Creepshow 1982

Director: George Romero

Writer: Stephen King

Starring Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Carrie Nye, E.G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King, Tom Atkins, Tom Savini and Gaylen Ross

    The horror anthology has long been a favorite style of horror fiction and horror films for me.  From classics like Tales from the Crypt and the Amicus anthologies of the 60’s and 70’s, all the way to modern films like Tales From the Hood and Trick R Treat.  Creepshow though, is by far my favorite of these films.  A no brainer collaboration between Stephen King and George Romero, this film does everything right.  The way the film actually looks like a E.C. comic and the great performances really puts this film a step above all other anthologies.  The way romero uses over exaggerated lighting and sound effects really makes the stories come to life and leave a definite impression on your mind.  The effects in the film are mind blowing too, with by far the best rotting and walking corpse I have ever seen in a film.  The stories are quick and too the point and never stay around any longer than is needed toe have the viewer get the point.  The framing sequence too, is one of the best in a anthology film and it goes full circle at the end, making it it’s own story.

    The plot basics are this,  A father (Atkins) is punishing his son for reading a grisly horror comic, and as he leaves the comic seems to come to life.  The first story involves a anniversary party of the killing of a rich old miser, who was killed by his eldest daughter (Lindfors), but he rises to enact bloody revenge.  Next we meet  Jordy Verrill (King), a country hick who discovers a meteor and finds that his contact with it is transforming him.  Next, we meet Harry Wentworth (Danson), who is having a illicit love affair with the wife (Ross) of Richard Vickers (Nielsen).  Vickers discovers this and plots a wicked revenge that comes back to bite him.  Next we meet a college professor (Weaver) who has a friend (Holbrook) who he plays chess with and is enduring a brow beating wife (Barbeau).  He discovers a crate in his lab, which contains a carnivorous beast and he comes to his friend for aid, and he decides to use it to do away with his nagging wife.  Finally, we meet Upson Pratt (Marshall), a business mogul who is cutthroat and a recluse, living in his climate controlled penthouse.  It seems he has a bug problem and it seems they are trying to overtake him, but will they?

    This is an exceptional film and one of my all time favorite horror films.  The direction by Romero is flawless.  He conveys the mood of each story perfectly and uses the lighting and music to really heighten the mood and really gets the viewer to feel the way he wants them to feel.  The script by King is no different, each story is very tight and as minimalistic as possible.  These kind of horror stories were always more about the plots than the characters and that works to the films advantage.  All the characters are very overblown and melodramatic and are a delight to watch.  The ensemble cast is excellent, Barbeau and Marshall are probably the 2 biggest scene stealers in the film.  Barbeau as the nagging wife Billie in “The Crate” is a delight and you really hate her and want to see her meet her vicious end.  Marshall as the caricature of Howard Hughes is great as well, he chews every scene of his with great relish and the viewer definitely cheers when he gets his due.  The SFX and effects by Tom Savini is amazing.  The walking corpse of Nathan Grantham and the creature in “The Crate” are the 2 high points of the film and in all of horror films in general..  The final ingredient in this great film is the score by John Harrison, which personally is my favorite horror film score.  It just sets the playful and eerie mood of the film perfectly and I am always humming it for days after I watch the film again.  This is a perfect horror anthology and one of the best films by both Romero and King.

This one gets 5 out of 5

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Here’s another remake (of course) of a classic George Romero movie called “The Crazies”. I have actually heard alot of good things about this one and the trailer looks pretty decent as well. I’ve been itching to see a new horror movie in theaters but to be honest now days they have too look pretty amazing for me to spend ten bones at the theater! This one looks like it could maybe be worth the money.

One I will definately check out is The Descent 2. Being such a huge fan of the original I can’t imagine not seeing this one in the theater. However with a new director replacing Neil Marshall I do have my resevations as original The Descent was easily one of the best horror movies of the past ten years. I will say I was pretty pleased with 28 Weeks later, though not nearly as good as the first one it proved to be a pretty solid sequel for a movie I though impossible to make a second chapter for. So who knows…we’ll see I’m excited for both of these…

This is an out-of-the-blue ranting about one of my favourite books which was turned into one of my favourite movies (success story for adaptations!)

The book/movie I’m referring to is Children of Men, one of the smarter, slower, subtler of the Post-Apocalyptic genre of film/book. The main character, in fantastic noir style, is a reluctant but practical participant in the story which is set in an England after a severe decline in fertility, to the extent that the last child was born about eighteen years ago.

