Top Ten Zombie Costumes

Whether it's Halloween, Zombie Con or Cosplay, the following ensembles stood out to me over the years. Let me know if they inspire your own costumes. I would love to do a blog about making an awesome undead disguise from scratch. It might come in handy when I need to get out of the city alive.

#10 - Zombie Gypsy. I saw this girl at Dracula's Ball in 2012. In the red lighting of the club, she was extremely spooky.

#9 - Unlucky Scientist. He was probably the reason the zombie strain was released into the public. I took this photo at Zombie Con in New York City in 2006.

#8 - Zombie Bride. And they told you you'd only wear that dress once. Ha!

#7 - Zombie School Girl. This is also Zombie Con 2006. The school girl with no eyes is actually a man who I ended up being friends with for many years.

#6 - Old World Zombie. I am particular fond of the severed head she is sporting.

#5 - Zombie Children. They get extra points for cuteness.

#4 - Audrey Hepburn from "Breakfast at Tiffany's". "How do I look?"

#3 - Left 4 Dead Cosplay. From left to right, we have a Hunter, a Witch and a Smoker.

#2 - Redneck Zombies. Love the hats. Their faces are definitely vomit worthy.

#1 - Boney Zombie. I greatly admire the amount of work that went into airbrushing this man. It is truly a work of art.

Survival Tip of the Day:
If you see these guys and it isn't Halloween, don't try to figure out what is wrong with them. Just run...

Zombie Glamour: Era of the Hot Zombie

Ever since Dracula, people have been mildly suffering from necrophilia. Death, shrouded in all his mystery, has a certain allure for the living. When it comes to vampires, it's very easy to be attracted to their cold skin, outdated taste in novels and long fingernails, but zombies are a little too decomposed for most tastes. Most, but not all, apparently. Zombies are reinventing their image for more widespread appeal.

For a dead girl, Ghoulia sure knows how to live. The line of Monster High fashion dolls has brought us a series of undead Barbies that dominated the toy industry overnight. The next generation is hopping on board with the zombie fascination. Ghoulia, daughter of zombies, is the new face of the previously misunderstood monsters. But she's far from brain dead. Actually, she identifies as an intellectual. She has a creamy blue complexion and a vintage pin-up style.

In the video games Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, there is a zombified woman known as the Witch. She sobs alone in a corner until someone alerts her with noise or a flashlight, at which point she goes berserk and slashes them to pieces with her long red claws. Fan art has created a more sympathetic image for the Witch, portraying her as a young woman or even a little girl.

She is some kind of mutant variation of zombie, and because she is scantily clad, slender and blonde, she has sparked the imaginations of artists and cosplayers.

Warm Bodies came out last February and introduced R to the silver screen. He mauls humans and eats their brains, but when he falls in love, we can't help but cheer him on. He has the full package: height, brawn, great hair and piercing blue eyes. I was not at all surprised when the film provided a makeover montage complete with a lathery, wet shower scene.

More dolls! Have you ever seen a zombie this adorable? Peggy Goo is a diner waitress on roller skates created for the Living Dead Dolls Series 22. Green skin and baby fat, Peggy is irresistible in her pressed uniform. She comes with a cute little prop: "your brains on a plate". If I met a zombie this cute, I would probably keep her around as the governor did in Walking Dead. Alas, Peggy Goo would be my downfall.

The notion of an attractive zombie is not a completely new concept. Ever since the bride of Frankenstein appeared in films for the first time, we have had an idea that reanimated corpses can be glamorous. I admire the stitching about her throat. Only the finest of ladies would have such dainty stitches.

So do not worry if you want to be a zombie for Halloween and still contend with vampires. Party City offers a Sexy Zombie option. In every popular horror genre, we inevitably make the monster visually appealing. Perhaps it is merely an effort to humanize our monsters. Doing so helps us understand or even conquer our fears.

Are We Zombies?

It's easy to fall into a mental rut. Clock in. Clock out. TV. Drinks. And then bed. This kind of anti-social behavior saps our energy and makes it even harder to pull ourselves away from this lifestyle. A persisting lack of energy inevitably leads to depression. Listen up. This is how the zombie apocalypse happens. Hell. It's already happened.

"Motivational Growth"

Sometimes when I'm watching TV, I notice that my mouth is literally hanging open. Not only would that be embarrassing if a neighbor peeked in my window, but it's downright creepy. I don't want to sit around all weekend watching other people live their lives on television. Follow my lead, and find an adventure. Try something new. Make it your goal to make eye contact with at least one person outside of your household before the day is over.

