Introduction
Rocket, Punkie, Javier, and Claire are a group of cosplaying best friends who must constantly battle assholes and a closed-minded society just to do what they love – cosplay together as their favorite heroes. However, real heroes are needed when a fated encounter involving an oddball mystic and the gift of a mysterious rock set in motion a zombie apocalypse in which all assholes are transformed into zombies. An anime-inspired action-adventure-horror, ZombieCON Vol. 1 is a testament to the power of friendship, self-sacrifice, and heart.
Interview
Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower recently interviewed filmmakers Carlson Kyle Vale and Erin Áine about their new feature film, ZombieCON Vol. 1. The film is currently available on all major VOD platforms, including Apple TV, Prime, YouTube Movies, Fandango at Home, Vudu, and Plex.
Glen Dower:
The ZombieCon Vol. 1 Power Couple: Mr. Kyle Valle and Ms Erin Áine, how are we doing, folks?
Kyle Valle:
Doing great!
Erin Áine:
Doing great. Thanks so much for having us, Glen.
Glen Dower:
A pleasure. We’re here to talk about your movie, ZombieCON Vol. 1, and I’ve given it a lot of thought recently, and the zombie genre, as a horror sub-genre, is pretty much indestructible. It’s very hard to get wrong. Kyle, as writer as well as director, did you feel strongly about keeping zombie lore intact as much as possible?
Kyle Valle:
Yeah, I think that it was important. I’m a huge zombie fan, so Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, go through the list. I wanted to keep it similar, but put a slight twist on it. But I do believe that you need to have some reason why the zombies and the apocalypse begin, although it would be an interesting concept to drop into the middle of a zombie apocalypse; but given the twist we put on it, it was important to start with that and then let the chaos unfold from that juncture.
Glen Dower:
We are straight into meeting our characters – and their world of geekdom. I noticed from the off the references and representation of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, He-Man, Anime, DC, Super Mario, and the MCU. Was that deliberate? Were you communicating that this movie is for everyone? For all geeks out there?
Kyle Valle:
Absolutely. The whole idea of the main four characters was to have four people you could meet at Comic-Con, and what they’d do in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. For example, Erin’s character in the movie, Claire, is a zombie fan. So that’s why they keep referring back to her about what they should be expecting? And I always thought that was an interesting thing to have people who actually were immersed in the zombie subculture, experiencing a zombie apocalypse for themselves.
Glen Dower:
And Erin, you play Claire, who, for the most part, is covered in blood. A blast, no doubt?
Erin Áine:
It was insanely fun. I think that I got to experience the gamut of emotions from the highest of highs to, lowest of lows on screen. And I had the joy of being the very first of our cast to get the first zombie kill, spoiler, and the first blood splatter to the face, which was pretty epic on our set!
Glen Dower:
And Kyle, you’re behind the camera saying ‘more blood, more blood!’?
Kyle Valle:
Oh yeah. There was never ‘not enough’ blood. I kept getting the look from the makeup artist: ‘Are we good?’
Erin Áine:
Maybe an alternative title to this movie could be ‘There Will Be Blood.’
Glen Dower:
And back to lore, in your movie, the virus is spread by ‘Claire’s Curse’, which is a great running gag, and then it’s spread through biting, right?
Kyle Valle:
Exactly. There’s a larger mechanic that we had to cut out. The movie’s already a little bit on the lengthy side. We had a more expansive opening that will be included in the DVD on the bonus features that explains the lore of this mystical rock and how the idea being the initial wish sets off the zombie apocalypse. And then from there, they really are just like regular zombies. Now, of course, the twist at the end has another, more deeply rooted mythos.
Glen Dower:
Let’s talk about the four core members of the group, of which Erin is a part. How did they come together?
Kyle Valle:
We worked together on a number of projects before the movie, so it was both a casting decision while simultaneously being one of necessity due to the low budget limitations of the film, and long-term friendships that we had built up. Manny Luke, as the leader, Rocket, is the absolute nicest guy in the entire world. Our friend Punkie plays the character Punkie. Her persona in real life and her go-get-em attitude, take-no-bullshit type of mentality, obviously informed the character quite a bit. Some of her scenes, especially with the Pump Up Speech, the acting is just top-notch.
