The Science of Making Zombies

Zombification is the art of creating and sustaining a zombie – however, there is a lot more science behind it than you might think. To begin, there are a few things you must understand in order to comprehend how this process could possibly take place. Haiti is a place that is unlike any other – its culture stands for things that, in America, we would take as Hollywood mumbo-jumbo. Voodoo is the religion, and within it is Hoodoo, the magic you see in most movies, ancestor worship which can lead to possession, and spirit incantations. Zombification is the worst punishment anyone could ever bring upon themselves, and so it is used as a social barrier to keep people in line. There have been many documented cases of Zombification, but very few are actual first-hand accounts. 

23 Hours, David Wellington (2009)

David Wellington has redefined monsters - or perhaps brought them back to their original forms? First he started with zombies in the Monster Island, Monster Nation, and Monster Planet series. Then he tackled vampires with state trooper Laura Caxton in the book 13 Bullets, followed up by 99 Coffins and Vampire Zero. The latest installment is 23 Hours, and it seems that Wellington hasn't run out of steam just yet.

Caxton is now an ex-trooper and in jail - arrested at the end of Vampire Zero for her neglectful behavior towards proper police procedure, federal agent Fetlock has her locked away in a women's state penitentiary.  Caxton believes that she can just serve her time and maybe even get out early for good behavior, but it seems that a supernatural  force has other ideas; ideas that will make the penitentiary into a buffet for the living dead.

Justinia Malvern, seemingly the last vampire, infiltrates the prison with one thing on her mind - Caxton. Her MO is to turn vampire killers into vampires, an irony she finds all too amusing. However, this time around Malvern may have something else in mind; who can tell? All Caxton knows is that she has one last chance to kill the vampire who's taken everything away from her - her mentor, her job, her life. Clara, Caxton's girlfriend, provides us with an outsider's view into the battle between the living and the dead with her struggle to understand why Caxton can't let go of the past.

Perhaps the best thing about this series is the originality of the vampires. Going back to the image of Count Orlock, Wellington's vamps are completely bald (and I mean hairless - no eyebrows, nothing) with pointed ears. Their mouths are full of shark-like teeth, intended to rend the victim; which is useful, considering that the vampires need more and more blood to survive night to night. The vampires continue to age as they grow older, eventually becoming too weak to feed themselves. They are described as unnatural, so much so that you can feel the wrongness of the creatures. And when they go to sleep? They fall apart! They literally liquefy in order to regenerate, leaving them completely vulnerable in the daylight hours. 

Rife with realistic police procedures and protocol, as well as action packed scenes between both human and non-human enemies, Wellington adds yet another chapter into this exciting and original series. These are vampire books for people who are sick of Twilight and want something with a little more...blood.

Meeting Anne Rice

Hi everyone! Or all of four people who follow this blog? In place of SHS, I decided to do a video post about meeting Anne in SF. Sorry for the poor video quality, I'm pretty new to all of this. Hope you found this as entertaining as I'm about to find it potentially embarrassing...

Normal posting schedule will resume Monday! Have a good weekend!

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

I feel really lame doing this, but I've run out of articles/reviews/what have you to post on schedule, but I also don't want to simply post nothing. There's a laundry list of complaints that I could sing to you as to why I've got nothing to post, but I won't drudge that out here. So you're getting another video! That's right, two videos in two days instead of just one. I'll make this up hopefully soon, though with what I have yet to decide. Today I'm going to meet Anne Rice in San Francisco while she's on her Wolf Gift tour. Maybe something will come of that. Anyway!

This was a nifty little video that I found on Youtube awhile back, while researching the Spiritualism movement. It's stop-motion animation, which is something I highly admire and adore, because it shows real dedication to the craft. The story is pretty easy to follow: I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when I first found it.

After.Life (2009)

A young woman, fleeing from a break up with her longtime boyfriend, ends up in a head on collision with a truck. The next time we see her, she's on a mortician's slab, being clinically disrobed in preparation for burial. Suddenly, the woman's eyes open and she asks where she is. The mortician, without batting an eye, calmly informs her that she's in a funeral home - she was in a car accident. She's dead. The young woman attempts to get off of the slab, but finds herself in a paralyzed state, unable to move and held fast as the mortician cleans her wounds and continues to calm her in a low, monotone voice that brooks no argument to his words. He even shows her a death certificate - it all sounds pretty convincing, right?