She Likes to Watch

Simon Pegg to Hollywood: Zombies don’t run!

Simon Pegg knows a thing or two about zombies.

In “Shaun of the Dead,” Pegg and his best mate (Nick Frost) fought off hordes of hungry undead. In “Hot Fuzz,” the duo took on an entire village of evil English villagers.

Pegg has even appeared in two thrillers crafted by his horror movie idol, George Romero: “Land of the Dead” and “Diary of the Dead.”

So when Pegg reviewed “Dead Set,” a five-part BBC miniseries about a zombie outbreak in London, he had some harsh things to say about the sprinting, shrieking “zombies” who munch on reality-show fans.

Namely, zombies don’t run.

“I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist,” Pegg admits, “but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can’t fly; zombies do not run.”

As he points out, zombies are in essence reanimated corpses resurrected through some combination of black magic, mad science and mere accident. They’re sad, shambling creatures, driven by an insatiable appetite for plump, juicy brains.

“Death is a disability, not a superpower,” Pegg argues. “It’s hard to run with a cold, let alone the most debilitating malady of them all.”

Pegg may be a zombie traditionalist but he’s not exactly in the majority.

By all accounts, the trend for fast zombies started in 2002 with Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later.”

“28 Days Later” pits a handful of survivors against frighteningly fast folks infected by an incurable virus known as “rage.” They’re not technically zombies, since they’re still alive, but these monsters share all the other characteristics of the walking undead: They’re scary. They’re blood-thirsty. And they’re nigh unstoppable.

“From that point on it was difficult to return to the old-school shambling George Romero zombies of yore,” “Dead Set” creator Charlie Brooker admitted in a Guardian interview. “They’re dumb and they can run? Brilliant.”

With “Dead Set,” he promises a darkly comic horror show with plenty of blood and guts.

“If nothing else, Dead Set should set some new benchmark (or low point, depending on your point of view) for onscreen gore,” Brooker said. “There’s no point making a (PG-13) zombie flick. Money shots, that’s what you want. And that’s what you’ll get. I sincerely hope some of you vomit.”

You can watch “Dead Set” for free here. Enjoy.

Just when you thought it was safe to come out …

I recently polled some friends about their favorite scary movies. Not surprisingly, “Halloween,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Night of the Living Dead” were at the top of the list.

Of course, everyone has their own take about what deserves the “Best Horror” label.

Some go for gory humor, such as Edgar Wright’s “Shaun of the Dead” or Peter Jackson’s “Dead Alive.” For others, it’s more about gruesome scenarios — witness the popularity of torture porn titles such as “Saw” and “Hostel” — or psychological thrills, like those depicted in Japanese exports “The Ring” and “The Eye.”

So, what’s on everyone’s lists?

First, it’s the attack of RottenTomatoes.com, as the movie review supersite lists the 50 best horror movies ever made.

Since 50 movies is a bit much to absorb in a sitting, I’ll skip to the good stuff. According to the critics at Rotten Tomatoes, the 10 films you simply must see are:

1. “King Kong” (1933)
2. “Repulsion” (1965)
3. “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935)
4. “Aliens” (1986)
5. “The Evil Dead” (1989)
6. “Frankenstein” (1931)
7. “Jaws” (1975)
8. “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (1919)
9. “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968)
10. “Nosferatu” (1922)

A few of these titles are a bit obscure, but they all garnered high marks from dozens of newspaper, radio and online critics.

For instance, “Repulsion” — which follows a schizophrenic woman’s descent into madness — was hailed by critics as “intense,” “genuinely frightening” and “disturbing.” The 1965 psychological thriller stars Catherine Devenue and is director Roman Polanski’s first English-language film.
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Moviefone.com invites you to view cinema’s “Scariest Movie Moments” — preferably at home with all the doors locked and lights blazing.

The list begins with the moment we see a ghoulish girl under her bed in “The Sixth Sense” (No. 31) and ends with such filmic freakouts as the girl emerging from the television in “The Ring,” Linda Blair’s spinning head in “The Exorcist” and Leatherface’s bloody feast in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

You’ll have to check Friday to see the final gory addition.

