Zombies are becoming pop culture sweeties

Tell the vampires to move over; the zombies are coming.

Some drooling, flesh-eating zombies made a guest appearance on "Smallville" last week, but the walking dead don't have their own TV show yet.

They have a long way to go to reach the pop culture status that vampires enjoy now thanks to films such as "Twilight" and TV series such as "True Blood."

That could change by next year because AMC is developing a zombie drama based on the Marvel comic book "The Walking Dead" about a zombie superhero.

Yes, zombie love is on the rise, as reported in the freakishly funny special "Starz Inside: Zombiemania," airing at 10 tonight on the Starz cable network.

If you don't subscribe to Starz and are thinking of dressing up as a zombie for Halloween, you might consider signing up for this premium service today just to check out this documentary.

"Zombiemania" suggests that in an era of terrorism, war and threats of pandemics, the zombie could be the monster for our times. In the distance past of zombie lore, they were created through voodoo. Now they are created by plagues (see "28 Weeks Later" and "Resident Evil").

Apparently there are a lot of zombie fans out there. Consider: On Oct. 24, thousands of people dressed as zombies will try to re-create a rotting corpse dance sequence from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video in an attempt to get into Guinness World Records. At least 400 of them will be doing the zombie stomp on The Pier in St. Petersburg.

And there is "Zombieland," the Woody Harrelson comedy that opened big in theaters two weeks ago. The box office receipts dipped this week, but it still has some life left in it.

"Zombiemania" features scads of clips from films of the 1930s and '40s such as "White Zombie" and "I Walked With a Zombie" as well as the legendary 1963 film "Night of the Living Dead" (made on a budget of $6,000).

Also included are interviews with zombie culture experts such as George A. Romero, the producer of "Night of the Living Dead," and Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks), who wrote the tongue-in-cheek best-seller "The Zombie Survival Guide."

Max Brooks' other best-seller, "World War Z," about a human versus zombie war, is being turned into a movie.

FEARFEST: Speaking of things that go bump in the night, American Movie Classics will celebrate Halloween with a marathon of horror movies (and horrible ones, too).

The "AMC Fearfest," from Oct. 23 to 31, will include more than 50 films and three milestone anniversaries: the 30th of "Aliens" (8 p.m. Oct. 23), the 35th of "Young Frankenstein" (8 p.m. Oct. 30) and the 30th of "The Amityville Horror" (10:30 p.m. Oct. 30).

AMC also will have the world premiere of the digitally restored and remastered "Night of the Living Dead" at 6 p.m. Halloween day.

CHANNEL FLIPPING: The 28th season of PBS' "Frontline" (10 tonight on WEDU, Channel 3) opens with "Obama's War," a look at the issues involved in the conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

On CBS' "The Good Wife," also at 10 tonight, jury tampering and a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company are the legal issues.

"NCIS: Los Angeles," at 9 tonight on CBS, has the team tracking the killer of a defense contractor and searching for missing classified records.