First things first, this is a damn fine setting for a story. This can create a great deal of damage to both the society and the small villages and towns that can no longer be maintained because of the aging population. But, it is certainly not the same sort of damage as in The Road, for example; there is still a society, there is still a government, there are still cars, cities, people to talk to safely, etc. So, the setting is grand, a great mix of decay and interesting conversation. Also, unlike something like Dawn of the Dead, there has been eighteen years for the population to reach this point, there is no scrambling for survival, etc. There is a quiet, depressed acceptance that the race will not survive more than fifty or sixty years.

Anyway, I won’t discuss the plot all that much since it’s the setting and the main character that interest me most. 

The film is truly gorgeous, certainly one that I wish I’d seen in the cinema. Everything is so bleak and grey, especially the scenes in some kind of detention centre/community which is basically a demolished town which has been fenced in to hold all the refugees. The action scenes are amazing, filmed with one, long shot that follows the characters through many different areas and situations without cutting. All of the background is amazing, even the graffiti is really great, crushing stuff like, “last one to die, turn off the light.”

The main character, played by Clive Owen in the film, is just the kind of emotionally scarred, morally confused, highly practical guy that I love in a protagonist. Add the growing sense of urgency and overwhelming chance of failure and you have one of my favourite kinds of stories.

Anyway, I don’t have anything important to say about all this other than: go and read Children of Men by P.D. James, then go and watch the film, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. 

‘They say, “Well, why do you think we can’t make babies anymore?” And he looks up at ‘em, he’s chewin’ on this great big wing and he says “I haven’t the faintest idea,” he said, “but this stork is quite tasty isn’t he?”‘

Your fertile protagonist,

TDE

Season of the Witch 1973

Written and Directed by George A. Romero 

Cast:
Jan White: Joan Mitchell
Bill Thunhurt: Bill Mitchell
Joedda McClain: Nikki Mitchell
Ray Laine: Gregg Williamson
Ann Muffly: Shirley Randolph
Neil Fisher: Dr. Miller 

This is a little known gem by one of my favorite directors. I am guilty of being more familiar with his genre defining zombie movies, but have recently decided that I need to delve a little deeper into his other artistic endeavors. Pleasingly enough, I ran across Season of the Witch. I more often refer to it as Hungry Wives, Romero’s preferred title.

The movie begins with a dream like sequence that is somewhat confusing. Joan, riding in a car, following a man through the forest, passing herself swinging, carefree with a smile playing at her lips. The car parks, the man getting out and hooking the collar she is suddenly wearing with a leash and leading her from the car to a pen with other dogs. This beginning sequence sets the tone for the entire movie for Joan’s emotions and feelings about her life. Trapped and trained like a well behaved dog afraid of getting swatted with a rolled up newspaper.

Joan is a woman trapped in a domestic life. A not-unattractive middle-aged housewife in upper middle class society. Expected to play bridge, cook, clean and perform other seemingly menial tasks in her mundane and repetitive life. She sees herself in a mirror as a wrinkled and aging hag. She has come to the understanding that she is a woman past her prime, undesireable to men of any age.  In an attempt to cling to her youth and overcome the old woman in her reflection she delves into an extra-marital affair, witchcraft and murder.

The quality of the film itself is poor and the low budget is evident. Even the sound can sometimes be annoying in it’s constant fading in and out. However, the message, story and relatively decent performances given more than make up for it. If you have a little patience and a love for Romero’s vision on just about any given topic then I would recommend giving this film a watch.

Reviewed by April Oldag

DragonComet00

Welcome to Remake Radar, where we take on Hollywood’s penchant for remaking films for better or worse (which is most of the time). This month’s movie:

“The Crazies” (1973)

Stars: W.G. McMillan, Lane Caroll, and Harold Wayne Jones

Director: George A. Romero

Story: A military plane carrying a dangerous bio-weapon crashes outside the small town of Evans City, Pennsylvania. Troops and scientists are dispatched to contain the area. Meanwhile, the biological agent infects the town’s water supply causing death and permanent insanity to the residents. When the troops show up, all hell breaks loose.

What do we know now?: Pretty much the same plot. Tim Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, and Joe Anderson star. Breck Eisner is directing.

The release date is February 26, 2010

Original trailer:

Remake trailer:

I suppose it was inevitable.

