World War Z, a Review

Zombies are everywhere in pop culture these days.  The undead presence is so proliferated that its occurrence is no longer shocking to encounter in almost any given genre.  By and large I am an independent soul, beating to the chords of my own guitar.  I eschew trendiness like a kindergartner cringes at shots.  For all practical purposes, whenever something becomes coo, it is implicitly given a death sentence, because the masses are always looking for something new and different.  The zombie craze, I think, is finally nearing the downward slope of its popularity.  (But the question is can it remain dead?)

I’ve been a zombie fan for most of my life.  My mom woke me up late one night—I was five—and she wanted me to watch some old black & white movie with her cause she was scared.  This is one of my earliest memories.  The film was “Night of the Living Dead.”  To this day she is still terrified of that movie.  Apparently it entered into my young psyche and I’ve been partial to the genre ever since.

When Max Brooks’ World War Z came out I thought it sounded interesting.  I’m a fan of the documentary style of storytelling, and World War Z was described as a series of interviews with survivors from the zombie war.  But this was all during the hype of the zombie craze, so I dropped the book on my TBR and went about my business (much like I did with Pride & Prejudice& Zombies).  However, I had to do some traveling recently for work, so I decided to pick up the audio version of WWZ for the road.

To begin with, the audio book itself is a work of art.  Because the book is a series of interviews with various survivors, the audio production features a full cast of actors to fill the bill.  Max Brooks reads his own part, playing the role of the interviewer.  Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, Rob Reiner, and several other voices play other roles.  This version won recognition and an Audie award.  This was truly a delight to listen to.

However, one thing I did not notice until later, the audio book was ABRIDGED!  I am against abridged books and cannot understand why they even exist.  (If you have any good reasons why, do tell.)  But there was no going back, so I pressed on.  This is my only disappointment with the audio book.

Plot-wise, Brooks establishes right up front that he’s presenting these interviews as a follow-up to an official UN report.  He traveled the world collecting facts and figures and wound up gathering so much stuff that he was encouraged to write the book.  Most of the time Brooks stays silent in order to allow the survivor to tell their story.  He introduces each character and asks an occasional question, but he has intentionally removed himself from the story.

The world is fascinating.  Brooks interviews people from all over: China, Japan, Iceland, New York, South Africa, Palestine, and more.  The stories are captivating to varying degrees, but all were engrossing enough that I never grew bored.  The interviews provide some unique insight to how the zombie outbreak affected the entire world, culturally, economically, mentally.  They were handled well and entirely believable.

I don’t want to say anything about any of the individual stories to remain spoiler free, but all were worth the read.  If you can suspend your disbelief and have a weakness for this type of storytelling, check out Max Brooks’ World War Z.  I very much enjoyed it.  The audio was excellent, just remember that it is abridged.

The Reapers Are the Angels, a Review

Oh my. You know that feeling you have when you're reading a good book, and as you're reading you try to put it out of your mind that the page count is dwindling and the text is going to run out soon and you try to slow down and savor the last few pages but you can't, because you just gotta know what happens? And then you finish and you're slightly hollow and realize that two days have now passed and you can't stop thinking about the book and what exactly did happen. You give it to your spouse and force her to read it so you can discuss it with somebody, and then you pester and question her as she does.  You find yourself speaking with an accent to mimic the protagonist, whether its appropriate or not. You are, in essence, haunted.  You know that feeling?

Alden Bell's The Reapers Are the Angels had this affect on me. It generated quite a bit of buzz when it came out, back in 2010, and several of the genre bloggers I follow recommended it as a good read. I shelved it and moved along until just recently, where I decided (on a whim) to read it and knock another book off the 2012 Manifesto. Again: oh my. The Reapers Are the Angels is a post-apocalyptic zombie tale that's not really about the zombies or the state of the world. It's a story about a girl named Temple, fifteen and incredibly resilient, struggling to survive in the "now" and reconcile the choices she's made in the "past." The world changed twenty-five years ago, so Temple has little knowledge of how things were back then, and she gains most of that knowledge from fellow survivors or tossed-out magazines. 

