BIFFF - Zombie Honeymoon and Running Scared

First up was Zombie Honeymoon by Dave Gebroe. Gebroe was there to introduce his film and came across as quite a likeable guy. When handed the microphone to make his opening remarks the audience started their usual chant for a song, and he obliged with a fairly decent rendition of the Love Boat theme. He then explained a little about the genesis of his film which was basically his way of coping after his brother-in-law died in a surfing accident. A lot of the film is directly inspired by that tragedy such as the fact the main character share the names of his sister and brother in law, the beach were the accident happened is one of the locations. It is obviously a very personal film and he somehow manages to mix a low budget character piece about death and coping with it's aftermath with, well, a zombie movie.

A young couple has just got married and head down to the beach for a month. They have their dream of heading to Portugal and are young and in love. One day after surfing, they are lying on the beach when a decomposing zombie shambles out of the surf in a very Fulciesque moment, attacks Danny, vomits black blood into his mouth and then expires. Danny passes out and is rushed to the hospital by his frantic wife Denise. There his heart stops beating and he is pronounced dead but he sits up ten minutes later as if nothing had happened.

What happens next is a portrait of a young couple seeing their lives fall apart around them, normally this would be due to a disease of the week type thing but in this case it's because the husband is actually decomposing and needs to eat human flesh. It's an odd film and an interesting choice of style to put together. While it doesn't always work, Gebroe has a good eye for shots and framing and has managed to make something quite special out of his premise. Some scenes are maybe a little too slow and some of the acting is a bit wooden (the best friends of our couple are examples of this), however Tracy Coogan who plays Denise does a very good job as the woman watching her life literally disintegrate around her, she does add some real emotion to proceedings.

While the film plays very straight, it is not unaware of the absurdity of the situation and there are some good laughs in there too.

So, if you feel like watching a fairly slow character piece with zombies and some nice old style gore (I may go on about the love story aspect but this film is also nice and bloody when it has to be) then you could do worse than check this out.

Then there was the second film of the evening with the surprise of seeing Paul Walker in a good movie.

Running scared is insane, over the top, makes virtually no sense and is a huge amount of fun. The film starts with a drug deal gone wring that ends in a nice bloody gunfight. This scene gives a good idea of what is to come with its quick cuts, slow motion, rewinding of the action to focus on different details and above all blood. Lots and lots of blood. Paul Walker’s Joey makes it out alive and is given a silver gun to dispose of as it has been used to kill a cop. He hides the gun in the cellar where it is stolen by the next door neighbour's kid who uses it to shoot his abusive, John Wayne worshipping step father before running off into the night, still holding the gun. Walker then has to find the gun while avoiding the Mafia, the Russian mob and the police. There then follows a night of extreme violence, just the way we like it.

By its very nature the story is episodic but the director, Wayne Kramer, keeps it running so fast that you don’t really have much of a chance to think about how silly some of the plot twists are. Kramer does a good job here, some of the scenes are hyper kinetic using all sorts of different techniques (I particularly liked the film melting during a brief character flashback) and yet when he needs to he pulls back such as in the surreal scene with the perfect couple who live in a strange clinical apartment. And happen to be pedophile serial killers. Yes, it’s that sort of film.

Kramer’s screenplay throws everything in bar the kitchen sink and he knows how to keep people interested and how to surprise them. The above mentioned scene with the seemingly perfect couple is truly chilling and is not at all overplayed. It’s a brief glimpse of true evil in the middle of all the petty (and pretty) chaos. There is also a fairy tale like quality in a story which encompasses evil step-fathers, getting lost in the woods, lots of big bad wolves and a little bit of the gingerbread house.

Somehow all of this works. I’m sure that some people are going to have a problem with the ending but frankly who cares, Kramer certainly doesn’t seem to. His film is a big finger to safe thrillers as it’s proud of its own amorality and has not qualms about putting kids in the middle of extremely violent gunfights and having ten year olds swear like troopers. It’s refreshing to see this sort of thing these days. Most of the characters are sleazebags including Walker, who really is a surprise here as he actually acts as opposed to being the pretty block of wood that he has always been prior to this. I hope that this is not a one off and that he build on the good work that he does here. The rest of the cast are also good and the kids are not too annoying which is always a bonus.

So, if you fancy some over the top violence and being solidly entertained for two hours, this is a good way to do it. I can’t wait to see what Kramer does next.