“Zombibi” (2012) – Dutch Zombie Horror/ Comedy

Hahahaha!! Even though I’ve decided to make this Halloween a “ghost themed” review month, our good friends the zombies absolutely refuse to let me leave them out of the fun entirely, and so this time out we take a peek at the recent Dutch Horror Comedy DVD release featuring our favorite flesh munching fiends, 2012’s “Zombibi” aka “Kill Zombie”.

Our synopsis goes like this: “When the Russian Mir Space Station crash lands on the city of Amsterdam, a deadly infection spreads, turning the inhabitants into psychopathic flesh eating zombies!

After a fight at a pool party ends with a night in jail, two brothers and two crazy criminals along with one gutsy female police officer emerge to discover their city ravaged by a zombie outbreak. When one of them receives a cry for help from a sole survivor they are all forced to embark on a reluctant rescue mission, pitting their wits, and risking their lives against these flesh devouring mutant killers!”

Haven’t really seen a lot of Dutch film… let alone any Dutch Zombie films… so this one was a pleasant surprise when it popped up in the UK on Region 2 DVD. I’d been trying to locate the original Dutch DVD to no avail, and British releases of European film tend to… err… ummm… well… not ordinarily measure up, quality wise. Lots of time they are dubbed into English, the original audio track discarded completely… or worse, they get hard-subbed. Who they heck would do that? Especially when selectable subtitles are so darn easy to add to a DVD. Ah, well… I just knew I wasn’t going to find this one any other way, so finally this wee Catgirl bit the bullet and plunked down her cash for a copy. Was it worth my efforts? Only one way for you gentle Visitors to know….. 😉

Our Friends, the Zombies… With a Heartfelt Halloween Message

🙂 Our perennial Halloween friends, the “Living Impaired”, the shambling hordes of Undeath, or as we like to call them here at the ol’ Litterbox, the Zombie menace…. have teamed up with the Canadian Heart And Stroke Foundation to give us some very useful and timely advice this creepy Holiday season to help keep this a healthy and happy celebration for all showing us that even flesh eating monsters from beyond the grave still care….. well…. sort of, Hehehehe!!

So…. this month, along with the candy, the parties, and the fun…. stay healthy Gentle Visitors… or else!! 😉

“[REC]³:Génesis” (2012) – Spanish Zombie/ Horror

The cold days of Autumn are well and truly upon us… and that can mean only one thing here at the ol’ Litterbox…. Halloween will soon be here and with it our old friends the Zombies shambling close behind. Given that, it’s time to get us all ready for the “Zombie Apocalypse” a wee bit early with a quick review of the latest Spanish horror offering in the genre, “[REC]³:Génesis”. Just to get us all in the proper mood, mind you, Hehehehe!!

Our synopsis goes like this: “Koldo and Clara are about to celebrate the most important day of their lives: their wedding. Everything appears to be running smoothly, and the bride, the groom and their families are enjoying a wonderful day in the countryside… until some of the guests start showing signs of a strange illness. Before they know what’s happening, the bride and groom find themselves in the middle of a hellish ordeal, as an uncontrollable torrent of violence is unleashed on the wedding. What started off as an idyllic day quickly descends into a nightmare of the worst kind.”

The first two offerings in this horror franchise were right up this wee lady’s alley, and so when this one finally came available on Region 2 DVD it didn’t take tooooo darn much to convince this Catgirl it was definitely as “must have”. So… if you, like a certain Zombie crazy Catgirl, just love these sorts of goofy horror goodies you’ll probably be chomping at the bit to read all about it for yourself…. So don’t just stand there silly… C’mon!! 😉

“Juan of the Dead” (2011) – Cuban Zombie Comedy/ Horror

Mmmmm...well now that the weather has died down and I’m no longer in danger of blowing away, it’s time for this Catgirl to get back to business with yet another new goofy movie review for you all. OK, so here’s a new one, Cuba’s first entry into the Zombie film genre, the 2011 Horror/ Comedy “Juan of the Dead”. So…. ever wonder what the dreaded “Zombie Apocalypse” might be like seen through the eyes of the communist inhabitants of Castro’s Cuba? Well… wonder no more.

Our synopsis? How’s this then: “Juan is a 40-year-old slacker, an ordinary Cuban just living day-to-day doing absolutely nothing. Juan and his sidekick/best friend, Lazaro spend their days aimlessly fishing, drinking, and coming up with their next scam to finance their layabout existence. Juan’s only real ambition in life is to somehow restore ties to his estranged daughter, Camila, a beautiful young girl who doesn’t want anything to do with a worthless father who’s only talent seems to be womanizing and getting into trouble. Suddenly strange things start to happen, people begin to turn violent and start attacking one another. At first convinced it’s merely just another stage of the “Revolution”, Juan and his friends soon start to realize that the dreaded “zombie apocalypse” has arrived in their “socialist paradise” bringing with it the first real change in Cuban society since the Revolution, not to mention real opportunities for a man not afraid to get his hands a little dirty….”

