When a local ranger in a small Australian country town finds an unidentified algae overwhelming the town’s water supply, he knows something’s not right.

The apocalypse seems to be an inevitable outcome these days, and in Ryan Coonan’s Waterborne it all starts off in the deep Australian outback, from an unlikely source. Smoothly paced, the film follows a local ranger who finds an unidentified algae overwhelming the town’s water supply. Knowing something’s not right, it’s not until the sun goes down that he discovers the true extent of the danger – the town is about to experience the effects of a mysterious infection that turns not only humans – but animals too – into zombies. Waterborne is Ryan’s second short film to feature zombies in the context of the end of the world. Both films are set in or near his home town of Numurkah in rural Victoria.

I loved growing up there, I still love going home when I get the chance. So when I envision the apocalypse I think of home, Numurkah. I spent a lot of time growing up going camping, looking for adventures in the bush; animals are a big part of that in the country. So when it all hits the fan, I have always assumed animals would be part of that. Couple that idea with a frightening experience as a teenager, where I was chased by a mob of large kangaroos and you get a zombie-roo ready to rip your throat out!

Probably not something that’s ever crossed your mind, but if a zombie apocalypse were to ever happen, this would be a very likely scenario: a Kangaroo Zombie! ‘Waterborne’ brilliantly sets the film’s pace with sneaky character introductions in a rather suspenseful setting, but tensions only rise until we meet our unlikely suspect.

There is no denying that what has propelled this short film across the world is the idea of a killer zombie kangaroo. The idea, is both ridiculous and compelling. What if those cute little marsupials on our coat of arms decided to eat us? I read a statistic recently that said, there are 3 kangaroos to every human in Australia. If Kangaroos were more like wild wolves, we would be stuffed. The idea that some sort of mutation may occur and trigger this change for all native animals is a scary and humorous proposition. It doesn’t just give rise to the idea of kangaroos hunting in packs, but also drop bears looking for flesh ! Wombats, platypuses all take on a different shape if they now see you as food. Australia is already considered by many as a very dangerous place with multiple ways too die just walking around. Deadly spiders and snakes are scary enough, but add this to the mix and Australia just got really nasty.

The film hinged on having a realistic zombie kangaroo, and they were lucky enough to raise over $17,000 through crowd funding on Indiegogo to have their puppet roo created by some talented SFX artists, and augmented by some CG.

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