“Intel researchers in Pittsburgh told journalists today that brain implants are harnessing human brain waves to surf the Internet, manipulate documents, and much more.”

Well, thank you Intel. The modern age wasn’t quite scary enough. And contrary to what science fiction from the 1950s-1980s would have had us believe, the recipients of these chips are eager volunteers. As Hollywood has explained to me over the course of the last three decades, this will not end well.

Read both articles:
Intel: Chips in brains will control computers by 2020
and a review from ReadWriteWeb:
The Brain Chip Cometh, & It Cometh from Intel.

It is fitting that this is taking place in Pittsburgh (and yes, we are looking at you Carnegie Mellon University) as the whole chain of events will end like another Pittsburgh iconic event:

Am I the only one who really has purpose with horror films? I have no attraction to the genre whatsoever.

But I suppose we can be optimistic and hope this Intel brain chip business turns out to be a different take on the Pittsburgh legend, a la The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

I dare you not to watch that addictive clip all the way through.

On a side note, is this not the most delicious Wikipedia entry of all time (from George Romero’s biography):

Romero attended Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. After graduating in 1960, he began his career shooting short films and commercials. One of his early commercial films, a segment for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in which Mr. Rogers underwent a tonsillectomy, inspired Romero to go into the horror film business.

Mr. Rogers’ tonsillectomy unleashed all the Zombies. The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh. Wait, what was this post about originally?

Oh yeah, brain chips from Intel. Bum. Bum, Bum, Bum, Bum!

The Crazies trailer is now available on-line and the remake should be ready for a February 2010 release:

The original was a low-budget horror film Directed by the legend that is George Romero and was released in the years between Night of the living dead and Dawn of the dead. Although it wasn’t a complete success, over the years it’s gained a cult following and even though the acting wasn’t the best, the story of a small town under siege from the military and infected towns-folk was decent enough to warrant a remake.

Will it be any good though? Well, it stars Timothy Olyphant and it’s got zombie/ infected in it. Of course it’ll be good…

I’ll always owe a debt of gratitude to George Romero.  Giving us Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead earned the guy a free pass for the rest of his career, as far as I’m concerned.  And yet the argument could be made that if it weren’t for those two movies, we wouldn’t know who George Romero is.  His non-zombie output has been, shall we say, underwhelming.  Bruiser, anyone?  Knightriders? Just like Roland Emmerich (Independence Day; 2012) is only good at blowing up the world, Romero is primarily only good when it comes to the shambling undead.

Creepshow (1982; one of two Romero adaptations of Stephen King’s work – The Dark Half is the other), however, is a funny, affectionate anthology of King-penned tales, some previously published, some written expressly for the screen.  The first thing to note about the movie is that I used the word funny, and not the word scary. I also could have said it was clever and goofy; both of those adjectives would be more accurate than saying it’s frightening.  That might seem like a weird thing to say about a movie with Romero’s and King’s names attached to it, but there’s always a darkly comic undercurrent running through much of the author’s work, and as for Romero … well, let’s not forget that Dawn of the Dead includes a zombie-human pie fight.  They might primarily be known for their horror, but both artists are no stranger to humor.

The movie itself consists of five individual stories, with a shorter, wraparound story bookending the movie.  None of the stories are especially scary, choosing instead to mine a sort of middle ground between the grotesque and the droll, and for that reason the movie has always reminded me more of The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits: it’s fantasy as much as it is horror, and dark humor as much as it is either of those other two things.  Some of the stories work; some don’t.  But they’re always interesting, and in their best moments, they’re terrific fun.  The easiest way to attack this movie is probably story by story, and I’ll try to avoid spoilers for people who haven’t seen it yet.

“Prologue”: Paired with the epilogue, this is the silliest of the bunch.  A father throws away his son’s scary comic book, uttering the immortal line, “That’s why God made fathers, babe. (Sips beer.)  That’s why God made fathers.”  The windswept comic book provides the individual stories that follow.

“Father’s Day”: Written by King for the movie, this story is, unfortunately, a dumb and inauspicious way to start.  A group of money-grubbing relatives gathers each year for the titular holiday, and the new member of the family (an in-law, played by a very young Ed Harris – hair intact) is introduced to the story of Aunt Bedelia.  Seven years prior, Bedelia killed her father, Nathan, by smashing in his head with an ashtray.  Three guesses as to who rises from the dead to kill his family members, and the first two don’t count.  Key line: “I want my cake!”

