“The Dead Matter” tells a story of vampirism, the living dead, and ancient occult relics all drenched in the dark and shadowy world of Midnight Syndicate’s music. Inspired by EC Comics, Dark Shadows, Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, and Creepshow, this mix of classic horror and unique twists and turns promises to deliver for fans of the genre.

The highly anticipated dark fantasy film, “The Dead Matter”, is scheduled to be released on July 30 and will be available for sale at Hot Topic retail stores in the United States (and likely online, too).

Starring Andrew Divoff, Jason Carter, and Tom Savini, the film is about a grieving young woman who obtains a vamperic relic and is attempting to contact her deceased brother at all costs.

Based on the trailer, the effects actually look well-done and the acting appears to be decent, with realistic looking zombies, so hopefully The Dead Matter will be a decent zombie flick.

Creators, Midnight Syndicate, have chosen to release the film independently through Hot Topic stores and will be giving buyers the DVD, the Soundtrack and a collection of Midnight Syndicate Halloween music collection all for the same price as a normal DVD.

We’ll have a full review when the movie is released.

You can find out more on the official site or over on Facebook.

The Dead have returned to life…

The worlds focus in on the city of Ravenswood and once idyllic town of Farmore, as soldiers and scattered survivors fight the hordes of the dead, unbeknown, one of them holds the key to end the undead’s reign of mayhem.

Meanwhile, at a body disposal plant a small group take shifts on the ‘deathwatch’. Their hope’s hinge on the soldiers of Farmore to rescue them. But with no contact for months, no food and surrounded by the dead, have they got what it takes to survive? With death at their door, only time can tell…

Zombie Command has managed to snag a look at the intro and first chapter from Welsh writer A. M. Esmonde’s forthcoming book and screenplay, Deathwatch. Esmonde’s previous work has included other genre pieces such as The Breathing Dead, Terminus and Blood Hunger (more about which can be found at his official site) and while this extract is still just a draft it’s shaping up to be a great zombie story in the style of Romero’s ‘of the Dead’ series.

INTRODUCTION
Zombies or re-animated corpses appear in many cultures worldwide and in different manifestations. Whether it is voodoo, folklore or in today’s pop culture, they are ultimately humans who lack full consciousness. Death has fascinated humans as long as life itself.

Ishtar the Babylonian goddess of fertility in an ancient decree supports this. As Ishtar approaches the gates of the underworld, she demands of the gatekeeper:

If thou openest not the gate to let me enter,
I will break the door, I will wrench the lock,
I will smash the doorposts, and I will force the doors.
I will bring up the dead to eat the living.
Moreover, the dead will outnumber the living.

How true Ishtar’s words were to become as this tale tells…

PART ONE: EPIDEMIOLOGY
At thirty knots and half-laden the USS Saturn cut through the Atlantic Ocean leaving behind a wash as far as the horizon causing a wonderful refraction of light upon the waves.

Accompanied by two Navy Seals, an African American, House and a thin compact framed Special Forces soldier named Finn sat in expectation on Marine three. The Direct Action Penetrator (DAP) helicopter gunship landed hard and the four men jumped onto the of the Saturn;s empty runway strips.

“It’s a ghost ship.” House whispered into his headset, as the team of four men armed with M-240 machine guns jogged along the length of the carrier. They separated speedily as they reached the end of the deck; House spun hard the circular lock on the watertight galvanised steel door and as it swung open he stepped into the darkness. Finn followed, descending the anodized aluminium and stainless steel stairwell on a 68 degree angled ladder.

The heavyset Air Craft handling officer seemed to smell House and the soldiers’ presence before hearing or seeing them. In death his senses were heightened. In a flash was upon one of the Navy Seals before he could get to his gun. In a frantic quick struggle the Navy Seal snapped the corpse’s neck, dropping the yellow clothed corpse to the grey painted corrugated floor. Taking a moment to get his breath back, he checked his weapon. From the shadows a man with what appeared to be a severe head injury, dressed in a blue plane handler uniform rushed at him, pushing him off balance. The second Seal took aim letting his machine gun erupt. The bullets however had no impact other than to send both men overboard, within seconds the two hit the water, the force knocked out any life either of them had left.

From the Mess Hall, a landing signal handler with most of his nose missing, the skin torn open and the cartilage in view dragged himself forward, his once white uniform now blood stained. He paused at the door, and then moved forward with a heavy limp. Cursing and focusing on the spot where his comrade once stood the Seal turned hearing the heavy dragging footsteps moving towards him. He began to walk backwards his footsteps clanking on the metal floor, never taking his eyes off the approaching enemy; he raised his gun squeezing the trigger, sending rounds into the sailor that was in pursuit. The dead eyed man continued forwards even with the force of the bullets tearing into his white uniform; bloody tissue, flesh and bone shards flicked up into the air. Suddenly, a door left of the Seal swung open and a skinny air wing captain caught his hand biting into his fingers.

