THE BOOK OF ZOMBIE

How do you kill a Mormon zombie?

A small Utah community hope to find out in this ultra low-budget 2010 production.

It begins with unhappy Jen (Larisa Peters) berating her partner David (Brian Ibsen) at the dinner table for having no sense of fun. All she wants to do is go out with him, have a few beers and a dance. Finally, he agrees to do so.

But then the Mormons knock at their front door ...

David gives them the bum's rush to begin with, until they ring the doorbell a second time ... and David answers the door again to find them eating his pet dog. Managing to fend them off, he and Jen flee their home and race into the night - where they soon realise there are lots of zombies on the rampage. Mormon zombies, at that.

Quickly forgetting the daughter they've left alone in their house, Jen and David flee to a local store where they hook up with resident geek Darwin (Andrew Loviska) and his bespectacled pal. Together they form a group of surviving non-believers: it transpires that the only people affected by the town's zombie virus are those in tune with the Mormon faith.

Enter Boothe (Bill Johns), a grizzled hunter who has had first-hand experience of the Mormon undead. He tells his tales of horror to the surviving few, and then determines to fight with them against the oncoming legions of flesh-eaters.

Or something like that. Thankfully for this small band of rebels, David is a former Mormon who "rebelled" against the religion many moons ago. Ah, he has inside knowledge on how to defeat them, you see.

THE BOOK OF ZOMBIE began life as a five-minute video clip on YouTube. Having enjoyed the process of shooting the short so much and seeing the potential for more fun to be had, co-directors Erik Van Sant, Paul Cranefield and Scott Kragelund developed their idea into this final 68-minute version.

Ironically then, the opening credits drag out over a full 5 minutes.

Once they're through though, this is quick and frequently funny business, bolstered by a snappy script and nice use of colour that lends style to even the cheapest-looking scenes. The cinematography alone helps THE BOOK OF ZOMBIE look better than its reported $15,000.00 budget.

The cast, mostly amateurs, are very good for the most part. As are Marcel Banks' enjoyably crude old-school FX. Throat-slashing, cannibalism and disembowelment come into play - though never at the sake of the comedy, which is the film's primary motivation.

Jokes come thick and fast but not all of them work. In fact, possibly only 50 percent do. But everyone on the screen is so amiable that it hardly matters: you want to like this modest little film anyway.

Falling somewhere between THE EVIL DEAD, THE DEAD NEXT DOOR and NIGHT OF THE COMET - and with echoes of Leif Jonker's DARKNESS aesthetically at times - THE BOOK OF ZOMBIE offers a novel twist on the zombie riff, however it is ultimately a small idea: beyond the initial set-up, this is just a succession of gags and gore.

But it's done quite well considering its meagre financing. The camerawork and lighting are professional and the horror scenes are filmed with a refreshing austerity that counteracts the humour in-between. Romero has taught these particular filmmakers well.

The screener disc provided was an extremely basic DVD-R, featuring nothing but the film with an occasional pop-up disclaimer announcing that this was a promo disc only.

So it's going to be tough to review as a disc, as I'm sure this early rendition is not remotely indicative of how the eventual DVD release will look.

For what it's worth, the screener disc looked quite good. The film was offered in a healthy non-anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer with nice colours and decent contrast.

English 2.0 audio was fine for the duration too.

There's nothing original about THE BOOK OF ZOMBIE but it is surprisingly well-made considering its no-budget origins anyway, and looks good at all times. The gore scenes are decently staged. The jokes may make you wince though.

There are a few too many cultural references too. SCARFACE, PULP FICTION, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD ...

At the time of writing, no DVD release has been announced.

Review by Stu Willis