Arts & Entertainment

Hillbilly Zombie Apocalypse Flick 'Zompocalypso' Needs Your Help

River Forest film studio looks to secure funding for improv apocalypse comedy.

Filmmaker Eric B. Anderson is hoping for a massive last-minute effort to fund the feature-length hillbilly zombie apocalypse comedy he's hoping to create.

That's right. Zompocalypso needs your help.

Born from an improv session Anderson filmed for a corporate client, the movie follows Dale and Darren, a pair of bumpkin brothers who've retreated to a rural farmhouse with a "camera, a small arsenal and a case of expired beans" to wait out the impending apocalypse.

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"When I sat there and watched these guys improv for a half hour it suddenly occurred to me ... looking at the footage of what they had done, that this could be very funny," said Anderson, 41, of River Forest. "I contacted [actors Chris Meister and Mike Manship] and they were in immediately."

Anderson stopped short of calling himself the film's writer, but said he's created a rough story arc and "lots of room for [Meister and Manship] to go onto tangents."

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But first, they need money to create the film, which Anderson plans to shoot using the "found footage" style — think Blair Witch Project — in Illinois and on Anderson's family farm in Kansas.

To raise the money, they're using Kickstarter, the popular online crowdsource funding site. Late Tuesday, they weren't even halfway to the $10,000 goal, with the deadline to pledge a donation on Friday. 

If the project doesn't meet its fundraising goal, investors aren't charged for their donation but Anderson will have to start asking again for funding. A separate fundraising effort on another site, Sokap, is still underway. There, Anderson and crew are hoping to raise $24,000. 

"Getting the $10,000 [from Kickstarter] allows us to get started," said Anderson, who runs an independent film studio, Corn Bred Films, with his wife, Amelia Dellos. "Frankly, we will go as far as we can with it. If we can get an entire film in the can for $10,000, great. If we can't, we'll need to raise more."

Meister, a self-described "classically trained actor who does the funnies on the side," said Zompocalypso is more than some zanie comedy.

Well, it is that. But it's also about relationships and "real people who have real problems who just happen to think that the world is ending."

"And it's about being OK with yourself if the end should come," he said.

And speaking of endings, Meister said in the 10-plus years he's been acting, Zompocalypso has the "best ending I've ever really come across."

Looking to contribute to the project? See the Zompocalypso Kickstarter page. The deadline to make a contribution is Friday, 4:31 p.m. CST.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here