HOPE ***** Norway 2017 Dir: Adam A. Losurdo. 12 mins
“Karl is a winner. Passionate, hungry, tenacious… all for love”
In a world where a zombie virus has infected half the population. Ghouls wander peacefully over the country, minding their own business and trying to avoid normal people that taunt, torture and abuse them. Karl is one such lonely undead soul forlornly searching for his girlfriend, Hope. He gets relentlessly harassed by 2 girls on bikes who attack him, then push him into an open grave and bury him. Digging his way out he is pulled free by a female zombie, Karl and Hope are reunited! However their happy reunion is cut short as the 2 girls return. Their final act of brutality will be their last, Karl will see to that. As the red mist descends the entrails will fly. Karl will lead the other infected to stand up to the humans and defend themselves, proving once again that the human race is its own worst enemy.
This is an emotive story of love, loss, bravery and the vile reality of humanity from a zombies point of view and it is truly wonderful. I can not find fault with anything about it. In its 12 minutes run time you’ll laugh, you’ll cry and above all else feel rather ashamed to be human. There is no dialogue from the on screen actors but the powerful narrative is delivered seamlessly by Joe Pike. The zombies are really well done with some great prosthetics. Karl (Herman Ljung Opedal) and Hope (Tonje Brattås) look especially gruesome but also act with the innocence and naivety we enjoy from Bub or Colin. It throws in some elements to make you smile for example; a lady sitting on a park bench reading Max Brooks “The Zombie Survival Guide” plus the various body parts fly about the place. The soundtrack totally nails every moment with some great compositions from Atom’s Fall and some well placed incidentals. Rightly so it has won some awards and been nominated for others. There is something for every zombie fan in this, if there was one thing I could change about it I would have liked it to be a bit longer but you can’t have everything. It is a huge recommend from me, at just over 10 minutes long you definitely have time for this in your life, just make sure you watch beyond the final credits!
Review by Sarah Budd
You can watch HOPE HERE