Hollywood Zombies 2.0

Fabrice Mathieu is best known for his movie mashups, many of which we have featured on Kuriositas before – try his Skywalker vs Starkiller or Raiders of the Lost Dark to name just a few.  However, he is currently delving into the rather murkier realm of AI driven escapades.  Now before you move on to the next post without pressing “Play”, give this one a chance. Where it rises above the mass of AI generated drivel that is currently plaguing YouTube and other platforms, is due to Mathieu’s well-known ability to keep his tongue firmly in his cheek with many a nod to the more knowing film buffs out there.

I think my favorite moment was the zombified remains of Robert Downey Jr and Charlie Chaplin coming across each other (knowing wink).  The others, I will leave up to you to discover.

The scenario (which was covered in an earlier video by Mathieu, hence this being 2.0) is that zombies have taken over Hollywood.  Like any of his previous works, you do have to suspend your disbelief – absolutely – from the outset and just roll with it.  Yes, of course all the famous Hollywood movies are being made at the same time the meteor hits the Hollywood sign!  Of course the surviving actors, who fight back against the horde, have been using real ammunition on set all the time (have suspected that for a while).  And of course, there is the lack of any real resolution – but for those of you who sat through A House of Dynamite recently, this little short doesn’t ask you to sacrifice two hours of your life while it gets there.

What we have, though, is (finally) some clever use of AI, both in the way it is put together and the multiple vignettes we get along the way.  It may not persuade a lot of you that AI is the way forward (because the problem with artificial intelligence is that it lacks artifice, therefore intelligence and) but a great deal of cheeky humour has gone into creating this and that comes to the fore here. You may also have a lot of fun naming the star-studded cast as they appear and even taking a lazy guess about which of their movies these versions of themselves have been lifted.

Decide for yourself by watching the short below.