We’ve got our first look at footage from , Australian director Abe Forsythe’s new black comedy that just debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s been described as meets , and based on this footage (courtesy of Sundance), we think it looks like a lot of good bloody fun.
This film should not be confused with the 1989 film of the same name (in which a young Fred Savage discovers a secret world of prankster monsters).
Kindergarten teacher Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o) takes her young charges on a school field trip to Pleasant Valley Farm. Tagging along as a chaperone is Dave (Alexander England), a failed musician whose nephew is in her class. Dave has a romantic interest in Miss Caroline and is chagrined to discover that he has a rival for her affections: a famous children’s TV personality, Teddy McGiggle (Josh Gad), who also happens to be at the farm organizing all the planned activities.
But something has gone terribly wrong at a nearby military base, and a zombie outbreak turns the innocent excursion into a bloody fight for survival. Miss Caroline, Dave, and Teddy join forces to make sure the kids don’t get eaten—and hopefully aren’t traumatized for life by the sight of the ravenous undead.
This isn’t an official trailer, just a short interview with Forsythe, but so many scenes are included that it really conveys a sense of the film. Apparently Forsythe was inspired to write the script because his young son (five at the time) has severe food allergies, so the day he started kindergarten was the first time he was out of his father’s charge. Forsythe describes as a “feel-good black comedy,” adding, “I was trying to make something that isn’t predictable, that takes elements we’re familiar with and delivers them in a new and surprising way.” Judging by the reaction of Sundance audiences, he succeeded.
doesn’t yet have a release date, but Deadline Hollywood reports that NEON and Hulu won an intense bidding war among four different studios for the rights. And apparently the plan is to combine a theatrical release with massive cross promotion on Hulu’s streaming platform. So hopefully we’ll see on our big and small screens soon.