House motioned to Finn to silence their radio communication.

“It’s a death ship,” Finn whispered.

House held up his hand silencing his colleague and spoke quietly into his radio, “Sierra November one, Sierra November two.” The radio crackled, followed by a gurgle and then a nasty lapping sound. House looked to Finn with a worried expression. Finn got on his radio.

“This is Foxtrot four. Code Delta, that’s D delta,” said Finn as he peered overboard and down the length of the ship. His eyes widened, as he saw land.

“We’re not going to stop this.” Inhaling deeply, House shook his head and glanced at his boots as the sea air filled his lungs.

“The ship?” queried Finn.

House exhaled, “No, the pandemic. This is it. Welcome to hell.” The carrier stirred to life, its dead crew and its harboured dead civilians came from everywhere like termites out of the woodwork, as if hiding in wait for a captive audience.

“We’re running out of time!” shouted House pointing to the shadows moving towards them from within the doorways.

“Air strike, code four abort!” Finn shouted into his radio.

“We gotta get outta here!” he said to House.

House and Finn didn’t hear the crisp reply as it came back to them over the radio, “We are unable to abort the strike, over.”

Assessing their surroundings for the approaching danger, they made a dash across the gangway towards the upper deck. “Chopper man, don’t you leave, don’t you damn leave.” House muttered under his breath.

The two remaining soldiers appeared to be miniscule to their colleagues in the helicopter that circled above them, as they ran parallel to the white and yellow painted lines across the vast deck. Their heavy boots stomped across the carrier followed closely by their dead assailants as they headed back towards the DAP.

Periodically they stopped and turned, kneeling they let off short bursts of fire. Finn turned to House, “Hell House if we don’t make it to the Black Hawk we’re toast!”

“It’s a DAP Huck.” House corrected smiling.

Finn laughed, “I’m under pressure here!”

“Trust me; we’ll be home in time for cornflakes Huckle Berry.” House quipped.

All too soon the advancing crowd seemingly multiplied in front of their eyes and their shots were futile in their effort to slow their advance. Making a final dash they jumped into the awaiting gunship that immediately lifted into the air.

The rotary blades of the DAP whirred in the dizzy heights of the fading clear sky, it banked sharply to the left as House looked down to witness an almighty crash below.

The huge mass of the carrier run aground against an out crop of rocks crushing hundreds of tonnes of metal, denting and splitting the ship’s hull sending its contents and dead occupants, smashing, soaring and plummeting in all directions. The USS Saturn began to take in gallons of water.

Inland the dead walked aimlessly up a sandy, pebbled stretch of beach, some waded into the sea towards the wreckage as if to greet their fellow dead as they walking off the high deck, tumbling overboard crashing into the choppy water. On the deck of the carrier many of the dead rose to their feet.

The sight of the huge carrier now grounded against the shore was surreal but as they moved away from the scene all House could reflect on was the aimless falling dead. Lemmings he thought.

Just then, two Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fighter jets soared past the DAP. Relieved, the helicopters passengers looked on in
expectation as the two jets launched their arsenal of missiles raining down into the carrier.

Finn shook his head. “That was close.”

“Do you think we ever could have stopped it?” House brooded over the uncertainty.

“Who knows, but a couple of billion green-back just bit the dust,” replied Finn.

The two men lent back into the cabin of the DAP catching a final glimpse of the white seawater littered with bodies, pushing against the burning Saturn, as its decks, starboard and port continued to rupture and explode into the sea.

If ever there was a perfect, small, idyllic town, it was Farmore.

Its future shaped by a natural landslide in 1875, which kept the closest city of Ravenswood ten miles away. The only thing that marred Farmore, despite protests from residents, was a large prison situated five miles away that was built just before the boarder of the next county.

If you like what you read you can follow this and other Esmonde’s projects on Twitter, check out the official site or become a fan on Facebook.

Unfortunately Apple make it unnecessarily difficult to link to the app, so you’ll just have to search for it.