Temple's voice was what propelled this book for me. She's smart, flawed, sassy, and funny, but she's got a depth to her that stays hidden from anyone with a brain. She's made mistakes and regrets them every day, and yet she's not up-front about it, not even to herself, and thus not to the Reader, either. Temple spends her days traveling around the country, living mostly alone for much of the time. After she makes an enemy of a man named Moses Todd in a survivor's town, though, she spends the rest of the book on the run, waiting for their inevitable meeting.

"She leaves him sitting there, glancing back just once before she goes through the stairwell door and observing how the cloud of smoke from his cigar gets pulled in wisps out the dark gaping hole in the glass wall--as though it is his soul, too large for his massive frame and seeping out the pores of his skin and wandering circuitous back into the wilderness where it knows itself true among the violent and the dead."(p35)

Interestingly, The Reapers Are the Angels is toted as a Southern Gothic type tale, in the vein of Flannery O'Connor or Cormac McCarthy. Like McCarthy, Bell adopts a different method for presenting the story, eschewing quotation marks and atypical punctuation. This simplicity adds to the feel of a post-world (just like it did with The Road), though it can get confusing, as one may not know whether or not a character is speaking or if we're reading Temple's thoughts. Nevertheless, I didn't find it too much of a distraction to ever get lost. Similarly, Bell reveals much of the story by revealing little, that is, he's quite sparse with his prose. There are times when he waxes on the beauty of the stars or a river or something, but it always seems to fit the moment and what Temple would be thinking. Other times there's very little description and even less action/resolution, but again, it seems fitting.

Despite my glowing reaction to the story, there were a few problems evident.  Most notably was Bell's odd word choices, as if he relied heavily on a thesaurus to put a little purple into the prose from time to time.  I didn't notice this too much, but Keisha pointed it out as one of the big issues she had with the book.  This is directly related to my biggest issue, that being that I thought Temple was a bit unbalanced as a character.  The girl is incredibly skillful and incredibly dangerous, having the resilience to not only survive in the dead world, but to survive well.  And yet, despite her obvious intelligence, she was illiterate.  This really served no purpose to the book, and in fact extended too far out of my willingness to suspend disbelief.  This wouldn't have been as noticeable if she didn't wax poetical whenever she was moved.

Alden Bell's book was an absolute pleasure to read. It's one part Western, with a vengeance story driving much of the plot, but it's also much more than that. The zombies are different than other zombies that I've read. Heck, the post-world is different than other imagined futures. Temple was a fascinating character to explore, and I loved her rhymes & reasons for life and God and the rest of the world. If you're looking for a short (225 pages) and addictive read, then let me suggest The Reapers Are the Angels. It never crossed the line into horror, but it camped close to the edge, proffering room for a vivid imagination to take the story and run. It's a book about a girl with questions and guilt, a girl that wonders about what it means to be human. It's a fast-paced book with some small hang-ups, but it's one that I strongly recommend.

The Walking Dead, a (Partial) Review

 I say partial in that The Walking Dead is an on-going series, with twelve current trade paperback collections out and that I've only read nine of them as of yet.  With that, I'm really unsure how to go about reviewing what I've read up until now.  Should I review each TPB (as I have quasi-done over on my Goodreads site) individually or should I instead review the overall story as a whole?  If I choose the latter, how spoiler-free can I hope to remain?  Can I mention anything outside of Volume One and still remain spoiler-free?  I think so, but I won't do it.  I shall endeavor to avoid all things that reek of spoilers...

I've long wanted to read Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.  Zombies have been a part of my life for nigh twenty years now, ever since my mom woke me up late one night to watch a scary movie with her cause she was scared.  The film, to my five year old eyes, was a strange black & white thing with weird, shambling people threatening a group of normal people.  Of course I'm talking about Night of the Living Dead.  Since then, I suppose, zombies have been a part of my life.

Back a few years ago in college, when I was falling in love with graphic novels, I found out about The Walking Dead but I did not have the means to read it, nor did my library have any copies.  Now, after a recent trip to the library (and prompted with a reminder by the upcoming AMC series), I've found that the library has Volumes 1-12.  

The Walking Dead is a story where zombies are relegated to mere background and scenery and the true action takes place with the survivors.  After officer Rick Grimes wakes up from a coma to find a world destroyed and filled with slow-moving, undead things, he knows something terrible has happened.  He sets out to find his wife and son and, along the way, the apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead comes to life.

