Wasting Away

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Wasting Away is the next in a long line of comedy-based zombie films, and yet the film succeeds in ways other films haven’t even considered. Placing a humorous focus on the emotional and love lives of the zombies, the film begins as a group of friends take big bites of contaminated slushies that, unbenounced to them, have turned them into blue-blooded drooling zombies. Filmed in black and white with the exception of a certain nuclear green sludge that turns people into zombies, the film alternatively flashes between seeing the group as they think they are and as society sees them.

With such a comedic effect, it is hard to imagine a more fun way to approach the themes of societal interconnectedness and views on one’s personal self. In one scene, the group is in a bowling alley, and two of the primary actors begin to kiss (viewed from their perspective, this seems like any ordinary teeny bopper Tuesday night special). But a moment later, and the audience is given another view of the situation, as two decaying corpses are smothering each other with slime and bacteria.

The quest to find a cure and to express themselves in the face of total misunderstanding is an interesting one, and is something worth considering in a little more detail. For example, the group of unwitting zombies might think they are harmless, and yet when seen from the societal point of view, they are ripping brains out of innocent people. So we have innocents killing innocents out of total misunderstanding and inability to see reality for what it is.

From another point of view, the zombies can seemingly see clearly the actions of others, making out when someone is pointing a gun, or cutting off a zombie hand – and yet the people with the guns can’t understand the motives or actions of the group of zombies. It is an interesting proposition to consider what role outer appearance plays in the way society views us.

The film is well-done as a whole and fully worthy of the critical acclaim it has thus far received. Zombie fans should enjoy the film, though one should not expect realistic or engaging scenes of real zombie madness, since the overall theme of the film seems to focus around self-identity and self-expression, with full-blown comedic effects. Whatever your tastes, you will definitely find portions of them in this horror – comedy masterpiece! Directed by Matthew Kohnen, this English movie won an Audience Award, Best Film and a Carnet Jove Jury Award. It stars Jose Acevedo and Betsy Beutler.