Dead Kansas

Plot

In a post-apocalyptic land consumed by Rottens, a simple farmer and his teenage daughter struggle to survive. Meanwhile, an unruly gang make a plan to kidnap and sell the daughter for their own selfish profit. With the farmer/gang confrontation, a wicked tornado approaching, and "Rottens" everywhere - who will get out alive?

Cast

Filming locations

Dead Kansas was filmed in Los Angeles, California, primarily around the San Fernando Valley. A portion was filmed at a circus-themed bar called, California Institute of Abnormalarts. It is located at 11334 Burbank Blvd, in North Hollywood, California 91601. Every room is decorated with an eclectic assortment of ugly dolls, strange wall hangings, clowns, skeletons, and other spooky Halloween themed relics. CIA almost has a museum-like feel. Production was permitted only 4 hours to film there.

Rottens

Zombies are referred to as "Rottens" in Dead Kansas. There is only one physical zombie, in full make-up, towards the end of the film. The other Rottens are never shown. They are only simulated via Point Of View (POV) in black & white. The camera acted as the Rotten's eyes in certain shots, while the actors reacted. As tempting as it was to use traditional make-up and show the Rottens, the director specifically chose POV to do something different. Dead Kansas is the first zombie film to extensively use POV.

Release

The pilot of the webseries premiered on September 24, 2012 on YouTube. All five acts were eventually tied together and released on DVD as a full-length film in October 2013. The film version of the series, screened at the 2014 FANtastic Horror Film Festival - where it won an award for Best Zombie Film. Dead Kansas was released on Amazon Video, February 26, 2015.

Soundtrack

The punk-rock music heard throughout the film is from the band Power Of Aggression. They are from the Hollywood area and were active during 1999 through the early 2000's. The band was originally called Gauntlet in the early-90’s with former members Daniel Gallagher & Eddy Darbinian on guitars with Matthew Muller on bass guitar. The band eventually reformed in 1999, changed their name to Power of Aggression and adopted most of the songs from Gauntlet. Original member and chief-songwriter Anthony Robinson played lead guitar & vocals, Adam Ledezma played drums and Aaron K. Carter played bass guitar on the soundtrack. When a soundtrack was needed, producers Aaron K. Carter and Adam Ledezma used the Power Of Aggression demo-tape that they recorded over a decade ago. The songs featured in Dead Kansas include: "The Ruler", "Walls Of Insanity", "Hate", "The Way We Feel", "Behold the Terror", and "Now".