When do the dead come to life?

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Stills from Rise of the Zombie

Hollywood can always boast about George Romero and his pioneering zombie flicks, British director Danny Boyle gave us 28 Days Later, the undead get their due Down Under with Brain Dead (directed by Peter Jackson!!! If you have watched the movie, you’d understand the multiple exclamation marks), mainland Europe got its kicks by mowing down Nazi zombies in Dead Snow… hell! Even Pakistan has paid tribute to the walking dead with Zibahkhana. Come April 5, India also would have done its bit for this massively popular genre, with the release of the country’s first zombie film – Rise of the Zombie.

“Horror films in India often get a heavy ‘Bollywood-treatment’ and are largely restricted to the supernatural. And with the proliferation of video games and graphic novels, we thought the time was right to introduce this pop culture element, which hitherto has been left completely untouched here,” says Devaki Singh, who has directed the film along with Luke Kenny. A novel effort that could only help in its own way to bring back to life the stale and formulaic Indian horror genre, (Bhoot Bungalow – check, white saree – check, creepy god man – check and check), the duo wanted to have their say before the zombie genre got all commercial. “When Brad Pitt’s World War Z hits theatres, zombies would have officially arrived,” laughs Devaki.
Shot on a laughably low budget (“Producers allocate this kind of money for just a song,” says Devaki), the feature-length Hindi film stars Luke Kenny as the protagonist Neil Parker, a wildlife photographer whose forced isolation in the jungle turns him into a creature that’s anything beyond human comprehension. “He literally starts wasting away – physically, mentally,” says Devaki.
“Most international zombie flicks have the survival horror element. The zombie apocalypse has already broken out and our heroes are left fighting off hordes of the undead. We wanted to do something different. Every zombie was once a human and each has a unique story of transformation,” says Luke, “This is Neil Parker’s story. Chapter One, if you will. So we have stayed away from slambang special effects and have focused on makeup effects and simple, organic storytelling that lets you travel with Neil into a zone that he can’t quite understand.”
For those tapping their feet impatiently for a full-blown outbreak (because let’s admit it, that’s when the fun really begins), two sequels are already in the scripting stages. So with this movie promising tonnes of “repulsive horror” we ask Luke what was the grossest thing he had to do in the movie? “I’d tell you,” he says sincerely, “But then I’d have to eat your brains... Come watch the film!”