We're not hosting an intergalactic kegger down here. - Chief Zed

Hey Kids, ya like Blood? Violence? Freaks of Nature?

What do you do when you're too cool to dress like a wizard for Live Action Role Playing and aren't quite ready to commit to an online society of Xbox 360 gamers? Well then Humans Vs. Zombies is for you!

Played as a massive expanded version of the classic kid game "tag" at Goucher College, players are divided among zombies and humans. Zombies have to attack and "feed" on a human every 48 hours or starve and die. And yes folks, they move at full human speed and group think. Humans must outwit and outlast the zombies at the risk of being tagged and becoming turned. Humans can defend themselves with shooting dead heads with Nerf guns or throwing socks like grenades, which will stun a zombie for 15 minutes. Safe zones like the library and cafeteria are designated to ensure the continuance of the daily grind for those not playing and keep the madness from seeping over into polite society.

Now to keep things interesting each side is given a series of elaborate missions over the five day course of the game. Humans have to defend a site, zombies have to attack a certain target, etc. This is the catalyst to keep people from just locking themselves in their rooms until it's all over. It's all the zombie survival skills that my college failed to teach me. I'm half tempted to ask for a refund.

Apparently the game has spread to other campuses as teams connect via the Internet and other forces of nature.

Humans vs. Zombies from HvZ Source on Vimeo.

Here's another spin on the story of what went down...



It's almost endearing to see "veterans" instruct new recruits and regale each other of battles won and lost. Different cliches and social groups now have common ground to stand on; the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Definitely something to pass the time between bong rips and advanced calculus, and sure beats the hell out of hackey sack.

Now if you're gonna commit to completely destroying any chance of getting laid again, at least do so with style. Visit My Wicked Armor and pick yourself up something to be taken seriously in. The suit makes the man.

Next amp up your tools of the zombie killin' trade. Set yourself apart from the pack. Thanks to everyone's favorite Luchador over at Geek Orthodox, I discovered there's an entire community of people that all want to be unique and special through customization. And like any good American they do so with firepower. Check out some of these modifications to the Nerf Maverick and other shooters.

Be sure to check out Nerf Online and see what you could mutate from there, especially the new N-Strike. Where was that when was a kid??

Thanks to the Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse for the heads up who bit Horror Squad. Now the infection's spread to you.

I can't help but think rolling up to the next Zombie Hunters tournament, decked out in all this splendor, would probably be the closet I could feel to a Rock Star.

Yes my plan for global domination involves zombies, Nerf guns, and an unholy union of Steampunk and Star Wars. Hopefully girls will be there too...

I swear if you do anything to embarass me this evening... - Melissa Robinson

Stayed tuned for an important announcement...


So let's recap kiddies. I'm hosting my first blog contest and you can be my big winner. It's totally free to enter, but only open to followers of my blog, so click the button and jump on the bandwagon. There's plenty of room.

Every post I write I title with the quote from a film. Here's whatcha gotta do to win. Leave a comment below on this article with the name of the movie one of my blog posts comes from. Be sure to include your email so I can contact you if you win. I'll pick a winner from random, but funny/interesting comments tend to lead the pack.

The prize is an artistic drawing done by moi of anything you want. Name your subject matter and it's yours. Art feeds the soul.

The contest deadline is Tuesday, December 1st, 2009. If you win, this will be the sweetest present you've ever regifted.

Be sure to subscribe and follow Freddy in Space and All Things Horror. Thanks again to Johnny and Mike.

You can snag your own super sweet t-shirt from Zombie Liquorice.

To all of you out in TV land, thanks for reading and times a wastin'...

I leave you people alone for just a minute and look what happens. Everything's gone to pot! - Jack Sparrow

The Weekend's here and so is Movies with a Z!


I scoured the interwebs for the choicest films that don't cost you a penny and today I present a double feature to remind you of the freedoms you can enjoy in your own home.


I've turned your laptop into your own home theater. It's Shake and Bake, and I helped...


Here's some important announcements before the films.








And now, time for our Feature Presentation.

John Water's CRY BABY


INTERMISSION!!


And to lull you off to a proper dream state, I give you the mass hysteria of propaganda that is...



Enjoy the weekend.

How can I trust a man who won't eat a good old-fashioned American hotdog? - Dan 'Hondo' Harrelson

Hot diggity, you're back again for some of them comin' attractions, aintcha?

Well my neighbor's kid, the one from round back, just got sent up for stealin' cars, an' his momma done started a tag sale right outta his room. Quite the hub bub in the Trailer Park. I got these here dirt cheap since she was running low on Kools an' cough syrup. Lemme see whatcha got for trade.














The Carter - At 27 years old, there's a Sundance documentary about the life of Lil' Weezy. Translated into any other language, and this is why the rest of the world hates us.


