Raising the Dead with Lakeshore Theater and LaBruce’s Otto by Brian Kirst
Once again, Chicago was the zombie capital of the world this weekend. The magnificent Lakeshore Theater (3175 N. Broadway – www.lakeshoretheater.com ) not only hosted (as part of the Reeling Festival) the Midwest premiere of controversial director Bruce LaBruce’s gory zombie epic Otto or Up with the Dead People on Sunday, November 9th– but they also provided the stage for a flesh peeling zombie contest hosted by the amiable Santa Zombie – better known as MovieSide Production’s Rusty Nails, the founder of the annual Music Box Massacre and director of the upcoming George Romero documentary.
As a film, Otto is not only filled with rabbit ripping intestinal gooiness but it also takes a decidedly emotional tact – representing zombies as the ultimate outsider – and very sexually active, as well.
In recent interview with Filmmaker Magazine, LaBruce stated about the film, “The film has a lot of strong social and political commentary. Is anonymous sex more exciting with a zombie? Listen, zombie porn is the wave of the future. Think of all the potential orifices to be explored. As to your question, if you‘ve ever had anonymous sex in a park or even in a bathhouse, basically it is like having sex with a zombie, and not necessarily in a bad way. Zombies tend to be kind of emotionless and anonymous — they all act pretty much the same, and they‘re interchangeable — so having sex with them frees you from the personal and emotional restraints of normal sexual behavior and allows you to overcome all your inhibitions and really go crazy. That concept interests me, but the sociopolitical dimension of the zombie phenomenon interests me even more. As the master, George Romero, always reminds us in his films, zombies result from the alienation, materialism and rampant consumerism that is the logical outcome of advanced capitalism. Zombies are the ultimate consumers.”
While Otto may ultimately fall into the more artistic side of zombiedom cinema, with LaBruce even utilizing silent film effects with extremely humorous results, The Lakeshore Theater event, itself, was nothing but an enjoyable time from beginning to end. Local, crazed garage rockers Hotlips Messiah started things off with a viciously nihilistic assault of ass shaking punk songs. Lead singer Traci Trouble attacked the stage like a pink rubber banshee and got the male heavy audience warmed up for the prime event – the zombie costume contest. And, indeed, there were zombies galore – Vegetarian zombies, chopstick zombies, cowboy zombies and beatnik zombies. The three lucky runners-up got movie passes while the winner received a generous gift certificate from the gregarious staff at the Lakeshore Theater.
This bloody weekend capper ultimately proved once again, that Chicago has not only one of most active (brain hungry) communities but one of the nicest and most talented as well.
