DAY 270--ZOMBIFIED

So, is zombie-filmmaking the modern equivalent of collecting baseball cards? It seems the past time of choice among today's youth is using Dad's camcorder to shoot a living dead opus in the backyard or rec room, though I suppose it's more constructive a hobby than message board flamewars about which cast member of THE HILLS is TEH HAWTEST!!!! All of this is to say that here's another amateur short film: ZOMBIFIED, directed by Adam Colas in 2007.

It's a classic trapped-in-a-box scenario, enacted by three pajama-clad teenage girls as they barricade themselves in their garage against a zombie outbreak. Since most of these "productions" are more about relieving the filmmakers' boredom than innovative storytelling, I'll give Colas a pass for keeping it strictly NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD LITE (though the short's beginning, in which the story is established through snatches of dialogue over a blank screen, suggested a more ingenious method to follow).

Everyone involved no doubt had a lot of fun, but I've got to say I didn't. While I gladly support youthful creativity, overwrought dialogue still jabs my eardrums like an icepick and the characters, such as they were, were a little to grating to root for. And if you're going to stage a "let's run through a swarm of zombies to escape" sequence, you've got to have the appropriate energy; lackluster zombie-killing is just no fun. Recruit that kid in your geometry class you secretly hate and wail the crap out of him!