I recently got my hands on a copy of Zombie Bohemia. If you can remember, I visited the set almost a year ago and have been doing some heavy promotional work for the film ever since then. The film premiered in November, but I wasn’t able to make the event because I had to work. As a thank you, producer Mark Bell was kind enough to send me Zombie Bohemia.
Taken directly from the Zombie Bohemia press release, “Zombie Bohemia is the story of Michael, a struggling New York City artist, who just happens to be a zombie. Played by New Yorker, Shawn James, Michael is trying to find balance between his drive to produce memorable, inspired art while also being plagued by the underlying needs and urges of a zombie. In short, he is trying to gain approval and respect from the very people he is biologically wired to consume.”
By this time I have talked extensively with director Vince Brando and producer Mark Bell and they described the genre as mockumentary with some definite comedic elements and a little horror. I wasn’t sure how this was going to mix and come across on-screen, but I knew they couldn’t really elaborate. Film makers do need to keep some aspects of their films under wraps, you know. Now that I’ve watched Zombie Bohemia I can say the film is a perfect mix of all elements and I should have picked up on the mockumentary style earlier. As with actual documentaries, Zombie Bohemia plays like a documentary that follows Michael The Zombie and Anton.
There are a few comedic parts in this movie. I won’t spoil all of them, but I will tell you one. I laughed at the “Luna Eclipse,” part. As far as the horrific parts go, there’s not too much gore – definitely a lot of blood and guts play, although they are disconnected from the body already. A couple of people get munched on or choked. Zombie Bohemia isn’t anywhere near gruesome, but that’s because the team behind the film never planned on making a full-fledged horror film. So, you can’t really fault them for that. If you do like horror comedies, then I think you will like Zombie Bohemia.
If you like indie films, then you will like Zombie Bohemia. It was created on a shoe-string budget, but it still has a lot of effort, a lot of art, a lot of skill, and it’s a lot of fun. As I said with my initial set visit, there was a lot of love involved with this movie and a lot of effort put into it despite the budget. Zombie Bohemia has a running time 00:12:25, which qualifies it as a short film, but I wish they could have done a feature film. I would love to see more or what Zombie Bohemia could have done with more time. Some scenes were rushed, but I was still diggin’ it.
Zombie Bohemia stars Shawn James, Will Carey, Tim Urian, Kyle Kenyon, Havilah Imfeld, and Chloe Scharf. It is a film by Two Man Island Productions with Vince Brando as director, Mark Bell as producer, Chris Magdalenski as director of photography, an original music by John Oszajca. Real artwork was donated to production by real artists including Jessica Faller, Edgar Gonzalez, and Maximilian Rauber with special thanks to The Greenpoint Gallery.
Speaking with Mark Bell yesterday, I brought up The Chicago Fear Fest to which Mr. Bell displayed knowledge of and interest in submitting Zombie Bohemia too. So who knows, maybe you’ll get to see this film sooner than later!