Phantoms at Night

I like to stay on topic when it comes to blogging, but I had an incredible experience last night that must
be examined. I saw a ghost. Granted, visual hallucinations that occur soon after you wake up are not uncommon. The chemicals in our brains that make us dream can leave a little residue that causes the mind to create phantoms out of thin air. But what if it really was a ghost? I must appreciate both possibilities.

Ever wake up with one of these on your chest?

I was dreaming about wandering a large manor home filled with pretty Victorian children. Irrelevant. When I woke up, I noticed a young woman floating on her stomach above my laptop. She had mid-length curly blonde hair and a smooth complexion. She looked like she was reading something. I watched her there. I was quite unafraid, just laying in bed thinking, "Who is that?" Our eyes met for a brief second and she disintegrated into the shadows, as if I had caught her and she was too shy to hang out.

She is not the first ghost I've ever seen. I have now had the privilege of seeing two night-time phantoms. The last time was five years ago in my east village apartment. This spirit was a black woman with wild hair. She was trying to talk to me, telling me an urgent message about finding her book of disasters. When I tried to touch the book she was holding, that was when she disappeared. I asked my landlord and other tenants if they'd ever seen her before, and I heard a number of disturbing anecdotes. Two other people had also seen ghosts upon waking, but they didn't match the description of mine. A 29-year-old woman had seen a little girl sitting on her bed and touching her hand. The landlord's teenage daughter had seen a man watching her sleep from the corner of her bedroom. Additionally, our landlord told us that a man had murdered his mother in the basement and then shot himself outside. My roommate started waking up and finding me in her bed.

"Do you want to go get a pillow from your room?" she'd ask me.

"I'm fine without one," I'd reply. "I'm not going back in there."

You're supposed to call these guys.

This morning I told my husband about the ghost from last night. He began postulating all sorts of explanations for her presence.

"Maybe she came back from the spirit world to check her e-mail," he suggested. "OoooOOOOooo. Sorry to wake you, Meg. I needed to check my FaaAAAaaacebook."

"She looked like my grandmother when she was young," I suggested. "Maybe she's always with me, and this was the first time I saw her."

"No way," he said. "Why would your grandmother be so computer savvy? This girl must have died recently. Maybe she's buried under the floorboards."

"I don't think so," I said, incredulous. "She was a peaceful visitor, with very little interest in talking to me. Murder victims are supposedly more aggressive."

Whatever the cause of the laptop ghost, I plan to leave her story be and not investigate. My landlord strikes me as the superstitious type. If I told him I saw a ghost, he would probably send a priest into the apartment with smudge sticks and holy water.

One thing I find interesting about both of my ghosts is that they didn't look like monsters or the violently battered creatures you see in movies. They were just normal people, there one second, and gone the next.

Zombie Flash Fiction

It was the middle of the night. We were thirty miles away from the next town. Just as we were nearing our destination, the rental car got a flat tire. The popping underfoot made me wonder if this was the beginning of the end. My sister and I had gotten into our share of close calls recently, and we kept wondering when our luck would run out.

Alexa and I pulled over. Through the dark, we walked the remainder of the distance to the farmhouse. There we found a withered old woman sitting by a fire, staring catatonic into the flames.

"You'll find what you're looking for in the trunk of the car," she said in a voice I thought I had known once before, perhaps when I was a child.

"Come with us" I told her. She looked up from the fire and I saw that a chunk of her cheek was missing. She didn't even try to cover her exposed mandible.

"She's bit," Alexa whispered. I guarded my sister and we backed away slowly.

"How long ago?" I asked.

"You'll find what you need in the trunk of the car," the grey woman repeated.

We didn't waste another second getting away from her. Around the side of the old farmhouse, we found her steel blue Buick. I strapped my rifle across my shoulder and went into the car to hit the trunk release. My sister kept pestering me to wait. 'Wait' she kept saying.

"We should get out of here." I could hear the terror in her voice, but that only pressed me to move faster. "The witch was the only one who could stop those things. She's about the become one. Do you really think whatever is in this trunk of her car can help us?"

Before I could answer, a body that was charred and faceless lunged from the trunk, grabbing Alexa and sinking its teeth into her shoulder. As I watched in the rear view mirror as the mutilated being cracked my sister open like a crab leg and feasted on her raw quivering meat, I knew there was no hope.

