Zombies Vs Idiots

***Zombies Vs Idiots*** is a 2028 independent apocalyptic zombie comedy film directed by Ricardo Gonzales Silva and written by Nicolas AVO and Edward Rodriguez (in their feature writing debut) In the film, Eli (AVO), Dylan (Rodriguez), Becca (Osuna), and Jason (Vidal) make their way to revert a zombie disease outbreak before it expands to the entire country.

AVO conceived the idea for Zombies Vs Idiots in 2023 after watching Zombieland and ParaNorman one after another, and wanted to do his own take on the zombie genre, he pitched the idea to his friend and co-writer Edward Rodriguez, with an unfinished outline, but Rodriguez liked the idea, the two began a fundraising campaign in October of 2023, one year before it was released. It raised over $225,352, AVO used $150,000 for production, and $75,000 for a limited release in theaters, before being picked up by Sony Pictures Classics and expanding into a wide release. Filming began in July 2024 and wrapped in early August. Post-production ran for 1 month, due to the small amount of special effects, post-production wrapped earlier than expected on September 3.

The film premiered on September 15, 2028 at the Fantastic Fest Film Festival followed by a limited theatrical release on October 6, 2028, before expanding into a wide release on October 31st. It received positive critical reception, with praise for the direction, performances and screenplay.

## Plot

In March of 1983, in a small town named Douglas in the state of Oklahoma, a Laboratory performs an experiment with a device named the "Portal Nexus Device." The project is led by Dr. Rosenberg, but after overcharging the device with energy, he permanently creates a rift between Earth and an alternate dimension entirely populated by zombies. He urgently shuts down the lab in order to contain the zombies.

The next day, a young, nerdy teenager named Eli Miller is late for school after staying up late on a school night. He wakes up his close friend Dylan and they both rush to get to school on time. Eli dislikes school because of the bullying he gets due to his interests, however, Dylan and their two other friends, Taylor and Milo comfort him, and even considering his tastes as awesome. Later that night, the group plays a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons, but after ordering a pizza, one of the zombies breaks out of the lab and stumbles across Eli's house. After Eli returns from buying a pizza, a crash from the backyard grabs his attention and spots the zombie. The next day, Maddy Donaldson, the prettiest girl in Eli's school returns from a visit of a friend's house and encounters a zombie in her kitchen. She shrieks and dashes out. Later that day, Eli and Dylan get together at a park to shotgun cans of Coca-Cola, and Eli discusses his idea of catching zombies as a business, likening it to getting cockroaches removed in order to prevent them from spreading out into the rest of the country. Despite Dylan's initial objections, he leaves the final word to his Magic 8 Ball, and after being responded with an affirmative statement, Dylan agrees to starting the business.

A few days later, Eli uses his garage as the main headquarters for his business. Despite Dylan having certain knowledge on driving, he's still reluctant about using his dad's car, and they later get a commercial for their business on TV. Maddy visits Eli's house after seeing their commercial airing on TV. Eli, infatuated, is quick to assisting her issue. Maddy takes Eli to her home to investigate, but realizes that the zombie has long since left, and Eli unsuccessfully attempts to invite her to the movies. The Zombie Exterminators are hired to remove a fat zombie from their middle school. Having failed to properly test their equipment, Eli and Dylan are wary of their makeshift net, but despite trouble, they successfully catch the zombie. In order to contain the undead, Eli chooses the warehouse his father left to his mother after they divorced to contain them. Undead activity in the town increases rapidly and the Zombie Hunters become famous; they hire Milo and Taylor to cope with the growing demand.

Later that night, a zombie, named Dextroski, who is revealed to be able to speak as a human, escapes his world through the rift created by the lab. He turns out to be highly intelligent, and can speak to zombies perfectly, rallying them up to create a clan, and after being revealed that the Zombie Hunters had been slowing them down, he chooses to kidnap Maddy, who has formed a friendship with Eli in order to lure the Zombie Hunters into their headquarters and that way, kill them before sacrificing Mandy, as part of Dextroski's plan to rule the world. After the Zombie Hunters find out what happened to Maddy through a police report, Eli drives out into the Douglas National Lab to see if it had anything to do with the undead activity. After stumbling across Rosenberg and being told what happened through a series of threats, Eli demands for the Nexus Device to be fixed to prevent any more zombies from entering their world.

