New Horror Movies Ep. 152: Dead Man Still Walking - Die Alone (2024)

This episode of Dead Man Still Walking is dedicated to the memory and life of Michelle Trachtenberg. I know that for you listeners, she passed away some time ago, but for us in the podcasting universe... It was very recent, and I enjoyed her performance on Buffy the Vampire Slayer as she did her best to destroy and rid the world of vampires, zombies, and other monsters. So we hope that she's found peace on the other side.

Jay of the Dead's New Horror Movies presents Dead Man Still Walking with Dr. Walking Dead.

Welcome to another ecstatic, ecstatic, ecstatic, excitomatic episode of Dead Man Still Walking. And this is a very special episode. Because I know it's been a while. It's been like three episodes or less. But Jay of the Dead is here! Woo! Thank you. I love being on here. I am always grateful when you invite me. Thank you. There we go. There's the man. Now, I brought Jay back.

For a couple of reasons. One is this is part of my run of new horror movies. So I've been doing a pretty good job staying on top of the 2024 zombie movies. And I'm excited for 2025, which is, of course. We're in the thick of it already, but I'm looking forward to 28 years later. Oh. Good trailer. I'm not supposed to watch them. I'm even trying to live slightly healthier so I can make sure I live to that trailer. Would you please make it? Do your best, buddy. That's what I do.

Kyle, when there's a movie coming out that I'm super excited about, I'm like... Okay, I'm going to drive a little more safely. I'm going to do everything more carefully because I cannot miss that movie. We have to be careful. It's hard. It's one of my most anticipated films of the year. I am very excited about the Del Toro Frankenstein. So that's also very...

high on my list. But we are going to get that one. Also, you'll be hearing soon more from Jay and I because we are going to do season two of That show I forgot? Yeah, The Last of Us. The Last of Us? Yes. Apparently not The Last, because there's a second season. So, second to Last of Us?

But yeah, once that starts dropping, then we'll kind of revisit what we did before with our episode takes. I can't wait for that. I had so much fun doing that with you. I remember I was dying of internal infection when that was happening. was happening so it was especially poignant to watch something about a fungal zombie infection yeah and let's reiterate

Please take care of yourself. Okay, well, thank you. Mr. of the dead. Thank you. You got to make it. We can't do this without you. Plus, you know, we like you. Because that brings up the second reason Jay is on the show. Because I miss him. We live. Well, actually, we live closer than a lot of the Avengers do. That's true. But we just don't see each other nearly enough. So this gives us a chance to talk and to share and to indulge our love of the cinema. especially zombie cinema.

Yes. So what does this all mean? Well, what this means is die alone. This is 2024, written and directed by Lowell Dean. So kind of an auteur outing here into the world of zombie cinema. I'm just checking on him because I don't really know a lot about him. He did Wolf Cop back in 2014. Dark Match, Opie's Home. I don't know these films. Oh, he also did a sequel to Wolf Cop. Do you know the name of the sequel? Wolf Cop 2. No. When is it? Another Wolf Cop. Oh, great. That's like 48 hours.

Another 48 hours. Well done, Mr. Dean. Yes. But this is a 2024 film and it is available on Tubi. Yeah. So it is available for free with commercials. It looks like it's a $1.99 rental from Prime Video. And it is, I got to tell you, Jay, and I talk about this, or I have talked about this on our Best of 2024 episode.

This was – 2024 was a really good year for unusual zombie tales. And so the last couple of episodes of this show, we talked about – well, the last three because I talked about some old ones in there. Apocalypse Z, you know, great Spanish zombie stuff going on there. And Mads. Really innovative French zombie stuff going there and then back in episode 46 I talked about handling the undead great Scandinavian zombie fair going there

And then if we go back, we get to some crappy American zombie fair. Anyway, so one of the things is 2024, we saw a lot of unusual zombie films. and zombie films that were of the international ilk. We also got, oh, we had Festival of the Living Dead. That was back in episode 36. I didn't love that one. And there's another one on here that I don't, I guess I didn't review yet. we'll just keep that up in the air.

