For those of you out there who have been fortunate enough to read Romero's original screenplay for DAY OF THE DEAD, you know that many things changed between that draft and what ended up on screen. Due to budgetary constraints, and the artistic need to keep the film without an R rating, the screenplay was revised to accomodate these restrictions. Originally, the film did not take place completely underground but featured numerous above-ground zombie battles, elements of H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau, scientists training zombies to fight other zombies, and so on and so on. You should read the script if you ever have a chance, it makes for quite a fascinating comparison to the revised version that the director ended up using.

Some of the concepts and ideas got played out in the finished theatrical movie, and other ideas eventually got worked into Land of the Dead. But Day of the Dead as originally envisioned is an amazing story and really needs to be made as it was supposed to be. The movie script is addictive to read and seeing a zombie-on-zombie war would be amazing on the big screen. I highly recommend everyone read the screenplay and decide for yourself. Perhaps if enough people clamor for the story as Romero originally intended it, someone somewhere will allow it to be made in all of its glory. Check out the script, and if you like it you should totally get the DVD to show commercial support for Day of the Dead and it receiving the proper treatment it so desperately deserves.

See larger image Day of the Dead (Divimax Special Edition) (DVD) Directed by: George A. Romero Starring: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy, Anthony Dileo Jr. Rating: Unrated List Price: $19.97 USD New From: $9.49 In Stock Used From: $6.35 In Stock Released August 19, 2003.

Xombie - Dead on Arrival

Year: 2009
Type of Zombie: Slow with some "variants"
Phase of Infection: Zombie Wasteland
Primary Location: On the road
Zombie Characteristics:

• Normally:
• Slow moving
• Basic motor functions
• Variant:
• Reasoning and logic abilities
• Strength and agility
• Both:
• Must destroy the brain
• Animals can become zombies

Xombie started out as a web video series gaining a cult following by James Farr (an ex-police officer turned writer … but we won't hold the cop job against him since he does at least like zombies). It has since released comic books and a DVD collection of the webisodes. See the following trailer for the DVD:

Xombie is an evolution of zombiism where some dead are able to rationalize, talk, and move about with surprising agility and grace known as "variants". Definitely not a zombie story for you purists out there. In the lineage of Blade and other self-loathing creatures of the night, we have Dirge. A zombie with a consciousness, he hunts out other zombies and dispatches them with the aid of his shovel and zombie dog, Cerberus. The story within the first couple of chapters actually does attempt to explain the zombie outbreak as well as how it's possible some of them can retain higher cognitive abilities.

As the story starts, a young girl, Zoe, wanders into a graveyard following the sounds of Mozart. She finds (SURPRISE!) a graveyard full of zombies! Then our anti-hero appears: Dirge. He saves the little girl and decides to take her to the nearest human settlement which is guarded by robots. On the way they run into Nephthys, a former Egyptian sacrifice and museum piece that lives in a natural history museum with her pet zombie dinosaur. I won't go into much more detail to leave a bit of mystery to story, but there are definite unrevealed secrets hinted at on the DVD that would likely be explored in future extensions of the story.

Done in a clearly Flash-based visual style, Xombie doesn't impress compared to non-web videos, but as far as Flash animations go Xombie is one of the most visually interesting animations created. Some animation artifacts exist, particularly when Dirge is talking and lips purse around his normally exposed teeth. As usual with Flash animations and cheap cartoons in general, there are lots of reused characters and objects which do give some scenes a feeling of repetition and break the 4th wall, but it's standard fare for web animations and doesn't detract from the overall story.

Presented over 10 chapters, "Xombie - Dead on Arrival" covers 50 minutes of the story. My only complaint with this set-up is the constant "To Be Continued" messages followed immediately by the next part of the story every several minutes. They probably could have cut those out. The chapter headers were fine, just don't need to know that it's going to be immediately continued until the credits are about to roll at the end, and the story is left open for continuation and expansion.

The first 6 parts (Chapter 5 is in 2 parts) are available on Xombie's website, and the story continues in comic book form. Dreamworks is in talks to create a live-action movie adaptation of the series, so stay tuned for that.

