One crisp October afternoon, a small music venue in downtown Madison was transformed into a nightclub of the living dead, when Doug Gordon and a small team of assistants shot scenes for All You Need Is Brains, a terrifying glimpse into the zombie apocalypse. The reanimated masses clawing for the stage at The Frequency didn’t just have a hunger for decaying flesh, though, they also wanted a piece of the band performing atop it: The Zombeatles!
This twisted idea was a natural fit for Gordon, a WPR producer who has developed a stage persona for the zombie standup comedian known as Angus MacAbre. Recalling The Zombeatles, the Halloween-time alter ego of The Gomers complete with songs like “I Want To Eat Your Hand” and “Hard Day’s Night Of The Living Dead,” he was inspired to bring them together. Gordon thought the respective acts could easily be combined thematically to create a short mockumentary set in a “zomniverse” where the walking dead have evolved, and apparently have staged their own British Invasion.
“Back in May, I came up with the idea of combining Angus and the Fab Gore" explains Gordon, who is serving as the film’s host and narrator in the guise of MacAbre. "I pitched the idea and they agreed. So I am diligently working to the ride the Zombeatle's coattails to the top of the charts.”
So last week, extras were recruited online and requested to stop by The Frequency last Sunday in zombie costume. Not being afraid to get my hands dirty, I took an old shirt, tie, and slacks, smeared them with dirt, and applied make-up to get a the "freshly deceased" look. The club, already decorated for Halloween, made an excellent backdrop. Gordon was on already stage when I arrived, arranging a scene centered on a zombie known as “Dead Sullivan,” who would be introducing the Zombeatles in their American television debut. While they shot the scene, I mingled with my fellow extras -- this not being the first time I've been an extra -- and touched up my look with more fake blood and even more sunken eyes.
Gordon was lent a hand by Ben Wydeven and Joe Sokolinsky, who served both behind and in front of the cameras. Wydeven is the creator of a short film titled The Medium (which will screen at the Madison Horror Film Festival at the Orpheum on October 25) and also appears in the documentary as a writer from Rolling Kidney Stone magazine known as Fester Fangs (not be confused with Lester Bangs). Sokolinsky, meanwhile, appears as Zombeatles producer Gorge Mortem (not to be confused with George Martin).
After reanimated rehearsals of lifeless stares and a combination of shrieks and groans, the cameras were turned on the extras. Gordon encouraged us to go absolutely wild, mimicking the hysteria the erupted when the Fab Four took the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater in 1964. It wasn't long before we turned into a zombie mosh pit, letting our characters get the better of us. And then after these crowd reaction shots, all that remained was the performance itself.
Steve Burke took the stage with a guitar as Jaw Lennon, along with Geoff Brady on drums as Dingo Scarr, who had a makeshift drum kit outfitted with hubcaps, saw blades, and a propane tank in addition to a bass drum and snare. The other half of the band, consisting of Pall IcKartney and Gorge Harryson, was not present, having worked in an earlier session to shoot their portion of the scene, which will be edited with the rest of the footage into the final cut of the film. Biff Blumfungagnge was also on hand as the son of the morning star himself, Satan, who naturally works as the Zombeatles manager. At one point during the scene, Burke strummed his axe with one dead hand before dropping it to the floor, at which point the zombie audience literally ate it up.
After shooting the performance, Gordon released the extras, but still more filming at the Frequency was yet to come. During a scene in the dressing room, Satan tosses severed limbs to band members to keep them busy while focusing attention to parties on his cell phone, while in another, Gorge Mortem attempts to block Fester Fangs from rushing into get an interview with the band.
After a few more takes, ending a day of every zombie related pun imaginable, Gordon called it a wrap. He hopes to have a rough cut of All You Need Is Brains ready for the Madison Horror Film Festival. He subsequently plans to enter it into film festivals and horror conventions, and possibly shop it around to cable networks. “Given that it’s music-based, I’m going to explore the possibility of showing it at South by Southwest,” suggests Gordon. “Perhaps Angus and I will even put together a zombie film festival to show it at.”
Still aware of my greasy hair, deathly white face, sunken eyes, and blood dripping from my mouth, I shambled across the Capitol Square before returning to my car. I scowled and drooled at coffee drinkers in the overcast autumn afternoon to little reaction. A tourist, completely unfazed, asked me for directions to State Street. I grunted and pointed.
A march for zombie rights is expected to lurch from the Capitol to Memorial Union on Saturday, October 25. Perhaps the rise of the undead will come easier to the general public than I suspected.
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