Dead Northern Film Festival: ‘Zomblogalypse’ Review
Stars: Miles Watts, Tony Hipwell, Hannah Bungard, Alan Melikdjanian, Joanne Mitchell, Andrew Dunn, Andrina Carroll, Lyndsey Craine, Victoria Delaney, Peet Torjussen, Gemma-Louise Keane, Jennifer Jordan | Written and Directed by Miles Watts, Tony Hipwell, Hannah Bungard
Zomblogalypse began life as a series of fifteen-minute episodes that ran on YouTube from 2008 to 2011. The tale of Miles (Miles Watts), Tony (Tony Hipwell) and Hannah (Hannah Bungard) three survivors blogging their way through the zombie apocalypse developed a cult following. The trio moved on to other projects before coming back to launching the feature version of Zomblogalypse in 2018.
After ten years of dodging zombies, Miles, Tony and Hannah are bored. Very, very, bored. Even a botched outing to find supplies doesn’t dispel that feeling for long. So what can they do to pass the time? Find any other survivors in the area, and make a movie about surviving the zombie apocalypse.
As much a parody of low-budget filmmaking as it is a zombie comedy, Zomblogalypse is something of a cross between Shaun of the Dead, One Cut of the Dead and a Monty Python sketch. It’s a very British collection of absurd situations all wrapped around the sheer absurdity of making a movie in the midst of the apocalypse.
A film always felt like unfinished business for us. The trick was breaking the story: it needed to justify a feature while being manageable on a very tight budget. I’d always loved films about filmmaking, like Ed Wood and American Movie, and this is our contribution to that oeuvre.
– Tony Hipwell
The opening segment showing conspiracy debunker Captain Disillusion (Alan Melikdjanian) finding out that zombies aren’t a hoax parodies the trope of someone continuing to film even as they’re killed. From the radio DJ at the end of Fulci’s Zombie to hundreds if not thousands of ill-fated found footage filmmakers we’ve all rolled our eyes at this. It also sets the tone for the film, funny and not afraid to get very bloody.
Which is not to say that Zomblogalypse is an exercise in splatstick. There are plenty of gags involving blood and body parts as the zombies combined with the characters’ general ineptness whittle the cast and crew down at a fast pace. But there are plenty that revolve around human interaction and the process of filmmaking. Like putting together a list of perks for contributors to their film. “We offer a bunch of stuff we might or might not have to people who might or might not have survived the apocalypse”.
If you like horror and enjoy British comedy then you should get a laugh out of Zomblogalypse. For those that aren’t sure, the original episodes are still available on YouTube for you to check out, there are also links to them on the film’s website.
It’s our way of making an independent film while simultaneously sending up both the process and the genre. Filmmaking brings out the best and worst in people and it’s funny seeing that writ large onscreen, against an apocalyptic backdrop, which only heightens the desperate nature of it all.
– Miles Watts
**** 4/5
Zomblogalypse will make its premiere on September 26th at the Dead Northern Film Festival in York. The film also screens next month as part of the Dead of Night Film Festival in Southport.
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