The Frogs then spends its time showing what life is like at the survivors camp, introducing us to the major characters in the series, before taking a cue from the comic book and heading back to Atlanta as Rick and three other survivors try to rescue the repulsive Merle Dixon, who they accidentally left on a rooftop in the last episode, and grab the bag of weapons that Rick dropped in his pre-tank scuffle with the zombie horde in episode one.

Episode three also introduces  Merle Dixon’s brother, who is the driving force behind their return to Atlanta and like his big brother he’s not the most pleasant of characters, although he is a damn sight more likeable thanks to the outstanding performance of Norman Reedus – even if he’s not really supposed to be…

By the third episode of The Walking Dead the TV version it seems that it is headed in a different direction and deliberately much slower paced than the comic book source. Tell It To The Frogs seems to be the low point in the series, the slow pace actually works against the narrative – with a lot of time spent contemplating and pontificating rather than doing which, compared to the first two episodes, is a bit disappointing, especially since the series only has a 6 episode order. If the series continues at this slow pace then I can see many of frustrated viewers, myself included!

Movie Review: Resident Evil Afterlife

High on action and matrix-like fight scenes makes this an action-packed film. But too short progress in the story line is somehow a let down. This is how I would summarize my review on the latest instalment of Resident Evil. It’s the fourth movie of the Resident Evil movie franchise which focuses on the developing story of the Umbrella Organization’s role in the release of the deadly T-Virus, which was responsible for the zombie outbreak.

The film begins where Resident Evil: Extinction ends, the set of Alice clones attacked the Umbrella headquarters in Tokyo and she was able to get injected with the anti-T Virus, which she believes would make her human.

“Resident Evil: Afterlife,” introduces a familiar character from the game, Chris Redfield, who now joins her sister Claire who suffered from memory loss after the Umbrella Organization put a memory loss device into them. Claire managed to meet Alice on her way to Arcadia.

Experience a New Dimension of Evil

The film was more thrilling and exciting on 3D especially the battle scene where Claire and Alice fight against the large demonic butcher with a huge clever like weapon. The scenes were really captivating.
On the other hand, the battle in the end with the Umbrella Organization’s leader was also great but I felt it was too short. Alice together with Claire and Chris managed to free Arcadia but there is still an imminent attack from the Umbrella Organization.

The film ends there and hints of the next plot for the fifth sequel. Who wouldn’t want a part five especially if Resident Evil: Afterlife topped the Weekend Box Office during its release with $26,650,264 in the United States.

Movie Review: ‘Zombrex Dead Rising Sun’

Keiji Inafune’s Zombrex Dead Rising Sun, Japan-centric tie in film to the Dead Rising universe has gone unfortunately unnoticed.  Released in eight parts for free on Xbox Live over the past few months, the film shows the story of the zombie epidemic in Japan as opposed to the American cities of its video game counterpart… but is it worth the watch?  Read further to find out!

The story focuses on a paraplegic named George, his older brother Shin, and their struggles to seek shelter in the midst of the zombie plague.  Refused by countless shelters, they holed-up in what they thought was an abandoned warehouse, only to encounter the psychotic thug Takahashi and his sadistic baddies, who prove to be an even worse threat than the walking dead outside.

True to Dead Rising form, the true conflict of the movie stems more from the demented and immoral humans than from the zombie hordes.  The zombies take a backseat to Takahashi and his gang, who take ruthless pleasure in antagonizing the two brothers as well as a young nurse named Mary, who crashes her car into the warehouse in a search for Zombrex, the drug that she believes can prevent her zombification.

What emerges is pure low-budget zombie movie trash, although elevated to a nonsensical art form by the video-game pedigree that it carries.  By the time the movie ends, we’ve seen gallons of gore, a flamethrower to the face, a wheelchair modified into a chainsaw-mobilized tank, and fatal fellatio, all peppered with easter eggs and sly in-jokes.  Inafune also made a bold decision to shoot most of the movie from the point of view of the wheelchair-bound George, which gives it a very unprecedented perspective.

