Indie Zombie Flick Gives Away Theme Song to Remixers

What better way to follow up a movie about a feces monster than with a sequel about an evil doctor who injects the mentally challenged with a serum that transforms an unsuspecting town into one big flesh-eating zombie festival?

Five years in the making, RetarDEAD will almost surely catch flak for its title, though its producers say they mean no harm. Co-creator Rick Popko addressed the issue during an interview with Fangoria:

We know the title is offensive. This was a business decision. We thought about renaming themovie INFECDEAD a few months back, but we asked ourselves the question, '10 years from now, what are people going to remember? A movie calledINFECDEAD or a movie called RETARDEAD?' and we answered our ownquestion pretty quickly. Also, keep in mind that the special kids inthis movie are the victims, not the punchline. We don't make fun ofthem for a cheap gag. That's not what we're about. Yes, we know nomatter what we say, we're going to take some slings and arrows for it,
but you know what? I'd bet you five bucks that 99 percent of the peoplewho will squawk about the title won't have even seen it.

Why post this here? Because the film's co-creators decided on apermissive policy towards third-party use of their soundtrack thatHollywood studios could learn from.

Popko writes, "you can tell folks that an MP3 of the end theme song is available on the same page as the trailer and we're giving it away for free. People can download it, burn it, share it, remix it or do whatever they want with it." Why not? Higher profile films could benefit from this strategy too.

Here's a short synopsis of the film, if you're curious:

Evil has cometo the Butte County Institute of Special Education, and its studentswill never be the same. After surviving a battle to the death with hisown monstrous creation, Dr. Stern returns to continue his horribleresearch in this blood-drenched sequel to the cult hit "Monsturd."
Armed with a fatal hyper-intelligence serum, the mad doctor transformsa quiet community into an army of flesh-eating zombies. It's a showdownof limb-chopping, head-bursting proportions as Stern's nemesis, F.B.I.
agent Susan Hannigan, and the local sheriff's department take on thezombie plague in the ultimate battle royale.

The film will be available in May on DVD.

(Full disclosure: I appeared as Federal Marshall #3 in Monsturd.)