Wasting Away

I found Wasting Away on the shelves of Fopp recently after its Region 2 release here in the UK. I didn't buy it the first time I saw it because I find myself in a permanent state of skintness and therefore have difficulty justifying buying DVDs. However, packaging can be a powerful thing and the DVD cover for 'Wasting Away' looked great, had an intriguing synopsis and some positive reviews, so finally after watching the trailer (and, admittedly, after checking to see if the film was available online, which it wasn't) I bought it on DVD for a very reasonable £10, which is still the most I've spent on a DVD for about 2 years.

To cut to the chase it was worth every penny, and probably more. This is an independent film from California, with a fairly low budget of $1m, but it's nearly impossibly to tell this from the finished product, which is bright, ballsy and polished. Presumably the filmmakers must have had to cut corners to keep within their meagre budget but it's hard to see where they did so and this look of the film easily competes with higher-budget studio fare.

'Wasting Away' fits neatly into the "romzomcom" genre pioneered by 'Shaun of the Dead', but I hasten to add that 'Wasting Away' is not 'Shaun of the Dead', and is not trying to be. Four twenty-somethings spending time in the bowling alley where Tim (Michael Terry) works are unfortunate enough to eat soft-serve ice-cream composed of beer and the toxic waste from a military experiment gone wrong, subsequently die, and wake up as zombies. Except they don't know it. Their confusion is quickly compounded by an encounter with Nick Steele (Colby French), who has also been zombified but insists that they have all been transformed into 'supersoldiers' whilst everyone else in the city has been infected by an inferior brand of the same chemical (in fact, no one else has been affected).

Director Matthew Kohnen bravely tackles the zombie perspective and all the problems that come along with it (sample problem: if living human beings see zombies, as slow, lurching and groaning, how do zombies see us?) and clearly has a lot of fun doing so. The plot races along fast enough that the audience is never bored, but well-paced enough that we have time to get to know the characters and meditate on the ridiculous situation they are in. The dialogue is rife with humour and the actors sell it perfectly. Honourable mentions should go to Colby French, whose hard-nosed, sincere performance as "black ops" soldier Nick Steele is played straight rather than camped up and wouldn't be out of place in any Romero zombie film, and Matthew Davis, who delivers every line handled too him perfectly and never fails to bring the humour out of it.

Before I get too carried away I should point out that this film isn't perfect. At times it is laugh-out loud funny but at others the humour falls flat, or is just a little bit lame. Also, while the acting is mainly strong, particularly in French and Davis' performances, in other places it is weak or wooden. Some of the plot points feel a little contrived and the humour is occasionally too juvenile to be genuinely funny. But at the end of the day, these flaws are not only eclipsed by the positives, they even add to the film somewhat, making it more likable because of its imperfections.

This is a strong directorial debut from Matthew Kohnen, a filmmaker whose other credits seem to mainly consist of clerical or technical jobs, and I will certainly be looking out for more of his work. 'Wasting Away' stands out amidst the boggy mire that is modern horror cinema, a diamond in the mud of tired remakes and boring sequels that is all Hollywood seems capable of producing. It's refreshing, original, gleefully gross and most of all, it's fun. It's fun to watch and it looks like it was fun to make. The only thing that particularly disappoints me is the marketing failure. As far as I'm aware, 'Wasting Away' did not get a theatrical release over here and were it not for Fopp and their avid promotion of smaller independent films I would probably ever have heard of it. So watch it, enjoy it, and pass it on to ensure it gets the recognition it deserves.

I leave you with a quote from the film's theme song, which pretty much says it all: "You know your day will suck when the dead start walking the streets, And their only source of nourishment is Human meat."

