Making LAST STAND Part 1 – Go Behind The Scenes of Horror Artist Joshua Hoffine’s First Zombie Photo Shoot!

Oh, it’s not just The Walking Dead that has awesome zombie action executed by some serious talent and vision… but you knew that already, didn’t you? Take a look at Joshua Hoffine’s successfully Kick-Started new epic* zombie photograph LAST STAND. This is only Part 1, too! I in no way shape or form even begin to hold the copyright for the image in the featured image/splash image above, that is, of course, created by and ©Josh Hoffine and belongs solely to him. Look, he uses some of his repertory cast of models again;  my favorites being Bob Barber (usually cast as a slender demon or that escaped homicidal mental patient they’ve just done a breaking newscast to be on the alert for) and Hoffine’s lovely wife Jen, who most memorably played a modern version of Lady Bathory getting the FULL spa treatment. Oh, and I almost forgot their adorable daughter Sadie. Enjoy, and we cannot recommend bookmarking this blog enough. Hell, just follow it like we do!

* a word we do not use lightly or casually, by the way.

Joshua Hoffine | Behind The Scenes

This is my new photograph titled LAST STAND.

It depicts a family about to be consumed by a horde of zombies.

The star of the photo is A. Michael Baldwin from the classic Horror movie Phantasm (1979).

The little girl is my niece Thea, who was also the baby in my photo SNAKE.

The mom was played by Erica Kauffman.

The other child victim was played by my daughter Sadie.

We built our set at the 3rd St. Asylum Haunted House in Bonner Springs, Kansas.  My cousins Jerry and Steve Hoffine did all of the carpentry and construction.

001

002

Bill Rose and his girlfriend Michelle stayed up late one night to wallpaper my set for me.

003

004

Here you can see Steve and Bill measuring the shag carpet.

005

I filled the set with my gathered props.  Jerry Hoffine and Mike Clouse destroyed the door by jumping on it.

006

007

Here you can see…

View original post 177 more words

Here’s 13 Essential Tools for Surviving a Zombie Outbreak…

Hey, I had to post something  in consideration of the fact that The Walking Dead Season Three premiere, titled “Seed”, is less than 24 hours away– now with 100% more MICHONNE!

Yep, it’s good to have moleskin on hand, but in my book, I’d take one blister over ten zombies (see the statement that “One Blister Is More Dangerous To You Than Ten Zombies” in the guide below). Unless the blister was caused by stepping on a zombie’s mouth in your bare feet (or you’re such an idiot that you don’t pay attention to it until your foot is rotting off with gangrene, in which case you probably weren’t going to make it long anyway with such shitty survival skills and no common sense), that’d be SO the least of your problems if ten zombies shamble up to you. What’s the worst thing that can happen with a blister without moleskin? It’ll get infected, and I’ll have to use the hydrogen peroxide I’d carry with me in my little first aid I keep in my glove compartment even when the zombie apocalypse hasn’t happened? How is that more dangerous than ten hungry zombies? Worst case, you drain it and put a band-aid over the blister.

Worst case with ten zombies, though? Oh, I don’t know, maybe if they corner or outnumber you when you’re alone and out of bullets, they rip into with their bloodthirsty, decayed, zombie-virus-carrying mouths and teeth, and end up awkwardly pulling you apart, as you slowly die watching them eat your insides, then you come back as a zombie who’ll never get any food because your brain wasn’t destroyed and you’re just a rotting torso making horrible noises, THEN the best case scenario is some compassionate human with a loaded gun or a heavy/sharp tool stumbles over your pathetic, weakly flailing upper half and feels sorry enough for you that they shoot you in the head and put you out of your misery. But God forbid you if have a blister!   Don’t worry about those ten zombies, they’re not as dangerous.  Take care of that blister and apply the moleskin immediately, that’s your top priority. Then you can worry about ending up like “Bicycle Girl,” or some having a pack of cruel, bored human survivors see what happens if they cut off your head and put it on a stick for entertainment, bounce empty beer cans off your forehead, and laugh when you make pathetic attempts to bite them when they hold their hands just out of reach of your mouth. A sore on your foot would be much worse, though!

I’m just kidding.  Either way,  I still thought this was creative on REI’s part, so enjoy this entertaining piece from The Blackened Skull. Their blog rocks. I love the fact that  Dead Alive  is on the “Zombie Research Materials” list. Someone in REI’s marketing department knows their zombie movies!