"James!" she cried out.

"I'm sorry." I did a barrel roll away from the car and fired a shot into my sister's head and then a second shot between the monster's eyes. It was better to let Alexa die than face one of those perversions of humanity.

Necrophilia, The True Story Behind Warm Bodies

So you met a zombie, he didn't eat you, and you fell in love. Sounds like somebody has a fetish. Of course, I'm not being fair. The film Warm Bodies, based on the book by Isaac Marion, has more to it than a perverse longing for an undead boyfriend. R isn't your typical mindless zombie. He is receptive to emotions and he dreams of a world of the living. And he used to be a handsome actor named Nicholas Hoult. The female love interest of this story falls for the parts of R that are most alive, such as his hoarding habit, his love of vinyl and his sensitive personality. For those who have seen Bob's Burgers, R is Tina's wet dream.

This story takes our basic understanding of a zombie apocalypse and removes the scientific aspect from it. It is meant to be seen purely as an allegory and a commentary on society. A reviewer compared it to Twilight, and I have to disagree wholeheartedly. Twilight is unwatchable beetle dung, a disgrace to America that we can only blame on some guilty pleasure of watching teens get half naked and argue about sex. Its popularity baffles me. I used to write stuff like Twilight all the time, when I was TWELVE. Guess I should have gotten a book deal, eh Stephenie Meyer? Admittedly, Warm Bodies has the same production value as movies like Twilight or Beautiful Creatures, but it has something special going for it. Warm bodies has a story, a well developed main character, a comical and engaging script and a beautiful message about humanity and relationships.

"This is my best friend. By best friend I mean we occasionally grunt and stare awkwardly at each other."

It's quite funny too, but the whole movie isn't completely tongue and cheek. The flesh eating zombies are to be taken seriously, especially the truly wicked ones called Boneys. It is R's self-deprecation, his awkwardness around girls and his friendship with Marcus the zombie that I found so comical. This is a very enjoyable movie, and if your significant other hates horror movies, you can pass it off as a romantic comedy.

Survival Tip of the Day:

(R must keep Julie safe as they pass a crowd a zombies)
R: Be dead. (walks like Frankenstein and moans)
Julie: (imitates R) BLLEEEGGHHH!!
R: That's.... too much...
Julie: rrrrrrrrrr.

2013: Year of the Zombie

To be born in 2013 would be an honor, for this is an exceptional year. It is the year many Mayan calendar doomsayers believed would never come to pass. The number 13 is considered unlucky by most, but witches see the superstition differently. There are 13 full moons in a year, and the full moon is a celebration of femininity.  The Chinese zodiac calls 2013 the year of the snake. I would have to insist that this is rather the year of the Zombie.

"Love means never having to say I'm undead."

Warm Bodies
February 2nd, 2013
This film is based on a novel, as are most great movies. The last time I saw a filmmaker humanize a zombie was in Romero's Land of the Dead. Warm Bodies is not so subtle. The story unfolds from a zombie's perspective, and as he falls in love with a teenage girl, he becomes more and more human. I had difficulty imagining how a writer could make this work, but after watching the first few minutes of the film, I was sold. The quirky main character makes this an instant favorite.

He looks good in any medium.

Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
March 19th, 2013
Finally we can play as Daryl Dixon! It's all I ever wanted. Now I just have to figure out how to import him into World of Warcraft so he can marry my blood elf version of myself.

"Maybeh if I chops my arm off?"

Evil Dead
April 12th, 2013
We brought back a classic and turned it into an unoriginal thriller. It has all the elements for horror that puts me to sleep: stupid teenagers, no cell phone reception and gratuitous female exploitation. It just came out, but you'll be asking yourself, "Have I seen this before?" This is why people don't pay to see movies anymore, Hollywood.

"So... When do you turn 18?"

The Last of Us
June 14th, 2013
This game has had amazing reviews. Critics say it has beautiful graphics, dynamic gameplay and a compelling script.

Brad rocks a scarf while running from zombies. It's all a part of his keen survival skills.

World War Z
June 21st, 2013
Fun stuff. Check out my review.

This is why games have ratings. Not for kids!

Walking Dead: 400 Days
July 2nd, 2013
This DLC for Telltale Game's Walking Dead sets the story up for the next series of arcade games. The player goes through five different stories, getting varied perspectives through the zombie apocalypse.

