America's Heroes are Making the Most Twisted Zombie Film of all Time

America’s greatest heroes are making the most twisted zombie film of all time.

- Adam Linehan

Hollywood types are fond of comparing the grueling undertaking of producing a blockbuster film to going to war. Spike Lee, Warren Beatty, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola have all reached for martial metaphors to describe their efforts, despite the fact that none have ever been in combat. Naturally, those who have tend to disagree. Among them are first-time filmmakers Nick Palmisciano, Mat Best, and Jarred Taylor, who’ve all deployed to war zones but, until a week ago, never spent a single day on a movie set.

Now they’re attempting to shoot their own feature in three weeks flat.

“The main difference is this: Hollywood is a whole lot of narcissists out for themselves, loosely held together by people who are good at controlling narcissists,” says Palmisciano, a former U.S. Army infantry officer. “But when soldiers go to war, the primary mission is to take care of each other no matter how bad the situation is, and to get through it together. With that approach, we can do what Hollywood does. We can do anything. We’re unstoppable.”

It’s a muggy Southern California morning in October, and Palmisciano, Best, and Taylor are studying line notes over a breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee. Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” plays on repeat from Taylor’s iPhone. The location is an abandoned college campus in Pomona, two hours east of Los Angeles, which has been transformed into a zombie-infested war zone—the setting for a raunchy, blood-splattered, politically incorrect apocalyptic comedy called Range 15. Directed by indie oddball Ross Patterson (Helen Keller vs. Nightwolves), it’s the story of a group of war buddies who wake up in a drunk tank after a wild night of partying only to discover that the zombie apocalypse has begun and it’s up to them to save the world.