10/15/12 UPDATE! Here’s the link to watch the (fast-paced and gory as hell) Walking Dead Season 3 Premiere, “Seed”, on AMCTV.com.  It’s only available until Halloween, though.

Blackened Skull

13 Essential Tools for Surviving a Zombie Outbreak

View original post

A.Zombie For President – Another Entertaining New “Drop Dish” Zombie Promo From AMC

A one-issue candidate, A. Zombie’s mission is to rally zombie fans around the country who don’t have access to these networks and shows to find an alternative television provider before the highly anticipated third season premiere on October 14, 2012 of A.Zombie’s favorite show: AMC’s The Walking Dead!

Remember the “Put Zombies Back on TV” ad spot from AMC that I covered a couple of months ago? Yet another fun  “Drop Dish” zombie-themed campaign –this time with a 2012 Presidential Election theme (EEEEEK!)– has gone viral;  A. Zombie is backed by an independent zombie party endorsed by AMC Networks. Yes, if you vote for A.Zombie, his only goal is to make sure everyone in the U.S. gets the choice to watch The Walking Dead! Committed to equal viewing opportunities for all. Watch his campaign ad below. No mud-slinging (or blood-slinging) at other candidates or similar bullshit here! Just pure zombie goodness. And guess what his favorite TV show is? It ain’t Here Comes Honey BooBoo!*

A. Zombie for President: He’s dead right. You’ve been wronged. Paid for by citizens who want zombies back on DISH.  The fictional Weekly World News columnist, Ed Anger, has officially endorsed him – read the hilarious column on the WWN website here.

Here’s the full official Press Release from the official website/campaign headquarters:

A. Zombie Enters the 2012 Presidential Race
NEW CANDIDATE VOWS TO RESTORE ZOMBIES TO TELEVISIONS EVERYWHERE

New York, NY — August 20, 2012 –The 2012 Presidential race is about to get more lively thanks to something quite dead – the news that A. Zombie, America’s first Zombie Presidential candidate, is entering the race. A formidable third party contender for the nation’s highest office, A. Zombie is slated to announce his candidacy at a high-energy rally on Monday, August 20th at Westfield Horton Plaza in San Diego.

The candidate and his human wife, Patty Morgan-Zombie, will then commence a cross-country bus tour that will take them to six major U.S. cities, including Tampa and Charlotte, where they will bring their pro-zombie message to the Republican and Democratic Conventions. “My husband is someone who has dedicated his life and his afterlife to bringing equal viewing opportunities to all Americans,” said Mrs. Zombie. “He’s the right man to lead the fight to bring zombies to everyone in America, and he won’t stop — even if it kills him, again.”

The A. Zombie for President Campaign is organized by AMC Networks, home to AMC, WE-TV, IFC and the Sundance Channel. Satellite company DISH dropped these networks earlier this year because of an unrelated lawsuit and is now in the disadvantaged position of being the nation’s only major television provider without these channels and their popular shows. A one-issue candidate, A. Zombie’s mission is to rally zombie fans around the country who don’t have access to these networks and shows to find an alternative television provider before the highly anticipated third season premiere on October 14, 2012 of A.Zombie’s favorite show, AMC’s The Walking Dead, the most watched basic cable scripted drama series among DISH subscribers, according to the Nielsen company.

For more information about the campaign, please visit:
www.azombieforpresident.com.

Alas, A.Zombie did not stop anywhere in the Northwest during his various rallies, but I found a video from a recent convention appearance by the candidate and his wife, Patty Morgan-Zombie, who seems to do most of his zombie-to-human speech-translation. Not the Republican or Democratic Conventions (though the press material states he visited them– sorry I missed that coverage), but… well, you’ll see.

And the below is an actual screenshot  from A.Zombie’s official Twitter page (I swear I am not making this up) that gave me a good laugh -could NOT resist passing it on:

Hee hee! Though I don’t think A.Zombie appreciates the unsavory comparison.

They said it, not me. Do you feel especially patriotic –and anti-Dish– right now? Me too!

*A. Zombie loses his appetite watching toxic waste. Though if he paid the ‘cast’ a visit with some very, very hungry undead pals, you can bet ratings would skyrocket around the world. Hell, I’d watch it on Pay-Per-View!

