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Odessey and Oracle by The Zombies
Odessey and Oracle by The Zombies
1968 | Rock
9.5 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"That was the first record that Jaye ever played to me when we met. It was surprise. This is a girl who ran away from home at age 14 to Alphabet City in the eighties, lived in a squat there, was into the hardcore scene so went out with one of the biggest hardcore guys in a band so no-one would beat her up or touch her, and yet she loved sixties psychedelic music. The Electric Prunes, The Zombiesโ€ฆ Eventually The Zombies reformed to do one gig in New York, in this little club, so I got tickets, and they were spot-on. They did Odessey And Oracle, and afterwards I introduced her to The Zombies and they signed her album. Itโ€™s an excellent album. The harmonies and Colin Blunstoneโ€™s voice are stunning. That voice with the hissing in it. We had this friend, who did a lot of co-production on early Psychic TV, and he said my voice took to tape really well because it had this hiss in it. Apparently, it gave more resonance, so I accidentally have the same sort of resonances as Blunstone. Sadly, not the same voice or skill!"

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7 Days to Die
7 Days to Die
Action/Adventure
Suspenseful, quick paced (during the day), and just plain fun (0 more)
Slow paced (at night), scary for kids (0 more)
Addicting if it's your thing
I had heard this game was like Minecraft for adults with scarier zombies and they were certainly... not wrong. It's an adventure game where you must survive in a post apocalyptic wasteland with nothing but your wits to begin. You must craft items and loot everything you encounter, all while avoiding (or seeking out) zombies. There are quite a few things about this game that I enjoy and think makes it unique.

First, it's open world (sort of, you do have a huge map you can explore, but there are limits). It is a massive world where you must discover or build your own place of residence or loot cities, avoid toxic air environments, try not to freeze to death in the snow lands, die of heat in the deserts, among other things.


The one thing that makes it unique is that every 7 days, massive hordes of zombies (growing in size every additional 7 days) rush you to try and kill you. You better fortify your base or you won't last long.


Overall, I'm still addicted to this game a month after purchase. It still creeps me out and provides entertainment,.
  
Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin, #1)
Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin, #1)
Jonathan Maberry | 2010 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.6 (9 Ratings)
Book Rating
(This review can also be found on my blog <a href="http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.co.uk">The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl</a>).

I don't know what makes zombies so cool, but they are. I love reading zombie books, so when I heard about Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry, I knew I had to read this book. This has definitely become my favourite zombie book...EVER!

Benny has grown up in a world where zombies have always existed. His brother, Tom, has been around before the zombies. Everyone thinks Tom is a hero, but Benny has his doubts. Tom left their mother to the mercy of the zombies. Benny doesn't want to spend time with Tom killing zombies, but at 15 year old, he must get a job or have his rations cut in half. With no job satisfying him, Benny begrudgingly agrees to help kill zombies with his brother Tom. Along the way, Benny learns that Tom isn't the person he thought he was. Benny also gets a lesson in compassion. Will Benny be satisfied with killing zombies or will Benny become a zombie himself?

The cover for Rot & Ruin is alright. I've got the cover where the actual cover is not a full cover. The top cover is what is shown in the photo above, but when you open the top cover, the next cover shows the face of a zombie. It gets points for having a zombie cover, but it's nothing special. However, I do like the quote on the cover: "This book is full of heart...They just don't beat anymore." That made me chuckle!

Rot & Ruin is definitely a great title for this book. The Rot & Ruin is where all the zombies exist. I thought it was a fantastic choice.

I was amazed with the world building in this book. From the very first page, I was transported into this zombie apocalypse wasteland. I've never been in a zombie apocalypse, but the author does a good job making me feel like I was living in one each time I started reading his book. The description of the wasteland gives the reader a vivid mental picture of what a zombie apocalypse might entail.

As for the pacing, I never wanted to put this book down. In fact, there was one day where we had company, and I didn't get to read this book at all that day. I was in a bad mood because of it! This is definitely a fast paced, action packed, thrilling book that will leave you hungry for more. Not once while I was reading this book did I become bored with it. I was hooked from the very first page.

The dialogue/wording was fantastic. Through the dialogue, the author portrays the emotions of the characters quite well. I especially enjoyed the dialogue between Benny and his brother Tom. There are a few big words that I didn't understand, but perhaps that's just my limited vocabulary. Do be aware that there is some swearing in this book.

I felt that the characters were well developed. My favourite character was Tom. He came off as being very wise and just as an all around nice person. Benny was a great character as well. I liked how I was able to watch him grow as a character. He starts off being a typical 14 year old teenager, but after witnessing what he is forced to witness, he starts growing up. He starts maturing, and I feel that the author did a fantastic job showing us how Benny was forced to grow up. Charlie and the Hammer were well written as baddies. I hated them throughout the book. Not because they weren't written well but because the author makes us see how horrible these two really are.

