This 20ish minute short directed by Rocco Nisivoccia Jr comes as a breath of fresh air in a sub-genre that has grown pretty fetid and rank over the last few years. With an over saturated market (isn’t that an understatement?) more interested in using zombies as targets for buckshot and rifle rounds instead of the vehicles for social commentary they were originally conceived as, it’s driven many a fan away from a once held dear style of horror . Don’t get me wrong though, I like blood splattered,shotgun filled zombie romps as much as the next fiend, but it’s great to see someone bring it back to a more Romero-like vision where we actually learn something about ourselves from the shambling dead instead of just blasting them to giblets. This short movie takes place in the near future of 2032, after mankind has gone to war with the undead, resulting in their eventual submission and integration into our society. We follow a former soldier named Brady as he attempts to integrate back into a society that has for the most part whole heartedly embraced the living dead as just another group of people on this planet, as worthy of a normal life as the rest of us. But Brady just can’t seem to shake the feeling that not all is right. After losing out on a promotion to on of his former enemies, he sets out to prove correct his suspicion that the undead have an ulterior motive behind their peaceful surrender. I won’t go any further into the plot here as I don’t want to spoil any more for anyone who will go and watch this (ummm, which should be all of you honestly).

Nisivoccia manages to mix in a decent amount of humor into the social commentary  as well and even made me chuckle a few times in between his fitting comparisons of undead to immigrants. One that comes to mind immediately is an ad for “Artificial Human Logs – to give your house that warm flesh scent all zombies crave” Though funny to us as the viewer, these constant reminders only serve to heighten Brady’s already elevated suspicions and anxiety surrounding the undead and are the some of the very reasons our PTSD-ridden lead cannot integrate back into society and accept “zombie americans” as just one more kind of citizen.  I’d also like to give props to the folks who made this movie for going with an industrial score instead of the all-too-common-in-indie-horror local rock/metal band soundtrack.Yes it’s cheap and gets your buddies exposure, but damn if it doesn’t take everything in me to resist grabbing the remote and turning the movie off! In Eat Me, the non-invasive industrial music (never thought I’d write that!) just added another layer of polish to an already impressive short. If you’ve got 20 minutes to spare and have possibly lost faith in the genre (thanks Walking Dead), give Eat Me a shot. I’m glad I did and will be closely watching the feature film adaption that Rocco Nisivoccia Jr  is undertaking. More info about that can be found at eatmezombie.com.