ZAMP 343 - Cooties

I'm a zombie! I've been bitten around! You're listening to the survival You're all going to die, Down. This is Zombies Ate My Podcast. Hello and welcome to Zombies Ate My Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Murphy, and joining me as always is the busy zombie lord Lou Page. How's it going, Lou? Good, but as I should be called, I am the plague bearer right now, so Ah Oh no. Uh it's that time of year though.

Yeah, it is. I've finished a dodge getting really, really sick, except for like I had a cold maybe about a month ago that I called out of sick I called out of work for. And'cause I just needed a day extra extra day of rest. But this is the first time something's kinda hit me hard. And it only hit me it only hit me this afternoon. Uh mm

The kiddo's been home sick for like two days and I've been playing nurse. And I was like, oh, I'm feeling great. I'm feeling fine. Maybe I'm gonna dodge this one. And then around lunchtime today, I started going, And I went, Oh, no I'm the plague bear. Thanks, child. Well, get out of your system before Resident Evil Requiem comes out. Uh it in case you didn't hear, it's out in two weeks, I think, as of this recording. Is it two weeks? Yeah, February twenty seventh, I believe.

Oh wow. Yeah. Oh wow. It's almost yeah, exactly. Two weeks. Um, you'll be able to tell in news when we get there because we've got one, two, three, four Resident Evil related stories, all three quarters of them related to Requiem. Um but before we get to the news, I did want to update everybody on my journey through Resident Evil Village. I did end up finishing it, uh, thanks to the third third person mode.

And I also played Shadows of Rose, the DLC sort of expansion, and I really enjoyed that one. It uh I'll say I'll g I won't spoil it because Lou is I'm trying to convince Lou to play it'cause I think it's totally worth checking out, especially if you liked Village and the story it was telling. But uh they you know the mutant baby segment in village that we talked about last episode?

Yes. Yeah, they they go back to that well. Uh Shadows of Rose is is a lot of reused assets. Like you're in the mansion, uh, Lady Dimistru's mansion castle thing. And then the second area is a reuse of like the puppet lady house. Um and they they do some and it's a similar vibe to that level. So like there's a lot of I don't wanna say rehashing, but there's a lot of like uh reuse of the

environment assets. Not necessarily like the encounters and the setups. It's all it's all different from the all those encounters are different from the main game. But um yeah, there's some there's a spooky chapter. Not as scary as Mutant Baby, but still kind of unsettling. So I'm sure. Yeah. That's what Resident Evil does, unsettling. Yeah. It's not full scary, but it's it's unsettling. Mm-hmm. Uh and yeah. It had a the ending was a bit uh it had a an emotional response. I I

I th I really I felt something at the end there. That's better than the Ada DLC. Well that was different. I I feel like um I always think of like Resident Evil. Six and before are kind of this like cheesy action movies. Whereas with Biohazard and Village, they tried to tell like a more human oriented story about Ethan and his struggles to save uh his girlfriend at the time and then then his baby in the second one. Um

We'll see what Requiem brings in terms of that emotional attachment. It seems like they're trying to do both with the dual characters. But uh I I did really enjoy Village and the DLC. I feel bad that it took me so long to actually play it, but it has me excited for Requiem and we are we're just Patiently waiting for that uh Steam Deck uh green check mark to see if Lou can

jump on board for for day one, so we'll keep an eye out. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. But with that, let's get into the news.

Uh, number the virus has completely devastated over a hundred and fifty of the world's major regions and then is spreading rapidly As I said at the top of the show, very resident focused. And if our chatter about the Resident Evil Village playthrough that I did has you thinking of playing it. Um Humble Bundle has you covered because if you go to Humble Bundle Choice, Resident Evil Village is part of the February bundle.

Which will be available uh well, in February. It drops in two weeks or like a week and a half. I think uh It it rolls is it how does the choice work? It rolls through it you you you can pay for it now and get it or you can wait and they charge you I think at the end of the month. Sometimes I've been chomping at the bit to pay somet play something and I've paid early.

Yes. Uh you you can you can pay now, you can subscribe, and they'll charge you when I think they charge you like the week before it ends or something. And um it's got Resident Evil Village, which is obviously why we're talking about it. Um, Date Everything, which is a game that uh look, it's not for the kids. Uh it's

Uh it's a it's a game where you date everything. Um I uh my co host on Gamers Inn, Jocelyn, played this and enjoyed it and I'm I'm playing it now'cause I'm trying to um I I'm doing a a host a special for Gamers In where we talk about romance and video games. And this one was suggested because like I don't know, it's romance the game. You just date everything. Uh, but again, not for the kids. Uh I really like Steamworld build. I had a lot of fun with that one, so it's cool. And

A squirrel with a gun looks really weird. So, you know, there's lots to love. Squirrel with a gun has been one of those games that I've seen and I've been like this might be fun for an afternoon but I don't want to pay money for. And so the fact that it comes in the bundle, I'm like, okay, I'm getting eight other games. I'll take it for 99 cents. Yeah. And Core Keeper is well received. Like this is a s a solid month. So if you're interested in Village, looking to pick up some other games.