Characterization is the driving force behind this series.  The survivor's Rick finds along the way each tell a hauntingly similar story.  One day the world was overran by zombies and since then they've struggled to make it.  Food is scarce, as is shelter.  Survivor's are even harder to find.  The undead are everywhere, and in order to survive, one must be quick and resilient.  Indeed, the human drama is powerful story-telling, and Kirkman goes at it with an all-or-nothing approach.  (For example, by the end of Volume Nine, my emotions feel like they've been put through a meat grinder, followed by a wood chopper.  There's just so much going on.)

Illustration is also another beautiful thing about The Walking Dead.  Volume One, Days Gone Bye, is illustrated by Tony Moore, and all issues after are by Charlie Adlard.  Everything is done in a black & white Romero-esqe style, and the lack of colors adds to the bleakness of the story.  The zombies also look very cool and unique, and I applaud the artistic choices of the series.

At times hard to read, this series is very tragic and full of problems.  There are few scenes of happiness and joy.  Death is everywhere.  Uncertainty.  These things make for great story telling and character musing, though sometimes the musing is a bit absurd.

Overall, I've really enjoyed reading Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.  I'm glad to have finally read some of the series, and I hope the AMC version does it justice.  While many things are cliches, Kirkman also adds in enough originality to make the plot interesting.  The characters are memorable, the art is perfectly fitting, and the drama is high.  If you're a fan of zombie fiction, this is a must-read series.

Flash Fiction Friday, Special Edition: The Testimony of Goodwin, P.A. (Audio Version!)

I've decided to post an audio short-story.  It was read, written, directed, recorded, edited, created, imagined, nurtured, helped, fed, nourished, and bathed by me.  The story only takes a few minutes.  The transcript is provided below, if thou wishest to follow along.

Download here: (cause you know you wanna put it on and listen to it over and over and over and over and over and over again, like when you're running on a treadmill, or walking down an old gravel road, or taking a thirty-four hour car drive, or studying for a test...)

Disclaimer:  I will not apologize for my accent.  Be it known that I am from Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.  It is here that English is spoken perfectly.  Everyone else speaks with falsehoods and colloquialisms.  We Muhlenberg Folk, especially those of us from Bremen, are the only true, American-English speakers.

Also, I will not apologize for getting carried away a bit in my reading.  

Transcript:

The Testimony of Goodwin, P.A

This is my last day alive. The sickness is tearing through me, wearing my body thin and ruining my resolve. All I can think about is the humor in the situation. I come back to life and here I am, dying all over again. It’s a shame, truly. I was curious to see how long I could live again, but, no sense in crying over…

***

Oh the hunger! How am I supposed to put this out with the pain burning inside me? The Black Horse of the Apocalypse has unleashed ruin all across the globe, but the famine is not just with crop. The food of my kind is all but depleted, leaving behind a world full of moaning, angry, wretched devils.

***

To anyone that finds this, know that I am sorry for my actions, both whilst I lived and whilst I re-lived. I squandered my second chance, unable to resist the urges of my new body. I mobbed with the rest of them, biting and gnashing without abandon. I never even considered the victims of my selfishness until, until, quite a bit later, after the supply ran out and I was left with only my clan. (Is that what we are? A clan?)

Of course we tried eating ourselves, but no society functions within the realms of civility by practicing cannibalism. Yes, we are a civil lot, save for when we catch a scent of succulent, juicy… Ha haha ha. Haaaaaaaa…

***

I leave this to anyone that may find it. Know that none of us, at least not any of the ones I knew, wanted things to end like this. We didn’t realize at the time that we were any different, we were just hungry. In the long hours between meals, we would talk to kill the time. It’s… it’s crazy how similar all of our feelings were. It’s almost like we all shared one mind, but over many different bodies. And we all had the same intent: feed.

It shames me…

***

I pray that there are survivors out there and that we don’t find you. You can outlast us. We can only go a handful of days before we… stop. Again, I can’t describe this, but… My running mate, Zekial, gave out yesterday. His body just stopped. One minute we’re talking, trying to find sustenance, knowing that we’re both doomed if we don’t, just not knowing when. And then his legs gave out; he couldn’t move. And then he just stopped talking. Mid-sentence. He gasped and his body froze in Death’s tight grip. He’d been six days without a meal. It was his first time dying.