A Cuban/ Spanish co-production, this is just the weird sort of goofy film yours truly likes to enjoy and it wasn’t difficult for me to want to grab a copy as soon as the Region 2 UK release popped up…. after all, with the US’s continuing rather silly stance on Cuba even since the fall of the Soviet Union, who knew if it would ever get released here? Nope…. wasn’t gonna take a chance on that….

So… if Zombies are your thing too, Gentle Visitor…. and somehow Neko just knows they are 😉…. then what are you waitin’ for? Let’s “Read On” and find out all about this one, shall we?

Nekoneko’s Trailer Park: January 6 2012

Now that 2012 has rolled around, your Favorite Catgirl has made herself a few New Year’s Resolutions…. and one of them is to spend a bit more time here at the Litterbox posting more new stuff and generally getting more involved with things I’ve managed to let slip away from me in the hectic year that has passed.

So… given that I already share some of the details of my boring lil’ life with you in my “Diary”…. and the tasty creations of my kitchen experiments… as well as the Reviews of my goofy obsession with films both exotic and obscure (at least in my particular part of our big ol’ world…), it made me scratch my lil’ noggin when it came to what else we might just get up to here.

Then it hit me. I spend oodles of my time in the quest to actually find my video goodies…. and so probably do many of you. You hear about a film… maybe you are lucky enough to get a look at a poster or some pre-production art or stills. But the ultimate thing has to be when you first get a peek at the Trailer for one of those “coming soon to a theater nowhere near you” movies you just know you are gonna have to score the Internet to find.

But…. what if some goofy Catgirl was willing to do all the tedious initial scouting for you? Find those tasty Trailers for you… pounce on them… pacify them…. proudly drag them home like a dead mousy for you to enjoy? Sounds…. well… OK… sort of gross…. but also darn useful too, Hehehe.

Anyway… starting now, and I hope on a fairly regular basis, I’m going to gather those Trailers here, collected from the depths of the far flung Internet to give you a early “heads-up” about the DVD’s your Favorite Catgirl’s gonna soon be hunting for…. and hopefully reviewing. Wonder what the first films I’m itching to see are? Then by all means… stop by the concession stand, grab some popcorn, and let’s all take a look, shall we?

"The Neighbor Zombie" (이웃집 좀비) (2009) – Korean Horror

Zombies…. Those shambling cannibalistic boogymen have made their way into just about every genre of film you might imagine in about every country in the world. Seems they are getting to be a fairly universal part of most every culture’s folklore in some way or another these days. Now… they’ve made their way to Korea in the new anthology piece, “The Neighbor Zombie”. Naturally, a certain Zombie Loving Catgirl is right there to watch every moment….

Our synopsis goes along this way: “The Neighbor Zombie” is comprised of six individual episodes, each centering on the theme of a zombie virus outbreak as it occurs in Seoul, 2010.

Episode 1: “Crack”, An action figure collector accidentally gets infected by the zombie virus in the initial days of the contagion…. How will such a social outsider cope in the face of his horrific transformation as it slowly overtakes him?

Episode 2: “Run Away”,  A special love story of a beautiful girl and her romantic boyfriend, who has been infected and is slowly transforming into a zombie. Can pure love survive even this?

Episode 3: “Mother, I Love You”, A woman having to witness her infected mother slowly deteriorate each day takes horrific steps to protect the parent she loves more than her own life itself. How far will she go to keep her safe?

Episode 4: “The Age of Vaccine”, Dr. Park, who acts as a guinea-pig himself, tries to make a vaccine to cure the zombie virus. He finally developing the cure, he’s forced to run from the corporation that would control it at all costs.

Episode 5: “After That, I’m So Sorry”, After the development of vaccine, Seoul once again finds peace. However, the future is still uncertain for those who were cured. How can those once driven by diseased insanity to eat others find peace and understanding from the survivors?

Episode 6: “Pain Killer”, A story about strained life of a writer, who always has to work under tight deadline with the new problem of a zombie virus to complicate things?.”

I’ve heard some mixed things on this one, but as always, I’d rather give a movie like this a watch first before having my own opinion on it. Think you might want to see it too? Then hunker down, get comfy and let Neko tell ya all about it.

A Very Zombie Christmas….

So… just when you think that nothing terrible can happen around the Holidays it goes ahead and does…. The dreaded Zombie Outbreak finally arrives. Don’t ya just hate that?

So you say you’ve decked the halls, hung the mistletoe, egged the nog, hung all the stockings with care, and basically done all the right stuff to make for a festive holiday mood around the ol’ homestead this Holiday season. But… has all this “Peace On Earth” and “Goodwill towards Men” made you lose track of all the important… if somewhat unlikely… household tasks that need doing? Like checking the integrity of your barbed wire perimeter? Testing the land mines in the back yard to see they still have what it takes? Seeing that all your various pointy weapons of choice can do more than just carve a juicy holiday turkey? These are important questions after-all…..

Well, your Favorite Catgirl wants to make certain all her Gentle Visitors remember that even now, in this most holly jolly time of the year, it never hurts to be just that wee bit prepared for the onslaught of the walkin’ dead that are just certain to be hiding out there somewhere waiting to strike if years and years of movie watchin’ hasn’t steered me wrong…. Or rotted my lil’ brain and psychologically scarred me for life. (Ummmm? It hasn’t…. right?)

