'Semi-Dead' Brings Zombies and Comedy to the Internet

As zombies continue their inexorable march to overexposure (a point some of us think they reached a year or so ago...), there are still filmmakers out there doing interesting things with one of horror's classic archetypes. Take Semi-Dead, a new web series from student Emmy award-winning writer/producer Chris Wiltz. Basically it's The Odd Couple with zombies, offered up in bite-sized eight-minute chunks. It's not really all that different from something like Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland, but just because something's similar to another thing doesn't preclude it from being good.

The first episode is now online (you can catch it over at Blip.tv or after the jump below). Entitled "If You Can't Beat 'Em...Eat 'Em", it introduces us to Joe and Chris--two survivors of the zombie apocalypse who share an apartment and deal with the newly risen dead in radically different ways. Joe's got crazy ideas about how to survive (going so far as to keep a zombie tied up in the closet), while Chris is so deeply in denial that he's still going to his job everyday and posting online to replace the roommate who "moved out". When food gets scarce around the apartment, Joe comes up with an interesting solution to the food shortage. But Chris isn't so happy about the mess it creates in the kitchen.

The first season of Semi-Dead is set to run six episodes, with a new installment debuting every three weeks. Jump past the break to watch the first episode and be sure to check out the Semi-Dead website for more info on the series.