| Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse | |
| Director: | Declan Shrubb |
| Cinematography: | Miguel Gallagher |
| Editing: | Rafael Perez |
| Distributor: | Titan View Lightyear Entertainment |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse is a 2015 Australian zombie comedy horror film written and directed by Declan Shrubb and developed through ScreenACT's 2012 Low Budget Feature Pod.[1] The film stars Jim Jefferies, Alex Williamson, Adele Vuko, Greg Fleet, Andy Trieu and Matt Popp, with cameos by Eso from Bliss N Eso, Jim Punnett and The Roundabout Crew.[2] [3]
After the zombie apocalypse occurs in Australia, two tradesmen, Darryl (Alex Williamson) and Joel (Jim Jefferies), meet at a telephone exchange tower to take refuge there. Joel shows Darryl that their friend Roy's (Greg Fleet) undead wife (Jackie Murray) is in the back of his ute, which prevents them from retrieving their beer. After an argument Darryl is forced to shoot Roy's wife in the head. Their older friend Roy meets the two there with his daughter Emma (Adele Vuko), and Darryl proceeds to poorly flirt with Emma, much to Roy's dismay.
After discussion about their plans to survive, Joel decides to fix the 3G tower to make an emergency call to the military to alert them of their location. While waiting for the tower to get fixed, Emma and Darryl become intimate, during which a firework goes off in the distance and the zombies surrounding their location migrate. At this point two strangers wearing paintballing gear enter the tower; they are revealed to be the apprentices Ryan (Matt Popp) and Lachlan (Andy Trieu), who is Emma's boyfriend. Joel fixes the phone line and talks with the military. Meanwhile, the apprentices tell the other guys that the military caused the zombie apocalypse and that calling them is the last thing they should do. The team argues and decides to split up: Joel, Roy and Darryl wish to get picked up by the military and Ryan, Lachlan and Emma decide to hide in case the military are in fact malicious. Roy begins to show symptoms that he is infected. The military jeep drives past and misses the tower. Joel goes to the roof to launch fireworks to catch the military's attention, but is killed when he accidentally ignites the entire pile of fireworks.
Two soldiers arrive but, confused by Roy's poor wording of the situation, are eaten by the hoard of zombies. A zombie picks up Joel's access card from his severed leg. The team decides to make a dash for the military's weapons and vehicle, but the zombie that grabbed the access card opens the building and the hoard begins to move in. The apprentices make a dash to drive off the hoard while Emma runs to the senior soldier's corpse to retrieve his car keys. She starts the car and grabs the apprentices, Lachlan spraining his ankle running to the car. Darryl admits to Roy that he slept with his daughter. Roy radios Emma to tell her to leave him and Darryl to die, and to set off a flare once she and the apprentices are safe.
At this point Darryl admits to Roy that he shot his wife. Roy and Darryl decide that Roy gets to Darryl on account of killing his wife and having sex with his daughter in the same afternoon. Darryl defuses the situation by showing Roy the grenade he found. They use the grenade to blow up the zombies chasing them. As the sun rises, they see another hoard coming towards them. The two have one last smoke before fighting and ultimately being overrun by the zombies. As they lie dying they see the flare Roy instructed Emma to set off once she was far away.
Under its working title of Exchange, the film was one of ten projects selected out of 42 submissions to ScreenACT. The project received production funding and the production team received the benefit of a program consisting of three months of intensive development, working on script, budget, financing and distribution plans. It was one of three films chosen for production funding of $120,000 but was the only film that ended up being produced.[4]
The project is a crowd funded feature film which was made possible through indiegogo.[5] The team behind the film raised US$41,439 with 471 backers, surpassing their initial goal of US$30,000 and breaking the record at the time for crowdfunding an Australian feature film.[6]
The project was shot in Canberra through January and February 2014.[7] [8] To raise funds for an extra day of shooting, a second indiegogo campaign was run which raised an additional US$5,000.[9]
The completed film was released in Australian cinemas via the Tugg cinema-on-demand platform.[10] Premiering on 24 July 2015, it became Tugg Australia's most requested film, and was featured on National 7 News for this accomplishment.[11] It screened in every state and territory in Australia. It is distributed through their website where it can be rented or purchased.[7] and in stores on DVD and Vimeo-on-Demand 9 September 2015. It was released on DVD in UK on 2 May 2016, through Matchbox Films,[12] and was released in the US on 5 July 2016, by Lightyear Entertainment.
The film began its Australian cinema run on 24 July 2015, through the Tugg cinema-on-demand platform.[13]
The film was released on DVD, Vimeo and other VOD platforms in Australia on 23 September 2015, available for purchase at stores such as JB Hi-Fi and Sanity.[14] It was released in the UK on 2 May 2016[15] and to DVD, VOD, and digital channels in the US on 5 July 2016.[16] [17]