Zombie Room

(The list of most anticipated comedies here, most anticipated fantasy films here, most anticipated Finnish films here, most anticipated action movies here and the most anticipated scifi movies for 2012 here.)

If you happen to like zombie films, 2012 is not going to leave you dry. No sir. Thirty-plus feature films are marching to the big and small screens, from small indie flicks made with just few bucks, to the biggest zombie film ever made – World War Z. Zombie Room takes a closer look at the horde crawling at us.

Shaun of the Dead opened the floodgates of the zombie comedy (zom com, as they call it nowadays) -genre – and in 2012 they keep on coming like never before. Dave of the Dead is another one of the kind – this time it’s post-zombie-apocalypse world where the undead have became second-class citizens. In Canadian 3D-zom com Dead Before Dawn 3D [ Official Web Site ] a group of college kids unleash a curse that causes people to commit suicide and come back as zombie demons – zemons.

In Detention of the Dead [ Teaser ‖ Official Web Site ] , Breakfast Club meets Shaun of the Dead – a bunch of college kids trapped in detention during zombie apocalypse, and in Stalled [ Facebook page ] a luckless maintenance gopher finds himself stuck in a ladies restroom during one. Last but not least, Corey Feldman jumps in the pants of Zombie King, whose evil plans Edward Furlong has to win in the upcoming British horror comedy The Zombie King [ Teaser ‖ Official Web Site ].

Zombies land also to Europe, with Dutch zom com Zombibi [ Trailer ], where Amsterdam gets overrun by zombies, and the motley crew of survivors go way over the top in re-inventing ways to kill their dead fellow Amsterdamned.

And that’s not all. Zombies are getting more girlfriend and family-oriented as well. A Little Bit Zombie [ Trailer ‖ Official Web Site ] is an indie rom zom com, where an infected, mild-mannered HR manager attempts to fulfill his overwhelming desire for brains and avoid Max, the obsessed Zombie Hunter hot on his trail. All while keeping it together so as not to incur the wrath of his Bridezilla-to-be, In Abercrombie & Zombie a failed Survivor reality show auditioner comes back to life to pursue his dream to become the first zombie supermodel. Same theme continues in Zombie Blondes, where a new girl in the town Hannah gets new friends who all have names starting with same first letter, bleached blonde hair and eerily lightweight bodies… Big players are going Zombie again as well – Paramount is marching boy scouts to fight the zombie apocalypse and save the girl scouts of the neighboring camp in (cleverly named) Boy Scouts vs. Zombies.

It’s not just comedies, though. Good old zombie-smashing takes (probably) place in 100,000 Zombie Heads, starring among others great Vernon Wells (yes, the very Bennett from Commando and Lord General from Weird Science!), and My Bloody Valentine 3D director Patrick Lussier is pitching his new film Condition Dead [ Official Web Site ] as “Saving Private Ryan, with zombies”. In 3D, I would assume. And of course, what would be a zombie-year be without Paco Plaza returning with a new installation to the [REC]-saga – [REC]³ Génesis [ Trailer ]. As a cherry on top, Uwe Boll-produced zombie action flick Zombie Massacre [ Trailer ]is gathering momentum as well, fitted with a nifty trailer.

In animation front, The Living Corpse comic book series – which is apparently a famous one – is being remade into an animated feature film of the same name [ Trailer and Official Web Site ] . And in even bigger news, it might be that James Farr‘s comic book series Xombie gets remade into a major Dreamworks production of the same name, penned by Star Trek / Transformers duo Kurtzman and Orci! That sounds awesome!

Even Jesus Christ (the original zombie) is marching on the big screen: independent, Kickstarter-financed zombie film The Zombie Christ [ Trailer ‖ Official Web Site ] takes us into the 80′s future, where the ultimate weapon is sent to earth: the Zombie Christ. And in Jesus Hates Zombies [ Official Web Site ] – based on a comic book series of the same name – director Eric Balfour (whom you know as an actor with a face in wrong aspect ratio – don’t believe me, check it out yourself!) brings Jesus Christ back to save the humanity. Jesus ends up fighting together with Abe Lincoln, Mother Theresa and Elvis Presley against zombies and werewolves and whatnot.

And finally, the zombie world gets crazier and weirder with legendary 83-year-old cult director Ted V. Mikels who revisits his 60′s film The Astro Zombies in Astro Zombies: M4 – Invaders from Cyberspace [ Trailer ].

