[Apologies for the delay in posting recently.  As we hope you’re unaware there is a biblical, extinction-level stomach flu making the rounds here in the US.  Details would be inappropriate but we sincerely hope that you are indeed, and remain, unaware. ]

We’ve said it before (and we’ll continue to say it long after you find it annoying) but Shaun of the Dead is the perfect zombie film.  One of the many reasons for this is Ed.

Ed might be a boorish, insufferable clod unable to grasp the gravity of the situation.  He may also be a self-centered ass who blithely ignores how his actions negatively impact those around him.  Those that truly know him realize, deep in their hearts, that he’s also lazy and dirty.

(Fun IMDB fact: Ed was played by Nick Frost.  To create a genuine need for Ed to scratch himself inappropriately he allegedly shaved his genitals for the filming.)

Zombie Ed, thus, is an improvement over the original in almost every way.  He really hasn’t changed much but nobody minds that you keep him chained in the shed and off the sofa.

Of course, we celebrate this giant of the risen dead this week.  How could we not?  From the moment he shambled from his freshly opened grave people knew that he was something special.  Jesus was able to overcome his zombification like no other before or since.  He remains the only zombie with his own holiday; although we still have our fingers-crossed concerning Lincoln.

Scoffers may, well, scoff but there’s little argument amongst serious scholars (and irresponsible bloggers) that Jesus of Nazareth, the Alpha and the Omega, the Ruler of Creation and the Bread of Life was indeed a zombie.  He died, he came back and now he wants your brains.  Definition met;  check and mate.

Jesus is a role model to all.  He shows us that the risen dead can be productive members of society and, more than that, celebrated as heroes to millions.

Inspector Clay worked his stubby fingers to the bone to protect, um – wherever the hell he worked – until the day that he died tragically off-camera in a horribly lit cardboard graveyard.  Then an effeminate alien shot long distance electrodes into his pineal and pituitary glands and raised him as the lovable zombie tool of destruction that we’ve come to know and love.

“Plan 9 from Outer Space” wasn’t the first Zombie movie and it certainly wasn’t one of the best but it did bring us a clumsy, shambling, incoherent Tor Johnson as Inspector Clay.  Later he put in some white contacts and became a zombie.

As the Inspector’s good friend John Harper reminds us: “One thing’s sure. Inspector Clay is dead, murdered, and somebody’s responsible.”