Followed (2011) Online

Just previewed "Followed" at a theater in Macon, GA where the short was filmed. Where George Romero casts zombies as blind mass consumerists or felled military vets reliving the perceived glory of 'living', this film casts the zombies (mostly children) as pariahs of the injustices of the living; following the living around like undead albatross. It kinda flips the roles around to a degree. The zombies are little more than pests that are endured by the living (referred to as road-kill). This is a radical twist on the traditional flesh-eating monstrosities canonized by Romero wherein the living are hunted to near extinction by an ever growing majority of the undead. This is a social commentary that could mean 100 different kinds of injustice to 100 different spectators. Very interesting movie that could be read as a reflection on racism or child abuse or any of a number of social injustices, and how we (the living) try to rectify those ills. We are the consumers and the zombies are the cannon-fodder of our petty needs and desires. They are not quite indoctrinated into our society the way vampires are in "True Blood". They are more akin to 'Untouchables' in Hindu Brahman culture,..entities to be used (in life) and ignored (in death)after relegated to a lower strata of the social order.(In "Sean of the Dead", the living even domesticated zombies... Pets!!) A very interesting study...highly recommend. Cinematography was top notch.Sylvia Boykin, Erryn Arkin and Edith Ivey are fantastic in their casual discourse on the monsters that populate the world. The zombies are similar to Dickensian Christmas ghosts of Xmas future...silent but judgmental The locales are recognizable to us natives so i am biased ...Macon is a fantastic backdrop (almost a character of the feature in itself}. Do GO SEE this!!

Our newspaper did a brief write up about a premiere showing for the short film "Followed" which is based on a short story written by local GSU professor Will McIntosh and directed by GSU student James Kicklighter. Briefly described as the story of a college professor who finds he is being followed by a little girl zombie, I thought, "Why not?" and took my husband and grown daughter to the film. I was prepared to be entertained--the story line sounded fun, with zombies obviously representing whatever undesirable population you might choose as a substitute--stray dogs, homeless people, Glenn Beck disciples, etc. And the film IS entertaining--funny in places while asking the serious questions: What do you do? What SHOULD you do? However I was also very impressed with the QUALITY of the film. The acting was good. The child zombie is very compelling in her morbid appeal. Production values were quite impressive as well. The entire film was shot on location in Macon,GA. This short would make a good feature length film.

I had the recent pleasure of seeing this film at a Macon Film Festival Premiere at the Edge in Macon, Georgia. This film will provoke you to look at your personal responsibilities in society as well as deliver a haunting look at the injustices being done to the disadvantaged. It will not leave you when you leave the theater. It forces one to look into his own soul for the bond that exists between humans near or far. The films brings forth feelings of accountability and brings closer the degree of separation that exists between yourself and the oppressed. Director James Kicklighter let the local media know that once this project was completed, he would bring it back to the town of Macon, Georgia where it was filmed. He delivered on that promise. JamesWorks Entertainment will be an asset to any community that would open their doors to them.

I quite enjoyed this short film. The version I saw was around 16-17 minutes, so quite a bit shorter than the one uploaded on IMDb. They may have edited out some parts or just shortened the credits at the end. In any case, it's about three weeks now until the new season of The Walking Dead and this short film is definitely a great filler until then.

It depicts zombies as the disadvantaged from society, who don't really pose a danger to anybody, but are perceived by most of the humans more like the black-under-the-nails kinda thing, they'd prefer to get rid of. The security guard scene at the politicians speech depicts nicely who the real monsters are in this one. One man whose perception of the "Followers" differs a bit to the general perception, gets followed by a young follower girl one day and she won't leave him alone, even when he's on a date for example. As he finds it rather disturbing at first, he slowly grows to the situation, even when he has to hold speeches at an auditorium. The auditorium scene is a nice contrast on how people of different age groups react to the zombies, compared to the park bench scene very early on. The ending is really sad as we realize the little girl just wanted to spend her days with somebody who doesn't condemn her kind like everybody else. And the reaction of the protagonist is truly sweet as well.

