28 Weeks Later (2007, UK/Sp.)
d. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 100 minutes, Fox Atomic/20th Century Fox

Tagline(s): "When Days Turn to Weeks," and "It All Begins Again."
Setting: In the English countryside, then post-apocalyptic London, and the "Green Zone's District One.
Story: In the pre-credits sequence, married couple Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) and Alice (Catherine McCormack) were barricaded in an English countryside cottage outside London with an elderly couple and a few other survivors. While preparing dinner, they were attacked by infected zombies - Don abandoned everyone to escape, but Alice seemingly perished. Seven months later (28 weeks later), after the "Rage" virus had decimated the UK (and made London depopulated and desolate) and most of the infected had died of starvation, the quarantined country was slowly being repopulated with help from the US military forces and NATO. In a small, secured area of eastern London called District One, Don and Alice's surviving children, teenaged Tammy (Imogen Poots) and young son Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) became the first wave of pseudo-colonists or repatriates, moving to a safe 'Green Zone' (the Isle of Dogs) to repopulate and start again. The area was guarded by Sergeant Doyle (Jeremy Renner) and helicopter pilot Chief Flynn (Harold Perrineau), and their father Don was the District's caretaker of electricity and power. To find mementos, Tammy and Andy returned to the site of their parents' cottage and found their mother, infected with the virus but not overtaken (was she immune?) by the Rage virus. During his wife's quarantine in the District, guilt-ridden Don was infected by her saliva during a kiss - afterwards, he killed her and other soldiers. A lock-down and Code Red was ordered and the District (composed of both civilians and infected) was fire-bombed, although the outbreak of zombie infections and attacks continued to spread. Tammy and Andy escaped the District, with the aid of Army doctor Scarlet (Rose Byrne) and Sgt. Doyle. Scarlet believed the young kids carried a natural antidote to Rage. Eventually, some of the group made it into the dark London Underground subway, where Scarlet was killed by a rampaging Don, who was then shot and killed by Tammy. Andy had been bitten and became a carrier of the virus. Flynn flew the young kids across the English Channel to France. The film ended 28 days later, with the infection presumably reaching France.
Notable: An equally-great follow-up or sequel to Danny Boyle's hit 28 Days Later... (2002). A bleak, tense, gory, action-oriented, and violent film with a new cast, and an open-ended conclusion.

Diary of the Dead (2007)
d. George A. Romero, 95 minutes, Artfire Films/Romero-Grunwald Productions

Tagline(s): "Shoot the Dead," and "Where Will You Be When the End Begins?"
Setting: Various locales in mostly rural Pennsylvania.
Story: A worldwide epidemic and vivified zombie uprising was discovered while film students from the University of Pittsburgh were shooting a project for school - originally a low-budget mummy horror film. It became The Death of Death, a docu-style zombie movie project (the "film within a film"), professionally directed by student Jason Creed (Joshua Close) with the help of his girlfriend Debra Moynihan (Michelle Morgan). They and a group of other students were traveling in a Winnebago RV with their professor Andrew Maxwell (Scott Wentworth), while they were being chased down by flesh-eating zombies. In a hospital, they found infected, undead zombie medical personnel on the attack. The group realized they could kill the zombies by shooting them in the head. After encountering more zombies at dynamite-hurling, deaf Amish farmer Samuel's (R .D. Reid) barn, the group came upon radicalized African-American survivors who had stocked a fortified warehouse with supplies. Then, at Debra's home in Scranton, PA, it was discovered that her family members had already become zombies. In the conclusion set at fellow film student Ridley Wilmot's (Phillip Riccio) fortified mansion, equipped with a steel-reinforced panic room - Ridley had already been turned into an undead zombie. He bit and infected Jason (who begged to be shot in the head by Debra). As the film ended, sole survivor Debra spoke for her dead boyfriend who believed the government lied about the causes of the zombie resurrection and vowed to show the world the truth. Sealed inside the panic room, and surrounded by zombies, she uploaded to the Web (with scary music added and her own narration) their first-person video footage (from surveillance cameras, news footage, digital camcorders, YouTube, cell-phone cameras, etc.), to record happenings for whomever was left after the catastrophic events.
Notable: This fifth low-budget film by George A. Romero was considered an updated, 21st-century reimagining of Romero's first film - not really a sequel. The government reported that the zombie apocalypse was brought on by a "previously unknown viral strain." Romero designed it for the YouTube and media-saturated generation, similar in style to The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cloverfield (2008). The entire movie was a film within a film. It served as a treatise on our video camera-obsessed culture, with all of the footage from camcorders.