Games
Zombieville USA (Mika Mobile)
This side scrolling shooter has great cartoon graphics, a bunch of weapons and a ton of zombies to kill. While a little difficult at first, you soon learn how to kill zombies on the go and use houses as safe points while trying to get to the end of the level.
Price – £1.19/$1.99

Resident Evil Degeneration (CAPCOM)
Surprisingly cheap price for a Resident Evil game, I’m sure it cost more on my old phone! Great Resident Evil gameplay following the events of the animated Resident Evil film.
Price – £2.99/$5.99

Resident Evil 4 (CAPCOM)
Yup, the same but different. Resident Evil 4 was brilliant despite the lack of actual zombies and it translates much better than I thought it would onto the iPhone. If you like Degeneration you should get this too.
Price – £3.99/$7.99

Undead Attack! Pinball (Lucas Mendes Menge)
Fun and great looking pinball game where you have to stop the advancing zombies on 3 different pinball tables. Lots of fun, if you like pinball games.
Price – £1.79/$2.99

Random Apps
Walking Dead (comixology)
This is brilliant and the sooner they put the rest on the iPhone the sooner they’ll get my money. Issue one of The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirman and Tony Moore has been put on the iPhone by ComiXology. The interface is brilliant, with panels being broken down on each page and a motion dynamic that really gives a sense of action, it’s awesome. It helps that the story and art is cracking too.
Price – Free

Zombie Survival Sheet (Imba Entertainment)
Nothing you couldn’t really do yourself here, but it let’s you take pics of what you’ll wear and your gear for the zombocalypse. It will help you check off most of the preparation steps.
Price – Free

Resource
wikiHow (wikiHow, Inc)
Contains an excellent set of survival guides offline for dealing with all manner of emergencies, from first aid to water purification. You’ll need this when 3G goes down. Essential.
Price- Free

Wikipanion (Robert Chin)
Of course if the net is up wikiHow doesn’t have a guide for everything, but I know somewhere that does! Wikipanion makes Wikipedia slightly more iPhone friendly. True you could just access Wikipedia through the browser but when there’s a debate over the best way to dispatch zombies, somebody on Wiki will be there to help you solve disputes. The Plus version allows you to store pages for offline use and keeps your history.
Price – Free or £2.99/$5.99 for the Plus version

Promega (Promega Corporation)
I have absolutely no idea what this is, I downloaded it purely because the icon was quality and it was free. It’s filled with BioMath calculations and pages upon pages of cell death and Apoptosis info. To be honest, if the zombies come I’m pretty sure it’s going to be these guys that have caused it, so know thine enemy!
Price – Free

Tools
Torch (Savy Soda)
Basically just makes your iPhone screen glow white. Useful for finding your way out in the dark, not so useful for your battery life. Use sparingly.
Price – Free

Free Translator (Codesign)
Not everybody you encounter will speak English and this app is a great way of bridging language gaps. I used it to great effect on a Swedish girl at a bar last night ;)
Price – Free

Convert Units for Free (Free the Apps!)
Similarly people will give you all kinds of numbers for things, like stones, pounds or kilos for weight and if you’re honest, you’re not really sure how to convert them. This app will allow you all to know what the other means with ease.

Worst Apps
Zombieland (Sony Pictures)
The free Zombieland app (not to be confused with the decent paid for one) is just entirely random and rubbish. You tilt the iPhone to find a bite then push a button to inject the antidote. You then go back to the menu and pick one of the other 3 body parts to do the same on. Not really a game and would have been better just releasing it with the trailer and infosheet.
Price – Free

Zombie Saw (L*U*K*E)
You tilt the screen to activate a circular saw that gets to the edge of the screen and sprays blood. Nothing to do with zombies and just makes a really irritating noise. Avoid.
Price – Free

There are dozens of other apps I’ve downloaded, though not all are zombie related, but why not post your favourite apps (survival or otherwise) in the comments.

Capcom put out a bunch of media for new Wii Resident Evil shooter – The Darkside Chronicles.

Featuring Leon S. Kennedy (Esq.) and (Tedd Theodore, eh..) the guy you leg sweeped to oblivion in Resident Evil 4, Jack Krauser you’ll be exploring South America and what looks like the Veronica Virus.

The most popular depiction of modern zombies is the viral zombie; highly contagious, can be both fast or slow and motivated to spread the virus through bite and driven by an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

All information here is hypothetical and when the SHTF it is recommended that you keep a diary and make notes of zombie behaviour.

What is a Virus
Viruses are presumed to have been around since life first evolved and there are 3 current theories as to their origins.

• Regressive Hypothesis – Parasitic small cells that attached to larger cells and call only survive with a host.
• Cellular Origin Hypothesis – That viruses evolved from the DNA or RNA that escaped from the genes of a larger organism.
• Coevolution Hypothesis – That they evolved naturally alongside other life.

Popular fiction has also seen viruses borne from other worlds and man made in laboratories.

In the Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks, this virus is called Solanum.

Viruses are the most likely reason zombies will rise, as viruses themselves tread a fine line between living and not living. Outside of a host cell viruses cannot reproduce and are not, technically, alive but due to their interaction with living cells they fall just on the side of a living organism.

All viruses follow the same life cycle of attaching to a host cell, re-appropriating enzymes through genetic manipulation to create more viruses before destroying the cell to release these new copies, which explains the life cycle of zombies quite well also.