Recommendation: Interesting story, worth seeing.

Pros:

• Original storyline brings freshness to the genre
• Zombie dinosaur!

Cons:

• Flash animation a bit crude at times
• Zombie purists may not appreciate "variants" deviation from established mythos

See larger image XOMBIE: DEAD ON ARRIVAL (DVD) Directed by: James Farr Starring: Geoff Edwards Rating: Unrated List Price: $19.95 USD Released March 31, 2009.

The Undeath has a series of designs available for purchase on Cafe Press through Urban Gibbon. This here is the official logo for the Zombie Headhunters; the elite group of zombie hunters that gets sick pleasure from killing the already dead. The emblem is composed of a crossed longbow and samurai sword, which are the preferred weapons of the Zombie Headhunters, with a shield and a skull with a mortal head-wound. Vive la vida!

After the zombie hordes have destroyed most of mankind, a select few will be discontent with hiding and waiting to die. The Zombie Headhunters will be born when the will of the living will start to fight back and reclaim the world.

The symbols of the Zombie Headhunter are the sword and the bow. These are silent, sustainable, and deadly weapons that can be the difference between life and death to the properly trained Headhunter.

This design features a faded, grunge design of a skull with a head wound atop a shield. Behind the shield, crossing, are a longbow and a samurai sword. View Products

Purchasing items through the store is a great way to support this website. More importantly, zombies are awesome and more people should raise zombie awareness through apparel.

Dawn of the Dead

Year: 2004
Type of Zombie: Fast
Phase of Infection: Initial Outbreak
Primary Location: Shopping Mall
Zombie Characteristics:

• Able to run
• Transmittable infection
• Basic motor functions
• Must destroy the brain

Memorable Quote: "What's the news?" "Bad."

Zack Snyder takes on George A. Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead. Held up by many zombie aficionados as the penultimate zombie flick, Snyder used his opportunity to redefine the genre that Romero created. Whereas Romero create a zombie myth around the ideas the zombies are reanimated corpses and should move as such in addition to everyone who dies will rise from the dead, Snyder treated his zombies with a bit more energy and pizazz. Taking a page from 28 Days Later and its non-Zombies filled with "rage", Snyder showed his zombies able to run, snarl, and included the updated idea that only those bitten or otherwise exposed to zombie juice would become a zombie themselves.

Ving Rhames and Sarah Polley do a phenomenal job keeping the story moving as co-protagonists. While Polley's character, Ana, does get a bit overbearing at times and puts her ideas of what's important over anybody else's, Rhames' Kenneth plays a cool & collected straight man able to lay down the hammer when the situation calls for it. As a cop, he's very much a live & let die kinda guy more intent on seeing his own goals met than trying to create a community. Ty Burrell as Steve plays very much like a Bruce Campbell-Lite providing the full-of-himself sardonic wit and killer chin.

The zombies in this movie are the true stars. With some of the best looking zombies in any zombie movie, the Dawn of the Dead remake really makes an impact with the colors. It's not a future of bleak black and grays; the entire movie plays out with lots of intense reds and oranges that create a much different tone than many other zombie movies that use more blues and grays. One aspect that really gave me an appreciation for the actors in the make-up was that the zombies in the movie that were missing limbs wasn't done through special effects; the filmmakers actually found actors missing limbs and cast them as those zombies. I think that's awesome.

The biggest flaw with the zombies that turns many purists off is that the zombies in the remake are fast zombies. They can sprint and run, which adds to the terror factor but isn't how Romero envisioned zombies. It's kinda created a bit of a schism in the zombiverse; not really. The Dawn remake also deviates from Romero's original vision by making it a prerequisite that the dying needed to have been infected to rise as the undead; Romero never had such a provision - all dead become zombies. Not to mention they tend to hiss and snarl like cats & dogs instead of the low, constant moaning which they also do. All in all Snyder did a re-envisioning of the zombie flick than a remake of Romero's classic ghoul yarn.

