Hot tips for being zombie
Watch lots of zombie films beforehand. Corpses have rigor mortis, so it’s good to have a zombie hunched or lurching over and looking like it is suffering from these symptoms. The funny thing is everyone knows how to play a zombie so run with your ideas. Just keep it under control as there’s always a tendency to outstretch the arms and do something that will make people laugh!
Scariest thing you’ve seen recently?
Sam Raimi’s new film Drag me to Hell had dozens of jump scenes in it. I watched it recently in a small cinema in my home town, where the sound was cranked up really loud and people were screaming in the aisles. The film itself wasn’t the best, but I applaud any film-maker who can strike terror into the audience like that. It even made me jump a couple of times and normally I can see the jumps coming a mile off! If you want to leap out of your seat, go see that film!
Recommend a book/film/game
I’ll recommend one of each:
The Walking Dead graphic novel series is a must read for zombie fans.
Jorge Grau’s The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue is a brilliant Spanish/Italian zombie film from the 70’s that was actually shot in the UK. This film is dripping with atmosphere and importantly, flesh devouring zombies!
Finally, Resident Evil 5 currently occupies my PS3 and is a great 3rd person zombie shoot em up.
Give us a link to something zombie!
My good friend Nick Nicholson from the Philippines starred in this cult classic zombie movie shot over there in 1988 called Zombie 4 – After Death. Nick was in Platoon and Apocalypse Now and involved in many movies over a 32 year period in the Philippines. This scene features Nick fighting a horde of terribly choreographed zombies and will give you a few laughs I’m sure. Nick’s been very ill recently, suffering a heart attack, so I thought it would be great to mention him and wish him well. If you want a few pointers on how zombies shouldn’t behave, this is the clip!
Kevin Gates is writer/director/producer of The Zombie Diaries.