I’m not sure how I came back. I remember dying, certainly. I got hit by a truck. I was working. Walking down the road and then BOOM! That was it. I died instantly. Then there was just black and music. But then, some time later, the darkness burned orange and I came to. I was in a mausoleum, surrounded by monsters. That was my first impression, and I suppose it still is the same. And I was hungry.

I had my first meal that very night. Zekial took pity on me and invited me on a hunting party. We found a family of six, ha, and they had a pet dog, too! I remember throwing up afterwards. My stomach was bloated. But the brains… Oh.

***

Not long now. I’m too weak to move. The rest of the clan will be dying before long. We’ve all been days without food, and it looks like there’s nothing left. I pray to God that I am wrong, that someone out there lives. This cannot be how humanity ends. It’s… It’s too…

Weekended, a Video Game Aside, and the Winner

Wow, what a weekend.  Drove down to Nashville and spent all day Saturday at the mall, scouting for things to bring and wear on our cruise.  Spent a little money, but got a ton of excellent deals.  Had fun spending the day with the wife, even if it was at the mall.  Normally when we go to the mall I bring a paperback with me and read (after I’ve finished my browsing).  This time, however, I forgot, so I walked around and pestered Keisha.  But we had a good time.

Sunday was a blur.  Praise band practice at 8:30, Sunday School breakfast at 9:15, special church lunch at 12:00, pastor’s special meeting at 12:40, attempted nap at 1:30, give up on nap at 2:30, PS3 until 3:25, homeless shelter worship service 3:45, choir and music practice at 5:30, church at 6:00, and Easter music practice at 7:00.  It was a constant moving, busy day.  I had the light off and was in bed before 10:00pm.  But even though yesterday was hectic and busy, I smile thinking back on it.  We’ve searched for a church to call home for many years now and we’re blessed to be involved at Macedonia.  We’ve been here for about eight months and we’ve met a lot of great people.  The preaching is solid and foundational.  I love my SS class.  We just got a new worship minister in January and our church has grown tremendously in worship.  All things considered, it’s great, and I’m okay to wear myself thin every once in a while.

I was playing Final Fantasy last week when I suddenly had a burning desire to shoot some undead space zombies.  I whipped out Dead Space, one of my favorite games (reviewed initially here), and have been playing it ever since.  I miss FF, but I just have a desire to play a FPS for now.  And even though I’ve already beat Dead Space before, I still really enjoy the game.  The story is still gripping; the gameplay is still fun; the mechanics are still awesome.  Also, this is the first time I’ve played it on my own PS3, so I’m getting to unlock all the trophies and stuff for my own system as opposed to William’s.

The autographed book contest ended yesterday.  So, to be completely random, I wrote down all the entrants names, cut out little pieces of paper, lay them down and shuffled them around and let them simmer for a while.  After an hour or so of basting I then picked up the entries and shuffled them around some more.  After a bit of humbleness from one of the entrants, the entries dropped from twelve to ten.  Sadly I received no funny email entries.  Ultimately, I cast the slips around like casting lots from the Bible, and the last slip to remain in my hands won.  That winner is…

Krista, from Life, or Something Like It…, who actually had a 30% chance of winning, and, in this case, the statistics proved true.

So, Krista, if you could email me your mailing address I’ll put the book to post soon.  You have 72 hours to respond or there'll be another drawing.  To everyone that entered, thank you.  You fought hard, but in the end, statistics kicked you upside the head.

I should have a book review up soon.  Take care.

a zombie christmas eve, by logankstewart

sing, burning tree, a sweet and fiery melody
of love and fear.
through colored lights on darkly nights
and hopes of a better year.

cry, spoiled child, a bitter and sorrow filled sob
of not getting your desire.
but look at yon tree, and how bad it can be
to find yourself on fire.

hear, loud room, stuffed with voices grand,
laughing at the table.
for something's not right with the world tonight,
i present a christmas fable.

lock up the door,
seal up the house,
for the world is over tonight.
the zombies are here,
their intention is clear,
for the world is over tonight.

