Me and My Mates vs the Zombie Apocalypse

Background

The film is described as "the first oz-zom-com," and an Australian zombie comedy representing is the feature film debut of Australian comedians Jim Jefferies and Alex Williamson. Written and directed by Declan Shrubb, the film tells the story of three Australian telecom tradesmen who find themselves trapped in a telephone exchange during the onset of a zombie apocalypse. Filming began January 2014 in Canberra and was completed on February 2.

Production

Under its working title of Exchange, the film was one of ten projects selected out of 42 submissions to ScreenACT. The project received production funding and the production team received the benefit of a program consisting of three months of intensive development, working on script, budget, financing and distribution plans. It was one of three films chosen for production funding of $120,000 but was the only film that ended up being produced.

The project is a crowd funded feature film which was made possible through indiegogo. The team behind the film raised $41,439 USD with 471 backers, surpassing their initial goal of $30,000 USD and breaking the record at the time for crowdfunding an Australian feature film.

The project was shot in Canberra through January and February 2014. To raise funds for an extra day of shooting, a second indiegogo campaign was run which raised an additional $5,000 USD.

The completed film was released in Australian cinemas via the Tugg cinema-on-demand platform. Premiering on July 24, 2015, it became Tugg Australia's most requested film, and was featured on National 7 News for this accomplishment. It screened in every state and territory in Australia. It is distributed through their website where it can be rented or purchased. and in stores on DVD and Vimeo-on-Demand September 9, 2015. It was released on DVD in UK on May 2, 2016 through Matchbox Films, and was released in the US on July 5, 2016 by Lightyear Entertainment.

Synopsis

The zombie apocalypse has finally happened in Australia; two tradesmen, Darryl (Alex Williamson) and Joel (Jim Jefferies), meet at a telephone exchange tower to take refuge in it. The two meet at the front and Joel shows Darryl that their friend Roy’s (Greg Fleet) undead wife (Jackie Murray) is in the back of his ute, which prevents them from retrieving their beer. After an argument Darryl is forced to shoot Roy’s wife in the head. Their older friend Roy meets the two there with his daughter Emma (Adele Vuko), and Darryl proceeds to poorly flirt with Emma, much to Roy's dismay.

After discussion about their plans to survive, Joel decides to fix the 3G tower to make an emergency call to the military to alert them of their location and to get rescued by the military. While waiting for the tower to get fixed, Emma and Darryl become intimate, during which a firework goes off in the distance and the zombies surrounding their location migrate. At this point two strangers wearing paintballing gear enter the tower; they remove their masks and are revealed to be the apprentices: Ryan (Matt Popp) and Lachlan (Andy Trieu), who is Emma’s boyfriend. Joel fixes the phone line and talks with the military, telling them that there are survivors in the tower. Meanwhile, the apprentices tell the other guys that the military caused the zombie apocalypse and that calling them is the last thing they should do. The team then argues and decides to split up, Joel, Roy and Darryl wish to get picked up by the military and Ryan, Lachlan and Emma decide to hide in case the military are in fact malicious. Roy begins to show symptoms that he is infected.The military jeep drives past and misses the tower. Joel goes to the roof to launch fireworks to catch the military's attention, the firework falls and ignites the pile in Joel's arms, Joel is blown up by the fireworks.

The military pull up to evacuate the building and distracted by Roy’s poor wording of the situation, the two soldiers are then eaten by the hoard of zombies, during this a zombie picks up Joel’s access card from his severed leg. The team decides to make a dash for the military’s weapons and vehicle, during the planning, the zombie that grabbed the access card opens the building and the hoard begins to move in. The apprentices make a dash to drive off the hoard while Emma runs to the senior soldier’s corpse to retrieve his car keys. She starts the car and grabs the apprentices, Lachlan sprains his ankle running to the car.Darryl admits to Roy that he slept with his daughter, after tormenting Darryl, Roy radios Emma to tell her to just drive away and leave him and Darryl to die, and to set off a flare once her and the apprentices are safe.

At this point Darryl admits to Roy that he shot his wife. Roy and Darryl decide that Roy gets to Darryl on account of killing his wife and having sex with his daughter in the same afternoon, Darryl defuses the situation by showing Roy the grenade he found, they climb out of the fire escape and Darryl bowls the now ignited grenade into the fire escape, blowing up the zombies chasing them. The sun now rises and they believe they have made it out alive, another hoard walks around the corner of the building and the two have one last smoke before fighting and ultimately being over run by the zombies. As they lie dying they see the flare Roy instructed Emma to set off once she was far away.

Cinema Release

The film began its Australian cinema run on July 24, 2015 through the Tugg cinema-on-demand platform.

Home media

The film was released on DVD, Vimeo and other VOD platforms in Australia on September 23, 2015, available for purchase at stores such as JB Hi-Fi and Sanity. It was released in the UK on May 2, 2016 and to DVD, VOD, and digital channels in the US on July 5, 2016.

Festivals

Soundtrack