About the Zombie Encounter

The Zombie Encounter terror begins at 6p with the film Night of
the Living Dead: Reanimated, introduced by curator Mike
Schneider. The film will be followed by a Q & A session. This is a
rare NY-area premier! Watch if you dare...

Then, walk with us through a zombie encounter (approx. 8p).
We've compiled an expert group of Tour Guides: - Dr. Kim
Paffenroth (http://www.geocities.com/kpaffenroth,
http://gotld.blogspot.com), Jonathan Maberry
(http://jonathanmaberry.com,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Maberry), Peter
Gutiérrez (http://firefox.org/news/articlerss/author/14),
Rob Hauschild (www.wildeyereleasing.com), John
Joseph Adams www.johnjosephadams.com) and David
Barr Kirtley (www.davidbarrkirtley.com) acting as the night's
guest moderator. We thought it best to have zombie experts
walk us through the encounter - we want to reach the other end!

Click to see Mike Schneider's Face The Fiction Zombie
Encounter: Animated.

Shortly after 6:00 p.m Master Todd officially started the program
by telling us that we were being filmed this evening and to not
say anything that our mothers wouldn't want to hear! Then he
introduced Mike Schneider who intro'd his Re-Animated
version of the 1968 film Night Of The Living Dead. This
version was made up of animated scenes matched with stills
from the original picture. The styles of animation used were
varied and included claymation, barbie dolls and even legos!!
After the film ended we took a 10-minute break then had a Q
and A with Mike before starting our panel discussion with the
Zombie Experts (Jonathan Maberry, Dr. Kim Paffenroth,
John Joseph Adams, Rob Hauschild & Peter Gutiérrez).
Guest Moderator David Barr Kirtley introduced the panel then
proceeded with his list of questions regarding the zombie
experience for all the panelists. There was time for a few
questions from the audience before we closed the discussion at
10:45 so folks could buy & get books signed from our experts
(and clean-up could begin). By 11:00 everybody was headed for
the Stateline Diner to continue the evening, where a tired
Ann-Marie said "We done good", and Todd replied "We always
do". See y'all next month!!! (Steve S)

The "Zombie" night was indeed special. After watching the
reanimated version of Night of the Living Dead and the
question and answer period with filmmaker Mike Schneider,
which were quite interesting, we then had the Zombie Panel
discuss all things zombie! As mentioned, the speakers were all
passionate about the subject, and when prompted by David as
to their various feelings on the subject, answered with great
knowledge on said subject. They all mentioned their favorite
zombie movies (later on I brought up the great Carnival of
Souls which they all agreed was very influential), what they
liked/disliked about where zombies have been/will be taken,
even discussing a topic of zombie sex! The whole evening was
extremely entertaining because in large part by the panelists
knowledge and fervor for the subject. (Chris H)

And Now for a view from the Panel by Panelist Peter
Gutierrez!

Here's my take on things, not that it's that different from everyone
else's. Maybe a bit more behind-the-scenes- ish, if that's interesting
to folks.

Mike Schneider, "curator" of NOTLD:R (http://notldr. com/),
showed up with one or two of the animators (a third, a talented
comic book artist from New York, http://jorellrivera .blogspot.
com/, came with his Mom)and his arrival elicited mixed emotions
in me... glad to see him, of course, and to screen the movie. But
the version he brought with him was completely new... my
fellow producer Rob Hauschild and I had never seen it. No one
had, in fact, except Mike himself. I wasn't concerned about the
quality of the movie but rather about it screening all right -- Mike
hadn't been able to burn it to DVD b/c of some technical glitch,
so we were showing it directly from a file on his laptop. That
made me nervous.

But Todd was matter-of-fact and cool-headed as usual, and the
screening went off without a technical hitch. Todd was an
especially good sport b/c over the previous ten days I'd been
making sure that we shipped him a DVD, that he tried it out on
his laptop, etc. -- and then it was all kind of pointless b/c we
didn't use that DVD or his laptop

I enjoyed Mike's intro, because I'm used to hearing his ideas
about the film and his philosophy of art in general, but I kept
wondering if all his remarks about postmodernity were leaving
the audience mystified. Maybe that helped make the movie even
more of a surprise for folks, I don't know.

We started a few minutes late and Mike's intro went a little
longer than planned, so by the time the movie was over we
were definitely behind schedule. In fact, Todd first asked the
crowd to take a break before the panel started -- until I pointed
out that the Q&A w/ Mike still hadn't taken place. So that was
moved until after the break, and somehow that made things run
longer, so that the panel didn't start until after 8:30, I think.

Still, everything was going well and people were having fun. I'd
hung little signs about the filming (we're releasing a "bootleg" in
Dec.) and everyone seemed fine with it. People laughed at all the
right places in the movie and seemed to be interested even in
the parts that they didn't quite like, if that makes sense. Mike's
Q&A went well as he fielded questions about how he organized
such a project, with 500 artists responding and about 150
actually contributing to the final film. In short, the audience asked
some smart questions -- covering the kind of ground that maybe
should be covered in the intro next time. ;-)

Oh, and if anyone is wondering about the differences between
the versions of the film, Mike replaced 5+ minutes of barely
altered '68 footage w/ new animation. There were still some
sections like that that hadn't been replaced -- if you saw the film
you know what I'm talking about, the sections where there's a
cross-hatched "screen" over the images, or where they appear in
negative. The remaining such passages will be gone by the time
of third and final version of the film next month.