santa is dead,
the reindeer are fed
and christmas is over tonight.
his brains have been eaten
by prancer and comet,
see their dark faces,
see their thick vomit,
and christmas is over tonight.

the elves are to blame
for this turn of events.
humanity ends tonight!
tired of their slavery,
from years working hard,
covertly they worked
and played their trump card.
humanity ends tonight!

spread through the air
with carols and snow,
the world is over tonight.
we'll turn on ourselves
unable to resist
and the world will be over tonight.

when the sun rises tomorrow
and no one wakes up
will the elves realize what they've done?
when all that's left
is a shambling, starving, mob,
will they regret their actions?

and years from now,
when only zombies remain,
will little zombie jimmy
ask for christmas a brain?

mourn, upset reader, for having wasted your time here
on this pathetic work.
if you need a reason to celebrate the season
it's that things could always be worse.

merry happy christmas, folks. brains!

Halloween’s A-Comin’

In the spirit of the season, I shall postpone my review of STAR WARS: Fate of the Jedi: Omen until a later time, which may be tomorrow, or may be never.  Now that that’s done, that means I’m starting (finally) on Joe Abercrombie’s The Last Argument of Kings today at lunch.  I cannot wait to dive in and see what’s going to happen there and see how The First Law series ends.

Enough of that.  Let’s take a look at some Halloween themed stuff.1.  Post-Apocalypse survival.  Growing up a fan of Scooby-Doo, this picture blows me away.  I can imagine the world in which Velma and Scooby find themselves in, but I wonder what sacrifices they were forced to make to survive.  “Jinkies,” I can hear Velma say, “this post-apocalyptic vampire and zombie infested wasteland is a tough life, eh, Scoob?”  Anyway, I thought the image was pretty cool, and this could be an interesting comic/Adult Swim show idea.  This image originates from here, by the way, if you’re interested.

I’m not sure what it is about the post-apocalyptic genre that I love so very much, but I do like it.  Whether it’s reading a book or playing a game like Fallout 3, there’s something very attractive in the post-apoc setting.

2.  Zombies.  I found a very interesting article called “Zombie 101,” written by Matt Zoller Seitz.  Basically there is a few paragraphs written about zombies and their cultural significance to us, which is interesting to read.  However, at the end of the article, Seitz has created a 12 minute video essay that really drives home the point.  The essay pays homage to all sorts of zombie films and I really enjoyed watching it.  You can find the article and essay here.

Have you noticed that recently both zombies and vampires have become very, very popular?  I’m sure Twilight had something to do with the vampire revival, but I have no clue what started up the zombie revolution.  I grew up with zombies, and I can remember my mom waking me up at night when I was a wee lad to watch a movie with her because she was scared to watch it alone.  That movie was Night of the Living Dead, the defining zombie movie.  (Okay, in the haziness of my mind it may not actually be NotLD, but I’m pretty sure it was one of Romero’s classic B&W zombie movies.)

3.  Jack-O’-Lanterns.  This year I’ve decided to do some actual pumpkin carving other than a traditional Jack-face.  I’ve not chosen exactly what I want to carve yet, but I have narrowed down my options.  There are a lot of ideas out there, and some cool stencils, too, if you’re interested in trying it out.  If it turns out good, I’ll try to post a picture.

4.  Candy.  Man oh man oh man do I love candy.  Hard candy, like Runts, Gobstoppers, Sprees, Nerds, Sweet Tarts, Bottlecaps, and suckers, are a constant nag to my sweet-desiring mouth.  Soft candy, like Chewy Sprees, Skittles, Shock Tarts, and Gummy anythings, are an equal temptation for me to scorn.  And then there’s chocolate.  There’s just something that’s hard to ignore when you’ve got chocolate, especially dark chocolate, tempting you, calling out to you, begging you to bite into its wonderful bark.  And adding peanut butter to the chocolate is often something I cannot refuse.  Dang, now I really want some candy.  Maybe I can convince my brother-in-law or my cousins to part with some of their loot after the party this weekend.

I hope you all are ready for Halloween.  I know I am.  Plus, I’m planning on making another cheesecake for the party this weekend.  I may try and put a Halloween spin on it, even, if I think I’m up to the challenge.