But the point is, the rumors of the zombie death are extremely exaggerated. We are still getting good zombie content, but the nature of those narratives is changing and becoming a little bit more flexible and open to a lot.

more interpretation because i think we have to the zombie as of itself is a pretty narrow concept and so now we're starting to see a proliferation of types of zombies much the same way we saw with vampires especially in the 80s and uh i find that pretty exciting actually so those who've listened to me like yourself for a while you know that i used to be really snobby about zombies right yes

What is, what isn't a zombie? My unforgivable curses associated with zombie movies. I'm really chill now. You know, I'm in my 50s. I'm just happy to get zombie stories that don't suck.

So if people want to try weird things, bring it on. What happened? We've been threatening to let viruses wipe us out for years. One finally called our blood. After the deadliest day yet, social media is dubbing the infected the reclaimed. Some say it's the planet's attempt to reclaim balance by killing us all off. You shouldn't be out here alone.

You are? Yeah, well, I'm not an idiot. So, brings us to Die Alone. Before I say anything, what did you think about Die Alone, Jay? Initial impressions. I'm so grateful. that you invited me to talk with you about this film because you had actually told me toward the end of last year, you said 2024, you said, make sure you check out Die Alone. So I got to credit you. And then I think also maybe Watson told me about it. And I was just thoroughly impressed with this film.

I mean, as soon as it was over, I sat and I thought about it and I had a burning question about it. Yeah. And what's really funny is I ended up being putty. in the writer-director's hands, because I ended up just basically flowing through his narrative exactly the way that he was intending to manipulate the audience through this story. And so it worked very... well very effectively on me and I guess I'll just say it like this probably one of more major reveals I think I only

tuned into that maybe a couple minutes maybe before they even revealed it oh yeah yeah we are going to have a brief spoiler section after ratings and reviews okay so people can stay with us or they can They can just turn things off until they've seen this thing. Because, yes, it is one of the better little twists or reveals. And this was a summer with, well, a year, with a number of the zombie movies I mentioned from 24 had little twists and turns that, again, I think it kept it pretty fresh.

I'd like to point out that this film stars the great Carrie Ann Moss of Matrix fame in Memento, right? So she is older now and, you know, she looks great. Yes. She acts great. This is the post-apocalyptic survivor, Carrie Ann Moss. So, really cool. Frank Grillo is in here as well. People will know him from the Captain America movies. He's just kind of a rough and tough guy who's a little scary. And The Purge 2.

Oh, is he in The Purge? The second one, yeah. The Purge is in that sub-genre I avoid, gentle listeners. I do not like home invasion narratives. Yes, yeah, upsetting. They're too scary. But yeah, he's great. Now, we also have a young couple. We have Douglas Smith playing Ethan. I think Douglas Smith did a really good job. It's funny, all the connections that people now have to superhero movies.

Because this guy played Jimmy Olsen on Superman and Lois. So he has a little bit of a connection there. But honestly, looking through his filmography, he seems to be doing a little bit more independent films. And he is playing against... Kimberly Sue Murray who plays Emma and she has she comes out of the kind of hallmark holiday movie tradition so if you like me live in a house of women

You have likely seen her in one of her Hallmark films. Just a quick funny note about the cast here, because our Douglas Smith, he's... 39-year-old actor, Ethan, he does encounter Carrie Ann Moss' character May during the film. I wondered if at the age of 15... when The Matrix would have been all the rage for him if he was in love with her like everyone else was when The Matrix came out. And if it was particularly exciting for him to be able to be in a film with Carrie Ann Moss.

Yeah, I mean, she rocked that catsuit. Yes. Let's just be honest. That's right. So one of the things I like, okay, I like two things big time about this film. And it's kind of where my zombie aesthetic is going on. This is really a post-apocalypse film. So with Mads, which I think is pretty great, Mads is a in the thick of apocalypse film.

And I get it. There's a lot of fun to be had with filming the narrative during the outbreak where you get the patient zero and you get the everything starts to fall apart. And there's a time and place for that. Honestly, you know, I don't see anybody ever doing it as well as the sadness. for so many reasons. But I like this one because we get to see the post-world. We get to see a world that has been ravaged.

that has been pretty much destroyed we get to see how people are surviving and of course that gives it a lot of kinship with the last of us What might civilization look like after a kind of plague or zombie apocalypse or something has ravaged and we've come around the other side?

