What a story! Watching the Man Who Laughs is like a fantastic reminder of how accomplished movies can be, how great stories can get, and how the weird can work perfectly.

Gwynplaine, is the struggling title character of this film who has had a laughing mouth cut into his face since a child. Who is the hero of the film it is hard to say since the film is full of 4 admirable characters who form their own little family – Homo, the dog, Ursus the philosopher and carer, Dea the pretty blind maid – “God made me blind so I could see the real Gwynplaine”. And of course Gwynplaine. As Dea’s line just so perfectly displayed, this film pulls its punches with gut wrenching dialogue. The intertitles that play between the scenes are sparse but brilliant – not used to explain the action but as poetic one liners. As Gwnyplaine makes his protest in the house of lords, “A king made me a clown. The queen made me a lord… But first, God made me a man!”

This material is the stuff to cheer along to as you are literally wrenched along with Gwynplaine on his emotional journey. What an actor he is to be able to sustain such a high level empathy and support you feel for his character throughout the film. You could not believe a face capable of such things – his mouth in a constant huge grin and his eyes most of the time simultaneously telling of a pitiful fate. As we watch him all the story is played simply through his eyes, but it does not feel simple, it feels like you can read many complex feelings and thoughts through him. One of my favourite parts is where the clown now made lord (the film is deeply satirical too) stands in the house of lords with all the others laughing so hysterically at him after he shows his mouth. His eyes crumble, and as he lifts the cloth which he uses to cover his mouth most of the time , he moves past his mouth and instead lifts it to his eyes, not covering what they find so disturbing as he normally does, but instead shielding himself from the horrors that they afford him.

The soundtrack from Maximo Park, so dense, and gripping creates this perfect environment of absolute saturation for you to fully fall into the film. Afterwards I say, enthusiastic in the moment, that its the best film I’ve seen all year. But its surely true!

The concept of a man-eating plague of the dead is everywhere. From computer games to Manga, from festivals to classic literature mash-ups, no-one is safe from the ever advancing groan and shuffle. Nowhere has the morbid influence been more marked than in film. According to IMDB [internet movie database] there were 42 new ‘zombie films’ made in 2009 alone.

The film zombie is a product of imaginationand confusion surrounding Haitian folklore originating in Africa. Commonly understood as a phenomenon of the Vudon religion, Haitian zombification involves using poison or some other magic to induce a death-like state. Once revived, the ‘zombi’ body now existing without a soul, would become a slave. The distinction between a ‘death-like state’ and ‘dead’ blurred once zombie films hit our screens in the 60s (a distinction which seems trivial unless you’re on the wrong side of the zombie/non-zombie divide).

Although zombie films existed previously, George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is often seen as the first; true zombie fanatics even refer to the period of time before Romero as B.R. (Before Romero). Following this seminal film, the Zombie really took hold (despite limb breakages) and the 80’s in particular saw a stream of zombie films whose titles invariably included one or all of the words; undead, day, dawn, zombie, evil, land and return.

No doubt a fertile ground due to potentially cheap production costs, gory horror is a favourite amongst burgeoning filmmakers. Cue Mark Price who took this notion a step further making a 93 minute feature film starring Colin, a recently transformed Zombie, for just £45. Attracting attention in the industry and currently being distributed globally, Colin, is proof of the everlasting life of the eternally undead. Offering a zombie eye view of familiar apocalyptic terrain, Price combines parody with originality. We recognise the game but the rules have changed.

Along with customary shaky camera realism and fake blood spurting attacks, Colin’s zombie protagonist is an innovative twist proving there’s no excuse for blank remakes. And did I mention that he made it for £45? Although stagnation threatens any popular trend, zombie films can offer a fresh (yet decomposed) take on the perils of the undead. From ultra-gory Braindead to Brit comedy Shaun of the Dead to Romero’s last efforts Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead, those hungry corpses just keep on coming.