I had the pleasure of seeing 'Wasting Away' at the Screamfest 07 screening with a full house that obviously loved it. So much so that I found out recently it won the Audience Award. I was definitely a part of that, my ballot was marked Excellent before I left my seat. Simply put, this is a fantastic little film. It's a Zombie Genre movie that manages to do what no other Zombie film has done in a while... namely, put a new spin on the Genre. Face it, Horror fans, it's gone stale. Even Romero's 'Diary of the Dead' didn't break any new ground that the Master himself hasn't already broken. It just took Zombies to the 'Blair Witch Project' level. Cool, but still mostly same-old, same-old. Not this. It tells the Zombie story like I've never seen, with a fresh look. The whole movie is told through the eyes of the Zombies themselves, but as they see each other, not as the world sees them. Actually, it's a combination of the two, one in black and white (apeing off the classic Romero flicks) and the other in color. They see each other as normal, and the "normal humans" as fast-moving, fast-talking, violent-reacting maniacs who they think are 'infected' by some toxic Military accident. The rest of the movie plays out switching from color to B&W, and it works pretty well. If there is a downside to this film, it's that sometimes it takes itself too seriously. But when you look closer, it's pretty clear that they do it on purpose, and just when you wonder if they actually 'mean it', they hit you with another joke, and the show goes on. I loved it.

I've watched a huge number of films, including a zombie theme, including those that show the other side - the story from zombie side, not people side. And this is, in fact, a great idea, since there are few such films and the story is not boring yet. But this film did everything to ruin a great idea and make it not at all interesting to watch: too lurid performance, seasoned with flat humor in almost all scenes, which were supposed to be funny. As a result, we have a third-rate comedy about zombies, with killed potential.

I often wonder how far horror-crazed directors can and will go exploiting the concept of zombie comedies even further. The living dead haven't appeared in a genuinely scary movie since many years. The days of George A. Romero's original zombie trilogy are long over and nail-biting suspense has gradually turned into absurd comedy and grotesque splatter. The majority of zombie comedies are pretty lame, with some notably exceptions like "Shaun of the Dead" and "Fido", and practically none of them comes up with original ideas or creative new formulas. "Wasting Away", by debuting writer/director Matthew Kohnen, is one of the very first Indie flick that attempts something drastically inventive and brand new. The movie shows life from the perspectives of the zombies themselves. They assume they look and behave completely normal, but in fact they are disorientated and steadily rotting cadavers. This concept indeed sounds silly and even more implausible as regular zombie action, but it's undeniably innovative and particularly Kohnen's illustration of the world through zombie eyes is extremely ingenious. The initial black & white cinematography only turns into color when the four lead characters become infected with the zombie virus. From their viewpoints the normal and still uninfected people are hectic and incomprehensibly muttering beings. Four twenty-something friends with absolutely nothing better to do than hang around in a fast food restaurant become infected when they mix ice cream with a gooey green fluid from a barrel that lay at the entrance. The fluid obviously is a military experiment gone wrong and the foursome undergoes a vivid metamorphosis. As more and more people are getting infected, the zombies take peace with their new lifestyle and want to defend their rights. In spite of the original concept and a handful of effectively hilarious jokes and gimmicks, "Wasting Away" regretfully remains a low-budgeted and forgettable effort. The film is too long and for every neat sequence or clever piece of dialog there sadly is tedious and clichéd zombie movie footage. The lead players are mundane and annoyingly stereotypical horror caricatures, including the joker and the nerd kid, and the rest of characters aren't much better with the drunken bowlers and heavily mustached army colonel. Around the hour the whole thing just sort of gets retarded, with a man vs. zombie combat, talking heads and zombie bowling tournaments. There's quite a lot of carnage and bloodshed going on, but the emphasis merely lies on the comedy factor. Once again, the basic idea is nifty but clearly that wasn't enough. Nevertheless I'll be interested in seeing the future work of director Kohnen.

Turning the zombie film on its head, this film is an oddball comedy from the perspective of the brain munching monsters themselves.

Beware of people posting raves. They worked on the film. You can tell who they are because they only have ONE review posted.

That said, this is actually a really good humorous zombie flick. It's well acted and has a really good mix between horror action and comedy.

I'd recommend you give it a try. It's well written too. The switcheroo is the zombies all think they are normal and when they talk to each other, they see each other as normal but those who aren't infected see them for what they really are. And it provides a lot of humor.