Film

Raindance review: LA Zombie

Rebecca Sear | Friday 1 October, 2010 16:12

Director Bruce LaBruce
Country Canada

On Internet Movie Database the ‘plot spoilers’ for LA Zombie are: pornography, gay sex, city in title, banned film, and blow job. These aren’t so much plot spoilers as the entire film in eleven words. LA Zombie is a film which, in theory, had so much potential to be a genuinely scary horror/gore porn film. Every right minded film buff loves zombies, and whilst they might not admit it, probably porn too. However, what is needed to make a horror or porn film slightly credible is some vague attempt at a plot. Unfortunately what Bruce LaBruce gives the viewer is a plot as holey as the orgy victims post drug dealer shoot-out. I can’t even explain that simile; you will simply have to watch it.

The film begins with the obscenely muscular François Sagat emerging from the sea in full zombie attire. He hitches a ride into the city with a passing surfer (Rocco Giovanni) who doesn’t seem to question his peculiar appearance or penchant for wearing a hoodie like a cape but when they crash and surfer dude gets pretty badly mauled up, our Zombie protagonist saves the day! By fucking him in the open wound with his bizarrely yam-shaped penis. What follows is a series of episodes featuring Sagat giving life-restoring hot beef injections out willy-nilly, building up to a sinister and preposterous (anti)climax. The best bit amongst all this lunacy is the reaction of the people whose lives he saves. Upon waking up with his penis inside their injuries, they seem to be nonplussed and randy in equal measure. Sagat’s performance is surprisingly good considering he has no lines, however literally all the other actors are bewilderingly bad and make it feel slightly like the product of a high school drama assignment gone wrong.

With a writer /director who is responsible for films such as The Raspberry Reich and Otto; or, Up with Dead People which have enjoyed success at numerous international film festivals, is a contributor and photographer for magazines such as Vice and Dazed and Confused, amongst others, and has already written a premature memoir entitled The Accidental Pornographer, LA Zombie is not without some artistic salvation. The soundtrack is frankly brilliant. Featuring some originally composed scoring, and including music which encompass extracts from Chopin’s delicately dulcet Nocturne in E Minor to the irate squawking of France De Greissen’s I Want to be You, LaBruce has chosen bold musical accompaniment which is perfectly timed and makes this film almost watchable. Furthering the watchability of this piece is the cinematography. Featuring some imaginative shots of the blinking Los Angeles city lights and lingering scenes of Sagat roaming city streets aimlessly evoke a notion of an unfortunately undeveloped sense of compassion for him. Also noteworthy is a sequence of Sagat from the front in full make-up (he veers between being fully made up and normal throughout) in which he is roving the streets, plagued with a yearning for flesh. This was edited down and used in the trailer.

The problem with the film overall is that it is not obvious who exactly the target audience is. Whilst it may be a gay porn film, the distinct lack of conventional gay sex means that it won’t really have much appeal as a piece of pornography. It may have a fair helping of gore, but the excessive fake blood and lack of suspense means that it loses the ability to scare. Even if the target audience was those inclined to attending international film festivals, it was banned from the Melbourne Film Festival, and seems to be a bit of a novelty piece at Raindance here in London this month. Those who still fancy seeing it can wait for the extended version, LA Zombie Hardcore, which comes out at Hallowe’en .

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