A stop motion diorama-esque short where a Zombie Apocalypse begins in a cemetery and quickly overruns the globe.
Written and directed by Robert Bisi & Andy Lyon, based on a short story by Jeff Fowler & Tim Miller.
Tropes:
- All There in the Script: There are actual dialogues in the short, but to get them, you must watch it with subtitles - otherwise the speed-up will render speech into just squeaky noises.
- Artistic License – Politics: In real life, the President of the United States certainly does not have the authority to launch every nuke in the world. Of course, it could be that the US president launched just the US nukes, before Russia responded with their own nukes, and it just escalated from there.
- Asshole Victim: The person who threw a nearby bystander into the zombies' path with no hesitation will not be missed when they get eaten mere seconds later.
- Astronomic Zoom: As the world is about to end in nuclear fire, the camera zooms way out to beyond the galaxy, just in time for Earth to end with a fart noise.
- Bathos: A Zombie Apocalypse using squeaky-voiced miniatures. The ending, where the nuclear annihilation of Earth is shown as a measly fart compared to the grand scheme of the universe, also counts.
- Black Comedy: It's a spoof of Zombie Apocalypses, so it comes with the territory.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: One of the nukes is launched from Antarctica, right where penguins were living.
- Breath Weapon: The radioactive mutant zombies can spit green fireballs.
- Church Militant: Of all groups, the Vatican is shown to actually be able to hold their own against the zombie horde pretty well compared to other places in the world.
- Cool Car: A few home-modified vehicles are used by survivors and seem to be doing pretty fine.
- A popemobile
gets equipped with a gun and just drives around St. Peter's Square, killing zombies. - A cable car in San Francisco is turned into an improvised armoured train.
- A popemobile
- Curb Stomp Cushion: Humanity is more or less screwed the whole short, but some pockets of humanity do put up an impressive fight:
- Four monks training in a temple face off against the oncoming horde, and proceed to do an impressive job in holding it off.
- Survivors in America hold off the horde with modified vehicles mounted with guns. One particular group has weaponized a gas station to fuel their flamethrowers.
- In the Vatican, the Pope (presumably) in the "papamobile" and two lines of cardinals and bishops are making mincemeat of oncoming hordes in Saint Peter's square.
- Distant Reaction Shot: As all the world's nuclear arsenal rains down upon the Earth, the camera zooms out far enough to see the entire Milky Way galaxy to show the sheer destruction of the Earth... which is depicted as a tiny flash of light punctuated with a quiet, pathetic farting sound.
- From Bad to Worse: The entire episode is an exercise in this trope. It starts with zombies rising from a cemetery and just keeps getting worse and worse for humanity. An explosion at a nuclear power plant turns a good portion of the horde into giant mutated zombies that vomit radioactive fire.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- The nuke launched from Antarctica is painted in UN colors, with a matching abbreviature on the body of the rocket.
- One family is seen being run out of their home by a zombie. You can spot their car later in the short, now torching zombies by the dozen.
- Godzilla Threshold: Humanity eventually launches nukes. It technically destroys all the zombies... but only because the Earth is destroyed as well.
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Played for Laughs (after a fashion) at the very end with an Astronomic Zoom out to the Milky Way galaxy just as Earth is wiped out by a global nuclear strike. It's shown as just a tiny flash of light and a pathetic little farting sound; the rest of the galaxy experiences nothing.
- Kill It with Fire: Flamethrowers are utilized more than once against the zombies to seemingly great effect- one of the Mad Max-style cars torches rows of zombies along the street with flamethrowers mounted on the roof, and a couple people who have taken shelter at a gas station are seen holding off the horde using the gas pumps as makeshift flamethrowers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: When the zombies reach the city, one person pushes the person next to them into a zombie's jaws with zero hesitation, saying "He's all yours!" Mere seconds later, they're killed by that zombie's fellows.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: Especially when they hit an upside-down cross in the middle of an old cemetery, resulting in the dead rising from their graves and going out for brains.
- Nuclear Mutant: Giant, radioactive zombies are created when they accidentally blow up a nuclear plant.
- Oddball in the Series: A short stylised to look like a limited stop-motion animation, and showing all the events from far away, using predominately diorama-like sets.
- Our Presidents Are Different: The president of the USA can apparently decide to launch the entirety of the world's nukes - some of them clearly marked with the insignia of other nations, even one bearing the UN blue flag.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Risen by a lighting strike on an upside-down cross, and every single person they attack just reanimates shortly after and joins the horde. Nothing really seems to stop them. While they lack the classic gait, they aren't of the fast variety, either. And after accidentally destroying a nuclear power plant, huge mutant zombies start to appear.
- Precision F-Strike: When the zombie apocalypse begins in earnest, a distinct "WHAT THE FUCK!" can be heard in the panicking crowd.
- At the end, when the White House is shown surrounded by the horde with no end in sight, the president declares, "Aw, fuck it" and launches the nukes.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: The soundtrack is made entirely out of classical music pieces and "Lacrimosa Dominae" by Immediate Music.
- Sex Signals Death: The couple in the opening scene having sex at the cemetary is the first one to be killed by the zombies.
- Sickly Green Glow: The bolt of lightning striking the upside-down crucifix is an unnatural green color, and is implied to be the power that ultimately makes the dead rise from their graves.
- A gas truck at a nuclear plant explodes after being shot too many times by survivors trying to hold off an oncoming horde, unleashing a cloud of radioactive green gas. This results in several giant, mutated zombies, who all have green, slimy skin and belch green fire.
- Signs of Disrepair: One pocket of survivors is stationed at a SHELL gas station, only the red light in the "S" is out, meaning it now says "HELL", an apt description of what they've found themselves in.
- Spoof Aesop: Don't have sex in a cemetery and knock a cross upside down. You will bring the zombie apocalypse and end the world.
- Stylistic Suck: The short is made as a limited animation to appear as even more limited stop motion of puppets, then put on a speed-up. Oh, and everything is shot from far, far away, without any detail, like watching an animated diorama.
- Taking You with Me: Once it's clear that there is no hope for humanity's survival, the US president decides to launch all of the world's nukes as one final "fuck you" to the zombies.The president: Ah, fuck it. [Prepares the nukes] Suck on these.
- Technicolor Fire: The inverted cross is set on green fire, setting the apocalypse in motion.
- Took a Level in Badass: The family run out of their home by a single zombie are seen later in the short, having outfitted their van with monster truck tires and roof-mounted flamethrowers.
- Troperiffic: The whole short contains just about every zombie apocalypse trope and cliche you can think of, with several scenes being direct homages to other famous zombie films.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The gradual escalation of the zombie apocalypse and utter inability to contain it or truly "kill" them, ending with a nuclear option that makes things worse is that of Return of the Living Dead.
- Zerg Rush: The zombies' greatest strength is their absurd numbers. Survivors simply can't gun through the horde fast enough, as more just keep showing up, pushing aside anything that's in their way.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Zombies arise when lightning strikes a cemetery, then the hordes quickly overtake human settlements all around the globe and cause the collapse of society, with nothing being able to stop them. Finally, the POTUS just decides to Nuke 'em all. All of this is played as Black Comedy.