It sure looks like the zombie apocalypse if truly here – at least on the big screen. I picked three films to pay special attention to:

Directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Monster’s Ball)

The biggest-ever zombie film in the history of cinema, World War Z is based on a book with the same name. Staggering 125 million-dollar film is written by the creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, and several people who’ve read the story have appraised it not just being a genre-defining script, but one with Best Picture -potential, if realized the right way. Brad Pitt is the playing the main character, a UN representative who scours the world, interviewing survivors of the zombie apocalypse, referred to as World War Z. No teaser or trailer has yet been released, but there are several videos on YouTube shot by outsiders about the shoot, and even based on that stuff, the film looks like a fucking riot of awesomeness.

Directed by Chris Butler & Sam Fell (The Tale of Despereaux)

From the creators of Coraline comes a new horror stop-motion animation ParaNorman, a film which visual beauty just throws you off your chair. The story tells of a small town that comes under siege by the undead, and of a boy, Norman, who’s the only one with the ability to speak with the dead. The bravely creepy animation seems to be in all charts as one of the most interesting films coming out next year – stylish, fun and something fresh for the animation *and* zombie genre.

Directed by Richard Raaphorst

Having been in production under different names for ages, Amsterdam-based director Richard Raaphorst is bringing something completely new to the field. A WWII Nazi experiment has led to the creation of an undead army, using the test results of historical dr. Frankenstein as its’ basis. The film looks like something I haven’t seen ever before, and might very well become a hugely popular classic to accompany Dead Snow in the hall of best zombie films ever made. The promo reel via Twitch Films looks so beautiful I really have hard time waiting for this to finally become reality. The film – according to promos – is (correct me if I’m wrong!) black-and-white and possibly mute, accompanied with haunting soundtrack and great sound design, and impeccable sense of style.

The list of the most anticipated comedies here, fantasy films here, Finnish movies here and science fiction movies here.

While Scifi geeks have fun with loads of interesting films coming up in 2012, the low-brow, I-want-to-see-things-explode -audience and the superhero fans have it a bit dry. Yes, there’s new Batman – and it looks cool, I have to admit – but other than that, it feels like an in-between year for the good old blowing-shit-up. I picked the following films not because I’m overtly enthusiastic about them, but because there wasn’t much to choose from.

Directed by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception)

Wanna guess the most pirated film of all time? The Dark Knight Rises will snatch that title in a heartbeat. Will it be a good conclusion to Bale-starred, Nolan-directed Batmans? Sure it will. Will it be interesting, or fresh, or something radical? Absolutely not. I’m expecting The Dark Knight Rises to wrap up what Nolan started with excellent Batman Begins, and followed with mediocre The Dark Knight. I’m expecting to see a lot of money being blown in the air and Christian Bale (over)doing “the agony of being Batman” like never before, and I expect to be entertained, but I’m not expecting to walk out of the theater feeling like a new man.

And that’s just fine. Bring it on. I’m ready. I don’t care.

Directed by David Koepp (Ghost Town)

A dream for every fixie hipster in New York, Premium Rush is a story about a bicycle messenger who picks up an envelope from Columbia University, and gets chased down by a dirty cop who’s desperate to get the delivery.

The film is all about bicycling as fast as possible among the New York traffic, and at least according to the trailer, they’ve really grasped the life-threatening feeling of traffic-cycling on tape. So much that the main actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt almost got killed during the shooting: he smashed in the back of a taxi and took a good swan dive into the windscreen.

The film sounds like loads of fun, and David Koepp is a great writer and a his film Ghost Town made a big impression on me few years back. One tip, though. Don’t watch the trailer more than 5 seconds. It’s one of those “let’s scan through the story of the film so there’s no reason to go see it anymore” -trailers…

Directed by Simon West

First installation of The Expendables wasn’t anything to write home about, although I was expecting a lot of the film. My mistake. I wanted to see 80′s action with humor, self-irony and great action scenes, but I got nothing but a boring, noisy mess of a film that took itself way too seriously. The only thing that redeemed The Expendables was Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s appearance. And that’s going to be the only reason I’m walking back to theaters with part 2 as well, eagerly paying whatever they are asking for it. It’s Arnold, for God’s sake, and a bunch of old farts.