“The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”: Did I say the prologue was the silliest story in this movie?  I misspoke.  Inexplicably starring King himself in the title role, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” is an inconsequential sci-fi nothing, based on his short story, “Weeds.”  King plays a backwoods rube who stumbles across a meteor (key line: “I’ll be dipped in shit if that ain’t a meteor”) and has designs on delivering it to the local college for the king’s ransom of $200.  Unfortunately, when he touches it, something tragically agricultural happens to him.  This vignette is definitely funny (shots of King delivering the meteor to the university’s “Department of Meteors”), and the last section is unexpectedly poignant.  It works, despite its goofiness.

“Something to Tide You Over”: My favorite of the bunch.  Here, Harry (a pre-Cheers Ted Danson) is abducted by Richard (Leslie Nielsen, before he was forever typecast as the dimwitted cop by the Naked Gun movies) for canoodling with Richard’s wife.  He takes Harry to a remote beach and unveils the plot he’s devised to enact revenge on both Harry and his wife (hint: it involves burying both of them up to their necks in sand).  Of course, because this is a horror anthology, things ultimately don’t go as Richard planned.  (Key line: “I can hold my breath for a long, long time!”)  The real kick of this segment is seeing Nielsen in a dramatic role.  It’s easy to forget that he had a long career prior to Airplane! (according to IMDB, 236 roles dating back to 1950), and it’s a lot of fun seeing him act so convincingly as a cruel tough-guy here.  Danson, too, is entertaining to watch.  The gift of hindsight – getting to see him in a supporting role just as his career was about to skyrocket – can’t be underestimated.

“The Crate”: Originally published by King as a short story, this section of the movie stars Hal Holbrook (who most recently portrayed Chris McCandless’ elderly benefactor in Into the Wild) as a henpecked college professor who uses the discovery of a century-old crate (or, rather, its contents) to punish his shrewish wife.  As with the previous story, it’s a lot of fun to see an actor of Holbrook’s stature stoop to pulpy, B-movie fare.  This segment is an awful lot of fun: creepy, gory, clever, and a nearly-perfect melding of King’s and Romero’s sensibilities.  Key line: “Get out of my way, Henry, or you’ll be wearing your balls for earrings!”

“They’re Creeping Up on You!”: Written by King for the movie, this story involves a Howard Hughes-esque tycoon (played by venerable actor E.G. Marshall) who has sealed himself away in his apartment, but who still maintains a healthy fear of bugs.  Cockroaches, specifically.  (Key line: “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got this bug problem.”)  As the story progresses, we learn what a repellent figure this guy is, and are gratified when the bugs get their revenge.  I’m not sure this segment exists except to provide the viewer with the highly gratifying sight of roaches erupting from a person’s chest.  Entertaining, and Marshall – who is essentially the only actor in this segment – does a terrific job, but it’s kind of a nothing way to end the movie.

“Epilogue”: The other half of the silly story that bookends the film, it quickly shows how the kid from the beginning of the movie gets revenge on his dad.  The only upside is getting to see Romero’s longtime FX guru Tom Savini as a garbageman.

Creepshow is certainly not a great film.  It is, however, good, pulpy fun, and the trick is to go into it expecting something campy and silly, with a B-horror-movie sensibility.  If anything, it reminds me of the cinematic version of those schlocky horror and science fiction mags that published King’s first work (as well as Ray Bradbury’s, Kurt Vonnegut’s, and Harlan Ellison’s).  Pulp, which I used above, is probably the best adjective for the movie.   Creepshow has a low-budget, borderline ridiculous, Grindhouse feel to it.  And I absolutely mean that as a compliment.

Read my other Stephen King reviews here:

Carrie, 1976 (11/14/09)

The Shining, 1980 (11/18/09)

Coming next: Cujo (1983)

*****

Current listening:

Bear in Heaven – Red Bloom of the Boom (2007)

So, there I was, fiddling around with some yarn… and *poof*, I made a zombie!

Well, really, I was looking at my stash of yarn and discovered that I had the color I refer to as “Romero blue”. You know, the color of the zombies in George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” from 1978. I sat there, trying to think of what I could possibly use this color for, when it dawned on me. Why not make a zombie?

This is the first time I’ve crocheted anything not using a pattern at all, and I’m pretty pleased with the result. Plus, all three kids think it is super-cool, so I win!