And then this is where I want to speak a little bit to the production design because The Walking Dead took a lot of crap near the end because, you know, it's supposed to be, what, 15 years after the zombie apocalypse and the lawns are still mowed and the roads are still passable, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. Because Dai Alone has a relatively rural setting, they're able to make everything look old, look weathered, look overgrown. So there's a lot of rusted out vehicles and a lot of DIY.

homesteads with, you know, windmills and generators. And it really does kind of look like kind of an off-grid survivalist fantasy. Mm-hmm. And so that really kind of appeals to me because I'm really interested in what the post-zombie apocalyptic world might look like and how it might. Function. So I liked that a lot. The other thing I liked is it's another eco zombie film. And these are becoming a little bit more prevalent. But in contrast to The Last of Us, we're not going mushrooms this time.

We're going just plants. And they keep it vague, but the zombies in this thing are super cool because they just have stuff growing out of them. They have moss, they have branches, they have flowers. And we have seen that before. We saw that in the French film...

Now I always forget which one it is. I can't remember if you remember what it was. But there's a French film. Oh, I don't think I've gotten to it yet. That's why. The Night Eats the World. That's another one where you get zombies with plants growing out of them. Is it that one? Because that's the one where the dude's in the apartment building all night, right? And he's just hanging out. That's not the one. Okay.

I'm so bad at titles. It's one of those. It's French. We're just going to leave it there, and you can all make fun of my dotage.

But I like this idea of zombies. Gaia did it, which is kind of a soft zombie movie. It's zombie adjacent. But this idea that the zombie is a human that has been absorbed by nature, it gets really sad. This kind of eco-sci-fi. And yes, these narratives do have a kind of left-leaning political message about the environment, but I don't ever think that it's overpowering. I think the zombies are just...

Remain pretty cool. And the peril is pretty shocking. This film, and this isn't a spoiler because it's the opening, this film opens with our hero protagonist, Ethan, killing himself. Now, this isn't the first and only movie.

movie that starts with the protagonist's death. I mean, that goes at least back to Sunset Boulevard. But it does immediately present the audience with some questions. Which for me, Kyle, number one is what are they doing with this? Why would I... continue to care and root and pull for a character that I know that his demise right off the bat that was my first critical thought

Well, the film is called Die Alone. Right. And it's like, there he did it. He died alone right in the opening scene. Well, I thought it was a short film with an hour and a half of commercials, but it wasn't. It's a really great opening sequence. The cinematography in this is very striking because there's lots of vistas of the horizon and deserted landscape and forests and stuff.

And so the opening really does a good job of setting the tone. I do think this film has some horror and some scares and some fear, but I think it has this overriding kind of melancholy. Yes. Where you're just kind of like... Exactly. And in fact, I was going to just say that while this is a horror film, sure, but to me it's primarily...

Just a drama. And the zombies have really relatively small role in the entire thing. Yeah. The role of the zombie is not always clear because we are far enough after the fact. That May has a zombie in her yard that's like a watchdog. And it's pretty much a skeleton wrapped in like cobwebs and cocoons and stuff. Super cool. Myrtle.

Yeah, Myrtle, thank you. I couldn't remember. But I do really like, how would you visualize an old zombie, like a 10, 20, 30-year-old zombie? Yeah, good point. Even if they've almost completely decomposed, they're still kicking. And I love that. And I love the kind of coexistence that May has figured out with the zombies.

Which is really, really cool. But yes, for the most part, we get a human story. This is a drama. Even though the first tag at Internet Movie Database is zombie horror, the second is drama. And there is a mystery and there is a little element of romance to it. It's, you know, a little...

bit for everybody. It also establishes, you know, that age old trope, which is don't trust people in the apocalypse. Nobody's your friend. Everybody's out to take for themselves. And there are some really tense moments. The people on people. stuff in zombie movies really tenses me up same it's like ah why can't people just get along right why are we threatening why are we stealing why are we um treating humans like commodities that kind of stuff freaks me out

So, yeah, I mean, that's kind of the story is we have Ethan kills himself. We flashback to Ethan and he's kind of he's got this relationship with Emma and there's May and there's the apocalypse. And there's a really cool visceral car crash. I've been kind of paying attention to how different narratives portray a car crash. I really liked this one. Just side note, this is a tangent, but there's one from Better Call Saul.

