Zombie Holowcost

Tony Keily reports from the set of the Film Board's first micro-budget production, Dead Meat, Directed by Conor McMahon and produced by Ed King.

Rivulets of moisture run up the windscreen. Mark Venner grits his teeth as we begin to aquaplane helplessly on huge sheets of water covering the road surface. Mark ungrits his teeth as the tyres bite again. Out there between soggy fields of hunched cows small lakes begin to appear. And continue to appear until there's more water than land. It is impossible that anybody can be filming anything in this drenched environment.

We head from Longford into Leitrim, following producer Ed King's instructions to their bitter end in the extremely wet and empty main street of a village called Keshcorrigan. The engine cuts, the wipers stop. No sign of zombie activity. We study our maps, rotating them in the cramped space of the car. The only sound now is the drumming of rain on the flat-top. I get restless and strive to telecommunicate. Ed's phone doesn't answer so I call one of the film's co-producers in Dublin. He says the crew are in an outlying townland. He says he's not sure how it's pronounced. He says doesn't know how it's written. I hang up and we look at the rain.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 94