Just in time for the season of gore, guts and braaaaiiiins, and three years after it was filmed around Central and Western Maine, “How to Kill a Zombie” is loose.
Maxim Media International bought and picked up the movie for distribution and released it earlier this month.
“It sold out on every platform immediately,” said Bill McLean, one of the film’s stars and head of Freight Train Films of Monmouth, which shot the movie. “I would say it’s getting out there.”
DVDs of the zombie comedy are being sold online through Brain Damage Films, where it’s already on back order. It’s streaming as video-on-demand through outlets such as Amazon.com, Xbox and iTunes. It’s also available at Bull Moose.
“It’s actually been a pretty popular seller,” said Bull Moose clerk Nick Mosher in Lewiston. “We’re just waiting on a restock on it. It’s just been flying off the shelves more than we anticipated.”
“How to Kill a Zombie” was shot in the fall of 2012 with a cast and crew of 176, including 135 bloody, shuffling extras, most of them local.
Directed by Tiffany McLean and starring father and son Bill and Ben McLean (Tiffany is Bill’s wife, Ben’s mom), the movie follows a gung-ho survivalist dad and a much less gung-ho son. It opens with the two training in the woods in Northern Maine when a zombie Apocalypse breaks out. The mission: Make it to the dad’s well-stocked bunker in Southern Maine and dispatch a lot of undead along the way.
Scenes were filmed at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College, The Cap Place & More in Wales, Oak Hill Cash Market in Sabattus and The Birches Family Campground in Litchfield.
Extras are credited with descriptions such as Biker Chick Zombie, Laptop Zombie and Office Executive With Golf Club.
“(It’s) the world’s first family-friendly zombie comedy,” Bill McLean said. “It’s designed to draw people in who would never watch a zombie movie. My mom is 76; she refuses to watch horror. She came to the premiere and watched and was ready to cover her eyes or leave and she laughed the whole way through, loved the movie.”
McLean said it took a year to edit the movie. Maxim sat on it for another year to time the release for Halloween.
For the DVD, the three McLeans and Assistant Director Seth Roberts filmed an audio commentary and included behind-the-scenes extras including the training regime.
“We trained the zombies how to walk; we trained the stunt zombies how to get thrown around without getting hurt,” Bill McLean said. “We’re currently writing the script (to the sequel). It’s going to be even funnier than the first one, and the first one is a hoot. We’re going to work on getting the comedy perfect and not just mostly perfect, putting a little more in, a little more action in, more ways to kill zombies.”
He’s hoping to shoot that follow-up, “How 2 Kill a Zombie,” in the fall of 2016 or summer of 2017, again in Maine.
In the meantime, Freight Train Films has three feature films slated for distribution next year, McLean said: “Scooter McGruder,” “Bad Kid” and “Wendigo Rising.”
He’s also had a script optioned by a U.K. film company, “The Cloning,” a “sci-fi cops and robbers thriller,” slated to be shot next year overseas, that he’ll also star in. McLean said that movie will help finance “How 2,” which he’s excited about based on the initial response to the first.
“Right out of the gate this has just blown the doors off everything,” he said. “It’s already in England, it’s already in China. We’ve got fans in Sweden sending us fan mail. When people on YouTube from Down South are reviewing it, that’s a good thing because I don’t know any of these people. I’ve gotten emails from somebody every day saying, ‘Hey, there’s another review here.'”
Those reviews so far have been mixed.
Bloodbath & Beyond, a horror movie reviewer on YouTube with more than 8,000 followers, rated it a favorable 3.5 out of 5 but lamented “cringeworthy” jokes and an arguably low kill count: “They did their job with hitting the humor, hitting the zombie genre, and just making an overall fun film.”
A reviewer on Horrornews.net called the acting “awful” but warmed to the characters and creativity: “‘How to Kill a Zombie’ is not ashamed of its scarce production or ridiculous brand of humour … Expect ample explosions and upbeat romance fueled by a script laden with ongoing jokes and spray bottles that gush lovely, ever-so-needed whimsy humor into a sub-genre so blackened by pretension.”
And from CreeperCast.com: “A hilarious and fun romp through the woods and office with a high-chemistry cast. Destined for sequels and action figures!”
kskelton@sunjournal.com
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