the jaded viewer

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Posted by the jaded viewer at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I went to a thrift store a few weeks ago and in their book department was this little book that I figured I could pick up on the cheap. Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide by Glenn Kay. I am not familiar with Glenn Kay but I figure he wrote a book so he must have some street cred.

The book is an interesting read on the origins of the zombie film (it's Haiti voodoo for the uninformed) and the classic zombie films to the modern day cult flicks. Kay reviews an encyclopedia of zombie movies rating them with brain eating cartoons for the best and arrows in the head for the worst.

What I found to be the most interesting though is he wrote down his own list of the Top 25 Zombie Movies of All Time. I love lists (even when they aren't even my own) but I have my own top 10 zombie movies of all time list which I'll include below.

The one thing you can count on with lists is there will be blood as people will criticize or praise to the end of eternity what's on this list. If you want to know why he has one movie ranked higher, pick up the book. It's available on Amazon.com.

Here's the list! (FYI: this was published in 2008) Let the arguing begin!

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Shaun of the Dead
4. Day of the Dead
5. Braindead
   
6. Re-Animator
7. The Return of the Living Dead
8. 28 Days Later
9. The Serpent and the Rainbow
10. White Zombie
11. The Walking Dead
12. Night of the Living Dead (90)
13. Dellamorte Dellamore
14. Prince of Darkness
15. Night of the Creeps
16. Creepshow: "Father's Day"
17. Dead & Buried
18. Grindhouse: "Planet Terror"
19. Zombi 2
20. Land of the Dead
21. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
22. I Walked with a Zombie
23. Tales from the Crypt: "Poetic Justice"
24. Sugar Hill
25. Plan 9 from Outer Space

the jaded viewer says: I agree with his #1 as its on my own list. But to put Shaun of the Dead at #3 is a little much. Even Day of.... in the top 10 is little extreme. OK, as promised here is my own which I wrote on 2002. Why am I posting a list from 2002? I don't know...I figure it could stand to take some criticism. Has there been a zombie movie since 2002 that I should add?
I mean I still think its pretty solid.

I should write a little explanation on each but I'm a lazy bastard so sue me. After looking at the list, I have Evil Dead 2 on it. Also I have 3 Fulci movies on this list. I remember I was on some kind of Fulci kick back in 02. Ahh memories. As an added bonus, I've posted Insano Steve's Top 10 zombie movies of all time as well.

the jaded viewer's Top 10 Zombie Movies of All Time (as of 4/1/02)

1. Dawn of the Dead
2. Night of the Living Dead
3. Zombi 2
4. Braindead
5. The Beyond
6. Re-Animator
7. The Gates of Hell
8. Evil Dead 2
   
9. Night of the Creeps
   
10. Dellamorte Dellamore

Insano Steve's Top 10 Zombie Movies of All Time (as of 4/1/02)

1. Zombi 2
2. Braindead
3. Evil Dead
4. Re-Animator
5. Versus
   
6. Dawn of the Dead
7. Demons
8. Dellamorte Dellamore
9. Night of the Creeps
10. Zombie Holocaust

Thoughts about Kay's list, Insano Steve's or my own list? Hell, what's your list of the best zombie movies of all time?

Labels: george romero, moshing zombies, top 5 scenes in lucio fulci's zombi 2, zombi 2, zombies

Posted by the jaded viewer at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Ringu

Directed by Hideo Nakata, Chisui Takigawa

Insano Steve says: The wildly popular Ring is the story of an urban legend where the watching of a certain videotape will cause you to die within a week's time. Female journalist tries to find the existence of this tape and how it came to being. Assisting her is psychic friend who has sight beyond sight which leads to a mysterious island where the secret is revealed. Atmospheric horror neo-classic has unforgettably chilling ending. Be wary of tapes given to you by strangers who have died recently.

See the Japanese version of this film before Hollywood bastardizes the shit out of it.
(oh wait they did and according to Insano Steve, the American version was better!)

Rating:





Ringu 2

Directed by Hideo Nakata

Insano Steve says: Sequel to the Ring explores more of the historical part of the urban legend. Better than the original in many ways, we see a new female investigator trying a bring an end to this curse once and for all. You'd think people would stop watching that tape after so many people died but there probably isn't a whole lot to watch on TV in Japan.

At least Japan is still making quality horror flicks unlike the films defecated out of Hollywood.

Rating:

1/2

The Trailer

Labels: japanese, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese horror, the ring

Posted by the jaded viewer at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Directed by Takashi Miike

Insano Steve says: Old widower decides he'd like to remarry now in his old age and has his friend (a movie producer) hold a bogus movie audition to find his perfect mate. Old guy finds woman of his dreams but low and behold, she's crazy. Very exciting ending and extremely well crafted thriller. Departure from the usual Miike insanity. Slow but worth the wait.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Rating:

The Trailer

Labels: audition, japanese, japanese atrocities, japanese exploitation, japanese gore, japanese horror, takashi miike

Posted by the jaded viewer at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I am proudly the 3rd entry in the Mr. Horror Blogosphere over @ Zombies Don't Run. I answered the questions to the best of my ability, but they were harder than a DMV driver's test.

Why no picture you might ask?

Well, I just forgot to send one. But more importantly, I'm going with the mysterious Ninja approach to the Mr. Horror Blogosphere. He's unseen, he's like a shadow...he's does not exist.

Hell, I'm not even writing this.

So check out my entry over at Zombie's Don't Run and remember...vote for the other guy!

