By MICHAEL GINGOLD

Walking into one of the large meeting rooms for the Frontières International Co-Production Market at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, the eye was immediately caught by a poster for DISCO’S NOT DEAD, as seen in the photo above. Repping the project at the fest were director/producer Panta Mosleh (pictured left) and writer Toby Marks, who are homaging a bygone era of music while putting a new spin on the zombie genre.

“It’s about survival during a zombie apocalypse in a disco club,” Marks tells RUE MORGUE. “Our protagonist, a jaded waitress named Jack, has to learn to step up to the plate when it comes to her life, and saving her little brother, while fighting zombies and dealing with all the repercussions of that.”

“The lead is a female character who is front and center and is not objectified or needs saving,” Mosleh adds, “but she isn’t a super-perfect, flawless person either. She has her own struggles and fears, like her claustrophobia, but she eventually overcomes them to save her brother, who sneaks into the club the night the zombie infection begins spreading.”

The story is set during the disco heyday of the ’70s; since both women are too young to have grown up at that time, what was it about the era that appealed to them? “First of all, have you heard disco music?” Marks replies. “It’s kind of fabulous. I love the ’70s as a vibe; I love the fashion, I love the music, I love the free spirit, but also all the political and psychological turmoil that comes connected with that. When I was first considering this idea, I was thinking about zombies and where it would be fun to put them. I started thinking about a club, and felt that would be a really fun way to do it, and it was my husband who first said, ‘Disco zombies.’ ”

“Her husband is a total gamer,” Mosleh adds, “so they talked about the film being structured like levels in a game. As you go up each floor of the zombie-infested club, the undead get harder and harder to defeat. It’s a super-cool concept, and I also love the aesthetics of that era–the clothes, the hairstyles and even the cool lingo people used. I think those motifs mixed with the zombies, which are infected by contaminated cocaine made by an evil Big Pharma company for ulterior weaponizing purposes, will make for such a fun and entertaining ride.”

Obviously, this story is not going to be played entirely straight, and tonally, DISCO’S NOT DEAD will take cues from classic ghoul movies of the past. “ZOMBIELAND is a big inspo for us in that way,” Marks says, “and SHAUN OF THE DEAD. THE EVIL DEAD is huge for us in terms of tone, and WE ARE ZOMBIES, a Canadian production from last year. But of course, I went for DAWN OF THE DEAD too–both versions.”

“This is first and foremost a horror film,” Mosleh notes, “but we have amazing comedic elements within that, all grounded in the characters. They aren’t trying to be funny, and the situations and stakes are very much real; the humor will mostly come from the situations they find themselves in and the wonderfully witty dialogue Toby has written.”

And in keeping with the decade in which the action is set, the duo are aiming to keep the gore and other effects “as practical as possible,” Marks says. “Obviously with budget concerns, we’ll have to see how that goes, but there’s nothing like full-on blood splatter to the face!”

Also dependent on the budget, the writer adds, is the soundtrack, for which they hope to combine both vintage disco tracks and some original songs. “We really want to have some classics in there. I’ve actually written the script in chapters, and each chapter is titled with a different disco hit. There’s some funk in there as well. But we also love the idea of integrating new stuff, or some covers, to keep it fresh. The music is going to feel scary and build, but will also keep those beats popping,” Marks says, snapping her fingers.

With what Marks calls “a production-ready script” in hand, the duo report that they have taken a number of promising meetings with potential financiers and distributors. They have high hopes for DISCO’S NOT DEAD–which marks quite a switch from their recent experience in Yuletide romantic/family comedies. Marks (who, like Mosleh, has a number of acting credits in her background) appeared in 2022’s WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS and 2023’s A MAPLE VALLEY CHRISTMAS, while Mosleh took the helm of last year’s 12 DARES OF CHRISTMAS and the upcoming CHRISTMAS WITH THE SINGHS.

Says the director, “I can’t wait to be able to let loose with all sorts of fun angles, film gadgets, toys, props, stunts, special effects, blood and all the cool things I can’t necessarily play with while doing a kosher romantic comedy for audiences like my parents. They absolutely love it when I make those lovey-dovey, happy-ending movies, but personally, I prefer to have a romantic scene and then chop some undead heads off right after, or have characters make serious sacrifices and struggle through those choices while trying to survive a zombie apocalypse!”