Welcome to Dambury. Your average town in middle of nowhere England. The kind of place with stark opportunities and not a lot to do. Grey, unassuming, forgotten. It’s the last place you’d expect the apocalypse to begin.
But when an army convoy overturns outside a care home, a chemical leak starts to have an adverse effect on the residents there. The OAPs escape the grasp of the army looking to contain their angry, violent, insatiable hunger for raw flesh.
On the night of the outbreak, teenagers – Charlie, Kelly, Steff and Finn are living normal teenage lives: tinnies, messy feelings, complex relationships and ignoring their A-Level prep. But the gang abruptly find themselves at the centre of the virus when Kelly’s nan Janine becomes infected and attacks her.
Just because it’s the end of the world, it doesn’t mean your home life and relationship problems comes to a halt, as the gang come up against the zombie horde, battling with their parents, friendship betrayals and old family secrets rearing their ugly heads. And life is just as complicated for the zombies, with the virus fuelling single-minded desires, bringing a whole new dimension to their zombie rampage. Meanwhile, Finn worries for grandad-figure Morgan when she comes to the realisation that there might be more behind the chemical spill. Just what exactly was being transported?
Generation Z is a high octane coming-of-age parable for our very strange times. It’s about intergeneration, justice and community breakdown that boldly satirizes a world where truth is stranger than fiction, exploring not just the political fault lines in our society but also the very real issues facing teenagers today. Topical, truthful, relatable – cut with a heavy dose of outlandish gore that’ll have you both laughing out loud and peaking through your fingers. It’s a mirror up to our world: all the fun as well as all the horrors.
Credits
A 6×60’ drama for Channel 4
Starring: Lewis Gribben, Jay Lycurgo, Buket Komur, Viola Prettejohn, Sue Johnston, Anita Dobson, Robert Lindsay and Johnny Vegas.
Written and directed by Ben Wheatley
Produced by Alex Kazamia