Christmas with the Dead | |
---|---|
Directed by | Terrill Lee Lankford |
Written by | Keith Lansdale |
Based on | "Christmas with the Dead" by Joe R. Lansdale |
Produced by | William Arscott Brad Maule Marion Arscott |
Starring | Damian Maffei Brad Maule Kasey Lansdale Chet Williamson |
Cinematography | Bil Arscott |
Edited by | Dan Golden |
Music by | Kasey Lansdale Judith Pancoast Tasmanian Orchestra |
Distributed by | Drive-in Movies |
Release date |
|
Running time | 88 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Christmas with the Dead is a 2012 zombie apocalypse film based on the Joe R. Lansdale short story of the same name.
Strange electrical currents hurtle towards Earth from outer space. Calvin lives a typical life with his wife Ella and daughter Tina in the fictional East Texas town of Mud Creek It's during the holidays and one night Ella harasses him to put up Christmas decorations on their home. Instead Calvin naps on the couch and then a freak lightning storm from the strange electrical currents causes everyone who sees it to drop dead. When Calvin awakes he finds his wife and daughter seemingly dead. Awash with grief, he lays the two out on their bed. As soon as Calvin turns his back, his daughter rises from the dead and crawls out an open window. Then Ella rises as a zombie and attacks him. After he subdues her, his neighbor Ray shows up and tells Calvin Tina has bitten him and he had no choice but to kill her by striking her with a hammer. Soon Calvin realizes most of the inhabitants of Mud Creek are now zombies. [1] [2]
Flash forward two years and Calvin has adapted to his lifestyle of living in a world full of the un-dead. He keeps his wife Ella chained up on the back porch of his house which is now a small fortress to keep the zombies at bay. He feeds Ella dog food in a dog bowl as he just can't bring himself to kill her for good. He transmits from the local radio station hoping someone will hear him, but it's to no avail. He even greets his former friend Ray, now a zombie after being bitten by Calvin's young daughter, as he drives away to run errands. He then runs into a man shooting zombies and dragging them to his pickup. The man at first thinks Calvin is a zombie and tries to shoot him. When Calvin asks the man what's he doing, he replies "Shooting the shit out of zombies". This is the first living human Calvin has seen in years. G.M. states his 3D glasses he always wears saved him from the effects of the storm. Calvin objects to G.M. shooting the zombies saying they are sick people. "These are my neighbors!" he replies. That night on G.M.'s roof, the two play loud music with a heavy beat and the zombies come pouring out of the woods and "dance" to the beat of the music. [3]
One day some former inmates from a state mental hospital hear Calvin's broadcast on their car radio. The inmates armed with handguns take Calvin and G.M. hostage and then to meet Reverend Mac who rules over the former inmates of the hospital, some of whom are clearly mentally ill, with the cult-like zeal of a Jim Jones. Now it's up to Calvin and G.M. to escape from both the Reverend and his flock of mentally deranged patients and the zombies as well.
Much of this film was shot in the Nacogdoches, Texas area in the summer of 2011. It was directed by author and director Terrill Lee Lankford. Producers include William Arscott and Brad Maule. Much of the soundtrack was performed by co-star Kasey Lansdale who is also a successful musician and the daughter of author Joe R. Lansdale whose short story the film was based on. William Arscott, Joe Lansdale, and his wife Karen also served as executive producers. Joe's son Keith wrote the screenplay. Many locals from the Nacogdoches area performed as extras despite the East Texas heat and heavy layers of makeup. The DVD was released on The Drive-in Movies label. [5]
Bradley Clayton Denton is an American science fiction author. He has also written other types of fiction, such as the black comedy of his novel Blackburn, about a sympathetic serial killer.
Joe Richard Lansdale is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense, he has also written comic books and screenplays. Several of his novels have been adapted for film and television. He is the winner of the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and eleven Bram Stoker Awards.
Weird West, also known as Weird Western, is a term used for the hybrid genres of fantasy Western, horror Western and science fiction Western. The term originated with DC's Weird Western Tales in 1972, but the idea is older as the genres have been blended since the 1930s, possibly earlier, in B-movie Westerns, comic books, movie serials and pulp magazines. Individually, the hybrid genres combine elements of the Western genre with those of fantasy, horror and science fiction respectively.
The Return of the Living Dead is a 1985 American comedy horror film written and directed by Dan O'Bannon from a story by Rudy Ricci, John Russo, and Russell Streiner, and starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Mathews, and Don Calfa. The film tells the story of how a warehouse owner, accompanied by his two employees, mortician friend and a group of teenage punks, deal with the accidental release of a horde of unkillable, brain-hungry zombies onto an unsuspecting town.
