The Future is Meat

It’s fantastic that filmmakers can take a hugely over-saturated sub-genre and still put a refreshing twist of originality on it. We’ve seen tons of zombie movies over the decades since Romero has made them popular, but nothing quite like Bing Bailey’s mockumentary film, About a Zombie.

A zombie outbreak has reached epidemic levels in Dublin, Ireland, and a small-time filmmaker decides to capitalize on the situation to gain the notoriety he’s been looking for. He is invited to the home of a family whose son, Billy, has fallen to the virus. Instead of killing him off like the rest of the neighborhood families would have done, they’ve decided to continue to take care of their son, no matter what happens.

The plot is somewhat similar to the 2006 film, Fido, but the tone of the film is completely different. There is still a comical aspect to About a Zombie, but it is more of an undertone, as opposed to the silly and goofy approach. In addition to being funny at times, Bailey’s zombie opus also has the ability to be rather serious, covering various topics regarding how people around the family react to their undead son. It may seem amusing, but I think it is great to see how priests and neighbors feel towards a mother and father who would do anything for their boy, dead or alive. You may even be shocked as to how far Billy’s mother is willing to go to keep him fed and happy.

This film is clearly a low-budget production, but it doesn’t effect the overall project all that much. Sure, there are moments where the gunfire looks poorly done, but for the most part the zombie make-up and effects more than get the job done, allowing viewers to be able to just sit back and not have to worry about shoddy looking zombies and poorly done gore.

If you’re in the mood for a new take on the zombie sub-genre and want to support independent film making, be sure to purchase a copy of About a Zombie from Revolver’s official website.

I give this film 3 documentarians out of 5.