Planet Terror (2007) (aka Grindhouse: Planet Terror)
d. Robert Rodriguez, 91 minutes, Dimension Films/Troublemaker Studios/Rodriguez International Pictures/The Weinstein Company

Tagline(s): "The Last Hope For Humanity... Rests on a High-Power Machine Gun!" and "FULLY LOADED," and "You Might Feel a Little Prick."
Setting: Rural areas in Texas, and Tulum, Mexico (epilogue).
Story: Texas pole-dancer (or stripper) Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) quit her low-paying, go-go dancing job. Meanwhile, ruthless black market gang leader Abby (Naveen Andrews) (a chemical engineer) disputed with a group of renegade officers in an abandoned, remote military base led by demented, double-crossing Captain Muldoon (Bruce Willis). Everyone was infected by the release of a deadly, experimental biochemical, green nerve gas agent (DC2, code named Project Terror) during a shootout, causing an onslaught of flesh-eating, mutant "sickos" (zombie-like creatures). There was an assortment of other characters affected, including strong-willed, pain-inducing Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin) whose bi-sexual anesthesiologist wife Dakota (Marley Shelton) was suspected of being a cheating lesbian with Tammy (singer Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson). The doctor began to see increased numbers of infected, zombie patients (walking dead) covered in sores, pus, and rotting flesh, and very hungry for flesh. Hillbilly J.T. Hague (Jeff Fahey) was the owner of the run-down Bone Shack BBQ restaurant, where Cherry met up with her untrustworthy, ex-boyfriend and Mexican tow-truck driver El Wray (Freddy Rodriguez). His vehicle crashed, and after "sickos" attacked and tore off Cherry's leg, she was taken to the hospital where the sinister Dr. Block amputated her leg (replaced at first with a wooden table leg, and then with a machine gun). Block also murderously injected his wife's hands with a paralyzing anesthetic before learning, to his shock, that the morgue's bodies had disappeared. The local Sheriff, Hague's brother (Michael Biehn), arrested El Wray but then the struggling group of survivors, including Wray, Cherry, Dakota, Sheriff Hague, and J.T. had to band together to survive when the number of infected and "sickos" grew substantially and caused total mayhem. During the chaos, Muldoon explained that he and other soldiers in Afghanistan had located and killed Osama Bin Laden. Instead of being hailed as heroes, they were gassed with the chemical weapon DC2. He told how his strategy (unsuccessful) was to find a cure for "sickos" by gassing the entire Texas town and then creating a cure from the survivors. The film concluded with the detonation and destruction of the military base, and the deaths of almost everyone except Cherry. In the epilogue a year later, she was on a remote Tulum (Mexico) Caribbean ocean-side beach, with her newborn child (fathered by El Wray), hoping to create a new society with other survivors - away from the world-wide zombie outbreak.
Notable: This was the Grindhouse double-feature partner with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. The violent, bloody, sleazy and extreme movie was deliberately created as homage to 1970s exploitation pictures, normally theatrically shown in a "grindhouse" theatre. The parody included bad lighting, fuzzy and scratched, fading film stock and poorly-focused softcore sex scenes. The tongue-in-cheek film was even missing a reel in the middle - typical of many grindhouse movie houses. It opened with a fake trailer for the bloodthirsty, Death Wish-like assassin "Mexploitation" thriller Machete (a real movie made by Rodriguez in 2010, with a sequel in 2013) with Danny Trejo. When the experimental double-bill idea failed, the Weinstein Company distributors withdrew the combined film from release, and released each film as a single feature.

[REC] (2007, Sp.)
d. Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, 78 minutes, Castelao Producciones/Filmax