I definitely enjoyed this whole book from start to finish. I read it in record time and had even bought the next book in the series before I even finished with Rot & Ruin. I loved the different spin this book put on zombies. It sort of humanizes them and makes us really think about how zombies were once human and how they were somebody's mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, etc. It really does make you think. Because of this, Rot & Ruin is much different then any zombie book I've ever read, and I really appreciated that. I also enjoyed that this book just wasn't focused on killing zombies. There's a lot more to the story then just zombie killing.

Although the book says it's for ages 12 and up, I'd recommend it to ages 14+ due to the violence, language, and themes.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Trollenberg Terror (1958) in Movies

Jun 22, 2019 (Updated Jun 22, 2019)  
The Trollenberg Terror (1958)
The Trollenberg Terror (1958)
1958 | Horror, Sci-Fi
6
5.8 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Independent sci-fi movie has the inevitable hokeyness of films of its period but shows flashes of intelligence, until the climax at least. Vaguely Lovecraftian alien creatures take up residence atop a Swiss mountain, rip the heads off passing mountaineers, turn other people into zombies to eliminate nosey psychics, and so on. Fearing the world supply of cuckoo clocks, cheese with holes in it, and multi-purpose knives may be in peril, a group of assorted boffins attempt to sort things out.

Well, at least it's original, if not always in the best of ways. Things proceed in a relatively effective way until the aliens decide to come down the mountain and attack in person, at which point they are revealed to be tentacled monocular blobs entirely beyond the budget of the film to convincingly realise. The same could be said of many alien invasion and monster movies of the 50s and 60s and this is neither the best nor the worst example of the genre from that period.
  
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)
2015 | Comedy, Horror
We film-goers really canโ€™t get enough of zombies. The brain-munching, cannibalistic horrors used to be the stuff of nightmares. But as our tastes became more extreme, the flesh-eaters managed to slip into the mainstream with genre-bending films at the forefront of zombie resurgence.

Christopher B. Landon brings zombies back to the silver screen with horror comedy, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. Are we looking at a US version of Shaun of the Dead? Or something a little more dead behind the eyes?

Scouts Guide follows the tale of three teenage boys, having to battle not only their raging hormones, but a raging horde of zombies in a small town during the course of one evening. Starring rising star Tye Sheridan, Logan Miller and Joey Morgan as the aforementioned teens and the ever-likeable David Koechner as their scout leader, the trio must survive and defeat the creatures.

To create a successful zombie film, you need to know your monsters and this is where things start to unravel here. There are so many inconsistences that itโ€™s difficult knowing where to begin. Instead of choosing a zombie-typing, like fast walkers from World War Z or traditional moaners like those from Shaun of the Dead, Scouts Guide uses both and the result simply doesnโ€™t work.

Then thereโ€™s the plot. Itโ€™s so riddled with holes, cheap jumps and clichรฉs that itโ€™s almost impossible to fully immerse yourself in the experience. The makeup on the zombies is also terrifically poor, lacking in any sort of terror or real detail.

Thankfully, the acting from the lead three scouts is good with Sheridan in particular proving why heโ€™s fast becoming one to watch, especially after being cast in next yearโ€™s X-Men: Apocalypse. The remainder of the characters are cardboard cut-outs with no backstory and no real gravitas when it comes to how the story will play out.

Nevertheless, there are some funny and genuinely clever moments dotted throughout Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. A living-room chase choreographed to Dolly Partonโ€™s 9 to 5 is a hilarious, albeit too short highlight in a film that needed more intriguing and unique sequences.

Thereโ€™s also a nice, if unusually placed, homage to John Carpenterโ€™s Halloween that whilst being particularly tasteful, is at odds with the filmโ€™s genre.

Overall, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is as beige as a blood-filled horror comedy can come. Despite a couple of clever scenes, some good acting and a reasonably fluid directing style, itโ€™s a damp squib of a movie that never really gets into its groove.


https://moviemetropolis.net/2015/11/15/dead-behind-the-eyes-scouts-guide-to-the-zombie-apocalypse-review/
  
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LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Planet Terror (2007) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020 (Updated Sep 20, 2020)  
Planet Terror (2007)
Planet Terror (2007)
2007 | Action, Comedy, Horror
*Examining mutilated corpse*
"๐˜“๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฌ๐˜ด ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ-๐˜ฃ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ"
"๐˜ž๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ?"
"๐˜•๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ช๐˜ฏ."

A nasty, gushing open wound of a movie - real gnarly dirtbag exploitation on display and easily one of the dopest film heroines ever put on screen. The American military as a grotesque, deformed monster of its former self - shambling around causing havoc in its wake, using its past achievements to justify its new warped existence. Also cool lady has machine gun for leg. Plants its sickness firmly into the ground before the zombies even start showing up, and then we get those reliably exemplary Nicotero effects - and they sure aren't afraid to use them. Dear God almighty is there a *lot* of blood, pus, rotting flesh, and guts in this and it all looks top-notch. Even by this genre's standards this leans hard into depraved splatfest mode. The last thirty minutes are seriously some of the best that cinema has ever created - and every Tarantino scene is the sort of masterclass revolting slime that makes you feel physically sick. The type of movie Rodriguez was born to direct - orgasmically evocative of the ๐˜ ๐˜š๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ ๐˜Ž๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ era of gorecore films while also totally remaining its own thing with a formidable vigor and sense of self. Prestige filth.
  
