The Eaters is the first zombie stoner horror comedy of all time. To celebrate this groundbreaking cinematic moment, Anthology Film Archives is screening the movie, about a Brooklyn band that attempts an escape to Long Island after zombies take the boroughs, on Aug. 4. New York Press chatted with Katie Carman (director, producer) and Elizabeth Lee (actress, writer, producer) to talk about fusing the searches for blunts and brains.
How did Long Island end up as the ‘safe’ land? The zombies get frustrated with traffic on the LIE and turn back? I can’t think of a place I’d be more inclined to run away from.
KC: Well, I grew up on Long Island, so it was practical. It’s someplace I knew.
EL: It’s also an ironic twist, with all the trash talk about the bridge and tunnel crowd. Everybody shits on Long Island, but now they have to get there.
KC: Our audience at the Long Island screening didn’t seem offended at the Long Island jokes, like when one character yells out, “I’m not going to die on Long Island!” That’s kind of how I felt in high school, actually.
What brought about the idea of a stoner-comedy/zombie movie fusion?
EL: It seemed like bring zombies to the stoner genre was natural, since stoners are zombie-like. We find zombies really, really funny, and we find stoners really, really funny. It was a natural combination.
The characters are always squabbling about zombie film lore. What films inspired you?
KC: Shaun of the Dead, because it’s one of the few zombie comedies out there. I’m a huge fan of George Romero, and Dawn of the Dead is my favorite zombie movie. We got to see a movie called Zibahkhana (Hell’s Ground), Pakistan’s first zombie movie, which is pretty unbelievable.
EL: We were certainly inspired by the gore comedies like Dead Alive and Evil Dead. We couldn’t attempt to match the carnage level that those movies have, but they were an inspiration.
Wait, what is a Pakistani zombie movie like?
KC: It starts off as your typical zombie movie about a band of kids going to see a rock concert, and they take a wrong turn. The main killer in the movie turns out to be a burqa-wearing man, so it’s bizarre. There are zombies too, which is very disconnected in a way, but the movie worked. The director had death threats against him. He did a Q&A at the screening we saw, and he seemed concerned about doing it.
It seems like zombies were in for a while, but now vampires are taking over. Are zombies on the way out?
KC: There are still so many zombie movies slated to come out. It’s the next wave, so we hope that the zombie trend will come back.
EL: There’s always something romantic about vampires, and there is nothing romantic about zombies.
KC: No one is aspiring to be a zombie.
EL: No one will ever ask you, ‘Please make me a zombie! I want to be with you!’
Did anything crazy happen while you were filming? All those people ambling around the boroughs in zombie makeup must have freaked out someone.
KC: We had one scene in Brooklyn where a man on the street gets his guts ripped out, and the actor was screaming bloody murder. The buildings were echoing the sound, so, in the middle of a shot, we hear some old lady yell out “I see you!” like she was going to call the cops. We finished shooting quickly.
Any plans for a sequel?
KC: As for the sequel question, I don’t know. We could title it The Eaters: Still Eatin’.
EL: The best reason to make a sequel would be coming up with the names. The Eaters 2: Second Helpings, The Eaters 2: Hungry for More, The Eaters 2: Are You Going to Eat That?
>The Eaters
New Filmmakers Screening, Aug. 4, Film Anthology Archives, 32 2 Ave., 212-505-5181; 6:00, $6
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