Every day during October, the Department of Tangents presents a different short film for the Daily Horror Film Fest. It can be flat-out scary, strange, or even funny. I like zombies, and I like comedy, and it’s my birthday, so you’re getting a zombie comedy. Hope, to be specific, written by Adam A. Losurdo and Chris Stival and directed by Losurdo.

To answer your first question, no, that is not Sam Elliott narrating. IMDB credits a fellow named Joe Pike, and Joe makes a fantastic stand-in for Elliott, giving this a taste of Big Lebowski when pops up after the first scene. In this world, zombies aren’t gut-thirsty killers like everyone thinks. They are not to be defended against (and points to whomever decided to include one of my favorite books, Max Brooks’s Zombie Survival Guide, in one scene). Nope, they’re just losers, doomed to wander the landscape getting crap thrown at them from cars.

Carl is, as the narration notes, without hope. Or shoes. Kids harass him. People want to tie him to a tree and pound him to dust. But still he wanders, looking for a little peace. Until he’s finally pushed too far and… well, you’ll have to watch to find that out.

Over the weekend, I showed you a delightful film about serial killers (The Dump). Well, this is a grimly delightful film about how zombies finally found their groove. A kind of sunny, feel-guts endeavor that was won all manner of acclaim at film festivals around the world – check out the YouTube page for the list. Stay hungry, my friends.