Friday, July 21, 2017

'George: A Zombie Intervention' DVD: Post Mortem Therapy





The Breaking Glass Pictures DVD release of the 2009 more comedy than horror "George: A Zombie Intervention" (nee "George's Intervention") through Breaking scary movie subsidiary Vicious Circle shows that the love of edge of this indie film god extends beyond the art-house gay-themed art-house movies oft featured on Unreal TV.  As the name indicates, "George" centers around the effort of the best friend of the titular member of Z Nation to cure his buddy of the bad habit of feasting on the living.

The very cute animated opening segment explains how zombies come to largely peacefully co-exist with the living in American society. This instructional video that is designed to teach grade schoolers to not fear the walking dead acknowledges that these pre-adolescents must be aware of the risk of becoming zombie chow.

A referred-to birthday party incident that likely involves George finding his fellow guests more savory than the intended fare prompts his aforementioned bestie Ben to hire "professional" interventionist Barbara to lead a session at which those near and dear to George are tasked with giving him the options of immediately entering rehab or having them break off all contact with him. The planning session for that confrontation hilariously spoofs the concept of that pop psychology method.

The mayhem kicks into full swing when the interventionist, the pal, and all the rest (including the current boyfriend of intervention participant/ex-girlfriend Sarah) arrive at Chez George. Getting the door repeatedly slammed in their smiling faces does not deter the group from persisting until George grants them entry.

Our anti-hero predictably does not respond well to the initiative. His lack of patience with the heartfelt sentiments of Ben, Sarah and George sibling Francine is beyond awesome.

In true slacker comedy style, things soon decompose to the point that the group breaks into smaller units. The theme then shifts from ridiculing an absurd approach to addiction to wonderfully gory killings that provide George with a smorgasbord. This buffet extends beyond at least one member of Team Intervention to the stock characters who arrive during that fateful afternoon. One spoiler is that it is hoped that "George" deters folks who go door-to-door promoting their religion. One such evangelist literally being caught with his pants down is the least of his problems.

A mystery throughout this portion of the film is whether George is doing the killing or has an ally among those allegedly there to encourage that he adopt socially acceptable eating habits.

The best segments involve the aforementioned current boyfriend Steve, Ben, and Sarah gathering in the bedroom of George. Memorable moments from these segments are that no longer having a heartbeat does not prevent blood from rushing to another area of the male anatomy and that special-needs zombies exist. A related hilarious scene has Steve regaling in Sarah strongly suggesting to the group that not every part of George is proportional.

All of this leads to a wonderfully comic twist on the traditional climatic encounter between the living and the newly turned zombies in the house. This scenes (and others) have an apt amount of gore.

The end credits are truly must-see. They start with a very amusing listing of the cast set to a memorable song and then go onto an even funnier infomercial that fills in the "what happened to" information regarding some characters. This, in turn, provides more perverse guilty pleasure regarding one of the most annoying subgroups in American society.

The success of this clear labor of love is attributable to writer/director J.T. Seaton staying true to the visual and acting style of traditional low-budget horror films while not letting the characters in on the joke. Everyone is a believable inhabitant of a world in which seeing dead people is not even worth mentioning.

The plethora of bonus features that are a breaking trademark include a hilarious "Zombie Therapy" short and an equally entertaining "Sunday on the Set with George" making-of documentary.

Anyone with questions or comments regarding "George" is encouraged to email me; you also can connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.



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