The Loving Dead by Amelia Beamer (2010)

Never underestimate the power of a good blurb.

 I picked up this zombie novel because it was blurbed on the front by Christopher Moore as "really kind of hot, in a very creepy way." Truly a modern novel, with really realistic dialogue and believable young characters. You have to love a zombie novel that starts out at a Trader Joe's. 

Ooh, and here's an interesting slant: the virus is spread through sex and kissing. Which in the zombie world seems like a recipe for some pretty dodgy situations, but Beamer handles them all in very realistic and not at all exploitative ways. 

Fun and original.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth."

Dawn of the Dead is a completely awesome remake of a classic 1978 George Romero zombie movie, which pays tribute to the original, but is wholly its own film, and one of the best horror films I've ever seen.

Indie actress Sarah Polley plays Ana, a nurse whose horror begins when a neighbor girl walks into the house, bites Ana's husband, who turns into the snarling, bloodthirsty undead.  She escapes, takes off in the car, and we see the complete, rapid destruction of civilization, at least in her Milwaukee suburb.  We also see one of the most horrifying car crashes, captured from a helicopter POV shot.

And then the credits start:  "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash, played against truly chilling footage of the ensuing disaster.  And we're barely even ten minutes into the movie!  Ana meets up with a few survivors and they make their way to a nearby shopping mall.  Survivors include Kenneth (Ving Rhames), Michael (Jake Weber), and Andre (Mekhi Phifer) and his pregnant wife Luda (Inna Korobkina).  And can I just say how awesome the casual diversity in this film is?  Diversity is not throwing in one person of color; it's having a truly color blind cast, with actual characters that exist outside of their skin color. 

They meet up with some thuggish security guys, the leader of whom is C.J (Michael Kelly), but soon realize they all need to work together to fight whatever it is is going on outside.  One of the best aspects of this movie is C.J.'s character development.  He goes from a selfish jackass to a quietly self-sacrificing guy--an arc you don't see in a lot of major movies, much less horror.   Although the action in this movie seldom stops, and the blood and gore are plentiful, it's the character development and the performances, grounded especially by Polley, Weber and Rhames, that make this film so wholly satisfying.

And as long as this is the girls' POV on horror film, I can't not mention that this film is crazy full of handsome men with gorgeous arms handling major weaponry.  A girl totally has her pick of film crushes in this film--I choose smart normal guy Michael, who has a unexpectedly deep gravelly voice, and looks amazing in a black tee shirt.

Another awesome aspect of this film is the deep appreciation the filmmakers show to the original.  When Tom Savini shows up as a sheriff advising people to 'blow their heads off', you know you're in the hands of those who appreciate horror.  IMDB has a fascinating trivia list of all the nods they made to the original.  A couple more bits of trivia:  the word zombie is never used in this film, nor is it ever really determined where how the infection spread.  Like I said, the movie hits the ground running and never lets up.  It's an amazingly well made movie, and one of the best movies I've seen in any genre.

The Crazies (2010)

It's so nice to be pleasantly surprised by a horror film--particularly a remake. Expectations tend to be awfully low for remakes, even if, as in this case, we haven't seen the original.

The Crazies is a remake of a 1973 film by George Romero and it's about a small Iowa town where people start to act a little "crazy." (A little bit like zombies actually.) Could it be something in the water? The government comes in and makes everything much better, as usual. And that's about it for the plot.

What makes this film better than average is what it DOESN'T have: the overused cliches of contemporary horror films. It does not have 1) a large cast of forgettable characters who get killed off one by forgettable one in new and unusual ways, 2) gratuituous gore, 3) overwrought music, and 4) telegraphed "jumps" (cats jumping out of closets, etc.).

What is does have is a solid, fast-moving plot and an outstanding cast of only about four characters, all of whom are complex and realistic. The always engaging Timothy Olyphant plays the sheriff trying to get to the bottom of all this "craziness", Radha Mitchell plays his semi-grating pregnant doctor wife, and Danielle Panabaker plays the doctor's assistant.

All the actors are good, and characterizations are pretty strong. But it's the fourth actor and character that brings this movie to a whole new level. Although a secondary character to the 'hero' sheriff, Joe Anderson as the deputy sheriff plays a surprisingly complex character. He brings depth and humor to the role, and his performance is probably one of the best I've ever seen in a horror film. All in all, it's a darned good contemporary horror film.