The next day, the group searches for the zombie headquarters together with Rosenberg. However, Eli is stricken with an idea, he asks Rosenberg if there is a chance of a thunderstorm that very day. Rosenberg reveals that they have a specialized weather sensing equipment that can predict when and where a lightning bolt might hit, and after the device predicts a lightning bolt will strike on one of the lampposts in Eli's neighborhood park at 2:51 AM, the group formulates a plan to kill all the zombies. During that same night, the thunderstorm starts to form, the group takes the initiative and prepare for the lightning bolt, connecting industrial wires to a firework pit, intended to be lit up so that the zombies are killed in the process. Eli drives across the street, firing a submachine gun to draw the zombies' attention and in the process, find out where Mandy is. The lightning strikes, killing all the zombies and freeing Mandy in the process. The next day, the Zombie Hunters are hailed as heroes, finally earning Eli the respect and admiration he desired.

## Production

### **Development**

   Independent filmmaker Nicolas AVO conceived *Zombies VS Idiots* in March 2023. He got the idea for the film after watching *Zombieland* and *ParaNorman* one after another, both being films that revolved around zombies. He wondered what would happen if he combined both films together into a single film. He started developing the idea into a text document where he annotated all the thoughts. After a week of writing the ideas, AVO landed on a potential plot outline, one where a group of teenagers accidentally began a zombie apocalypse and attempt to revert it.

Following the completion of the plotline, he would re-watch *Zombieland* and *ParaNorman* again to better hone the story. He approached his fellow filmmaker and long-time friend Edward Rodriguez to ask him his thoughts of the rough plotline he had in hand. Rodriguez liked the idea and asked if he could write the story together with AVO, who accepted. They would begin a rough outline in April 26, 2023. Until finally completing it on May 18. And then would debate over the title for the next five days, initially, the earliest title was "Zombies Vs. Teens" but later changed it to "Zombies & Teens" before finally settling with "Zombies Vs. Idiots" and would proceed with writing the first draft.

Rodriguez and AVO began the draft in May 24, 2023, intending to co star with each other. They sketched and acted out each scene to better develop the dialogue and actions, a technique AVO had learnt from Back To The Future director and writer Robert Zemeckis. They believed too many Zombie films focused on setting the story in the middle of the apocalypse and explain the cause later, they wanted to show the cause of the Apocalypse as the beginning of the story and show the progress of the Apocalypse. In the draft, Eli and Dylan, two High School students with a reputation for screwing up are looking for a summer job get and hired as janitors of a hospital keeping the most rare sample and variant of the Flu, which the duo break the tube keeping the sample in place, causing the disease to enter the hospital's ventilation system and infecting everyone inside. They completed the first draft on June 23, 2023 and showed it to multiple people, some being close friends and family, who liked the draft, but considered it needed significant refinement.

Some early concepts were abandoned. Originally, Jason and Hailee abandoned Eli and Dylan multiple times during the film, but every person who read the script took issue with the idea. Eli and Dylan were also high school drop outs, who lived in a house with other students where he payed rent, until they were forced to get a summer job or they were going to be kicked out, they get hired as janitors at a hospital, but unleash an infectious disease that infects people in seconds, and begins the apocalypse. Rodriguez and AVO chose to make fun of zombie movie tropes and cliches, and chose to break the fourth wall many times in order for the movie to stand out from the rest of the films as a zombie parody.

Originally, the film was planned to be released by October of the same year, but due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, the film's release date became ambiguous and pushed back production. The date was later pushed back to August of 2024, AVO said that the strike "saved" Zombies Vs Idiots, as if the strike didn't occur, they would have rushed production and the film would have likely flopped. The initial versions of the script took pace in Houston, but due to the planned shooting location's (Tijuana, Mexico) visual similarities with New Mexico, the setting was changed to Albuquerque on Rodriguez's suggestion under economic preferences. The first draft had Hailee's character original name as Becca, which was changed in the second draft, which began writing on June 28, 2023, Rodriguez said in an interview that "the story was there, it just needs some honing, that's the purpose of a first draft", the second draft was finished on August 8, 2023.