Labels: horror blog, horror blogging, jadedviewer, jadedviewer.com, the jaded viewer

Posted by the jaded viewer at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I've got a back log of old reviews I've never posted, so I figure I'd post a few today and throughout the week. Most of these reviews are from Insano Steve and myself and from our old trading list circa 2002.

These were quick hit reviews, nothing fancy schmancy. No WTF moments or nudipedias. Just quick plot glimpses and funny randomness.

Enjoy!

Labels: horror trades, horror trading lists, jadedviewer, jadedviewer.com, the jaded viewer

Posted by the jaded viewer at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Directed by Takashi Miike

Insano Steve says: Teenage Yakuza Riki Fudoh has his underage crime syndicate running like clockwork. His team features child assassins and women who shoot vaginal blowgun darts and the usual assortment of misfits. But to claim control of Kyushu island, he must off his father who is the leader of the controlling Yakuza. Fortunately, this can only be achieved violently with as much bloodshed as possible.

Based on a Manga. Gratuitous beheadings, acid burning and hermaphrodites (God bless those sexually gifted freaks) are always appreciated.

Rating:
The Trailer

Labels: horror trading lists, japanese, japanese exploitation, japanese horror, takashi miike

Posted by the jaded viewer at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I've decided to put a corner of the jaded viewer on Facebook so you can get a decent feed while your Facebooking. So instead of checking your Blogger dash reading list, you can become a fan via Facebook.

I'll link all the newest stories I put up and it'll be a place to drop me a line if your so inclined (and if you hate captchas and don't wanna comment) I've put the little Facebook widget on the right nav bar as well.

Labels: horror blog, horror blogging, jadedviewer, jadedviewer.com, the jaded viewer

Posted by the jaded viewer at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

With February being Black History Month, I could have done what Andre @ The Horror Digest has been doing all month and honoring famous black actors and movies. But we here at the jaded viewer tend to skew our look at black history with a different perspective. I've already put up my sarcastic A Not So Good Moment in Black Horror Movie History (if you have another suggestion, let me know)

African Americans have blended into pop culture and should be honored in our new Obama nation. But the struggle continues. And the one thing we should learn about the past is its been a difficult path to gain full acceptance into Americana. The struggle and the revolution continues and we should all keep fighting the good fight.

But the history of this movement in film is filled with lots of satire, anger, revenge and humor. Yes folks, humor. I've pulled some trailers below of some infamous racial satires that slant towards the struggle, the horrifying truths and the improbable funnyness of all that is black and white.

Fight the power!

First the racy raciest race movies of the 70s. Here is the trailer for Fight for Your Life, a film about racist motherfuckers that get their comeuppance.





What could be worse than that? How about the trailer for Goodbye Uncle Tom, a movie about the slave trade by notorious Mondo Cane directors Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi.





A little too much for ya right? OK, let's go get some funnies. Here's the trailer for The Thing with Two Heads.





And finally the whole movie for Watermelon Man is on YouTube. If you've never heard of Watermelon Man before is the plot:

An extremely bigoted white man find out the hard (and somewhat humorous) way what it's like being a black man, firsthand!





So what's the modern version look like today? Well anything from Spike Lee of course. But Black Dynamite was released on DVD last week and is one of the funniest parodies of blaxsploitation movies.

This concludes my contribution to Black History Month. If your looking for more black movies in film, check out Insano Steve's The 10 Best Black Films of the 1990's.

Labels: 10 Best Black Films Of The 1990s, blaxploitation, goodbye uncle tom, the thing with two heads, watermelon man

Posted by the jaded viewer at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Over the last few weeks, the horror blogosphere has had it's share of controversial issues (awards, etc) which seem in retrospect were a little nitpicky yet oddly mesmerizing.

We went into an award frenzy. But that's not the main point of this post. More so it's the fact that somebody decided not to divide the blogosphere but unite us.

That's where Carl @ I Like Horror did. Early this month, he started the Horror Blogger Alliance.

What is the Horror Blogger Alliance? Simply an organization on the interweb to unite us all horror bloggers together and get us to talk about horror issues, debate on some interesting questions and link up on our common reviews and posts.

So far it's been awesome. And the best part?

Anybody can join!

Now up to over 130 blogs, if you have a horror slanted blog you can join the Alliance. No fancy membership process, no gender or racial divide. Nothing. The only so called rules is your blog should be horror-rish.

Think about it. There are probably well over 200 horror blogs running right now (I totally just made up that number based on minimal info). Until Carl created the HBA, nobody thought to organize a grassroots org like structure for all these blogs. Sure there are the League of Tana Tea Drinkers and now the newly formed Tea Party of the Dead but special criteria applies for these.

I'm not saying you shouldn't have these orgs as well, but it's more like a frat/sorority horror blogging group rather than an all inclusive group like the HBA. No disrespect to the LOTTD or TPD as I'd be honored if chosen to be part of the LOTT D (though for the TPD, I'd have to get a special operation to join).

My main point is that after all the weird bullshit with the awards crap which even resulted in the LOTTD's Bloody Blogger Awards being cancelled, we finally have a org in which everybody can join and feel like they're part of a real internet community.

I just wanted to say thanks to Carl for creating the HBA. He picked a damn good time to start it up and its looking like it's just what we needed after all these weird awards issues that came up.

So if you have a horror blog, head over to the Horror Blogger Alliance and join up. Damn good idea Carl. I gotta think of one too.

Hmmm, maybe I should start up the Van Damme for President Blogging Federation. Who's with me?

Labels: horror blog, horror blogging

Posted by the jaded viewer at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post