AFM 2014: Ebola Zombie Flicks to Infect Screens None Too Soon
Ah, like a ripped-from-the-headlines episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” you just knew it would take no time flat for a slew of ebola zombie flicks to emerge. But is it too soon?
The American Film Market saw the appearance of two films (although one is technically a cheat) designed to capitalize on both the oversaturation of zombie flicks and the media’s “Ebolageddon 2015” news coverage.
For the record, if there isn’t a movie titled Ebolageddon before the end of next year, I’ll be stunned.
Wild Eye Releasing struck first with a film simply entitled Ebola Zombies. Two weeks before AFM it was entitled SARS Zombies. Honestly, who remembers SARS? That non-pocalypse was so five years ago – longer, actually. In fact, I’m not 100% certain, but I think this movie may actually be a retitling of the Asian movie SARS Wars from 2004. I can’t tell because they all look alike to me. Asian zombie movies, I mean, not actual Asians themselves. Stop being racist!
Anyway, here’s the trailer for Ebola Zombies, written and directed by, ummm, people.
Synopsis:
A group of thieves break into an industrial complex to pull off a jewelry heist but stumble upon a hidden laboratory where unorthodox SARS and Ebola experiments are taking place on stolen cadavers, who soon mutate into bloodthirsty zombies. Now the thieves are trapped inside the building with the police outside and a growing army of the dead inside – they must punch, kick, and shoot their way to freedom in this explosive action horror that combines The Raid: Redemption with Dawn of the Dead.
Then there’s the British flick Plan Z, in which an ebola outbreak leads to the dead rising. The trailer for this rather generic looking zombie movie written by, directed by, and starring Stuart Brennan makes no mention of ebola whatsoever. It’s currently in post and will debut at the Berlin market in February.
According to Deadline, the production company behind Plan Z is purposefully going out of its way not to connect the film to the 24-hour news cycle’s societal death knell of the moment out of fear of being labeled insensitive.
Honestly, if you’re concerned with being labeled insensitive, you probably shouldn’t be making horror movies.
For more be sure to hit up the link to Deadline’s story, which also includes a teaser for Iron Sky: The Coming Race, the sequel to 2012′s Iron Sky about Nazis on the moon. This time around Sarah Palin destroys the world as we know it and then descends to a secret netherworld to report to a dino-riding Hitler. Seriously.
Plan Z Synopsis:
Craig has always thought about what he might do in a zombie apocalypse. When a deadly outbreak of Ebola erupts, his planning becomes more serious. As the virus mutates and makes the dead rise again, he must put his plan to action. Barricading himself in his house, his plan quickly unravels, and he must adapt and decide on a new and more aggressive course of action. A Plan Z.
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