ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009)

Director:

Kevin Hamedani

Writers:

Kevin Hamedani (writer)
Ramon Isao (writer)

Release Date:

2009 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Plot:

Life is wonderful for the people in the quiet, island town of Port Gamble....until a zombie virus outbreak! |

Plot Keywords:

Zombie | Religion | Racism | Terrorism

Cast

Janette Armand	...	Frida Abbas
Doug Fahl	...	Tom Hunt
Cooper Hopkins	...	Lance Murphy
Bill Johns	...	Reverend Haggis
Russell Hodgkinson	...	Joe Miller
Ali Hamedani	...	Ali Abbas
Cornelia Moore	...	Cheryl Banks
James Mesher	...	Mayor Burton
Andrew Hyde	...	Brian Miller
Ryan Barret	...	Derek Blaine
Victoria Drake	...	Judy Miller
Linda Jensen	...	Mrs. Hunt
Sydney Sweeney	...	Lisa
Jake Gear	...	Clive
Erik Lagace	...	Dr. Raimi

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody zombie violence and gore, language, sexual references and brief drug use.

Runtime:

USA:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45712)

Company:

Typecast Pictures

Return to the Romero tradition of zombie movies with a message

I attended a screening of Kevin Hamedani's "ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction" at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival. Co-written by Hamedani and Ramon Isao, this horror comedy was shot and set in the city of Port Gamble, near Seattle.

The descriptive title of this film alone would normally be a fair enough plot summary. The fact that this is a zombie movie would usually say most of what one generally needs to know about a horror film. 'Nuff said, you might think. But no, "ZMD" is actually a carefully crafted political statement about the suspicious treatment of Muslims and gays in America post-911. How that odd scenario plays out needs to be seen to be believed. George Romero (the father of the genre) always had hidden messages in his films. Somehow that got lost along the way in the wave of imitators. Hamedani brings it back, and blatantly, too.

Although this is an ultra-low budget film it certainly doesn't look like it. As with all genre films, sound design is absolutely critical and almost serves as another character in the narrative. "ZMD" is efficiently shot and smartly edited. The clever script is often "rolling on the floor laughing" hilarious.

That the residents allowed and even encouraged the filmmakers to use the actual name Port Gamble in the movie is particularly brave and notable -- as Hamedani pointed out in the Q&A following the screening, the original script used a fictional town. But there is no similarity to persons living, dead, or undead.