The humble choice uh bundle for February is a solid addition to your collection. Uh all right, more Resident Evil. Uh Lou, you felt pretty strongly about this one when we talked about it pre-show. Resident Evil Requiem has a new live action trailer. Evil has always had a name. And I'm guessing it's umbrella. Yeah, uh it

I watched the I watched this a couple week uh what was it like a week ago when this came out? I believe so. And I was all excited. It said it all the ads for it that like news like news stations were talking about advertised it as trailer and they said just called it Resident Evil. They didn't really say Requiem. They implied live action Resident Evil trailer.

And I thought, oh, is this the new movie? Oh, I'm really excited. Uh, this is ahead of schedule. I can't wait. And then I watched it and I went, oh, this is for the game. And then I watched it and it the acting's great. The writing's great. It's it's it's very resident evil. It tells a sad story about the fall of Umbrella, and that's cool, but we know all this. I I like this was pure marketing. This was they had money to blow on marketing, so we're gonna do a live action thing.

and get people excited because we got a live action movie coming in. This isn't gonna be live action, but we'll fool people. I I this this this was fine. Like I'm not mad, but I just kind of was left disappointed. I was like, okay We know this stuff already. Either show me more of the game or show me the trailer for the movie that I actually care about. Oh I never really thought about the movie in September and how that

could be confusing now that you bring that up. I I ac honestly didn't make that connection. The article that got recommended to me on my phone when this dropped said Resident Evil live action trailer. It didn't say anything about it being game related. So I watched for about the first minute and I went, Yeah, this is game related. This is not movie related. And then I went, Oh, okay. All right. Never mind.

Yeah. No, this is for the game. I I will say that the ad, uh, I I really dig the vibe that they were, you know, showcasing. It's very focused on the outbreak in Raccoon City, so it's sort of acting as a bit of a uh a prequel, so to say, about uh for Requiem because Requiem deals with returning to Raccoon City thirty years later. Um but yeah, it's m it's marketing. You're you're not wrong. It's totally just hey, we made a

Flashy trailer, live action. Um, and not to be left behind. We have a a gameplay trailer as well. Resident Evil Requiem has been making the rounds and they were just featured in the PlayStation State of Play, which aired uh Thursday, February twelfth. And this trailer puts a pretty heavy focus on Leon and and the struggles he's going through. Uh it seems as though we're getting more about uh his story. He's infected, I guess.

That's not good. Yeah, it it looks like I think we're gonna get a fifty fifty story. leaning more on Leon. I think so. Yeah yeah, it's hard to say, but like I you do see them interacting more. I'm surprised that uh the trailers seem to bring Race and Leon together. uh and and I was worried that they would sort of be doing their own thing, but Grace seems very Keen on helping Leon with the adventure, which is good because I do want to see both of them feature prominently.

Um I'm glad Leon's back, but it sounds like he's gonna need some help because survivors of Raccoon City, I guess, are are dying. Um and we see that Leon has this infection as well, so he's racing against the clock. So we'll we'll see what happens, but uh it sounds like it's gonna be a really a really action, fast paced video game. So I'm I'm excited. I think th her segments will be slower.

And more spooky, at least in the beginning. I think we're gonna get her gameplay, I have a funny feeling, is gonna be more like playing as Ethan. in seven, and she'll get more combat heavy as the game goes on. But I think everything you play with Leon, he's gonna be the heavy. He's gonna be the one that plays like uh like an action game. And that I'm all for both. I I think that I think that's I don't think they c can go back to being a pure no combat

spooky game. Um I think they did that with seven and it worked once. I don't think they could do it multiple times. And the average Resident Evil game is what, six to ten hours usually? You can't do a ten hour game in Resident Evil where there's no combat and you run. They they That that would get so boring. Yeah, no, for sure. I I don't I don't get the sense that this is gonna stay a

a a spooky game. I think we get like one or two chapters with Grace starting out, which was some of the early trailers we saw of her sneaking around a house and avoiding detection and stuff. So uh I I think her side of things is gonna be action packed as well. Just a a different type of action. Um So I I'm excited. I uh I am having finished Village and Shadow of Rose, I'm and watching these trailers, I'm leaning more towards day one.

So I'll I'll I I think I'm gonna get this on the Playstation, play with my wireless headphones, get immersed and just uh Yeah, I might I might even be convinced to play through it multiple times. I really like Leon. He's one of my favorite uh Resident Evil characters. I I do I think my I think like yeah, that's why I'm excited f I was excited about that uh Code Veronica remake'cause I I like Claire as well. I really like Resident Evil too.