### **Writing**

Nicolas AVO and Edward Rodriguez decided not to greenlight the second draft, though many people thought it was good, Rodriguez and AVO thought it wasn't reaching it's highest quality. The most popular zombie movies at the time, such as *Zombieland* (2009), *World War Z* (2013), *Dawn of the Dead* (2004), featured violent and gory elements; *Zombies Vs Idiots* was considered too tame in comparison. The project would later suffer another delay from August 2024 to October in order to have more time to develop the script and pitch it to independent movie studios. However, AVO spoke with Rodriguez and said: "We are just gonna waste our time on unnecessary changes, let's do this ourselves" and decided to do the project independently, and chose to shoot in their hometown of Tijuana, Mexico to efficiently shoot the film, and decided to produce it under their Sky Theory Studios label. In September, Rodriguez approached AVO and asked him: "How are we gonna fund this crap? We need some money to make it, other wise, we're screwed!" AVO responded: "Oh wait, it's true, it's time for an IndieGoGo campaign!" And AVO began an IndieGoGo campaign in September 7, 2023 with a goal of $45,000, with the fundraiser set to finish on December 7, within a week, it raised over $48,300, AVO almost shut down the campaign but Rodriguez stopped him and instead encouraged him to keep it running, the campaign closed on December 7, 2023, with $225,352 raised in total. Rodriguez, surprised by the amount, said to AVO: "We've got the money, let's get to work."

AVO suggested to Rodriguez that they could make a short film based off their script "Whiplash style" in order to secure extra funding for the film, but Rodriguez said that the money was more than enough and politely turned down his suggestion. The two were ready to begin production on the film, but then abruptly stopped production after they questioned who would be in charge of directing the film, neither AVO nor Rodriguez were willing to take the role, as they feared their lack of experience could negatively affect production, AVO pitched the script to independent feature director Ricardo Gonzales Silva, who was in an ongoing legal trouble that tarnished his career, Gonzales loved the script, who praised it for it's cynical, dark humor. AVO advised that he direct the film, because he knew what he was doing, and could hep build his career back up from scratch, Gonzales asked how much time it would take to produce the film, AVO responded: "We have the script, we have a budget, we just need cast and crew", and that the film might be finished by September 2024.

However, the film, was still missing the majority of the cast and crew, and production was due by June, and Rodriguez warned that if they didn't get the cast and crew together, they would fear another push back or canceling the project entirely, Gonzales said to AVO that he began a casting call, Rodriguez said that they'd have Hailee's part secured, as he said that her sister, Liana, wanted to be an actress, and was already associated with AVO through through their work on *Comedy Garbage*, (2023), AVO brought the newly revised script to her, and she accepted immediately, and AVO praised her energetic and buoyant acting chops, and cast her as Hailee.

Rodriguez posted an announcement on their YouTube channel with the cast and crew in March of 2023, with a filming and release date confirmed, Gonzales chose to shoot the film on the Canon XC10 4K for it's high quality, small size and easy transportation, as the camera could be literally carried by one hand. AVO later stated that he chose to film between July and August of 2024 because that was the time where everyone was off High School and free for the summer: "There were a couple advantages with this shooting schedule, one, we could have any day free with no restrictions, two, the weather was nice, and three, since most of the film took place in one day, it was also easier to shoot during the afternoon and night, where the weather was at it's most pleasant, but it would cut short our Post-Production Schedule by an entire month." Gonzales was aware of the short schedule, but decided to give the go ahead anyway. AVO had renamed Jason's sister from Becca to Hailee, because it "sounded nicer" and changed the location from Houston to Albuquerque because it more closely resembled the shooting location, and gave off an unforgiving vibe. The third draft was completed on May 8, 2024.