(NaNoWriMo is approaching quickly, and I, like Dave, am chomping at the bit.  Actually, I’ve cheated a bit and wrote a few things down in my planning stage.  But I’ve justified myself, telling myself that I have to still write 50,000 words in November.  And I’m getting my 360 today…)

Open Mouthed and Awe Struck

An apology: Today’s post was not originally going to be about this. I was going to write more about the reasoning behind my blog, behind my title, behind different themes and elements that appear here. Instead, I get an email that leaves me open mouthed and awe struck. So, if you’re tired of STAR WARS news, I apologize, but I urge you to read on…

Wow. This is something I’ve honestly never expected to see. Before I go into details, just take a close look at the cover of the new STAR WARS: Death Troopers (by Joe Schreiber) novel that was released today. Can you see the blood and chains? Does the decapitated stormtrooper’s head mean anything to you? Nothing? What if I give you a one word prod in the right direction? Zombie.

Yes, friends, you read that correctly. Zombies. Or at least that’s what the blurb reads like to me. You decide.

When the Imperial prison barge Purge–temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels, and thieves–breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting, derelict, and seemingly abandoned. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back–bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine.
And death is only the beginning.
The Purge’s half-dozen survivors–two teenage brothers, a sadistic captain of the guards, a couple of rogue smugglers, and the chief medical officer, the lone woman on board–will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer amid its vast creaking emptiness that isn’t really empty at all. For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry.

Sure sounds like zombies to me. And in the STAR WARS universe, too. The author, Joe Schreiber, is a known horror author and this is his first installment into the STAR WARS universe. In the timeline of things, it takes place just before A New Hope, and it is canon.

The review I read indicated that the novel is indeed creepy and spooky at times, and that the story is bleak and hopeless. While this is typical with the zombie genre, it’s (potentially) exciting to see how it fits into the STAR WARS universe. And, since it’s close to Halloween, I could easily fit it into some holiday-themed reading.

I’ll definitely be adding this to my reading pile.

An after-thought: It’s coincidental that two days ago I posted a review for Zombieland and yesterday I posted a review for the last STAR WARS novel I read, and then today I have a post that combines both zombies and STAR WARS. It’s odd that I’ve never heard of this novel until today, too. Tomorrow will continue along with Writing Wednesdays and the story of Hank Tasla.

Zombieland

Piggybacking off of yesterday’s post, there’s something fascinating about a zombie. The flesh-eating, unstoppable undead provide a medium to laugh at, pity, and fear. When I became aware of the Zombieland movie, it was one that I knew I’d have to see.

The film is typical of any other zombie film: plague turns people into zombies and leave only a small remnant of survivors, all trying to cope with the affects of Zombie Apocalypse. The characters—the college loner Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), the Twinkie seeking zombie slayer Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and the Pacific Playland Bound Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin)—are all fun to watch interact with each other, and their onscreen chemistry is easily noticeable.

Much of the movie is simple and straightforward. It is narrated by Columbus, who has a set of rules he’s gone by to stay alive. When Columbus meets Tallahassee, the real sparks begin to fly, and Harrelson steals nearly every scene. I found myself rolling many times at some of the jokes that were said.

While Zombieland deals with scary elements, the film is mostly light-hearted and funny. However, there were a few times when I jumped from suspense, which made the film even more enjoyable. The characters’ backgrounds are revealed through dialogue and flashbacks, and these are really the parts of the film that are sobering. By adding in a taste of humanity, the film invokes pity and sorrow for the characters, which can work as a good or bad thing for the movie.

This is not a film I would recommend for children, nor for people that want to avoid swearing and gore. (In yesterday’s post I mentioned how I don’t like gore, but for some reason zombie gore doesn’t seem to bother me one bit.) Zombie blood and zombie sick was a-plenty, and if you like the thrill of hewing down a zombie, you’ll like this movie.

Overall, the movie was really fun to watch and experience. A famous celebrity made a cameo that was hysterical, and most of the banter between characters was hilarious. If you’re looking for a stiff-hearted, post-apocalyptic zombie film, filled with intense and scary moments, then this is not the movie for you. If, on the other hand, you’d rather laugh with (and at) the undead, then I heartily recommend it. Like the words of Columbus’ Rule #32: “Enjoy the little things,” and enjoy the movie.