Directed by Joel Carnahan (The A-team, Smokin’ Aces)

Directed by Joel Carnahan, The Grey is a Liam Neeson -film about a bunch of plane crash survivors fighting a pack of wolves in Alaska. There seems to be nice, gray, gritty look and feel on the film, ruthless survival action and well, a bunch of wolves, with which I hope don’t follow the “we-have-to-do-wolves-otherwise-we-don’t-exist” -trend which was so popular in the beginning of 2000′s and resulted some of the worst CG creatures in recent history (See: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Day After Tomorrow)

Directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition)
There’s absolutely nothing interesting or edgy about the new James Bond -movie. Trust me: nothing. Everything about the film smells like well-made but rather boring – only remarkable thing is that Sam Mendes is directing, and we know him being a good and innovative director. But no matter how I look at Skyfall, it’s just another Bond-movie. It’s the same ballet we’ve seen a million times before; Bond falling for a bunch of hot chicks, having trouble with his superiors, a charismatic villain and a lot of explosions. Only this time it’s probably more about the drama and less on the action. Hopefully better than Quantum of Solace, but never going to rise to the excellency of Casino Royale.

(The most anticipated comedies of 2012)
(The most anticipated Fantasy films of 2012)

The next year is going to be quite an exciting film year for Finland. Coming out are two of the biggest films in the history of Finnish cinema - Iron Sky (which I have not added to the list of the most anticipated Finnish films because well.. It’s my film and Mannerheim, and bunch of great directors are back with their new films, which are more international than ever. Although Finland hasn’t quite found it’s “thing” yet for International market, the variety of next year’s films is so vast that whichever of these films makes it big internationally, many similar ones are bound to follow. I might even be so bold to claim that next year is going to be a watershed moment for Finnish films!

Dome Karukoski (Lapland Odyssey, The Beauty And The Bastard)

Talk about an epic project! Mannerheim is a movie about the Finnish marshal and president Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim, one of the most beloved and controversial Finns ever lived, and the movie about his life has been in production for ages. The film has a humongous budget of 12,7 million €, and it’s been going through huge financial and artistic troubles along years of the production. The big turning point was when the director Renny Harlin stepped down, and a great Finnish young director Dome Karukoski grabbed the helm. And finally now it seems the film is really about to happen! I’m a bit skeptical on 2012 release, but … crossing fingers!

It’s going to be interesting to see how the filmmakers treat the controversial image of Mannerheim, a man who Hitler admired, who ran Finland during it’s hardest time in history, traveled the world and made decisions that both saved the country and threw it to the wolves.

Aku Louhimies (Frozen Land, Tears of April)

Vuosaari is a collection of dark, gritty love stories in Vuosaari suburb of Helsinki. Directed by Aku Louhimies, one of the best directors of all time coming from Finland, only shadowed by Aki Kaurismäki, the film is probably going to get a lot of international attention as well. And it’s about time for Aku, he’s been doing great films in Finland, and I think he would have a lot to give to the international cinema as well!

Directed by Petri Kotwica (Black Ice)

Rat King is an Finnish-Estonian co-production from another remarkable Finnish director Petri Kotwica, who has always done interesting, edgy thrillers, and Rat King continues this trend. It’s a film about a game addict who get tangled into a web of shit when he decides to participate in one last game. The story is ambitious to say the least, and the film looks really, really dark and beautiful. The film is going to be a good mindfuck thriller, the kind I like, and it’s being shot by Mika Orasmaa, who I worked with on Iron Sky, and the stuff he’s saying about the film sounds amazing.

Directed by Stobe Harju

Remember those great films made by bands? Me neither. Well, Stobe Harju goes bravely with Nightwish where no filmmaker has ever succeeded, and from what I’ve heard, he very well might be the first to actually score. The film Imaginarium is a story about an old composer on his deathbed, remembering his past life. To accompany the film, Nightwish released also an album, which sold like hell and has been said the best album by Nightwish, and according to Metal Hammer, the best album of 2011.

I have absolutely no idea what to expect, other than I know Stobe is a visual director, and Nightwish is a very visual band. So, a visual film, and if the story works, it very well might be a masterpiece.

Directed by Samuli Valkama

A small, cute love story about a guy and his father who both fall in love with the same girl, an American square dance teacher who comes to Finland. The film has nice international appeal to it, and the actress Emilie de Ravin (known from her work at Lost) is fresh sight in otherwise rather monochromatic casting options. This is the first film for the director Samuli Valkama, and it seems like he’s becominge a director who doesn’t necessarily dwell in the darkest corners to find a story, and although Finngrit is a thing of beauty and a nice export coming from Finland, we certainly need directors like Samuli and films like Love and Other Troubles to remind that it’s actually alright to live in Finland!