I just watched We Are Zombies , the latest release from Screambox. The film starts by closing in on a zombie walking down the street. Sound familiar? Do the similarities end there?

Check out the trailer below, then read on for my thoughts.

Synopsis

When the dead are back, what do we do with them? RKSS (Turbo Kid, Summer of ’84) offers a fresh take on the undead in the SCREAMBOX Original We Are Zombies, streaming everywhere August 13.

In a city infested with the living-impaired — also known as non-cannibal zombies — three slackers after easy money must fight small-time crooks and an evil megacorporation to save their kidnapped grandma.

The directing team RKSS —  François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell — wrote and directed the film. The story is based on the comic book series The Zombies That Ate the World.

It stars Alexandre Nachi (1991), Derek Johns (The Boys), Megan Peta Hill (Riverdale), Vincent Leclerc (The Revenant), Benz Antoine (Death Race), and Carlo Mestroni (Assassin’s Creed II) star.

Here’s a look at the poster art!

My Thoughts

What i loved about this movie was the storyline and how it stayed consistent. I love the characters and the zombies. I love the music and the way they used historical figures like Mother Theresa. What I didn’t like about the film was the amount of gore. I felt there should have been more gore and more blood. Yes, there were a couple of scenes, but for my money, I could have used some additional. I also wish they would have explored more of the girls storyline.

Final Thoughts

In closing, I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes action, horror and zombie flicks. Also fair warning it is raunchy, so might not want to show kids unless they are teens.

If I get the chance to watch it again, I will.

We are Zombies is streaming on ScreamBox as of August 13th.

The mean girls of your average Hollywood teen movie wouldn’t last a morning in the ruthless adolescent playground of “Toxic,” where economic exploitation and unforgiving body image standards rule the bullies and their prey alike. Set in an industrial Lithuanian town where even the asphalt has seen better days, Saulė Bliuvaitė‘s impressively tough-minded debut feature is uncompromising in its depiction of the punishment and self-abuse endured by girls enrolled at a fly-by-night modeling academy — where the vague promise of an escape to pretty much anywhere is enough to motivate frightening extremes of disordered eating and body modification. Sobering but not without glimmers of tenderness and humor as female friendship takes root in a hopeless place, this Locarno competition entry can expect a healthy festival run, with interest from edgier arthouse distributors.

“Toxic” promises something severe from its opening shot, as 13-year-old Marija (Vesta Matulytė) stands alone, tensely quivering in a bathing suit, in a high school changing room while her classmates verbally attack her — picking most cruelly on the limp she’s had from birth. The high angle of DP Vytautas Katkus’ camera has the effect of pinning this already vulnerable figure like a specimen in a petri dish, though Bliuvaitė won’t always favor such forensic detachment. The film’s alternation between chilly composure and kinetic movement roughly corresponds with Marija’s wavering sense of self, while occasional segues into the heightened, languid mise-en-scène of music videos feel reflective of a future she and her peers have imagined for themselves.

Marija is new to this unnamed town, a dead-end assortment of graveled lots, concrete blocks and prefab houses, where her flighty mom has sent her to live with her unassuming florist grandmother. Friendless and bored, she has few social options but to confront her tormentors in the hope of making their grade. After one brutal brawl over a stolen pair of jeans, she finally finds an ally in small, spiky blonde hellion Kristina (Ieva Rupeikaitė), who can acknowledge what the other, appearance-fixated bullies are loath to admit about Marija: She’s tall and physically striking, in a way that can open doors for working-class girls without obvious prospects. Inner beauty counts for little in this scene, but a simple observation that she’s pretty is about as warm a gesture as Marija has ever known.

Kristina is already enrolled at a local modeling school, the squat gray premises of which belie their claims of sending successful graduates to catwalks in Paris and Tokyo. Given her disability, Marija hasn’t ever considered modeling, but in an effort to stay close to her new sort-of-friend, she follows suit — only to swiftly be singled out as an especially promising candidate. The education on offer, such as it is, is a soul-sapping routine of endless walking instruction and daily body measuring, with gold stars for weight loss. This priority is so all-consuming that even the already reed-like Kristina seeks dangerous extra credit, dumping her dinners outside her bedroom window, and procuring a black-market tapeworm to further hollow out her insides.

It’s an unnerving reminder of the punishing physical standards to which young women are still held, even as body positivity has superficially taken hold in popular culture. Marija’s rising social stock as a potential supermodel gets the two girls increased attention from older local boys, though they’re unprepared for the intricacies of sex as currency — while Kristina naively attempts to barter her body for money, as the modeling school’s financial demands predictably and extortionately spiral.

Bliuvaitė’s script doesn’t go deep into the corrupt specifics of an industry everyone already knows is rotten. She’s more interested in the fraught, complex relationship between two girls who become emotionally dependent on each other, even as they stoke each other’s most damaging insecurities — leading the audience to consider for themselves whether a possibly toxic friendship is better than none. An extraordinary pair of performances by the two leads (Matulytė achingly recessive and physically tranquil, Rupeikaitė a pinwheel of belligerent, fretful energy) gradually suggest two halves of one more collected being. It’s hard not to be moved as Marija and Kristina’s regard for each other evolves from a kind of conditional mutual exploitation into something more candid and wounded: no sparkly friendship bracelets here, just fragile, hard-earned care.

Federal authorities on Friday arrested and charged a Missouri woman in connection with the scheme to fraudulently auction Elvis Presley’s historic Graceland mansion.

Lisa Jeanine Findley — otherwise known as Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams — was charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to a news release by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Findley, 53, allegedly posed as three different people from Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC, claiming the late Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’ daughter, had borrowed $3.8 million from it and offered Graceland as collateral.

Authorities allege that Findley created several fake documents to carry out the scam, including a creditor’s claim with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, a deed of trust with the Shelby County Register’s Office in Memphis and loan documents containing the forged signatures of Presley and Florida notary Kimberly L. Philbrick.

Riley Keough, Presley’s daughter who inherited Graceland, sued Naussany Investments in May to stop the foreclosure sale of the Memphis property after Findley allegedly published a fraudulent notice in a local newspaper that the mansion was up for auction.

Philbrick submitted an affidavit in support of Keough’s lawsuit that said she did not notarize any documents involving Presley. (She’s also since done interviews reiterating that her signature was forged.)

“I have never met Lisa Marie Presley, nor have I ever notarized a document signed by Lisa Marie Presley,” Philbrick’s affidavit read. “I do not know why my signature appears on this document.”

Chancellor JoeDae Jenkins ruled in favor of Keough’s lawsuit to stop the sale, while also indicating the court would move forward with deciding whether the loan and deed of trust were fraudulent.

No representatives for Naussany Investments were present at the May hearing. Hours after Jenkins’ ruling, a person purporting to be a Naussany Investments representative submitted a statement that said the company intended to drop its claims on Graceland, according to the Associated Press.

Naussany Investments was listed in court documents as being located in Kimberling City, Mo., but CNN found the firm’s claimed phone number was no longer in service and could not find any business by that name.

Authorities allege that Findley then posed as an identity thief from Nigeria and wrote to the Presley family, Tennessee state court and members of the press. The New York Times reported in May that it had received a set of emails, faxed from a toll-free number, in choppy Luganda, a Bantu language widely spoken in Uganda.

“We figure out how to steal,” the thief wrote to the New York Times. “That’s what we do.”

Referencing Keough, the message reportedly continued: “Yo client dont have nothing to worries, win fir her. She beat me at my own game.”

Findley will appear on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. If found guilty, Findley faces at least two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for mail fraud.