Yes. That's super good. And I really like the Doctor Strange one, but very different approaches to how you would film a car crash. And this one is really... jarring it's really unexpected yeah it's always so upsetting to me to see that depicted yeah because they're trying to depict what it would be like subjectively for the person in the crash yes

crazy so um yeah there's some there's some blood and guts and there's some zombies and there's some amnesia which okay so this i thought was funny carrie ann moss of course was in memento which is about her trying to coexist with somebody with short-term memory loss. And here, once again, she's stuck with somebody who has more long-term memory loss. And we are...

Very limited in our perspective. We pretty much just see things from Ethan's point of view. Yes. And unfortunately, he's the one who has the amnesia. So we don't know what's going on because he doesn't really know what's going on. Yes, brilliant. We learn it as he learns it. And I think that's pretty effective. Which is another. So when I was mentioning how the writer director had me as putty in his hands, like the fact that I was judging the film so harshly on that opening.

sequence with him committing suicide you know how that is handled eventually is actually really cool and then something that I found very off-putting initially is the editing in this film the transitions are really confusing and I'm like what are they doing this is not very clear storytelling right you know I'm like but the disorientation is as you said is So we can relate with Ethan, who is he has this amnesia and he's he's always trying to like kind of.

wake them, put things together. So that's exactly how he's experiencing it. And it took me a while to realize that, but it's very effective actually. Yeah. And it does take, I think it's trying to annoy you a little bit. Or at least frustrate you. So we're frustrated. Ethan's frustrated. We think we know what's going on. We don't know what's going on. We keep flashing around in time. The temporality is a little confusing at first. But don't let that...

frustrate you too much, listeners. Give it a chance. Watch it through. Yes. Because I find, we're not going to spoil yet, but I find that the

conclusion of the film is relatively satisfying. It's definitely a bittersweet resolution. And Kyle, this is a little bit of a separate note, but just for your ongoing zombie studies, I'm sure you picked... up on this many years ago, but after having reviewed the first season of The Last of Us with you, and then in this film, I started picking up on one of the little tiny zombie conventions that I love, which is the scene... where they get a tiny bit of a reprieve to remember.

better times oh yeah like man that's that is um yeah those scenes are really starting to affect me now like in zombie movies and and i didn't realize that that was another kind of common thing that we would see in a zombie movie but I'm starting to see it no it's a great observation the role of nostalgia in the post-apocalypse narrative is pretty strong yes yes that idea of whether we we do it as a montage or more subtly that idea of oh man right

Remember all these things. And you mentioned being in your 50s and I'm quickly approaching. One other thing that really was funny to me is, you know, we have we have Ethan and Emma here, our young protagonists. to me maybe for the first time that pretty much in the cinema it almost seems like

our protagonists in movies are almost always young. And I'm like, I wonder if that's because the majority of the movie going public, the youth demographic is what spends the most money. So maybe I wonder if that's why. they do that but that occurred to me in this I think that's part of it I would also say I don't want to really see protagonists my age. Right. I want to see young, healthy, attractive people and then pretend for at least an hour and a half that they're my peers. Yeah.

So I get it. I get it. But this one plays around with that idea by giving us these kind of generational protagonists, which is super cool. I do think that's an untapped market that they could do some really fun stuff with older cast members. But you're right. They're trying to appeal to the young crowd. Yeah. And it's not like Hollywood is new to focusing on aesthetic.

Oh, yeah, that's true. So we got to get that worked in there. Can I tell you something hilarious? Oh, please. I've been watching things for a while with the subtitles on just because of my apartment I live in. I can't crank things up. Oh. And this has, in this film, there was a music cue. Like, the music started. And it was describing the music. And it was so funny. I laughed out loud. It said, inauspicious music. And oh my goodness.

