Horror Favourites – Zach Passero

Zach Passero’s animated feature film debut is a labor of love, eight years in the making. We grabbed the animation maestro for a talk about his movie and more.

Written and single-handedly animated by Passero, THE WEIRD KIDZ is a horror-inflected creature feature and an ode to ’80s coming-of-age films and favorite late night cinema tales. When three pre-teen boys and an older brother and his girlfriend take off for a weekend campout, none of them could imagine the horrors (and laughs) awaiting them in a remote desert inhabited by a legendary night creature and crazed townfolk. Puberty and adventure await…along with terror, amputations and midnight cult rituals!

Zach Passero said “For the past week since finishing up THE WEIRD KIDZ, I have been shell-shocked. My nearly decade-long journey with this film (inception, screenplay writing, voice recording, animating, animating, animating) has come to an end; and I quite honestly…I don’t know what to do with myself. I cannot believe that I am here, about to share THE WEIRD KIDZ with audiences.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what made me want to set forth on this crazy undertaking. The story for the Kidz’ adventure started forming when my wife and creating partner, Hannah, got pregnant with our first child. I began to imagine explaining to our new little one what things were like when I grew up.

That is how THE WEIRD KIDZ was born. A stew of memories, adventures, movies, and influences from throughout my life lifted the intention to finally realize a lifelong dream, and to make that lifelong dream something I could one day show my kid to explain what my life was like – in reality, in imagination, in influence.”

Below Zach Passero talks about his favorite horror film:

I write this, ruminating in a house now filled with TWO growing children. The oldest (on the cusp of 8 years old), and the younger (now 5) have only known their father as he worked away on The Weird Kidz in whatever free chance he got between work projects and family duties. Now, our whole family is about to start a new chapter and I cannot wait to share The Weird Kidz with them…and the rest of the world!

“It’s always hard for me to pick my favorite horror movie. It’s always hard for me to pick my favorite movie. I have clusters. Groups that sit at the top in each genre and overall. New ones get added. None get replaced. They change position occasionally, but not in importance or influence to me and my work.

David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is one of them. The movie destroys me every time I watch it. It is so intense, hypnotic, brutal, and ultimately beautiful.

I love Twin Peaks as a series- all seasons. I also especially love what Lynch launched from the series- which the mainstream audience accepted as a quirky, amusing comedy crime drama, what was a sad story about incest and the battle of archetypal innocence and evil- to Fire Walk With Me.

Yes, I love the characters of the series. I love the oddness of it, too. That is definitely part of the appeal of the TP universe. But for Lynch to take that audience into the theater and lay Fire Walk With Me on them is amazing and brutal in itself. The quirk is still there, but the real implications of the story are laid bare in a way that strips away the subconscious and any sense of safety.

The evil on display is real, but also completely intangible. It could be a part of anyone, anywhere, really. Anyone can access it or come under its spell. It’s primal natural evil incarnate. Maybe that’s why it’s so terrifying. The people we love, trust, and know can be replaced with that evil. It radiates into its surroundings. It’s a possession story where there are no real boundaries and fallible humans are easy victims.

The film gets under my skin. Under my soul. And scares the shit out of me no matter how many times I’ve seen it. Bob can get to any of us.”

Check out THE WEIRD KIDZ facebook for more information.