Comic-Con: New Zombieland Red Band Trailer And Footage Debut

Sometimes the Hall H presentations really have their moments. I'd mostly avoided the brief Zombieland footage that had been released so far; it's one of those films I just wanted to see all at once. But damn, the red-band trailer that premiered in the big hall today was fantastic, full of slo-mo zombie kills (this is a great way to use speed ramping) and some great humor from Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson. More on the trailer and a couple of clips after the jump; it's the sort of thing that some might call spoilerish, too.

We saw two clips from the film in addition to the red-band trailer. One featured Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) at home just before the zombie outbreak begins. He's alone at night when someone begins frantically banging on his door and shouting for help. It's his hot next door neighbor, played by Amber Heard, and she's suffered a weird attack from a hobo who rushed and tried to bite her. After awkwardly comforting the girl (and giving us some private comments via voiceover, which seems like it'll be a constant device throughout the film) Columbus and the girl fall asleep on the couch. He wakes to find her turned into a zombie, which leads into a violent, frantic chase through the house.

The next clip showed Columbus and Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) arriving at a supermarket, where they dispatch a few zombies and run into Witchita (Emma Stone) and her sister Little Rock (Abigail Breslin). The situation gets complicated, and I won't ruin the outcome of the scene. But what director Ruber Fleischer has managed looks like a great combination of action and humor, with a splash of real horror. This movie looks gory and outrageous (I kept thinking of the game Dead Rising) and a lot more fun than I'd been willing to hope. The audience reaction was great, and the voiceover from Eisenberg seems like it works pretty well. There's a Woody Allen-like tone to his inner dialogue, but Eisenberg mentioned on the panel that Columbus has a list of ways to survive a zombie attack, many of which we'll hear explained throughout the film, balancing out the nebbishness of his character.

Today's red-band trailer isn't live online yet, but I hope it hits soon.