Clash of the Titans - Looks sharp, and I can see the definite appeal of a remake with this film. They shouldn't sell tickets to anyone that hasn't seen the original though. Consider it homework. Think of it like when Spiccoli wanted to go to Prom, but Mr. Hand needed a word first.




Kick Ass - A comic book flick with balls. The studio system said it wouldn't work with the language and subject material and lack of tie-ins to the fast food franchises. So Homeboy got his own financing and made it anyway. Word.
*WRITER'S NOTE: As I was posting this YouTube pulled all the trailers for Kick Ass and many for Clash of the Titans. Why? No idea. Probably due to the amount of time needed for their print ads to meet their viral ads and so on before releasing a full marketing campaign. My thoughts and opinions, though not condemned or solicited by their perspective studios, and the other musings of countless other bloggers and film geeks serve as free advertising. We are the new word of mouth, and yet they still try to silence it. Here instead is a trailer for the comic book, which would be beneficial to read before seeing the film.


Slammin' Salmon - From the weirdos of SUPER TROOPERS and CLUB DREAD comes this. I'm not even sure where to start. Well it's finally coming out after being pushed back like over a year. I'm still waiting for them to do POT FEST, but I guess a cup of Jon Coffie will have to do.


The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle - Not sure if this is coming out or if I just imagined it. Something about cookies. And not having a future to be proud of. But definitely cookies.


A Single Man - Tom Ford's directorial debut. He was a fashionista before that, so he can sure make this look pretty. Not sure what to walk away from it with, other than it's another experience I can't afford and probably wouldn't appreciate if I could.


The Strip - I'd totally buy a surge protector from Dave Foley.

You'll have the chance to do something... something courageous. And when you do, you'll discover something. That you're a good man. - Elizabeth Swann

Time for another addition of Movies with a Z!

Shine your spurs and load your six guns, because I bring you not one, not two, but three cowboy classics in succession.

These are the films that made Spaghetti Westerns a vernacular for film students to spout out like they actually knew what they were talking about. This is tough, this is gritty, this is what the Boy Scouts of America should use as recruitment material.

Grab a bottle of rot-gut whiskey and a barrel of beef jerky, cause this is commitment to the long haul.







A Fist Full Of Dollars





For A Few Dollars More





The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly


If that doesn't do it for ya, maybe these chaps are more your size.

Sorry sweetheart. I haven't got time for anything else. - Han Solo

Well I was fixin' to start supper soon, but now that you're here I reckon I can share some of these new previews with ya. It's a mixed bag, I gotta say here at the Trailer Park. Same as the little ones Halloweenie treats. We been feasting on their haul since the 31st. I got some Snicker stew on the boil if ya want some.

The neighbors say I feed the kids too much sugar or some nonsense, makes 'em all hyper-active. At least none of mine were born with flippers for hands. Though the other day, the oldest came and asked for braces. I said, "Honey, your teeth are perfectly straight". And then they said, "No, for my legs." Well I just used a broom handle to push 'em back under the porch where they belong. Sometimes you gotta give kids some tough love.



Fix - The classic road movie formula with all the slickness of a TRL commercial break. Parody and satire seem void in what could make this a worthy tale.



Shadow Play - A guy cleans things to forget about the people that died, maybe people he killed. Me, I just take off the clown suit.



The Tortured - The producers of SAW say it's no fun unless the whole family can get some. So here you'll find parents going ape-shit on the man that wronged their son. Torture porn never felt so cheap.



The Blackout - Looks about as scary as an camp fire tale of SNICK's ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? I'd bet a donut it's the same kids all grown up too.



Love - Not sure if it's supposed to play like MOON or a music video. I'm guessing this is what happens when astronauts drink too much Tang.



The Cry of the Owl - It's a scary version of the GIRLFRIEND 2000 episode of Chris Elliot's "Get A Life". Seriously, it is. YouTube that, ya lazy bugger. I can't give you all the links.



Smokin' Aces 2: Assassin's Ball - Now any title with the words "ass" and "ball" and having anything to do with smoking would normally never make this site. I mean, think of the children. But You probably wouldn't hear about it otherwise since it's heading to the land of bargain dvds straight outta the gate. I wanted to like the first one, it was like a Vegas buffet plate with buffalo wing hitmen, chinese food psychotics, sushi vixens, pizza special effects, but in the end I just got bad indigestion. Who's hungry all of a sudden?



Star Crash - Not anything new, but this gem of WTF-ness manages to rip off every conceivable sci-fi franchise in one fell swoop. I want to be a Teamster on that gig. Remember kids, without ME, it's just AWESO.

I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by. - Jack Sparrow

So the day before Halloween, my job had a pumpkin carving contest. Anyone was free to enter. You had your pick of pumpkins, but most were roughly the size of a volleyball.

