Exotic dancers may become the undead in the Jenna Jameson/Robert Englund vehicle ZOMBIE STRIPPERS, but in Jason Matthew Murphy’s debut film ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES, we’re treated to strippers kicking zombie ass. Scripted by Tony Giordano, the movie (out this week on DVD from Passion River) deals with a drug experiment gone wrong that produces a legion of bloodthirsty ghouls. Trapped in the local strip club, a small band of exotic dancers, pimps and customers must use their wits and work together to survive.
A longtime horror fan, Murphy looked up to the early works of Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, which motivated him to pursue his film career. “Ever since I saw THE EVIL DEAD, I have been a huge fan of Raimi,” he says. “I always liked how he was able to blend comedy and horror.” After graduating high school, Murphy moved to Orlando, where he worked on films and TV productions. He started his own company, In the Dark Entertainment, in 2003, and after years of working on other people’s projects, Murphy (also a commercial photographer) finally decided to tackle one of his own. “My friends and I had been talking about making movies for pretty much our whole lives,” he notes. “We finally decided to just go for it. We kept coming back to the idea of a zombie movie, most likely because we were such big fans of SHAUN OF THE DEAD. While brainstorming, we came up with the idea of strippers fighting zombies, which we knew would be a blast to make.”
One of those friends included Giordano, with whom he had attended high school. Following his friend to Orlando, Giordano soon discovered his writing talent, and in 2005 he co-wrote, co-produced and directed the highly praised short film HARKER and also worked in TV show development. Once the script for ZZZ (from a story by Giordano and Zack Kennedy) was complete, Murphy and Giordano realized the only money they were going to get would come from their own pockets. “Tony and I paid for the entire movie on our credit cards,” Murphy reveals. “The production cost us about $30,000, but with postproduction expenses and equipment and stuff, we ended up spending close to $40,000.”
ZZZ stars FHM model Jessica Barton, Hollie (BEAUTY AND THE GEEK) Winnard and former Miss Oahu Lyanna Tumaneng as the three dancers who band together to fight off the undead hordes. Anthony Headen and Sean Harriman round out the cast as club owner Johnny “Backhand” Vegas and Chris, a reluctant hero, respectively. Popular scream starlet Tiffany (HOME SICK) Shepis makes a cameo in the opening sequence. “Some of the cast are friends, and Tony even wrote roles for a few specific people [particularly Winnard] who we knew we wanted in the movie,” Murphy explains. “Luckily, I was a popular local photographer, and had some credibility with a lot of models in the area. Otherwise, I’m not sure we would have been able to land such stunning talent.”
Due to low-budget constraints and a short shooting schedule, Murphy says planning was key to ZZZ. “The shoot went pretty well, actually,” he says. “There were problems, of course, but in general we made it through without any major drama. We had learned enough from working on other projects to know what to plan for.” Wrangling the bloody mayhem at such a low cost, the director recalls, was particularly difficult. “We had a really hard time with some of the effects,” he recalls. “Most of the time, we would only be able to afford one take. In all, we found creative ways of getting lots of gore for very little money. Fans so far really seem to like the chainsaw-to-the-head bit, but I tend to favor the weed-whacker to the face…and of course, the finale.” The special makeup was created by Rick Gonzales, whose credits include another Florida-lensed ghoul opus, AUTOMATON TRANSFUSION.
ZZZ arrives at a time when the dead seem to be walking everywhere on the screen scene, but Murphy notes, “I guess the main difference would be that our movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. We knew we weren’t going to be able to compete with big Hollywood zombie films, so we wanted to make sure the film itself was ‘aware’ that it was low-budget. Besides, how serious can you be when the story is about strippers vs. zombies?”
Although an extremely low-budget film, ZZZ has received many positive reviews from early viewers, examples of which can be found on the film’s official MySpace page. “The reaction from the fans has been amazing,” Murphy beams. “You never know what people are going to like, and it’s always scary to put your heart and soul into something and then show it to hundreds of very opinionated viewers. But the fans have been extremely supportive, and it really means the world to us that people actually like what we did.”
Now that it’s officially on disc, there’s more for genre devotees to tear into: “The DVD has the standard bonuses like a blooper reel, a behind-the-scenes featurette and a commentary by myself and Tony,” Murphy notes. “In the commentary, we talk a lot about the problems we ran into that I believe fans and aspiring filmmakers will enjoy hearing about.”
With this first feature under his belt, Murphy is taking this learning experience and moving on. “I believe we’ll really be able to create some great movies here in the near future,” he says of In the Dark. “I can’t really give away any plot secrets [of upcoming projects] yet, but my goal is to top ZZZ and do all the things we wish we could have done on that one. We have a few scripts already done, and are planning to shoot two movies in 2009.”
And given the success of ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES, is there the possibility of a follow-up? “We have already been approached by a few overseas distributors about making the sequel,” Murphy reveals. “We have thrown around some ideas, but it isn’t at the top of our list right now. We’ll have to wait and see how our U.S. DVD release goes.” He does promise, though, that if sales do go well, ZZZ 2 will move further up that list. And while ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES represents a turning point for Murphy and the realization of his dream of creating horror films of his own, he does point out one disappointment: “My only regret is waiting so long to actually get off my ass and make something. I should have maxed out my credit cards and done this years ago; I was just too scared to do it!”
