Zombies Ate My Neighbors: 90’s Kid Horror at Its Finest

Posted on May 30, 2022 by krystleratticus

In early 1994, I was tired of renting the same old Super Nintendo games for the weekend. Unable to afford the popular titles at $50-60 each, I picked through a “sale” crate at Toys-R-Us. This was my introduction to the comedy horror game known as Zombies Ate My Neighbors. A sleeper success video game that paid homage to horror movies. Released before the Entertainment Software Rating Board existed, it stirred a bit of controversy and amassed a tight community of fans over the last 25 years. Resurrected on modern platforms in June of 2021, Zombies Ate My Neighbors remains a staple of up-all-night games to play over summer break.

It Came From LucasArts

George Lucas founded a video game development group in 1982, to run alongside his film company. In a 1990 reorganization, the division was rebranded as LucasArts. Becoming known for its point and click adventure games like the Monkey Island series and Sam & Max Hit The Road. In 1993 LucasArts developed a run and gun game with all the wholesome charm of an 80’s adventure and a tribute to scary movies. Zombies Ate My Neighbors was published by Konami for the Super NES with a Sega Genesis port following halfway through development. A relatively simple game to play, with 55 levels it was nearly impossible to master. While not initially a hit upon release, the game quickly gained a cult following for its dedication to drive-in B-films, a catchy soundtrack, and tongue in cheek humor.

Gameplay

One or two player game selection is between two Everytown USA teenagers, Zeke and Julie. Their sleepy suburbia descends into chaos as lab-experiments of the deranged Dr. Tongue invade the neighborhood. It’s up to our plucky protagonists to save terrorized residents from the abominations of mad science.

“There are monsters, werewolves, slimy blobs, and a bushel of other hideous creatures out to capture innocent people. They’re attacking your neighbors, your neighbors’ kids, their dog, and any other human they can find. It is up to you to use any means possible to save the victims before the bad guys get them.”
Zombies Ate My Neighbors Game Manual

Initially armed with only a squirt gun, the player scavenges abandoned houses and empty malls for anything that can be used as a weapon. Ordinary household items like soda cans, kitchen plates, and weed whackers. Rarer objects like magic potions, inflatable clown punching bags, and holy relics will also aid the player to wage battle against the undead. The number of foes and bosses in Zombies Ate My Neighbors will not disappoint lovers of horror and sci-fi movies. While the namesake zombies are relatively simple to kill, their speed and larger numbers make them a danger to the player and victims you’re trying to rescue. The classic Universal monsters require more hits from specific weapons to take down. Werewolves, mummies, vampires, and Gill-men from that lagoon are just the beginning. The “Attack of The 50ft” genre of B-films are referenced with giant ants, spiders, and a titanic sized toddler boss, flattening everything in its path. Zombie Ate My Neighbors doesn’t shy away from deep space double features with a rendition of the blob, mushroom men, plant-like pod people. Even the design for the cheerleader-hungry Martians resembles the Mars Attacks Topps trading cards of 1962. Contemporary horror cinema is also referenced with Leatherface/Jason Voorhees looking “chainsaw maniacs” and anxiety inducing “snakeoids” straight out of Tremors. Xennial gamers will appreciate “Tommy The Evil Doll” having grown up with the first 3 entries of the Child’s Play franchise and the My Buddy doll. Wandering through a toy factory maze, the player is pursued by relentless dolls chopping at your feet with cleavers. Just when you think you’ve defeated a wave, their flaming plastic carcasses continue to chase you down.

With a staggering 55 levels, bonus stages, and a password system, few kids of the mid-90s made it through Zombies Ate My Neighbors. The few persistent players that did complete the game would discover a special credits level called “Monsters Among Us“. The player is transported to LucasArts headquarters to ransack and rescue while interacting with the game’s development team. Even George Lucas makes a cameo to greet and instruct you to get back to work.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe

Though Zombies Ate My Neighbors was originally created for SNES, the last-minute Sega conversion suffered. Lacking elements of what made the game so great with a smaller screen, duller graphics, and a toned-down soundtrack. Controls were extra frustrating to rotate through on Sega’s three buttons versus SNES’s four. However, Nintendo would staunchly reject any depictions of blood and censored the SNES version with a purple slime while Sega stayed bloody. The controversy continued in Europe and Australia with the game’s title being changed to just Zombies. The chainsaw maniacs would also be changed to axe-wielding lumberjacks and all appearances of blood were now a green ooze.