You've heard the you've heard the deal, right? They announced it's gonna be five. Oh did they I th well see I had that news story and then it got retracted. I guess the ESRB rating had been there for over a year alongside some other Oh, okay.'Cause I saw that news article I I I didn't realize it had been redacted, so I was like, Oh Yeah. They were just reporting on some old stuff and and they caught it pretty quick, but I was I look, Resident Evil V remake eventually? Yes, for sure.

Would I prefer Code Veronica? I feel like they already skipped Code Veronica when they went to four because they couldn't help themselves. And four was amazing, don't get me wrong, but I do want Uh Code Veronica is one is one of the only Resident Evil games left that I have not played in the main series, and I would uh would really appreciate if that got the remake treatment. So I'm still holding out hope.

But but five would be cool. I liked five too. Five was good. Punch a rock, you know, that sort of thing. Uh That line was in village uh from uh uh Heisenberg says it. You let that guy fall follow that guy you're following around, why doesn't he go punch a rock or something like that? He makes reference to the rock being punched by Chris.

Uh so there you go. Um okay one more Resident Evil story and I know Lou you're excited about this one because you're a major amiibo collector. Leon is officially getting an amiibo. How excited are you about this? Honestly, not really. But if I saw it on sale, I would get it to have on the shelf'cause I think it's cool. But I don't go around collecting amiibos. This wasn't like, oh my God. I was like, wait, do people still collect amiibos? Is that still a thing?

I'm projecting because I'm the amiibo collector and I still do buy them and uh if Ashley's hearing some of this th through the walls, she's probably like Uh Ryan, you definitely still buy amiibos. Now, I'll say this about these amiibo. Uh amiibo uh quality has come a long way, and I'm I'm not convinced that these faces for Leon and Grace look

um up up to par with what I would expect. You know? It's they just look a little too action figure like. I think that's the struggle with trying to adapt like uh uh photorealistic characters. Most of the amiibo I buy are the Nintendo cartoony characters, so See, here's my thing. My biggest gripe with my biggest gripe with a with amiibo isn't that they're there. It's the price point. Oh, really? It is a little figure that's gonna be on your shelf. I understand charging like 15, 20 bucks for it.

Right. But sometimes when you browse these things on Amazon, they're like forty five and fifty bucks for some of them. I'm like, I'm not paying forty five, fifty bucks for a little figure that sits on my shelf. I'm sorry. Some of them are rather expensive. Um yeah. Yeah, I th I think I think the Metroid ones, which were really cool and really nice, uh the bike was like forty dollars Canadian for Sam is on the bike.

uh figure. Now, I'll say this, like when you compare the quality uh and and the price to other high quality figurines, like amiibo are Like pretty top notch when it comes to like the how the figures look. 'Cause like if you're looking at buying like a a premium figure, you're looking at hundreds of dollars usually. So it's it's hard it it it's a balance, you know, like I I don't think we should, you know

specifically write off these Resident Evil amiibos because like oh they don't look perfect. It's like well they're gonna be like twenty dollar figures. Yeah, I don't care how they look. They look fine to me from the photo. I I I'm not I'm the one giving them a hard time. Yeah, I'm gonna say uh the my gripe is just that the price point for them in general is too expensive.

Um, but that's that's just uh that's just me. It it got printed in a factory with i in w from a piece of plastic that cost them all of maybe a buck to make top. And it's got an RFID chip in the bottom which costs pennies on the dollar. and they printed you a thing, uh, usually something they own the rights to already. So with Nintendo manufacturing, it's not like they're paying for the licensing.

It's already owned by them and then they charge you twenty five, thirty five, forty five bucks for it. And I'm just like, okay Cool. And it doesn't move. It just has an RFID chip. And half the time whenever I've had an amiibo and I go to use it with a game, the amiibo doesn't do anything. And I'm like, Oh, great. Cool. Yeah. I I've had I I've had pretty good luck with the amiibo, but I I think the third party amiibo usually have

aren't as good, but these are gonna be available in summer uh twenty twenty six, so later this year. They're not launching alongside the game. There is some functionality tied to them, so you'll be able to To use them in your Resident Evil Requiem replays later this summer on Nintendo Switch 2. Um pulling out all the stops to market.

This brand new adventure. And that concludes our Resident Evil news. But we've got one more story before we get to our main topic, which is the fact that we have our uh I don't know if this is the first first major casting for the new House of the Dead adaptation, where uh Isabel Merced from The Last of Us and Um I'm trying to think of the uh Superman, she's Hawk Girl in in the new DC DCU. She's gonna be in this new movie, House of the Dead.

Which is pretty exciting'cause she's awesome in everything I've seen her in. And she makes a good Door of the Explorer. Yeah. We were tr I was trying to remember where that came up and we're like, was she in something else where we would have talked? She was in Last of Us and I and I brought it up then I think that she was in Door of the Explorer the movie, which was fun. So there you go. Now you get to watch her in the House of Dead. The first one is good, the second one is bang.

