Living A Zombie Dream / Kitty Killers (BLU-RAY)

Saturn’s Core presents a double feature of SOV features from visionary Springfield, Missouri based writer / director Todd Reynolds. A vital component in the Borderline Entertainment film collective, Todd consistently applied a unique, incongruous, and often absurdist approach to the conventions of whichever genre he chose to explore. Boasting the frequent collaboration of producer / editor Ronnie Sortor (Sinistre, Ravage) and special FX artist Mike Strain Jr. (Vile 21), Reynolds represents a singular voice from the ‘90s video underground that’s ripe and rightful for rediscovery. In Living a Zombie Dream, a man discovers his brother is having an elicit affair with his girlfriend. After a heated confrontation, he witnesses his brother being captured and disemboweled by a flesh-eating psychopath. After murdering the maniac, he begins suffering from violent and perplexing hallucinations. Both his brother and the killer return from the dead amidst a horde of zombies and their desire to consume the flesh and blood of the living soon compels the man to follow in their footsteps. A Lynchian, analog meditation on life and death rife with shocking gore, bleeding handguns, and static filled TV sets, Reynolds’ arresting debut feature boldly bears the hallmarks of both an experimental art film and a homespun SOV zombie gore epic. In Kitty Killers, a gang of eccentric, working class hitmen are ordered to torture and hold hostage the duplicitous business rivals of their psychotic, wheelchair bound boss Mr. Hill. Things go haywire once the junior hitman falls for an innocent coffee shop poet named Kitty and his rampant narcissism leads to a chaotic crossroads of exploding squib hits, zen meditation, human flesh tic-tac-toe, and gluttonous doughnut consumption. A hyperviolent, post-Tarantino crime caper with self-reflective, transcendental underpinnings, Kitty Killers remains a predominant illustration of Reynolds’ idiosyncratic approach to genre storytelling.