Kevin Hamedani may not have a name familiar to most horror fans, but that could change with the release of his epic Zombies of Mass Destruction. As much a commentary on life in post-9/11 America as an old-school walking-dead flick, Zombies is the tale of Frida, a young girl, who finds herself blamed for a horrifying epidemic that attacks a small northwestern town. An epidemic of—you guessed it—zombies! For Hamedani, Zombies is clearly a personal story, as the filmmaker, like his protagonist, is Iranian-American. In the following exclusive interview, he chats with FEARnet about the strange set of circumstances that led to his feature-film directorial debut…

What’s your film background?

I always wanted to do film. Luckily the high school I went to had a video department. Right when the digital-age came, around 2001 or 2002, my high school spent a lot of money creating a program for DV (digital video) filmmaking.  That’s where I made my first film, a couple shorts, and learned about DV. Then I went to the University of Washington and took this digital experimental arts course. It’s a brand new program. I graduated with a cinema studies degree, but I learned mostly by making films on my own with friends.

Primarily in digital?  

Yes, I’ve never touched a film camera really. I’ve only made digital films. It’s expensive to shoot with film. I’ve made a couple shorts, and now Zombies of Mass Destruction.

How did you come up with the idea for the film?

I’m Irani-American. Before 9/11 I lived in this small, all-American neighborhood in Edmonds, Washington, and everyone treated me nicely, just like anyone else. After 9/11 neighbors that I’ve known all my life didn’t talk to me anymore. I felt a lot of fear. I heard stories of people getting beat up. A lot of it was in my head, but it was still fear. There were some noticeable differences in the way people reacted to me. I wanted to tell a story about that, but I was tired of all the serious post-9/11 films. I’m a big fan of Dr. Strangelove, and I wanted to make a satire about all that was going on. I’m a huge horror fan and I’ve always wanted to make a horror film. It just clicked one day. In my film there are zombies, a virus, and an Irani-American protagonist. The protagonist spends a good part of the film trapped in a middle-class American home. We use the zombies as a device to get her in a situation that explores social problems.

Sort of like George Romero?    

Yeah, that’s basically what George Romero invented in the genre. I took what he did and used my own social commentary.

How long did it take you to write the script?

It took about six months to write it by myself. Then John Sinno (Typecast films producer) got involved and the cowriter, Ramon Isao, rewrote the script, which took about six months. It took a year altogether.

How did you get Typecast Films on board?

I wrote the script and then I bought a book on how to make an independent film.  It says to try and get a distributor to write a letter saying, “I like this idea, and if it’s made I will distribute this.” Then you give the letter to festivals. Its part of your business proposal that you take around. I Google-searched distributors, and HBO and others came up. I called each place, and down the list I found Typecast Arab-Iranian Film Distribution.  I thought that it was perfect because of my main character and then I saw that it was a Seattle number. I called them up and spoke to John Sinno. He said he was busy at the time but I could send him a sample of my work. I didn’t know who he was and I sent him a DVD of my last film. I got an email a week or two later saying that he liked my film and that I have a good eye. He wanted to meet, [but] before we met I looked him up and found that he had produced “Iraq in Fragments”. It was a week or two before the Oscars and I saw that he had been nominated. They had just won at Sundance and I was going to meet with him.

Zombies of Mass Destruction has a totally different tone than Iraq in Fragments.

I was a hundred-percent sure I would make a fool of myself if I gave him the script. He would look at the title and roll his eyes. It was the only script I had and it had some Middle Eastern stuff in it. I thought, “What the hell.” We talked, had a good meeting and then I gave him the script.  Then I didn’t hear from him for a few weeks, and I saw him on television at the Oscars sitting in front of Al Gore. I thought, “He’s not calling me back.” Then, two days after the Oscars, he called me back and said he read my script on the plane back from LA and wanted to meet. We met for breakfast and he said he liked it, it needed a bit of work and he wanted to produce it.  Basically I was prepared to spend two years of work raising money but it happened over night.

You shot the film in Port Gamble, Washington. What drew you to that particular location?

John Sinno recommended Port Townsend as a location, but I wanted to shoot in Edmonds where I grew up. We drove to Port Townsend to check it out and it was pretty cool. On the way back we got lost and we drove by this weird town, Port Gamble, and our jaws dropped. We drove down the main road and every house looked perfect. The grass was cut at the same level in every yard. It was the cleanest, weirdest town I had ever run into. It almost looked like a studio set. We knew that Port Gamble was it. We found that a corporation owned it. We met with the people in charge and they let us rent the town for a month. It has a beautiful church, and a good portion of the film takes place in a church so everything worked well for us.

What were the challenges in shooting the film?

Before this film it was a camera and me. I mean, this was the first time where there was a real budget, professional actors and a professional crew. Eventually I realized how fortunate I was because having a professional DP [director of photography] made my ideas look really good. I had a genius production designer from LA named Theresa Avram who made our small film look a lot bigger. On the set the assistant director called, “Action,” and, having viewed my storyboards, the DP knew exactly where I wanted the camera to be, and so I was able to spend time with the actors and focus on the frames.

Was there anything you didn’t anticipate?

I didn’t realize how little time we had to shoot the film. We had twelve-hour days and I had planned about thirty setups for each scene. There was only six hours of sun. On the first day I realized that the thirty setups and the plan I had developed a month ago were not going to work.  My DP was brilliant at being creative and efficient. He saved a lot of scenes.

Is the film more of a comedy or horror?

It’s right in the middle. Both.

What do zombies tell us about our fears?

The horror film, aesthetically and with its tone, is a clever way to express fear. Whatever fear it may be: fear of the woods, the water, nuclear war, Communism, whatever. Zombies, as monsters, are like vampires or werewolves but they have no personality or motives other than to eat. It’s a great tool to explore social and political issues. If there is a war going on or there are concerns about viruses, then zombies films about these issues tend come out.  Zombies are a great metaphor.

What’s your biggest fear?

Flying. As cliché as it is, I can’t fly. I only do when I absolutely have to.