Ghoul Patrol

In 1994, JVC Musical Industries licensed the Zombies Ate My Neighbors gameplay engine for a similarly styled game. LucasArts outsourced most of the development work to Motion Pixel before deciding to publish it as a sequel called Ghoul Patrol for SNES. Zeke and Julie return as protagonists in the game. Checking out the latest morbid museum exhibit, they accidentally unleash demons and spirits from an ancient book. Ghoul Patrol only has five levels but the monsters require more hits to be defeated. The game also updates Zeke and Julie’s scavenged arsenal with crossbows, plasma and laser guns. While it doesn’t quite capture the humor of the first game, Ghoul Patrol is a worthy follow-up. Both games were released by Disney Interactive in summer of 2021 for Steam, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.

Coming to Theaters?

John Darko, known for his work on the Insidious franchise, was announced to have written a script for a Zombies Ate My Neighbors movie in 2011. Describing it as “John Hughes meets Judd Apatow meets George A. Romero”. Set during a graduation block party, Darko regards the project as a coming-of-age Zom-Com. Giving subtle hints as a modern tribute to 80s classics such as The Monster Squad and Night of The Comet. As of 2013, Daily Dead reported that Darko’s project was alive and well. Though John Darko has reportedly been working on a television series called Nowheresville. The premise of which sounds similar to the narrative of Zombies Ate My Neighbors.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

While it feels like the franchise never got the recognition it deserved, the ZAMN fan community is as dedicated as ever. With an impressive amount of fan art, cosplay, game mods, and short film tributes, you’ll feel right at home with the cult following. Whether or not you conquer all 55 levels of Zombies Ate My Neighbors, just remember at your next block party that no neighbor gets left behind.

Under the Spell of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins

Posted on May 25, 2022 by krystleratticus

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins is undoubtedly the father of shock rock. First introducing theatrical provocation to rock ‘n roll in 1956, following the success of “I Put a Spell on You”. Through a macabre lens, Hawkins would vocalize morbid themes and pair them with monster movie props in his live performances. Inspiring musicians for decades from Arthur Brown to The Cramps, Screamin’ Jay ushered the horror genre right into the spotlight of music.

Scream, Baby, Scream

Born in 1929 as Jalacy Hawkins, he was never one to let the truth get in the way of a good story. Cultivating his own mythical history, Hawkins embellished his life as a true entertainer. Adopted by Blackfoot Indians at 18 months old, he grew up with an appreciation for opera and classical music. Often referencing Paul Robeson as a major influence. As an accomplished pianist, Hawkins became a blues and jazz musician by way of Tiny Grimes’ band, Rockin’ Highlanders. Often stealing the show with the genesis of his outlandish wardrobe before becoming a solo artist. Inspired by the sounds of Big Bill Broonzy and Dizzy Gillespie, Hawkins created his style of performing and writing his own version of blues.

Horror on Stage

Following the controversial success of 1956’s “I Put a Spell on You”, a Cleveland disc jockey would encourage the musician to capitalize on the negative backlash of his song. Clad in a black cape and velvet gloves, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins would rise from his mirrored casket to glare at the audience with spinning eyes. Accompanied by his sidekick ‘Henry’, a rotting skull on a stick that actively smoked cigarettes. Sometimes Henry was described as a restless soul possessing a fetish and other times an actual donated skull of a deceased friend. A mechanical severed hand would squirm on the piano and was previously believed to have run across the stage in the early years. Other elements of the occult were incorporated into live shows. Candles and bells to call spirits, snakes around his neck, and chattering teeth illuminating from the darkness. Hawkins would also employ smoke bombs, flash paper, and other pyrotechnics that would leave him burned by his own quest for entertainment. Hawkins’ shows were frequently picketed by offended citizens yet continued to draw eclectic crowds of teenagers. All clamoring to take part in the magic rituals staged by the other-worldly figure of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

Songs

The morbid stage antics were just icing on the cake. The real substance of his career was in the music. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s most famous song, “I Put a Spell on You” was written in a fit of despair following a bad break-up. Originally intended to be a ballad, a record executive suggested Hawkins do “something different” with the song. Providing the group with imported fortified wine, they recorded a blind drunk version that became the infamous waltz of unrequited love. Blacked-out from their wild night at the studio, neither Hawkins nor the rest of the band remembered the session. “I Put a Spell on You” was an instant hit, surpassing a million copies in sales and ruffling the feathers of moral gatekeepers everywhere. The provocative growling, that became the singer’s trademark, was considered too suggestive and banned by radio stations. Hawkins would feed the grim rumors by claiming he had tried yet was unable to destroy the original audio tapes. Also, reportedly the song gave him the creeps throughout his career. Admitting that he would only sing it live after hitting the bottle. But his claim to fame wasn’t the only song packed with horror tropes. Here are a few suggested songs to those looking for the thrills only Screamin’ Jay could provide.

