Tag Archives: Zombies

The Walking Dead: 3.04 – “Killer Within” Review

‘Killer Within’ has to be one of the most heart-wrenching episodes of The Walking Dead to date. The last episode focused solely on Woodbury and the Governor, but this episode was mainly dedicated to the folks back at the prison, although we did visit Woodbury briefly. Merle has spoken with Andrea, who told him where the farm was, which is where his brother Daryl was last seen by her, which likely will not end well. Michonne is still obviously uneasy about being in the little town of Woodbury, but Andrea is eating it up. She has a drink with the Governor, and he even tells her his name is Phillip. For a short second, I thought it was cute! Then I remembered the floating heads in tanks, and brought myself back to the edge of my seat to await what happened next.

Back at the prison, someone had opened the chain on the gate and let the walkers in, as well as firing up the generator and sounding the alarms, thus attracting walkers from everywhere. Hershel was just getting on crutches for the first time, and Lori is all super pregnant, so this wasn’t the best timing. Some quick cleanup of the courtyard was required…

Rick, Daryl and Oscar go try to shut off the generators to stop the alarms from sounding when Andrew (whom we predicted was still alive weeks ago) tried to attack Rick. For his trouble he then got shot in the face by Oscar, who will now undoubtedly become a member of Rick’s group. The somewhat funny image of Daryl crouched down with a knife behind Oscar just in case he tried to shoot Rick was pretty awesome. {Editor’s Note – Stupid Andrew.}

There were two very gruesome deaths this episode. Two main characters met their end in almost unwatchable ways. The first was T-Dog, who had gotten bitten by a walker thanks to Carol’s failure to watch his back. Despite this, he kept going with Carol to help her get out, and ultimately let himself get attacked so that she could get away. This guy got torn apart. It was grotesque. {aka awesome}

The next happened when Lori went into labor while she, Maggie and Carl were running from a gang of dead. They hid in the boiler room and Maggie declared that Lori would have to give birth right there. Carl, who has clearly not yet been traumatized enough, was going to have to help deliver his baby sister. Poor kid! Maggie yanks Lori’s pants off and tells her to push. Lori is bleeding, though, and is clearly going to need a c-section. She gives this long speech to Carl, which would be absolutely devastating if I cared the least bit for her character, and then tells Maggie to cut her open, and instructs her to also do what needs to be done when she turns. Maggie slices her stomach, finds the uterus, and pulls the baby out with Carl’s help. The baby is alive! The mother however, is not. Carl then takes it upon himself to shoot his mother so that she cannot turn. That was devastating. {Meh.}

When Maggie and Carl returned to Rick with the baby girl, Rick quickly realized the situation and exerted some intensely raw emotion. I mean, good lord; that was some of the best acting I have seen on this show. My eyes had tears in them. I cannot watch this show without putting myself in their shoes. I constantly ask myself what I would do in their situations. But something like having to shoot your own mother? That would be beyond my capabilities.

Overall, I would say that this episode was outstanding. The acting was phenomenal. We lost two main characters in one episode, making sure we know that anything can happen during any episode.

5/5 Grizzlies

Next Week: Later Doc.

Several pictures stolen from Tumblr users:
Er’Thing Neox, A BUBBLE ON THE TIDE OF EMPIRE, A Pathetic Fangirl’s Blog, and Biten by A Vamp.

Still better than how she went out in the comics…

The Walking Dead: 3.03 – “Walk With Me” Review

Episode 3, “Walk With Me”, was one of the most well done episodes of The Walking Dead I have seen in a long time. Instead of more of the same (the group trying to fight off a herd, someone disagrees with Rick, everyone relies on Rick to keep the group safe, Lori cries) there was a mass amount of character development. No… not just character development, storyline development!

Alas, we have our Mayor! David Morrissey is an outstanding addition to the show! When Andrea and Michonne were in the woods they were hiding because a helicopter had crashed. I had forgotten that they didn’t know that everyone who dies becomes a walker, even if they weren’t bitten. It made me almost sad. Michonne thought that she and Andrea were going to be discovered, so Michonne cut the heads off of her two walkers.

Andrea and Michonne end up being taken from the woods by our old pal Merle and his group, which includes the Mayor. They are guests in the little town of Woodbury; a walker-free safe space for survivors! There are guards defending the town from their high walls and buildings that keep the town secluded. When walkers show, they get got! It is an amazing idea. The people of Woodbury have children who attend school, the adults have jobs, and everyone feels that they still have a purpose in what is left of their post-apocalyptic world.

