zombieland

Best of the New Releases: Triangle, The House of the Devil, Zombieland
Okay, so the first Tuesday of February pretty much makes up for every Tuesday in January. First up we have Triangle, the mindbender from Christopher Smith that finds Melissa George attempting to unravel a couple mysteries aboard an ocean liner. I'll be writing a full review of it later in the week, but in short I think this is a twisted little movie that can be enjoyed on a single viewing but may take multiples to fully absorb. Smith is now 3-0 as far as I'm concerned.

Next up is The House of the Devil. It's been mentioned quite a lot here at Horror Squad, so there's really no need to sell you on the quality of the movie at this point. You can pick up Ti West's outstanding Satanic Panic throwback on Blu-ray, DVD, and even VHS.

Want to win some official Zombieland loot? Of course you do. Netflix has paired up with them to run an exclusive trivia contest. For you social networking butterflies, check out their Facebook page. You've got to move on this one, though. It's already begun and the deadline is 24 hours from 11:00 a.m. PST today. Yes, for 24 hours only. Fans will be entered to win a "Zombie" costume as well as the actual hat worn by "Tallahassee" in the movie just for answering a trivia question on the Netflix Facebook page. And if you're reading HorrorSquad, trivia is probably one of the more potent weapons in your arsenal. The winner will be drawn from the fans who answer the trivia question correctly. Let's make the winner an HS reader, shall we? The window is closing quickly, so get on it and add some Woody Harrelson cool to your wardrobe. Oh, and if you win, send us some pics of the new get-up, why don't you?

Can the rules of Zombieland include awesome DVD/Blu-ray extras? I think they can! Beyond the break you'll find a preview of some of the disc's special features, thanks to the good people at Dread Central.

Exclusive to the Blu-ray disc is Sony's unique movieIQ feature and a picture-in-picture commentary track, titled 'Beneath the Graveyard,' which allows for access to behind-the-scenes footage, animatics and storyboards. The disc will also contain commentary by Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg, director Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. There will also be several making-of featurettes, including 'In Search of Zombieland, which is a series of visual effects progression, deleted scenes and trailers. Nifty!

In Zombieland, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) and Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) are part of a small group of zombie plague survivors that fight their way across America. Hilarity ensues. You can read my review of the film here and make sure to order the Blu-ray or DVD today.

Skip past the break for the extras preview!

I found this year's collection of horror films to be relatively lackluster. In the first incarnation of this list, which was posted on my own personal site, I was only able to come up with nine films I genuinely believe should be on a Best Of... list for the year. My list is similar to Peter's, in a way, as it contains many of the same films, yet one of the films he included (Antichrist) ended up on my Worst Of... list, and I'm still in awe over how he could include the Friday the 13th redux as number one despite his explanation.

This list took some time to compile, and for the sake of conformity, I have added a tenth film. At the end I've included my Worst Of... list just so you can get an idea as to why I'm relentlessly teased for my vastly superior taste in horror films. So without further adieu, my Top 10 Horror Movies of 2009, rewritten and tweaked for Horror Squad.

10. House of the Devil My ex post facto entry to this list, House of the Devil was not an enjoyable film for me. I found it incredibly slow and lacking a sufficient payoff, all while only giving AJ Bowen approximately ten minutes of screen time. So why am I including it on this list? Because Ti West didn't make an homage to an 80's Satanic Panic film, he MADE an 80's Satanic Panic film. House of the Devil captures the look and feel of the time period perfectly, from the way it was filmed to the soundtrack. It is based on that alone that he deserves a spot on this list, even if it's number ten.

Yes, you read that right. Zombieland director Reuben Fleischer chatted with Moviehole last week and confirmed that Sony is interested in a sequel to the hit zom-com about a group of plague survivors fighting their way across America. He also confirmed that the entire cast is ready for round two but there was no word on when. "Whenever we crack it," was Fleischer's only clue as to when Sony would get moving. But before anyone could feel too bummed about it, Variety confirmed that Sony has closed deals with the film's producer, Gavin Polone and Fleischer for a sequel in 3D.

Negotiations are already under way to get stars Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg to reprise their roles as the zombie killing odd couple, Tallahassee and Columbus. Writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick who penned the original will return for the sequel. Polone told Variety he felt the 3D technique would be perfect for the film. "Everyone had fun watching Zombieland; making it a more visceral experience can only make it better," he said. Woody Harrelson has expressed an interest in seeing the film set in Paris or Broadway but no further details have been confirmed. There's also no word yet if Abigail Breslin and Emma Stone will make a comeback as the devious turned sweet sisters who team up with the boys for undead adventures.

