Zombie Girl: The Movie

Zombie Girl: The Movie (2009): United States – Directed by Justin Johnson, Aaron Marshall, Erik Mauck

Not rated by the MPAA – contains zombie violence and blood, one bad word

And again, we have another movie that just made me smile.  It’s available to watch for free here (though only until 8/20/09, after that I don’t know what happens to the link), and I would strongly urge you to do so.

You might have heard the basic story by now.  A 12-year old girl in Austin, Texas, decides to make a feature length zombie movie.  So she does.  It’s a bit more complicated than that, but eventually Emily Hagins accomplishes her goal.  Along the way she battles with her mother, her friends, the difficulty of shooting a film, and, of course, zombies.

We meet Emily just as she’s about to start her big project.  She’s been a movie buff for years, as her mom took her to just about everything that came out.  What especially left an impression on her, though, was Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies.

She and her mom wrote a letter to Peter Jackson, who wrote back, telling them to get in touch with his friend in Austin, Harry Knowles.  Yes, the Harry Knowles of AICN.  With his help, and the help of a variety of film professors, critics, and friends, she and her mom set about putting the script on film.

This documentary follows them through the trials and tribulations of not only making a movie, but of being so young and trying to make a movie.  Finances are stretched thin, her mom has to drive the entire cast places since most of the leads are under 16, and, even though her mom is a graphic artist, there’s a lot neither of them know about sound and editing.

But that’s not really the point of the documentary.  Instead, we see a young girl who loves to do one thing and sets about doing it with all her heart.  We see a mother eager to do all she can to help fulfill the dream.  There’s the determination of everyone, as the shooting takes nearly a year, it seemed, and the editing another year.  Even though they argue and bicker, we can tell that oftentimes they are having fun.

One thing I particularly enjoyed was the realistic look at Emily and her parents and friends.  They act like 12-year olds, don’t do anything outrageous, just laugh and have fun and get stressed out occasionally.  The directors left in a lot of natural footage, stuff that would normally have been cut out of a film, stuff like Emily talking to her mom about a toy they need from the store as a prop.  This adds a great deal of credence to the idea that these are just regular folks with a slightly crazy dream.  They don’t seem to be putting on a front, they don’t act like they’re on a reality show and this is their one shot at stardom.  Because of this they make for an engaging experience.

The first half hour and the last 20 minutes, in particular, kept a smile on my face.  It brought back memories of roaming around Purdue University, sneaking in and out of places, expecting our shoots to go twice as long as expected and knowing that nothing would work out right.  If you’re interested in similar endeavors the film should be inspiring.  Why don’t more people strive toward their dreams?  Is it because they are too normal?

The subject matter is interesting, the subjects themselves are real, and the documentary as a whole is professionally done.  Though I thought it dragged a bit in the middle I definitely wanted to see how it ended and how the premiere of the film went.  I’ll be curious to see how the film itself is.  Judging by the footage in the documentary, it looks pretty low-budget (which it is), but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  Regardless, this documentary is well worth watching so if you have a few spare minutes in the next couple days check it out for free online.