App of the Week: Make A Zombie 2

Image credit: Skunk Brothers

App Name: Make A Zombie 2

Price: Free

Available Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. This app requires iOS 4.3 or later.

What does this app do? Blood down the side of the mouth, pale and sallow skin, dark circles like inverted half moons under the eyes, maybe even a knife protruding out from a crusty, worm-eaten cheek—really, when you sit down and imagine what makes a zombie look like a zombie, you have a grab bag of options. And now, app developers Skunk Brothers provide even more possibilities for you to design your idea of this walking-dead monster with their latest release of a mix and match app called Make a Zombie 2.

For those of you that missed the previous release, Make A Zombie, this new version, released earlier this month, allows you to create your own zombie by selecting from a variety of features and outfits.

At the start screen, the app presents your canvas–a squat, wide-eyed character against a plain backdrop ready for zombifying. From your iPhone or iPod Touch, tap the arrow on the top right of the screen to peruse outfits and features. Select the icon for hair, for example, and a second row of tiles below displays a handful of choices—long and stringy to short and nubby. You can change the background by tapping on the square tile in the top row of buttons, and then choosing between several colors and textures presented in the second row.

Once you’ve outfitted your zombie, name and save it, tweet it or post it to Facebook by tapping on a button on the bottom left. The app also allows you to save your zombie to a gallery, wherein you can see all of your brains-eating creations displayed in glass jars. For additional features, you can purchase “zombie packs” from the in-app store, such as the Halloween Pack, or the Pirate Zombie Pack, by selecting the shopping cart icon.

Is it easy to set up? Yes, download it from the App Store, but keep in mind it is optimized for iOS 5.

Should I try it? This is all fun. You won’t be challenged, you won’t learn a new word, and you won’t score points or excel to another level. You will, however, get into the Halloween spirit and enjoy designing your very own zombies, maybe even legions of them! The two drawbacks to this app were the ads displayed at the bottom of the screen, and, unlike the previous Make A Zombie version, this one is not available yet for Android.

Let us know if you have any app of the week suggestions on Twitter at @TechThisOutABC.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Want to eat like a zombie? The Walking Dead food truck hits UK with some gnarly meals

For the release of The Walking Dead Season 2 DVD/Blu-ray, a gastronomic chef sends out a themed food truck serving some grisly zombie eats.

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a brain-eating zombie? Actually, don’t answer that — I’m not sure I want to know. If you were one of the lucky goers who was in London this past week, you might have experienced this craving first hand with a special food truck inspired by the AMC hit show The Walking Dead.

Last spotted at the Camden Lock Market on August 22, the The Gory Gourmet food truck — created by mobile food truck company Street Kitchen – is training a trip around the United Kingdom, serving fresh brain burgers for those lusting over the gnarliest of foods. Other items on the gastronomical menu includes feet and thyroid nuggets, crispy brain dippers, brain salad wrap with wild rocket and tarragon mayo, pig’s feet, and skewered beef hearts — perfect for zombies on the go. We’re not sure exactly where these gruesome meals originate, but the truck states all menu items are ”responsibly sourced British ingredients.” Utensils are also provided, but you can certainly go zombie-style and dig in with your hands.

“It’s a great opportunity to use some unusual British ingredients,” Street Kitchen co-founder Mark Jankel told Stylist UK. “After a heavy morning in the office our customers should have the appetite of The Walking Dead.“

And a morning rush it was (or is it mourning?); based on the photos posted to The Walking Dead UK’s Facebook album, a significant amount of people lined up to taste these “offally good” meals. The truck also ran a special for fans who are first in the lunch rush, offering them free servings for being oh, so punctual.

The Gory Gourmet truck is, of course, one of many promotional stunts to promote the release of the season 2 DVD and Blu-ray (in the UK) and the upcoming season 3 of The Walking Dead. Last month, New York City got a dose of live zombies itself when Dish Network protestors sent the undead roaming amongst the city, confusing and terrifying the lives of many metropolitans. None of the spooked pedestrians ended up as a brain burger, thankfully.

If you wanted to sample some of these strange creations, The Walking Dead UK’s Facebook page also lists a vague recipe book for the items sold on The Gory Gourmet truck. It doesn’t tell you all too much about what the brain is made of, but at least you’ll know what the seasoning is.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC on October 14.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Pups battle zombies in short film Play Dead

Ever wondered what it's like to be a dog during the zombie apocalypse? Play Dead offers an answer.

While we normally avoid covering every single film project to emerge from the modern electronic gestation pod that is Kickstarter, once in a while something comes along that is just too cool to ignore. Something like a short film depicting the zombie apocalypse. Wait, don’t click away just yet. Granted, zombies have been done to (un)death, but Play Dead is a different kind of zombie movie. Instead of pitting hungry, desperate human survivors against a shambling horde of reanimated corpses, the short film’s creators have decided that perhaps it would be more interesting if these rotting corpses were forced to battle man’s best friend.

The results, as you can see in the 18-minute vignette embedded below, are equal parts adorable, depressing and weirdly funny. It’s dark humor, but c’mon, it’s dark humor starring cute lil’ pooches. You Internet people love stuff like that!

With the hype properly shoved onto you people, we can get to the crucial details behind this. Play Dead, as we mentioned, is the result of a successful Kickstarter project from a Florida-based studio calling itself the Borscht Corporation. Though it has no real impact on the short film’s content, we’d also like to point out that the Corporation has a lovely alligator Ouroboros as its logo. Honestly, that’s pretty keen, so propers to whoever designed that bit of art.

That aside though, we know very little of the people behind this movie. As far as we can tell none of them have been involved in any major Hollywood productions to date, nor can we find any information on what the Corporation has planned for its next project. We do know that the people behind Play Dead are quite capable of working on a minuscule budget — the Kickstarter originally sought to raise $3,000 but managed to nearly double that figure by pulling in $5,849 — and that bodes well for the potential future of the studio. While a small film project like this won’t ever hit theaters, it makes a nice stepping zone toward the big time, and few Hollywood studios would turn away a director capable of producing a movie like Play Dead with a budget of less than $6,000.

If we have one qualm about Play Dead however, it’s that the short is just too short. That’s a stupid complaint for us to make, but as die-hard fans of zombie lore (yes, we can see the pun, and no, it was not intentional) and anything involving adorable animals this kind of thing lands directly in our wheelhouse. Though we doubt it’s a possibility, we’d love to see a major studio hire the Borscht Corporation to remake Play Dead as a full feature-length movie with a proper budget. The project wouldn’t even need major stars either; we’re perfectly content with the amateur thespians seen in the short film, and the potential profits generated by the “dogs versus zombies” premise alone should make such a film a massive hit. Just don’t let Romero direct the thing. As much as we love the man’s work, the quality of his zombie films dropped off precipitously after 1985, and we’d hate to see these puppies squandered on a movie that is qualitatively comparable to 2007′s Diary Of The Dead.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com