From August 23-25, I attended Bubonicon 55, an annual convention of literary science fiction, fantasy, and related genres in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I was a panelist and a vendor. My vendor table, which featured books published by my company Hadrosaur Productions, was next to the table for Horrifying Hot Sauce. D. Ryan Mowry, the company’s owner, created a whole line of hot sauces inspired by horror movies. One of the movies that inspired him was the indie zombie film, The Stink of Flesh, directed by my friend Scott Phillips with my long-time friend, mentor, and namer of Bubonicon, Bob Vardeman in a featured role. Ryan offered a package deal for the hot sauce called Matool’s Hammer along with a Blu-Ray of the film. So, I definitely had to take him up on the offer.

As someone who has published indie work, I like supporting indie-created works of all kinds. Scott wrote and directed The Stink of Flesh back in 2004. The movie tells the story of Matool, a zombie hunter whose favored weapon is a hammer and spike-like nails who falls in with a husband and wife named Nathan and Dexy. The film opens as Dexy asks Nathan to find someone “to play with.” Soon after that, we see Matool out in the streets of Albuquerque, doing what he does best, slaying zombies. As he looks for more zombies to slay, he finds a young woman in a car beset by the undead. Her brother has just been pulled from the car. Matool rescues her and they retreat to a boarded up house that appears to be abandoned. However, it’s occupied by Mr. Rainville, the character played by Bob Vardeman, and two young boys. Mr. Rainville is annoyed that his house has been broken into, but allows Matool and the girl to stay. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the zombies follow Matool to the house and break their way inside.

Our hero escapes with one of the boys and it soon looks like Nathan is about to rescue him, except that Nathan clobbers Matool with his truck’s door and takes him back home. It turns out Dexy has an insatiable sexual appetite and Matool has been “recruited” to satisfy her while Nathan watches. Also living with Dexy and Nathan is Nathan’s sister, Sassy, who has the beginnings of a conjoined twin, Dottie on her side. It’s never completely clear whether Dottie and Sassy were born before or after whatever catastrophe caused the film’s zombie apocalypse, but Sassy and Dottie are an interesting pair of characters and you never quite know if they’re completely sane. But then again, who would be completely sane during a zombie apocalypse?

Matool begins to adapt to life in his new home when a group of soldiers are beset by zombies nearby. Two of the soldiers survive unscathed, but a third has been bitten and will likely turn into a zombie. Still they’re all brought into Dexy and Nathan’s home, setting up the film’s exciting conclusion.

I gather that Scott filmed The Stink of Flesh with a budget of just $3000. The film is much better than you might expect from that tiny budget. The credit for that goes to a talented film making crew who stretched their budget to the best possible effect, some awesome music, and I’d argue the most important feature—the film has a great script that keeps the action going, makes you care about the characters, and does make you wonder what life would be like in a world where flesh-eating zombies were just part of the landscape. Mind you, I wouldn’t call this a great film, but it is a fun one.

We live in a world where we’re often told the only worthwhile movies and books come from big studios or publishers, but I’ve seen and read things that came from the top studios and publishers I enjoyed far less than The Stink of Flesh. If you dare to check it out, you can find copies on Amazon and eBay. What’s more, it turns out Bob Vardeman even wrote a novelization. I may have to get a copy just to see his take on it all.

Finally, as an aside, yes Bubonicon was indeed named for the Bubonic Plague, which people still get from from time to time in the area around Albuquerque. Fortunately, modern antibiotics have made it quite treatable, but the convention was named because some New Mexican tourists weren’t allowed into Egypt back in the 1970s because of concern about the plague.

As it turns out, Bob and I both have novellas in a series called Empires of Steam and Rust. Another author in the series is none other than Scott Phillips’ partner, Sarah Bartsch. There are even zombies running around in my entry, Revolution of Air and Rust. You can learn more about the books in this series by visiting http://davidleesummers.com/Air-and-Rust.html