Quizas a pocos se les haga comun un miedo irracional al dormir, pero para quienes en nuetra infancia nos deleitamos con un icono del cine de horror, sabran muy bien el miedo que una cama puede significar. Esta vez ese miedo regresa, desgraciadamente no estará en manos del maestro Robert E. lo que me preocupa y desepciona bastante.

Creo que nadie se puede llegar a hartar de zombies, creanme lo se muy bien, pero claro, adrenalina pura, accion sin sentido a la larga se pone repetitivo, asi que que les parece una comedia de zombies, Claro, varios nos cagamos de la risa con Shawn of the dead (si la vieron en idioma original, ya que traducida fue una basca) es turno ahora de Zombieland.

El señor zombie nos trajo de vuelta la adaptacion del asesino de rostro blanco Michael Myers, que si en un principio la propuesta de poner enfasis en la etiologia psicopatica del personaje ere genial, a la larga se vulvio repetitivo y monotono, pero ahora, Don Zombie continua su nuevo film donde el anterior se quedo.

George Romero, creo que el nombre lo dice todo, el señor y maestro de los zombies continua su legado, despues de la noche, el amanecer, el dia, la tierra y hasta el diario, solo nos queda sobrevivir:

Staunton Hill 2009

Director: Cameron Romero

Writer: David Rountree

Starring Kathy Lamkin, Cristen Coppen, David Rountree, Kiko Ellsworth, Christine Carlo, Paula Rhodes, Charlie Bodin and C.J. Hendricks

    This one piqued my interest for it being the directorial debut of George Romero’s son Cameron Romero.  It is one that is well worth a look.  It is ably directed with some nice characters and some great gore scenes in it.  The main problem with the film is that it adds nothing new to this genre.  It is very reminiscent of films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of a 1,000 Corpses.  It of course has a lot of attractive young people and they all die in some pretty gruesome ways.  It has some great performances, especially the performance by Lamkin as the matriarch of the Staunton family.  It was nice to see her in a lead role and she really chewed the scenery with every scene she was in. 

    The plot basics are this, the time is the fall of 1969 and a group of friends are traveling the countryside by hitchhiking and they meet up with a young man at a salvage yard and hitch a ride with him.  But, soon his truck overheats and they are stuck at the side of the road and they begin to search the area to look for a place to rest for the night.  They soon find what appears to be a abandoned farmhouse and they decide to sleep in the barn.  When they awake in the morning they discover that it is a farmhouse owned by the Staunton family and they all seem very cordial and nice at first.  But, it is soon revealed that they are harboring a deep dark secret and that they are harvesting body parts for diabolical reasons and the question is will anyone survive in one piece.

    This is a very good film.  Romero’s direction is very well done, at first it plays out like a typical teenager comedy but soon veers into darkness once they reach Staunton Hill.  He sets up the scenes of horror very well and the kill scenes are very brutal and shocking.  The script is good, but as I mentioned before it does not add anything new to the genre.  It seems to borrow things from everything to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of a 1,000 Corpses and American Gothic (the film not the TV show).  This did not bother me too much, but if you are looking for something original you will probably be disappointed.  The characters are pretty stereotypical and are not very fleshed out.  The cast is good, especially Lamkin as the Matriarch of the Staunton Clan.  She is very fun to watch her revel in her role.  I also really liked Hendricks as Buddy, the slow witted son of the clan.  He plays this type of character very well.  The teen leads are all pretty interchangeable and do not really bring anything memorable to the film.  The SFX in the film is very good and it is some of the best parts about the film.  I especially liked the scene where the one girl is divvied up on the operating table, that was ghoulish and perverse at the same time.  For fans of 70’s style horror you can do far worse than this film.  I just hope Romero goes more into unknown territory with his next film.

This one gets 4 out of 5

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The cast of V, 2009.

As soon as I heard that ABC was remaking V, the classic 1980s  miniseries/television series about extraterrestrials coming to Earth, my mind was flooded with long dormant memories of the original series. Growing up with an older brother who had a taste for the macabre, I was exposed to a lot of popular culture that was not entirely age-appropriate — Stephen King novels, Night of the Living Dead (1968, George Romero), The Dead Milkmen — basically anything with “dead” in the title. And so it should not be too surprising that I watched V, in its various televisual manifestations (miniseries, television series), at the tender age of 7 or 8.

Even now, in my thirties, zombies are a key image in my worst nightmares.

