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Late To The Party – Zombieland (2009)

Published

8 years ago

August 3, 2016

Welcome back to another edition of Late To The Party, the weekly(ish) feature where the iHorror writers take turns discovering movies that, frankly, we should have discovered years earlier. This week, I caught up with the cool kids by watching 2009’s Zombieland.

The Gang In Zombieland (2009)

My reason for not having seen Zombieland before now is simple. I was biased against it solely because it is a zombie movie. For the better part of the last decade, zombies have been tedious and boring staples of pop culture. Sure, every once in a while something cool and fun will come along (28 Days Later… and Warm Bodies come immediately to mind), but for the most part, zombies are old hat. Zombieland didn’t interest me because it looked like a typical zombie movie. Anyone who has seen it, however, could have told me that it is far from a typical zombie movie.

Batter Up! Woody Harrelson Swings For The Fences In Zombieland (2009)

Going into Zombieland, there were, of course, things that I knew about it. Obviously, I knew from the title that it was going to be about the zombie apocalypse. I knew it starred Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson. I knew part of the plot revolved around Harrelson’s character searching for a Twinkie. I knew that Bill Murray had a cameo in it. And I knew that it was a horror comedy, although with what passes for comedy today, that didn’t necessarily mean that it would be funny. So, armed with this information and my $4.99 Blu-ray (really, it’s surprisingly cheap for such a recently released movie), I set out to tackle Zombieland.

That’s A Fact, Jack! Bill Murray In Zombieland (2009)

The first thing that struck me about the movie was how hip and cool it was. Of course, with Jesse Eisenberg and Emma Stone in the cast, I knew that it would be targeting a millennial crowd, but I did not expect all of the slick, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World-esque graphics and titles and such – in some places, when the takes are long and the shots are wide, it’s a bit like watching someone play a video game, with instructions and scores popping up every now and again. Right away, it was clear to me that this was not going to be a stodgy old zombie movie. This was fun.

The Double Tap In Zombieland (2009)

I was also impressed by how director Ruben Fleischer seemed to admit to himself and to his audience that zombies really aren’t all that frightening anymore, so he didn’t even try for scares. Instead, he focused on the action sequences and the comic gags. He let the talented actors take their colorful characters and run with them, not tying them down to whatever may be “scary” or not. And it works – a lot of people might be upset by my saying this, but Woody Harrelson’s Tallahassee is a much more entertaining zombie killer than Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon (but, of course, I also think that The Walking Dead is a big culprit in today’s pop-culture oversaturation of zombies, but that’s another article).

Woody Harrleson Shoots FIrst In Zombieland (2009)

While I’m pissing people off, I may as well admit that I think I enjoyed Zombieland more than I enjoyed its across-the-pond spirit animal Shaun of the Dead. Of course, British humor doesn’t always hit its mark with me, but besides that, Zombieland is just more of a fast paced, fun-filled thrill ride of a movie than Shaun of the Dead. I didn’t like it as much as Warm Bodies, but that’s apples and oranges. Zombieland is good because it keeps a consistently perfect blend of character and action throughout the movie, and does so with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.

Jesse Eisenberg And Friends In Zombieland (2009)

So basically, Zombieland left me wanting more (in a good way), and now I’m a little more pumped for the impending sequel than I was before. I’m still bored by typical modern zombie movies, though. It’ll take more than just Zombieland to change that.

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Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

3 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

^{High Desert Hell}

^{The Gemini Project}

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Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

^{Happy Sad Confused}

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

7 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.