Patient Zero
All virus outbreaks share a common starting point with Patient Zero, the person initially infected, who spreads the disease to others. Real life examples can be found for typhoid, Ebola, SARS, Cholera, AIDS and swine flu.

Identifying where infection begun can help in containing and eradicating the virus.

Outbreak Patterns
Most viruses are transmitted through close proximity to someone already infected. Unfortunately people are often most contagious before physical symptoms begin to show.

Infection is most popularly portrayed as transferring between victims through open wounds, such as bite or a scratch but this is not always necessary for viruses to spread. Ingesting contaminated foods or water also carries a high risk of infection.

Depending on how the virus can be transferred and where it starts depends on how likely the disease will threaten humanity as a whole.

In the case of transmission through contact the spread of the disease is limited to how far zombies can walk or run at any given time and how dense the population is. This would be the easiest strain of the virus to contain, but left unchecked it would take around 8 – 12 months for all Continents to be infected and decimate every country within 3 years.

If the virus can be transmitted from human to animal then ticks and rats may carry the disease more quickly, with Continents being infected within 3 – 6 months and humans almost wiped out in less than 2 years.

In a worst case scenario the virus will be airborne and with international transport so quick and popular all continents could be infected within the first 2 weeks and have humanity facing it’s end inside a year.

Most viruses are fragile and cannot survive for long outside a host but some, especially deadly viruses such as smallpox and Anthrax, can survive for years.

Immunization
The normal method of immunizing against a virus is commonly thought not to work in the case of zombies as it is so virulent that even the smallest dose will kill and re-animate the subject.

In the worst case scenario it may become necessary to attempt immunization against becoming a zombie but should be done in supervised conditions by trained specialists.

Try and find a military or medical base if your notes indicate the virus is airborne.

Identifying a Viral Zombie
Viral zombies act like other zombies and are difficult to identify as such initially. Unlike other zombies however, a viral zombies bite will almost always infect and turn the injured person into another of the living dead.

It is not recommended that you go out of your way to check if this is the case but, again, keep a diary and watch the zombies behaviour very carefully. It should soon become apparent if you are dealing with a viral strain of the undead.

It is unlikely that viral zombies will be able to vocalise as they do not breathe, so if one is shouting “Braaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnsss” at you make sure it’s not just a fellow survivor playing a joke in very poor taste before eliminating them.

Behaviour
These zombies may be both fast or slow and may be dependant upon the ‘freshness’ of the corpse as to how fast they can move, with injury and decomposition slowing them down.

It is likely that zombies would be slow without the heart functioning as blood would collect in the legs and muscles would cease to function as well. That said, it is a zombie, so defies modern science’s explanations to define how they actually re-animate and move around.

The infected person themselves would most likely be driven to spread the infection and try and get close to bite or otherwise injure an uninfected person.

It is also commonly accepted that zombies will also kill humans and eat fresh meat. The necessity of this is unclear as eating the subject incapacitates them from spreading the infection when they themselves rise. It is thought that the newer flesh stimulates the infection inside them as their necrotic flesh dies off or perhaps an instinctive need to eat is triggered by the virus.

Viral zombies would seem to posses limited sight and aural capabilities chasing down sounds and movement. They also do not seem to experience any pain or fear and can use as much strength as the muscles allow without needing to rest or ease up.

Termination
Removing or destroying the brain is an accepted method of halting the body. While the body or both parts may still continue to be undead, without a command mechanism zombies appear to be incapable of continuing a pursuit.

Damaging a zombie by removing limbs should also provide a respite from their attacks.

It is unknown for how long a zombie can continue to function once risen, often it would seem indefinitely until decay eventually halts their spread in the same way removing limbs would.

Stages of Infection
It is most likely that, once infected, the major organs would begin to shut down in the victim culminating in the heart stopping or brain activity ceasing.

At this point the victim would be officially classed as dead but is merely entering an incubation stage while the virus takes over the body. This stage can take from less than a minute to several hours.

Sometime later the victim would become re-animated and ‘controlled’ by the virus.

Surviving infection
The best defence for viral infection is to head to sparsely populated areas. This prevents the spread of the epidemic as quickly and buys more time for a suitable location defence to be set up.

Viruses in Non-Humans
Both flora and fauna are vulnerable to viral infection and can be transmitted via ‘vectors’ such as insects and other plants.

Plants have very effective defence mechanisms against viral infection which often involve killing the surrounding cells to stop infection spreading. These can be seen by the naked eye as large spots. Plants can also produce disinfectants to flush the virus.

When looking for a cure don’t discount plants as a possible source of information.

Why not share your theories on viral zombies in the comments or over on our forums.