People absolutely love campy horror movies. And Maryland resident Kevin Perkins, 49, is giving them what they want. He is premiering his own film on the big screen at the Senator Theatre in Baltimore. As opposed to being your typical slasher film, though, My Boring Zombie Apocalypse gives viewers quite a different slant on the typical zombie theme.
Instead of being terrified by the Zombie Apocalypse, residents are, well, a bit bored by it all…And that’s where the fun begins!
Perkins, the writer and director, took some time to speak with Parade about his flick and how it was made, and to give insight into what it’s like to create a dark-comedy horror movie.
How did the idea for My Boring Zombie Apocalypse come about? How long did it take you to make it?
A few years ago, I was on a team entered in the 48-Hour Film Festival. I was the writer. [In the 48-Hour Film Festival, a team has 48 hours to write, shoot and edit a short film under 7 minutes in length.]
I brainstormed a few ideas before we knew what our genre was going to be, just to be ready. [Teams draw a piece of paper from a hat to determine the “genre” of their short film.] My Boring Zombie Apocalypse was my idea for a short if we drew the “horror” card. We didn’t, so we shot a puppet murder mystery instead.
But the idea for My Boring Zombie Apocalypse stuck, and my buddy and editor Chris Resnick liked it too, so we started shooting it as a short. And it grew and grew. It’s now just less than 40 minutes long. We’ve shot on and off for five years—when we had money, time, crew, a location or actors.
What the movie is about?
What if our world—a world where we are very familiar with what zombies are—actually had a zombie invasion? A slow, [George] Romero-type zombie invasion? I felt that the zombies would be easily dispatched.
What other films have you worked on?
For the past 20 odd years, I was largely a senior publicist/promoter with Allied Advertising, solely marketing studio films (Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, all of them) in the Baltimore market. But I was always making commercials and shorts as well. I’m at the theater two or three times a week, sometimes more!
Was this your first time directing? What did you like about it?
It was my first time directing something of this scale and scope. I had only directed shorts and commercials until this. It’s nerve-wracking, but yes, I do love it.
Seeing a scene from your imagination come to life before your eyes—it’s very cool. A little idea becomes 500 zombies sprinting down the street. That’s kind of amazing.
Why do you like this genre—the campy, horror movie?
I like zombies and horror, but really, if I had had the budget, I might have made a sci-fi film. But horror tends to be cheaper to film. Also, I loved the idea of turning zombie movies on their ears with this script too. I was looking for both a harsh realism and a dark comedic vibe.
What were your biggest challenges with making this film?
Knowing when to stop shooting new scenes and just finish! We had conversations with the Senator Theatre back in July regarding doing something with them for Halloween, but I wasn’t sure we could be done in time.
We decided we’d been playing with the film for more than long enough—we could have gone years longer just having fun and adding more “tales from the zombie apocalypse.” It was time to just wrap it up. So we decided on a double feature with my favorite zombie flick, Return of the Living Dead and our film.
You rented out The Avenue at White Marsh for a big zombie scene. Tell me about that.
We got a great deal, shooting from midnight until 8 a.m. on a weekend. The Avenue is an outdoor mall, and it looks like small-town USA. It was perfect for an invasion.
It is also private property, so I didn’t have to close down a real city street to shoot, and have all of the permits that entails.
We originally hoped for 40, 50 zombies, and posted a special event on Facebook. I fully expected 10 or 20 to show up and thought, “Well, I can work with that too.” And then it got crazy—it snowballed. Within days we had over 1,500 RSVPs. I was terrified they’d all show up.
We ended up with something like 500 or so zombies. I had never shot anything that epic before, and neither had my crew. We were all pretty “green.” But I think we nailed it.
What was the toughest part about making your movie?
Probably the insane amount of post-production it required—we had lots of CGI. We tried to make it look global, epic—a zombie invasion on a worldwide scope.
Viewers love this genre. Why do you think they keep coming back to it?
I would have thought zombies jumped the shark years ago, but people can’t get enough of them. I think the reason for that is zombies can fill in for whatever you are personally afraid of or perhaps even hate.
Do you think you’ll be making another horror film in the future? Where will you go from here?
I have a script that I wrote with a friend that we really like. It’s a vampire/buddy flick. But making MBZA has been fantastic. It’s been my film school.
Will your film be available to the public after the screening? If so, how can people get a copy?
Eventually! First we’ll probably take it back for tweaking—we’ll use comments from the audience to make changes here and there—and then send out to film festivals. Seeing it on the big screen, I can see every flaw stand out, both with narrative and video/audio. I’ll want to make changes.
But yes, the goal eventually is DVD and digital downloads.
Until then, enjoy the trailer and a scene with Duff Goldman from Charm City Cakes.
Check out the movie’s website at http://boringzombie.com/
Click “Next” below for another clip.
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