Home > Wendy Does Waco > Archives > 2009 > June > 25 > Entry
Be there or be … not a fan of zombies (i.e. square)
I dig zombies. That’s no secret.
I try to talk to my friends about zombies and they give me the same look one gives a miniature train enthusiast who starts geeking out over cabooses. I dress like a zombie and implore the rest of Waco to do the same only to be largely snubbed. The life of a living dead lore enthusiast is not an easy one, my friends. But alas, my time has come. The premiere of the Waco zombie movie, Risen, is upon us (Saturday).
I haven’t even seen the movie yet, but I already love it because it’s about zombies and it’s intensely local. “The whole thing was shot here,” said Risen director and local boy, Damon Crump. “This is a good place for this stuff to happen because evereybody’s willing to help you out here,” he said.
Places you may recognize? A Woodway neighborhood, the IGA store in Hewitt and the Bellmead Civic center. Waco is also mentioned in the script, and FOR ONCE, not in the context of the Branch Davidian standoff. Pay attention and you may also hear mention of quarantines in small towns, such as Lorena. Risen writer David Talbot intended for the movie to be Waco-centric.
“One thing’s always frustrated me about movies and TV — everything is always set in L.A. or New York, nothing takes place in between,” Talbot said. Talbot, 30, was born and raised in Speegleville, and now is a dad and techie in Woodway. He said he grew up dying to get out of the area and then, as a grown up, he looked around and realized the Waco area is actually pretty cool.
“I’m a really weird advocate for Waco and Waco tourism,” he said.
With plenty of horror, a little humor and zombies that move both fast and slow, Risen, and it’s homegrown director and writer, not to mention all the extras, are poised to earn Waco some pretty good zombie cred.
Talbot was bit by zombie mythology (pun intended) as a kid, watching George Romero’s zombies stagger-step across the screen. The once cult following of zombies seems to be bigger than ever these days. Talbot said the attraction to the undead is simple.
“Romero said it best — they are us,” Talbot waxed philosophical. Werewolves and aliens are a rarity, he said, but everyone has had an experience with the dead.
“We’ve seen dead bodies, even if it was at a funeral home, and dead bodies scare us,” Talbot said. “Zombie mythology just amplifies that.”
There’s no official canon of zombie lore, but Talbot, with his Z-smarts, was able to answer some questions for me. Like, except for the talking(?!) zombies in HBO’s Return of the Living Dead series, most zombies aren’t on a strict brains diet.
“Romero’s zombies would take a bite out of anything,” Talbot said.
He also places epidemic zombies above voodoo zombies in the battle of who’s creepier. With epidemic zombies, “One creates 10 creates 100, until it’s hopeless,” Talbot said. There’s also the apocalypse via zombie factor.
“You can’t really top the end of the world,” he said. Indeed.
Crump and Talbot will be at the Risen premiere at the Hippodrome Saturday. As will I. Come geek out with us. Zombie attire welcome. (Though I’ll be skipping the Karo syrup blood this time, too messy!)
Permalink | Comments (26) | Post your comment |
Commenting is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. M-F
Post a comment
Before you comment, please take a few moments to make sure that what you're saying is civil and respectful. We don't tolerate personal attacks, insults, name-calling, impersonations or generally hateful comments — they don't make for a pleasant (or productive) conversation. We want to raise the level of debate and encourage a wide diversity of viewpoints — and that means disagreeing without being disagreeable. If you wouldn't say it to your grandmother, you probably shouldn't say it here.
Your comment will be removed from WacoTrib.com if it runs afoul of these guidelines or anything else in our site's visitor agreement.
*HTML not allowed in comments. Your e-mail address is required.
Comments
By videorgasm
June 25, 2009 4:30 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Soooo, why is RISEN not showing up on Netflix? I know it’s not on DVD yet, but Netflix lets you save movies so you won’t forget them.
