Aaah! Zombies!!

I often wonder how far horror-crazed directors can and will go exploiting the concept of zombie comedies even further. The living dead haven't appeared in a genuinely scary movie since many years. The days of George A. Romero's original zombie trilogy are long over and nail-biting suspense has gradually turned into absurd comedy and grotesque splatter. The majority of zombie comedies are pretty lame, with some notably exceptions like "Shaun of the Dead" and "Fido", and practically none of them comes up with original ideas or creative new formulas. "Wasting Away", by debuting writer/director Matthew Kohnen, is one of the very first Indie flick that attempts something drastically inventive and brand new. The movie shows life from the perspectives of the zombies themselves. They assume they look and behave completely normal, but in fact they are disorientated and steadily rotting cadavers. This concept indeed sounds silly and even more implausible as regular zombie action, but it's undeniably innovative and particularly Kohnen's illustration of the world through zombie eyes is extremely ingenious. The initial black & white cinematography only turns into color when the four lead characters become infected with the zombie virus. From their viewpoints the normal and still uninfected people are hectic and incomprehensibly muttering beings. Four twenty-something friends with absolutely nothing better to do than hang around in a fast food restaurant become infected when they mix ice cream with a gooey green fluid from a barrel that lay at the entrance. The fluid obviously is a military experiment gone wrong and the foursome undergoes a vivid metamorphosis. As more and more people are getting infected, the zombies take peace with their new lifestyle and want to defend their rights. In spite of the original concept and a handful of effectively hilarious jokes and gimmicks, "Wasting Away" regretfully remains a low-budgeted and forgettable effort. The film is too long and for every neat sequence or clever piece of dialog there sadly is tedious and clichéd zombie movie footage. The lead players are mundane and annoyingly stereotypical horror caricatures, including the joker and the nerd kid, and the rest of characters aren't much better with the drunken bowlers and heavily mustached army colonel. Around the hour the whole thing just sort of gets retarded, with a man vs. zombie combat, talking heads and zombie bowling tournaments. There's quite a lot of carnage and bloodshed going on, but the emphasis merely lies on the comedy factor. Once again, the basic idea is nifty but clearly that wasn't enough. Nevertheless I'll be interested in seeing the future work of director Kohnen.

Saw this little Indy gem at Screamfest where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature. I'm a huge Zombie film fan, thought I'd seen them all, every little twist, turn, variation, etc. And when 'Shaun of the Dead' came out, that kind of closed the book on Zombie Comedy for me. Until this... A Zombie movie from the perspective of the Zombies, simply brilliant. They riff off the old Black and White Romero stuff, then switch into Color when the heroes are 'Zombified'. The rest of the flick plays out switching back and forth for great comic effect. I'll say no more, you have to see it yourself. Be on the lookout, hopefully someone smart will pick it up. It's got 'instant classic' written all over it. Thomas

I had the pleasure of seeing 'Wasting Away' at the Screamfest 07 screening with a full house that obviously loved it. So much so that I found out recently it won the Audience Award. I was definitely a part of that, my ballot was marked Excellent before I left my seat. Simply put, this is a fantastic little film. It's a Zombie Genre movie that manages to do what no other Zombie film has done in a while... namely, put a new spin on the Genre. Face it, Horror fans, it's gone stale. Even Romero's 'Diary of the Dead' didn't break any new ground that the Master himself hasn't already broken. It just took Zombies to the 'Blair Witch Project' level. Cool, but still mostly same-old, same-old. Not this. It tells the Zombie story like I've never seen, with a fresh look. The whole movie is told through the eyes of the Zombies themselves, but as they see each other, not as the world sees them. Actually, it's a combination of the two, one in black and white (apeing off the classic Romero flicks) and the other in color. They see each other as normal, and the "normal humans" as fast-moving, fast-talking, violent-reacting maniacs who they think are 'infected' by some toxic Military accident. The rest of the movie plays out switching from color to B&W, and it works pretty well. If there is a downside to this film, it's that sometimes it takes itself too seriously. But when you look closer, it's pretty clear that they do it on purpose, and just when you wonder if they actually 'mean it', they hit you with another joke, and the show goes on. I loved it.

I've watched a huge number of films, including a zombie theme, including those that show the other side - the story from zombie side, not people side. And this is, in fact, a great idea, since there are few such films and the story is not boring yet. But this film did everything to ruin a great idea and make it not at all interesting to watch: too lurid performance, seasoned with flat humor in almost all scenes, which were supposed to be funny. As a result, we have a third-rate comedy about zombies, with killed potential.

All I can say is, wow. Caught this after wading through a slew of basic slasher/spooky ghost stuff at Screamfest, films basically like any of 20 others that I have in my personal collection. Didn't have much expectation going in to this, since there hasn't been a 'new' zombie movie in a while. 'Diary of the Dead' was cool, but Romero basically falls back on the same old stuff, nothing new there. It took me a bit in the beginning to warm to this film, since I came in looking for straight horror, and it's not really horror, it's a comedy, that has horror roots. Guess that's why they took it in Screamfest. That, and it's a damn good film. And there were some slow moments where I wanted they to get past the 'feelings' and get onto the action/comedy. But when I let them work on me, they were great, and I laughed even during the 'slow' stuff. Basically, it's just freakin' funny, and a totally different thing. Glad I saw it, it's the kind of thing that might be too unique and cool for the Studios. Their loss...