Memorable Moments in Zombie Zinema III

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nWell, Halloween 2012 is finally here and what better way toncelebrate it then with a fresh new bash of Memorable Moments in Zombie Zinema? Inncelebration of Halloween (everyones favorite holiday!) the folks here at The Film Connoisseur (thatnwould be me) have cooked up a whole new batch of these grizzly, gruesome zombienmoments! Also, don’t forget to come back regularly to the blog, it’s zombienmonth on The Film Connoisseur and I will be doing all sorts of articles, listsnand reviews entirely composed of zombie films. Hope you enjoy zombienmonth! And remember, if you enjoy this article, don’t forget to check out parts I and II…ifnyou dare!   

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nFilm: Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: THOUSANDS OF ZOMBIES CHASE ALICE ASnSHE JUMPS FROM THE ROOFTOP OF A BUILDING

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nZynopsis: Alicenis still looking for that “promised land” free of infection, but is it real? Onnher journey, she meets up with a group of people who are surviving the zombienapocalypse by living in an abandoned penitentiary. Will they even find the evernelusive “Arcadia”,na land supposedly free of infection? This zombie moment is so epic and couldnprobably be my favorite moment in the whole Resident Evil series of films. Atnone point in the film, a hoard of zombies’ breaks into the building where Alice is hiding out.nSuddenly, she finds her self trapped in the roof with nowhere to go! What tondo? Zombies are coming up the stairs and the only way out is to jump! So, asnthousands of zombies are chasing Alice,nshe jumps of the roof while strapped to a rope and manages to escape all thenzombies! Problem is that all the zombies follow her and jump with her! Evernwondered what an avalanche of zombies would look like? Look no further! 

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nQuote: “Day 6. 1800 Hours, Los Angeles. No signs of life. Not even thenundead. They must have burned with the city. But what about the rest?”

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nFilm: Flight of the Dead: Outbreak On A Plane (2007)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: ZOMBIE GETS RIPPED TO SHREDS BY THEnENGINE OF A COMMERCIAL PLANE

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nZynopsis: So basically, these scientists have smuggled anninfected body onto a 747  commercialnflight. Stupid I know, but as we can expect on a film called ‘Flight of thenLiving Dead’ well, the infected body is somehow set loose upon the unsuspectingnpassengers of the flight, the result? Complete zombie mayhem! One of the bestnscenes has one of the good guys throw a zombie into the engines of the plane!nMemorable Zombie Zequence in deed!  

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nQuote: “You thought it was me gnawing on the passengers?nNah, I’m a vegetarian.”

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nFilm: Return of the Living Dead Part II (1985)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: CHOPPED OFF ZOMBIE HAND GIVES USnTHE FINGER

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nZynopsis: A drum containing an experimental toxic chemicalnknown as ‘245 Trioxin’ falls into the sewer system of a small town, three kidsnfind it and by mistake release the deadly toxic into the air, a deadly toxicnthat ends up bringing the dead back to life. Through out the film we follow angroup of kids who try to eradicate the zombie plague and save their own town.nSome people don’t like this sequel to Dan O Bannon’s Return of the Living Deadn(1985), but I freaking love it for many reasons. It’s fast paced, it has tonsnof zombie gags and it has a fun vibe to it all the way through. One of thenfunniest gags has a zombie-hand attack a bunch of people while they are ridingna car. After the hand terrorizes everyone in the car, the people end upnthrowing the zombie hand out the car window! When the hand falls on the road,nit gives everyone the finger, even us!  

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nQuote: “Hardly anything to get excited about, it’s only ansevered hand”

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nFilm: Zombie Holocaust (1980)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: ZOMBIE GETS HIS HEAD SLICED TOnSMITHEREENS BY BOAT ENGINE

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nZynopsis: So basically this movie tries to mix Lucio Fulci’snZombie (1979) with Rugero Deodatto’s Cannibal Holocaust (1980). The results arena film with zombies in a tropical island…and Cannibals thrown in for goodnmeasure. If you can believe it this film mixes a crazy mad scientist thatnexperiments with the resurrection of the dead with a cannibal tribe thatnworships a God known as ‘Kito’. Scholars decide to do an expedition to studynthis tribe and well, they end up getting eaten up. Gotta admit, the idea ofnmixing cannibals with zombies is pretty nifty, unfortunately the film isnlackluster in my book because it borrows too much from Fulci’s Zombie. Actuallynthis film is so freaking sleazy that it actually re-uses footage from Fulci’s Zombie!nBut there’s this one memorable moment in which one of the good guys fights anzombie and smashes the zombies head against the moving propellers of a boatnengine…gruesome stuff! 