Who wouldn't want to see this movie?

R.I.P.D. (Rest In Peace Department)
July 19th, 2013
Everyone is telling me this movie looks stupid, but I am going to see it on opening night. A night of undead police officers sounds like campy fun. This could be the next Men in Black.... or it could be a complete rip off of Men in Black. We'll see.

When there is no more original zombie ideas, a remake will ensue.

Night of The Living Dead: Origins 3D
October 13th, 2013
This is the story of my zombie apocalypse outcome. Survivors hole up in a New York City apartment and fend off the hordes. I think I know how this one is going to end.


Survival Tip of the Day:
Condoms. Condoms! CONDOMS! Pregnancy during the zombie apocalypse equals one dead mama. Wait for the cure!

What Zombies Represent to Americans

Just got back from my staycation. I kept having dreams about zombies and I decided I needed a break from the blog. I want to briefly talk about America's fascination with these undead monstrosities. What zombies represent has certainly changed over the years, and this became evident to me as I watched a slew of old and new zombie movies over my vacation. 

In the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, the focus is clearly on the emptiness of consumerism. Zombies wander the mall because it reminds them of their former lives. They are forever hungry and have nothing to contribute to the world. The human characters of Dawn of the Dead block off the entrances to the mall and clear out the zombies, but they too fall victim to the void of consumerism. They deck out their hideout to look like a fancy apartment, wear designer clothes, and frequent the deluxe mall restaurant. 

Ultimately, their isolation drives them insane. The audience witnesses how soulless these people feel when Francine stares aimlessly into the mirror as she fixes her makeup, or when Flyboy asks Francine to marry him and offers a set of golden rings. She refuses, telling him it wouldn't be real. 

Her response suggests that wearing a piece of jewelry does not hold any significance. To be married, she needs the ceremony, the witnesses, and the society in which marriage is an observed status. Material goods do not validate us as human beings. Our relationships and our roles in society are where we find satisfaction. 

World War Z of 2013 speaks to our fear of mindless terrorism. At one point, zombies compromise the safety of a commercial airplane. Westerners struggle to understand why young men suicide bomb defenseless civilians or hijack airplanes to commit great evil. These actions make the assailants appear like mindless drones, for surely a free-thinking individual would question the purpose of attacking innocent people. Like zombies, terrorists do not think freely or appreciate the value of human life. They were once normal people who have been indoctrinated and brainwashed. Like zombies, they have no purpose beyond destruction. 

The Walking Dead Series provides an entirely different perspective on zombies. The hordes wander across the United States, devouring cities and small towns wherever prosperity remains. The zombies embody the flaws of human nature. Humans instinctively reproduce, conquer and consume, and after thousands of years of this, there are simply too many people and too much industry on the planet. Rick is a symbol of simplicity. He and his company must learn to survive as their ancestors did without supermarkets or the internet. Country folk from small towns emerge as heroes. They can farm and hunt to survive without the powerful industries that run our world today.

The wandering hordes of zombies will be replaced in real life by hordes of displaced people. Sea levels continue to rise and will eventually devour our greatest cities, sending masses of refugees inland. Americans who know anything about the rest of the world have a grim outlook on the future. Big oil companies are running our economy and our environmental policies, digging a mass grave for the human race. AMC's Walking Dead portrays our expectations of the future, defending our homes and our resources against "the others." Whoever these others may be, whether they are refugees or anarchist gangs, we will definitely dehumanize them when it comes down to keeping our friends and family safe.

Survival Tip of the Day:

Stay close to your friends. Keep back to back formation as you take out zombies, but move quickly so as not to be surrounded.

10 Women to Watch Out For in Zombie Nation

On Z day, people allow their morality to revolve around one concept: building a brighter future for humanity. Everyone has a part to play, but nine times out of ten, the sole survivor of a zombie screenplay is a woman. Women and children are the future and a reminder of domestic life before violence and imminent danger sent everybody running.

Zombie popular culture has given us some of our strongest female characters in the horror genre. They are huntresses. They are healers. They are maternal and protective. They have a depth of character that makes us remember them long after forgetting the film. 

