Well, summer is nearing its end, sadly, and pretty soon the weather will be getting colder.  It’s a damn shame, too because who doesn’t enjoy sitting out in the sun, cracking open an ice-cold beer and taking a whopping bite of a delicious, juicy flame grilled cheeseburger?  Well, maybe we’ll skip the burger this time, because if “Summer of the Zombies,” the new short film from Owlet Pictures, teaches us anything, it’s that meat really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…even if you’re a flesh eating zombie.

Writer/Directors Ashleigh Nichols and Eddie Beasley have certainly taken a classic horror genre and given it a new twist in their 10 minute tale, taking the oft flesh eating villains we all know and love and making them much more appealing to a progressive crowd.  You see, our protagonist in this tale (a zombie, naturally), has a hard time buying into the fact that she’s supposed to eat flesh like the rest of her fellow corpses.  Catch my drift?  Vegetarian Zombies.

“We were literally drinking with friends and we were just talking…I think we said the combo of words vegetarian and zombie, and we just knew instantly that we needed to go home and write it, like, immediately.  And shoot it immediately and get it out there.  It was literally just the wine talking,” Nichols said laughing.

“It’s been received really well; we’ve managed to play at different horror film festivals and we’ve also played at some comedy festivals.  It’s mixed audiences, everyone seems to enjoy it,” Beasley said.

And why not?  The film is plenty gory, oddly heartwarming and full of laugh out loud moments.  Not to mention an ending that would make George Romero giddy with delight.  And in that same breath, the film is overflowing with social commentary from the very first shot to the closing credit song.  This, however, was not an intentional choice by the filmmakers.

“I don’t think we ever really tried to come up with any kind of serious message that people could take away from it.  We came up an idea we wanted to have fun with,” Beasley said.  “Neither one of us are full vegetarians or anything,” added Nichols.

Well, I guess I don’t feel too bad eating my burger anymore…

Nichols and Beasley are currently in production on a comedic web series entitled “Mall Joggers.”  Nichols also produced the underground hit “The Last Lovecraft:  Relic of Cthulu.”  Be sure to follow Owlet Pictures on Twitter.