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nQuote: “I could easily kill you now, but I’m determined tonhave your brain!”

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nFilm: Heavy Metal (1981) – Segment ‘B-17’

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: FIRST ANIMATED ZOMBIES

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nZynopsis: This film is an animated anthology film, thenstories range from funny, to weird, to just plain bonkers. But one of thenstories has zombies in it and it is called ‘B-17’.  It’s all about these soldiers flying a B-17nbomber plane during WWII. At one point in the film, right smack in the middlenof a battle with enemy planes, a mysterious green orb crashes into the plane,nthen leaves again! Then, the B-17 crashes into the jungle! The mysterious greennorb might have flown away and dissaperead, but its passage did something to thencrew members of the bomber plane. It isn’t long before the powers of the greennorb bring the dead soldiers back to life as zombies! In my opinion, this is onenof the first instances where we get to see an animated zombies! I really can’tnthink of any other film.   

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nQuote: “Very few escape my grasp…even in death, my powersncontinue”

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nFilm: Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1983)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: MICHAEL JACKSON GETS TURNED INTO AnZOMBIE

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nZynopsis: Michael Jackson decides to watch a werewolf filmnwith his girlfriend at the local movie theater. nUnfortunately, the girl gets too frightened and decides to walk out ofnthe movie; Michael follows her even though he is obviously enjoying the frightnflick. Outside, the streets are lonely and dark. To make things worse, they endnup having to pass through a cemetery as the dead start to rise from theirngraves! Suddenly they find themselves running for their lives! This music videonis a glorified short film; something that Michael Jackson loved to do with allnhis music videos, turn them into little movies, which of course was awesomenbecause we got short films like ‘Thriller’ directed by none other than JohnnLandis. Jackson was so impressed by Landis’s AnnAmerican Werewolf in Londonn(1981) that he got Landis to direct this video for him. Turns out it’s one ofnthe best zombie films ever made, at least in my book. The images that takenplace in the cemetery ooze darkness and atmosphere and the zombies actuallynlook like rotting corpses, which is something that some filmmakers seem tonforget while making their zombie movies. Were talking about walking corpsesnhere people! Thankfully, Michael Jackson and John Landis made sure thesenzombies looked cool. Finally, we get Michael Jackson as a zombie, ,memorable inndeed.   

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nQuote: “And grizzly ghouls from every tomb are closing in tonseal your doom…”

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nFilm: Return of the Living Dead (1984)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: ‘TARMAN’ MUNCHES ON ‘SUICIDES’ HEAD

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nZynopsis: Zombies are coming out of their graves after andeadly toxic spreads through the cemetery. A group of punk kids take refugeninside of a morgue to try and survive; will they make it out of their townnbefore the military decides to nuke it? This film is filled with many memorablenmoments but one of my favorites has these kids suddenly stumble upon a zombienthat’s been hiding in a basement, everyone manages to run away except this kidnknown as ‘Suicide’! The zombie leans back and then lunges for Suicides skull,neffectively taking a bite right out of it! It’s a shocker of a moment! Everyntime I see this film with some friends, this moment makes them scream in shock.  

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nQuote: In reference to his punk wardrobe Suicide tells hisnfriends: “You think this is a fucking costume? This is a way of life!”

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nFilm: Dead Alive (1992)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: LIONEL CHOPS UP A HOARD OF ZOMBIESnWITH A LAWNMOWER

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nZynopsis: Lionel’s mom has gotten infected with a bite thatnhas killed her and brought her back from the dead, now she’s turning everyonenaround her into a zombie! Best part is that Lionel’s uncle has planned anHalloween party in his home, without telling him. It isn’t long before everyonenin the party gets turned into a zombie! One of the most memorable scenes hasnLionel killing a hoard of zombies with the blade of his trusty lawnmower! It’sna bloodbath of gargantuan proportions! 