Red Band Zombie Trailer of the Week – Cockneys VS. Zombies (2012)

 

Yep, I’m aware I already named my Red Band Trailer of the Week, The Revenant. Just to clarify, that one isn’t a zombie movie. It’s not a vampire movie, either. Now that I’ve seen it, though, it might be safe to call it a monster movie, I’m pretty sure they’re ghouls, if you want to use a pop-culture term …though it could be called an outbreak movie as well. Oh  Hell, it’s just really fun! Plus, if you saw the clips I posted, the only term that fits the mysteriously-undead Bart is a something called a “revenant”.  Glad they don’t label it, even though you know if they played the Zombie card, it may have hustled up the wait for release. However, they didn’t pimp it out that way, which I admire. BTW, today I also discovered a word that made me disgusted, but for all the wrong reasons: “Zom-bedy”. CUT THAT LAZY SHIT OUT! Let’s hope to God that term doesn’t catch on.  Anyway (deep breath…), back to the movie at hand –which clearly has no shame when it comes to embracing the “Z Word”. I saw the upcoming trailer, and it looks to me like they’ve earned it!

The Dead Walk!

Bad news for London. GREAT news for zombie fans!

I’ve been meaning to post this hilarious, kick-ass, bloody NSFW trailer for a couple of weeks now, and I finally got my butt around to it. Check out the (very) Red Band trailer for the upcoming Cockneys VS. Zombies!

I can’t find an official site other than the movie’s Facebook page here, unfortunately, but the IMDB page for the fun flick is here (with lots of links to external reviews). It’s possible that’s because the movie has a built-in fan base already. So far, not hearing any complaints about the entertainment value!*  Cockneys Vs. Zombies kicked the fucking door open TODAY at Film4 FrightFest 2012. Slow-moving Romero-style zombies? I’d bump the movie up a notch just for that.

I was able to find the official plot description, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect from the trailer:

Two hapless cockney brothers try to save their granddad’s care home by robbing a bank. At the same time, a virus sweeps across East London turning all the inhabitants into flesh-eating zombies. They end up fighting their way out of a zombie-infested London, led by an unlikely gang of amateur banks robbers and foul-mouthed plucky pensioners. The undead are brown bread.

Plus I found some ROCKING alternate poster art for the movie, how (bleedin’) cool is this?

Not too shabby, eh?

The film stars Michelle Ryan, Harry Treadaway, Alan Ford, Honor Blackman (AKA Ms.’Pussy Galore’), Georgia King, and Richard Briers. It’s directed by Matthias Hoene, and scripted by James Moran (who has a pretty impressive list of credits, including the excellent Severance) and Lucas Roche. Cockneys Vs. Zombies is scheduled to invade England August 31, 2012. Man, this looks like a fun one! If the film has as much gusto as the Red Band trailer does, what’s not to love?

* and I really hope that poor retiree on the walker makes it!

 

Red Band Trailer of the Week – The Revenant (2009)

It’s actually embarrassing that this breakout horror-comedy somehow slipped under my horror geek radar till now. Well, I saw on my IMDB account that I added it to my watch list at some point in the last year, so I must have been really tired or inebriated (or both) when I added it. Hell, it probably was in Fangoria last year or the year before, and I read about it then filed it away, or it was one of the rare issues I didn’t read from cover-to-cover after it showed in the mail. Check out this very entertaining brand-new Red Band trailer!

C’mon, now how fucking cool is that? Too bad that can’t be used as a tagline, because it’d sure fit and definitely put asses in seats. The Revenant: How Fucking Cool Is That?

I’m guessing somewhere along the line, something did not go as planned here…

The Revenant roared through the Festival circuit in 2009, winning a ton of audience awards. The official website is right here, and is packed with information and fun stuff. I do recommend skipping the Comments section if you haven’t seen The Revenant and are planning to, because the section is teeming with spoilers from people who have seen it, most wanting to discuss the ending.

Here’s the official plot description from the “Press” section of the official website…

A horror comedy in the vein of SHAUN OF THE DEAD and ZOMBIELAND, the film tells the story of a soldier (David Anders, from TV’s 24 and Vampire Diaries) who is killed in Iraq and then finds himself resurrected as a “revenant,” or one who has returned from the dead. He turns to his slacker best friend (Chris Wylde, of Descent and The Ten) to help him manage his newfound thirst for blood, and the duo quickly realize that this zombie-fied state is a perfect opportunity to become vigilante crime fighters. However, their adventure quickly becomes more complicated and bloody than they expected as the movie escalates into a series of unexpected and horrifying twists.