Erin Áine:
Oh, yeah!
Glen Dower:
And we have Christian Casillas as Javier, the lovable jock, who has some great moments.
Kyle Valle:
I met him, actually like six months after I met Punkie at that same acting workshop class in Los Angeles. He’s just a good close friend.
Glen Dower:
And of course, Erin, finally. Kyle, how was it working with Erin the Actress versus Erin the Baby-Mama?
Erin Áine:
Oh, well, we did shoot this film quite a while ago, and we’ve had a long production journey. So time has definitely separated me from the character, too. But Claire is definitely way, way more reactive. She’s not really trying to hide and keep things bottled up. She’s had a rough life. There’s a whole backstory with her where she’s an orphan. I think I keep things a little bit closer to the chest, but it was really fun to play.
Glen Dower:
I recall in the making of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Kate Capshaw couldn’t scream on camera. Claire screams a lot. Was that you in the moment, Erin?
Erin Áine:
For the most part, I definitely was screaming. And I will say we created all four of quite a lot of grief for our beloved, much-breathed editor over here. And so, only certain of the scenes we had individual mic packs; a lot of the time, it was just the boom op. And so I would say that we really shifted a lot of the work on that end to the editor.
Glen Dower:
And the cosplay element is very important to you guys. Is that a real-life passion of yours?
Kyle Valle:
Yes. I remember my first ever cosplay was as Indiana Jones, like five years old, walking around Disney World, going to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular. And then it just grew from there. And the whole cosplay idea actually came up because I was walking through my brother’s house, and he collects movie props, like every movie prop you could imagine. And I saw the Captain America shield on the wall, and I was like, that would be a really cool way to fight zombies…I’ve never seen a movie about cosplayers, really. And then everything kind of just started clicking and falling into place.
Glen Dower:
Plus, conventions are the perfect place for anything to go wrong.
Erin Áine:
Exactly. We had quite a great journey in post-production, actually touring so many different Southern California conventions. And we had booths, and we would film cosplay videos, and two or three times we got to preview screen the movie, working copies of it, with obviously the perfect audience: cosplayers, anime super fans. And so we’re deeply involved with the cosplay scene in California in particular.
Glen Dower:
When I first received my copy of the film, I noticed Volume 1 in the title. I was immediately impressed by the confidence. Can you tell me about the decision-making process for that?
Kyle Valle:
That was actually tacked on near the end. We had had a “ZombieCon” initially put out there. But it was always intended to be a series. But IMDb doesn’t like a film to be nominated or win awards. And basically, once we got through to the sales agent and the distributor, they needed it to be updated for IMDb to be listed as 2024 when the film was actually completed, as opposed to 2018. Hence, the retitling of the movie which is a totally different movie from the 2018 version. It’s one of those things where things just work out for unknown reasons.
Glen Dower:
So something positive came out of a bit of admin?
Kyle Valle:
Yeah, absolutely.
Erin Áine:
And you know that Volumes 2, 3, 4, and 5 are already written and ready to go!
Glen Dower:
I’d hope so! I actually have some writing questions for you, Kyle. Foreshadowing in movies – I’m a big fan. Foreshadowing and payoff. How do you approach those events when writing?
Kyle Valle:
I write major arc points, right? The beginning, middle end, and then you can set up some sub points in between those, you know, where the story is going, and interlacing in those ideas of foreshadowing, those specific moments have a lot to do with anime influences that encompass the entire film.
Glen Dower:
I see. I also thought of Shaun of the Dead in those moments. Something else your film shares with that film is the tonal shift towards the end. Was that important to you to say that there are stakes here, this is an apocalypse?
Kyle Valle:
It was very much intentional, and it really wanted it to feel like the characters were both in peril and that it was a real zombie apocalypse with real stakes, and it wasn’t just a comedy. So very similar to Shaun of the Dead in that respect, which is like one of my favorite movies of all time. You know, hats off to Edgar Wright. He’s a fantastic director. He’s great. And Simon Pegg and everyone did a great job. But I really wanted the PG-13. If we were going for the hard R, there would have been about 50,000 times more cursing, as you referenced previously, like Punkie with the word ‘bitch.’ Trust me, that’s the tip of the iceberg. And our vernacular, especially back then, was a bit more crass.