Andrea is much more receptive to the whole idea than Michonne, and rightfully so. While Andrea is clearly flirting with the Mayor and enjoying some well-deserved down time, Michonne is eyeballing everyone and keeping her guard up. They took the girls’ weapons away when they arrived, so we do finally see Michonne without her Katana. Personally, I like her better with it, but this is not one of those episodes. Don’t get me wrong, we still see plenty of deaths; some of them are not deserved.

The man, Tim, who was piloting the helicopter, survived and was hanging onto life by a thread. The Mayor promised that if Tim told him where is stranded group was, he would bring them back to Woodbury. Instead, the Mayor wiped out the entire group of military personnel, and took all of their supplies. I understand that he would not want anyone challenging his authority and taking over his Mayorship of the group back at Woodbury, but I got very upset when I saw this. I immediately loved the Mayor upon seeing him on this show. Seeing him heartlessly wipe out these men with his group really upset me.This was a good way to find out all of the sides to his character in one episode. Not to mention that at the end, he was sitting in front of a large amount of tanks with heads of people he’d killed, and at the very top was Tim, the survivor. It was as if he was just sitting back watching his favorite TV show episode. Just unsettling.

Merle being back could either be really great or really terrible. He would be a good addition to his brother’s group if he could stop being loyal to the Mayor. I think he should realize, with the senseless killing the Mayor has Merle doing, the second the Mayor thinks that Merle could pose a problem of any kind, he will kill him. Merle would be a great asset to Rick’s group, except that he hates Rick. Rick is the one who handcuffed Merle to the rooftop, causing him to mutilate himself to avoid being zombie food. I love how the show does every single thing they can to avoid the term “zombies”. Walkers, Biters, Living Dead… they have been called everything but that. When I think of zombies, I think of special effects and fake gore. I feel like maybe they avoid that word because it is so widely associated with pretend and they want to keep the show as realistic as possible.

Overall, this was an amazing episode. There was so much to focus on, even without going into what Rick’s group is doing at all! In fact, this might be the first episode ever without Rick in it. I enjoy the break from more of the same, and I love the new characters. These 3 episodes of season 3 have been my favorite season starter so far. I can only hope that they can keep the episodes as interesting and strong as they have been up to this point.

5/5 Grizzlies!

Countdown to Halloween #4: The Romero Zombies

Zombies seem to be everywhere recently don’t they? It’s okay, I did not mean it literally, you can remove the locks of the door now! No, what I meant was that in the last few years the zombie mythology has become firmly embedded in pop culture. With The Walking Dead bringing in huge ratings numbers and zombie films with a heart like Shaun of the Dead, it seems you cannot walk down the street without some form of zombie merchandise in your way. Now zombies have been in cinema for a long time now. Their origins lie in Haitian folklore and they were originally slaves to their voodoo masters.

Continue reading Countdown to Halloween #4: The Romero Zombies

VHS Vault: Mortuary (aka Embalmed)

Here we have Mortuary (Embalmed is its UK name), which though released in the mid eighties was most certainly a film from the ’70s. The wardrobe is full of bright blues and the hair stylist was clearly quite taken with The Dukes of Hazard, because a lot of the cast look like they stepped right out of that show. Also when a roller disco is included, you know you are looking at the ’70s. Nothing dates a film more than a roller disco.

Continue reading VHS Vault: Mortuary (aka Embalmed)

CCI 2012: Video Game News Roundup

Hey there, people. It’s me again. Comic-Con has been rather quiet when it comes to video games. Just like day 1, nothing much happened in that area of nerdism so I decided to combine day 2, 3 and 4 into one article.

A Mass Effect anime will invade our television sets soon

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is an anime series which is set right before the event of Mass Effect 3. The plot centers on James Vega (voiced by the corny Freddie Prinze Jr.), telling the story of his team’s encounter with the Collectors aka the bad guys in Mass Effect 2. Here’s a brief description of the storyline taken from the official website:

Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is the prequel to the highly-anticipated Mass Effect 3 and follows the early career of Alliance Marine, James Vega. Vega leads an elite Special Forces squad into battle against a mysterious alien threat known as The Collectors. Stationed at a colony in a remote star system, Vega and his soldiers must protect the civilians from a ruthless invasion determined to capture the population for unknown purposes. Learn more about the Mass Effect universe with an unprecedented glimpse into the haunted past of Mass Effect’s newest hero!