But that's a different story for a different show. Is she in the second one? I think we also had this conversation on the show. Like, oh, there's two of them. In the first one, the first one, it's it it it it's her and it's got a bunch of celebrities in it. And they're clearly trying to make something for older kids to make them laugh and parents to laugh at and be entertained. And the second one feels like

They waited too long to use her to do another movie. So they had to get another actress. And it feels the the first one, if it had come out in theaters, I think it would have blown up, but it was during the pandemic. The second one feels like Nickelodeon made for T V movie and it feels that way too. Yeah. Now Back to the House of the Dead. This statement. I'm not super familiar with the House of the Dead franchise.

But Anderson, uh W Paul W. S. Anderson, who's directing, he's known for Mortal Kombat and uh a good chunk of the Resident Evil films. Um Previous to the reboot. Uh and Monster Hunter should also be mentioned. Uh he's he's he's you know, he's all over the place in terms of quality. But his statement on House of the Dead is We envisage this as the start of a tent pole franchise which can explore the rich world and lore that Sega has created over a whole series of films.

That that doesn't line up with my knowledge of the House of the Dead, but I could be wrong. Is there a deep door for that? This is this is this is marketing speak. Um House of the Dead lore of the first game is basically There's a Science project run awry at a mansion and two agents go in and clear the house. And there is the the there's a story where the agents are somehow connected to the guy who's causing the madness. It's very it's very the best way I can describe it, it's very reanimator.

Somebody's trying to bring somebody back from the dead and now his monsters are running amok and these agents are killing it and instead of that. It I mean, there's lore, there's a second game, he gets away at the end and he runs off to like London and they chase him through London. And that's the second game. And then there's a third game, and I can't remember the plot of the third game, but they're all light gun games.

It's not like th there's not a lot to a light gun game except that you run around shooting stuff. They can kind of make their own plot and that's As much as I'm not a huge Paul W.S. Anderson fan, he's done a couple of movies I really like and a couple of movies I don't like. Well, a lot of movies I don't like. This might be in his wheelhouse if it's just shooty shooty bang bang. Yeah. Well, can't be worse than that UV Bowl film they made.

So No, I mean I mean he's no Uwe Uwe Bowl, he's better way better than that. I mean he made Event Horizon, which is one of my favorite movies. But You know, in the first Mortal Kombat movie's pretty good and even the f I'll give him the first Resident Evil movie is pretty good, but after that it's kinda like everything he he He makes things that are not intended for an American audience, I don't think, usually. His movies often feel aimed at a European audience.

Here's an interesting piece. I'm just looking at the House of the Dead um Wikipedia. And they go and under the film adaptation section, th now this might not be true, but I guess in December twenty twenty five, Uve Bol revealed his plan to direct a sequel to his original 2003 adaptation, which he's calling 23 years later Return to Zombie Island. That can't be right, right? Like he can't do that. That sounds like him trying to sue them. Yeah, I guess. I mean it's not his thing.

He probably still has some rights somewhere. But the rights probably say he has to have something in production. So if he adds it to a Wikipedia page, he probably thinks he can somehow make them pay for the rights back or something. He's broke, so I'm not su I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. For sure. Uh Oh gosh, yeah. Funny enough.

This whole film adaptation section for the House of the Dead is quite the read. I encourage everybody to go check this out because it goes from Uve Bowl to uh a uh the direct to video sequel to a third one that was made and then changed into something else, which was starring Dean Kane and then lots of lots of stuff in there. We'll we'll we could probably unpack that one day. But yeah, I I like Isabella. She's great and everything I've seen her in. She's amazing in The Last of Us.

So we'll see how she does with yet another zombie franchise in the next few years.

Now we didn't mention this off the top of the show. I've I've been a bad host. Uh our main topic this week is the film Cooties, and we're gonna dive into that right now. Vice Principal Sam. Yeah, you're go for Sims. I'm onto some medication for medical conditions, so I may not be saying things correctly, but I'm pretty sure I might be seeing some of your students possibly eating Mr. Peterson? And that's a great intro to basically the humor that you can expect from Cooties.

It is a silly film. It is incredibly silly. Yes. Uh so we're gonna dive into this one. This is the twenty fourteen film. A mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the kids into a feral swarm of mass savages. An unlikely hero must lead a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives. And that leader is Elijah Wood. So he gets to he gets to do some more uh you know uh leading uh

This so I'll say this right off the bat. Uh this movie is okay. It's not great. It's not bad. Um, I think it is saved by like the the the cast is this like yeah. It's very stacked. Like it's not A listers, but it's like a solid number of recognizable comedians. It's a solid recognizable list of people that you'll be like, Oh, I love that guy. Oh, I love that person. Oh, this guy's great. Oh, she's awesome. It's full of that where you're gonna be like,

The except for I would say the biggest name actor in it is Elijah Wood and probably uh Rain Wilson. They're the two biggest names I'd say in it. But you spend the whole movie being like, oh yeah, I know that person. Oh yeah, I know that person. Oh yeah, I know that person. And everybody in it is great. Like they all sell their roles. Uh the only problem is is the script. No. Everybody is An idiot in this movie. So it's consistent in that regard, right? But my my my biggest gripe is