So, for those of you in need of guidance I present another valuable public service film to help sort out those last minute preparations. A nifty “Christmas Guide to Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse”.

By all means “Read On”…. Remember, better to be safe than sorry.

"Doghouse" (2009) – British Zombie/ Mutant/ Horror/ Comedy

This time out we’re back again with another of those “zombies that aren’t quite zombies” sorts of film, the British horror comedy from 2009, “Doghouse”, just released here in the US on Region 1 DVD. I had remembered seeing something about it a while back, but it slipped by me until turning up at my usual domestic DVD source earlier this month… Neko missed it in time to include it in our “Halloween Zombie Fest”, but I can certainly rectify that lil’ oversight now can’t I?

The synopsis goes like this: “A group of lads head off to a remote village to help one of their friends get over his divorce with a wild weekend of debauchery and partying. However, once they arrive in the little village of Moodley, they quickly discover that all the women have been infected with a virus that has mutated them all into them man-hating cannibal zombies.”

Now here we go…. a nice horror comedy with a feminist twist… in English language. Just the thing for me and Carolyn on movie night this week. Given how much I really like well done horror mixed with a little comedy, I have some high hopes for this one which seems to be a great lil’ idea for some great exploitation style movie antics….. Hopefully more along the lines of “Shawn of the Dead” rather than the disappointing effort, “Lesbian Vampire Killers” turned out to be though….. So then, all that remains is to pop our popcorn, chill the wine coolers and snuggle in for some serious movie watchin’ fun.

You’ll wanna know what your Favorite Catgirl though about this one, of course, so naturally you know by now it’s time to “Read On!!”

"Tombs of the Blind Dead" (1971) – Classic Spanish Zombie Horror

Slipping in just under the wire, we bring a look at some Classic Zombie action from Spain, the 1971 horror goodie “La Noche Del Terror Ciego” aka “The Tombs of the Blind Dead”. This is another of those wonderfully evocative films that a recent perusal of my DVD collection brought back to your Favorite Catgirl’s attention just in time for Halloween. Remembering the creepy and unique imagery of the Blind Dead and their zombie horses galloping across the Spanish countryside, how could I not give it another watch and a review here at the ol’ Litterbox?

The synopsis goes like this: “In 1971, director Amando de Ossorio created what horror fans worldwide consider to be Spain’s homage to “Night Of The Living Dead”. In Ossorio’s nightmare vision, a legion of Knights Templar – an evil order of executed Crusaders whose eyes had been pecked out by crows – rise rotting from their graves, hunting only by sound in a quest for human flesh. The Blind Dead saga begins here, as a nubile young girl’s spur of the moment trip to the ruins of the Templar monastery unleashes a frenzy of lesbian desire, sexual violence and the unholy onslaught of the eyeless undead!”

This one stuck with me since I first saw it years ago… late at night on TV (When most good lil’ Catgirls were all supposed to be fast asleep….), and it’s image of those hooded withered figures riding across the land in slow motion to the sound of Greorian chants scared lil’ Miyuki silly. Naturally I had to pick it up when it came out on DVD!! But is it a Zombie film? Well….. despite writer/ Director Amando de Ossorio’s continued insistence in interviews over the years that his creations were Revenant mummies and not zombies…. Neko herself can assure you they most certainly look and act like the flesh munching fiends we all know and love. Wanna find out for yourself?

Then all you gotta do is “Read On”…..

"The Living Dead Girl" aka "La Morte Vivante" (1982) – French Zombie/ Art House

Time for some Zombies, Art house style. 1982’s French film, “La Morte Vivante” more infamously known by it’s English language title, “The Living Dead Girl”, by prolific French director Jean Rollin. Rollin, known more for his erotic series of Art-house style vampire films, did visit the Zombie genre at least this once to deliver us a memorable tale fit for the genre. I’ve had this one on DVD for a while, but it’s been a few years since I watched it, so what better excuse than our Halloween Zombie Fest to give it another look?

Our Synopsis goes like this: “Catherine Valmont (Françoise Blanchard), recently deceased, is resurrected when a strange chemical substance is accidentally spilled into her tomb. Confused and nearly catatonic, she tries to track down her past life and finds her way back to her family chateau, now inhabited only by her mourning childhood friend and lover Helené (Marina Pierro). The two are reunited, but when it turns out that Catherine can only survive by drinking blood, Helené desperately tries to help her by supplying human victims to satisfy her unquenchable need. But when Catherine slowly regains her awareness and becomes disgusted by her own lust for blood, things are bound to go terribly… horribly…. wrong.”

Rollin always managed to invest his films with a dreamlike sense of dark fairytale uniquely his own and “Living Dead Girl” is no exception. Given this… it’s no surprise that his zombie would be a beautiful young woman rather than a simple rotting cadaver….. even if our beauty is often covered in copious amounts of the gore such horror films need. So how does it all play out?

Let’s “Read On” and find out….