I'm a big fan of the notched lid. When carving out the top, cut a little tick out. This takes all the guess work out of how the top part should fit, especially if your Jack-o-Lantern has been burning for a while and shrinks the top part.

Fits like a glove, every time.

Be sure to save your pumpkin seeds. Lay 'em out on a cookie sheet, drizzle with some olive oil and salt and pop em into a 350 oven for about 20 minutes. Add some cayenne pepper for a bit of kick or just experiment.

I wanted to carve an interactive pumpkin, one that looked cool unlit, with light and made you touch it for the optimum effect. I decided that the T-1000 was the way to go. I found a reference photo of Arnie.

Then I just tweeked the hues to turn it black and white. This allowed me to see the areas I would have to carve and the others to leave alone. You can download TONS of stencils and such, but there's no glory in that. Just a slick looking pumpkin to lie about.

For the metal part of his face, I just ran out of aluminum foil, but I did have plenty of free beer left over from a recent poker party. This is truly adult behavior; drinking and the artistic wielding of sharp cutlery.

I used scissors and cut the basic shape of the side of his face and then trimmed appropriately. The rounded edges were difficult to work with, but did give the look I was going for.

I also had a pair of broken sunglasses that I had packed away. No idea why, but they were somewhat of the catalyst for this. I traced out their shape and began drawing in the eyes. From their the rest of the face began to take shape.

I'm a big fan of physically carving a pumpkin. You're basically toying with the use of negative space to create a picture, the same way you would cut a stencil. I used a knife tip to trace the outline of the areas I wanted to carve away. From there I used a spoon to dig away to the levels I wanted. This gives your pumpkin a glowing effect versus a shining effect. Try it out and see if it works for you.

After carving away the face, I began to affix the metal side of Arnie's face. Almost looks like Jeff Lebowski with Down Syndrome. I did so with small tack nails. This would've been so much easier with foil.

Now here's were my Interactive part kicks in. I had a small red LED light, that you can find at just about any hardware store. I placed the light in the one eye and then used half bent paper clips to keep it pinned to the inside of the pumpkin. I cut a small hole in the back of the pumpkin and ran the switch and excess wires out of this port.

Of course along the back I had to rep. Hopefully I'll have a few new readers.

Here's the switch just wrapped in duct tape and labeled with sharpie instructions.

The sunglasses were a bit tricky. I hot glued them to each side and had supports on the inside of the pumpkin too. What ended up working the best was using a nail as a de facto nose to keep it all in place. Here you can see the red eye lit up.

Here's my pumpkin on the judgement table. Dum-da-da-da-dum, Dum-da-da-da-dum...

There was some truly creative pumpkins. There were some mega prizes revealed at the last minute too. 1st Place won a night at the Greenwich Hotel, 2nd Prize was dinner for four at Locanda Verde. Other prizes were awarded to Most Original, Most Disturbing/Scary and Worst Pumpkin as well.

Andrew Carmellini and Luke Ostrom were the judges and took things very very seriously.

They've been holding these pumpkin carvng competitions for 10 years at the various restaurants under their charge. They judged the pumpkins in natural light, then lit with candles in natural light and then lit completely in the dark. I had a feeling that my pumpkin was safe for serious consideration in all 3 categories.

The Raven won 1st Prize. The outside of the pumpkin was scored to look like wood grain, probably done with a paperclip or other very small blade. It almost had the look of ceramic.

A black cat pumpkin, made by taking a blowtorch to the entire exterior of the pumpkin. A classic old school look.

Zombies rise from the Grave.

This won "Most Disturbing". Covered in burnt bread and sausage links, when it was lit, there was enough ethanol in it to create a small fireball. It sizzled and crackled and was something truly to behold.

The eyeballs are garlic bulbs. Truly a terrifiying and imaginative pumpkin.

Here is another dynamite showing made with garlic clove teeth and Rosemary moustache. This was done by the amazing Pastry Chef Karen Demasco. You should totally buy her new cookbook.

A great attempt to influence the judges; Free Beer!

A classic, scary Jack-o-lantern. Amazing when it was lit up.

A Lamb Meatball Slider pumpkin. This is based off an appetizer served at the restaurant, and won a co-title of "Most Original". You should really try the Sliders. The restaurant recently won 1st place in the Meatball Mania contest.

Here my pumpkin was showcased as the 2nd Prize Winner!! in the front oncove of the restaurant. Alongside mine is the winner for "Best Technique". The winner painted thier pumpkin in pasta flour and draped it in fresh made linguini hair. A Pasta Rasta if you will.

The competition was a lot of fun, and the entire restaurant was covered with unique pumpkins for my favorite of Holidays.


Need the tools to ensure an award winning pumpkin next year? Two words: JACK CHOP!

Please watch this at work as loud as possible.