American Zombie
American Zombie is a tiny little mockumentary that you may need to exert some effort to find, but I hope you will find it as well worth it as I and my companions did. Grace Lee directs (and costars as the in-film documentary’s codirector) this story of the zombie community’ struggles to function in a living-human-centric world. For starters, high-functioning zombies (Revenants or Decedents, as they prefer) are nearly indistinguishable, socially, from you and me. Well, except for the remainders of the traumatic injury that put them in this state. Additionally, any of us could have the R428 virus, which activates, or should I say, reanimates, at death; today’s oppressors may become tomorrow’s oppressed.
Lee and her more exploitative (Racist? Mortalist?) filmmaking partner John Soloman interview various decedents, getting their story (or amnesiac lack thereof), teaching us about their challenges, their strengths, and what they hope for zombiekind’s future. Like any subgroup of society, of course, the revenants have secrets and prejudices and agendas. The fun of American Zombie is watching John go after some lurid Weekly World News angle while Grace is reverently trying to capture the souls of the soulless.
The film is also full of chuckles galore and witty dialogue, though it’s heavier on big, well-executed ideas. It serves as a fabulous satire of self-important documentaries trying to gloss over their subjects’ intrinsic interest to the public in search of art. It praises the hard work of a documentarian in the same breath, and mocks the weird and difficult interviewees. Lee sets the perfect tone by stepping inside her film and talking about the process, and editing the story to feel almost self-damning but giving us a great (fictional) story arc.
Zombie historian Rodrigo Weiss was one talking head I would have liked to see more of. American Zombie also sits down and thinks through the practicalities of a whole zombie subculture. Like any minority group that has been classed as sub-citizen or subhuman in the past, barriers to revenant progress prevent any meaningful achievement regardless of merit. This is a smart little movie masquerading as a lark – a one-joke premise expanded into a deliciously complex web of ideas and comedy, and I mean come on, zombies!
Did I mention it’s also quite funny? Besides managing to be a statement on racism, a parody of a documentary, and an enjoyable character conflict between two egotistical directors, it’s also a straight up zombie comedy! When the movie gets into the undead version of Burning Man (I guess Rotting Man was too negative a name; they went with Live Dead, which really, is perfect), it even gets to be a little scary. You would think maybe it’s too much in one movie, but in this case, it’s just right. Check it out if you can. A huge shout-out to all the actors, unknown faces whom I hope get lots of work after this.
MPAA Rating Not rated: some gore, adult situations, language
Release date 3/28/08
Time in minutes 90
Director Grace Lee
Studio Cinema Libre