Tagline(s): "Trapped. No Mercy. No Escape. No One Gets Out Alive," and "The Movie That Inspired Quarantine," and "ONE WITNESS, ONE CAMERA."
Setting: Set in an apartment building in Barcelona, Spain.
Story: The main character was pretty Angela Vidal (Manuela Velasco), the young host of a Barcelona, Spain late-night, documentary TV show titled "While You Sleep." During one episode's human-interest, reality-TV story, she was accompanied by her cameraman Pablo (Pablo Rosso) (never shown) and 'on-the-job' firemen Manu (Ferran Terraza) and Alex (David Vert). She joined them as they entered a local apartment building after an emergency call. A diseased, elderly, disheveled occupant Mrs. Izquierdo (Martha Carbonell) suddenly attacked a policeman and one of the firemen. Soon after, the virus-infected individuals rapidly became rabid and bit others, unleashing the virus. Earlier, a rabid dog named Max (the cause of the virus?) that belonged to young (and ill) apartment dweller Jennifer (Claudia Silva), had been euthanized at a veterinarian's office. The apartment was completely cordoned off, locked-down, and quarantined to prevent a further viral outbreak, trapping unlucky cops, firemen, reporters, and occupants inside. The sick young Jennifer vomited blood over the face of her mother Mari Carmen (María Lanau), and bit a health inspector - it was the start of a building-wide outbreak, with the residents turning into bloodthirsty zombies hunting others and causing many infections and deaths. In the startling ending, it was revealed that the cause of the attacks was biologically-caused demonic possession. The apartment's penthouse was inhabited by an emaciated, demonically-possessed young Romanian girl named Tristana Medeiros (Javier Botet), the victim of rape by priests. The enzyme that caused possession had become viral, and she was left in the locked penthouse to die of starvation. In the dark attic (shot with an infra-red camera), Tristana attacked both Angela and Pablo, the two remaining survivors - their fates were left unknown.
Notable: This was another example of a found-footage horror film shot with a shaky, hand-held cam-corder and filmed as a first-person POV narrative. It came at approximately the same time as two similar films: The Zombie Diaries (2006, UK) and Romero's Diary of the Dead (2007). This fast-paced, straight horror film was followed by many sequels [REC] 2 (2009), REC 3: Genesis (2012), and REC 4 (2014). The US remake was Quarantine (2008), and its sequel Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011).

Colin (2008, UK)
d. Marc Price, 97 minutes, Nowhere Fast Productions

Tagline: "The £45 ZOMBIE MOVIE!"
Setting: South London.
Story: After returning from a fight with a bloody hammer in his hand and a bite on his arm from the scary zombie apocalypse outside his home, the title character Colin (Alastair Kirton) was bitten in the neck and infected in his apartment by his own walking dead roommate Damien (Leigh Crocombe). He was able to kill Damien with a kitchen knife before dying. Overnight, he transitioned into an undead zombie himself. After falling out of a window, he staggered through suburban London as he slowly turned into a decomposing zombie. He showed newfound hesitation as he came upon his first helpless victim-meal. All around him, apocalyptic chaos erupted as the dead turned on the living, and vigilantes hunted them. When he came into contact with his sister Linda (Daisy Aitkens), she captured him and brought him back home. She wanted to cure and rehabilitate him - to have him recall or remember his old life and identity, but he bit her and she slowly 'turned' as well. In flashback, it was revealed what had happened before the film's start. He had killed his girlfriend Laura (Leanne Pammen) after she had infected him. The film ended with a rotting Colin holding a vigil beside Laura's corpse.
Notable: A very low-budget, low-key indie film (Marc Price's debut feature film) shot on digital video, and mostly a character study, with very little plot and dialogue, and told from the personal POV of a zombie.

Dance of the Dead (2008)
d. Gregg Bishop, 97 minutes, Compound B/Ghosthouse Underground/LionsGate

Tagline(s): "Who to go with...What to wear...How to survive," and "It's Their Night to Come Alive."
Setting: The small town of Cosa, Georgia.
Story: Dead cadavers were reanimating from their graves in a small Georgia cemetery near a power plant (contaminating the ground and air with toxic substances), unreported by the gravedigger (James Jarrett). It happened soon before the local Cosa High School senior prom. All the various stereotypical types of teens existed: jocks, nerds, sci-fi club geeks, wannabe-rockers, cheerleaders, and bad boys. A number of awkward, loser-outcast teens at the high school - not attending the prom - included misfit, class-clown and pizza delivery boy James "Jimmy" Dunn (Jared Kusnitz), recently-dumped Jimmy's ex-girlfriend Lindsey (Greyson Chadwick) - the student body VP, Jimmy's nerdy friend Steven (Chandler Darby), suspended punk rebel and gun-handling Mohawk-haired Kylerick "Kyle" Grubin (Justin Welborn) - and there was popular perky blonde cheerleader Gwendoline "Gwen" (Carissa Capobianco). The first teen to be attacked by a zombie at the graveyard was Mitch (Jeff Adelman), who had begun dating the available Lindsey. A geeky member of the school's sci-fi club, Rod (Mark Lynch) was also attacked and killed. More random zombie attacks occurred against the teens in places around town, and Kyle became the next victim. Many students banded together, armed with bats, sledgehammers and garden tools, to help save their classmates attending the school's prom by warning them and planning to blow up the school (with the zombies inside), although Gwen and Steven were the next two to become undead. Mismatched Jimmy and Lindsey, forced to work together again as a couple, became heroes after surviving, along with Prom Queen Jennifer (Zoe Myers) and the school's Coach Keel (Mark Oliver). They had successfully detonated the school and rid the town of the zombies and the plague.
Notable: A low-budget, independent horror comedy (John Hughes-style) with a cast of unknowns. In some ways, it was a hybrid of two zombie comedy classics: Return of the Living Dead (1985) and Shaun of the Dead (2004). After a limited release of only one day, the film was made available on DVD.

