Private Project

Sam & Mattie Make a Zombie Movie

The story of Sam & Mattie: two badass punks with Down Syndrome who wrote, produced, and starred in their own zombie movie, called Spring Break Zombie Massacre, which is already on its way to cult classic status.

Sam & Mattie met as kids at Special Olympics, and quickly became an inseparable creative duo.

In high school, they hatched a plan to make their first film: a "teen zombie movie" starring themselves. The boys drew their own storyboards, then worked with their family to launch a Kickstarter that went viral immediately.

Their fundraising campaign attracted tons of attention, and brought some big names onto the project: including Oscar winning director Peter Farrelly (who is executive producer of this documentary), and Pauly D, who appears in the film's epic finale.

The production process was a life-changing adventure for the boys, and has been fully captured in our documentary. In the end, they pulled off a miracle and fully realized their vision: a film written by and starring themselves.

Sam & Mattie didn't want to wait for festivals, so they took Spring Break Zombie Massacre on their own DIY tour, and captured the world's attention along the way.

The film was a massive hit with audiences. Steve Hartman called it "really gross in parts, terribly offensive in others and completely ludicrous throughout" before concluding it was destined to become a cult classic. The nationwide tour turned Sam & Mattie into rockstars in the disability community, and cult figures in the horror community (they are still occasionally stopped for autographs)!

The boys frequently receive inquiries about screenings and speaking opportunities, but agreed to hold off on releasing Spring Break Zombie Massacre widely until the documentary was complete.

Now (FINALLY) the whole, wild story of Sam & Mattie's adventure can be experienced through the documentary you are about to see. The film weaves together Sam & Mattie's real life adventures with the adventures of their characters in Spring Break Zombie Massacre, which is included in its entirety alongside occasional documentary meta-interludes for context.

The documentary also includes interviews with their families and new lifelong friends, tackles larger questions around Sam & Mattie's motivations, feels proudly unconventional, totally honest, a little punk, and refreshingly unfocused on anyone's disabilities.

It also ends with a gut punch that makes most people cry. We would tell you more, but we HATE SPOILERS. We just think it's something the world needs to see.

  • Peter Farrelly
    Executive Producer
    Green Book, There's Something About Mary
  • Robert John Carnevale
    Director
    Spring Break Zombie Massacre
  • Jesse Suchmann
    Director
    Spring Break Zombie Massacre
  • Jesse Suchmann
    Producer
    Spring Break Zombie Massacre
  • Robert John Carnevale
    Producer
    Spring Break Zombie Massacre
  • Tim Forster
    Producer
    Spring Break Zombie Massacre
  • Sam Suchmann
    Key Cast
    "Sam"
    Spring Break Zombie Massacre
  • Mattie Zufelt
    Key Cast
    "Mattie"
    Spring Break Zombie Massacre
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Documentary, horror, disability
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 41 minutes 56 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 1, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    68,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Panavision Alexa, Mixed Media
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Ruderman Foundation " Seal of Authentic Representation"

    Seal of Authentic Representation
Distribution Information
  • Creative Artists Agency - Christine Hsu, Travis Tammero
    Sales Agent
    Country: Worldwide
Director Biography - Robert John Carnevale, Jesse Suchmann

Robert Carnevale grew up taking pictures and making films with friends around Providence, RI. Over the past 15 years he has worked on countless films and commercials all over the world, being celebrated at numerous festivals. Today, Robert lives in Rockaway Beach, NY where he can be found either in or on the ocean but mostly photographing the obscure and absurd and finding new stories to tell from behind the camera.

Jesse Suchmann has spent two decades creating proudly-difficult-to-categorize Creative Stuff™ including, but not limited to: viral videos with two famous cats, a non-profit that promotes neurodiversity in creative fields, a YouTube video that was briefly exhibited at the Guggenheim, a subversive SXSW Tech talk, a nationally recognized holiday for small businesses, a public access show in Brooklyn, and an epic zombie movie with his little brother. Much of this Creative Stuff™ has yielded awards and accolades, but the best one was a very supportive tweet from President Obama.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Hello future friends!

I’m Jesse Suchmann, the narrator of this film you’re about to see. My friends and I have just had the adventure of a lifetime with my little brother Sam and his best friend Mattie. I’m also very happy to report that we rolled cameras for most of it, which is why we’re able to submit this crazy thing to you today!

Sam & Mattie Make a Zombie Movie is the real story behind the feel good story that dominated the headlines a couple years back, about Two Teens With Down Syndrome Who Made Their Dream Zombie Movie. While that is, in all fairness, one way to summarize what happened, this film is about so much more than another feel good headline about a disability and a dream.

It’s about teenage fantasies, the joy and pain of independent filmmaking, horrible horror movie violence, shattering disability stereotypes, the creative power of neurodiversity, how to make high end goat-like devil costumes, and -- when we get together for a final interview years after the hype dies down -- a very poignant reminder from my little brother about what really matters. But I won’t tell you what that is, because NO SPOILERS!

I mentioned that it’s a crazy thing up top, because this documentary is a little unconventional: it also contains the entirety of the actual film Sam & Mattie wrote and starred in -- it’s called Spring Break Zombie Massacre -- with periodic documentary interruptions for meta context and fun. We think it’s fresh, and fun, and awesomely unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Sam & Mattie have become cult heroes in the disability community, so we can assure you that there is a large audience waiting for this thing to come out. In fact, they angrily message us every week accusing us of not working fast enough! But, much to the angry mob’s dismay, this has never been screened before, and we very much hope that you can be our world premiere.

Then, like 2 weeks later, we hope that every person on earth with an intellectual disability will be able to stream this somewhere, then sit their families down to watch with them, then kick off their own creative project the next morning, setting of a chain reaction of family bonding and disability led art around the world that will spark a neurodiverse renaissance in 2020.

But I guess that’s getting ahead of ourselves, first you’ll need to accept it.

We hope you love this crazy thing as much as we do,
<3 Jesse, Bobby, Tim, Sam & Mattie

P.S. Please turn on subtitles. Mattie says hilarious shit all day that you’ll definitely miss if you haven’t spent enough time with him.