With the alterations to the original shopping mall story, it's also claimed to have lost much of Romero's original commentary on consumerist culture. The original Dawn of the Dead was made at a time when large shopping malls were just beginning to spring up around the country and were beacons of the growing homogenization of culture through nation-wide chains and sterile shopping centers. A couple decades later, shopping malls were urban landscape staples, Big Box stores were standards, and the biting critique of consumerism really wasn't necessary in the remake. Snyder instead focused on making a high quality horror film with an even bleaker, less encouraging ending in which it was able to surpass its predecessor in some ways with its changes to the zombie mythos without stepping on the toes of what made the original so great itself.

As discussed in the previous post "Zombie Death Mobiles", the Dawn of the Dead remake features a pair of badass Zombie Death Mobiles. Unfortunately, poor execution, poor driving, and human stupidity made them more deadly for the inhabitants than the zombies surrounding it:

Sometimes ambition can take things too far. While the movie Dawn of the Dead showed ingenious usage of mall shuttle buses in converting them to zombie crowd busters, over-zealousness became the downfall of the inhabitants. Insecure chainsaws, insufficient horse-power, and adrenaline-filled chaos made these haphazardly built death mobiles more of a danger to those inside than the zombies they faced.

Outfitting the front of the lead bus with a plow was a great idea, but the execution had much to be desired. If the people took their time and really planned out a proper defensive bus with effective zombie killing action, then they wouldn't have need to drive like madmen leading to disaster. "A" for effort, "Z" for execution.

This is not to say that there wasn't some good ideas and with some improvements the converted buses could be a real winner. Keep the plow, but zombies won't be deterred by pain from the razor wire along the top. Instead of keeping the sides open and securing with chain-link fencing, close off the sides of the bus and use the fencing along the top to create a cage. The chainsaw may seem like a good idea, but unless you're cutting at head level, it's not going to do enough and leave you with half of a zombie which is as dangerous as a whole zombie.

For security of the inhabitants, leaving in some of the seats and adding seat belts would be good ideas. In the chaos of driving through an undead horde, people need somewhere secure to be, and weapons need to be securable when not in use.

Recommendation: Must See!

Pros:

• Rejuvenated and redefined the zombie genre
• Far more gore and impressive zombie kills

Cons:

• Doesn't hold true to Romero's mythology
• Lost a lot of its social commentary

See larger image Dawn of the Dead (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut) (DVD) Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Lindy Booth Rating: Unrated List Price: $9.99 USD New From: $3.47 In Stock Used From: $0.63 In Stock Released September 9, 2008.

Did you notice the Evil Dead II poster in the background? The rest of the episode is pretty good, though not zombie related. The entire two season run of the show is awesome and available on Hulu and DVD. The commentary tracks on the DVD make purchase totally worthwhile.

This is a screenshot from Shaun of the Dead. Notice the zombie in the yellow hat? That's actually a character from "Spaced" named Tyres, who's a bike messenger with ADD that's way into techno. Awesome little inside joke in Shaun. Other actors and characters from "Spaced" appeared in Shaun in cameo roles. Watching "Spaced" will open a whole slew of inside jokes and references that you may have missed before.

See larger image Spaced: The Complete Series (DVD) Directed by: Edgar Wright Starring: Jessica Hynes, Simon Pegg, Katy Carmichael, Julia Deakin, Nick Frost Rating: NR (Not Rated) List Price: $59.98 USD New From: $42.59 In Stock Used From: $42.33 In Stock Released July 22, 2008.

We've talked about types of zombies, but what about causes? What reasons have been postulated by the great contemporary minds to explain zombiism? Are any of them realistic? Let's explore some of the more popular zombie creation myths from viruses to toxic gas, some examples of the movies they appeared in, and what it means to have zombies from that cause.

Virus

Resident Evil has the T-Virus and The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z has Solanum. Zombie-causing viruses are pretty common as an explanation. I don't know how, there is no evidence of a virus being able to keep a dead body alive. In fact, more often they're one way tickets to death and at best it gets you part way before your body's natural defense mechanisms derails its nefarious plot. The plausibility of a virus being able to reanimate the dead seems pretty far fetched regardless of its mass appeal in pop culture. But as easy explanations go, it's a runner up only to "God", and we will likely see this as a consistent theme in rising of the undead explanations for quite a while longer.

