A good story comes first. Period. So writer/director Jeff Brookshire created a zombie movie where the monsters were not the stars. Instead, the movie centers around two lost souls who have hidden from the world behind walls of their own construction. Christopher, the lead, is a world weary assassin who has become a Priest to pay for his violent past. He has renounced violence and world of men. Mary, the female lead, is a recluse who hides from the world and herself in her fortified home. Both have shunned the world and retreated from others and active participation in the world...until a mysterious red envelope brings them together. Thrown together and locked in a house that becomes surrounded by the undead, they find that the only way they can survive is to do the one thing they fear the most: Reach out to someone else and join the world at large.

The cast of characters is rich and varied. A killer priest. An assassin's daughter. An innocent Jehovah's witness. Two Asian schoolgirl zombies. A violent pimp. An ex-marine. A timid war bride. A mysterious voyeur and an over-zealous government agent. All mixed together with equal parts of drama and poetic justice in a world that has become a living hell.

The cast is comprised of talented up and comers from across the city, country and world. Gary Douglas Kohn and Lindsey Morris head the cast. Both, ironically, had small parts in Cameron Crowe's ALMOST FAMOUS. Nate Witty, Pro bodybuilder Big Will Harris (BE COOL) and Aurora Corceura bring vibrant fresh blood to the screen while veteran actors Michael Robert Nyman and Paul Dion Monte anchor the cast. Paul recently acted in the upcoming ROCKY BALBOA movie.

Worthy of notice is the mass of zombies who volunteered their time, effort and faces to the project. Some came a great distance to be in the movie. Patrick Zook, who was in NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, came across the country to be shot as a zombie. Mads Koudal, who is an actor of some notice in his homeland, came from Denmark to be a zombie who gets mutilated by a blender. Every size, shape, race and creed came together to enthusiastically support and participate in the movie.

The movie boasts a rocking soundtrack by alternative bands such as Edible Clowns and the Gentle Fracture, Diverje, Canadian Janae, Broken Side, and the English Band Vampire Division. AWAKEN THE DEAD is currently in post production with an anticipated completion of late June 2006