Zombi 3 is a 1988 Italian horror film directed by Lucio Fulci and Bruno Mattei and starring Deran Sarafian, Beatrice Ring, and Ottaviano Dell'acqua. The film is an in-name-only sequel to Fulci's Zombi 2. The film is about a group of scientists at a top-secret research facility who are working on a biological weapon called Death One, which mutates and kills the living creatures and reanimates the dead. The weapon is leaked out of the facility, which leads to a spread of infection among soldiers and touring people in the area.
Diary of the Dead is a 2007 found footage horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. Although independently produced, it was distributed theatrically by The Weinstein Company and was released in cinemas on February 15, 2008 and on DVD by Dimension Extreme and Genius Products on May 20, 2008.
The Dead Pit is a 1989 American horror film co-written and directed by Brett Leonard, in his directorial debut. Cheryl Lawson stars as a mental patient who must defeat an undead serial killer who previously worked at the asylum, played by Danny Gochnauer.
Dead Men Walking is an independent 2005 zombie film directed by Peter Mervis and written by Mike Watt. It features a zombie outbreak at a maximum security prison. The film has also been shown on Syfy in the United States.
Zone of the Dead, also known as Apocalypse of the Dead is a 2009 Serbian horror film directed by Milan Konjević and Milan Todorović. It stars Ken Foree.
ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction is a 2010 zombie comedy film directed by Kevin Hamedani and starring Janette Armand, Doug Fahl, and Cooper Hopkins.
The Dead is a 2010 British zombie film produced by Indelible Productions and Latitude Films. It was written and directed by the Ford brothers and stars Rob Freeman, Prince David Osei, and David Dontoh.
"Christmas with the Dead" is a short story about a zombie apocalypse by author Joe R. Lansdale. It was published as a chapbook in a limited edition and has been adapted to film.
Deadman's Road is a collection of one novel and four novellas by American writer Joe R. Lansdale. It featuring old west zombie slaying, monster fighting Reverend Jedidiah Mercer, including the re-release of the pulp novel Dead in the West, and four stories, one never before collected, one brand new.
Kasey Lansdale is an American country music singer-songwriter from Nacogdoches, Texas. Lansdale is also known for her work as an author, editor, actress, and producer, as well as host and founder of the East Texas Songwriter's Workshop. Her full-length debut album Restless was released on August 20, 2013, on Blue Siren Records; it was co-produced by Mike Clute and Kasey Lansdale. The Executive Producer is John Carter Cash.
Dead in the West is a short horror novel written by American author Joe R. Lansdale. It involves the tale of longtime Lansdale character the Reverend Jebediah Mercer: he rides into the town of Mud Creek, Texas that is about to be attacked by an Indian medicine man who was unjustly lynched by the town inhabitants. Soon the dead will rise and seek human flesh and the Reverend finds himself right in the middle of it. He aligns himself with the town doctor and two of the town's inhabitants, Abbey and David. Together they fight the zombie horde and try to dispatch the medicine man who is the cause of all the evil.
Cockneys vs Zombies is a 2012 British zombie action comedy film directed by Matthias Hoene and written by James Moran and Lucas Roche. The plot centres on a group of Cockneys who arm themselves to rescue their grandfather and his friends from their retirement home as a zombie apocalypse takes place in the East End of London.
13 Eerie is a 2013 Canadian horror film directed by Lowell Dean, making his feature film debut. It is also produced by Don Carmody, Kevin DeWalt, Mark Montague and David Cormican and written by Christian Piers Betley. The film stars Katharine Isabelle, Michael Shanks, Brendan Fehr, Brendan Fletcher, Nick Moran and Jesse Moss. It entails the story about six forensic undergrads completing a university field exam on a deserted island, oblivious that the island was previously used for illegal biological experiments on life-term prisoners.
Z Nation is an American horror television series that aired on Syfy, created by Karl Schaefer and Craig Engler, and was produced by The Asylum. The first season of 13 episodes premiered on September 12, 2014. Z Nation was filmed in the Spokane, Washington, area.
Anna and the Apocalypse is a 2017 British Christmas zombie musical film directed by John McPhail from a screenplay by Alan McDonald and Ryan McHenry, based on McHenry's 2010 BAFTA nominated short Zombie Musical. It stars an ensemble cast of largely unknown young talent, including Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Marli Siu and Ben Wiggins with Mark Benton and Paul Kaye.