Here’s an extended (4+ minute) clip. A little more conversation and a little less action than the above trailer, but it’s pretty cool. Check it out below:

I’m going to have to get way more proactive about local film festivals. Oh, and yes, 2009 is right; it took THIS GODDAMNED LONG for the flick to get a distribution deal. Well, as fucking frustrating as it is, the movie is in good company; The Cabin in the Woods, Trick R’ Treat, and Army of Darkness had to go through the same bullshit (and I don’t think they even got the chance to go through the festival circuit). I doubt I have to convince anyone reading this, though, that when they finally do get a chance, the wait is worth it for us.  But man, time slows to a crawl when you’re trying to be patient!

Heh!

Heh!

 

 

Behind the Scenes at Horror Boom: Walking Dead Season Two Finale (+ Cool Links)

Well, for a little change of pace today, I thought I’d give you some fascinating insights into my work process. Let’s see, I go online, then when I’m watching something, I jot some deep thoughts down onto my sophisticated equipment consisting of a pen and a series of cheap notebooks, pretty much whatever has enough space for me to scrawl some things down. I do use some very complicated technical terms. Here’s a photo or two of my elaborate notes during the last two episodes of Season Two of The Walking Dead.

My elaborate notes taken during one of the final season 2 Walking Dead episodes (which I ended up deciding not the review on the site).

As you can see, I use a large and varied vocabulary to express myself and make sure all the nuances of the show are captured.  In case you can’t decipher my complicated lingo above, here’s another example…

My ingenious note-taking system, wherein I take a complex, thoughtful approach to mapping out important points to highlight in my review for a Walking Dead S2 episode. I ended up not reviewing the episode I so carefully documented here.

Then I have my assistant re-transcribe– I”M JUST KIDDING. Nothing complex or fascinating ‘behind the scenes’ here at Horror Boom, really! If I had a staff, the site would actually contain breaking news and interviews multiple times, 24/7, if so.  I don’t have an assistant, unless you count one of my kittens strolling across the keyboard out of the blue. My husband gives it a fresh pair of eyes after I post a piece, if he’s not too sleepy at the time.  There’s nothing thrilling enough going on behind the scenes at Horror Boom to warrant a special alert, though if something thrilling DOES happen, like an SUV driven by Adam Green with Bruce Campbell riding shotgun containing George Romero, Stephen King, Greg Nicotero, and Samuel L. Jackson riding in it breaks down in front of our house while I’m working on/writing/researching the site, and they ring the doorbell to ask to come in and use my land line because none of their cell phones have a signal, then tell me it’d be really cool if they could hang out here 4-5 hours and in return, will let me interview them and offer to post blurbs endorsing the site and all pose for various photos with me and my husband (because in the imaginary scenario, they have nothing else better to do) watch some of my DVD/Blu-Rays and record simultaneous commentary for them exclusively, that’d be worth documenting.*  It’s more likely that a parade of polar bears riding tricycles pulls up in our driveway (although that’d be pretty interesting and good for some promotion, too), of course, but you get the idea. I try not to put stuff up that’s totally fucking boring to anyone but me, unless it’s some comic relief, as here.

Actually I vaguely recall taking these pics as a goof (I was still all hyper and geeking out after the next-to-last episode and season finale of TWD while all hell breaks loose. Lots of times I jot shit down I can’t read it myself afterwards or it’s in sentence fragments (ADD) that are really hard for me to re-create into concrete points, or my handwriting’s worse.  My husband laughed when I showed him these, so I kept them.

I have two–it maybe just one big one, but it’s definitely happening– very cool, very scary “Ways to Beat Summer Heat with Cold Chills” pieces coming up, but they were so creepy there is no way in hell I’m gathering my notes together and writing them after dark, when I have insomnia and am the only one awake in the house. Especially since one of them actually showed up in a nightmare last night. I don’t want to talk them up that much and have it by a let down, so I’ll quit with a good quote to celebrate the upcoming Blu-Ray release of Jaws. If you don’t recognize this one then you haven’t seen Jaws, and if you haven’t seen Jaws I don’t know why you’d be reading Horror Boom! It’s too bad this is waaaaay too big for a T-Shirt*. Watched the scene so many times it’s impossible to hear in my head without Robert Shaw’s voice.

Hooper: You were on the Indianapolis?
Brody: What happened?

Quint: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte… just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn’t see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you’re in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail fin.What we didn’t know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent… they didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named “The Battle of Waterloo” and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man… that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and screamin’ and sometimes the shark will go away… but sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark… he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn’t seem to be living… until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then… ah then, you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin’ and the hollerin’, they all come in and they rip you to pieces. You know, by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour.
On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he’d been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us… he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. Y’know, that was the time I was most frightened… waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a life jacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. (pause) Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

The Jaws Blu-Ray  will be available August 14. Also, a bigger boat-load of links for features on Jaws and The Walking Dead after the jump!

famous poster

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

**but I have a couple of versions of “We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat” for a design on my upcoming print-on-demand online stores (whenever I have time for that).