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nQuote: “They’re not dead exactly, they are just sortnof…rotting”

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nFilm: Juan of the Dead (2011)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: JUAN FISHES A ZOMBIE OUT OF THEnWATER

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nZynopsis: Juan and his friend Lazaro are contempt withnsimply spending their lazy days away hustling to survive, ah yes, life in Cuba. That isnuntil a zombie outbreak erupts and everyone in Cuba starts turning into zombies!nBut before that, Juan and Lazaro start the film out simply fishing on thisnlittle makeshift boat of theirs and just when Juan thinks he is out of lucknwith the fishes, he catches something! Only problem is that it isn’t a fishnJuan catches! It’s a zombie! The zombie outbreak doesn’t stop Juan fromncapitalizing on the whole thing, soon he starts up a service where you callnthem up and they’ll come and get rid of zombies for you, kind of like ThenGhostbusters, but for zombies.

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nQuote: “Juan of the Dead, we kill your loved ones.”
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nFilm: The Horde (2009)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: A SURVIVOR FIGHTS OFF A HORDE OFnZOMBIES

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nZynopsis: This films premise is fairly simply: a group ofnstrangers find themselves hiding from the zombie apocalypse in an apartmentnbuilding. In this sense, I’d say the film is similar to say George Romero’snDawn of the Dead (1978), where characters are held up in a confined environmentnand have to wait out the zombie apocalypse, or try to find a way to escape to ansafer location. Well, at one point the characters have to make their way out sonthey decide to go through the buildings basement…big mistake! It’s thisnsequence that offers us the most memorable zombie sequence I have seen in anlong while, one for the books that’s for sure! It’s a scene where a solitarynsurvivor ends up completely surrounded by thousands of zombies and startsnshooting zombies left and right! Then when he runs out of bullets he uses hisntrusty machete and starts hacking zombies to pieces! It’s an awesome sequence!nThe movie is worth watching for that scene alone, but in all honesty, this is ansolid zombie flick from France,nhighly recommend it. 
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nFilm: Bride of Re-animator (1990)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: FLYING ZOMBIE HEAD

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nZynopsis: Dr. Herbert West is still up to his oldnre-animating the dead experiments. He won’t give up until he’s figured out thensecret of life itself, problem is he has to go through so many mistakes innorder to learn it! On this one, Dr. West tries to bring back Dr. Dean Cain’s deadngirlfriend, who died in the first film. In order to achieve this West uses bitsnand pieces from other bodies he finds and strings them together, trying tonreconstruct her. But of course, as it usually happens in these Re-Animatornmovies things go horribly wrong, and we end up dealing with a bunch of Dr. West’snrejected experiments. Dr. Hill the villain from the first film is still alivenand kicking, well at least his head is. Weirdest part is that he ends upngetting someone to surgically add bat wings to his head! Now, Dr. Hill, thendead re-animated head, can fly! Fulci pulled this gag off first in Zombie 3 (1988),nbut it’s better developed here, on Bride of Re-Animator.    

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nQuote: “West, you stupid biped!”
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nFilm: Pet Sematary (1989)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: HUSBAND KISSES HIS ZOMBIE WIFE

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nZynopsis: This film is all about this kid who can’t take thenfact that his little kitten was ran over by a truck, so the kids dad, insteadnof telling his kid that death is a part of life decides to take the cat to anlocal Indian burial ground to try and bring the cat back to life, and what donyou know? It works! But things that come back from the dead don’t always comenback as themselves and so, when the man looses his wife, he goes for the samenold trick, he takes her to the Indian Burial ground to try and bring her back!nWhich he does, only thing when she comes back, she’s not herself anymore, she’sna freaking zombie! He doesn’t realize this immediately, so when he sees hisnwife the first thing he does is kiss her, as the camera slowly turns we seenthat half of her face is missing! His kissing a zombie! Aaaaarrgh!

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nQuote: “The barrier was not meant to be crossed, the groundnis sour”
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nFilm: Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1973)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: FIRST ZOMBIE WEDDING EVER

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nZynopsis: This is a really nutty, low budget movie thatncomes to us from Bob Clark, the director of the horror classic Black Christmasn(1974). But, Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things was one of his very firstnfilms, as a result, it’s a very cheap looking movie, but, that doesn’t meannthat this film is not without it’s memorable zombie moments! For example, thencharacters in the film go to an isolated island to practice a play they arenworking on and while they are at it, perform some sort of satanic ritual saidnto bring back the dead. You know, just for kicks. In order to perform thisnritual, they dig up a corpse! Problems arise when the ritual actually works andnthe dead do come back! But before all this happens, they play around with ancorpse and perform a fake wedding, with the corpse they unearth as the groom!  

