The six greatest zombies who stumbled on screen

 
Five years ago, three survivors of a zombie apocalypse in York began video blogging. It was a blessed relief from the tedium of surviving on baked beans in between briskly walking away from slowly shuffling flesh eaters – until they locked themselves out of their flat anyway.

This is the world of Zomblogalypse, the genre-bending cult web series from MilesTone Productions.

Over four years it attracted hundreds of thousands of views online and a dedicated fanbase including genre legends like effects guru Tom Savini, Walking Dead comics artist Charlie Adlard, SFX Magazine and zombie film directors Marc Price (Colin) and Dominic Brunt (Before Dawn).

Now the series has its eyes on the big screen, launching an IndieGoGo crowd funding campaign to cover pre-production the costs of a feature length adaptation. Promising to keep everything fans loved about the web series, just scaled up, the concept has already garnered interest from distributors.

The Zomblogalypse crowd funding campaign runs through April with the aim of raising £10,000 to meet pre-production costs. Check it out to reserve a DVD or fulfil every normal person’s dream to be a screen zombie at the Zomblogalypse IndieGoGo campaign page.

To mark the campaign, original creators Hannah Bungard, Tony Hipwell and Miles Watts joined with Steve Piper, of co-producers Coffee Films, to compile a Mix Six of the greatest screen zombies. Read on… if you dare.



1. The Tyres Zombie from Shaun of the Dead

We’re pretty fond of the Tyres zombie as we’re huge fans of Spaced. Tyres was a regular bicycle courier character in the series and unexpectedly turned up amongst the zombie mob in Shaun (he’s bottom right in the picture wearing the yellow cycling cap). It was kind of sad to spot him there amongst all of the others but it was a nice touch, we love little references and when universes cross over like that.

2. Zombie Stripper from Zombieland

This poor guy went to a strip club for a nice time and a short while later he’s running out with all his money still grasped in his fist being chased by a half-naked zombie with her zombie boobies flying about. She’s so angry. We love it. It’s so much the opposite of why that guy went there that it’s one of our favourite moments from that opening montage.

3. The Crimson Heads from Resident Evil on the Gamecube

First introduced in the brilliant remake of the franchise for the GameCube, the Crimson Heads were a terrifying random mutation that was vastly more aggressive than the usual zombie shuffler. Thought that zombie you just shot was dead? Nope, he’s just hibernating until your back is turned so he can come back twice as dangerous and twice as ugly. There was not enough lighter fluid in the world to stop these grim creatures.

4. Half Zombie Woman from The Walking Dead

Pretty much every zombie in The Walking Dead is a classic. KNB are doing career defining work on that show but possibly the most iconic in both the show and comic was the distressing half zombie woman Rick stumbles across shortly after waking from his coma. With one pathetic creature, writer Kirkman truly drove home just how desperate and hopeless was the wasteland he set his tale in. Rick’s reaction and eventual act of mercy in putting an end to its suffering set the stall out early for what level of drama the series would reach for and continually achieve.

5. The Hare Krishna Zombie from Dawn Of The Dead (1978)

He’s the standout zombie because Hare Krishna are often presented as figures of fun or nuisance in movies and in the case of Dawn Of The Dead, the Hare Krishna zombie adds a twist to this perception. Not only is something vaguely laughable suddenly infused with relentless menace but he also presents an interesting dimension to the concept of reincarnation and afterlife. Plus he’s so damn scary and dead-eyed.

6. The Gypsy Zombie from Zomblogalypse

Inspired partly by Romero’s Hare Krishna Zombie! When we were first getting Zomblog together in 2008, we wanted a creepy, staring zombie who just kept coming implacably at us, and Gypsy Zombie does that for the first nine episodes. Her recurring appearances tie the first part of the story together and provide some of the biggest laughs, like when she steals our car in episode one and keeps appearing throughout the series, driving around. That was the actor’s car as well, our friend Katy. One day we hope to meet Gypsy Zombie again because they can come back, you know. Like Buddhists.