I, Zombie

I, ZOMBIE

Writer/Director:Andrew Parkinson
Starring: Giles Aspen, Ellen Softley
Availability: DVD Widely Available
Rating:

           
 


    You know what I'm sick of?  Fucking zombies!  There was a time I couldn't say this.  Several years ago, before Zack Snyder hit the scene with his Dawn of the Dead remake, I used to swear the world needed more zombie movies.  Those days are fucking gone.  The Walking Dead?  I don't see the appeal.  I find the show to be a long-winded, dull slog.  Crucify me if you must.  Call me a horror hipster if you must.  I just think that zombies have become too goddamn commercialized, and it pisses me the fuck off!

    So, why am I here reviewing a fucking zombie movie when I just got done telling you how fucking sick I am of zombie movies?  Well, there's a reason for that.  Andrew Parkinson's films are not at all like your typical zombie films.  It's for this reason that I suspect more people aren't familiar with his work.  His films are intimate.  While far from bloodless, gore is not the order of the day.  The thing that Parkinson seems interested is his characters, and creating something unique and fresh.  Romero meets Ingmar Bergman, only far less pretentious.

    I imagine many of you have probably seen the film I'm reviewing tonight, since it was released on DVD by Fangoria back in the days.  I, Zombie is a slow, meditative character piece about Mark, a young student who encounters an injured woman while doing some field research.  He decides to help the woman out, but she ends up biting him on the neck.  The loss of blood causes Mark to eventually pass out in a nearby field.  After he wakes up, he ends up attacking a nearby hiker.  Confused by what he has done, he ends up confining himself inside of a small apartment so he can study his condition, and find out what is happening to him.

    After a few days, he finds himself suffering immense pain, and he finds the only way he can get the pain to subside is by consuming human flesh.  Eventually, this becomes instinctual to him, but as he continues to feed, his body begins to deteriorate.  I should point out the film is told in a sort of mockumentary style, so we also see footage of Mark's girlfriend, questioning Mark's disappearance and trying to pick up the pieces and move on with her life.  This is a part of the film that bothered me, because it only appeared sporadically throughout the film, and the execution of it left quite a bit to be desired.  That's really only a small gripe in this otherwise excellent film, though.

    This movie is very harrowing stuff.  Witnessing Mark's deterioration, and the pain and anguish it causes him will immediately bring to mind Cronenberg's The Fly.  The make-up effects are exceptionally well done for an movie of this budget.  The acting was very solid across the board.  You have to accept that this is a film that moves at a very slow pace.  It's not interesting in grue or carnage.  It's interested in the psychology of a zombie.  It's a mood piece, a character study.

    Parkinson would go on to make two more zombie movies, Dead Creatures and Venus Drowning, which I will be reviewing at a later time.  They form a sort of loose, unofficial trilogy of sorts.  They are zombie movies for the thinking man.  They don't have the social consciousness of Romero's works, because they're interested in telling more personal stories.  Parkinson hasn't done anything since this trilogy, save a segment in the very underrated British anthology flick Little Deaths.  His voice is sadly missing in today's indie horror scene.

    I, Zombie is a movie that has a great deal to recommend it.  MVD has recently put out all three films on DVD, and while I take great issues with the cover art, it's nice to see these films getting a new release (especially since Venus Drowning has not had a DVD release until this point.)  The special features aren't much to write home about, but with material this strong, it really should speak for itself.  It's definitely one of the most original zombie movies that has made in the past 20 years.  It's brooding, beautiful, poetic, and absolutely heartbreaking.

    Until next time, my fellow freaks and weirdos.