IAn interview with “Zombiemania: 80 Movies To Die For” co-writer Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg.

by John Reppion

From White Zombie to Land of the Dead … 80 zombie movies that shaped a horror subgenre and left us all with a mortal fear of flesh-eating ghouls clawing their way out of the cold, dark earth. Zombiemania takes an in-depth look at one of the most popular horror film categories of all time. What is it that makes us so scared of and yet so attracted to the living dead? Why is it that shambling corpses with a taste for brains, or mindless automatons controlled by a voodoo master still retain such relentless power? Illustrated with many photographs, some published here for the first time, this is one film guide that will leave you with a restless urge to walk the night in search of living flesh.

So reads the blurb from Zombiemania: 80 Movies To Die For, a brand new 500 page zombie film guide from Telos Publishing. Revenant reporter John Reppion managed to grab a few words with the book’s co-author Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg and ask him a little bit about the volume’s genesis and his own personal interest in the undead.

Rev: First of all, thank you very much for agreeing to do this interview Arnold, I know you must be very busy at the moment. I’d like to start with a rather cheeky question if I may, more to satisfy my own curiosity than anything else. Are you really a doctor?

ATB: I am indeed. I have a doctorate in Communications Design from the University of Baltimore. Friends and family have theorized that the *real* reason I pursued the degree was so that everyone at Doctor Who conventions would now have to call me "Doctor." I can't confirm or deny that at this time. :)

Rev: Cool. I promise that I’ll try to refrain from sounding like an investigative journalist for the rest of the interview now. So, back on topic, how and when did the idea for Zombiemania first come about?

ATB: I've been working with Telos Publishing Ltd in the UK for years now, as both co-author of the Doctor Who merchandise guides with publisher David J. Howe and as one of their book designers, handling layout and occasionally cover design for many of Telos' books. But I was keen to step up to the next level and spearhead a book of my own, and at the same time I was looking for a project that would allow me and long-time friend Andy Hershberger to work together and write about something we both loved. Since we're both steeped in cinema of various genres, the idea of doing a movie guide book like the kind we grew up reading was very appealing, and the specific subject was never really in doubt. Much more so than I am, Andy is a big zombie/foreign horror aficionado, and I had always wanted to watch some of the more obscure zombie movies with him. This way, we'd be able to have fun watching movies together and get a book out of it at the same time!

Rev: So, how difficult was it to turn the idea into a reality? How did you pitch it to Telos?

ATB: Well, it helped to already have a great relationship with David, so I wasn't just a guy walking in cold to a publisher and trying to get a book deal. So for all the aspiring authors out there, I'm embarrassed to say it was as easy as sitting next to David at a Doctor Who convention we attend every year in LA (and as anyone there will tell you, tons of book deals go down at that show every year) and saying "Hey, how about a book on zombie movies?" Aside from Who, David is a big horror fan and wants to do a lot of horror-themed books with Telos, so there wasn't even a moment's hesitation. We were a go.

Rev: There’s clearly a hell of a lot of work that’s gone into this book, how long did it actually take to research?

ATB: It took about three years from start to finish, but I'll let you in on something, and that's the "secret weapon" in our project - our un-credited third author. My mother, Rochelle Blumberg, could have had a stellar career in publishing as a researcher and author, but things went a different way. Still, I knew she would enjoy the project and I asked her to serve as our primary information-gatherer. She began before Andy and I had even started watching the 80 movies, compiling notes on those films we would cover in-depth and the 500 or so others we would index in the back. She is in fact the primary author of the 550+ zombie movie index that comprises the final section of the book, and it's the most comprehensive of its kind yet published. And to top it all off, she hates zombie movies and wouldn't watch a single one of them, although she's seen the original Night of the Living Dead a few times.

Rev: How many hours of films did you and Andrew end up watching for the book and did you always sit through each one together?

ATB: We haven't quantified it (I suppose we should for future questions like this one), but we watched all 80 movies at least twice, sometimes three times, and in the case of films like the original Dawn of the Dead or Army of Darkness, we had to also watch every known version of the film to compare them, so that's three distinct cuts of Dawn for instance. And even though we'd both seen many of these multiple times already, we watched them all again for the book to make sure we were accurate in our reviews and references. We watched every one of them together, which was sort of the point of wanting to do the book in the first place. Andy was actually living with me and my fiancée/wife at the time, which was an interesting home dynamic to say the least. But it did mean that every night we could fire up the DVD player and get to work.

Rev: What was the first zombie film you ever saw and was it weird re-examining it for the book?

ATB: I honestly can't remember for sure but I would imagine I probably saw the original Night first as a child on some Halloween airing many years ago. And yes, for many of the movies I've seen a lot over the years, it was eye-opening at times to go back and watch them intently for the book. In the case of the original Night for instance, we felt confident that we could refute quite a few urban legends that had built up about the movie due to interviews and reviews published over the years that completely ignored key dialogue and information presented in the film.

