In and around the quiet Alabama small town of Thorsby something strange is happening. Video store owner Chuck (Chuck Hartsell) is on the telephone to a customer who tells him that people are wanting to rent zombie movies so they will know what to do in the event of a genuine attack of the undead inspired by the Commies or space aliens, but Chuck is sceptical. Meanwhile, Michael (Michael Shelton) awakes in a tree in the surrounding forest wearing nothing but a T-shirt, his last memory of being in his beloved car with his girlfriend. And the local gun club, led by Keith (Kyle Holman), are trying out their satellite dish when the power goes off. One of the members goes off into the woods to check on the generator, only to get more than he bargained for when he discovers the cable has been bitten through - and the biter is looming up behind him. Yes, Thorsby is being invaded by zombies after all...
This cheap and cheerful zombie comedy joined the ranks of the undead movies that returned with a vengeance in the 2000s. Written by co-director Chance Shirley, its killers are very much in the traditional mould as they shamble about with a single thing on their one track minds - to eat the living. With pasty faces, shadows under their eyes, and bloodstains, they could have walked out (slowly) from a George A. Romero adventure, the obvious source of the humour; Chuck says early on that there have only been three good zombie films to come out of America, all of them made by Romero, just so we know where we stand. There were comparisons made between Hide and Creep and British horror hit Shaun of the Dead, and while this film comes over as more of an amateur effort, it still scores enough laughs for the comparisons to be flattering.
Another similarity to Shaun of the Dead is the relentless ordinariness of its characters, who are more concerned with living out their normal, banal lives than battling the zombie menace. Chuck especially is a laid back sort of chap, who remains commendably unfluttered when a flesh eater barges its way into his video store, just after he's been explaining to a customer why there are black lines on the top and bottom of the picture on his DVD (he gives him Citizen Kane to watch as a compromise - a joke for the film buffs, there). When Chuck phones up the police station to report he has incapacitated a zombie with a video recorder, only the receptionist Barbara (Melissa Bush) is there, and she tells him if it's not an emergency then to call back later. Chuck is not impressed, and takes the corpse to the station and dumps it on the floor of the reception, complete with post-it note with contact details.
Instead of a toxic gas or virus from outer space, the culprits here are the aliens, and although we never see them we hear about them. Michael has been abducted, and complains he may have been given the dreaded anal probe; "If the aliens are looking for assholes, they came to the right town," observes Barbara drily. The authorities don't get much representation, just a government agent who bags the naked-for-half-the-film Michael's denims for evidence, holds anyone he meets at gunpoint, and promptly gets his brains eaten at an unwary moment. The TV plays a role, as usual in these films, when reports hit the local news and they phone up Chuck, holding the fort at the police station, but he'd rather watch the game and makes no secret of the fact.
With this ensemble cast, it's tempting to think that the filmmakers were trying to pack in as many of their friends in as possible - and if you can't act, be a zombie. Fortunately, the main players can act, and do very well with laconic delivery of the frequently very funny lines as increasing numbers of reanimated corpses pop up. You never quite get the impression of a town under siege - no shots of hundreds of the undead milling about in the streets, for example, but Hide and Creep does very well despite its limitations. As various characters try to avoid being turned into zombies, some succumb, which treats us to the sight of a man tasting his own hand, or a lesbian zombie coupling - surely pretty low down on the list of movie fetishes. The lack of money doesn't hurt because they are working with an excellent script for its genre, and while it's not scary, Hide and Creep provides fine entertainment for zombie addicts who enjoy a good quality spoof. Awfully abrupt ending, though. Music by Eric McGinty.