With the cause being a virus, there usually exists a vaccine and sometimes a cure … although mankind has never found a cure to a single virus, so logic would dictate that there would neither exist a cure for a zombie virus. A vaccine, sure, ok, you can have a vaccine; but no cure. This opens the door for hope, because at least the survivors can protect themselves from dying to only join the opposing team.

Parasites/Aliens

There's viruses and then there are other parasites that infect the body. As parasites are larger than a single-celled virus, and have a complex cell structure, a parasite navigating through an inanimate corpse to reactivate basic motor functions feels slightly less unbelievable. Both Slither and Night of the Creeps had a bad case of alien mind-controlling slugs where these alien parasites would enter the body and replace the conscious actions of the host. In Slither all the controlled people were linked together to form a super-creature with some unfortunate souls being used as living egg sacs. Then there's Night of the Creeps where each host would explode in a shower of writhing bug-like critters after shambling about trying to infect more hosts.

In some cases removing the parasite will allow the host's consciousness to resurface, assuming their body still functions without the aid of the parasite or alien entity. The cannon of "Stargate SG-1" follows that the parasites in that show are able to prolong the life of their hosts and heal damage to their bodies. Usually though the host cannot be saved after being taken over by the foreign creature.

Toxic Waste/Gas

The Return of the Living Dead franchise lives off of the stuff and in Undead it rained from the skies having come from meteorites. Toxic chemicals have done their fair share of contributing to zombie lore where when it gets in the atmosphere it rains down an unsuspecting population, usually as a form of acid rain. This cause assumes that radiation can have some sort of effect on a person that allows body cells to continue to operate even after higher brain functions have ceased. In RotLD any previously cell springs back to life meaning long-dead skeletons can move and function remarkably well, even without the presence of any muscle tissue.

Throughout the movies, toxic waste has had a wide variety of effects on its zombies. Throughout the Return of the Living Dead series the toxic goo was used to create zombies with a wide variety of attributes from nigh indestructibility to super strength and full cognitive abilities. These zombies particularly suck to run into.

Space Radiation/Comets

As proposed in Fido and the premise of Night of the Comet (and if you want to stretch it to zombie cars with Maximum Overdrive), the mysteries of the cosmos include the walking dead. Somehow a passing stellar snowball or cloud of cosmic radiation, like toxic waste, can have an effect on dead tissue that keeps it animated. There's never been an explanation of exactly how this happens, but presumably, as long as you don't have a basic understanding of science, it can.

Afflictions of cosmic origins tend affect worldwide populations simultaneously, so a slow build-up of zombie forces is actually a flash flood of flesh-eaters where everyone who dies or recently died rises to kill. They tend to be more run-of-the-mill zombies and getting bitten by them just means you'll die sooner, because either way you're going to become one when you die. Just deal with it.

Genetic Mutation

"Story goes, these great big rats come scuttling off the slave ships and raped all the little tree monkeys." as Dead Alive explained the source of the zombie scourge. In Doom it's the combination of alien DNA with human DNA that causes a mutation in some people that transforms them into cannibalistic death machines. Then again, in order for them to be cannibalistic they would still need to be considered human, and they are clearly not. Mutant based zombies frequently become freakishly deformed and kinda icky. They're not really at all human any more and have taken a step up the food chain. The effects of mutation can vary wildly and usually not for the better.

Curse

Voodoo zombies, mummies, and gypsy fortune tellers … curses have a long history of explaining wicked things happening to people. Usually the curse only affects the victim and is not transferable and has no cash value. Unless you've personally been cursed in the process, simply getting away should be pretty good defense against these zombies. They're usually not contagious and unless you took something from them that they're going to relentlessly follow you to retrieve, they aren't going spread their zombidom or come after you.

Demonic Possession

In The Evil Dead the demon-type zombies are possessed by the evil force, which is like the dark side of The Force only more evil and without the stellar health-plan. Zombies from demonic possession really have their own individual set of rules. They may conform to some standards of zombie lore, or they could go off on any conceivable tangent they wish. They're demons, who's going to tell them what they can and can't do? I'm certainly not.