And before I forget, a big thanks to Stephen and the others who
brought such great items for the swap table. I snagged 2 DVDs
and a VHS table and contributed nothing at all. However, I'm
busy getting together a stack of DVDs and comics for the next
time I show up...

In case you missed "Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated" at
Face the Fiction or are just a glutton for punishment, it's
screening in NJ again: on December 3 at Clash Bar in Clifton.
http://www.myspace. com/clashbar

And if you yourself would like to screen the movie at a school,
event, club, or other venue, please let me know. Screening rights
are free in almost all cases. Last night the film screened at NYU
and we've gotten a request from Yale, so it'll be screening there
as well.

Meanwhile, we're moving ahead with the "bootleg" version -- in
which some of you may be featured (in the shots of the
audience). Rob and I have also done several radio shows
promoting the film. Oh, and before I forget, the "virtual premiere"
will be on Facebook Comic-Con 11/12-11/15 (and of course it's
free). If you're on Facebook, look it up. Or if you're "friends" with
me or Rob, let us know and we can send you an invite to join
the group. (And if you haven't friended me, please feel free to.)

As for the rest of that now long ago evening in Ramsey, here's
what I remember. First, Todd was definitely not blundering
around. He ran things both on stage and behind the scenes
patiently and seamlessly -- so what if we almost forgot the Q&A?
It was long enough evening anyway. ;-)

I remember the questions from David Barr Kirtley being pretty
hard and feeling more on the spot than I usually do, and I do
maybe 10 panels a year. Actually, it's not that his questions were
hard per se. In fact, I supplied a couple of them. So did other
panelists, such as Rob. But unlike some other moderators, David
didn't share the list (or a even a partial list) of the questions with
the panelists via e-mail beforehand. I guess we were considered
such "experts" that we handle anything thrown our way, but I
certainly don't consider myself to be that knowledgeable.

The first question dealt with obscure zombie pop culture artifacts
and what we would recommend. I revealed my ignorance at not
knowing that Marvel's '70s Tales of the Zombie series had been
reprinted/collected . Mr. Maberry pointed that out. I also cited
"Let Sleeping Corpses Lie," a favorite film of mine from the period
between NOTLD and (Romero's) "Dawn of the Dead." (Later
during the panel Jonathan mentioned "The Living Dead at the
Manchester Morgue" and I pointed out that this was the same
film, just one of its alternate titles.)

I also remember the question about how to survive a zombie
attack and JJ Adams saying that he probably wouldn't make it.
(By the way, if you missed catching this entertaining editor, or
just want to see more of him, there's been some talk of bringing
him to GSHW next year -- events are free to non-members but I
encourage joining.) Jonathan said he'd use jui-jitsu and that guns
were overrated. I said that I'd survive by hanging out with
horror/zombie fans b/c they'd be the least surprised and
therefore the least likely to panic. I commented that in NOTLD if
the three had gone on the offensive early on, holding periodic
raids against the zombies, then the ranks of the undead wouldn't
have swelled so much. People tend to get emotionally
overwhelmed, which was understandable back in '68, but today
everyone is used to the idea of a zombie apocalypse, so no one
will be too shocked when it happens. ;-)

I remember the zombies-and- sex issue, in particular Mr. Adams
relating some of the criticism his (excellent) anthology received.
He pointed out that there were maybe a couple of stories with
this theme but for some readers this was their main gripe. I cited
"Otto, or Up with Dead People" (which no one but Mike
Schneider had seen) and Michael Simon's short film "Gay
Zombie." Someone else brought up the romantic element in
"Fido." Some panelists (Dr. Paffenroth?) remarked on the typically
non-erotic nature of zombies, especially when compared with
vampires. I tried to make a distinction between the non-erotic
(i.e., there's nothing in these movies/books to turn us on)and the
asexual -- there actually is an element of sexual rage in some
zombie behavior, particularly with "fast" zombies.

That was another issue we got into: where did we fall on the
"fast vs. slow" question? I was surprised that most of the panelists
were okay with fast zombies -- I thought they'd be more old
school purists. If you read Patient Zero, the zombies seem
somewhere in between fast and slow: they're not constantly
running as in "28 Days/Weeks Later" or Zack Snyder's "Dawn of
the Dead," which I was surprised that so many panelists liked... I
thought I'd be the only one. (By the way, JJ Adams expressed
how much he liked "Zombieland" and I kind of bit my tongue:
thought the opening act was brilliant fun but in the end it wasn't
that suspenseful and never scary or horrific.)

All right, I guess that's all for now. I'm sure others of you can
recall the other, um, meaty questions we tackled.

Just wanted to close by saying that I had a blast. Would be
honored to return some other October when SFSNNJ is again
spotlighting horror in some way. Thanks to everyone who made
it such a memorable evening.

-Peter