“Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead” is an independent television series produced in New York City. It details the lives of a group of friends banding together to survive the resurrection of dead humans as this problem grows to epidemic proportions. These re-animated corpses are driven by a need to feed, and only attack living humans.

Conceived in 2005 by series creator Patrick Devaney, the show isn’t so much about the Zombies themselves and the fight against them; it’s really about what that horrifying situation makes each person do in order to survive, and how those decisions change them in profound ways. Zombie Hunters: City of the Dead is noted equally for two of its main components: first, in its use of heavily muted colors which are blasted into full Technicolor during dangerous or violent situations (the producers refer to this stylistic choice as ‘visual adrenaline’). Secondly, the show is known for its strong soundtrack, coming primarily from singer/songwriter Bernadette McCallion of Pitch Black Dream. Her moody, often surreal tapestry is often the opposite of what is being shown on the screen, but comes together as a cohesive whole.

The main character of Billy Cassidy (also portrayed by Devaney) is an Irish Catholic who tries to come to terms with his violent actions in light of his faith, often resulting in an inner conflict that quickly manifests itself in external ways. Paul Michael Bates and John Salazar (played by Christopher J. Murphy and Rick Martinez, respectively) are Cassidy’s main partners, and they are later joined by Dr. Rebecca Kaufman (Linnet Brooks) and Carrie Walker, RN (Teri Hansen). This constitutes the first main group of ‘hunters’.

Each of these personalities are vastly different from each other, yet their situation forces them all to find some common ground in order to make it through the crisis. There is also an underlying Judeo-Christian religious theme running through the series, which becomes more apparent in later episodes. But in addition to this is everything Zombiephiles have come to expect from the genre: lots of firearms being used to shoot Zombies in the head, and graphic depictions of people being eaten alive.

Each episode is independently produced and funded through Devarez Films, LLC, and is filmed all over the greater NY area. The producers of the show pride themselves in being able to create quality entertainment with little to no formal training from film schools or the media industry in general. Despite such a low budget, the production crew and staff actors output a product which is much better in quality than anything else in the genre at the same funding level, in many cases even when compared to some multi-million-dollar fare available on cable today.

Link to YouTube trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhigTQ0Rwe4

Link to Original trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_8Q-KgTEbA&feature=channel

Link to first part of Episode One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7txndEcrKA&feature=channel