With his short film “Zombie Mariachi”, Khavn takes the viewer for a short lapse of time into a parallel world in which an angry older man suddenly attacks and harasses a young one. It is night and the image is drenched in red, a harbinger of a bloody event.

But the film cleverly counteracts expectations, because instead of a turbulent action-horror story, the camera follows a young musician, a mariachi, as he meets his colleagues for poker in a poorly lit tavern. The camera is wobbly and nervous, as is the look of the mariachi as he looks around the room and observes those present. Khavn did the cinematography himself. He was supported by Andrew Leavold, who makes an appearance as a raving zombie hunter at the beginning of the film.

These zombies are harmless, it seems. They shuffle through the streets with their clouded look, which reminds of that of drug addicts. The zombie Mariachi has his guitar on his back and only the blood on his white shirt could make him suspicious. But the people walking past him don’t seem to notice it. Nobody is afraid of him. Not even a young woman who joins him after a short while.

The main zombie is played by Migs Aquilizan alias Miguel Aquilizan (also known as visual artist in the Philippines and producing sculptures which are created by assembling different objects and recall ritual objects and totems) and in the group of carousing Mariachi colleagues, Khavn himself has also settled down. The scenes in the taverns are among the most interesting of the movie. With simple means, a fast cut and a suggestive sound design, both by Lawrence S. Ang, a less threatening than bizarre and funny poker game was captured. Again and again a battered doll appears, which is passed around between the men. Everything looks like a drug frenzy.