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Crazy8s: MY MOTHER, THE ZOMBIE. š§āāļøĀ
This is the rare time Iāve seen a short film tackle an idea a feature film did in the same year, and to my surpriseādo it better.
I respected Steven Soderberghās film Presence (2025) for the ambitious and original way it chose to tell and shoot its paranormal horror movie, but there were some elements of the story that fell flat in comparison to that ambition.
In MY MOTHER, THE ZOMBIE the plot device used to move the story along is almost identical to Presence, yet its execution of its grand finale hits way harder and drives home a much stronger pointālove conquers all. The story itself follows a fourteen-year-old girl who is caring for her zombie mother as she grieves the loss of her husband. As the mother continues to wallow away in her zombified state, the daughter tries to have some sort of normalcy in her life, which escalates when the popular guy at school begins to like her.
All of that leads into a moment where the mother must shake off the cloud of grief sheās been stuck under and protect her daughter from an unfortunate situation thatās been forced upon her.
The full circle moment when the fourteen-year-old girl goes from being the caregiver to finally being able to grieve the same grief her mother had been lost in was done in such a dark yet beautifully poetic way.
Iāve been around people who have lost loved ones, and seeing how much the grieving period changes them is heartbreaking. Thereās something indescribable about that subtle shift from being the person youāve always known to becoming a shell of themself as they try to process the death aspect of life. The zombie mother (at least in my interpretation of it) is more of a metaphor for that exact state of mind where youāre forced to process death as life manages to continue on.
As strange as it is to see two films work through a similar idea in the same year, itās also cool to see how varied the story can be when given to a different creative mind.
MY MOTHER, THE ZOMBIE builds up a tension-packed climax with a worthwhile ending, hammering home the age-old adage that a mother's love knows no bounds.Ā
Enjoy!
7.9/10 šæ š„
Runtime: 17mins
Where: Crazy8s Gala (2025)
Crazy 8s My Mother, The Zombie Short Film Review (2025) The Richmond Reviewer
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