God

George A. Romero never did give a solid explanation of his undead ghouls in Night of the Living Dead, the tag line for Dawn of the Dead was "when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth", and in Day of the Dead a lassez-faire helicopter pilot posits that it's God's punishment for mankind meddling in His affairs. Romero liked the "God" explanation, probably for the same reason the "God" explanation gets tossed around so much in many areas of life: there's no reason it needs to make any logical sense. It's the catch-all answer that has enslaved minds for millennium: God did it. No more answer needed.

Either because of adherence to ordained scripture or a lack of originality, zombies that are caused by God very seldomly veer far from established standards. Slow moving usually with all dead rising and a shot to the head to take them down.

Technology

Electronic transmissions enter the brain, stuff happens, and then people go wacky. Somehow energy waves can alter the brain enough to cause people to go completely bat-sh*t crazy and start attacking each other. This is what happened in Non-Zombie thrillers The Signal and Cell. There are other ways technology can affect people and cause post-life activities, but generally it's those cell phones causing the cancer and television rotting our brains that remove all restraint resulting in people being reduced to pure animal instincts.

Things aren't always so bleak with these zombies. Sometimes people can snap out of the problem if it's a mostly psychological affect, and usually the zombiism isn't contagious as long as you skip the meme or phone call.

What other ways can you think of that have been the source for zombies in popular culture?

Zombies aren't necessarily restricted to basic instinct, but sometimes are able to use some higher levels of thought and reasoning. Sometimes old memories can be accessed, old behaviors can resurface, or remnants of who the zombie was in life start to come out. These events can happen naturally over time as the zombies settle into the rut of every day life that they were in before and no longer notice the difference between before and after the outbreak; or they can happen through conditioned responses from the still-living. Technology can be developed to help the undead control their ungodly urges. In other words, being dead doesn't mean your life is over.

Let's take a look at some MENSA zombies, the top 2% cream of the crop.

Big Daddy from Land of the Dead

I know some of you are going to not dig the order of this list, and that's too bad. Big Daddy reached self awareness all on his own, and that elevates him to the top of the list. He was able to gather a small rag-tag-haggardy bunch of zombies to follow him and was able to even teach them some basic skills like how to fire a gun. He actually formed a zombie militia and showed empathy at what could only be viewed as man's inhumanity to inhumanity.

From gas station attendant, to zombie, to undead visionary; he started a zombie revolution that freed his people from the tyranny of Dennis Hopper and was able to lead his followers to their promise land. It almost feels like a story right of out of the Bible. Except we're talking about zombies. And not just one zombie, but bunches of zombies.

Land of the Dead

Bub from Day of the Dead

As Dr. Logan's protege, Bub showed for the first time how zombies could evolve beyond their basic instincts and begin to resemble who they were in life. Not the best or the brightest, Bub was a pioneer and true role model for zombies everywhere.

Bub showed lots of rudimentary memory recall being able to remember how to use items with enough concentration and goading. He showed empathy and loss upon Logan's death and sought revenge against those responsible. Bub showed other zombies what it takes to truly have guts. And not just in your mouth, but actually in your torso.

Day of the Dead

Fido from Fido

While the fine folks at Zomcom provide the remote control collars that prevent the zombies from clamoring for human flesh, it's Fido's ability to transcend his urges when his collar fails that shows he's really more than the sum of his body parts.

Fido is really the zombie that tugs at the heart strings before munching on them. He's not the smartest zombie on this list, but he's definitely the most refined and classy. A real man's zombie, you don't want to leave him alone with your women because you aren't sure if he's going to steal them or eat them. Either way he gets the girl.

Fido

Tarman from Return of the Living Dead

Tarman started a cultural revolution with his hunger for braaaaaaains. Tarman showed a remarkable ability for problem solving and tool usage by being able to use a wench and pulley system to free his lunch from a locker.

Having survived the indecency of being locked in a barrel for lord-knows-how-long, stewing in a goo of his own decomposing flesh, Tarman is resilient and perky. Filled with self confidence and not much else, Tarman reaches for the stars without much of his muscular system left. He displays a quickness of wit on his feet, able to take advantage of a situation without a moments hesitation. Our hats off to you Tarman, keep truckin' on.