They it is Elijah Wood's character becomes likable as the movie goes on. Yes. But they kind of try to assume that you're going to like him because he's Elijah Wood. So he does some stuff that you're kind of like, stop talking, you're obnoxious. Stop talking, you're obnoxious. Stop. Just stop. And then all of a sudden, like halfway through the movie, he kind of turns it around and you like him again. And I'm like, where was this character?

thirty five minutes ago. Because if you name drop that you're a writer writing a book one more time, I'm gonna reach through the screen and slap you. And he's assuming these kids w will care. Like, even th the kids in the film, like, they don't They the kids are not characters. There's one kid that gets enough screen time where you could consider him a character. His name is Patriot.

And he's he's obnoxious, he's a bully, he's picking on kids, he's giving the teacher a hard time. Like nobody in this movie is it's all it's all stereotypes, it's all Goofiness. There's a line in the beginning of the movie when Elijah Woods' character is asking his mom for feedback on the book he wrote. Right. And she says everybody's unlikable. And then she describes all these things that are wrong with his book, right? And I you the first 25 minutes of this movie, it's like Elijah Woods book.

Like everything she says kind of fits the plot. I don't know if that was the intent. But that was sort of the vibe I got. I don't think that this is a bad movie, but if you look it up on most review sites, it's like a solid five or six. And I would say that's about where it ranges. Uh would I watch this again? Yeah. But I would watch it under the caveat of showing it to somebody else. I would not watch this one alone for fun again. Um it It's it's okay. It when it's funny, it's very funny.

When it's tr not funny, it's kind of like cringy. Yeah, I'd agree with that. I will say though, the effects budget, they did an amazing job with the effects. Like I didn't see any seams there. Nope. Um the the the effects are good. Uh like I said, the acting is excellent. Um the guy in the van outside that's like the the the the the security guard or whatever played by Hurley from from Lost.

I was waiting for that character to have a purpose. He got there. And he literally only has a pr he only has a purpose at the end of the movie to show have Rain Wilson return. Otherwise his character serves absolutely no purpose, the whole movie. Well, that's kind of the theme of the movie is as you said, no one's very likable. It these teachers are Like I said, like they're I find in in movies and TV show, teachers are portrayed in one of two ways.

bumbling and not caring about their students, which is what we see in this movie, or, you know, I gotta help these kids, I gotta I gotta make a difference. Uh you know, it's it's it's one or the other. It's um I think I think a show that does teachers really well in sort of the US Hollywood model is Abbott Elementary. Like they do a really good job of portraying teachers in that show.

This movie does not do a great job of portraying teachers because there's a lot of scenes where the teachers are like, Actively not paying attention to the kids, like the the kid that is infected at the start is clearly sick. And the teacher is Elijah Wood standing in front of the class talking about his book and not noticing the stuff that's happening. And It just It bothered me. I was like, oh my gosh, like this guy's an ass.

I remember the first time I watched this, I this was on my radar. I was super excited. I think we even talked about it on this show when it was coming out. Yes. Um,'cause this came out around the time we started this show. Um And I remember being super, super excited and then it came to a streaming service and I started watching it. And the characters were so unlikable. I stopped the movie and went, I'll come back to this when I'm in a better mood. And I did.

Like I think like two or three weeks went by and I went like, Oh yeah, I should probably finish that and I finished it and went, Yeah, I'll watch it for Zamp, but I don't think I'm gonna watch it again until then. No. Uh and I should mention I watched this uh it was available for free on Plex. So if you have a Plex account, you can just

Stream it. Uh it's available. I watched it for free on Fandango. Yeah. So it's with ads. It's out there. Uh no ads for me, although I was watching on the computer, so maybe I watched it on the computer and I had ads. A lot of them. Oh Well, that's the difference between Fandango and Plex, I guess. Yeah, uh no big deal. No big deal. That's uh that's It is what it is. Um and again, it was I li it's not a bad movie. Uh Elijah Wood is definitely way better in it in the second half of the movie. Um

I like every actor that's in it, like all of them. I actively am like, oh, I love I've I love them in this or I love them in that. So it was nice to see them portray their characters the way they did. And it w the plot is so

The only the the two things I would say is the beginning of the movie, they're very unlikable, but they grow on you after about the 25 minute mark as characters. And then the last third of the movie, like the last twenty minutes of the movie, they get out of the school and you go, Okay, where's this going?

And you think it's gonna be like they escape, they're gonna get to the military base and we're gonna find out like what's going on, and they get to the next town and they find out that this is going on everywhere, and you go, Oh, they're gonna do the the the the we're driving away into the sunset ending, aren't they? Where we don't get any resolutions. And I think that is the weakest point of the movie.

