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When you put the word “ultimate” in the title of your product, it suddenly has certain standards to live up to. If you were to say that McDonald’s made the “ultimate” hamburger, you might get laughed at. “Ultimate” can denote a certain sort of grandeur…a certain level of perfection that has yet to be obtained by peers and competitors. If that is the only sense of the word that we choose to look at here, then I am afraid Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide could be said to fall a little short. However, that is not the way I chose to translate the word “ultimate”, instead letting it refer to the sum total of the work, including ingenuity of format, originality of content, ease of read, re-readability and downright fun. When viewed under this new angle of scrutiny, Glenn Kay’s book is most definitely the “ultimate” all-around zombie movie book on my shelf…which holds more than a few of them, I assure you! There isn’t a remote sub-genre of film that has not already earned itself multiple guides, handbooks, introspections, and encyclopedias. Certainly, the zombie film has earned itself a few, with both Jamie Russel’s and Peter Dendle’s works coming to mind. Of course there are scores of horror guides which take a sweeping look at the entire genre, which are usually so hit or miss that it takes a good hour of perusal before you can safely walk out of the bookstore with one you know you will like. But I’ll tell you, it took me less than 10 minutes from opening this book before I was plunked down on the couch and totally immersed. An hour and a half later I came up for air and realized that I was holding the most humorous and ingenious zombie flick guide I was ever likely to own. It isn’t that I agree with Mr. Kay’s every word, and in fact he and I could go to blows over a few of his ratings! Putting Romero’s total failure Land of the Dead amongst the top 25 zombie movies of all time…due to its social commentary? I hate social commentary in my zombie flicks. Dismissing Maniac Cop and Return of the Living Dead II as worth skipping? How could I go without the “Thriller” zombie? At other times however, he and I see eye and eye where other more “hardcore” fans might start getting defensive in an attempt to earn those elite “cool” points. For instance, we both agree Anthropophagus (a hard-core fan favorite) isn’t even a zombie flick and is a crappy movie regardless, and that 28 Days Later (which catches a lot of flack from zombie purists) not only IS a zombie flick, but that it is pretty damn great. Regardless of whether we agree or not, it is refreshing to see a guy take a stance and stick to it, and honestly half the fun here is just finding out what he thinks of your favorites. It is apparent early on that Kay knows what he is talking about in the genre, yet doesn’t think he needs to release a book in chapter form, without posters and screenshots, to be taken seriously. Frankly, he reminds me a lot of us here at Underland Online, not pulling punches and willing to take some risks with his opinions. But his book is so much more than 300 opinionated film blurbs arranged in chronological order. Crack open the cover and you are also going to find some seriously interesting interviews with not only some genre-favorite names you would expect, but also a handful of fresh faces. Tom Savini is here (of course!) as is Greg Nicotero of KNB Effects (Bride of Reanimator, Land of the Dead), but also being grilled are the likes of Colin Geddes, Midnight Madness programmer for the Toronto Film Festival, Andrew Currie, director of Fido, and John Migliore, professional part-time zombie extra. There are plenty of guides that feature small synopsis of films and just as many that offer a rating system that breaks them down into the ones you simply have to see, the ones you simply have to avoid, and all those in between. However, there are fewer that include a rating for films that are so bad they are good…a method of rating that was practically invented for and by the horror genre. Kay gets several of these dead-on in his book, including 1986’s Neon Maniacs, but to be honest he could have used this particular rating far more often than he did. Beyond his additions to the rating scale, Kay also shows he has a basic knowledge that an influx of zombie fare does not mean that the genre is alive and well…I especially appreciate the way he dubs the 1990s “The End of the Zombie”. So true, so true. There is a breakdown of the highest grossing zombie flicks, a look into the difference between a ghost, ghoul, rabid psycho, mummy, zombie and more, a trip to the set of Land of the Dead, the aforementioned list of the top 25 zombie flicks, chronological title lists of lesser known or lesser important films that didn’t get reviews (sometimes he loses some powerful and important ones to these lists however) and a great section on “Zombieless Zombie Movies” such as Rabid and Demons. And let’s not forget the dozens and dozens of great screenshots, lobby cards, posters and behind-the-scene photos spread throughout the 342 pages; each allowing us a window through which to view many of the films. All of this variety and completion shows more than a little insight into what genre fans are craving as well as an ability to think outside the box. Combine that with a pretty fair and insightful judgment of the films and there isn’t a lot more to ask for outside the specific nitpicking of fans defending one film or another. I could sing more praises for this fun and useful read (mine is already full of highlighter marks for the films I’ve seen, the films I own, and the films I simply have to find), but I also have to do a little nitpicking of my own and take one final exception to, what appears to be, gallons of lipservice. The sheer amount of coverage of those responsible for, associated with, or connected to the last two Romero films (Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead; I love Romero but in my opinion these are his two worst) cannot possibly be coincidental. The size of the reviews for those films, the chosen interviewees and their ties to those films, and even the rankings in the “Top” list all smack of either intense fanboyism or strategic placement…and I don’t see Glenn Kay as a fanboy after eagerly devouring and appreciating his book. I’m guessing it has more to do with the fact that he played a zombie in Land of the Dead himself…which may mean ties to Romero beyond the obvious. It is just slightly off-putting to see links to two specific films (both of which I can’t stand) in nearly every inclusion in this book. So whether my aversion to this is a result of my personal prejudices or Kay’s political wrangling is irrelevant I suppose, because the fact is this book is “brain food” for any and all obsessed zombie zealots, die-hard flesh-feaster aficionados, or just casual fans of the shuffling dead. Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide absolutely belongs on the shelves of every horror hound as both a source of information and entertainment; and let’s hope that when Stuart Gordon (in his foreword) says that “a part 2 is probably on its way”, he is right. -aaron-
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