#10 - Ana has all the beginnings of a great character, but I was hung up on her inability to share her emotions with anyone. She was very calculating and logical throughout the film and I never really came to sympathize with her. Nonetheless, after watching the original Dawn of the Dead, it was great to see a woman pick up a gun and do something. I cannot stand Francine's inactivity in the 1978 film. She literally just stands there and watches as her boyfriend rolls around with a zombie for ten minutes. She spends the entire film either smoking her cigarettes, putting on makeup or crying. Ana on the other hand has valuable training as a nurse and can solve problems quickly and efficiently.

#9 - Barbra from Night of the Living Dead is a special case on this list. I almost wrote her off along with Francine. By all means, she is a great example of how women were portrayed back in the day. They can often be seen crying for help or sobbing in a man's arms. For most of Night of the Living Dead (1968) she is either catatonic or completely hysterical. However, she is one determined survivor. When she doesn't have the keys to the car and a zombie breaks open the window, she escapes by putting the vehicle in neutral and rolling down the hill. She is whiny, cowardly and useless, but her resourcefulness redeems her in the end. She is also the only person who realizes that staying in the house is a bad idea, but nobody will listen to her because she is acting crazy. Her performance gave me chills at moments, and she reminded me that most people going through this harrowing experience would be a mental wreck. 

#8 - Alice has a lot to offer as a character. She has amnesia, super powers and a really cool costume. Resident Evil isn't for everyone, but I have always been a fan of the games and a few of the films. You might have noticed that a lot of these female protagonists are blondes. Historically, in Western culture, golden hair symbolized virtue and morality. We see the virtuous young girl overcome impossible trials because of her inherent goodness. Alice in Wonderland and Goldilocks are a few examples, but if you look for it, you notice that golden haired women seldom play villains.

#7 - Andrea is my last blondie on the list, and she is definitely the best. Her character is brave, heroic and damaged. She has her share of flaws. She is prideful, arrogant and at times ignorant of reality. I realized I loved Andrea when I saw her take down that zombie in the RV with nothing but a screwdriver. She didn't want to live with the violence of the new world. She was considering suicide, and then a zombie had her trapped in the bathroom of the RV, breaking down the door to get her. She was so scared, so helpless, most certainly done for and then she took her life back into her hands when she plunged the tool straight through the zombie's eye. It was a major turning point for her character, because she finally accepted that she wanted to fight for her life. She can be headstrong and downright stupid, but she is one hard lady.

#6 - 28 Weeks Later introduced us to Scarlet, a completely selfless protector of children. Not only a medical officer, she was a pioneer in medicine, hoping to develop a vaccine for the infection by studying the blood of an asymptomatic carrier. Beauty, brains and bravery, this character performs incredible altruism in escorting two children to safety.

#5 - 28 Days Later was a fabulous zombie movie, much better than the sequel, and Selena makes it so. She is a fierce contender, and her maternal side shows when she tries to protect a teenage girl's frail psyche. Selena realizes that she and the girl are going to be raped by all of the men protecting them from zombies. Powerless to stop it from happening, she gives the girl pills to numb her mind, and it is a beautiful and tragic moment between them that stays with you forever.

#4 - If you ever want to see a grown man swoon, just bring up Jill Valentine. Every boy who played through the Resident Evil series holds a torch for this young woman. She's the Lara Croft of Resident Evil, attractive, suave and not afraid to show some skin. Alice has a bigger role in the films, but Jill still ranks higher on my list... mostly for her incredible power over men.

#3 - Cherry Darling is the perfect girlfriend for the end of the world. Her transformation is meaningful to women everywhere. I admire her resolve. She loses her leg and she just gets right back up to resume the fight. She goes from being a stripper with no useful skills to being an amputee zombie slayer. It just goes to show, it's never too late to turn your life around.

#2 - Segan works very well as a character because she is so realistic. She isn't your stereotypical tough chick. She has a shaved head and can be quite intimidating in her gear, but her eyes are feminine blue wells of vulnerability. The inclusion of the character is what made World War Z an enjoyable movie for me.

#1 - A woman whose past is shrouded in mystery, Michonne enchanted audiences when she was introduced at the end of Walking Dead's second season. Her heart of gold was revealed when she helped Carl get a picture of his mom, and when she protected Andrea in the wilderness. Her methods of stealth are genius. She survives in the wild by covering her scent with her captive zombies.  One who uses a sword rather than a gun is always a winner in my book, and that is why Michonne is my ultimate hero for Zombie nation. 

Survival Tip of The Day:
Keep a melee weapon handy in case you run out of ammo, something to bludgeon your way through the hordes.