![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZA-Heavy-Metal.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWait, my kid-brain thinks, back up. The dead crew turned into zombies? What? Why? How? The mysterious green object was Heavy Metal’s framing device, loosely connecting its animated shorts. But that’s not how zombies happen! I had seen the two movies about zombies, Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. I knew the science. Zombies are caused by radiation on a probe returning from Venus, but that won’t happen until the 60s. So why are there zombies in my animated short about a B-17 bomber? Why would there ever even be zombies in World War II? Is this dumb, or is this cool? My kid brain eventually determined it’s cool, but probably not canon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As an adult blissfully free of kid-brain objections to non-canon, I’m delighted by these obscure subgenres. Weird West, for instance, juxtaposes two different genres. The American Frontier as the nexus of black hat\/white hat morality and cosmic nihilism, possibility and horror, cowboys and dinosaurs. Simultaneously dumb and cool! But World War II and horror? In a way, World War II is already horror, so adding zombies is just doubling down. Twice the horror, one part real, one part fantastical. It’s not enough that Hitler engineered the Holocaust. Now he’s meddling in the occult! Is this dumb, or is it cool? My adult brain eventually determines new words are needed. It’s grotesque and absurd. It might even be funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the latest in World War II horror, look no further than Rebellion’s Zombie Army series. It began as an add-on to one of their Sniper Elite games, apparently designed to cash in on the popularity of Left 4 Dead. But over the course of three games, Zombie Army never quite broke free from the Sniper Elite model: stand way back and shoot stuff. But then Rebellion made Strange Brigade, their jovial homage to the serial pulp of the 1930s (read the review here<\/a>). Strange Brigade is a straight-up shooter, sniping optional, full of merry challenges, score chases, character progression, and replayability, all very toe-to-toe with its monsters. And now that Zombie Army 4 is supercharged with Strange Brigade’s DNA, the series has hit its stride. This isn’t just Rebellion’s best game so far, drawing from the best of Sniper Elite, Zombie Army, and Strange Brigade. This is their grotesque, absurd, and undeniably comedic contribution to zombie videogames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was fifteen, I don’t think I realized that zombies are absurd. It’s there to see in Dawn of the Dead in 1978 as they bumble around the mall while the muzak plays. George Romero knew. But it wasn’t until 1985 when Dan O’Bannon wrote and directed Return of the Living Dead that the cards were laid on the table. Most people know O’Bannon’s as the writer of Alien, which introduced science fiction’s most famous biological life cycle. He also wrote several minor (i.e. not very good) horror movies throughout the 80s. He wrote and directed The Resurrected, a rare Lovecraft movie that’s actually Lovecraftian, as opposed to some pervy Stuart Gordon version of Lovecraftian. In the 80s, everyone fascinated by horror knew the names Craven, Cronenberg, Hooper, Dante, Raimi, Carpenter. But the cool kids knew names like Coscarelli, Cohen, and O’Bannon. The cool kids had seen O’Bannon in Dark Star, which he made with another student from USC named John Carpenter. Here’s O’Bannon, in the foreground, trying his hand as an actor in Dark Star as Sergeant Pinback:<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/ZA-Return-of-the-Living-Dead.jpg\")
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