Day of the Dead (2008)
d. Steve Miner, 86 minutes, Millennium Films/Universal Pictures

Tagline(s): "This spring, the dead will rise!" and "D-Day is Coming!"
Setting: Leadville, Colorado.
Story: In the small town of Leadville, Colorado, a deadly virus had been unleashed. The US military, led by Captain Rhodes (Ving Rhames), quarantined the town to prevent the flu-type epidemic from spreading. The local Pine Valley Medical Center was swarming with very sick people, treated by an overwhelmed Dr. Logan (Matt Rippy). Hometown girl Corporal Sarah Bowman (Mena Suvari), part of the military detachment, was visiting with her ill mother (Linda Marlowe) in the town, while working with Private Bud Crain (Stark Sands). Suddenly while at the hospital with Sarah's mother, it appeared that the many infected town residents were transformed - first into catatonic states, and then into hungry, flesh-eating, fast-moving, super-strong, blank-eyed zombies. In the medical center, as zombified Captain Rhodes pursued Sarah, the Captain was able to bite and infect Bud. With sassy, jive-talking Private Salazar (Nick Cannon), Bud and Sarah fled from the town - Bud was now a slowly-transforming 'vegetarian zombie.' They heard a radio broadcast with the voice of her brother Trevor Bowman (Michael Welch) calling for help. As they drove to the radio station, Sarah ran over her zombie mother. In the radio station, they found Trevor hidden with his girlfriend Nina (AnnaLyne McCord). Together, they drove to an isolated, abandoned, Nike missile silo site for shelter, where they discovered an underground Army bunker. There, they learned that the virus infections were caused by the military's biological experiments, led by a zombified Dr. Engel - he suddenly attacked and killed Dr. Logan. As Sarah prepared to incinerate a large group of zombies with highly-flammable gas cylinders, she was attacked by Dr. Engel, but surprisingly Bud came to her rescue. Engel and other zombies pursued Bud and dismembered him. After torching the zombies, survivors Sarah, Trevor, and Nina drove off.
Notable: A loose remake (or more appropriately, a "reimagining") of Romero's 1985 film (the last of his trilogy), Day of the Dead (1985), but mostly unrelated. With a young, under-30 cast, and poorly done, unconvincing CGI. The badly-reviewed film, without any of Romero's social-political commentary, did not receive a theatrical release, and was direct-to-DVD. This was Ving Rhames' second appearance in the trilogy of Romero remakes – he also appeared in Dawn of the Dead (2004).

Deadgirl (2008)
d. Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel, 101 minutes, Hollywoodmade/Fine Films

Tagline(s): "You Never Forget Your First Time," and "Every Generation Has Its Story About the Horror of Growing Up," and "You'll Never Have Anything Better"
Setting:
Story: Two small-town HS seniors, malicious J.T. (Noah Segan) and his 'follower' friend Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez), while ditching school, entered a spooky, abandoned mental hospital at the edge of town. In the basement behind a rusted door, the two outcasts discovered a gray-skinned, mute, naked female (nicknamed "Deadgirl") (Jenny Spain in her debut film) chained to a gurney, and covered in plastic. The horny J.T. proposed raping the dead woman, but the conflicted Rickie declined. J.T. realized that the female was moving and struggling, and trying to bite him. He attempted to strangle her and kill her with gunshots, but she wouldn't die. The next day, while Rickie was freeing the undead, zombified woman by himself with bolt-cutters, he was interrupted when J.T. and his friend Wheeler (Eric Podnar) arrived. As Rickie hid, he watched as Wheeler and then J.T. raped 'Deadgirl,' and J.T. was viciously face-scratched. His infection would soon lead to zombification. Through boasting, word got out that there was an available-for-sex 'deadgirl' in the asylum. Another student named Johnny (Andrew DiPalma), the alluring Joann's (Candice Accola) boyfriend, attempted to have 'Deadgirl' perform fellatio on him, and his penis was bitten off - he soon became an infected, undead zombie. Then, J.T. and Wheeler kidnapped Joann (loved from afar by Rickie), to make her their new 'Deadgirl.' They tied Joann to the 'Deadgirl' on the table, just as Rickie arrived, armed with a machete for a rescue. Wheeler's hand was chopped off, and both Wheeler and J.T. were fed to the flesh-hungry 'Deadgirl.' During the chaos that ensued as Joann and Rickie fled together, 'Deadgirl' escaped from the basement, and Joann was mortally-wounded - stabbed in the back by J.T. She coughed blood into Rickie's face. Zombified J.T. proposed biting Joann before she died in order to make her the next undead sex slave. In the concluding sequence, Rickie was keeping Joann in the basement as his new, nicely-dressed 'Deadgirl.'
Notable: A truly original, disturbing, dark and disgusting exploitative film, and a treatise on female objectification. A low-budget independent film from first-time directors.

