We went to see a friend’s film last night – “When Evil Reigns” from Luke & Alix Jackson. Ian from Kitt’s office is one of the cast so we went along to check it out and it was a LOT of fun. 90 minutes of low budget, made in Melbourne psycho zombie slasher flick.
It was at the Glitch Bar, a small place at 318 St George’s Rd in North Fitzroy. They have a cinema space out the back with a DVD & projector and the guys have been using it for their screenings. The night we went, a number of the cast were there to watch it as well (oh great, I’m sitting next to one of the psychos… :)
The concept of the movie is pretty standard. Basically, a rain starts falling (not exactly uncommon here in Melbourne :) but with a difference. Anyone outside who gets wet gets turned into a death dealing zombie. A group of young people wind up trapped in a school, barricading themselves in and trying to deal with the situation and their clashing personalities. There’s a nifty twist to it that’s not realised until towards the end (of course :) which makes it all so much more fun.
It was all done on a very low budget (ummm, almost nothing? :) and took many years to produce, filming on weekends and evenings, editing it all together, etc. They have a distributor but are having problems getting the film out as their distributor is a gangsta-rappa in New York who wound up having to use the production money for bail. Gotta hate that. For now they’ve pooled their own money and produced a small run of DVDs to at least get it out to the public.
All up it was a fun night out and we even wound up buying a copy of the movie on DVD – we’re looking forward to watching the makeup specials, the easter egg (Alix told us where to find it) and the director’s voice over. Makes it all a lot more fun when you know the people involved :)