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Over at IFC.com, the folks behind some of Hollywood’s most terrifying special effects talk about making scary movie magic. Favorite FX include “The Exorcist,” “Alien,” “The Thing” and, of course, “Frankenstein.”

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Looking for an education in the horror genre? Check out Horror-101, which has trailers, posters and reviews of the latest terrifying flicks, including “Saw V.”

More dark delights are available at Anchorwoman in Peril, YDKS Movies and CinemaFist. (Like myself, all four of these blogs are members of the Large Association of Movie Blogs.)

Read, and watch, if you dare.

“Shaun of the Dead” delivers plenty of gore, giggles

Legend has it that “Shaun of the Dead,” the brilliant feature-film debut of director Edgar Wright, was the first “rom zom com.”

That is, a romantic zombie comedy. The holy triumvirate of heartfelt personal growth, buddy-movie style laughs, and hordes of undead corpses hungry for human flesh.

Simon Pegg plays Shaun, an affable young man going through life in a deadened daze. He schleps household appliances at his dead-end job, plays video games with his best mate Ed and ends every evening at The Winchester pub, pounding pints as Ed (Nick Frost) does his best “Every Which Way But Loose” impression.

Shaun sees nothing wrong with this routine lifestyle, but his long-time girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), does. She dumps him.

After another long, drunken night at the Winchester, Shaun realizes she’s right.

Unfortunately our hero comes to this realization at the very moment that armies of the undead are swarming England. As he struggles to win back his woman and reconcile his relationship with his remarried mom, he and Ed are forced to battle a zombie outbreak armed only with a shovel, a cricket bat and their own ingenuity.

“Shaun of the Dead” mixes genres with a cheerful abandon, blending the best of tongue-in-cheek British comedy and American horror classics like George Romero’s immortal “Dead” trilogy. It’s daringly funny, with all the gleeful gore of a “Dead Alive” or an “Evil Dead.”

At the same time, “Shaun” seems to improve on Judd Apatow’s patented formula of tempering sass with sweetness. These characters — played by a uniformly excellent cast — actually grow and change. Self-realization? In a zombie movie? Who’da thunk it?!?

See “Shaun of the Dead” tonight at The Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo. Showtimes are 7 and 9:15 p.m.

Tickets are $7.50.

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Photo courtesy of MovieWeb.com.

It’s a month of screams at one local movie theater

Movies inspire. Movies thrill. And sometimes, movies scare the freakin’ pants off of you.

The Palm Theatre in San Luis Obispo celebrates Halloween throughout the month of October with a series of scary, creepy and downright terrifying films. It starts tonight with “The Lost Boys.”

When the Emersons move to the sunny beachside town of Santa Carla, Calif., it looks like a brand-new start for the family.

Michael (Jason Patric) meets a beautiful girl, Star, on the boardwalk and befriends the pack of teens she hangs with. His younger brother, Sam (Corey Haim), meets a couple of juvenile vampire hunters.

Meanwhile, Mom (Dianne Wiest) is falling for her new boss at the local video store.

Everything seems sunny, but this California beach town has a dark secret. Santa Carla is positively crawling with vampires.

“The Lost Boys” features many of the ingredients that made ’80s movies great: bloodsuckers, the Coreys (Haim and Feldman), beautiful misunderstood youth, and, of course,”Cry Little Sister.”

The movie also delivers plenty of thrills and darkly comic moments — doubled with a dose of nostalgia for those of us who grew up in or around the 1980s.

Ignore the straight-to-video sequel, “Lost Boys: The Tribe.” Watch this wickedly good classic instead.

“The Lost Boys” will be screened at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Wednesday at The Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo. Tickets are $7.50.

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What else is in store for October? I’m so glad you asked.

• “From Dusk Until Dawn” (Oct. 3)
• “Shaun of the Dead” (Oct. 8 )
• “28 Days Later” (Oct. 10)
• “Event Horizon” (Oct. 15)
• “Mars Attacks” (Oct. 17)
• “The Evil Dead” (Oct. 22)
• “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (Oct. 24)
• “Scream” (Oct. 29)
• “The Crow” (Oct. 30)