“A truly down home style telling of what to expect from the zombie apocalypse. Dead Kansas is a Midwest love letter to the zombie genre.” - Creepercast
In a post-apocalyptic land consumed by "Rottens", a simple farmer and his teenage daughter struggle to survive. Meanwhile, an unruly gang make a plan to kidnap and sell the daughter for their own selfish profit. With the farmer/gang confrontation, a wicked tornado approaching, and "Rottens" everywhere - who will get out alive? (IMDB)
Dead Kansas is a 2013 award winning festival
favorite (Fantasticfest and Zedfest to name a few) independent Zombie / Horror
/ Comedy / Action-Adventure film distributed by Rotten Productions. It is
Directed/Written by Aaron K. Carter and stars first billed Erin Miracle,
Alexandria Lightford, Ben Woolf, and Aaron Guerrero.
Dead Kansas is a truly down home style telling
of what to expect from the zombie apocalypse. It is the Midwest love letter to
the zombie genre that feels like a redneck western. Though it obviously takes
place modern day, it could be any day from the 80's to now. It is, after all,
an post apocalyptic look at an often overlooked demographic. Dead Kansas
is a simply shot, oft times goofy, representation of the backwoods folks
including circus freaks. On that note, the only thing missing on the freak
angle was a freak zombie, that would have taken the humor the extra step it
needed. The film is funny though, from the gang leaders' cartoonish way of
leading his group to the the first person point of view of zombies. I must
admit, the POV aspect bothered me at first. It wasn't until the first zombie
kill that I realized that we are the zombies, something I found genuinely
humorous when I considered how much the film makers saved on on zombie effects
and the statement that this inadvertently made. Once you get past the silly, Dead
Kansas is a fun cult following film that is deeply self aware. On that
note...
The acting was sometimes either flat, or over the top, but it
worked with the self aware content matter. Erin Miracle was the perfect dutiful
daughter (please don;t be distracted that Emma turned into her about half way
through the film) that can take care of herself. Now if she had turned into the
bad arsed girl I believe she is and beat up the gang leader herself that would
have been funny! Speaking of the gang leader, Michael Camp's Jebediah was a
pleasingly cartoonish fit for a Warner Bros. short. Then there's the two timing
Kevin C. Beardsley, the growling metal head gang member Zeke is surprising as
he also dons a colonel Sanders suit to be Rusty. That brings us to the doting,
and committed to God and Emma, Aaron Guerrero. He is the perfect straight man
to all the insanity although I found myself feeling sorry for the fact he didn't
seem to get at least one good goof. But he did bring up his daughter well. That
brings us to our cast of freaks...
Joe McQueen starts us off as Skinny. I hate to say it but in
many ways he was the token, fitting every stereotype. But again this is a film aware
of its own silliness, and Skinny grows on you after a few minutes, especially
his incredible knack for trying to appear helpful by coaching Emma to do what
she is already good at doing. Little Person Ben Woolf had parts in Unlucky Charms, and Hunting Charles Manson. In Dead
Kansas he plays the stern but lovable carnival folks leader “Squeak,”
undoubtedly named because he sounds like a dog chew toy when he walks
(foreshadowing?). This does make one wonder how he survived a zombie apocalypse
this long. No doubt the Giant Irwin Keyes (House of 1000 Corpses) helped
in that regard. Sadly Ben, known for his roles on “American Horror Story” and
most notable of late as “Meep” in season 4, was struck and
killed by a car while walking across Hollywood Blvd. We of the
Creepercast send our love to his friends and family.
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