And for those who might not be aware, because I looked it up to make sure I'm like, I think I know what that word means. It means not conducive to success, unpromising. So that music was very unpromising. And that was so funny to me, Kyle. So rude. Yes. Yeah, I love the descriptive.

captions yes they're often very weird it is now there is i'm going to be careful about this and i'll follow your lead you know how since romero there were certain rules about dealing with zombies well this film has a little bit of um um innovation or at least they're mixing it up it's not really innovative but they're mixing it up a little bit with how to deal with zombies

I thought that was interesting because I haven't seen that as explicitly stated as we have it here in terms of like, if you're fighting a zombie. Yeah. So. I like zombie innovation now, where I didn't 10, 15 years ago. I think the zombie is flexible enough as a creature that people have a lot of latitude to kind of mess with the mythology. And I think that we kind of have had enough of Romero's zombies that they're still great, but...

we're too familiar with them, give us some variation. Now, I still struggle a little bit with the zombies that can talk and think and are essentially vampires. Yes. I like my zombies to be a little less... cognitive a little more monstrous but this film by presenting it in terms of this these kind of eco zombies yeah the way they hunt is different the way you get infected is a little different

And the long-term effects of being infected are different. And I really like this more or less standalone mythology here. And I, yeah, I would love to see a little bit more in this type of a world, but I know that we're also getting other kinds of interpretations. And so, yeah, last summer we did this Handling the Undead, this Scandinavian film. presents the raised dead in a much different way where you have to kind of question what is or isn't.

or might be a zombie. Whereas Apocalypse Z is like almost full on Romero zombie where it's kind of back to the tradition and trying to establish. the tropes that we're familiar with. And so I really do applaud innovation if, and this is where I had a little trouble with some of the films last year, if it's a good story. Yes. Story's got to be paramount and you got to tell me something new or something interesting because...

Like I mentioned, this Festival of the Living Dead had an interesting premise, the idea that Night of the Living Dead was an actual historical event. I also saw We Are Zombies, which was supposed to be funny, and I just didn't think it was. Yeah. But as lukewarm as I felt about that film, I did enjoy the ending. It did a little bit of a dance at the very end, which I found pretty cool. And then I thought I saw and reviewed Zombie Town, but maybe...

Maybe I didn't. You did. Oh, no, I did way back. Yeah, that's way back. That was number 27. That was just kind of painful to watch. It was kind of a kid's movie, right? I know it's for kids. Yeah, okay. They took such liberties with the mythology. Just call it Mummy Town, and they would have been fine. but don't use the mythology of the mummy and call it zombie. Wow. I am still a little cranky. I am still a bit of a curmudgeon, but not like I used to be. Yeah.

I just got back from an academic conference and there were some good papers on monsters. Yes. And I presented on this book called What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher. And it's a retelling of the fall.

the house of usher but with fungus so just a little shout out it's a good book if you like kind of your classic literature retold if you like mushroom zombies check it out but that's something i was engaged with most recently oh that's cool my next project is i'm looking at the connections between zombies and covid not just

infection but covid specifically nice which they did have uh the line about non-essential workers in here which made me remind i know of covid in this film yeah well and i learned and it hasn't been on my list so i'll have to watch it very soon. So expect an episode on the Corona zombie, which does not sound good. No, no. Corona zombies, straight to video.

Starring Anthony Fauci. No, I'm just kidding. It's got a 2.5 out of 10. Wow. The main character's name is Barbie, played by Cody Renee Cameron. This does not bode well. Yeah, but I'll take the bullet for everybody because I have to watch it for this presentation. But I think it's going to be a little on the rough side. But maybe that'll be next time. Maybe I'll do that one instead.

of what I have lined up. But anyway, now we're rambling a little bit. And part of the reason, folks, is aside from the setup and like the actors and the production design and stuff, we can't talk a lot about Die Alone. And that's one of the reasons why I do recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Like I said, it's free. It's on Tubi. You can go check it out. I think most listeners of this show will enjoy it. I think it's got a lot going for it. So let's do ratings and recommendations, and then we'll do just a little bit of spoiler content.

for people. Okay. So what do you think? All right. Final thoughts already. Let's see. I was extremely impressed with this. And I think that because it was showing me things that I haven't seen as often in zombie movies. Kyle, anytime that's done and it's done with heart, when you can take... This very familiar convention of like the whole zombie post-apocalyptic narrative.

