Category Archives: zombies

ZOMBIE PATROL wins Horror Screenplay Contest & goes into production

My script ZOMBIE PATROL won the International Horror Screenplay Competition run by Visceral Films – and the movie is scheduled for production later in 2016, with the principal location being the Land of Illusion Horror Theme Park in Ohio.

I’m rather chuffed about this.

Here’s what the Visceral Films site says:

“Geoff Holder’s story works in so many different ways- it’s a character-driven horror rompfest complete with humor and a great story arc. It highlights the Land of Illusion theme park and the mission of the contest perfectly.

The competition was intense- Geoff’s work was selected from within a field of other writers spanning the globe from the US to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.

As winner of the contest, Mr. Holder will have Zombie Patrol produced, be credited as its writer, and be paid commensurate with an independent $2m feature length project. Additionally, he will have a first look deal with Visceral Films. 

Zombie Patrol immediately enters development and becomes part of Visceral’s 2016 slate of film projects.”

visceral films ZOMBIE PATROL

I’ll be posting regular updates as the amazing production team take the movie through pre-production into the filming phase.

NB Mmmmm….brains!

In which the Author talks zombies on the Grand Dark Conspiracy…

grand dark

I was recently interviewed by Daniel Bautz of the Grand Dark Conspiracy (‘Exploring the Unexplained, the Unseen, the Unknown’) on WQTT out of Ohio, the matter in hand being that pesky issue of the zombie apocalypse.

Specifically I was talking about Zombies from History, and how when the apocalypse does arrive, rather than wait

for that dull salesman from No.27 to eat you, why not step and seek and destroy some of history’s big guns?

The talk ranged wide and indeed far, taking in the likelihood of the author receiving abusive tweets from disgruntled readers during the apocalypse (‘Dude! Henry VIII wasn’t where you’d said he would be!’) to the exploding corpse

of William the Conqueror. We also covered records of belief in the walking dead from archaeological evidence and medieval chronicles. All in all, zombie fun central.

You can still listen to the podcast here. My thanks to Sunny Lambert and Daniel Bautz of the Grand Dark

Conspiracy.

zombies cover for blog 3

 

 

 

In which the Author has some Zombies reviewed on The Spooky Isles…

There’s a genial review of my book ‘Zombies From History’ on The Spooky Isles site. “Holder’s humour and writing style is very engaging,” apparently. The book serves as “an excellent and entertaining introduction to famous

historical figures” as “he hammers home facts which you may not forget in a hurry.” Oh, and “The illustrations are also rather amusing and really well done.”

And the reviewer, a former sociology student, appreciated the joke about a resurrected Karl Marx leading the

Living Dead faction of the anti-capitalism movement with the slogan “Zombies of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your brains”.

zombies cover

The full review is here. And ‘Zombies from History: A Hunter’s Guide’, the definitive work on what do do when the

historic dead return during the zombie apocalypse, can be purchased on that there Amazon for ready money here.

spooky isles

My thanks to MJ Steel Collins.

In which the author appears in Le Canard Gascon…

Canard Gascon p
Le Canard Gascon
is a monthly magazine that covers food, culture, business, politics, history and events in this

part of southwest France (Gascony). Edition 54, January-February 2014, has a full page feature on me and my

work, under the title of ‘British Zombies’.

 

Described as ‘Le spécialiste de l’étrange’ (specialist in the strange) who writes about the paranormal, witchcraft,

ghosts and zombies, I am credited with including in my work a ‘certain British humour’ that ‘our neighbours across the Channel practice with such excellence.’ Merci.  The article also claims that the Holder household is ‘a veritable

chaos of books’. Oh, such lies – the other day I managed to find the sofa without having to move more than fifty

volumes. Pfff!

 

You can read the article online (in French, of course) here. My thanks to Monsieur Jean-Louis le Breton, leading

light of Le Canard Gascon. 

 

In which the Author discusses Zombies for the Edinburgh Forteans…

On Tuesday 12th November I’m giving a talk on ‘Zombies from History‘ for the Edinburgh

Fortean Society. You can expect:

Archaeological evidence for belief in the walking dead in Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon times

Medieval accounts of plague-spreading, people-battering zombies

People who have returned from the dead after being hanged or buried (or both)

And the exploding corpse of William the Conqueror

Warning: contains corpses.

Venue: The Counting House, West Nicholson Street, Edinburgh.

Time: 7.30pm, Tuesday 12th November.

Cost: £1.

There’ll be books for sale on the night.

Zombie-Geoff_MONO

In which the Author writes on zombies for the History Press blog…

With Halloween upon us, the October Newsletter of the History Press (publishers of

Zombies from History among other fine works) turns appropriately to thoughts of ghost and ghoul. I’ve contributed five zombilicious items to their blog:

Zombies: the return of the dead in history

A zombie hunter’s guide

Where to ride out the zombie apocalypse

Anti-zombie weapons

And the all-important question: Why do we love zombies?

Enjoy the zombie jamboree.