Unless your Xbox hard drive is full, there is really no reason not to give Zombrex Dead Rising Sun a chance. Its micro budget, awful dubbing and stilted dialogue all add up to be one hell of a good time.  Plus, it’s free!  You will find it in the Game Downloads/Game Videos section of Xbox Live.

Zombie RPG: Dead State

As gamers, it is a fact that we can’t get just enough zombie action in our lives. After games like Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising, a zombie-based RPG was sure to be released. DoubleBear Productions, a new company composed of veterans from Obisidan and Troika, decided to jump on the ZRPG ball. After DoubleBear announced their ZRPG project, the internet went wild. Now their project has a name, Dead State. In addition with finally giving it a name, DoubleBear has also decided to reveal some juicy details about their new zombie game.

Dead State takes place in Splendid, a fictional town in Texas, which appears to be located in the middle of nowhere. The main character is in charge of the local school, which is also the local shelter of Splendid, and your main objective in this whole dilemma is simply: survive. In an interview with Brian Mitsoda, lead developer of DoubleBear, he was able to give a good amount of information regarding Dead State.

Unique Gaming Experience

According to Mitsoda, the game will evidently not have any “bad guys”, but there’ll be ways to find friends… as well as make enemies. Mitsoda explained “we did this because we wanted a large pool of unique survivors and moreover because we wanted some randomness in the makeup of your group.” Your group may have a different experience every time, depending on their morale, how they get along with the group and other factors. Mitsoda stated “In a way it is like being a real leader – you can’t make decisions that please everyone all the time.”

Another aspect discussed during the interview was the battle system. Dead State is going to be turn-based, and you will not be able to fully control the members in your party. However, what you can do is help equip your group and also heavily influence them psychologically. “We wanted to make our allies feel as if they were individuals rather than extensions of the player,” he explained. “The player can give them orders, but as to whether they will follow that order or not depends on their ability, their reluctance to the task, and their respect for the player’s commands.”

From these details, DoubleBear’s upcoming project sounds very interesting, and very innovative. Hopefully DoubleBear can achieve what they’re aspiring for. Dead State is going to be released on PC with no definite release date (except for not in 2010). Just keep checking with us for the latest details on DoubleBear’s current zombie project.

The Walking Dead – Episode 2: Guts

In this episode of The Walking Dead, we see the introduction of the rag tag group of survivors whom Rick Grimes will eventually lead in their search of a safe place to live after the zombie apocalypse. We also see some deviation from the original graphic novel upon which the series is based – namely the introduction of the dislikable Merle Dixon, and the earlier-than-in-the-comics introduction of some of the survivors, including Andrea, Lori, Carl and Dale. Episode two “Guts” is also heavily influenced by George Romero’s classic Dawn of the Dead, with the group of survivors holed up in a department store.

Immediately taking off from the end of the episode one, Guts sees Rick being helped out of his tank situation by the series’ comedy relief Glenn. But it is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire, as Rick must struggle with zombies on the attack from the outside and the bigoted, racist Merle Dixon on the attack from the inside! Of the newly-introduced cast it’s Steven Yuen as Glenn and Michael Rooker as Dixon who really stand out, each character at opposite ends of humanities spectrum – Dixon is the type of character who revels in it, seeking to use every situation for his advantage whilst Glenn is the friendly guy who uses humour to stave off the god-awful situation he’s in. Merle Dixon’s addition to the Walking Dead universe adds a very human villain the events. Unlike zombies, Dixon is very unpredictable. He can be considered a “monster” that adds an air of danger for the group of survivors.

This episode carries the heart of The Walking Dead on its sleeve with a title as straightforward as Guts, and it does not let viewers down, there are plenty of guts throughout this episode, especially in the scene in which Rick and Glenn had to disguise themselves as zombies to pass through the horde of zombies to get their hands on a van to rescue the rest of the survivors – its gross, funny and utterly, utterly superb!

Does episode two of The Walking Dead live up to the hype after the explosive first episode? Dumb question – of course it does! Guts is another great episode in what seems to be THE premiere horror series on television.