ChinaShop Film curator and Patron Saint of Indie Filmmaker Counseling Chris Gore was in Las Vegas and Los Angeles recently for a signing of his latest opus, Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide. In addition to the autographing,Gore lived up to his reputation as an advice hound, doling out a dozen different ways he could think of to help the aspiring filmmakers who were there to seek out the film festivals. If they didn’t confess their secret projects, he became a sort of benevolent Torquemada, and had ways to make you talk — even if you didn’t want to.
The beautiful Bob Suicide (of Suicide Girl fame) and ChinaShop staple, Chris Gore got a little over-zealous while in vegas. And while there was a vast amount of drinking, eating, and Elvis involved, amongst the bad ideas, came a brilliant set of tantilizing photos. Ah, you have to love a weekend in Vegas well spent.
Although the marriage was short lived, the photos (god bless em) will live on forever.
As many of you know, Chris Gore is the Film Curator here at ChinaShop. We recently traveled to Las Vegas to cover the Cinevegas film festival - It might have been the heavy dose of oxygen pumped into the casino’s air systems that drove him to be so impulsive or maybe it was the bartender with the heavy pour making the poolside margaritas that melted away his inhibitions – but the next thing we knew, Bob was in town and Elvis was singing Fools Rush In. it’s all been a blur , luckily Gore got ChinaShop photographer Zoetica Ebb to document the fateful night. Like any good publisher I felt it only right if we shared a bit of his joy with the rest of the world, at least we think Elvis would have wanted it that way – Amen.
Zombies may have existed in film before George Romero’s horror milestone from 1968, Night of the Living Dead. But the affable Pittsburgh filmmaker must be credited with creating the undead rules we all know so well.
One, zombies devour the flesh of the living.
Two, a zombie bite will turn a normal into a zombie quickly.
And three, the only way to “kill” a zombie is to inflict major head trauma, preferably with a shotgun blast to the head. Well, a blunt instrument will work, but a shotgun blast is perhaps the coolest way since the result is an exploding head!
These three rules are consistent both in and outside the Romero-verse of zombie movies where the undead walk the earth. Sure, other filmmakers have taken license with the rules such as 28 Days Later which introduced us to the infected that run really fast. Some may have seen recently deceased that could compete in the 50 yard dash as sacrilege, but it served to only advance both the genre and our love of those stupid flesh-eating corpses. No matter how many new rules have been added to zombie lore via films, books, graphic novels like the amazing Walking Dead or videogames like Left 4 Dead, those three rules have always remained the same.
There seems to be no shortage of love for these poor undead creatures. So to expand your horizons, here are some lesser-known zombie movies each worth boarding up the windows and locking yourself indoors to watch.
1. Dead Set
This zombie outbreak takes place in the U.K. on the set of the popular reality show Big Brother. The undead can be seen on the rise during disturbing news reports about “unrest and riots” spreading across the country. After the production crew is nearly wiped out, all that remains are the ignorant and drama prone contestants from the Big Brother show. This five-episode mini-series from the BBC has yet to make it to the U.S., but it is perhaps the best use of a zombie apocalypse to make social commentary in decades. So, if there were an Oscar for the Best use of zombie apocalypse to make social commentary, then Dead Set would be the clear winner.