“Alligator Wine”

Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was one of the first to record “Alligator Wine”. Lyrically the song is a cartoony recipe for a love potion, but Hawkins set the standard with a swampy, bare-bones blues trance. Reading the grotesque ingredients and instructions right out of a bayou healer’s grimoire, “Alligator Wine” describes the adverse effects after consuming the concoction. A powerless addiction to vice and the charms of Screamin’ Jay himself.

“The Whammy”

The song “The Whammy” gives Screamin’ Jay a taste of his own medicine. With a full catalog of confessional tunes of snaring women with magic, the tables turn for Hawkins. He sings of being desired by a woman who puts a supernatural influence on him. Building suspense through his disturbing moans, Hawkins wails of the physical torture under this powerful conjure. Descending into madness as he begs the spell caster for release, going to far as to threaten her with a shotgun.

“I Hear Voices”

Equal parts biographical as well as the intrinsic aesthetic of Hawkins, “I Hear Voices” notes of a man unlucky in love. Another relationship soured and our jilted lover mourns his losses to the brink of paranoia. Screamin’ Jay’s song is plagued with the troubled mumbling and whispers of spirits. Losing a grip on reality, our narrator hears the chattering giggles and footsteps of phantoms as his own heartbreak drives him insane.

“Whistling Past The Graveyard”

Written by Tom Waits, the song’s title is an idiom of unknown origin, meaning to focus on a positive outcome regardless of the situation. The lyrics are a string of superstitions deliberately broken. Purposely provoking this bad luck energy with the confidence of a man who has nothing to lose. Screamin’ Jay’s cover utilizes his baritone instrument for the melodic incantation. Summoning a trickster entity born from a series of bad omens. The audience could easily see this song as another facet of Screamin’ Jay’s mythic history.

“Baptize Me in Wine”

Released in 1954 as a single by Jalacy Hawkins, “Baptize Me In Wine” takes influence from a New Orleans second line funeral. A midtempo chucklesome tale of wino’s last requests. Whether the preacher has returned to life or is knocking at death’s door is debatable. What is clear is that the afterlife will have to wait until the decedent has had a final libation. The soul will not rest until refreshed and buried with his beloved wine.

“Monkberry Moon Delight”

A nonsensical song written by Paul & Linda McCartney. The couple explained their original inspiration was taken from the surreal wordplay of a child’s imagination and singsong riddles. As an underrated cover, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins gives purpose to the song. Making it his own by improvising lines so the song is tailored to a spiritual narrative. Undergoing a psychedelic trip and surrendering to the addiction of a unique spirit/potion.

Spellbound

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a pioneer of shock rock and proto-goth subcultures. Providing the blueprint for every band who incorporated macabre theatricality in their music. Breaking taboos in the industry, none can surpass his original bone chattering freak-out power. If rock ‘n roll really is the Devil’s music, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was a supernatural force.

Do Androids Dream of Cronenberg? Philip K Dick’s Influence on the Baron of Blood

Posted on May 6, 2022 by krystleratticus

Canadian director, David Cronenberg, is best known to cinephiles for body horror of a particular kind of yuck. Whether it’s a parasitic relationship or a medical kink, his use of practical effects could make any gore-hound squirm. Others are drawn to Cronenberg’s cerebral adaptations of unfilmable literature. The not-too-distant dystopian unrealities of J.G. Ballard and Burroughs were brought to the big screen with Crash and Naked Lunch. Yet David Cronenberg’s amalgamation of technological unrest and quivering gristle may yet best envision the fictional worlds of Sci-Fi guru, Philip K. Dick.

Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab.

The producers of Alien had been trying to adapt a short story of sci-fi guru Phillip K. Dick since the 70s. “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” became the basis for Total Recall with David Cronenberg as the first director considered. Spending a year working on 12 different drafts, Cronenberg kept the script as close to Dick’s novel as he could. Remaining dark and paranoid, he contributed the concept of mutants and his own on-brand yonic imagery. But studio executives were looking for “Raiders of The Lost Ark goes to Mars”. Something much different than what he was willing to give and eventually left the project. Though the stories of Philip K. Dick would always have an influence over David Cronenberg. His pessimistic futures of isolation and counterfeit realities blended well with the director’s affinity for perversions of science. The foundations of Dick’s novels continue to manifest within the films of Cronenberg. Here we examine the similitude of their three most popular novels and films.