And I really wanted to make it accessible. Because again, this is supposed to appeal to anime fans, cosplayers. And while that community has fans of all ages, I didn’t want younger kids to be able to have access to the media. And when we filmed it initially 10 years ago, the landscape of streaming was, you know, Netflix, and that was your one-stop shop, and I don’t know whose age check-ish when you’re on a streaming service, if something’s R or PG-13, you kind of have access to everything.
Glen Dower:
Now I became aware of your film when I got an Instagram DM inviting me to view and review. And of course, I was one of many to receive an invitation. What was your process to reach out to critics and reviewers?
Kyle Valle:
I will take a backseat on this one because I have to give all the credit to Erin.
Erin Áine:
It has been quite an interesting journey because it kind of coincided with our daughter still being in her newborn phase and releasing our first feature film. And we’re lucky that our distributor, Level 33 Entertainment, is fantastic. They’ve done some marketing and promotion and have a public assistance house. But for the most part, it’s also been on us to get the word out there. And so I’ve kind of attacked a couple of different prongs, if you will.
I’ve gone for straight film critics, Rotten Tomatoes, like big publications and also the YouTube film review community and really the most responsive and no judgment, but the most awesome so far has been finding people on Instagram and whether that’s their main profile where they share their reviews or just their social media for their other, like you Glen; podcasts, websites, what have you. People have been so much more responsive to direct messaging. So just a lot of outreach, kind of nonstop marathon style outreach, but I’m very fortunate that you responded and we find ourselves here, so thank you, Glen!
Glen Dower:
Of course, we have to spread the word so we get Volume 2. Kyle, what stage are we at for the next film, as this one ends with a great call-to-action and many players still standing?
Kyle Valle:
Volume Two actually takes place after a time skip that was brought on by necessity because of the 10-year post-production journey we went through on this film, be a little awkward. If we tried to start up the moment we last left our characters, because everyone has, although you’ve all aged beautifully, it says it takes up, you know, maybe 10 years later, and it can be dependent upon when we get that film made, but it deals with more serious issues and raises the stakes. So hopefully we’ll have a higher budget than $60,000, which will allow me to be a lot more creative.
But the characters go through a huge metamorphosis. Claire is kind of coming to terms with the gravitas of what she has done and the guilt of turning basically half the world into zombies. We’re in a makeshift city, and then of course, there’s a huge zombie attack, which wipes all that out and sets our characters back on a huge journey. Javier is still in robust fighting shape, Punkie and Rocket are a little bit at odds, especially with Claire. But my favorite new addition to the script is the use of drones to fly into battle, and they basically drop death from above, onto the zombie hordes. But it all comes down to financing and budgetary restraints. I think, as almost every film indie filmmaker, especially, we’ll say, it’s nearly impossible. So many hurdles.
Erin Áine:
I really like what you said as well, Glen, before we started talking about the movie, with parenting, and you shared, cause you have two sons who are no longer in the baby phase, but still quite young, and Kyle had asked you, ‘Does it ever get easier?’ And you replied, well, no, but ‘you’ adapt. And so every single phase you’re in seems like the hardest and previously seemed easier. It’s kind of similar when it comes to filmmaking. So hopefully, just like the other phases, we will conquer this one and be moving forward. And, you know, in a couple of years, we said, Oh my God, that was the easiest part. The marketing, getting the funding for Volume 2 and 3. A breeze!
Glen Dower:
Breeze. Which reminds me of a Christopher Reeve quote I love: “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible…when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”
Erin Áine:
I like that.
Glen Dower:
Well, folks, I’ll not keep you any longer. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so, so much. And finally, Erin, do you want to share where our readers can catch ZombieCON Vol. 1?
Erin Áine:
You can catch ZombieCON Vol. 1 wherever movies are sold! It’s on all major VOD platforms, Apple TV, Prime, YouTube Movies, Fandango at Home, Vudu, Plex, you name it. But if you go to our website specifically, which is zombieconvol1.com, we have the links to all of those places as well. So we’ll keep that updated along with the trailer and all the good stuff. And our socials are @zombieconmovie. And thank you so much, Glen, for having us! We really appreciate it. This has been so much fun.
