Love of the Dead (2011) Short Film: Zombie Romance Explained

Love of the Dead (2011) Short Film: it is a 14-minute zombie romance from Yale, directed by Michael Sarnoski (A Quiet Place: Day One). Cast, plot, themes, trailer and where to watch.

Love of the Dead (2011): The Zombie Romance Short That Launched Michael Sarnoski

Most zombie films ask how you survive. Love of the Dead asks what you do when the monster is someone you love. The short was made at Yale, runs about 14 minutes, and has outlived most student horror from its era. Its director later made Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One.

This guide covers the cast, plot, themes, history and where to watch.

Quick Facts

Detail	Info
Title	Love of the Dead (also called the “Yale Zombie Project”)
Genre	Horror, Romance, Short
Runtime	About 14 minutes (IMDb lists 14m; some listings round to 15)
Director	Michael Sarnoski
Writers	Michael Sarnoski, Jeremi Szaniawski
Producer	Jeremi Szaniawski
Cast	Brian Young (Robert), Vanessa Block (Marcy), Jeremi Szaniawski (Zombie), Bill Bradley, Joel Vetsch
Cinematography	Christopher Ripley
Music	Trevor Gureckis
Country / Language	United States / English
Filming location	New Haven, Connecticut
Production company	The Sharnasky Brothers
Release	April 15, 2011 (United States) per IMDb; the campus premiere came earlier (see below)
IMDb rating	6.8/10

Watch the Trailer

There is no widely indexed standalone trailer. The film is short enough that most viewers go straight to the full version, which is free online (see “Watch the Shorts” and “Where to Watch”).

Watch the Shorts

Love of the Dead is the film to start with. Letterboxd links to a full copy on YouTube, and a Vimeo upload from the Yale Zombie Project has also circulated. Both are viewer-supported uploads, so availability can change.

If you like it, you can follow it with Sarnoski’s other shorts and his feature work (see “Director’s Journey”).

Synopsis

Spoiler-light.

Robert survived the zombie apocalypse and keeps his zombie girlfriend, Marcy, alive by feeding her human flesh. She would happily eat him if he untied her. Robert still loves her anyway.

His routine is disrupted when he meets Rachel, a young woman who resembles Marcy. Rachel stirs grief he has been avoiding, and the arrangement he has built begins to fail. The film’s tagline sums up the tragedy: Marcy would love Robert if she were still alive.

Creative Team

• Michael Sarnoski (director, co-writer, co-editor): He is credited as director, co-writer and co-editor. He was a Yale undergraduate when he made the film.
• Jeremi Szaniawski (producer, co-writer, co-editor, “Zombie”): He was a film studies graduate student at Yale and also appears on screen.
• Brian Young (Robert): He carries the film as the devoted survivor.
• Vanessa Block (Marcy): She plays the zombie girlfriend. She later collaborated with Sarnoski again: the 2021 feature Pig is credited as based on a story by Sarnoski and Vanessa Block.
• Christopher Ripley (cinematography) and Trevor Gureckis (composer).
• Sound: Lee Faulkner (supervising sound editor) and Anna Ehl (sound editor/mixer).

Festival Journey & Recognition

The film started on campus. It premiered at Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center as part of an “Evening of the Living Dead,” with a zombie walk across campus beforehand as promotion.

It then reached a genre festival: Letterboxd lists a premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, one of the better-known fantastic-film festivals in Europe.

I could not find documented major awards for this short. Be wary of any site claiming a long list of trophies without naming the festival.

The Origin Story

The idea combined two things: classic zombie cinema and Yale’s own buildings. Classic zombie movies and Yale’s Gothic architecture inspired the idea of shooting a zombie film on campus.

The production was long and ambitious for a student project. It was in production for more than two years before its premiere. Location shooting was harder than expected, and Sarnoski noted that the usable sets were amazing but not ones that “scream Yale.” The team also made a deliberate choice: they cast only Yale students so the university’s name could stay in the production title.

Visual Style

The film sets cold, ordered domesticity against the horror of what is being kept in the room. Robert grooms and cares for Marcy with unsettling tenderness, so the intimacy is as disturbing as the gore. Reviewers have picked up on this tone. One viewer called it “a zombie apocalyptic American Psycho”, and another blogger found it slow but oddly disturbing and “seriously disquieting.” The shooting in New Haven gives it an institutional, gothic backdrop without making Yale the point.

Key Themes

• Grief as denial. Robert cannot accept that the Marcy he loved is gone. As one early blogger put it, the deepest horror here is that loved ones who turn still wear the faces we love.
• Love versus possession. Robert’s devotion shades into captivity. Marcy is restrained, fed and dressed, and the film never lets you settle on whether this is romance or control.
• Replacement. Rachel, who resembles Marcy, raises the question of whether Robert is capable of loving a living person or only the memory of one.
• Genre mixing. Brian Young described it to Yale’s press as a romance and a zombie film at the same time, which is rare in the genre.

Critical Reception

Reception is modest in volume but warm. There are no major trade-press reviews, so most commentary comes from horror blogs and audience sites. Letterboxd viewers repeatedly note how impressive it is for a low-budget student film, and some single out its willingness to push its premise to extremes. A French-language reviewer there recommends it to zombie fans. Its IMDb score is 6.8/10 from a small number of votes.

Not every response is purely positive. One viewer comparing it to Sarnoski’s later work said it is good for a student film but far from his features, and that the themes of empathy and redemption are largely absent. That contrast makes the short more interesting in hindsight, as a rawer, darker starting point.

Where to Watch

• Free online: Check the YouTube and Vimeo uploads linked from the film’s Letterboxd and Yale Zombie Project pages.
• Catalogue and tracking: MUBI, Letterboxd and IMDb all list the film for logging, though they may not stream it.

Availability of fan and festival uploads changes, so search the exact title plus “Michael Sarnoski.”

Director’s Journey

Michael Sarnoski grew up in Milwaukee and went to Yale. After Love of the Dead, he produced and edited Vanessa Block’s The Testimony, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Oscars for Best Documentary Short. He also wrote, co-directed, executive produced and edited all five episodes of the series Olympia.

His breakout was the 2021 feature Pig. In 2022 he was announced to direct the next A Quiet Place film for Paramount, which became A Quiet Place: Day One (2024). Looking back, the short already shows his interest in love, loss and what people do for those they cannot let go of.

FAQ

1. Is Love of the Dead based on a book or a true story? No source I found says so. It is an original screenplay.
2. Who directed Love of the Dead? Michael Sarnoski, who also directed Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One.
3. How long is it? About 14 minutes.
4. Is it the same as the “Yale Zombie Project”? Yes. The Yale Daily News used that as the film’s other name.