Yeah. It's an abrupt ending. It's a it's not just an abrupt ending, but it's an abrupt and super cliche ending. Yeah. It's super sequel setup which they obviously did not get, you know. Yeah. And well, I I don't even know if it was a sequel setup. I think it was I think they just they got to a point, they had a script and they realized that they could no n it wasn't gonna get more than eighty-eight minutes, which is what this movie is.

Right. Like eighty six minutes, which is the short um, I believe it I don't know if it's changed, but to be considered a motion picture. And not a short. You have to be longer than 85 minutes or 88 minutes. And this goes over the 88 minutes length by like exactly like two minutes. It's short. It's not a long one. Nope. It it's a breeze to get through. Um There's a lot of filler footage.

Um, you can tell that there was a lot of stuff left on the cutting room floor because there's a sequence in the beginning where they're showing the chicken nuggets get made that are going to infect the children, and it's really gross. Super gross. Not a lot. I I uh I do not have a weak stomach for much of anything, but there's something about food stuff that's gross. makes me nauseous.

So I had to like fast forward to that part of the movie because I was like, Oh, like There's the infamous scene in Dead Alive where mom, uh zombie mom is eating pudding and her own ear falls off in the in the pudding and then she eats the pudding and spits out the the thing. And it's supposed to be funny. And I get why it's funny. But food humor like that and gross out food humor

makes me un makes me queasy and uncomfortable. So that's a scene in that movie I don't like. And that's how this whole opening felt like. And it's like it's like a solid five minutes of this. And I'm like This is filler so they could get to the eighty eight minutes. Well, it it effectively establishes where the virus came from. Like uh uh Yeah, and and they could it they they showed it, but they didn't have to They show like maggots in the food and stuff and I was like that.

That's excessive. They could have just shown something gross. A weird looking chicken get chopped up and put in the chicken nuggets. Like that's all they had to show. They didn't need I didn't need five minutes of explanation that it was the chicken nuggets. You've made it pretty clear it's the chicken nuggets. Yeah, and and this is kind of a an odd concept for me because like where where I live we don't have like we had cafeterias, but my understanding is in the States there's like

The schools have cafeteries and and you just get lunch? Is that what it is? Like every every kid got a lunch. Okay. Yeah. We we have to pack our lunches here. Yeah the the where I grew up it was split. Okay. You could they the school provided lunch to kids that were uh poor. So that every kid got a meal? You got a discounted lunch? was the idea. Um And I always brown paper bagged a peanut butter sandwich every day.

Right. Because I didn't qualify for that. Right. So so low income families would would have their lunch providers. Or if you brought money, you could buy lunch at the school. That was the other option for you. And I never did that because I always thought the food at school was gross. Wow. Don't show this movie to uh your kids because uh uh Violet will not be watching this. Um the town I live in actually provides her lunch for free every day. Oh, okay. Well there you go.

And and and it is and I have been to her cafeteria. It is not what I was served as a kid. She gets like the the like the farm down the street provides them the veggies that go in their meals and stuff. And I'm like Holy crap. Oh, chicken nuggets in this movie were local, so Uh no no no. Uh the the uh th they do have an option for nuggets. The other the only other thing I'll say that's funny about my kid is that they have they have a they have like dominoes deliver pizza on Fridays and stuff.

And I'm like, so did you get pizza? And she goes, No. I'm like, why? You love Domino's. You love pizza. Yeah. But I like sun butter and jellies better. So I had a sun butter and jelly. I'm like, oh kick kid. Wow. I'll remember that you said that. Passing on pizza, what is the world coming to?

They they her other favorite thing at home is tacos and they do tacos on Tuesdays. Of course. Yes, they do. And it it and I've seen it. It's like restaurant quality tacos. And I'm like, so did you get tacos? No, cause bummy makes tacos better than the school. I got a sun, butter, and jelly. Okay. Sounds like we're missing out on the sun, butter and jelly. So uh no, it's uh it's very it's very interesting. I and I know it differs, you know. Country to country. And and we do have uh like

Um where my kids go to school, they do have like a lunch program and if you wanted to, you could get something different every day that they deliver in. I think they have a a sub day pizza. They did tacos. All kinds of stuff. So it like but it's interesting that intro is just so gross and I the the kid who gets the chicken nugget, like, does a double take, I thought, in line when she's given the food.

But she still eats it and it's just so, so gross. Uh and as I said, like the kids don't really they're not really characters. They're they're there to be the zombies. Um, and I have to imagine these kids just had a blast making this movie because they are Feral the whole move like first fifteen minutes, they're there, and then they're zombies. All of them. Like it goes pretty quick, uh, when things turn for the worst.

