Zombieland, tipped as the American Shaun of the Dead, has arrived online in trailer form. Check it out here. The splatstick horror comedy stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Bill Murray.
The gory story sees a group of lone survivors after a zombie holocaust, travelling coast to coast across the United States, and holing up in an amusement park. It looks a lot broader than Shaun, with more emphasis on action (lots of guns, no cricket bats) but it still looks a lot of fun, with Harrelson in particular on charismatic gung-ho form. Tantalisingly, Murray isn't obviously featured in the preview clip, suggesting an attempt to keep his role as a surprise.
This is Eisenberg's second Land of the year, after the very different Adventureland, and the second horror comedy of his career: he played a teenage werewolf in Wes Craven's 2005 Cursed.
When **28 Days Later **came out, writer Alex Garland talked about what he felt was the unacknowledged reaction of many viewers to zombie-armageddon films: the feeling that it would be brilliant to be practically alone in an empty world. That totally seems to be the vibe here, and we say bring it on!
Released in October, for that extra Hallowe'en frisson.