Pontypool (2008, Can.)
d. Bruce McDonald, 93 minutes, Maple Pictures/Ponty Up Pictures/Shadow Shows/IFC Films

Tagline(s): "Shut Up or Die," or "Words lose their meaning when you repeat them."
Setting: Small town of Pontypool, Ontario, Canada.
Story: On his way to work during a heavy blizzard, caustic and demoted maverick radio announcer Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie) came upon a scantily-clad, distraught (and demented) woman in the storm. At the radio station (660), he worked with technical assistant/engineer Laurel-Ann Drummond (Georgina Reilly) and cautious station manager/producer Sydney Briar (Lisa Houle). During the radio show, helicopter reporter Ken Loney (voice of Rick Roberts) described more disturbing and mysterious, frenzied phenomena - a shoot-out had occurred between the province's police and local ice-hut fishers who were screaming nonsense-words, nude, and missing limbs. There was a bloody scene at the local offices of Dr. Mendez (Hrant Alianak). An "infected" individual was mumbling "Mommy" to himself with a young child's voice. A rogue transmission of garbled French instructed them to remain indoors, not use terms of endearment ("honey" or "sweetheart") and not use the English language, among other things. The town - threatened by a contagious and spreading outbreak (a vocal virus), was under quarantine, with military vehicles and helicopters converging and setting up roadblocks and martial law. The station was besieged by worried and terrified callers, and was literally surrounded by hordes of people on the attack. A disoriented Laurel-Anne appeared to be infected as she was speaking unintelligible gibberish. Dr. Mendez arrived to seek refuge and to explain to Sydney and Grant - locked in a sound-proof recording booth - the reason for the chaos and carnage. A zombie-virus was being spread by way of human language - the virus was hiding in certain English words. Some words were infectious, and only certain words infected certain users. Those who were fully infected became zombies who attacked others to pass on the virus. Laurel-Anne was being taken over by the virus, showing the first stage of infection by repeatedly saying the word "missing" - and in more serious stages, she was stumbling around and slamming her head against the booth's glass until it was bloodied. Ken also called in again and appeared possessed, repeating the word "sample." Dr. Mendez began to show signs of being taken over with the word "breathe," until he started speaking in Armenian. Sydney was dying with the word "kill" - her symptoms disappeared however when Grant, who suspected how to beat the virus, convinced her to repeat over and over again: "Kill is kiss." Over the air, Grant and Sydney struggled to broadcast ways to minimize the threat for their infected listeners, and avoid spreading the virus with the words in their message. During and after the final credits, it was reported that the quarantine had failed and the virus was spreading.
Notable: A minimalist yet effective zombie movie, actually a psychological thriller, almost entirely devoid of zombies - the infected were called "conversationalists." Based on Tony Burgess' novel Pontypool Changes Everything, and created in the format of a radio play, similar to Orson Welles' infamous 1938 broadcast of "The War of the Worlds."

Quarantine (2008)
d. John Erick Dowdle, 89 minutes, Andale Pictures/Screen Gems/Vertigo Entertainment

Tagline: "On March 11 2008, the government sealed off an apartment complex in Los Angeles. The residents were never seen again. No details. No witnesses. No evidence. Until now."
Setting: One evening, March 11, 2008, in Los Angeles, California
Story: Late-night TV reporter/host Angela Vidal (Jennifer Carpenter) and her cameraman Scott Pervical (Steve Harris) accompanied two firefighters, Jake (Jay Hernandez) and George Fletcher (Johnathon Schaech) on an emergency 911 call to an apartment building. On the scene, they met the building manager Yuri (Rade Serbedzija) and two police officers already there: James (Andrew Fiscella) and Danny (Columbus Short). An infected, foaming-at-the-mouth elderly Mrs. Espinoza (Jeannie Epper) aggressively bit James, after which Fletcher (also bitten in the face) fell down the stairwell and was seriously injured. Danny was forced to kill the woman with three gunshots. Shortly later, Fletcher resurrected himself and attacked the group, but was sedated. The authorities were alerted by the CDC to quarantine the building, trapping everyone inside. The diagnosis was that a fast-moving virus, possibly rabies according to vet Lawrence (Greg Germann), had transformed those infected into bloodthirsty zombies, first carried by a sick dog named Max. The dog was owned by five year old Briana (Joey King), the feverishly ill daughter of apartment tenant Kathy (Marin Hinkle). All communications were cut off, including phones, the Internet, TV and cell phones. A second very sick elderly woman named Elise (Stacy Chbosky) appeared rabid and hysterical, and was bashed in the head and killed. Briana also became rabid and aggressive. As time went on, the situation worsened as many of the infected (those who were bitten) went on to attack others and also infect them. In the attic-penthouse room rented by a Bostonian tenant (who was thought to be absent), there were some caged animals. Evidence was found by sole surviving Angela and Scott that the man was a member of a doomsday cult that had stolen the Armageddon Virus from a military facility. Suddenly, the emaciated, sick tenant (Doug Jones) emerged and attacked the two remaining survivors (and began eating Scott), as the film ended. The crew's videotape surfaced as the only evidence of what had happened.
Notable: This sci-fi supernatural horror film, in the sub-genre of hand-held "found footage," was a remake of [REC] (2007, Sp.) (see earlier). It actually shed more light and interest on the original film. A sequel followed, titled Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011).

