Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

THE RETREAT Series Audiobook Omnibus

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retreatTHE RETREAT series, my zombie/apocalyptic fiction series co-authored with Stephen Knight and Joe McKinney, is being produced as audiobooks by the great R.C. Bray, who does his usual fantastic job with narration. The series chronicles the collapse of society due to a horrifying virus that turns ordinary people into savage, sadistic killers, and the long retreat of a lost battalion trying to make it back in time for civilization’s last stand.

Now the first three books are available as an omnibus, providing 14 hours of entertainment!

Get it here.

RAVENOUS (2017)

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RAVENOUS (2017) is a Canadian horror film (Canada Netflix, I hear coming to U.S. Netflix March 2018) about a zombie-like plague that has devastated a small town in rural Quebec. Essentially, it is basic survival horror, with a disparate group of people who band together to try to survive.

While observing many traditional conventions and effectively building tension throughout, the film stands out by focusing on the emotional connections between the characters, and there’s a real cinematic flair to it, an artistry that overcomes its relatively low budget. An old man who fled his infected wife and sons tells another survivor, “It’s crazy, but the whole time I was running, I wanted to turn around and tell them I loved them.” A “perfect wife” loses her family and becomes a killing machine. A misfit and a big city woman bond over keeping a little girl safe.

There are plenty of incredibly tense moments in the film, such as a desperate running battle in the woods at night, noise traps going off by the dozen as a horde of infected draw near, and more. The infected do creepy things reminiscent of CELL, such as building bizarre constructions of household objects and staring at them in a trance.

Now to my two criticisms. First, the characters do a lot of dumb things. Noise at night? Let’s walk into the woods alone to check it out. The zombies have a way of popping out of nowhere, George Romero style, to deliver a perfect bite. These elements threaten to make it just another indie zombie movie, but the overall effort and attention to character and cinematography elevate it anyway.

So overall, I don’t see it as one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it, and it got me, so I’d recommend it, though of course YMMV. Be sure to watch a small scene after the credits. I rarely watch until after the credits but did this time because I had a feeling we’d get to see two of the characters again.

IT STAINS THE SANDS RED (2016)

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IT STAINS THE SANDS RED (2016) is a small-scale zombie movie with an uneven delivery but a great effort. It’s the zombie apocalypse, and Molly and Nick are fleeing in his car. The objective is an airfield where Nick’s friends are waiting to take them to Mexico. When things go belly up, Molly finds herself forced to trek 36 miles through the desert to the airfield, relentlessly pursued the entire time by a lone zombie in a suit and tie.

The film takes a familiar trope and incorporates some original and likeable elements. The majority of the film is Molly (the gorgeous Brittany Allen) trying to make it across the desert with the zombie on her heels. She’s tough but terrified. She starts the film as a stereotype (complete with leopard-skin pants), but as the film progresses we get to know her as a more complex human being. Along the journey, she confronts the realities of her life, the directions she’s been led by circumstances as well as her own shortcomings. Her job as a stripper, her relationship with men who are all jerks, her love of recreational drugs, her inability to parent the child she gave to her sister.

There are some things to like here, but the film doesn’t quite pull it off despite serious trying, resulting in a very uneven film you may find yourself alternately engaged with and wading through as it progresses. It’s never really quite funny or scary, though there is something about it that’s compelling. As the conceit of the zombie pursuing her wears thin, the film takes a new direction that kind of comes out of nowhere, which I can’t share as it’d be a spoiler. I can say the ending brings decent dramatic closure as Molly realizes what’s important and that everything else is just bullshit, and finally acts for herself and what she needs.

Overall, for me, IT STAINS THE SANDS RED gets an A for effort and a B-/C+ for the result. It could have been a truly wicked short film, but there wasn’t enough material and story to sustain it across a feature film.

IN THE FLESH

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inthefleshA FB friend recently turned me on to IN THE FLESH, a British zombie series that aired in 2013 on BBC3. I got the DVD through Amazon, though I hear it’s available on Hulu. This is a first-rate zombie drama that really grabbed me.