The Return of the Living Dead

Ed from Shaun of the Dead

Unlike most others, becoming a zombie has probably done more for Ed than remaining alive. Loafing about on the couch doesn't have the same social stigma when you're chained there to keep you from wandering off and eating a small child. He now has drive, ambition, a hunger for achievement, and it doesn't appear to have affected his video game playing ability.

In life, Ed was horrible at just about everything he did. A walking travesty, unable to make appropriate decisions in any situation. Now, he's surprisingly alert and supportive with a civilized attention span. Dying is perhaps the best thing that has ever happened in Ed's life.

Shaun of the Dead

Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's 2

Just seeing if you were paying attention. You may not remember it, but in the second Weekend at Bernie's movie (yes, there was a second Weekend at Bernie's), Bernie was actually resurrected of sorts by a voodoo priestess who gave him the power to find a sunken treasure to the beat of music. Not so much a flesh-eating ghoul as a boogie monster.

While Bernie may not be the brightest undead in the bunch, he definitely has the best dance moves. Not a straight-A zombie by any stretch of the imagination, he's still definitely the zombie to have at your house party when the parents are out of town to really deaden up your social event. You supply the tunes, he'll show off the latest dance moves from hell.

Weekend at Bernie's II

« Creating a Zombie Plan: Step 4 - Well, Now What?

Have you been through all the lessons on constructing your Zombie Plan? If so, this part will help you pull all the pieces together and create a usable Zombie Plan that will help get you through an undead outbreak. Previous sections have covered the types of zombies you're likely to encounter, where you should be heading to, how you should be defending yourself, and what long-term plans you should be considering. Now, how does all this come together to create a Zombie Plan?

Put your hand down, that was rhetorical.

How to begin

First, you should envision your overall plan. Ultimately, where do you want it to take you. In this regard, we'll be working from Step 4 backwards. We'll finding out what the end goal is, so where we want to be at Step 4, and then will work through the previous steps to bring a plan to achieve this goal. This allows us create a branching network of roots through the previous steps for contingency plans that all work together to support the end goal. So, assuming you're still alive in 2 years time and so are all the zombies: what do you want to be doing? Where do you want to be? Who do you want to be with? These questions should help you envision what the rest of your plan should be building towards.

An alternative method for approaching your plan when you're not particularly sure or don't care where you end up or what you're doing specifically would be to follow the steps given in order - the reason for their ordering is for practicality. You deal with the situation at hand and construct an open-ended Zombie Plan that reacts to the situations instead of moving you towards a goal. These are good as back-up plans for when you ideal plan doesn't end up working through either bad luck or plan break-down and failure.

What to plan for

In either regard, next, plan what zombies you are dealing with. Of course you won't actually know what kind of zombie you are facing, but your plan needs to at least address this to have a starting point. Many general ideas work regardless of zombie type, so avoid getting into specific zombie characteristics for your plan and stick with general commonalities (ex. head-shots almost always work, even on regular people!). In almost all circumstances, getting somewhere safe to ride out the initial waves of panic and chaos is a good idea.

More important than the type of zombie is the non-yet-zombies that is going to be consistent regardless of zombie type. People panic and it's best to stay away from them just as much as it is important to stay away from the undead. Let the unprepared perish on the highways and streets and feed the initial hordes, while you sit comfortably somewhere preparing to shot them each in the head when the time is right and things are a little calmer and easier to handle.

This means, sadly, don't go on ventures to immediately reunite with loved ones. If you truly loved them you would have already prepared them to defend themselves until it is safe for a rendezvous. This is why parents must teach their children basic zombie survival skills at a very young age, and both parents must take the threat seriously and train as a unit. Don't leave those most dear to you completely reliant on your protection; otherwise you'll just end up having do the horrors yourself and destroy those closest to your heart before they try to eat it.

Exit, Stage Left

Next plan for your exit strategy. Where ever you ended up when the initial outbreak began is more than likely not where you want to die in (hopefully) a very long time. You'll need to figure out how to get from point A to point B while avoiding all the little point Zs roaming around with possible stop offs at points C and D to get the family and more supplies.