Red Band Trailer of the Week – Juan of the Dead (2011)

I’ve been hearing nothing but RAVES for this zombie flick. Juan of the Dead, (2011) written and directed by Alejandro Brugué,  has won eight audience awards since making the festival rounds, and honestly, the kind of awards where fans and viewers all get a vote gain my trust the most. An early pitch sold it as “Cuba’s first horror film.” I’ll take their word for it!

Juan of the Dead was featured in a recent issue of Fangoria magazine with (I believe) the Fangoria Seal of Approval(™). A review from someone I trust, who saw it at a festival début, said if it had in a traditional theater showing with a traditional audience, he was so vocal that someone would have complained about him to an usher, and he might’ve even been asked to leave. Instead, the VERY live fan crowd howled and cheered through the entire movie. That’s sure as hell good enough for me! Here’s the Red Band trailer.


Here’s the official lavishly written plot synopsis, fresh off the official movie site…
Juan is 40 years old, most of which he spent in Cuba doing absolutely nothing. It’s his way of life, and he’s prepare to defend it at any cost, along with his pal Lázaro, as lazy as Juan but twice as dumb. Juan’s only emotional tie is his daughter, Camila, a beautiful young girl that doesn’t want anything to do with her father because the only thing he’s good at is getting into trouble.
Suddenly some strange things start to happen, people are turning violent attacking one to the other. Juan was first convinced it’s just another stage of the Revolution. Official media refer to the attacks as isolated incidents provoked by Cuban dissidents paid by the US government. Little by little Juan and his friends start to realize that the attackers are not normal human beings and that killing them is quite a difficult task. They’re not vampires, they’re not possessed, but they’re definitely not dissidents; a simple bite turns the victim into other violent killing machine and the only way to beat them is destroying their brains.
Juan decides that the best way of facing the situation is making some money out of it…


“Juan of the Dead, we kill your beloved ones” becomes his slogan. Lázaro, along with his son Vladi, and Camila (who had no other choice but joining her father after he rescued her from grandma´s killing desires) are Juan´s army, and their mission is to help people get rid of the infected ones around… at a reasonable price.
But this plague of bloodthirsty attackers is out of control. The population is helpless. There comes a moment in which the only way out people found is throwing into the sea and try to run away from an island that became a real carnage, and Juan has no choice but to do what he avoided all his life: take some responsibility assuming a hero role, to guide his beloved ones with the hope of getting them safe out of the madness in which Havana, full of flesh-eating zombies has turned.

Here’s the teaser, longer than most traditional teasers, and a pretty clever one at that:

How do you see it,  we both ask? Well, the movie is on the festival route  now (you can also check the somewhat plaintively titled section “WHERE?” on the official Juan of the Dead site , which is packed with info and fun stuff, by the way). Guess what, though? It will hit digital VOD platforms from Focus World next August. Uh… wait, this IS August!  It better be available somewhere to watch FAST when it hits digital VOD (which it hasn’t yet, at least on Comcast, and surprise surprise,  Netflix doesn’t even have a fucking availability date).

I’m not entirely sure what the story behind THIS still is, I’m thinking a creative zombie-kill.

By the way, there’s an entire You Tube channel created by the film-makers, which I’m guessing has enough behind-the-scenes, making of, and Q&A footage that it adds up to at least the running time of the film. I didn’t see any major spoilers, either, so if you have time for the movie but no way to watch it yet, the You Tube Channel for Juan of the Dead should hold you over temporarily! Until then…

Put Zombies Back – Very Entertaining “Drop DISH” Campaign

I was getting a little tired of seeing the “not available on Dish” subtitle before every episode or promotional clip for Breaking Bad. I guess some kind of good karma came around from my frustration, and THIS awesome spot (with some of the best gore/zombie make-up I’ve ever seen, I’m guessing Nicotero-Berger had a hand somewhere) lunged into frame. Check it out! Things have gotten very interesting (and creative).

If my cable provider tried to get between me and the new season of Breaking Bad, I’d be doing some serious biting myself.  Here’s a link to the Put Zombies Back website. It’s nice to get both sides of the story. Fuck it, I’m on AMC’s side after reading about it!  Also, could I just point out that squirrel in the video has some serious balls?