What's with all the freakin' zombies lately? I thought I was the last person in the world that enjoyed the shenanigans of these kooky, brain-chomping corpses. Then 28 Days Later was released last summer and now everyone's cuckoo for the undead. Consider the evidence:

- A remake of the best horror movie ever made, Dawn of the Dead (don't argue, it's a scientific fact), was released last March. It cruised to a hearty $59 million theatrical take and is burning up the DVD sales charts as we speak. While a solid effort, it lacked the panache of the original, a problem that a few Hare Krishna zombies would have easily solved.

- Milla Jovovich is back on screen re-killing the undead while dressed in shorts too small for most preschoolers. Box office so far for Resident Evil: Apocalypse? $23 million in its first week alone.

- The British rom-zom-com, Shaun of the Dead is set for a release here in the US on September 24th. It's been getting great reviews and was a big hit in the UK. No word yet on whether or not Hare Krishna zombies are involved. There was a screening last night at Pioneer Place but I didn't find about until two hours ago. Now I'll have to wait at least a week for the answer. Blast!

- Portland's very own Bill Plympton recently finished work on a zombie animated feature called Hair High. It debuted last month at the Crystal Ballroom.

- In an effort to bring attention to the substandard treatment of the city's non-living residents, a Mercury writer recently covered himself in latex for a cover story that appears in this week's Zombie Issue. One of his goals was to purchase a kitten or at least a hermit crab from the Scamp's store at Lloyd Center. Did he succeed or did the proprietors 86 him? Click here to find out.

- Anchor Bay, bless their little black hearts, released a four disc set a few weeks back for the original Dawn of the Dead. Along with three separate cuts of the feature (US original, director's cut, European), there's commentary tracks from all the key players, a lengthy documentary on the filming, radio spots, trailers and enough overall zombie goodness to keep fans of the dead-people-in-shopping-mall genre busy for many an hour. Why is this the finest zombie film ever made if not the best horror film of all time? Well, along with the aforementioned Hare Krishna zombie, there's several hillbilly zombies, an overweight zombie in a bathing suit and even ice-skating zombies.

- Perhaps best of all, George Romano's long-rumored Land of the Dead has been greenlit and is set for a October 21st 2005 release. Dennis Hopper is slated to star.

So with all these reanimated corpses running amuck in American pop-culture, I should be happy, right? Well, actually, I'm bummed. It's like when your favorite band signs to a major label, hits it big and starts showing up on Total Request Live while high on airplane glue. Now that everyone loves zombies they've somehow boring and banal. I may have to move on to werewolves soon. No one cares about them and I heart those Ginger Snaps movies are pretty decent.