When traveling, you'll want to avoid major interstates and highways. They're going to be stagnant with abandoned cars and corpses, and many may still even have their drivers still strapped in - undead and unable to free themselves just waiting to grab at any unlucky passerby. You'll also want to avoid major downtown areas that lack many omnidirectional escape routes; you'll increase your odds of getting trapped between small hordes on either side of a block.

Keep quiet, keep alert, and keep moving.

What if...

Finally, when writing up your plan using all the information presented in this series, keep in mind that the zombies aren't playing along with your game plan. At any point you may have to ditch your plan as it was and deal with a situation on-the-spot. It helps to (1) have several plans that can be cherry picked from depending on the situation, and (2) have plans with built-in contingency plans. Think of at what points your plan can fall apart, assume it will, and build in options that work around likely potential issues. This will allow your plans to become adaptable which will make them more dependable. And in the end, that will keep you alive. Your zombie plans shouldn't be set in stone, and should account for as many circumstances as possible.

Zombie Plan as Life Plan

Before we wrap up this series on creating your own Zombie Plan, I just want to point out that a properly formulated Zombie Plan should be able to guide you through any number of apocalyptic scenarios. While zombies are likely to be the most well received of the doomsday situations, many more possibilities exist that don't involve the rising dead. A well done Zombie Plan should be able to save you and your loved ones in the event of killer robots, barbaric desert folk led by pop divas, or the wrath of God. Fortunately in many of them head-shots still work, as head-shorts work on a wide variety of targets. So, when practicing, always go for the head, it will do you the most good. I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Head Shots! Head Shots … works on zombies, works on celebutantes!"

Feel free to share your Zombie Plan and let everyone know what you view the ultimate zombie survival methods are!

Great video to a rockin' song. And here are the lyrics to "Zombies Ate My Neighbors":

So call the neighbor kids,
with trashcan lids and buckets on their heads
I'm telling you, we're gonna need a little help tonight

So hey man check this out
Downtown's a riot and something's spreading through the crowd
Try channel 9, I'm pretty sure they're headed straight for this part of town
I can't be certain, but I swear I hear them just outside
There's no way that this is real, so count me in!

So grab something sharp,
find some cover,
kill the lights and nail the backdoor shut
This isn't funny any more
Oh no, this means war

Don't take this the wrong way,
I'd much rather choke and die
than sit alone and fall without a fight

So call the neighbor kids,
with trashcan lids and buckets on their heads
I'm telling you, we're gonna need a little help tonight

So call the neighbor kids,
with trashcan lids and buckets on their heads
'Cause I'm telling you, we're gonna need a little help tonight

There she was, glaring
through olive eyes and chalk white skin.
I want you to know
that I won't be holding back tonight.
She stole my heart
I'll being taking hers with a lawn dart now.
But look at the bright side
It's not like she had one there from the start

Something tells me, it's gonna be a long night

So grab something sharp,
find some cover,
kill the lights and nail the backdoor shut
This isn't funny any more
Oh no, this means war
And something tells me, it's gonna be a long night

So call the neighbor kids,
with trashcan lids and buckets on their heads
I'm telling you, we're gonna need a little help tonight
[x3]

See larger image Common Struggles (Audio CD) List Price: $13.98 USD New From: $3.35 In Stock Used From: $0.01 In Stock Released April 7, 2009.

Note regarding episode availability from Hulu:
We are able to post five trailing episodes from the current season of The Simpsons.

The second story in the 20th Treehouse of Horror episode of "The Simpsons" deals with a zombie outbreak caused by Krusty Burger's new Burger² promotion. The finest USDA choice beef is fed to cows, and then THAT beef is made into the new Krusty burgers. Upon eating the metaburgers, people start becoming blood-thirsty cannibals, and instantly upon being bitten the victim rises as a zombie to take a bite out of someone else. Eventually the Simpson family is stranded in their home when it comes to light that Bart is immune to the deadly disease. The race is then on to get Bart to the "Safe Zone" as the last bastion of hope for humanity.