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nQuote: “Get out of the grave Alan and let an artist show younhow to call a curse down on Satan!”
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nFilm: Creepshow (1982)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: ZOMBIE COMES BACK FROM THE DEADnBECAUSE HE WANTS TO EAT HIS ‘FATHER’S DAY’ CAKE

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nZynopsis: Creepshow was Stephen King’s and George Romero’snway of paying homage to the Tales from the Crypt comics they loved to read whennthey were little kids. It’s an anthology film with five different stories, mostnof them are related to the undead; this is a Romero film after all! But thenfirst story is one called ‘Father’s Day’ and it’s about this family that gets togethernonce a year on Father’s Day to remember their dead father/grandfather and discussnwhat they’ll get from his will. But on this fathers day, their father is comingnback! To avenge his death, eat his father’s day cake and kill his greedynoffspring as well!

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nQuote: “It’s Father’s Day and I got my cake! Happy Father’snDay!”
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nFilm: Two Evil Eyes (1990)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: HYPNOTIZED ZOMBIE

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nZynopsis: This film is an anthology film consisting of justntwo stories, one directed by Italian maestro Dario Argento called ‘The BlacknCat’ and the other directed by zombie master George Romero. Romero’s half isncalled ‘The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar’ and it’s about this rich old guynwho’s on his dying bed. His sleazy younger wife wants him to sign over 3nmillion dollars to her and the only way she gets him to do it is by hypnotizingnhim and getting him to sign! Problem is that when Valdemar suddenly dies, he doesn’tndie completely because he died in this hypnotic state! Now he sends eerienmessages from the afterlife letting his wife know that his soul is trapped in andark void, between the world of living and the world of the dead!   

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nQuote: “I married a rich old man. I let him use me fornpleasure and for show. Now, I’m going to make him pay for my services”
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nFilm: Day of the Dead (1985)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: A ZOMBIE SPILLS HIS GUTS…LITERALLY!

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nZynopsis: Day of the Dead is one of the bleakest of all of Romero’snDead films. The world is completely dominated by zombies, and most of them arenreally starting to rot away; unfortunately they are also growing in numbers! Thisnplays havoc with the minds of some of the human survivors, some of which are morenweak minded then others. Case in point: Miguel, the latino of the group. Henjust can’t deal with the fact that the world is being overrun by zombies so henstarts having these nightmares, one of them involves a zombie waking up from annoperating table, with an incision in his stomach! Suddenly, as the zombie getsnup, its guts starts spilling out all over the floor! Gruesome in deed!

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nQuote: “Collapsing from stress? We’re all collapsing! Thisnwhole fucking unit is collapsing!”
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nFilm: Zombien Lake (1981)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: NAZI ZOMBIE COMES LOOKING FOR HISnILLEGITIMATE DAUGHTER

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nZynopsis: This movie has got to be one of the most boringnzombie movies ever made, it is quite literally one of the worst times I’ve hadnwatching a zombie movie. I’ve seen some of the most important ones and I’venstill got a ways to go before I’ve seen every single zombie movie ever made. I’mnalso sure I’ll see zombie movies worse then this one; I’ve yet to see Oasis ofnthe Zombies (1982) and I hear that one is worse! But Zombie Lakenwill always be at the bottom of my list, I mean, not much happens in this borenfest. The zombie make up consists of green paint on the actors faces and theyndon’t even get that right! But one idea in the film did stick out for me: anNazi zombie coming back from the dead to protect his long lost daughter. I’dnnever seen that before on any zombie flick; that stood out. The rest of thenmovie? A total waste of time.

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nQuote: “So, you think that ghosts killed them?”

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nFilm: Zombie (1979)

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nMemorable Zombie Moment: ZOMBIES CROSSINGn OVER BROOKLYNn BRIDGE

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nZynopsis: So Lucio Fulci’s Zombie has many memorable zombienmoments, one of them I mentioned on one my previous articles (Zombie vs.nShark!) but this time I want to focus on the image with which the film endsnwith. You see, this film is about a zombie outbreak that begins in an a littlenisland in the Caribbean, but by the time the film ends, the zombie outbreak hasnspread across the seas and has spilled into New York City! Now the undead walknthe streets of New York, and that lastnmemorable image is one of the most memorable in all of zombiedom: the image of zombiesncrossing over the Brooklynn Bridge!