Train to Busan (2016)

There's just something inherently cinematic about trains. From the Lumière Brothers' film of one arriving, to Edwin S. Porter's Great Train Robbery, to the Cinerama splendors of How the West was Won, and beyond, trains and moving pictures have been inextricably linked. It makes sense. If you're making a movie, you want things to move. Also, the continuous forward motion mirrors the driving narrative of a well-told story. And let's not forget the fact that trains also make stops.

Sure this train is headed to Busan, but there are plenty of stops to make along the way, and it's these stops that help give the viewer some variety. And not just variety of location and action either. This "horror" film makes protracted stops at the "family drama" station, the "teen romance" station, and the "slapstick comedy" station on the way to its conclusion. At one point it even becomes an extremely current allegory for the plight of refugees. This movie gets that the journey is just as important as the destination.

Zombie Walk 2012!

What began in May 2009 and was limited to a single city block has now grown into a full scale epidemic. Of course I'm talking about the now annual Long Beach Zombie Walk! which is coming up this Saturday October 27th. It's insane how much this thing has grown. We were there for the rather sparsely attended inaugural one that wasn't even held in October! But from the moment a few people decided to jaywalk from one side of 4th to the other and a trail of dead followed suit, you knew it was destined to get bigger. And boy has it! This year the "walk" is an all day event occupying a 9.5 acre park to celebrate music, art, film and...BRAINS!

Need some zombie inspiration? Event organizer, Long Beach Cinematheque founder and all around good guy Logan Crow has given us an exclusive list of his favorite zombie films that you can watch for inspiration!

1. Dead-Alive (Braindead)
2. Shaun of the Dead
3. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
4. 28 Days Later
5. Nightmare City
6. Cemetery Man
7. Undead
8. The Happiness of the Katikuris
9. Day of the Dead (1985)
10. The Beyond

Seriously not to be missed. Need even further proof? Check out this awesome schedule! You get all that for ONLY $15 and  don't forget that zombies 12 and under get in absolutely FREE!

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

When a zombie apocalypse strikes London, lovable loser Shaun (Simon Pegg) finally finds enough motivation to try and get his life together.

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Though this film was inspired by an episode of the sensational Brit-com Spaced (created by Simon Pegg with Jessica Hynes née Stevenson and directed by Edgar Wright) I applaud the fact that for this film they chose to take things in a drastically different direction. While Pegg and Wright's previous collaboration chose to focus on how we tend to view our lives in pop culture terms (ie: a hellish job literally becomes the mental institution in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest), Shaun of the Dead shows that no matter how much mental preparation we've had either through film, video games or daydreaming, when the shit actually hits the fan and we find ourselves living through a situation right out of a genre film - we geeks will be just as helpless as everyone else. But hey, at least we'll get to enjoy a pint and some nibblies before we have to kill our loved ones.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Zombies are everywhere and a small band of survivors have locked themselves inside of a shopping mall.

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What distinguishes a great horror film from an average one is not the kills (though those can be really fun), but rather the way  people react and interact when put into such dire situations. The original Dawn of the Dead is a case study in deft observation. Rest assured there are amazing scenes of zombie carnage strung throughout the film, but the stretches in-between are just as delectable. This is what George Romero excels at: take a couple of different personality types, put them in a pressure cooker and what do you get? A true horror masterpiece.

Remake: The remake is pretty awesome too, but please see this original first.