Shatter Dead
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| Shatter Dead | |
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| Directed by | Scooter McCrae |
| Produced by | Scooter McCrae |
| Written by | Scooter McCrae |
| Starring | Stark Raven Flora Fauna Daniel 'Smalls' Johnson Robert Wells |
| Distributed by | Tempe Video |
| Release date(s) | 1994 |
| Running time | 84 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Shatter Dead is a zombie film set in an unknown area following a woman named Susan's (Stark Raven) attempt to return to the apartment of her boyfriend (Daniel 'Smalls' Johnson) in the midst of the return of the dead to a semblance of life. On her way, she is harassed by a preacher (Robert Wells) and a dead woman named Mary (Flora Fauna) intent on convincing her that being undead is preferable to life.
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[edit] Plot
The film opens with a scene of a woman having sex with an apparently female angel. No explanation is given. The next shot is of some time later as Susan works her way through a mostly abandoned town on foot. She encounters some of the living dead, including one who gave up his arm to research (this is not a G rated movie). Unlike most modern zombie film denizens, however, they seem somewhat bewildered and eager to please. She takes a car from one (who doesn't put up a fight) and drives for a while, listening to an announcer discussing the current situation on the radio. He doesn't have much information. Arriving in a new town, she encounters some living people who direct her to a safe house to stay the night. While staying there, she sleeps and dreams a bit and then encounters Mary, a dead woman pretending to be alive, in the shower (this is not a PG rated movie). Mary tries to convince her to poison herself so she can be beautiful forever. Susan responds by shooting her in the face (this is not a PG-13 rated movie). At this point the house is attacked by militant zombies intent on converting living humans into their way of, uh, metabolism. The woman from the intro, now very pregnant, is shot in the back at close range with a shotgun, aborting the baby out the front. She begins to nurse it (This is not an R rated movie).
Susan escapes and encounters a preacher who is working his flock of undead. He pretends to be dead also, but she knows better. Another shot to the face occurs.
Susan finally arrives at the apartment of her boyfriend. He's also killed himself but is up and about. They can't have sex because he has no blood pressure (his blood is in the bathtub), so she performs fellatio on him using her gun as a strap-on. He tries to poison her (successfully), but she manages to throw him out the window, breaking most of his bones. The last sequence of the film is a montage switching back and forth between the preacher making splints for her boyfriend and Susan putting tears in her eyes from the faucet so she can mourn her own death.
[edit] Themes
Throughout the movie, members of the undead try to verbally convince Susan that being dead is better. She never rebuts them, but never shows any signs of being convinced.
[edit] Reactions
In its initial release the majority of viewers of the film disliked it, but a small minority find it to be interesting and thematically challenging. It won the best independent film award at the 1995 FantaFestival and has persisted enough to be recently released on DVD.
[edit] Premise comparisons to other Zombie films
Unlike the George A. Romero Living dead films, the returning undead retain their full memories and power of speech. The only thing they seem to be missing mentally is ambition. For the most part, they seem content to stand around. They do, however, seem to have gained an urge to bring the living over to their side.
The movie never gives a direct explanation for the return of the dead, but the opening scene and the tag line "God Hates You" both imply that the cause is supernatural in nature. Specifically that god has abandoned humanity.