### **Pre-Production**

AVO spoke to Gonzales and said that he didn't have to worry much about the casting, since most of the leading roles were covered, they began casting local actors for them to star as characters in the film. During rehearsals, AVO and Gonzales were consistent with praise towards Liana Rodriguez, who loved her energetic acting skills, while still being able to perform serious acting. AVO rehearsed 10 pages of the script involving his character, Gonzales praised AVO's acting as having this "screwball" energy that was considered essential for the character. Due to their past work together, AVO and the Rodriguezes had formed a chemistry, of what Gonzales liked to call "chaotic chemistry." With production due in a month, Gonzales asked AVO to write a fourth and final draft while the sets began modifications to accommodate the film's necessities. AVO approached his brother, a graphic designer and offered him $4,500 to do the story boards under his direction, which he accepted, and after a week of working day and night, the 87-page storyboard was completed and brought to Gonzales, who decided to use it.

They also hired artist Drew Stutzan to make the teaser poster of the film while they were getting ready for the final stages of pre-production before moving on to filming. Gonzales later rushed to AVO's house where he frantically asked who would be the zombies in the film, AVO told him to relax and they would offer $150 to random people on the street to be in the film as a zombie and to have their name in the credits by alphabetical order. And it turned out to work better than expected, the 75 extra zombies that appeared on the film were all cast and were offered money to buy new clothes in case the fake blood stained their current clothing. Gonzales was relieved, and AVO and Rodriguez were in the finishing stages of writing the fourth and final draft of the screenplay. Were the climactic battle with the zombies was changed in order to be in the same neighborhood where Eli and Dylan lived. The fourth draft was completed on June 13, 2023.

Before filming, AVO took a break from production on the film for a week in order to focus on his final exams for 9th grade, which were coming up, AVO passed all the exams, and after finishing his final exam, his friends wished him the best of luck in his filming journey and he was picked up by his parents where he was rushed to the San Diego airport to take a flight to Toronto for a week in order to emotionally prepare himself for filming, he was reluctant to film without going to Toronto or else he would have too much anxiety to film. He was received by family members, who encouraged him to keep production going even it would kill him out of anxiety. He was later taken to the Niagara Falls by a cousin to calm himself down and build up the courage for filming. He began to print the shooting script and placed it inside a folder, which he placed in an even bigger folder to "protect the fucking script at all costs." On his final night in Toronto before his flight back to San Diego, he and his family members prayed with him over the production of the film, and would call Rodriguez to ask him how he was feeling, Rodriguez responded by saying: "If there was one thing I couldn't lie about, it would be about how damn nervous I am feeling."

### **Filming**

Principal Photography began July 3, 2024 on a 41-day schedule set to conclude on August 14, 2024 with an estimated $150,000 production budget. Filming primarily took place in Tijuana, Mexico at partially in San Diego. Michael Bonvillain, who previously served as cinematographer in *Zombieland*. Production designer Sam Lisenco wanted the film to replicate typical elements from 80s and 90s horror films, in order to do so, he installed a scanned film grain layer to save time for editing. The short production schedule meant the film's editors were brought on set with laptops to edit the film while it was being shot to save time. The film was shot in rough chronological order to prevent the young actors from confusing their lines and allowed for more time to rent filming locations. AVO recalled shooting the film being more fun than expected, and praised Gonzales's clean cut and well timed comedic direction despite his background being in drama. Sometimes when they used dummies to push down buildings for background detail, the crew couldn't hold back their laughter due to the physics the dummy carried.

In the first 3 days of filming, Sam Lisenco forgot to bring a boom mic on set, and since there was no time to buy a real boom mic, since there were no film gear stores nearby, AVO rushed to his house to grab a microphone he had stored in his room and drilled two broomsticks together to form a makeshift boom mic while they ordered one online. Gonzales said it wasn't a big emergency, since the camera's external microphone sounded very similar to the makeshift boom mic. Edward Rodriguez accidentally broke a window after tripping on a wire and smashing his elbow on a car's window, the owners understood it was an accident, and the crew laughed at the situation. The crew only had time for a couple takes, Gonzales stated that: "During one of the shooting days, we had so little time left that the first take we took on a scene was simply the final take." During the beginning of the apocalypse where Eli and Dylan left their home to escape Houston, AVO just told the zombified extras to "move in some random direction and act like idiots."