Little Monsters (2019)
Little Monsters (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Horror
Verdict: Delightful

Story: Little Monsters starts when a washed up musician Dave (England) breaks up with his girlfriend Sara (Townsend) moving in with his sister Tess (Stewart) and her son Felix (Le Torraca), after getting his heart broken, Dave gets left on his last warning with Tess and after he meets Felixโ€™s teacher Miss Caroline (Nyongโ€™o) he ends up agreeing to go on a school trip.
When the trip seems to be going well, the school kids, Miss Caroline and Dave must find safety as zombies have broken free and heading to the petting zoo, joined by celebrity childrenโ€™s host Teddy McGiggle (Gad) they must stay safe or face death.

Thoughts on Little Monsters

Characters โ€“ Miss Caroline is the kindergarten teacher that has the respect from all her students, treating them like nothing is going wrong no matter what is happening, she will always remain calm, with a smile on her face she takes complete control of the zombie outbreak. She has seen the father hit on her in the past which makes it easy for her to ignore them. Dave was once in a metal band, he had a girlfriend he always fought with him leading to him moving in with his sister and nephew. He is a terrible role model for Felix with his swearing, not listening and accepting it ok for a 5-year-old to play zombie games. He wants to get to know Miss Caroline and over this school trip he learns that there is more to life. Teddy McGiggle is a childrenโ€™s entertainer who is world famous with every kid loving his work, when the zombies arrive, he shows the worst in mankind. The kids are all brilliant without being annoying like most would become in zombie films.
Performances โ€“ Lupita Nyongโ€™o is wonderful to watch being a ray of sunshine through the film, bring a character that is completely different to anything we have seen before. Alexander England is excellent too, being someone, you could never see around children, getting so many laughs in the film. Josh Gad is great too, though it does seem like his character is slightly too much over the top at times. The young actors look like they are having a ball which is important for a film like this.
Story โ€“ The story here follows a teacher, a washed up musician and a group of school kids that get trapped during a zombie outbreak in a petting zoo. The best way to describe this story would be that we be, that we are focused on the human factors over the zombies, who are just background problem. We get to see how one man must learn about his life and start taking it more serious after years of wasting his time. We see zombies tackled a different way without needing to give us any sort of flashy zombie kill, which most all try to do, this is a character piece that shows positivity can give you hope no matter what is in your way. If you donโ€™t end up smiling by the end of this film, it will be a surprise.
Comedy/Horror โ€“ The comedy is the highlight of this film, we get plenty of laughs, being part of the idea of Dave saying things or doing things around children along with how relaxing the survival attempts end up looking.
Settings โ€“ The film is mostly set on a petting zoo, which is meant to be a happy place for the children, despite it turning into a nightmare situation for the adults once the zombies come out.
Special Effects โ€“ The zombies are done with great practical effects, while any of the violence is withheld away from the camera.

Scene of the Movie โ€“ The tractor rescue.
That Moment That Annoyed Me โ€“ It seems like we didnโ€™t need Teddyโ€™s character if we are being completely honest.
Final Thoughts โ€“ This is a truly delightful watch, with loveable characters, adorable kids and a fresh take on the zombie genre, showing it is about the characters, not the zombies.

Overall: Enjoyable from start to finish.
  
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Versusyours (757 KP) Nov 15, 2019

I had this mixed up with the Fred Savage at first glance

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Darren (1599 KP) Nov 15, 2019

i think that is what most reviews say, but i had never heard of that version

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Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated The Cured (2017) in Movies

Jul 7, 2020 (Updated Oct 29, 2020)  
The Cured (2017)
The Cured (2017)
2017 | Horror
A Provocative And Fresh Concept; An Emotional Tale & Thrilling Social Commentary Drama
Contains spoilers, click to show
This movie was pretty great. Not to hype it up too much but this was exactly as advertised in being a "Fresh Take" on the zombie genre. The story is that 5 years after the zombie virus outbreak, there was a cure found that works on 75% of the population. Now that those who were once zombies are being released back into society there is a slew of problems brewing. I liked how this was a pretty smart and unique concept because it makes you think, what would happen in real life in this scenario. This is kind of a commentary on society as a whole and shows how we react to things. Some people are mad about these Cured because they are murderers who killed people while they were infected. Some people see the situation as they were sick and didn't have control of themselves. The military acts as there care-takers in a way sort of like a probation/parole thing where they are given jobs and have to check in. If they don't then they risk being incarcerated again. There start to be incident where Cured are attacked in public and discriminated against for having been infected. This leads to resentment for the rest of the public by the Cured and a sort of underground movement/terrorist group for the rights of the Cured. There really is a lot of thought put into this film and I think it warrants a second viewing to see how everything lines up but I thought it was really good. I give this movie a 8/10 and it gets my "Must See Seal of Approval."