Zombie Strippers! (2008)
d. Jay Lee, 94 minutes, Stage 6 Films/Triumph Films/Scream HQ/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Tagline: "They'll Dance For a Fee, But Devour You For Free," and "Live Dead Nudes."
Setting: The year 2012 (the dystopic near-future), a strip club in Sartre, Nebraska.
Story: The tale began in the year 2012 with a bit of political satire: George Bush was in his 4th term as President. An experimental chemical virus, secretly created in a science lab by Dr. Chushfeld (Brad Milne), was designed to re-animate the dead tissue of fallen soldiers and form an 'undead' army of super-soldiers (to replenish lost troops in Iraq). The virus was accidentally released. A detachment of soldiers (the elite Z Squad) was sent to the science research lab to contain the virus and eliminate the zombies. The germs infected Byrdflough (Zak Kilberg), one of the soldiers sent to eradicate the laboratory zombies. The main starring character, performing at Rhino's, an underground strip club in the conservative Midwest of Sartre, Nebraska, was lead blonde stripper Kat (former XXX-porn star Jenna Jameson). The club was managed by Ian Essko (Robert Englund - Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street!). Byrdflough ripped out Kat's neck and infected her - turning her and the rest of the pole-dancing zombie strippers into fast-moving, superstrong, intelligent and hungry zombies. The strippers would take clients backstage after amazing stage acts and devour them ("I could just eat you alive"). Kat's zombification made her more alluring and desirable, leading to one of the film's gore-erotic highlights - a zombie show-down/catfight between rival Jeannie (Shamron Moore) and the decaying Kat. It featured a torn-off arm, and ping pong balls propelled from Kat's vagina (advancing later onto billiard balls) ("Prepare to die"). The film ended with the conclusion that Bush's administration had deliberately released the zombie plague to distract the American public from noticing the ineptitude of Bush's terms in office.
Notable: This intriguing exploitation film headlined Jenna Jameson, the former Penthouse Pet who became an XXX-adult film star - it was her feature film debut. It was a mindless, low-budget naked zombie film made by writer/director Jay Lee. It was shot in only a few weeks and played in only 400 theatres for one week before being directly released to DVD. The entire film was a combo Showgirls (1995) and Return of the Living Dead (1985). It was an allegorical take-off on Eugene Ionesco's 1959 absurdist play Rhinoceros. There were two similar films about strippers and zombies at about the same time: Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (2008) (originally titled Strippers vs. Zombies) and Big Tits Zombie (2010, Jp.).

Dead Snow (2009, Norway) (aka Død Snø)
d. Tommy Wirkola, 91 minutes, Yellow Bastard Productions/News on Request/Euforia

Tagline: "Ein! Zwei! Die!"
Setting: The Norwegian Alps near Øksfjord, Norway.
Story: During Easter vacation, eight oversexed, party-ready medical students had planned a ski trip to the Norwegian Alps, staying in a remote cabin, owned by one of the eight, Sara (Ane Dahl Torp). There were four males: Martin (Vegar Hoel), Roy (Stig Frode Henriksen), Vegard (Lasse Valdal) and horror movie junkie Erlend (Jeppe Laursen) and four females: Hanna (Charlotte Frogner), Liv (Evy Kasseth Røsten), Chris (Jenny Skavlan) and Sara, Vegard's girlfriend, who was late in arriving. (In the film's opening, Sara had already been devoured after her head was severed, by hungry soldiers in SS uniforms.) A wandering, strange old hiker (Bjørn Sundquist) told the group about the local legend curse. During WWII for three years, the brutal, sadistic and harsh Nazis had occupied the area, raping, torturing and looting the locals. As the war was ending, the locals revolted against the few surviving soldiers who fled into the wilderness and were presumed to freeze to death. The students were soon terrorized and attacked by a battalion of undead, hungry German Nazi soldiers-zombies, led by iron-fisted Commander Colonel Herzog (Ørjan Gamst). The Third Reich zombies believed that a wooden box of gold valuables was hidden in the cabin - and they came looking for it. The wandering hiker was the zombies' next victim, followed by Chris, Erland, Liv (by suicide), Vegard, Hanna, and Roy - in various scenes of slaughter, bitings, blood and gore (intestines), and dismemberment. Martin was the final survivor, facing off against Herzog.
Notable: A unique Nazi zombie movie - a low-budget, gory horror comedy (and midnight-movie cult hit), followed by the sequel Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014, Norway). A similar film about Nazi zombies was Shock Waves (1977).