The neighborhood where AVO resided with his parents at the time served as the home for Eli and Dylan as well as the setting for the Survivors' climactic battle with the horde of zombies. Gonzales chose to shoot the sequence at night where it was more difficult to see the addresses of the homes and save time instead of just temporarily taking the signs down. Almost all of the lighting in the climax is directly part of the neighborhood's pre-built light posts. For the fireworks used in the film for the culminating explosion were cardboard replicas, and the explosion was added in post production, which began on the second week of filming and was directed by Visual Effects supervisor Ken Rolsten. Who directed the explosion first and saved muzzle flashes from the character's weapons for last.

During the final night of shooting, which involved the explosion sequence and the group leaving the neighborhood, AVO recalled everyone in the cast and crew tired but willing to finish, AVO especially struggled to stay awake off set, since the filming schedule ran through early morning hours. Principal photography officially concluded on August 16, 2024, two days later than expected. in August 18, AVO and Rodriguez dedicated the entire day to film green screen shots to later compose into the explosion sequence. Due to the fact that the film was edited while being shot, the first rough cut was completed on August 23, five days later after the final shot was finished.

### **Post-Production**

Arthur F. Repola served as the post-production supervisor, but he became responsible for many aspects outside his role, including budgets, storyboarding, and general problem-solving. Peter Amundson found editing the film difficult because he had to imagine where the special effects would later be added; there was no time or budget to re-edit afterward. The editing team was concerned due to the lack of time for any special effects like the climactic explosion sequence, however, AVO divided the editing team into 5 by 5, naming them Team A and Team B, Team A was put in charge of the explosion, while Team B was put in charge of the minor special effects. Team B finished their job earlier and were merged with Team A to finish the explosion faster.

A rough version of the movie was cut together for a test screening at an AMC theater in San Diego, California, in mid-September 2024, just one month after shooting had wrapped. The audience was seemingly uninterested at the exposition-heavy opening but became engaged after the apocalypse began. At a test screening in Tijuana, Mexico, 83% of the audience responded they would recommend the film; 89% rated it very good or excellent. The film was re-cut and screened again at another theater at Sony Pictures Classics for executives, they were so impressed that they purchased distribution rights to the film for $102,000 and set a date for October 11 for a temporary limited in theaters release before expanding into a wide release.

In order to pay tribute to classic 80s Zombie movies, the post production team added a scanned 35 mm film overlay to the footage in order to add to the nostalgic value of the film. 18 minutes in total were cut from the final film, the first cut ran for 110 minutes with credits, after two days, this number decreased to 105, and then plummeted to 95, before finally decreasing to 92, AVO would reveal the specific runtime to the second on his instagram, saying the film ran for 92 Minutes, 28 seconds, the final 92 minute cut was finished on September 20, 2024, two weeks before the advertised release date and two days before it's premiere at the Fantastic Fest Film Festival, AVO held a private screening on September 21 in order to show Gonzales the finished film, and he praised it for the dark humor and special effects.

The film was rated R for strong language and severe violence.

## Release and Reception

### Box Office

The film premiered at the Fantastic Fest Film Festival on September 22, 2024 and was released on a limited release in 12 theaters in October 11, 2024 by Sony Pictures Classics, grossing $244,116 ($20,343 per theater), more than it's production and marketing budget combined. It expanded to 75 theaters on October 15, then to 306 on the 23rd, before finally expanding to nation wide to 4,000 theaters on October 31st, it crossed $10 Million by November 17, and was officially considered a box office hit by Sony and had earned Sky Theory Studios $7 Million. *Zombies VS Idiots* closed on January 6, 2025 with a final gross of $23,603,277, and earned Sky Theory Studios $14 Million and $5 Million to Sony Pictures Classics.

### Critical response

On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored 81% based on 303 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.