Where are the Dead?

Alex Zane on stage

Some of you may have read about my zombie hunting mission to Leicester Square this Sunday.  If you didn't, check out the post here.  I was expecting the opposite of 28 Days Later's deserted streets.  I was expecting countless flesh-eating, decaying, gore-covered horror fans and maybe even some kind of Thriller inspired flash mob dance routine.  I was disappointed.  The few hours I spent in the new-look Leicester Square that doesn't actually look that new were spent, not cowering in the corners as expected, but desperately squinting into the sun to see if anyone had come dressed as a zombie.  I saw one, yes just one, embarrassed-looking girl in zombie make-up but she soon disappeared.

Taking the piss with Ted

But the trip was far from a total loss.  The Sun's film reviewer Alex Zane was on hand to do a horror film quiz with some fans from the crowd.  I  got to get a quick photo of myself in one of those interactive movie posters pretending to piss with Seth MacFarlane's Ted.  I also got to have a play with some interactive giant iPad type thing that had loads of trailers and stuff to look at. 


There were lots of posters dotted about the square and a wodge of cash with The Dictator's face on the notes stuffed in a transparent safe but really I was ready to go home after about twenty minutes of being there.  I didn't come for endless marketing, I came for zombies!

Giant iPad

Wadiya currency

Never mind.  Then the gathered people enjoyed a few trailers on the big screen on stage.  The likes of Prometheus, Storage 24 and Chernobyl Diaries all played before the hard core horror fans and the random families with small children that looked a little concerned about what they were seeing.

Noel Clarke in...

Johannes Roberts' Storage 24

Then it finally got really interesting with a Q&A with FrightFest organiser, founder and co-director Alan Jones.  His tales of being a film journalist were fascinating and inspiring and FrightFest sounds like a great place for fans of horror to descend over the August bank holiday every year.  It's a just a shame it clashes with Reading Festival otherwise I'd be there.  Maybe when I get too old for the music...

 Then came a final pleasant surprise in the form of a further Q&A with two of the cast members of upcoming Brit-horror Cockneys Vs Zombies.  It sounds potentially terrible from the title but the clips shown on the big screen gained quite a few laughs from the assembled crowd and it actually looks like it could be quite a promising horror-comedy.  Alan Ford, the terrifying Brick Top from Guy Ritchie's Snatch, answered questions with his co-star Michelle Ryan.  

Here's a news report from the set of Cockneys Vs Zombies.



And here's the trailer for Storage 24 from the director of hoodie horror F.  Incidentally, the director of this is Johannes Roberts who is coming to give a talk to my media students very soon.  So that's exciting!






Finally here's a quick video I uploaded of Alan Jones answering two questions: what is his favourite horror film and who are the most talented horror filmmakers working today?



So all in all it was quite a worth while trip, even if there were far less zombies than I had hoped for.