This past weekend ECHG writer Adam Holtzapfel had a chance to see the sold out world premiere of Bong Of The Living Dead at Nightmares Film Festival.
Bong Of The Living Dead is a comedy at heart with horror elements. The story follows a group of friends and zombie movie buffs as they enjoy high times during a zombie apocalypse.
Directed by Max Groah (who took home the Night Mare for Best Feature Director) and written by Max along with Tim Mayo, it was a 14 year labor of love. Max stated during the introduction that he wanted the characters based off of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
As the film begins we see the core four friends breaking into Old Man Farnlacher’s shed to retrieve some confiscated items (football, frisbee, etc). Suddenly they see a wooden bat named the Clintonville Slugger.
Fast forward and we see Hal (Daniel Alan Kiely), Dr. Dr. Kate Mitchell (Tiffany Arnold), Tara (Laura Mock), and Jon (Dan Nye) using said bat as a “tobacco” pipe while discussing zombie films and how awesome a zombie apocalypse would be. During the discussion it cuts to scenes of zombies ruining Ben’s date. We see Christ return to the group along with Misty (Sarah Starr) as a zombie police officer attacks a passerby we know the shit is hitting the fan.
Here we see the group getting a plan together.
What works for BOTLD is the comedy, it hits a note with smokers and non smokers while it goes deeper into testing relationships of those being holed up in the house. Some relationships strengthen while others break down.
The make up is reminiscent of Evil Dead 2 and using Columbus, OH as a backdrop for the film allows the it could happen anywhere effect to work. The film doesn’t try to be something it’s not. They knew their audience and gave them what they wanted.