Scanners/Ubik

Hollywood continues to try and develop a film version of Philip K. Dick’s Ubik. David Cronenberg was at one point involved in discussions of an adaptation, even directly contacting the writer’s daughters. Though the director’s idea fell through, themes from the novel remained prevalent in another film. Through a combination of Cronenberg’s scripts for The Sensitives and Telepathy 2000 came the movie, Scanners in 1981. It’s a story of a mentally ill vagrant named Vale, captured by a private military company. They cure him of the voices in his head with their drug, Ephemerol, and then inform him of his super mind powers. As a “scanner”, he is recruited to stop an underground ring of rogue scanners through infiltration. Uncovering a plot of mass distributing Ephemerol to pregnant women and mutating the unborn. Transforming a new generation of scanners to overthrow the world. Philip K. Dick’s Ubik gave us the same gritty timeline where psychic powers are used for corporate espionage. Another downtrodden protagonist is employed by a company managing “precogs”. Cyberpathically securing their clients’ private information from telepathic hackers. A rival organization of psychics engage in guerilla style combat to eliminate business competition resulting in a liminal plot of time travel. Between life and half-life, the present or 1939, the characters become trapped Schrodinger cats. Doomed to deteriorate without the widely accessible store-bought product, Ubik. Both Scanners and Ubik would broadcast a faint warning of warring corporate entities and their disregard of consumer casualties.

Videodrome/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner is an acclaimed 1982 film adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Though an excellent piece of cinema, the1968 novel contained more complexities than a single film could possibly capture. David Cronenberg would expand on Philip K. Dick’s story beyond android bounty hunters with 1983’s Videodrome. A retro portrait of post humanism, the movie pokes fun at the idiot box and media identity. A sleazy cable-TV president becomes obsessed with a snuff channel broadcast out of Pittsburg. The addictive signal induces a brain tumor that causes hallucinations. These visuals are recorded and marketed as television programming. All under the guise of a false media prophet, Brian O’Blivion, founder of the Cathode Ray Mission. Existing only within video tape recordings, humans are reprogrammed into an analog hell-LIVE! Dick’s novel, Electric Sheep, gives us another society of stifling technology mimicking the organic. Literally dictating every human emotion with Penfield Mood Organs and a tech-based religion called Mercerism. Utilizing “empathy boxes” to simultaneously link users to a virtual reality of collective suffering. Centered on a Sisyphus martyr-like character who eternally climbs up a hill while being hit with crashing stones.

eXistenZ/The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

The David Cronenberg film most referenced in regard to Philip K. Dick, is 1999’s eXistenZ. A film that takes gaming beyond hobby or addiction and into a complete lifestyle alignment. Popular on the market in eXistenZ are fleshy VR pods that connect on a bio level with consumers. Gamers are surgically fitted with a spinal port that plugs into the console. Dueling game companies compete for control of the market while fending off an underground movement of “Realists”. Domestic terrorists that disapprove of these games distorting reality. A failed assassination on a game-developer’s life has her on the run with the only copy of her latest game creation. To ensure it isn’t corrupted she plays through with her bodyguard, only to enter a deeper level of virtual reality filled with assassins and spies. The addiction to escapism reflects Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. A novel about the miserable existence of manual labor where citizens are drafted to colonize other planets. Draftees self-medicate with the illegal drug, Can-D. A hallucinogen allowing a controlled simulation of a Barbie doll figure, “Perky Pat”. Continuing with the element of opposing business giants, a famed bio-modified merchant has discovered a better alternative called “Chew-Z”. Double agents fall through the looking glass into their own hallucinations as the battle of drug patents ensues. Both Cronenberg’s eXistenZ and Dick’s Three Stigmata have ambiguous endings that leave the audience wanting more.

Brandon Cronenberg: Like Father Like Son

David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon, follows in his footsteps as a director and screenplay writer. Deriving inspiration from alternate consciousness and the universes created by Philip K. Dick. His debut, Antiviral, takes celebrity worship and his father’s signature “venereal horror” to another plane. Familiar tropes of misuse of medical technology and quarreling corporate giants,the movie reveals a black market of genetic souvenirs from celebrities. Reminiscent of Ubik by way of a manufactured afterlife wrapped around the consumer market. Brandon’s 2020 film, Possessor, references Dick’s frequent use of imposters and multiple identities. An assassin tale where public persona meets shadow, and all sense of identity is lost in a role. Similar themes arise in Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said and The Simulacra.

Long Live The New Flesh

Philip K. Dick was afraid of how technology would transform humanity, and that fear aroused something within David Cronenberg. He is the grimy lens of our mind’s eye that shows us a broken-society closer than not-too-distant. Where body horror is loss of autonomy when flesh melds with tech. Where humans become fake versions of themselves living in fake storylines. Philip K. Dick warned that this was going to happen, and David Cronenberg rubs our faces in it.

There are about a hundred movies that could be made from Dick’s stuff, but I think people are afraid of it still, which is a testament to the power his work has.
https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/interview-david-cronenberg/

Further Reading

Behold! The Unfilmable: The Literary Adaptations of David Cronenberg

Every Warning Sci-Fi Writer Philip K. Dick Gave Us About Technology is Coming True

Never-Been-Seen Concept Art for David Cronenberg’s Total Recall

Weirdo Du Jour

Screaming on the inside 👽

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