The Horde (2009, Fr.) (aka La Horde)
d. Benjamin Rocher and Yannick Dahan, 96 minutes, Capture [The Flag] Films/Le Pacte

Tagline: None
Setting: A corrupt and derelict suburban area of northern Paris, France during a zombie apocalypse or plague
Story: In this gory, low-budget and violent zombie horror film, a group of four corrupt, rogue Parisian policemen, led by Ouessem (Jean-Pierre Martins), with Jimenez (Aurélien Recoing), Aurore (Claude Perron), and Tony (Antoine Oppenheim), composed a vigilante death squad that had been assembled to avenge the death of one of their colleagues, detective Mathias Rivoallan. They sought to arrest (or capture/kill) notorious, charismatic Nigerian drug dealer-kingpin Adewale Markudi (Eriq Ebouaney), situated on the top floor of a mostly deserted, concrete high-rise apartment building. It was a rundown tenement for low-income working classes, with dilapidated stairways, labyrinthine and winding corridors, and a dark basement. The operation failed when the team was captured by Markudi's gang of malevolent criminals. Both opposing groups found themselves fighting together against the unexplained appearance of a horde of bloodthirsty, homicidal, swift-moving, flesh-eating zombies ascending the structure, in an effort to save themselves and escape from the building.
Notable: The zombie motif was used to comment upon the socio-political conditions and the theme of civil unrest.

[REC] 2 (2009, Sp.)
d. Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, 85 minutes, Filmax Entertainment/Magnet Releasing/Magnolia Pictures

Tagline: "Fear Revisited."
Setting: Doomsday apocalyptic setting, in a Barcelona, Spain apartment building.
Story: In the sequel to the original film, a quarantined tenement building was the site of a bizarre outbreak of a demonic virus (carried in blood and saliva). Four outfitted Special Operations agents (SWAT team members) with helmet-mounted video cameras entered the Barcelona apartment building that was sealed-off. The group was directed by shady Ministry of Health official Dr. Owen (Jonathan Mellor), who was searching for an antidote to the virus, to prevent it from spreading. In the previous film, it was revealed that crucifix-wielding Dr. Owen was actually a Vatican priest who had been commissioned to get a blood sample from the emaciated, possessed girl, Tristana Medeiros (Javier Botet) in the apartment's dark penthouse to determine the reason for the outbreak. The Catholic Church was conducting unholy experiments on the girl, to save the human race. Tristana was now missing, and additional individuals had entered the apartment: the father (Pep Molina) of the original virus carrier Jennifer (Claudia Silva), and three teenagers: Tito (Pau Poch), Mire (Andrea Ros) and Ori (Àlex Batllori). The trio of friends entered via the sewer system and became trapped when their way out was sealed. A second video perspective was provided by a camera held by Ori - it followed the action adding to the view of Rosso's (Pablo Rosso) TV camera and the helmet cams. Zombies (ghouls with hollow eyes and pale skin, who were also demonically-possessed) were attacking and slaughtering various individuals. Everyone was lured up to the penthouse, where the evil creature was unwittingly released. In the twist ending, it soon took over and possessed Ángela Vidal (Manuela Velasco), the TV show reporter from the first film. She killed Dr. Owen and then, using his voice, authorized the release of everyone from the building.
Notable: A splatter, shock-fest sequel to the original [REC] (2007) with a religious subtext (more demonic possession than zombification), similar to The Exorcist (1973). It was followed by more sequels: [REC] 3: Genesis (2012), and [REC] 4: Apocalypse (2014).