In this series, the UK has survived the zombie apocalypse and is trying to rebuild. The authorities have come up with a cure and have rounded up the zombies into processing centers where they slowly become conscious again, though their bodies are still dead. Most are suffering from trauma, as they have flashbacks to the horrific things they did while they were “rabid.”

As zombie fiction evolved, this became a popular trope some years ago, and IN THE FLESH nails the concept perfectly. Keep in mind, though, this is a pure drama about the aftermath, with little actual zombie action to speak of. In the rural town of Roarton, we have a family welcoming home Kieren. The military focused on the big cities, leaving rural defense to local militias called the Human Volunteer Force, or HVF. The HVF is resentful and angry the zombies are being re-assimilated into society and that they’re losing their status as champions of the village. Kieren’s sister is HVF and hates the sight of him; his parents must keep him hidden. These and are concepts, involving Kieren and other characters you come to care about, are handled with great depth and drama, and though the first season is only three episodes long, it really grabbed me.

Great stuff, and I look forward to checking out the second season, which is longer at six one-hour episodes. Unfortunately, the series didn’t get a third season when BBC3 went off the air.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES

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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES (2016) is a historical zombie film based on Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 mashup of the Jane Austen novel with zombies. The result is a comedy of manners and marriage with, well, zombies. The film was a box office bomb and has been widely criticized for having too much talk and dancing to please zombie fans and zombie action that will not please many Jane Austen fans. As for me, I liked it. It wasn’t earth shaking but it was well done and lots of fun.

The story focuses on Elizabeth Bennett, one of five sisters living in 19th century England. The girls must train to fight zombies that have overrun much of England while girding themselves to find good husbands, as their father has no male heir to inherit his estate. Romance develops between Bingley, a rich and handsome aristocrat who falls in love with Elizabeth’s beautiful sister Jane, but the real event is Elizabeth’s growing attraction and repulsion with the dark and blunt Colonel Darcy. They run afoul of a plot to overrun all of England with a different type of intelligent, thinking zombie that intends to rule. Matt Smith plays an overbearing and childlike parson, who provides comic relief.

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I liked it for what it was, a fun mashup that is fairly well told with good pacing and action. The zombie element is weaker than the Jane Austen element, as zombies seem to show up at every ball and party, which for some reason appear undefended in a country infested with them. As a result, England’s surviving aristocracy seem to keep getting wiped out repeatedly. People ride off alone between estates, only to predictably encounter more than they can handle. It was unclear to me what part of England is actually held by people not yet zombies, and how its economy can even support an aristocracy anymore. As a result, the zombies appear to be a plot device inserted the way Raymond Chandler suggested introducing a gun–to spice up a scene otherwise not going anywhere exciting.

Again, though, I took it for what it was and with low expectations, and ended up enjoying it.

B&N Names SUFFER THE CHILDREN to Apocalyptic Top 10 List

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SUFFER THE CHILDREN by Craig DiLouieBarnes and Noble recently published a Top 10 list of zombie apocalypse stories. I was proud to see SUFFER THE CHILDREN on the list alongside works by great authors like Peter Clines, M.R. Carey, Max Brooks, Isaac Marion, Colson Whitehead and others.

Strange they picked SUFFER THE CHILDREN, which is basically a vampire undead story, over my zombie books, but hey, I’m not complaining. B&N.com writes:

Technically the children in DiLouie’s book are vampires, but stay with us here. After an epidemic sweeps the globe, killing all the children in the world, there’s a moment of dizzy joy when the kids all come back. Except, they’re still dead, just reanimated—and hungry for blood. Once they’ve fed, they become normal again, just like they were. But it wears off, leading parents all over the world to face the question: how far will you go to feed your children—your children—human blood in order to keep them (more or less) alive? Examining the battle between parental love and the horror of the scenario is pure genius.

Thanks, Barnes and Noble!

Check out the complete list here.