The deadline for our Presidential Zombie Photoshop contest has technically already passed, but due to the madness of Cannes and the holiday, we haven’t started judging yet, so we thought we’d give stragglers a bit of extra time. If you still want to enter, you have until midnight EST tonight. See our rules and regulations here.

In our never-ending quest to find new ways to mock contemporary popular culture whilst celebrating the classics, we bring the first ever (ever!) SpoutBlog Photoshop Contest. We have a George Romero DVD two-pack to give away: a copy of the new Diary of the Dead, and the 40th Anniversary edition of Night of the Living Dead. Here’s the quip from the press release:

The NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 40^TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION DVD features a fully restored and remastered version of the original 1968 classic film and bonus materials, overseen by the master himself. This DVD marks George A. Romero’s long legacy with great interviews and multiple featurettes that emphasize the quality of this ultimate horror classic. The DIARY OF THE DEAD DVD bonus features include an optional audio commentary by George A. Romero, character confessions, a making of and the top five Myspace contest shorts.

Find out what you have to do to get the discs after the jump.

…Read more

I imagine this will change once the work day gets underway on the West Coast, but right now the entire featured section on YouTube is still devoted to vaguely Halloween-themed clips. My favorite: A Hard Day’s Night of the Living Dead, a music video by The Zombeatles. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like, complete with jello brains, and just in case YouTube has cycled it out of the featured slot by the time you read this, it’s embedded above. Also good: House of 1000 Muppets. Come for the inventive use of clips from Follow that Bird; stay for the Fozzie punchline.

Remember Masters of Horror? The name-brand horror directors anthology series on Showtime that gave birth to Valerie on the Stairs, as well as Joe Dante’s inimitable Homecoming, in which zombie veterans rise from their graves to storm the voting booths? Although Showtime has declined to pick it up for a third season, Masters executive producer Mick Garris and his team have signed a new deal to produce a similar show for NBC. This definitely means the show will attract more eyeballs, and it probably means the producers will have higher budgets, both of which will make luring talent easier. So this is good news for horror fans, right?

Wrong. Film Junk’s Sean writes: “The problem is that a network environment will be extremely limiting for a horror series — blood and gore will have to be borderline non-existent. I suppose there would always be the option for unrated DVD releases afterwards, but I find it hard to believe that the content wouldn’t suffer because of it.”

He may have a point. Take a look at the Homecoming trailer above. It’s a total sanitization of the movie, and I still can’t imagine ever seeing that shot of the guy on the table with the missing legs network TV. For more on Dante’s Homecoming, you must read Grady Hendrix’s Slate piece from December 2005, here.