I must have repressed most of my memories of the show because I could only conjure up flashes of images: a beautiful woman eating a rodent, a “Visitor” peeling back his faux human skin to reveal lizard skin below, and a super cheesy 80s era rendering of the inside of a “high tech” mothership. Lucky for me, the internet was more than happy to confirm these hazy visions.

Sometimes I wish computers did look like this...

The rodent eating:

This scene is truly laughable now but I’m pretty sure I choked on my Oreos when I watched this as a kid.

The skin-removing:

I think the special effects here are still pretty effective. They were so effective, in fact, that the series made me suspicious of everyone I knew. If anyone could be a V under their natural looking human skin, then what about Mom? Was she a V? What about Dad? I kept a close eye on the hamster cage just in case.

And something that I don’t remember at all but which is hilarious:

Start watching around the 2:10 mark.

Of course, the 2009 remake of V has far superior special effects. For example, when the mothership arrives in New York City a few minutes into the pilot episode  we first see its metal body reflected in the windows of a generic office building. It is a beautiful, chilling moment. Anything that arrives that way cannot be good.

The mothership approaches.

And of course the V’s lizard skins are far more … is realistic the word I’m looking for here? I’ll put it this way: although I figured out that Dale (Alan Tudyk) was an undercover V about 5 minutes after meeting his character, I still let out an involuntary shriek when Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell) pulled back his human skin during a violent showdown.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

In terms of themes, the 2009 series has shifted away (at least in the first two episodes that have aired) from the overt Nazi allegory of the original (and no, I did not catch the references to Jewish resistance groups and Fascism and Hitler Youth when I was 7. I was in it for the rodent eating). While V is still playing with some of these themes — for example, the Peace Ambassadors are given blazers reminiscent of SS uniforms and the Vs make generous use of propaganda — there seems to be more of a push to see the Visitors as an allegory of modern terrorism. Only these terrorists have discovered that it is far easier to achieve your objectives if you study your targets, use their language and customs and offer them peace, all while plotting how to gobble them up.

Does this uniform make me look Fascist?

One interpretation I am not willing to swallow (excuse the pun) is that the new V is an allegory for the Obama administration and its politics (also here and on many, many other sites and blogs). The scene in which  Anna (Morena Baccarin), the beautiful, calm leader of the Vs, offers Earth a form of “universal health care,” is deftly intercut with a scene in which an underground resistance movement is slaughtered by a band of vicious Vs. Certainly such editing techniques make the promise of universal health care appear sinister, as a kind of bait and switch for more nefarious doings. But I read this much discussed moment less as a dig at the President and more as a topical reference that would resonate with audiences. In other words, given the way our health care debates have been going, universal health care only seems possible in the world of science fiction.

Beautiful Anna

And yes, Anna and her fellow Vs are attractive, charismatic, and popular with “the kids,” just like Obama was/is. But isn’t this the case with most successful leaders (both the good and the evil)? If Anna were ugly and devoid of personality then broadcasting her visage over 29 major cities would not be the best way to convince the world to cooperate with the Vs. I am sure that right wing bloggers and pundits will continue to see the program as further evidence that the Obama administration will bring about the destruction of humanity, but this will not keep me from watching the show.

Quick thoughts on the cast:

1. Throughout the pilot episode I kept asking my husband “Who is that guy?” every time Ryan Nichols appeared on screen. “I know that guy!” Then as the second episode started (we watched them back to back) and the name “Morris Chestnut” appeared on the screen. Since his acting debut in Boyz N the Hood (1991, John Singleton) Chestnut has appeared sporadically on the big (The Inkwell [1994, Matty Rich]) and small (Bones) screen, but I hope his leading role in V will ensure more steady work. The man looks fantastic!

Ricky! Nooooooooooooooooooo!

2. I am really hoping that Rekha Sharma, who plays FBI agent Sarita Malik, turns out to be an undercover V since she was also one of the “final five” Cylons on Battlestar Galactica (another wonderful, contemporary remake of a somewhat cheesy sci fi program).

Two of the final five in Battlestar Galactica

3. Elizabeth Mitchell. You are truly kick ass. That is all.

"That's right. I survived that crazy island and now I'm here to save the world. With great hair."

So are you digging V? is it better than the original so far? And does ABC hate Obama?

I had long since forgotten about the afore mentioned war of attrition between impassioned Zombie Fans and Vampire Fans – and then read Richard Corliss of TIME MAGAZINE’s great review of “ZOMBIELAND.”