It has been said that everything is better with Zombies in it. I’m not sure who said it first – or when – but rest assured it has been said and repeated many times; usually when commenting on something with zombies in it. So in the interest of the zombification of the upcoming Christmas holiday, I thought I would seek out and recognize some of the people who “get it”. People who, with a light heart – and a dark sense of humor – have brought new life to traditional things by infusing it with the undead.
Tim Burton gets it. Combining Halloween and Christmas in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was absolutely brilliant. In fact – in this case Mr. Burton adds much more than zombies to Christmas – but an entire cast of ghouls, ghosts, demons and monsters. This has become one of my favorite “Christmas” movies and I watch it at least once every year.
Fred Perry and David Hutchison get it. They have created a pair of comics titled “A Very Zombie Christmas” available from Antarctic Press. The covers are graced with a Zombie version of Santa Clause.
Treyarch Game Studios gets it. While adding zombie levels to games has been common place for many years – in Call Of Duty: Black Ops we get to fight zombies playing as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro or Robert McNamara – at the Pentagon. Oh hell yea.
Seth Grahame-Smith gets it. Working together with the deceased writer Jane Austin, the classic book Pride and Prejudice has been updated to give us Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. About 85% of the original classic survives the makeover leaving 15% zombie content. Well done!
James Silva of Ska Studios gets it. Silva deduced that for something to be successful one only needs to add zombies to it. Creating the 2009 tongue in cheek Xbox live indie game titled “I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1? he sold over 300,000 copies- breaking indie game records and winning awards and critical acclaim.
Max Brooks gets it. In 2003 Brooks wrote The Zombie Survival Guide – a parody, but surprisingly real guide to preparing for and surviving a zombie outbreak. With references to “actual” outbreaks and practical advice about weaponry and home fortification, this guide is a must read for any zombie fan or zombiphobe. The 2009 follow-up titled Recorded Attacks documents past civilizations and cultures that have fought and survived zombie outbreaks.
Pop Cap Games gets it. Who else could have conceived of adding zombies to a gardening game. Plants Vs. Zombies is destined to be a long-lived classic for generations of addicts to come.
Rockstar Games gets it. By adding zombies to their 2010 smash hit Red Dead Redemption with the Unead Nightmare DLC, they have completely changed the game experience. They didn’t just add some zombies – they created a new story line and fused it into the entire RDR world making this the biggest and best DLC for the game.
Unfortunately, the same “makes everything better” moniker can not be stamped on Santa Clause. In fact very few things would be made better with the addition on Santa Clause. Adding a Santa Wave complete with flying reindeer just wouldn’t add much to Call Of Duty. And Plants Vs. Santa doesn’t sound appealing either. There have been some really bad slasher films with Santa – and I just don’t see how adding Santa made them better – even for those that had nowhere to go but up.
Maybe we just haven’t tried hard enough to include Santa in other elements of our culture. So bring on the Christmas DLC for John Marston to deliver gifts to reluctant enemies – spreading peace and joy. Maybe Pride and Predjudice and Santa would be a calming and joyous read. What if someone MAED A GAM3 W1TH 5ANT4 1N IT!!!1? Max Brooks next book could be The Christmas Survival Guide – something many of us could use at this time of year. Maybe it’s time we just give Santa a chance.
I asked our writers to respond to the following three questions and statements about zombies.
- What is one thing that was better because it had Zombies in it?
- Name something that would suck if Zombies were added to it.
- Name something that would be awesome with Zombies added to it.
To keep with the theme – consider the responses both in the aspect of Zombies and then again with Santa instead. I think we will all find that Zombies trump Santa nearly every time. Sorry Santa.
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Today, a general email went out to Lego Universe subscribers informing them that the game will be shut down on January 31, 2012. The reason given is simple – there just are not enough subscribers to sustain the game financially. Recently, the game went “free-to-play” and offered the entire game world open to all for a weekend, but apparently, this didn’t attract enough interest to keep the game fiscally viable.