I saw that the director James Kicklighter is still pretty young. When he shot this in 2011, he was in his early 20s and now it seems as if he'll soon have his first feature-film out, nothing on zombies, but apparently more a Bollywood-type love story. If it plays here at some point, I'll surely give it a chance as his work in this short film is really worth watching.

Taking the risky step of reaching out to someone who is culturally different is intimidating for most of us, it seems. But how do you feel when a touch of compassion seems to result in the demise of the befriended? Followed is a look at human conscience, and raises unexpected questions. i'm left with a curiosity and a desire for more. The question is not a new one and there are probably as many interpretations as there are people who've experienced the film. How does Peter feel about the result of his attempt to humanize the zombie girl? Maybe she reawakens in a subsequent scene to a new life as a human. or - in a more animated and sinister form ? I would love to see the whole story expanded into a filling out of possibilities.

Director/Producer James Kicklighter was nice enough to send me a digital copy of his short film "Followed". This short film is based on the short story by award winning author Will McIntosh.

The film stars Erryn Arkin, Edith Ivey and Abigail de los Reyes. Peter (Arkin) is a college professor who is followed by a young girl. The young girl (Reyes) happens to be a zombie. In the world of Followed zombies are commonplace and are treated as second class citizens. There are people believe zombies should have the same rights as the living and those who don't.

Peter tries to understand why this zombie is following him. It's understood that zombies follow people who have something to hide. I don't want to give to much away. I really enjoyed the film. Followed has a great message and I feel the acting was great. Miss. Reyes did a wonderful job as the zombie girl. Her performance was very nuanced.

This is a great film that I think has not been done before.This is a movie about a man named Peter,who was a good person. He thought he did everything right. Had a good job,nice home,great girlfriend.He felt like he had accomplished so much but was not giving back to his community enough. So his conscious started bothering him and he was being followed by these zombies. It was a very different take on zombies,one that I wasn't use to. His girlfriend name Jenna is very supportive telling him to ignore the zombies and that he does plenty to help society and the less fortunate. All the actors were great.All the scenes made an impact. I was esthetic the film was shot in Macon,giving us more recognition. In closing I learned that you can only live the life you were given and only yours. Do the very best you can,and if you make it in life try to help someone else along the way. Go see this movie!

FOLLOWED is a zombie film with a poignant twist that is produced and directed by James Kicklighter. I'm not sure if putting "a socially conscious monster movie in which zombies symbolize society's disadvantaged and oppressed." as the tag line is necessarily the right way to promote this film. I feel like telling audience members the twist takes away from the self discovery as to what these zombies represent. Erryn Arkin plays the lead role with great finesse. His character goes through an emotional roller coaster and Erryn pulls it off quite well. I'm not sure if his accent is meant to have deeper meaning. Abigail de los Reyes is stunning as the zombie girl. Her performance is worth the price of admission alone. The film visually is beautiful to look at. I think it shows how much this film meant to Kicklighter. Him and his team really have invested a good amount of time and money into this project and I hope for them that it pays off. Having seen this I really would love to sit down and read the original short story. All in all a solid piece of work. Well done Kicklighter. Well done indeed.

The story is original, especially on a topic that is so overused and abused nowadays. What I loved about the story is that it was more than a film that your imagination can get lost in. It was a film with a deeper message, and a higher meaning.

A good narrative story will suspend disbelief and engage the imagination in the viewer. This is fantastic because the imagination has no boundaries/limits, and if your imagination is engaged, you can unlock potential and creativity. I think "Followed" accomplished exactly that...If you think about it, imagination is what allows humankind to move forward. Greatness in a person generally starts from an idea for something better-you can't do that if you don't have an imagination.

And of course the camera-work, editing, titles, music, acting, and costume designing was phenomenal!! The story was clear, powerful, and imaginative. If you can get the chance to watch this 20 min film, I guarantee you you will be able to take something good from it as well as have your cliché pre-conceptions about Zombie films erased. These are the kind of original stories that need to be told in Hollywood.