Boy Eats Girl

From all the film industries around the world, Ireland is probably one of the countries least associated with Zombie movies, yet over the last couple of years there have been a small number of locally produced examples of that genre.

I watched Enda Hughes’ The Eliminator about ten years ago at the Cork Film Festival and was absolutely wow’ed over it. This was a fast, tasteless, over the top and utterly hilarious piece of Trash Cinema in the vein of Peter Jackson’s Braindead. I stumbled out of the late night show – probably also due to the amount of sponsored Murphy’s I had drunk that night - and proclaimed to everyone who wanted to listen (and a good few who didn’t) that I had seen the future of horror and its name was Enda Murphy.

Of course I was proven wrong and little was heard from him again although I did manage to catch his short movie Flying Saucer Rock’n’Roll a year later, a black and white Sci Fi comedy in the style of Ed Wood featuring Ardal O’Hanlan.

I have since tried to get in touch with the distributors of those films, but never even received an answer. None of Hughes’ films appear to have been released on video or DVD, yet those are films that cry out for a discovery and if there was any justice in the world the director should now be rich and famous with a bevy full of buxom blondes at his side.

Next came Dead Meat (2004) directed by Conor McMahon. I haven’t watched that movie yet, but it sounds promising: Shot when the mad cow disease was still very much in everyone’s mind, we see a new strain of it causing people to turn into flesh eating zombies. The guys behind Dublin’s Horrorthon festival (which one of these days I just have to visit) were also involved in the creation of that film.

And now there’s Boy Eats Girl, the most mainstream Irish zombie movie so far.

It has made the news as being the last movie to date to be banned by the Irish censor, however, upon appeal was granted a 15A certificate (anyone under 15 needs to be accompanied by an adult) which kinda demonstrates the lunacy of film bans: One moment everyone in the State needs to be protected by the images and no-one is allowed to see it, the next you can bring your kid brother with you provided you’re over 18.

Comedienne Deirdre O’Kane plays it straight. Her character is an art curator for the local church and by chance discovers a hidden vault with ancient documents about voodoo and instructions about resurrecting the dead. Her son, Nathan, has a crush on pop singer and failed Hollywood actress Samantha Mumbo (The Time Machine remake). When he mistakenly assumes that she is doing the dirt with the local slime ball, he gets drunk and accidentally hangs himself (as one does). Mum comes to the rescue and resurrects him, but fails to notice that one page of the voodoo ritual is missing. As a result Nathan develops this unhealthy taste for flesh and soon his entire school class has turned into zombies while his mother is frantically trying to find the missing instructions that can return him to a human state.

This is a strange little film. On the one hand it is quite clearly aimed at a mainstream audience: Apart from featuring a very popular wholesome teenage pop idol you can also find a number of other familiar faces in it. The characters would not have been out of place in an early evening soap opera (yes, they’re that annoying) and worst of all the film has a happy ending which is very unusual for a movie about the most nihilistic of monsters. On the other hand there are moments of all out gore in it that you would generally not expect in similar, more light-hearted productions. Although it takes some time to kick in, when Boy Eats Girl delivers, it does deliver gore in bucketfuls. There is one particular scene with Samantha Mumbo driving an industrial harvester of sorts, mowing down dozens of zombies that would not have been out of place in Braindead. (Hmm, that's the second time I am referencing that movie. What gives?) In actual fact I think it was probably that scene alone that resulted in an initial ban of the movie.

It’s far from being an excellent zombie movie. Hell, it’s far from being an excellent movie no matter what genre, but it is short (just a little over 80 minutes) and entertaining enough so that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Something to watch when you have little time at hand and don’t know what else to do. With its zombie/comedy approach it is similar to Shaun of the Dead, a much better movie.

Derek Landy, the author of the screenplay, has in the meantime struck pay dirt by signing a three book contract with Harper Collins that will net him 1.45 Million Euro for a series Fantasy children’s books.

Now where is the DVD for The Eliminator?
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Check out the trailer!

Looks like the film is currently only available for Region 2.