Why Are Canadians Making So Many Zombie Movies?
In today’s Globe and Mail, filmmaker Andrew Currie offers an answer that seems to highlight his insecurity as much as his insight:“There’s something in the air,” theorizes Currie (Mile Zero), lounging in a Toronto hotel room, dressed in Johnny Cash informal wear -- black chinos and matching short-sleeved shirt. “Maybe it’s the aging boomer generation’s fears of mortality,” he adds, frowning.Currie’s current magnum opus opens Friday. It’s called Fido and The Globe sums the film and its current crop of competitors thusly:
Starring Carrie-Anne Moss and Billy Connolly, the post-9/11 satire turns the sun-kissed city of Kamloops into Paranioaville, U.S.A., circa 1955. Currie's film is one of four Canadian zombie comedies to make their midnight screening creep of late. Other Canuck "zomcoms" include Carl Bessai's B.C. forest chainsaw massacre, Severed; C. J. Hutchison's made-in-Winnipeg Denizens of the Dead; and Montrealer Eliza Kephart's Graveyard Alive: A Zombie Nurse in Love.
Actually, considering the venue and the vehicle and the fact that the filmmaker comes off a little... um... precious, Globe writer Stephen Cole gives a pretty even-handed -- even affectionate -- look at Currie’s film here.
Comments
Well, at least it's something. I read an article awhile ago in which people were saying that zombie movies of the 50's (and horror and sci fi) were mostly metaphors for the cold war, fear of the unknown, the enemy within, that kind of thing, but most movies today aren't metaphors for anything, they're just gross for the sake of gross. Or, as one critic called it, "torture porn."
But really, here in Canada, bundled up in parkas, tuques and scarves -- we are zombies most of the year...
In any case, from the sound of things, Currie's film is anything but "torture porn." It actually sounds pretty funny (if you like darkly twisted comedies... which I kinda do).
Thanks for the comment!