Rev: Were there any movies that you hadn't seen before that you now regard as masterpieces or must sees? Or conversely, has working on the book made you change your mind about any films that you previously enjoyed?

ATB: For me, the real surprises were Burial Ground, The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, and Versus. I hadn't seen any of them, and each one impressed me on one level or another. In the case of Burial Ground, I had a vision in my head since childhood of what the ultimate Italian zombie movie would be like, fueled by seeing the cover of the VHS copy of Lucio Fulci's Zombie/Zombi 2 at my local video store for years. I can safely say that Zombi 2 falls far short of the classic status it has achieved, but Burial Ground was the movie I'd been waiting to see all these years, from the gore to the twisted characters to the music. Perfect.

Manchester Morgue was just a brilliant, moody piece of work that entertained me immensely, and while we were both unsure if we would find the Asian zombie entries a bit too culturally impenetrable, we generally enjoyed them better than most. Bio Zombie was also a lot of fun, but I think I loved Versus most for its comic book-style epic feel. I'd love to see that saga continue; plans for a sequel seem to be delayed at the moment.

Rev: The tone of your commentaries in the book is really conversational in places; a lot like two guys sitting on a sofa or in a bar talking about the films that they love. Did you two argue or disagree much when writing the book?

ATB: I am *so* glad to hear that, because that is exactly how we wanted the book to feel, like you were getting a chance to hang out with us and watch the movie (and yes, we were on the sofa!). We disagreed on quite a few of them actually but we traded off who wrote the reviews for which films, always deferring to the one of us who appreciated the film more so that the reviews would be as positive as possible. After all, this was about celebrating our love of the genre whether the movies were good or bad, so we preferred to praise rather than put down. Andy tends to enjoy the more melancholy foreign films or those with a more nebulous or nihilistic mood while I tend to be the one who loves the mainstream blockbusters a la Pirates of the Caribbean or the new Dawn of the Dead remake. Having said that, when I re-watched some of the movies I had liked beforehand, I found myself catching the flaws and tempering my review quite a bit, particularly in the case of films like the Dawn remake or Land of the Dead.

Rev: Incidentally, are there any up coming zombie films that you are especially looking forward to?

ATB: While I don't hold much hope for them quality-wise, I'll be seeing Resident Evil 3 and 28 Weeks Later. The new Day of the Dead sounds and looks atrocious, and given it's going to be another Will Smith vehicle, the new I Am Legend will probably fall as far short of the original novel as the first two adaptations did (although I'm a massive Omega Man fan, cheesy though it is). Not very positive, am I? We'll see if Romero's Diary of the Dead has a spark of excitement in it.

Rev: Zombiemania's afterword is written by Mark Donovan (probably best known to genre fans as the hulk zombie in Shaun of the Dead). How did that come about?

ATB: Mark's been active in the Doctor Who community, performing in some Who audio plays, and so David and I knew him from that and it was a simple matter of asking if he'd be so kind as to provide an afterword. He was very kind and gave us that great photo of him as Tor in the stage production of Plan 9.

Rev: What kind of reactions have you had to the book thus far?

ATB: So far, the reactions have been very positive, but since the book is only just starting to roll out very slowly in the UK, with a full US push not happening until October 2007, the reaction has been understandably limited. We're looking forward to more and more people hearing about the book and letting us know what they think. The fall should be an exciting time for us!

Rev: Have you met any cool people or been invited to do any exciting stuff (like appearing in zombie films, for example) as a result of the book?

ATB: Not yet really, but like I said, the book is only just shambling out slowly...as it should! :) But hey, we're open to all offers and opportunities!

Rev: I’m sure the offers are about to come flooding in. So, what are you guys working on at the moment? Any plans for Zombiemania 2?

ATB: Well, we were talking about it before the first one was even finished! It would be very easy to pick another 80 important zombie movies to cover with the same depth, but there are no *official* plans to do that just yet. We definitely need a break from zombie movies...strange though that may sound! We *are* working on a follow-up book with a similar format, similar title, and focusing on another very popular sci-fi/horror subgenre...but we can't talk about what it is just yet.

Rev: Are you a fan of zombie literature and comic books as well as movies? If so, any recommendations or things you're looking forward to?

ATB: Not literature, no. I've never read any zombie-themed books - I don't feel the genre translates well to prose since to me, zombies are by definition a very visual thing, but I've followed Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic for a while now and it's great stuff. I've read a lot of other zombie comics, but many of them are pretty repetitive. Even George Romero's own Toe Tags for DC fell a bit short of the mark. Dynamite Force's Raise the Dead looks promising though.

Rev: May the Gods bless you sir. Doctor Arnold T. Blumberg, thank you very much

For more information on Zombiemania, head to the official website http://www.zombiemania.com

Click here to order Zombiemania from Amazon.com