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‘Zombie Roadkill’: An early mini-hit
Fantastic Fest screened what has to be one of the funniest horror movies ever made on Friday night with the world premiere of “Zombie Roadkill.”
Originally conceived as a series of episodes for the Internet site fearnet.com, “Zombie Roadkill” was edited by director David Green and his crew as a 30-minute mini-movie that had that audience at the Alamo South laughing nonstop.
Here’s the premise: A stretch of highway in a mountainous area has long been cursed, or even worse. The highway was built over an Indian burial ground that has a long, sordid past. And when anyone runs over an animal along the route, the animal comes back as a zombie, intent on revenge.
That’s what happens to five young people who run over a squirrel. The newly zombified squirrel chases them down and begins to wreak havoc.
David Dorfman, 16, who has been acting since he was 3, plays the young brother of the driver, and he’s the star. Dispatched to get help after the zombie killer squirrel forces their vehicle off the road, he encounters all sorts of terrors, including a zombie skunk cloud. But out of that mist comes the voice of Thomas Haden Church, a ranger who promises to lead the kid to safety.
Director Green, Dorfman, Church and writer Henry Gayden showed up for Friday’s screening and talked about the making of the movie, which was shot in the remote area of Griffith Park in Los Angeles. (That’s the park with the observatory, which was made famous in “Rebel Without a Cause.”)
Green and Gayden received financing for the project after showing a zombie short to Sam Raimi, the director of “Spider-Man 3.” Green worked as an assistant on that Spidey movie, and that’s where he met Church as well as Raimi.
The movie does not use CGI. Instead, it relies on semi-realistic puppetry made from various pelts and other items Green bought on ebay and other websites. He then gave the items to Quantum Creation Effects, which made the puppets.
The zombie puppets include the squirrel, a nasty possum, a mean skunk, a bunny rabbit and a deer.
Gayden, the writer, had an interesting story about the deer. It turns out that his family includes several hunters and that the deer in the movie was actually the stuffed head of the first deer he ever killed as a kid. It was also his last kill. He says he’s not a hunter. He said his dad had the deer head stuffed and mounted as a Christmas present, but that he soon put it in the attic. He says it finally came in handy for the new movie.
“Zombie Roadkill” will premiere with two episodes on Oct. 4 on fearnet.com. Another episode will be available each day for the rest of the week.
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By t. osborne
December 21, 2010 7:01 PM | Link to this
Henry gayden is full of crap. the rack on that deer would not only be the state record but close to world record status as far as inches of antler score. there is no way he shot that deer. and put it up in an attic . give me a break, the deer is a non-typical monster that would rank in the top 10 highest scoring deer of all time. lolol give me a break gayden.