A Zombie Honey Short Film Review by Bella
Zombies can’t be choosers, but dammit if they can’t be really endearing.
I recently sat down and watched - then immediately rewatched - Defense Mechanism, a 2015 Pensacon Film Festival Best In Show winning, zombie horror short from writer/actor Matt DeNoto (Harry Potter and The Ten Years Later) and director Sebastian Munoz. I watched it the first time to see what it was about and if I wanted to review it. I watched it the second time because I really enjoyed it.
In the span of 11 minutes Defense Mechanism tells the story of two zombie apocalypse survivors that are no longer both going to be surviving. They ride the high of their humor through a sobering time finding a weapon of zombie destruction as the undeadening (it’s a word, shuddup) begins to set in. There is no break in conversation - only a break in emotion - as the reality of the situation settles in.
Horror shorts rely heavily on quick emotion. Endearing/Annoying. Scary. Dead. What Defense Mechanism did exceedingly well is stretch the emotion out. The conversations felt organic - like a conversation I would have with a loved one. The humor was smart enough, punny, quick-witted, and dry. The pain peeking around each joke was increased ever so slightly with each line reminding you that: humor can only take you so far in light of a tragedy.
While Defense Mechanism isn’t scary, it’s emotionally horrific. I found myself giggling and rolling my eyes and then immediately getting choked up and brushing away a tear. This is twice now that a zombie movie (short or not) has made me have “feelings”. I’m enjoying the human element being brought into zombie flicks. I especially enjoy it from a horror shorts like these; they remind me that actual people are out there making movies about LIFE - even if it includes some of the undead.
Zombie Honey Rating: 3.5 brain jokes out of 5
