So The Hoff Has An App Coming Out Soon...

David Hasselhoff's Knight Rider vs. Zombies vs. Baywatch mash-up app will be released soon. Take a look at the trailer and let us know how much you'd pay for such an app.

Female Troubles: The Walking Dead

You'll often hear me criticizing shows for not having good female characters. Let's be clear, I don't mean "good" in that I want to see female characters who are good in that they volunteer their time to homeless shelters and are well-behaved. It means I want to see female characters that are interesting, multidimensional, and independent. They have flaws and make mistakes, and deal with the consequences, because that is the full range of human experiences. I can count on one hand the shows currently on television with “good” female characters.

Often, this is also described as "kick-ass" female characters, especially in the sci-fi, horror, and fantasy genre. This is often translated almost literally as female characters who slaughter, kill, and fight the enemy/ghost/dragon/vampire bad guys. Their "violent fighting skills" make them kick-ass. It seems as if one of these females exists, it fills some sort of quota of female "bad-assery." This alone does not make good female character. It doesn't leave you off the hook, writers.

The character of Michonne is the perfect illustration of this token "kick-ass" woman. In a show where the female characters have either been killed off, are dealing with a love triangle, taking care of babies, sleeping with evil dictators, or doing laundry, I guess it is a relief that Michonne is out there fighting to survive among the walkers. Sure, she saved Andrea and helped her survive for several months out in the world. She can wield that sword like no one's business. But her perpetual scowl is really goddamn annoying. Sure, she joins the group of men in clearing out a prison yard of Walkers. She killed a bunch of people in order to rescue Glen and Maggie from Woodbury. But that's about it. She shows barely any emotion except anger and resentment, with no reason. In the past season, she has shown a hint of compassion and and desire for community when she helped Carl rescue the picture of his parents, and tried to help out at the prison, but you know what? Too little, too late. The supposed "strong" woman is portrayed as nothing but a one-dimensional killing machine. And thus, boring.

Unfortunately, the other women of the show have been relegated to the background or objects for plot devices among the men. Season Three turned into a big cock-swinging contest among the men with constant threats to kill each other and who can shoot a gun better in order to murder lots of extras in the name of being a hero. This is in contrast to the first two seasons, which were more about the relationships among the survivors and their decisions about survival. In Season Two, Maggie took charge of her family and was a strong advocate of unification among the groups, but this season she's there mostly for Glen to have an internal struggle about fighting. She was sexually assaulted by the Governor, yet the focus is on Glen's struggle about it and need for revenge. She actually apologized to Glen for not talking about it. Carol was the hysterical wife in Season One, hysterical mother in Season Two, and now she seems there to do the group's laundry. Beth, Hershel's daughter and a minor character from Season Two, doesn't seem to have any other purpose then to soothe the group with her Taylor Swift singing sessions around the campfire and to take care of the baby. I'm reluctantly grateful for Lori's death, only to stop the incessant drama about her love triangle with Rick and Shane.

And then there's Andrea. Sigh. Andrea, who came out strong in the beginning, serving as surrogate family for Dale (RIP), a voice of reason as well as a strategist for the group. It seems the writers wanted us to hate her. She falls under the Governor's spell because he sleeps with her. Stupid Andrea! He's just not that into you! She tries to solve the Woodbury v. Prison Group saga by using non-violent means, and is laughed out of the room and essentially told "let the real men handle this." Stupid Andrea! Running a community is for men!

I am fully aware that this show is based on a long series of graphic novels, and "this is how it happened in the books" is no excuse. This show is an adaptation, giving the creative right to develop the characters independently. The good news is that there is the ability for the group to encounter new survivors at any time, thus introducing new characters at any point. I sincerely hope that Season Four introduces new people, both men and women, that bring the show back to a show about characters managing in this environment, instead of the mainstream guys-with-guns-shooting-at-each-other action movie it has become.

Top 16 Zombie Movies

This article originally appeared on Culture Brats on October 26th, 2010. But we're bringing it back (along with a few others) to get you ready for Halloween!

Dead Alive (Braindead) poster
CREDIT: IMDb.com

Because several of us are eagerly anticipating Sunday's premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead, we thought it would be cool to conclude our month-long look at horror movies with our favorite zombie flicks. Enjoy!

