Craig DiLouie's Apocalyptic Horror Fiction

Russia gets in on the zombie film craze with WINTER OF THE DEAD (2012), a film about a disparate group of Muscovites fighting to survive as a bizarre blizzard descends upon the city in the middle of summer, followed by a zombie outbreak. Russkiy Zombi! check out the trailer below.

As an asteroid nears Earth, giving humanity three weeks to put its affairs in order, a man (Steve Carrell) finds himself alone after his wife flees in panic. He and a young neighbor (Keira Knightley) take a road trip so he can reunite with his first love, a woman he dated in high school, and she can find her family. Trailer follows:

Looks like fun, and it kind of reminds me of LAST NIGHT (1989), another great it’s-the-end-of-the-world-last-chance-to-find-meaning movie:

In PERFECT SENSE, a chef and an epidemiologist meet and fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob the world’s population of sensory perception, threatening apocalypse. The film has gotten a lot of negative reviews for overbearing sap (it appears to be a love story, with the plague and resulting apocalypse used as plot devices), but the premise looks intriguing–reminding me of BLINDNESS (great book, so-so movie)–so I’ll probably give it a shot.

In the upcoming animated film WAR OF THE WORLDS: GOLIATH, the Martians return 15 years after the events described in the HG Wells classic, but Earth has been rebuilt, and the humans now have a steampunk army, built using Martian technology, that is ready to fight in defense of their home planet.

THE DEAD, which I caught at zomBcon, tells the story of a combat engineer stranded in Africa during a mass evacuation of Westerners during a continental zombie outbreak. Some have described the film as a bit dry, and the barren landscapes and the often emotionless characters certainly cultivate that reaction, but I enjoyed it. It’s innovative (zombie apocalypse on the African savannah), the scenery is beautiful, the storyline is realistically presented (even though the main characters sometimes make bad decisions that may seem obvious to the viewer), and the film’s plotting keeps things simple. The ending provides the notion that maybe the world is ending, but a new world can be forged by the people who can stick it out. One thing disturbed me, which was how slow the zombies were–they made Romero zombies look athletic. I’m okay with slow zombies, but even more than usual with slow zombies, it begged the question how the zombie plague swarmed across the vast continent so quickly, and how the zombies could in fact have gained significant numbers at all. Check it out for something new in the genre.

In DEAD AIR, the night is young and Logan, a popular radio talk show host, finds himself narrating the zombie apocalypse from ground zero as a terrorist bio-attack unleashes a plague of zombies in downtown Los Angeles. The characters are colorful and some of the zombie action is pretty well done and exciting. The basic plot is somewhat similar to PONTYPOOL, which I frankly enjoyed more.

In DOG SOLDIERS, a squad of British soldiers training in a remote area of Scotland end up hunted by a werewolf pack. The story is a bit silly–the wolves are invincible until they are not, they break off their attacks for no reason other than to give the characters time for dialogue, etc. etc. But as simple horror fun, it works, and you can see why the film has so many fans. Army versus werewolves? What is not to like, really?

Just watched Asylum’s ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, one of those movies you know is going to suck. The dialogue is ridiculous, the action unrealistic, the characters idiots. Once you accept it for what it is, it’s kind of fun. But it begs the question of what it could have been if its makers had tried even a tiny bit to produce a decent script. Note to Asylum: There are tons of great zombie books out there. Adapt one next time.

In BELLFLOWER, filmed for just $17,000, two friends prepare for the apocalypse by building flamethrowers in their spare time. Then one falls in love, gets hurt, and the film descends into a tit for tat game of violent revenge that feels almost Shakespearean as the Mad Max fantasy becomes a bloody vengeance fantasy. The characters are compelling and the film has a unique feel, but the story might fall flat for some.

REC3 opens in Spain in March 2012 and revisits the infection story of the previous two popular films by Spanish filmmaker Paco Plaza. While plot details are not yet known, the title, GENESIS, implies the story may be a prequel. The final installment in the series, REC4-Apocalypse, will subsequently be released. Trailer follows.