There's a line, I don't I don't think I captured it because it was a bit noisy, but there's a line where so there's this character named Doug. and he is the Stereotypical guy in the zombie movie who knows the rules, knows what to look out for, but even he has this quirk that you find out later on. I guess he had like a six inch spike go through his skull. So he's got a He's he's got a uh

A personality quirk a little bit. It's s he of all the characters, he was the one that kind of irked me the most because he he was all whenever you they needed a laugh, he would say something weird. And you'd be like, Okay. And then they would explain it with, Oh yeah, my brain. I had a mail nail rod my brain. I was like, Okay, whatever, dude. You're it it like

I get it, but like I felt like they overdid him just of all the characters, he was the most over the top. At one point, he literally picks up a chicken nugget and is like, I'm going to make a cure. And I'm like, Sure you are, dude. Whatever. There's five minutes left of this movie. There is no way you're making the cure. No. No. But uh he he does have

Some pretty fun lines. And I do have this one where uh he well, he's examining so Elijah Wood, he gets scratched and then um this is where it establishes the rules of it for the virus and why it it why it seems to be impacting the kids and not the adults, uh, to the point of turning the adults into zombies and and uh well he uses the scientific method to determine it.

How do you know all this? Well, Rebecca, I just examined his fluids with two of history's oldest scientific instruments. My hands. Oh, dog. Don't worry, I'm wearing gloves. Oh no, you're not. And again, the effects work in this movie and the sort of the gross out moments. This was one that was like W so over the top. Because again, like

I'm not gonna describe what it was, but his his hands were dirty and he was not wearing gloves. So y you could use your imagination there. Yep. Uh so yeah, it it's uh it's he's interesting. He's interesting. I just felt like they took whenever they didn't know what to do and they needed like a gag to kind of relieve the the stressful moment of what was going on in the movie, they would have him speak.

And then he would for like twenty minutes and then something would go on and he'd be like, cheese doodles and they'd be like, What? And he'd be like, Oh I I don't know. I just say weird things. And it was like, Oh, come on, man. Yeah. But he's the only teacher paying attention to the issue at hand. All the other teachers are just like Yes. We need to fighting amongst themselves. Yeah, exactly. What's her uh what's her name? Uh

No, the the the blonde is paying attention to Elijah Wood and her two boy and and her boyfriend that Rain Wilson that are fighting. Uh Uh what's his name from uh st uh what's it called? He w he's from the that show on CBS. Oh, 30 Rock. Um 30 Rock Uh he's basically his thirty rock character. Yes. Like when is he not in anything he he plays? That's literally all he's doing is he's being his thirty rock character, which is fine. I I

That character's highly entertaining, so whatever. Yeah. And then work with what you got. The other teacher's paying attention and then the other lady, she might as well be in another movie. Which yeah, the the I can't think of her name. Is her name no, her name's Rebecca, right? Yeah, but she was in New Girl for a l for a a a while. Yeah, she was. And and I and I and I love that actress.

But I was kind of like, every time she would contribute something to the plot, it was to be like shocked at something, or like to talk about her nails, or be like the self-absorbed character. And I was like, these characters are all tropes. And they're leaning too heavy on the trope. Yeah, for sure. I mean, like I said, it's not a It's not a bad movie, it's not a great movie, it's okay.

It's all right. If somebody said that they wanted to watch a zombie comedy movie and I got five or six movies in and they said yeah, seen that, seen that, seen that, seen that, I would throw this one out. I don't think anybody I don't think this is anybody's favorite movie. I don't think anybody loves this movie, but I bet there's some fans that really like it. It's okay. Yeah. If you like the actors that are in it and you haven't seen it before, I think it's totally worth watching. Yep, yep.

I will say though, I had one more note here. Uh I I d I really liked the way they used the school setting. to remove the cell phone problem of of of horror movies. Usually they use the throwaway line, the cell f the cell tow towers are overloaded. The the phones don't work. But in this case it's like

It's a school, they take all the phones away, and then they get smashed by the by the zombies. Which nowadays is not believable because every kid has a tablet. Well, y you say well, yeah, yeah, no, and you're right. Um At least some schools are like zero device uh zero phones.

But you're right, tablets are pretty prevalent. My child goes to a school where every child has a tablet assigned to them that that doesn't leave the classroom. They don't use them every day. Um they use them um Uh b according to Violet's teacher and Violet, they only use it once a week. They have a special learning app that they use once or twice a week and that's the only thing they use it for.

Um, but the teacher has responds to me via messages all day on the phone if I let like uh she was out sick today. So I just sent the teacher a message and was like, Yep, ballot's gonna be with me one more day. And the teacher was like, Okay, thank you. Yeah. Well it's it's And well then the zombies would take out the Wi Fi, so

Yeah. Yeah. You know. They I just thought it was an interesting way to like immediately remove it because I do know that there are school boards, especially at that younger age. where they have a zero tolerance for devices. Yep. I I like that. I it's one of the things that does bother me about my local school district.

Yeah. So I mean it's like I said, uh it's not something you're gonna rave about after you see it. I think we were pretty lukewarm on it. We didn't hate it, we didn't love it, but I'm glad we watched it because I again I like the cast. They're all very uh likable comedians that you've seen before. Elijah Wood is always fun in anything he does. So check this one out. It's Cooties. Came out in twenty fourteen and

Yeah. It's a it's a fun watch and it's a quick fun watch. It's not gonna overstay its welcome, even though it ends with a where we go now? Oh, we go where the kids won't go, and I'm like Oh, are we gonna get a a post credit stinger of them going to I mean where would they end up?