By Da Gun Dude
June 25, 2009 8:18 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Having worked ont his film with David and Damon… and seeing it screend last year at the TFW… it was AWESOME… and your are right Wendy… everyone in the central tx rejoin picthed in… we even had folks out of state come in just for the filming.. It was an interesting day we did the quarintne shoot that evening… as Bush had just flown into town.. I was giving a breif class to our military extra’s and we are all dressed out an with weapons. the helo’s flew over alot … LOL was a great day though and then it was magic time.
ITS AN AWESOME MOVIE…. I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did.
V/R
Chris De Haven US Army ( Ret) Military Advisor for Risen
By mark
June 25, 2009 10:12 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Darkness falls across the land. The midnight hour is close at hand Creatures crawl in search of blood To terrorize y’alls neighborhood.
By El Dee Ah Blow
June 25, 2009 10:53 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Glorifying the Occult doesn’t seem like the kind of thing for a reputable newspaper to be doing.
By Cecil 1
June 26, 2009 8:37 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Personally I like Vampires better the’re cleaner, and have a better life style, and they have class……..
By Cecil 1
June 26, 2009 8:40 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Besides the above, Vampires get to bite all the chubby little red-headed girls on the neck and it don’t get any-better than that…,
By brenda dunbar
June 26, 2009 2:43 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Wendy, Just a few corrections to your article from 6/25 about the National Day of Service Events. The Food Drive at Poppa Rollo’s will benefit the Food and Clothing Closet at MCC, the Womens and Children’s Residential program at the Freeman Center, and we will also be accepting school supplies for Mission Waco. Thanks, Brenda Dunbar Event Co-host
By Bob
June 26, 2009 4:02 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Ah, the wind blows softly across the Moors and the hounds howl strangely at the moon this weekend…now, do they? Shan’t walk alone in the dark for fear of Zombies…..can thee? (enter fiendish laugh here)….enjoy your time with the living dead…my dear.
By Jay Robins
June 27, 2009 1:30 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
I’m from Temple and I saw it at a horror festival in Dallas loved it. I’ll be making the drive to see it again and hang out with my fellow horror fans! I’m hoping to get an autograph from the texas ranger guy, I loved that dude.
By @dsytopiapress
June 27, 2009 9:56 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
YES! RISEN! TONIGHT! YES!
By former employee of the iga in hewitt
June 29, 2009 11:07 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
personally, i have no interest in seeing this movie at all. reason being…they are all jerks! i worked as a cashier the night they did the filming in the iga (when the lady was running through the front of the store like she was being chased.) their biggest mistake, the store manager letting them film while the store was open. they didn’t want any of the workers or customers getting into their shots, so they very rudely told us to stop what we were doing and get out of the line of filming (in so many words.) i stood my ground and kept on checking out customers as if they were’nt there. to hell with them, we were trying to run a business!!!
By mark
June 29, 2009 10:58 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
And you’re a former employee why???
By former employee of the iga in hewitt
June 30, 2009 10:42 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
um, i’m no longer employed there because i’ve moved on to bigger and better things (iga was my first job.) have you never had a job change before, honey?
By El Diablo
June 30, 2009 3:17 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
As Mark’s attorney and spiritual advisor, I feel qualified to speak on his behalf.
Indeed, Mark has had a job change or two (dozen) in the past few years. Many of those, however, I’m precluded from mentioning because Wendy doesn’t like reading about bodily functions in this blog.
Perhaps she’s bitter and menopausal, perhaps she’s just got good journa-blog-alistic sensibility. Maybe she simply doesn’t like hearing stories about atrocities committed in the Carolinas, where many of Mark’s most exciting adventures took place.
So the short answer, my dear, is YES, but he still thinks you’re silly for being so worked up about a crappy movie being shot in an even crappier store.
By birdie
July 1, 2009 12:23 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
“Risen” was a great movie! It was funny and had a good story line. I enjoyed the Waco references and local humor. Such a fun thing for Waco!