16. Day Of The Dead

15. Dawn Of The Dead (2004)

14. Night Of The Comet

13. Dead Snow

12. Dead Alive (Braindead)

11. Planet Terror

10. Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore)

9. Resident Evil

8. Return Of The Living Dead

7. Pet Sematary

6. The Serpent And The Rainbow

I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus: Our Interview With S.G. Browne

If you were a fan of 2009's Breathers: A Zombie's Lament, I've got some great news for you: its sequel, I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus, comes out tomorrow! And you want to know the best part? It's every bit as good as the original, equally touching and funny and satirical, with plenty of zombie action! I devoured this book in two days; I could not put it down because it was so much fun.

I was lucky enough to speak with S.G. Browne, the author of both of these great books, about the sequel, the status of the Breathers film, the popularity of zombies, and his five favorite zombie movies.

Hi Scott! How's it going today?
I'm in Del Mar visiting a close friend and getting ready to go play Smash Ball on the beach, so I'd say today is looking good.

I loved I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus! It is hilarious, touching, and the perfect sequel to Breathers. What made you decide to write about Andy Warner again?
I'd never planned on continuing Andy's story unless I could come up with something fresh. The last thing I wanted to do was regurgitate the same ideas from the first novel. While I had a seed of an idea for a sequel, it didn't start to germinate until my publisher asked me if I was interested in writing a Christmas themed zombie novella. Add a little water and sunshine and some zombie compost and two months later, the idea bloomed into I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus.

I Saw Zombies Eating Santa Claus moves from horror to comedy to emotional scenes. Which is the hardest for you to write? What comes the most natural for you?
To be honest, I don't think too much about moving from one to the other while I'm writing. The different scenes are just a part of the story and if I'm telling it honestly, then the horror and comedy and emotion all come out feeling natural. So none of them are any harder to write than the others. But I do pay attention to make sure the emotional scenes don't get too sappy. I'm a sucker for It's A Wonderful Life.

First Look: Cockneys Vs. Zombies

If you thought the zombie craze was behind us, you obviously haven't seen the red band trailer for Cockneys Vs. Zombies:

You Can't Stop The Zombie Invasion

It's official... zombies are the new vampires. Zombies were everywhere at this year's New York Comic Con. And not just nerds in makeup walking around the convention floor.

Earlier this year, AMC announced that it would be adapting the graphic novel The Walking Dead into a series event directed by Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Mist, Shawshank Redemption).

Video games get in on the undead action with Dead Rising 2 and a zombified spin off of the awesome Red Dead Redemption. In the pages of comic books, zombies will infest the worlds of Transformers, Star Trek and Ghostbusters. (Begs the question, what does a zombiefied Transformer eat? Car engines?)

The weirdest zombie sighting, however, had to be over at the Animal Planet booth, where inexplicably they have a pseudo-documentary show featuring the undead. Not sure how that fits with their brand, but I guess when in Rome... or when at Comic Con...

Personally, I think The Walking Dead looks pretty badass. But with the prevalence of zombies in pop culture, it's only a matter of time before we see a story where a sensitive zombie falls in love with a plucky human. Oh yeah, he'll probably sparkle while he's munching on brains.

The Zombies Are Coming!

AMC has been teasing us for months with pics from its upcoming zombie series, The Walking Dead. Yesterday, they finally released a trailer for it:



Looks pretty awesome, huh? I know where I'll be on Halloween. After I drop by and egg your house, I'll be heading back home to watch The Walking Dead.

(Pleaseohpleaseohplease live up to the hype and don't suck.)

[source]

I Need A Monster Hunter. NOW!

Before I begin, realize this: I love monsters. But I'm sick of the monster/classic literature mash-ups. I spent ten minutes on Amazon and found the following titles that can be purchased or pre-ordered (and I'm sure I missed a few):

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim
• Alice in Zombieland
• Android Karenina
• Emma and the Werewolves
• Little Vampire Women
• Little Women and Werewolves
• Jane Slayre
• Mansfield Park and Mummies
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers
• Romeo & Juliet & Vampires
• Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
• The Undead World of Oz
• The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies

It's monster porn fan fiction run amok. And it needs to be stopped!

But there's something even more disturbing than the zombies, vampires, and monsters that are rampaging through classic literature. Last week, I learned that Hollywood has optioned the rights to Paul Is Undead, an upcoming novel which paints the Fab Four as zombies and Mick Jagger as a zombie hunter.