Zombie horror infests the Large Hadron Collider
Zombie horror infests the Large Hadron Collider
11:34 17 December 2012
Eloise Kohler, contributor
Making a zombie horror film isn't rocket science but if Decay is anything to go by, it has a close link to particle physics. Or at least Luke Thompson, writer and director of this new zombie flick, thinks so - the film was written, acted and produced by physics students at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, which lies underground at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland.
“The idea came from some of us exploring CERN.” Thompson explains. “Whilst walking through the underground maintenance tunnels we thought it would be a great setting for a horror movie.”
In this version of the zombie creation myth, the epidemic is started by "Higgs radiation" which, once released through the LHC's tunnels, neatly explains the transformation of a group of scientists into a rampaging horde of zombies. This pseudoscientific background is a witty throwback to the hysteria surrounding the activation of the LHC a few years ago."We went out of our way to make the physics totally silly. We wanted to make fun of science in films, by making it as wrong as possible," says Thompson.
Amy (Zoë Hatherell), Connor (Tom Procter), James (Stewart Martin-Haugh) and Matt (William P. Martin) are PhD students assigned to monitor the control room of the LHC. The plot kicks in when a glitch suddenly hits the LHC's mainframe computer, plunging the four students into claustrophobic darkness. As they fight for their lives and characters are jettisoned, the group begins to quarrel and the dread becomes infectious.
Considering this is Thompson's debut, praise is certainly due; if he can strike a similar balance between the cultishly ridiculous and eerily terrifying in future film projects, then perhaps he should give up his day job as a particle physicist. It is also a rare treat to watch a zombie film with a coherent plot, a feature Thompson worked hard to achieve.
Decay has other impressive features. The original music score is evocative and the fast, swooping cinematography makes a powerful impression. The ferocious battles are brilliantly staged and the special effects were hauntingly well-executed, especially given the reported budget of $3000.
On the other hand, the acting feels inauthentic throughout. The characters remain caricatures - the good-looking leader, the whimpering girl, the venal know-it-all - and more might have been made of the fractured group dynamics to make the performances more engaging. Perhaps the use of stock characters is due to the zombie genre itself inviting parody, but the insincere performances make the tongue-in-cheek references clumsy and predictable.
So Decay isn't perfect. But this well-constructed film has the makings of a cult classic and provides a unique insight into what scientists do in their spare time.
Eloise Kohler is a mathematical physics undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh
Decay is available as a free download from www.decayfilm.com
Source
11:34 17 December 2012
Eloise Kohler, contributor
Making a zombie horror film isn't rocket science but if Decay is anything to go by, it has a close link to particle physics. Or at least Luke Thompson, writer and director of this new zombie flick, thinks so - the film was written, acted and produced by physics students at the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, which lies underground at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland.
“The idea came from some of us exploring CERN.” Thompson explains. “Whilst walking through the underground maintenance tunnels we thought it would be a great setting for a horror movie.”
In this version of the zombie creation myth, the epidemic is started by "Higgs radiation" which, once released through the LHC's tunnels, neatly explains the transformation of a group of scientists into a rampaging horde of zombies. This pseudoscientific background is a witty throwback to the hysteria surrounding the activation of the LHC a few years ago."We went out of our way to make the physics totally silly. We wanted to make fun of science in films, by making it as wrong as possible," says Thompson.
Amy (Zoë Hatherell), Connor (Tom Procter), James (Stewart Martin-Haugh) and Matt (William P. Martin) are PhD students assigned to monitor the control room of the LHC. The plot kicks in when a glitch suddenly hits the LHC's mainframe computer, plunging the four students into claustrophobic darkness. As they fight for their lives and characters are jettisoned, the group begins to quarrel and the dread becomes infectious.
Considering this is Thompson's debut, praise is certainly due; if he can strike a similar balance between the cultishly ridiculous and eerily terrifying in future film projects, then perhaps he should give up his day job as a particle physicist. It is also a rare treat to watch a zombie film with a coherent plot, a feature Thompson worked hard to achieve.
Decay has other impressive features. The original music score is evocative and the fast, swooping cinematography makes a powerful impression. The ferocious battles are brilliantly staged and the special effects were hauntingly well-executed, especially given the reported budget of $3000.
On the other hand, the acting feels inauthentic throughout. The characters remain caricatures - the good-looking leader, the whimpering girl, the venal know-it-all - and more might have been made of the fractured group dynamics to make the performances more engaging. Perhaps the use of stock characters is due to the zombie genre itself inviting parody, but the insincere performances make the tongue-in-cheek references clumsy and predictable.
So Decay isn't perfect. But this well-constructed film has the makings of a cult classic and provides a unique insight into what scientists do in their spare time.
Eloise Kohler is a mathematical physics undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh
Decay is available as a free download from www.decayfilm.com
Source