I watched Aaron K. Carter's film with a group of friends at an online movie-and-chat site that I moderate, and I'll say right off the bat that the movie was very well received. It caught the attention of our viewers at the very beginning and held it until the very end. I personally consider it one of the best independent films we've ever shown. I really liked the way that Carter handled the zombies ("rottens" as they're called in this movie), showing only glimpses of them until the final sequence. The ending itself was startling and memorable and (thankfully) left the way open to a sequel.
The guest actors -- Irwin Keyes ("House of 1000 Corpses"), Ben Woolf ("American Horror Story: Freakshow"), Joe McQueen ("Confessions of a Superhero"), Tony Della Catena ("Colors"), and Juliette Danielle ("The Room")-- were fun to watch (and watch out for), and McQueen in particular was a real asset to the film. The acting overall was first-rate, particularly for an independent film. Carter avoids the clichés of many zombie films, and the emphasis is on story and character rather than on gore. There is none of the amateurish look and feel that characterizes so many independently made horror films.
The only "criticism" I heard from our group was that some of our viewers thought that Kevin Beardsley played the part of Rusty too broadly. But none of them picked up on the fact that he also played the character of Zeke. To me, that's good acting when someone plays two roles and no one notices. Also, no one noticed that the actress playing the lead character switched midway through the movie. Another example of good acting (and directing). There are number of clever references to "The Wizard of Oz" (apart from the fact that the movie takes place in Kansas), which gave me an even greater appreciation of the movie.
Although initially made as a five-part web series over a period of many months (hence the need to switch lead actresses after the first one got visibly pregnant), the movie has an overall coherence with a logical beginning, middle, and end, and doesn't look like five separate pieces arbitrarily strung together. All in all, I found this to be an impressive first film, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Carter's work.
