| When you are making a low-budget kung-fu zombie movie there are a lot of logistical problems to work out. For example when Calgary writer-director Blaine Wasylkiw was filming Rotten Shaolin Zombies, he had to figure out how to make a loaf of sourdough bread double for a zombie’s head.
For the film, which Wasylkiw describes as a cross between Shaolin Soccer and Dawn of the Dead, he employed everything from pig’s tongue to yak’s tail to get the gore just right. When a man comes back from beyond the grave after an unfortunate run-in with a lungfish, it’s up to his brother to save the world in a kung-fu battle to the death. The result is a campy locally-produced send-up that is a 20-minute exercise in gross out.
Shooting with a shoestring budget on digital video, Wasylkiw got a volunteer cast and crew to help complete the film he spent eight months writing. But when it comes to the gore effects, he wasn’t prepared for what happened.
"I had pretty much bought every piece of crappy Halloween makeup there was," says Wasylkiw. "Then literally four days before we were going to start filming, I got an e-mail from a professionally trained makeup artist who was interested in helping out."
Who knew you could get so lucky having a body count?
Rotten Shaolin Zombies will be screening prior to the Monday, February 16 screenings of Stupidity: The Documentary.
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