They can be seen - the glazed eyes of the undead - peering from the forests around Sechelt, searching for a fresh face to chew. The CNN newscasts warn of zombies in the area. Three people who just want to survive are trapped in a park amid the zombie invasion; two stoners run from a berserk clown and a 24-year-old who still lives with his mother cares for a zombified young woman in secret.
The characters are caught in a post apocalyptic world in Julian Figueroa's independently produced, comedy/parody, Roaming Hungry.
The 17-year-old Chatelech Secondary School graduate, now at University of British Columbia studying film production, took from last August to this March to film his nine fellow Chatelech students in his own production of the feature length film to be shown at the Raven's Cry Theatre in Sechelt on June 10 - that is, if he can raise the funds in time. "The actors are all friends from the Chat school plays. I've worked with them before," Figueroa said. "The film is not deep; it's more of a comedy or a satire."
But why zombies and why are they fascinating?
"So much is left to the imagination with zombies," he points out, referring to past classics such as Dawn of the Dead from 1978.
Figueroa's movie does something differently than other zombie flicks - in the opening sequence, viewers witness the transformation of a young woman to her roaming hungry state.
Figueroa wants to make a career out of film and when he turns 19 he can join the union and work professionally. He realizes that few teenagers would take on as much as this film has cost him. Sure it's low budget and the kids acted for no pay, but a lot of time went into it. He wrote the script, directed it, filmed it entirely on the Sunshine Coast and spent 1,000 hours editing it. He expects an audience to be largely made up of his own age group, but hopes it will appeal to a wider and older group, too.
The première will be free admission with first come, first served. He won't make any money from it, but he hopes to raise the fee to rent the theatre through crowd funding - a trend among independent creative people who need the bucks to carry on with a project.
Crowd-funding is done online with the indie film-maker asking for any contribution, however small, to his project. Those who donate $20 or more will receive a DVD of the movie. You can reach his crowd-funding link at www.indiegogo.com/projects/roaming-hungry/.
He's got until May 24 to reach his goal. The site also shows a film trailer and gives a synopsis.
The film is more suitable for PG13 - there's some language and gory scenes. Still, it's not a restricted cult film - not yet, anyway.
