It’s odd to see how we’ve become so desensitized to children killers, particularly when they’re a member of the living dead. I’m sure that there are many that aren’t coming to mind at the moment, but horror projects with kid zombies have always been shocking – think Karen Cooper in Night of the Living Dead, Gage Creed in Pet Semetary and Addy Miller in “The Walking Dead.” We’ve seen some truly horrible scenes which has now made the subject so normal that filmmakers are able to take the concept and make a whole title about it, as seen here with Zombie Playground: Ice Scream.
Zombie Playground: Ice Scream is a short film currently entering the film festival circuit which is written and directed by Jason Wright under his company Silent Studios. It follows two young women, played by Megan Lockhurst and Rosie Pearson, during a routine afternoon walk through a park where the zombie virus has reared its ugly head in the children’s playground. The women as well as an investigator (David Sellicks) are pursued by a horde of ravenous kid zombies, but they’re not the worst thing lurking in the forest. Enter The Ice Scream Man (played by Jon Campling of Harry Potter fame) and his parlor of horrors.
Examining this short film from a production standpoint, it’s pretty flawless. I noticed one slight mistake with editing, but I have to say that everyone working behind-the-scenes on this project clearly knew what they were doing. I loved the picture quality in which they shot on. The audio was perfect and all of the levels were on point, resulting in an easier to follow story. The special effects were great, too, and I loved that they went with the “less is more” approach to application because it made all of the zombie extras look uniform. The creepy claw teddy bears were a welcomed addition to the set designs as well.
I think what I liked most about Zombie Playground: Ice Scream is that it explored the idea that there could be different kinds of zombies. In this short film we see child zombies with childlike minds, we see adult zombies who attack with blood-lust and then we see the Ice Scream Man who seems to retain most of his senses and intelligence, although it is now severely altered by the evil virus inside. It’s definitely a different take on the subgenre and I think it’s the first time we’ve seen all different “species” of zombies all together in one short film. For that, I can give it props for originally. Hopefully, this idea is expanded into a feature film sometime in the future because I’d love to revisit this entire thing again with more characters, more time and more plot.
Final Score: 7 out of 10