Survival of the Dead (2009)
d. George Romero, 90 minutes, Blank of the Dead Productions/Devonshire Productions/New Romero/ Sudden Storm Productions/Magnet Releasing

Tagline(s): "Survival Isn't Just For the Living," and "Death isn't what it used to be."
Setting: Plum Island, off the coast of Delaware, an isolated and rural island.
Story: The apocalyptic world was over-run by zombies: "The last time anyone counted, 53 million people were dying every year, a hundred-fifty thousand every day, a hundred and seven every minute, and that was in normal times..." On a coastal Delaware island, two families were ruled by opposing patriarchs: Captain Patrick O'Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) and Seamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick). The O'Flynns believed that resurrected, undead zombies should be shot, while the Muldoons believed that zombies could be preserved and co-exist with humans as part of the family, if taught to eat non-human flesh. In another side story, National Guardsman Sarge "Nicotine" Crocket (Alan Van Sprang) went AWOL with three other guardsmen, and began holding up civilians. Patrick O'Flynn and family were forced at gunpoint to leave the island. At Slaughter Island's ferry dock and marina, a trap was set for Sarge and his men, who had been lured there. Suddenly back on Plum Island with the returning O'Flynns, Sarge and his men found themselves in the middle of a deadly feud between the two Irish families. With dead zombies and clan members soon lying everywhere, Sarge Crocket and his group decided to flee the island. Ironically, Muldoon's theory about zombies being able to feast on animals came true, but was unable to be communicated. In the film's ending, zombified O'Flynn and Muldoon approached each other from afar with guns in hand, endlessly feuding and attempting to kill each other during a hillside duel - both guns clicked empty.
Notable: The sixth film in Romero's Dead series was, in effect, a tangential sequel to the fifth film - and a major box-office flop. The film's major theme was whether zombies, cared for as loving kinfolk, could co-exist with humans by learning to eat non-human flesh. The theme followed the patriarchs of two families (the O'Flynns and Muldoons) who led a deadly Hatfield-McCoy feud on an island over their differing views on co-existence with zombies. It still presented the thought-provoking idea that the human race might become zombified if it continued to fight itself.

Zombieland (2009)
d. Ruben Fleischer, 88 minutes, Columbia Pictures/Relativity Media

Tagline(s): "Nut up or shut up," and "Our land is their land."
Setting: In the early 21st century, in a zombie-filled Southwestern America (Texas and westward) after a zombie apocalypse; also Los Angeles (Hollywood).
Story: In this action-filled comedy, four uninfected individuals (with the names of cities from where they were from) eventually joined together for an extended cross-country journey, during a time when a zombie virus-plague (related to infected hamburger, or mad-cow disease) had spread across the Earth. They were: (1) phobic, shy, cowardly Univ. of Texas student "Columbus" (Jesse Eisenberg) from Ohio, (2) Twinkie-loving, zombie-shooting cowboy "Tallahassee" (Woody Harrelson) on his way to Florida, (3-4) teenaged sisters "Wichita" (Emma Stone) and "Little Rock" (Abigail Breslin). At first, the two sisters (clever con-artists) stole Tallahassee's Black # 3 Escalade, as he and Columbus were driving through Texas, but then when reunited, they decided to join together and travel to Los Angeles/Hollywood. There, with a Hollywood map to the stars' homes, they barged into the home of Tallahassee's favorite actor Bill Murray (in a cameo) and actually met up with the Ghostbusters star. Murray, who wore fake 'zombie' makeup as a means of self-preservation, was mistakenly shot and killed by Columbus. Tallahassee and Columbus were forced to save the two girls when they again deserted them to visit the "Pacific Playland" amusement park, and attracting zombies to the lights and rides. [Note: The amusement park sequence was filmed at Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia.] The group of four realized that they had become an unlikely, bonded family described during the film's final lines of dialogue, with Columbus' voice-over: ("...those smart girls in that big black truck and that big guy in that snakeskin jacket, they were the closest to something I had always wanted, but never really had. A family. I trusted them and they trusted me....Tallahassee got his Twinkie and even though life will never be simple or innocent again, as he savored that spongy yellow log of cream, we had hope, we had each other. And without other people, you might swell be a zombie....So until next time, remember: Cardio, seat belts, and this really has nothing to do with anything, but a little sunscreen never hurt anybody. I'm Columbus, Ohio from Zombieland, saying good night").
Notable: A big-budget successful zombie comedy, originally planned as the pilot for a TV series. After the script was upgraded and revised for the big screen, it was shot in 45 days. When released, it was the highest-grossing zombie film of all time (at $75.6 million-domestic), surpassing Dawn of the Dead's (2004) domestic total of $59 million. Both were surpassed by World War Z (2013), with $202.4 million (domestic). With a well-known list of "rules of survival" in a zombie-filled world, and fresh and creative ways to kill zombies (including "Zombie Kills of the Week"). With an unexpected cameo by Bill Murray.