That was the logic I didn't understand. Where would they go where kids don't want to go? Weren't they already there, which is school? The implication was Antarctica. At least that's what I heard. That's what somebody said. I was like, whatever. Why that doesn't make any sense? Again, the ending the ending of the movie is the weekend.

Yes, a hundred percent. You're right. It feels like they wrote the script of like, how do we end it? I don't know. And then they came up with this. That's exactly what happened. They didn't need to find the cure. They can do the riding off into the sunset ending. I don't have a problem with that, but the way they did it was so ham fisted and cliche that I was like. It felt like somebody watched Zombieland and then was like, I can do that, but then had a quarter of the budget. Yeah.

Well the other thing too is that they i i everyone the whole world appeared to be or at least the the states and surrounding states were infected. Like i it wasn't localized to the town. It it had kinda escaped. So where they're going is likely also to likely to be infected. So it's it's not a it's not a happy ending by any means. The world is currently overrun by these zombie kids. So

Yeah, I d I don't know. You're right. The weakest part was the ending. Once you accept the fact that all these characters are caricatures of tropes of other zombie films and nobody is smart. Even the character that they made explain all the sciencey stuff to be smart. has this, you know, built-in quirk where it's like he does all this

quirky stuff because he had a a nail in his brain when he was a kid. And and it's it's just an excuse to be like, okay, we need someone to be the smart one, but we need a way to make him silly. Got it. Perfect. Uh check it out. It I think it's worth watching if you're a fan of zombies. If you like Elijah Wood and you like Rain Wilson and Alison Pill and everybody that's in it, I mean you'll have a fun time with it. Just don't go into it expecting just don't go into it expecting like

Zombieland. You're not gonna get that. No, this is not zombieland. Uh although it tries to pull from, as you said, it tries to pull from that. So, well, you know what? Let us look at wrapping this up here. And what better way than to look at what's coming up next on Zamp?

We've got yet another Extra Life movie up next with the Bride of Reanimator. And I believe I looked into this, it's available on AMC, which I'm guessing is just Shudder, right? Like they've they've combined those now. Is that how that works? Um d I still pay for shutter separate, but uh I think that they're going to roll the two products together soon. So Yeah. Yeah, I tried to find it and uh I mean I can rent it obviously, but uh I think it's on AMC as well. So

That's our next one. We watched the first one. Gosh, I can't even remember how long how m how long ago we watched it. We watched the first one, right? I'm not I'm not crazy. That's why we're doing the second one. Yes, we did do the first one. Okay. Let me see if I can find it. Okay, so Reanimator Oh you got a guess for how long it's been when since we covered the first one? Uh twenty sixteen.

It close. It was a it was a commentary track for Reanimator and it was in twenty fourteen, july thirtieth. Wow. Yeah. I knew it was early days of the show. Very early days. I don't remember it being a commentary track. We have not done one of those in a while. No, we haven't. I don't remember I don't remember I don't I don't remember Yeah, but I guess we did a commentary track for it. It's one of my favorite movies. I've watched it probably twenty-five times since we watched it last.

Oh maybe we did a commentary track and we talked about it. I think that might have been the case as I think we watched it and then I think a couple years later we might have talked about it. Oh, you know what? It's uh this there's a couple episodes where we talked about it because I guess there was a listener that wrote in with their their thoughts on the audio commentary. But anyways, we're gonna watch Bride a Reanimator next, and we're gonna talk about that.

As we mentioned and as you probably saw in your social media feeds. Um there is a new Resident Evil movie c or movie, new Resident Evil game coming out with Resident Evil Requiem. So uh we got some things to check out on that one before we commit, but uh we'll definitely be talking more. about that game very soon. We'll know more in two weeks.

Exactly. Yeah. So stay tuned for that. And that's going to do it for this episode of Azamp. I want to thank our patrons at patreon.com/slash zombiesate my podcast. You can also visit us on the web at zombies8mypodcast dot com. You can send us an email. We may read it on the show, info at zombies8mypodcast.com

Join our Discord at tiny dot cc slash zamp discord. It is the best place to connect with fellow listeners as well as Lou and I. This has been Zombies Ape My Podcast, and as always we close out the show with some fine zombie knowledge from the busy zombie load himself. Take it away, Lou. This movie has taught me one thing. Children are plague bearers.

Yes, that well yeah. That's why you're sick right now. Probably because you're you're kidding daycare. Yep, absolutely. That was my thought. I was watching this and I was like, how ironic is this? Actually it was in the middle of watching the I was ref I refreshed the wash today while I was working.

And I got to the point where I was like, Oh, and now I've got a cough. Well, isn't that ironic? I'm watching this movie and I've been taking care of a sick child for two days and now I'm getting sick. Great.