By: Lotti Pharriss Knowles
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 6/29/2025 – Just when I thought it was safe to say that there couldn’t possibly be another original zombie movie in that crowded subgenre, filmmaker Vera VanGuard has proved me wrong with her new feature entitled Apocalypse Love. The film has been enjoying a healthy festival run and winning awards around the world, and it recently screened at Dances With Films in Hollywood.
A “necromantic love story,” Apocalypse Love stands apart from other zombie movies due to its mix of horror, comedy, romance…and puppets. Yes, you read that correctly – the entire cast, both living and living dead, are puppets beautifully crafted by Kim Carli Kaspircrley. VanGuard is also master puppeteer by trade, and the film showcases her talents along with those of lead puppeteer Lisa McNeely (supported by Jamie Timmons, Audrey Densmore and Jake Jordan Matthews).
The movie begins with our hero, a goth teenager named Tom (voiced by David Lorigo), caught in the crossfire of an alien invasion-slash-zombie apocalypse (one leads to the other, but I won’t spoil how or why). He’s still grieving his dead girlfriend BB, the victim of a tragic accident on prom night the year before, and now panics that she, too, will be reanimated into a flesh-eating monster. He “rescues” her corpse from her grave, and what follows is a madcap adventure of a boy and his body bag – and a quest to find true love.
Apocalypse Love won my heart on many levels. There’s a charming, homemade quality to the filmmaking, but also highly professional puppeteering, voice acting (by Lorigo, VanGuard, Bobby McGee, Danny Arroyo, Michael Lang, Hannah Fira and Jed Rowen), cinematography (by Scotty Baker) and editing (VanGuard). It’s funny, nail-biting and, most surprisingly, emotionally affecting. While I never forgot that the characters were puppets, I did find myself identifying with and rooting for them as much as if they had been portrayed by “real” actors. And the soundtrack of black metal and electronic artists, such as BVLVNCE, FIRA and Brian Manowitz, also elevates the overall production value.
Apocalypse Love runs a brisk 60 minutes and is available to rent or buy on Amazon. I give it two necrotic thumbs up.
Lotti Pharriss Knowles has spent much of her life as a writer, producer, and performer in theatre and film. Career highlights include the horror-comedy feature film CHASTITY BITES, feature documentaries VITO and I AM DIVINE, and the Ovation-nominated play BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO WORDS. She’s also a longtime political activist and produced the One Dem Minute Film Festival for pro-democracy messaging in 2022 and 2024. She lives in Burbank, California with her husband and cats.
