REVIEW
Bong of the Dead (2011)
Director: Thomas Newman
4 / 5 zedheads
Topless lesbian zombies. Plenty of weed. Gore galore and buckets of blood.
Bong of the Dead oozes with all the bodily fluids of a zombie cult classic in the making. Yet, it's more than a blood-and-guts and weed exploitation picture in the spirit of
Dazed and Confused meets
Brain Dead (aka.
Dead Alive).
Bong of the Dead is also a triumph of the independent genre film making. It leaves other zombie movies behind in a cloud of bong smoke.
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| Bloody work. Cast of Bong of the Dead after a hard day of zombie killing |
In
Bong of the Dead the world has been turned into a zombie wasteland by strange meteors that crashed to earth and either turned people into charred corpses or turned them into flesh-hungry undead. In the land of the undead, righteous stoners Tommy (Jy Harris) and Edwin (Mark Wynn) spend their days in an apartment getting high and experimenting with new and better forms of weed. One day, Edwin is inspired to use pureed zombie brains to fertilize his marijuana plants. To his surprise, zombie brains make for some incredibly potent pot. Edwin and Tommy are running dangerously low on their drug of choice, so they grab their bongs, rolling papers, and less important survival supplies to make a run for the Danger Zone where, purportedly, the government dumps the zombies. The plan: avoid getting their brain eaten long enough to collect zombie brains to fertilize a new crop of super weed. They don't get far when their car breaks down and they have to rely on the beautiful but hard-assed Leah (Simone Bailly) for help. Along the way, they also piss off an intelligent zombie named Alex (Barry Nerling) who has a penchant for Nazi uniforms and a plan to lead his brainless zombie brethren against the humans. Plenty of bong smoking and zombie mutilation ensue!
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| Today's the day the zombies have their picnic |
Bong of the Dead was shot in 15 days and on one camera in 2008 by writer/director/composer/art director Thomas Newman. For three years,
Bong of the Dead has been in post-production as Newman edited the film and composited 355 shots
by himself. The film is now ready for release, and the final product is an accomplished triumph in zombie mayhem and stoner comedy. It's stylish. It's funny. It's wildly glory. Its zombies look absolutely amazing. And most importantly, the CGI special effects that Newman had to create himself actually rival those of most bigger budget independent features. For example, The Asylum, which releases low-rent mockbusters and creature features, produced the so-bad-it's-good
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus on an estimated budget of $
250K. Thomas Newman's virtually one-man production of
Bong of the Dead cost only $5K, yet its visual effects have more style and more technical maturity than the fake, lazy CGI monsters found in any of The Asylum's best offerings.
Bong of the Dead is miles ahead of most other independent genre features using commercial video-editing and special effects software.
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| Heads up! One of Bong of the Dead's amazing zombies |
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From the inventive title sequence, it's clear that
Bong of the Dead is going to approach its material with a sense of fun and a comic book sensibility. Because of its digital post-production, the film's colours, lighting, and overall look reminds me of a muddier, grimier, and more grind-house take on the artificial reality aesthetic of the
Speed Racer live-action movie in the sense that everything seems to exist not in reality but on composited layers of digital reality. This style works incredibly well for
Bong of the Dead because it establishes the movie its own little stylistic universe. Unlike other films where everything looks real until a bad CGI monster is composited into the frame and breaks your suspension of disbelief, everything in
Bong of the Dead feels equally filtered; therefore, all the CGI effects mesh together in an augmented cinematic reality.
Bong of the Dead's very distinct sense of style also allows Thomas Newman to experiment with music-driven sequences and some very cool 'let's get high' scenarios. It doesn't hurt that Newman is obviously a gifted director behind the camera. With a variety of shots and angles,
Bong of the Dead is anything but visually tedious.
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| Hotties vs. Nazis |
Another standout accomplishment of
Bong of the Dead is its zombie special makeup effects. With a budget of $5000,
Bong of the Dead nevertheless sets a new standard for what I expect from not both independent and Hollywood zombie films. The zombies are flat out fantastic looking! In European exploitation style, they are gory, gooey, torn, decomposed, decrepit and always unique. The zombies in
Bong of the Dead are the creation of Mike Fields and his team. Everyone involved in the special makeup effects deserves a large round of applause (fun fact: Fields also worked on another Canadian zombie production:
FIDO).
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| That's one way to get a closer shave. |
REVIEW CONTINUES AFTER THE CUT