I know the sequel haters are freaking out right now, but you had to know this was inevitable. Admittedly, I'm not sure if I'm sold on the 3D aspect. I hope the group can think of more clever rules to follow and deliver the gore that will make it worthwhile. Do you think the storyline warrants a 3D format or are these guys just hopping on the 3D bandwagon (which seems to be heavily laden these days)?

By Jessica Barnes

The battle of the undead on the big screen has been under way for some time now, and after months of hearing that vampires are taking over pop culture, it seems like we shouldn't quite put our friends the zombies (no, not those ones) down for the count. Over at Newsweek, Sarah Ball put together a few reasons as to why zombies will never beat vampires in a pop-culture zeitgeist-off thanks to our long-standing love-affair with the pale tortured types. But just this weekend, audiences proved that when it comes to the walking dead, the zombies still have what it takes to bring in the crowds.

Everybody has their personal preferences (and man I love those bloodsuckers), so even though I've watched more vampire content than I care to remember (I even sat through the pilot of The Vampire Diaries), and I'll always be a dedicated 'fan of the fang', I think that sometimes those drooling bumbling walking corpses might be better suited (at least these days) to the world of horror. Here's why:

Are zombies cooler than vampires? Speak up at Cinematical!

The world as we know it has come to an end, and that's not much more of an inconvenience for Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) than he was already used to. He's a Mountain Dew-chugging loser whose introverted ways have turned him into an ideal loner for the post-apocalyptic realm -- as paranoid, vigilante and neurotic as they come, beholden only to his own strict set of rules (cardio good, bathrooms bad, always shoot zombies twice, etc.).

And so, while he doesn't want to become attached to the scruffy likes of Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), their chance meeting provides as good an excuse as any for Columbus to try and recover whatever's left of his family in... well, Columbus. Oh, the names? Again, no one wants to get too attached once the infection hits the fan. That's just how one tends to roll as a resident of Zombieland.

Interviews are nice and all, but whenever a new film comes out I find the more interesting bits of publicity leading up to it tend to be when a site asks filmmakers to list a series of films that stuck with them when they were working on their own film. In the case of Zombieland, Sci Fi Wire asked writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick for their eight favorite zombie moments, and the results are both surprising and telling of what we can expect from Zombieland when it opens October 2nd.

The surprising part is that only one scene from Shaun of the Dead, a film whose undead comedy leaves it an obvious bullseye for a Zombieland comparison, makes their list. Even more surprising, the scene they cite is one I don't even remember from the film, "The decapitation in Shaun of the Dead was a great, great, great one," Wernick says."

What decapitation? The Shaun clip Sci Fi Wire has accompanying that quote, the backyard record-tossing sequence, doesn't contain a decapitation, and I can't remember another one off the top of my head. Did Sci Fi Wire choose the wrong clip? Has the Zombieland writer just mis-remembered something that happens off screen? Am I forgetting something here?

We've good and bad news concerning release changes for two of the more anticipated studio horror titles still left on the '09 docket. Good news first? We can all now see Woody Harrelson gleefully dispatch hordes of re-animated corpses a week earlier: Zombieland jumps from its previous October 9th slot to October 2nd.

The bad news? The reason Columbia Pictures is jumping on the new date is because it was recently vacated by Paramount. Martin Scorsese's insane asylum thriller Shutter Island has slid all the way to February 19th, 2010. There's plenty of speculation as to the specifics behind this decision, but the consensus has less to do with the quality of the film and more to do with spreading the wealth. Shutter Island is likely to perform just as well in February as it would have in October, but a viable business model needs to make money all year round and Paramount's early 2010 slate was looking a bit sparse.

Huge bummer no doubt, but such are things in times of economic strife. But, hey, Zombieland early softens the sting a smidge, right?

One could only assume that Dear Abbey was eaten alive by a horde of the unholy. Who then can we trust for sage advice about the end of times or, more importantly, how to get coagulated zombie blood out of sweaters looted from abandoned shopping malls? Tallahassee and Columbus, that's who.

The two kind souls at the heart of the upcoming undead opus Zombieland would like to take a break from surviving the apocalypse to share a few tips with fellow aspiring slayers of the newly reanimated. So take a minute or six to learn valuable life lessons such as:

The skull crushing force of a cast iron skillet.

Watch video after the jump