Plaga Zombie (film series)

The original Plaga Zombie film was conceived by Pablo Parés and Hernán Sáez. Using a family video camera, the two began making home movies with a group of childhood friends in high school. Several people became key personal for FARSA Productions, most notably, Berta Muñiz, Paulo Soria and Walter Cornás.[7] At age 17, Parés and Sáez decided to start their first major film project, a horror comedy about a zombie outbreak which occurs in their hometown, which they both directed, wrote, and starred in with Muñiz. Produced on a very low budget, reportedly for only a few hundred dollars, and no formal film training,[8] Plaga Zombie was very popular with audiences in Argentina[9] and eventually gained an international following.[2][3][4][5][6][10]

The filmmakers used common household items such as cake mix and food coloring for the zombie make up in Plaga Zombie. In the sequel, they also used toilet paper, unflavored gelatin (with water to make a paste), and latex.[11]

Although the filmmakers immediately began working on the sequel, Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante took over four years to complete. The film had over twice the budget as the first Plaga Zombie, estimated at $3,000, significantly improving production value.[4] The filmmakers, however, claimed that the film "took its toll on everyone" and at one point production was halted to film Never Go to Those Kind of Parties (2000).[12] There was difficulty in finding extras for the film and were confronted by angry residents and policemen during shooting. A local television station aired a special broadcast asking for people to play zombies which included giving out the director's home phone number. Several friendly police officers also visited the set to ask for cameos in the film.[13] Post-production was also a painstaking process with literally years worth of footage to fit into a 100 min. film. Parés and Sáez did not finish editing their film until 40 minutes before its theatrical premiere requiring it to be played back on a laptop.[14]

The third and final chapter of the series, Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante – Revolución Tóxica, was released in 2012. Unlike the first two films which used traditional special effects, the filmmakers employed computer-generated imagery for the first time. Franca Gallo and Rodrigo Guerechit of Rabbid EFX, who had previously worked on their 2011 horror short Daemonium, were brought in as the main special effects artists. In addition to certain action sequences, the length of time between films meant that the stars were significantly older compared to the 1997 film. Each entry in the series covered 24 hours of the 3-day alien invasion and so it was necessary to maintain the illusion that the three had not aged. They did try to keep the film faithful to the visual style of the previous entries.[5][15]

The Plaga Zombie trilogy was eventually released on FARSA Productions official YouTube channel with the first in November 2010, the second in September 2011, and the third in March 2012; Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante has received over 2 million views on the website (as of September 2013).[5][6]

Plaga Zombie, a landmark film in the Argentine independent film industry, as well as amateur filmmaking, was the first feature film about zombies made in Argentina. While made with a very low budget and limited resources, the film became a shining example as both a cult and fantasy film[3][4] generating a horror film movement in the country that has continued to grow into the 21st century.[9] The film has maintained its cult status, especially among fans of gore. UNC-Chapel Hill film scholar Jonathan Risner considers Plaga Zombie to mark the beginning of modern Argentine horror cinema.[31] The success of the series inspired similar horror films in South America such as Uruguay's Achuras (2003), Chile's Solos (2008), and Brazil's Mangue negro (2008). Argentine director Germán Magariños, who played a zombie in the original film, went on to the country's second zombie horror Zombie Apocalypse Now: A Zombie Hunter (2008).[2]

It was at the Mar del Plata Film Festival where Parés met Filipe Melo, creator of the first-ever Portuguese horror short I'll See You In My Dreams. After meeting the Plaga Zombie crew, Melo invited Parés to his home in Mouraz, Portugal to collaborate on a film script. The two wrote a first draft of what would become The Adventures of Dog Mendonça & Pizzaboy in 15 days.[8]

The second film in the trilogy, Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante, was released in 2001 and subsequently screened in film festivals around the world.[3] On November 4, 2002, it was one of eleven films selected for the "Perversa America Latina" portion of the 13th annual San Sebastian Horror and Fantasy Film Festival and one of two, along with Armando Bó's 1968 film Carne, to represent Argentina at the festival.[32] The film made its debut in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2003, for the 10th anniversary of the "Dead by Dawn" horror film festival at the Edinburgh Filmhouse. As one of the festival's midnight movies, Simon Wilkinson of Kinoeye.org observed that "the film succeeded in grabbing the audience's attention—at one point even resorting to an irresistibly catchy, impromptu musical number placed amidst the relentless action."[10]

The Plaga Zombie series was profiled by Fangoria during this period resulting in considerable exposure for the filmmakers.[33] Fangoria film producer Steven Mackler described watching Plaga Zombie for the first time:

When I screened Plaga Zombie in my office, the howls of laughter from both my daughter and me echoed throughout the building. The film is off-the-wall and totally crazy. Plaga Zombie is not your garden-variety zombie film. It's as if Monty Python made a horror/splatter flick.[34]

The horror magazine eventually bought the film rights to Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante which was released worldwide by its film label Fangoria Films International.[5][13] On September 12, 2005, making its U.S. East Coast premiere, it was screened at the East Village's Two Boots Pioneer Theater as the feature attraction for Fangoria's monthly "Monster Mondays" film series. Walter Rivero, a cast member of the film, claimed the young filmmakers never received payment for the film rights and led to a falling out between Fangoria and FARSA Productions.[5]

The third film in the trilogy, Plaga Zombie: Revolución Tóxica, premiered at the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre on October 30, 2011.[7][35] Revolución Tóxica received the Audience Award for Best Feature Film and Hernán Sáez won for Best Actor. The Plaga Zombie series was given special recognition by the Jury for "creative efforts over time to build a trilogy".[36] It was also screened at the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Mar del Plata, Argentina and the Montevideo Comics fan convention in Montevideo, Uruguay.[37] Plaga Zombie: Revolución Tóxica was released in theatres in March 2012. It opened in Buenos Aires on March 12, 2012, and then throughout Argentina at the end of the month. The film was simultaneously broadcast online with its theatrical debut.[3] On April 12, 2013, the film was screened to a sold-out crowd at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema.[38]

Reviews for all three films have been generally positive and praised for its over-the-top action scenes and gore effects. Its humorous "slapstick" approach to the genre earned comparisons to similar horror-comedies such as Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and Dead Alive[23][24] or Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II.[1][10][14][22] The filmmakers themselves are admitted fans of these films[5] but claim never to have seen George Romero's Night of the Living Dead series.[13] Peter Dendle, a Penn State Mont Alto film scholar, has said that the films are more akin to Japanese-style horror with "the deliberate piling up of non-sequiters and flaunting of narrative expectations".[2]

• Russell, Jamie. Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema. London: Fab Press, 2005. ISBN 1903254337

• Official website
• Plaga Zombie at IMDb
• Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante at IMDb
• Plaga Zombie: Revolución Tóxica at IMDb