By former employee of the iga in hewitt
July 2, 2009 6:47 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
El Diablo you’re just as much an idiot as “mark.” hell, you probably are “mark.” multiple personalities…probably so
By El Diablo
July 2, 2009 8:38 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Well, my little former IGA employee, it is I who think that YOU are Mark posing as someone else!!
In your reply to Mark’s question, did you or did you not call him “honey” at the end of your post?
Well…for your and the world’s information, “Honey” is EXACTLY the name that Mark calls me about 44% of the time.
Other names include “Homey” and “Mr. Peeper” and “Brice” and “Betsy” and “Buttums” and a few others that I’m forbidden to mention here because of Wendy’s proclivity to yank my posts from this forum if I mention bodily functions.
So, little missy, what say ye to MY little theory? Hmmmmm?
(By the way, I apologize, Mark, for bringing you into this.)
By zombie
July 5, 2009 1:01 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
URRRRR….. UUGGGGGGGHHHHHH….. GRRRROOOOAAANNN…. BRAIIIIIINNNNSSSSS!!!
This blog is uber-boring
By KDF
July 6, 2009 6:58 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
V.O. Call or email NETFLIX. They will know the answer. <><
By mark
July 7, 2009 6:44 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Why does it feel as if someone were eating my brains???????? Damn you El Diablooooooooooo….
By Cecil 1
July 7, 2009 3:48 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Hmmmmmmm, the litle red headed girl hasn’t been here for a long time, hmmmmmmmm. Wonder if she found a lonely Zombie,ykkkkkkkkkkkkkkk..
By KDF
July 8, 2009 8:34 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Where oh where is my Wendy??? <><
By Cecil 1
July 8, 2009 9:46 PM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Well I see Harry Potter is back, like thoses movies, and like the books, good entertainment, and good fun..Well, the little red headed girl isn’t here we need something to talk about.
By KDF
July 9, 2009 11:12 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Wendy, I just finished your article in Brazos Living about going to Ireland (which you’ve mentioned here). Friendly advice — and I do mean friendly — if you want to move on to a bigger and better paper (or whatever, as a writer), you might want your columns not to read like a blog entry. The language you use is not foul, but not completely readership friendly. And you do write well. I’ ain’t no editor, but trying to help — no matter how poorly. Have a great trip, Mrs. Griswald!! <><
By mark
July 10, 2009 2:08 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
KDF (Kyle), I didn’t read Wens Brazos Living article, but dude, if it was fit for the editors, what’s the beef? Come on bud, we were in the navy, right? Okay, here’s my post and it’s back on the zombie thought that our Wendy left us with. Do you know the origination of the zombie word? My theory…. And K, you might want to tune out at this point…. Once upon a time there were these dead folks what started eating live folks. Yum good, live folks what tasted like Cheetos or chicken wings or Cheetos flavored chicken wings to dead folks and brains was most especially tasty. Anyways, there were some folks who escaped the brain eating dead people but watched the feast. And their reaction was “Oh holy hell! Look at these brain eatin’ sum Bi*”. Since reporters are well known for their observance of being readership friendly they noted that these brain eating undead were called “SumBs” by the observers. This got reduced to “sum-bees” and then to zombies. This is as far as I know the truth as told to me by El Diablos grandmother who said “don’t ever trust them brain eatin’ sum bi*s. If they get you and eat your brain, you’ll join the navy or read Ted Nugent or WORSE!”.
Sincerely, Mark Z.
By KDF
July 10, 2009 6:56 AM | Link to this | Report comment abuse
Thanks, mark. My biggest problem now is that El Diablo’s grandmother may be right. I had a doctor take out a small chunk of my brain, but God must have seen it comin’. I did join, I do read Ted, and I certainly don’t want to describe the worse part!!!! I’ve been had, and that was before the docter ate a piece of my brain. Arrrhhgg!!!!! “Fair winds and following seas”. <><