Cinema Libre Studios were kind enough to send a screener copy of American Zombie so Friday night some of the ZRC staff (Jef, Erik, and Erin) got together to watch it. With no pre-conceived notions with what to expect, we were all pleasantly surprised and charmed by the end of the night. American Zombie is genuinely funny AND supsense-laden with some shocking twists and turns. Yes, you can finally have your cake and eat it too.
The movie starts out following several “high-functioning” zombies who are fully integrated into human society. There’s a convenience store clerk who works the night shift because as a zombie he doesn’t need sleep, a scrap booking obsessed customer service rep zombie, a middle-aged flourist zombie, and a zombie fighting for undead rights under his non-profit group, ZAG (Zombie Advocacy Group). For the most part, the movie is filmed from the perspective of the film crew, and they provide an outsider’s perspective into this strange world of highly functioning zombies. This part of the movie is lighthearted and funny. There are many subtle jokes here and there and I’m sure if we watched it again we would have picked up on more.
While it starts out ostensibly as a Christopher Guest style mockumentary, American Zombie slowly unfolds into a mystery as the documentary crew uncovers a hidden agenda in the zombie culture. The zombies seem to be holding something back and the directors struggle to maintain a balance between uncovering their secrets while trying to earn their trust. Eventually they learn about a zombie convention (aptly named “Live Dead”) and work their way in as the first humans to attend. What they find is deeply disturbing and the film crew realizes that may have gotten into their subject matter a little too deep. I don’t want to give out too many details and spoil the ending for you, but from here on out the movie takes on a much darker tone and is suspenseful as any Hitchcock film.
We REALLY enjoyed American Zombie. We all found the pacing to be a little on slow side at times, but really that’s our only major beef with this fantastic film. The camera work was really good and the acting was simply outstanding. In fact the acting is one of this movie’s strongest points and we all talked about it afterwards.
American Zombie is the must-see zombie movie of the year. Unfortunately according their website, they are still showing it around at festivals so it may be difficult to catch. Hopefully they get it picked up for wider distribution or a DVD release is in the works so everyone can watch this fantastic film.