Colin
I’m unsure what to make of Colin, the newish, ultra low-budget zombie film from Nowhere Fast Productions. When I say ultra low-budget I mean ultra. The entire cost of filming Colin was roughly $71.00, the most extravagant expenses, according to director Marc Price, were “a crowbar, some mini DV tapes and some tea and coffee – but only Tesco Value tea and coffee, not any expensive stuff.” He was able to convince actors and make-up artists to contribute their services in order to help flesh out their portfolios. Whether this was done using blackmail or blowjobs was not specified.
This same movie is set to explode at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, according to the Daily Mail, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out why from the, albeit brief, teaser trailer. The concept itself is interesting, a movie shown from the perspective of a person turned into a zombie, but to my eyes the sub-hundred-dollar budget shines through in a particularly ugly way. Part of me wonders if this is merely a case of critics enamored with process — the story of an unknown filmmaker with some chutzpa making a movie with limited resources — over product. Still, I’m eager to actually see the thing; far be it from me to ignore a zombie flick.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Really? People are worked up over a zombie film? Where’s the damn head so I can shoot this cliche out of it’s misery?
May 20th, 2009 at 11:10 am
And I’m so disappointed that the first film with my name in the title is a fragging cliche terrible looking zombie flick.
May 20th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Always glad to see people shooting things down even before they’ve seen it…
May 20th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Good for him for making it, and I sure hope to hell its actually worth the hype. There is something inherently glamorous and marketable about the whole “This movie only cost blahblahblah” angle for the Cannes people, I’m sure. I only hope its not just a bait and switch method of trying to pimp a crappy movie based on the story that went into making it.
I get the feeling that film festivals are looking for a new indie boom. The big ones (Cannes, Sundance, even Toronto) have not had really volatile and groundbreaking years in a while. Each festival this decade spits out one, maybe two good indie movies, whereas the early to mid 90s gave us a butt load of cool indie flicks. I’m sure they are digging really deep to rebuild the Tarantino/Rodriguez/Anderson/Soderberg/Smith bonanza. This is not to say movies have gotten better or worse in the past few years. Now that I think about it, the best new indie flicks I can recall this decade all gained most of their momentum from DVD.
That being said, I’m a sucker for all things zombie, so I’m in.
May 21st, 2009 at 3:42 am
I held a spark of interest from reading the premise here, but the preview dashed it. I’d have liked it more if it were told from the POV of the zombie, like Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis. Instead of being told from a zombie’s limited POV, it’s just a movie with a zombie as the main character… hollywood gives us enough actors who do that unintentionally as it is.
Thanks for the post though, I’ll definitely alert my zombie-movie-loving friend to it.
May 21st, 2009 at 9:55 am
Is that Philadelphia in the background?
May 21st, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I love zombie movies. I liked the gory arm and the slingshot. The guy hissing at the end didn’t evoke anything in me at all which was disappointing, but I’d probably give this a try anyhow.
May 22nd, 2009 at 2:44 am
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May 28th, 2009 at 2:35 am
funnily, I thought the trailer looked quite good. Maybe it’s because the premise of it being made with only £50 lowered my expectations so much, I thought it looks better shot than most soap dramas. I hope the story is told from an interesting angle and actually has some substance. Look forward to seeing it