"The Union vs. The Confederacy vs. Zombies..." Topic

Earlier tonight I was mulling over some of the data collected at our last playtest of Gutshot: Night of the Living Deadwood. And for some reason, that brought to mind a movie I saw some years ago called, "The Killing Box." It was an interesting movie… a bit low-budget, as I recall, but still, I recall that I enjoyed it.

So, tonight I looked it up online and found that it's been retitled "The Ghost Brigade," that it was released in 1993, and that it's not difficult to find. So, I'm going to order it and watch it again.

I'll post some thoughts on it after I watch it again… but before then, I wonder if anyone else has seen it, and if so, what were your thoughts on the subject?

Movie at Amazon: imdb.com/title/tt0107319

Never seen it, could be an interesting game.

The players play the normal sides and half way through the game zombies start coming out of the ground.
Morale checks all round and then who do the players fight, each other or the common enemy.

Make the undead some British and you have your answer!

Did it have Billy-Bob Thornton in it?

Very, very strange movie. The screenwriter had too much tequila. His imagination was running wild, and the storyline is just crazy.

Hmmm…your IMDB link says the movie is called "Grey Knight".

I checked Netflix, it's not available for streaming…..

Reminds me of the setting of Deadlands from Pinnacle. When Great Rail Wars first came out, we used to play with 5 against 5, and when you were killed you went to the graveyard and started over as a Skeleton Cowboy. When 5 "live" people were dead, the living then joined sides to kill the Skeletons……

ah…good times…..

Ahhh man…. Netflix doesn't even have the disc! 8-(

Well this proves that there is room for just about anything on TMP! Not a topic I have much opinion on, but I am glad we do have a big tent!!

Not to mention that I never thought I'd see this particular lot connected together via cross posting. 8-)

horror, acw, 19th century and old west.

Just wait till the booze and Meds kick in!

Sounds kinda cool…
I loves me Deadlands…

Review from Amazon:

Originally titled The Killing Box, George Hickenlooper's surreal Civil War movie recounts a gruesome (and fictitious) episode in American history in which a phantom army of Confederate and Union soldiers attacked and crucified armies on both sides. Adrian Pasdar plays Captain John Harling, a Union soldier assigned to investigate the Alabama 51st, a Confederate regiment his superiors believe survived a deadly battle and have made strange bedfellows with a group of Union soldiers. Harling enlists the help of former mentor and current POW Colonel Nehemiah Strayn (Corbin Bernsen), the only member of the 51st to have actually survived the attack, in helping him find and deal with his former soldiers. Assisted as well by an African clairvoyant (Cynda Williams) who escaped one of the massacres, Harling and his men search for the ghost brigade, and when they find them, they learn their terrible secret. Lushly photographed and well acted, Hickenlooper's film sustains a spooky atmosphere even though it never provides any truly scary moments. But what makes the film engaging is the mystery behind the murdered soldiers, the underlying issue of racism, and scenes of injured soldiers suffering in a time before anesthetics. While Pasdar's somber narration has more than a passing resemblance to Apocalypse Now (ironically Martin Sheen makes a brief appearance), Brigade has its own merits and is worthwhile entertainment. Fun trivia game: try and spot soon-to-be-famous Billy Bob Thornton, David Arquette, and Matt LeBlanc. --Bryan Reesman

I vaguely remember renting the VHS many, many years ago. It didn't make a hugely positive impression.

And here's the (renamed) DVD on Amazon:

link

I have vague recollections of watching this. I don't remember any details of them film. But I do remember we enjoyed it enough to buy a couple boxes of 1/72 ACW figures and zed some of them out for a couple games.

Well for one Jeb Stuarts ghost will help the Confederates(Haunted Tank comics).

I know this film! I knew there were more of us out there! This film is so awful its spectacular. Sheen as the Union general is fantastic…Bobby Lee from Gettysburg but in blue!

Sean

Wow.. this got a lot more responses than I expected. I saw it when it was called "The Killing Box," and like some have said, remember it being very strange.

The "Grey Knight" thing at IMDB must be a mistake.

BTW: The original title comes from how the soldiers killed the zombies: They formed a "box" around the zombies and then closed in on them, firing from all sides, then closing in some more.

And yes, Bill Bob Thornton AND Matt Le Blanc (Joey from Friends: "How YOU dying?") were in it before they were famous.

Shooting at each other in a box? Dumb. That .68 ball had some authority. Might just punch through and get a live 'un on the other side.

I knew the story sounded like something I'd seen, but the "Ghost Brigade" title was throwing me for a loop. It was indeed called The Killing Box when I saw it as well. And part me wants to say that was on "Joe Bob Briggs Drive-In Theater" – although that may just be because I saw it around the same time (mid-to-early 90's) as I recall being a steady viewer of Mr. Briggs' fine program. :D

I have seen the film a few times. I even posted a thread on here about it about a year ago.
VR
James Mattes

Does anyone make Zombies/undead in union and confederate uniforms?

I would also be interested in some Johnny Yank & Johnny Reb zombies in 25/28mm.

And yes, I could do a conversion. But, to be honest, I'm tired of conversions and don't think the faces ever come out looking right. They're like old zombie movies with the extras walking around with mediocre make-up.

I want to see this.

Might be where Deadlands got it's "Black Company" idea. The Black Company is a company of undead soldiers from both the north and south. They show up at important battles and sometimes help the losing side. Probably just to increase the death count and swell their ranks.

I actually started a thread a year or two ago looking for skeletal civil war soldiers.

There is mention of ACW era Zombies in the new Osprey book on the subject. Largest outbreak until the rise of atomic zombies post-1945.

Great find! I will get!

And the "haunted tank" reference, brilliant!

I always have a squad of civil war re-enactors in my zombie games, with a commander who goes crazy and thinks he's general Lee.

"The "Grey Knight" thing at IMDB must be a mistake."

This is what it was titled here in Australia so it's not a mistake. I saw this on VHS when it was first released, but can't really recall much about.

There's another ACW movie with a supernatural element called 'Dead Birds'.
imdb.com/title/tt0377749

Barry: Turns out the movie's had a wild time being retitled every few years:

The Killing Box (1993)
Ghost Brigade (1995)
Grey Knight (????)

The latter is apparently a directors cut that is 11 minutes longer than the original version. I just ordered that one on ebay for less than $10 USD (inc. shipping).

Not quite in line with the above, but I'm reminded of Nichelle Nichols in "The Supernaturals" about an Army unit that gets lost in the backwoods of the South, and winds up battling Civil War zombies.

Mike,

In a related note, is anyone answering email sent through hawgleg.com? I sent one last month and the two day response came and went with no emails.

I was trying to comment/question/make suggestions related to the Deadwood playtesting. I had just finished running a modified 'Coyote Gulch' full of Zombies.

Thanks.

David Glenn
dglennjr@yahoo.com