And bring it to me in a way that I can get emotionally involved. And then I feel it. It hits me in the heart a little bit. And that means a lot to me. So I just want to emphasize again, though, in terms of horror, the horror is relatively... mild and the monstrosity in this the zombies are not overly involving or threatening however it is a great

little dramatic tale told in the world that has been inhabited by zombies. So for me, I got to say Die Alone is tremendous. I think it's something special. It's an 8.5 out of 10 for me. This is a purchase. I mean, I was very... tempted to buy this i didn't look yet to see if it was available and kyle i was shocked at how kind of ho-hum the other ratings around the internet are on this like the imdb rating and stuff i'm like it's low yeah and do you think

it's because the horror aspects are more mild. Do you think that's why? I think so. I think some of the less traditional zombie narratives don't play well for reviewers because they do like the formula and they don't necessarily want a more dramatic zombie movie or a more emotionally... charge zombie movie yeah which definitely is what this one is and i don't think it was well promoted or marketed and uh you know i have to ask dave z about the poster but the poster

I don't think the poster does a good job conveying what it actually is. No, the poster's kind of rough, actually, I think. So I don't think you can, unless it's an established property, a poster just of the stars' faces isn't going to do enough to draw people to the film. It's got to give you something that asks questions and creates curiosity and draws people.

And with this poster, they almost tried to depict it as if it's an action order, but it's definitely not that. No. Yeah. So if you want to click over to it, listeners, you got the guy with a gun and the... fire in the background and it's really not an accurate depiction of what's going on in this film so do give it a chance but don't look at the poster

I got to this one late in the year as I was trying to round out my top 10 list. And it was recommended to me because I didn't recognize it as a zombie film initially because of the kind of bad marketing. Once I did get into it though I very much enjoyed it. I liked the new take on the old device.

I really like the look of these zombies. I don't know why. A zombie with a tree growing out of its head. That's kind of cool. I just think that's really neat and interesting. They are pretty slow moving. because they kind of go between active and passive states, which is something we're seeing more in other zombie narratives. But yeah, pretty great stuff.

Yeah, I gave it, we're pretty close on this one. I gave it a 9 out of 10. Oh. And this shouldn't be a spoiler by now. I'll just say that it made my top 10 list. Nice. I did end up with some zombie films on my top 10 of 24. Whoops, got ahead of ourselves. And I really do enjoy this one. So it was one of my more positive experiences of the year.

So I do recommend it. I checked. It isn't available on DVD in Region 1, whatever we are. Yeah, Region 1. So yeah, you're going to have to settle for streaming for now. But check it out. I do recommend it. It's a good film. Yeah, absolutely. So in case people just want to shut us off, do you have any final plugs, anything new to share about you and yours? Oh, no, no, I'm just I'm excited to get. into the spoilers on this puppy. Thank you.

If you guys want, if listeners, if you want to bow out, now's the time. You can come back and listen to the rest after you've seen the film. Otherwise, I'll catch you on episode 53, where we will either be looking at Corona zombies or a 74 double feature. Dead of Night and Sugar Hill. So tune in. This is Ron Martin and you're listening to Dead Man Still Walking with Dr. Walking Dead.

All right, now we got those people out of the way. Yes, those people. This film, I was like you. I started to catch wind of the twist. Yes. just before it really was laid bare. And they were really bold, I thought, in styling the two actresses' hair exactly the same. Yeah. I mean, that was pretty bold. That was risky. Oh, yeah.

But I, okay, one of the reasons the twist works, and here's the twist, ladies and gentlemen, it's very simple. The amnesia is a cyclical occurrence determined by the amount of infection Ethan has. Yes, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, Ethan is infected. a zombie.

What ends up happening, and this is something that I really think a zombie narrative could explore, is he essentially has eternal youth. As long as he keeps getting fed, he will continue to... stay young a little borrowing from vampires yes it's a little vampiric but if he will turn feral if he doesn't get what he needs and that's borrowing a little bit from iZombie

So we've got some traditions mixing here. So there's the first reveal. The first reveal is that Ethan's a zombie. And in fact, when he tries to shoot himself at the beginning of the film, he fails because he can't die. These are unkillable zombies and headshots do not work. Killable, correct. You can't do anything to kill them because of the nature of the organic infection.

So that's a kicker reveal right there. Ironic though, right? Because even though these are unkillable zombies, we finally have a horror movie with unkillable zombies. The zombies themselves are not overly threatening. Correct. Well, I can only assume you can burn them.

