Zombie Night
About 20 years ago, a good friend of mine and I started a tradition which has followed me from my home province of New Brunswick, to my current province of residence, Ontario– and in particular, to the great city of Toronto.
It was originally called “Zombie Day”, and it basically worked like this:
To escape the awful confines of his stifling marriage (if even for an afternoon), we would head down to the local video store (yup, this is pre-DVD days), and rent an armful of the worst/best/most intense/graphic/poorly photographed/awfully written and most endearing horror movies we could find, and take them back to his apartment, along with several bags of McD’s and couple of six packs. The only stipulation was that the horror flicks had to be about the living dead, and they preferably had to be REALLLLY bad!
We would barricade ourselves from the outside (and our wives), draw the shades, crack open the beers and Big Macs, and watch 5 or 6 zombie movies, back to back. Oh, I still get all warm and fuzzy inside when I think about it. Could there be anything better, I ask you?
It’s funny– in thinking back, I believe our activity really was a metaphor for what was going on in our lives– and the typical zombie genre– that of making a last stand behind some flimsy doors, held shut by flimsy planks of wood — was really about us on those afternoons. Our lives were shit, and so were the movies! But we LOVED them, and if we could just keep the baddies from getting in, it would really be alright. I think that that mentality, in retrospect, is even more valid in today’s freaky world climate of baddies– out there.
But enough philosophizing. That was New Brunswick, circa 1990’s. Flash ahead 20 years, and I find myself thousands of miles away, and one wife lighter. But my love of zombie movies, and basically all things undead, hasn’t wavered or dissipated. And one day, I found, that I was among other zombie movie lovers– coincidentally, my co-workers and best friends! How great is that?
And thusly, “Zombie Night” was born, and it basically worked like this:
To escape the awful confines of our stifling jobs (if even for an night), we would head down to the local video store (yup, Suspect Video, Queen Street– if you haven’t been there, then why are you sitting here reading this???), and rent an armful of the worst/best/most intense/graphic/poorly photographed/awfully written and most endearing horror movies we could find, and take them back to the office boardroom, crank up the video projector, along with several boxes of pizza and several cases of brewskies. The only stipulation was that the horror flicks had to be about the living dead, and they had to be REALLLLY bad!
Yes, I had evolved. It really was important at that time, that they had to be bad, and they had to have copious amounts of blood. The more decapitations, dismemberments, head splattering, bad acting and dialogue, the better. And lordy lordy– there sure are alot to choose from! I think we only scratched the surface of the bad zombie flicks at Suspect Video, and if you know Suspect Video, you’d understand.
That, my brain-lovin’ friends, is what this blog is about.
My zombie comrades (zomrades) have been thrown to all corners of the city (we all no longer work together)– but we still get together to chew the fat (so to speak), drawn by a common desire to see flesh eating at it’s worst (and therefore, at it’s gut-wrenching best).
We’ve put in a lot of hours soaking up the bad blood so you don’t have to. We will be your guide to the worst/best/most intense/graphic/poorly photographed/awfully written and most endearing zombie flicks of all time. As zombie movies become more mainstream, we will not ignore these as well. Some of the more current flicks will become or are on their way to becoming, legendary.
This bodes well for the future of this most particular of horror movie genres.
Bon appetite!