If you ask me, I don’t really give a shit about the anime. Given how crappy the ending is, there is no reason for me to care. Plus, the animation looks pretty bad. We’re talking about “made using Flash by a bunch of middle-schoolers” level of disaster. Don’t get me wrong. Flash can look fantastic when done right, but Paragon Lost does not seem to be the case. But what do I know? Some people liked the ending. That includes our very own CheeseBadger, who is oh-so-sarcastic all the time. Maybe some of you will enjoy this. As for me, I’ll pass.

By the way, the anime is coming out in November this year.

Oh, there’s also this Mass Effect 3 DLC tease

Word on the street is that BioWare released a teaser. Some speculate it’s for an upcoming DLC. Apparently the story is set underwater and there will be Atlas’s (the Cerberus robot thingy).  I’m not holding my breath for this one. Here’s an interesting question: was that pun intended?

(We’ll update this post as soon as we find the teaser on Youtube.)

The Last of Us introduces a new, bearded character

The trailer shows Joel, Ellie and the new character getting into a building after fending off the zombies, or whatever they’re called. I mean, technically speaking, they have some fungal infection in their brains or some crazy ass shit like that. That part isn’t so zombie-like, but since they’re acting as if they’re high on bath salts, we’ll just refer to them as zombies. They’re crazy, and I think they eat people. Let’s not pretend they’re anything other than zombies, aight?

Anyways, this mysterious figure, Bill, handcuffs Ellie and points the gun at Joel. The men get into an argument as Ellie breaks free to hit Bill with the steel pipe she was handcuffed to. Joel stops her after the first hit and the three talk things out. In short, Bill is the typical “trust nobody” type of guy who’s reluctant to help the protagonists in zombie movies. He’ll probably end up being eaten because he’s not a team player. Now all we need are some token (insert stereotypical minority ethnicity here) guy/gal, a dumb blonde, and a dickish beefcake to make the most predictable zombie video game ever. I am still intrigued by the story though.

More Resident Evil 6 details

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Resident Evil 6’s producer, has released more details on the game.

  • Jill and Claire will not be in the game. Claire will be mentioned.
  • You can switch camera to your character’s right or left.
  • For those hardcore players, the hud display can be switched off.
  • Weapons are scattered throughout levels. No purchases are necessary.
  • You no longer have worry about your AI partner’s inventory. He/She will pick up various items based on his/her needs.
  • Swapping items is possible when you’re playing online co-op.
  • Weapons are not individually upgraded. Instead, you upgrade weapons, among many other skills, through the allocation of skill points.
  • As of current, the game is not going to support Playstation Move.

Capcom has also revealed the voices behind the main characters:

  • Leon S Kennedy – Matthew Mercer
  • Helena Harper – Laura Bailey
  • Chris Redfield – Roger Craig Smith
  • Piers Nivans – Chris Emerson
  • Jake Muller – Troy Baker
  • Sherry Birkin – Eden Riegel
  • Ada Wong / Carla Radames – Courtnay Taylor

I swear to god Laura Bailey and Troy Baker were in every single thing that came out in the last twelve months. Both of them played the Boss in Saints Row The Third (Caucasian female and male respectively), as well as different supporting roles Mass Effect 3 (Laura as the asari lieutenant at the beginning of Priority: Thessia, I think, and Troy as the notoriously comical Kai Leng), and many more. Just look at their IMDB profiles yourself. Here’s Laura’s and here’s Troy’s.

They’re both quite attractive. Just saying…

A Deadpool video game is coming out…

And surprisingly, he’s not voiced by Nolan North, or is he? Oh wait, he is. All that I care about is Deadpool himself actually showed up in Comic Con to announce the game himself, and that was awesome.

The game is being developed by High Moon Studios and will be published by Activision. Anyways, here’s the teaser:

[youtube

The gameplay itself doesn’t look particularly interesting. It’s seems like another third-person hack-&-slash / shooting. Perhaps the witty dialogue may just be the game changer. Who knows? It’s too early to tell.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our Comic Con coverage. Big shoutouts to all of you who read the articles. I know it sounds corny but you are the reason why we’re doing this. We don’t get paid. Please keep following us on Facebook or Twitter (or start now if you haven’t already done so) for more pop culture opinions.