But this is a world that's far enough past the outbreak that there's not a lot of humans or zombies left. And I don't know if the idea is like with Gaia, for those who've seen that, do the zombies eventually go full plant? And so then they can't... move anymore they just could become part of the landscape i don't know but um i think it's really really cool so jay will you share the second big twist

Yes, that we find out that May is in fact just an older version of Emma. She has continued to take care of him and to feed him. I'll let the right one in. But yeah, so she is actually just Emma. And over time, I mean, I think she gets tired of the whole 50 first dates type situation. And she's just like, yeah, I'm May. Yeah, just call me May. So anyways. Well, and that's where the emotion comes.

in the fact that she loves him so much that even though he's a zombie she's going to stay with him and take care of him and even though he keeps getting amnesia when he zombies out

She just goes through it. Yeah, 51st Date is a great example. There's a little bit of Groundhog Day for her. Yes. Because it's like every so often, here we go again. I've got to tell you who I am and I've got to bring you up to speed. But it shows he... wears a cast through the whole film because it covers his wound and she has to periodically

tweezer plants out of his arm and then she keeps the cast on him so he doesn't realize that he's a zombie. Well, that was gripping to me. I found that pretty hard hitting yeah and i'm sure that some people figured it out and great for you i try not to figure it out the first time i just try to go for the ride and there's there like you said there's foreshadowing and there's there's stuff in here that tips it off

But I thought it was such an innovative way to present the narrative. Because at one point, he wakes up and feels as if he has narrowly averted a zombie attack. And of course, we find out that he was the zombie attack. Which is just a great way to kind of play with the audience and play with expectations and thought it was really, really interesting. So when you were mentioning just earlier about this world, I would love to see other stories set in.

this world, this, you know, 40 years after the apocalypse, plant zombies, zombie-related amnesia. Like 28 years later. Yes, which is why I'm super excited for 28 years later. But I think that there's... There's something really cool going on here. So, I mean, that's really it, folks. I mean, those are the big spoilers, but they make you reevaluate the whole movie.

And it does give the film a rewatchability. And this is a film that would be really fun to watch, to show other people who haven't seen it. So you can see if they figure it out or if they have a big emotional moment like I did. I think it's good stuff going on.

So a couple of funny notes, like a lot of horror films don't do a lot with match cuts, for example. I mean, that's not overly common in this, but there is a great match cut, which also made me smile because like the... may character the older version of emma she has this uh terrible scarring on her face oh yeah that's right yeah and they deliver um a match cut to show us once the young emma gets injured when she gets that injury the

way that they officially reveal in case somebody in the audience is a little too dense. They reveal it through a match cut that, yes, everybody, this is Emma as May. But anyway, I just thought it was cool that it was a match cut. That was cool. And since you mentioned it, there is a great show. Shout out homage shot to the searchers when they go out the old door. Oh, remind me. Well, it's in the trailer, but they're inside the dark shack and the door is framed and brightly lit and they walk out.

Oh, I think there's just some some nice little touches that do confirm this film is well made. So absolutely. Yeah. I love when they name the zombies as long as it's not the walker. I didn't love the walkers like they're. a few zombie names over Over the years that I haven't loved, but I do like how they call these the reclaimed. That's pretty cool. And the fact that we have a barn type sequence in this, I'm like, oh, is this a little bit of a Walking Dead season two?

Like action, that was really exciting. But Kyle, my burning question, my burning question for you is... I'm like, who was Myrtle, her pet zombie? Because I was trying to go back. Once I learned everything that was happening in the film, I'm like, okay, was Myrtle someone significant then? I don't think that was the case. I don't think so but wouldn't that be a great short film?

Yeah, yeah. And that's what I love is that the post-apocalyptic zombie landscape is really rich for storytelling. If I were more of a fiction writer, I would consider exploring some of those. But what about this song? be right and that could be just a fun anthology series you know all these like nameless zombies well who are they where did they come from yeah and why are they named and why are they named what they're named that would be cool exactly

But folks, don't give up. Don't abandon the zombie. It's still going strong. It's doing real well. I think, you know, obviously the vampire continues to be the juggernaut it is, even if you only consider Dracula movies.

zombies because good grief we've had two of those a year for how long i'm not saying no to that i love me some dracula but i think we've got some good zombie films just behind us and coming up ahead of us and i will be there on the front lines with my faithful companion Jay to bring you all the news so peace out everybody we'll talk to you soon bye Roger I'm on a pitch in at the middle of the residence, response up for you. that is now on fire.