Rise of the Dead: The Undead Heart

Rise of the Dead: The Undead Heart is a zombie romance short film written and directed by Jack Hillebrecht. It is the fourth and final installment of the Rise of the Dead saga, and a direct sequel to 2019's The Rise of the Dead. Set years after Annika's sacrifice, Alyssa struggles with the waning zombie apocalypse as well as her own demons. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of returning actors from throughout the series, including Alyssa Lightner, Ryan Woods, Graham Hamilton, Jack Hillebrecht and more, while Molly Kelley and Alessandra Le Pera join the cast.

Though The Rise of the Dead originally concluded the series' main story, and was followed by several spin-offs, the film was conceived as a true ending to the story upon Alyssa Lightner's return to the franchise. The Undead Dead had its world premiere at the Something Wicked Film Festival on August 14, 2021, and would eventually release publicly to the internet on October 10, 2021.



Cast
Additionally, archival footage of Annika Helgeson as Annika Chardee is used in a flashback sequence of the film. The footage used had all been previously seen in The Rise of the Dead (although the color correction was changed significantly). Helgeson was credited for this appearance despite not filming any new footage for the project.
 * Alyssa Lightner as Alyssa Dawn
 * Lightner reprises her role from The Rise of the Dead, now the protagonist of this story.
 * Molly Kelley and Alessandra Le Pera as Molly Gemma
 * Ryan Woods as Ryan Dawn
 * Woods reprises his role from the three previous sequels, and is the only character to fully appear in all four main installments of the story.
 * Lizzie Beckett as a Zombie
 * Nyatché Martha as a Zombie
 * Graham Hamilton as Graham Anderson
 * Hamilton reprises his role from the spinoff short The Only One That Really Mattered, this time as a zombie.
 * Jack Hillebrecht as Jack Bevan
 * Hillebrecht reprises his role from previous installments of the saga
 * Natalie Hillebrecht as Little girl
 * Hillebrecht reprises her role from the spinoff short Raise a Glass.

Plot Summary
The film opens in the year 2019 with Annika Chardee sacrificing herself to give Alyssa Dawn the Zombie antidote, a scene that was previously depicted in The Rise of the Dead, this time set to a romantic pop song called Like You.

Alyssa is briefly shown writing a letter atop a parking garage in the year 2026. The contents of this letter serve as narration for the rest of the film.

Alyssa reflects on May 21, 2021. She has been living in the Safe house since Annika abandoned it in 2019, and has decorated it with artwork that reminds her of specific memories of her old lover, Molly Gemma. Every day, she walks past the artwork and recalls what it was like falling in love with her. This culminates in an image of a train station and a painful memory - the zombie outbreak (which occurred in June 2013). Alyssa managed to obtain the last train ticket out of the city where the two were living at the time, but gave it to Molly - ensuring that her girlfriend would get to safety and in the process sacrificing herself to the zombie plague. Alyssa then noted that there is one piece of art she will not hang up, which depicted the couple's next date on top of a parking garage had the outbreak not happened.

Suddenly, Molly enters the Safe house. However, Molly is a zombie and there is now a considerable difference between the two. Alyssa had her aging halted for the six years she was a zombie. In other words, she was biologically 18 in 2013, and while she has been on earth for 26 years she has only physically matured for 20 of those years. Molly, on the other hand, has clearly been infected more recently - she has now matured to be 26 years old and is unrecognizable. Alyssa embraces the zombie and her touch (impacted by the Zombie antidote being in her system) brings some awareness back to Molly.

Alyssa locks Molly in her car and calls George Gutter. Alyssa and Gutter determine that Molly can be fully revived, but it would require all of Alyssa's blood (ending her life in the process). Alyssa agrees to go through with this process the next day, and decides to enjoy one last night with her lover. Alyssa puts on "Like you" and tries to connect with Molly, attempting to get her to dance. Any attempt at rekindling the chemistry between the two fails, despite Molly's growing intelligence, and Alyssa goes to sleep.

The next day, Jack runs inside the Safe house. He is being pursued by Ryan (still a zombie) and a few other undead individuals. Alyssa intervenes, and her touch inadvertently restores some of Ryan's consciousness.

Later that day, Alyssa prepares to take Molly to undergo the procedure. She decides to walk past the artwork one last time. Molly stops her, and refuses to walk any further once they reach the image of the train station. Molly returns the train ticket to Alyssa and the two part for the final time. Molly will not let Alyssa give up everything for her a second time. Alyssa hangs up the image of the parking garage and finally feels peace, freedom, and purpose.

After tearing down the rest of the artwork, Alyssa dedicates her time to spreading her touch to every zombie, allowing them to evolve into being intelligent and civilized. Over the course of the next five years, a new society was able to build where humans and zombies lived in peace. A little girl asks Alyssa what it was like returning to humanity. This inspires Alyssa to write out her story, and the film (and the saga as a whole) ends in 2026 with Alyssa sitting happily on the rooftop of the parking garage.

Production
The Rise of the Dead was marketed as the end of the conclusion of the saga, and Hillebrecht repeatedly said that a "Rise of the Dead 4" would never happen. The series would be expanded in the form of spin-off shorts, but on the ground rule that these shorts would not canonically take place after May 23, 2019 - in order to preserve the conclusive nature of the third Rise of the Dead film. Around March 2021, discussions with Alyssa Lightner happened about her reprising her role from The Rise of the Dead in a spinoff short film. However, it was determined that this would surpass the events of May 23, 2019 - and the film would instead be produced as the fourth installment of the main series, cancelling the spinoff series and providing the true ending to the Rise of the Dead films. Filming took place on May 8, 14, and 15. An edit of the film was locked on May 21, 2021.

Release
Unlike any previous Rise of the Dead project, the film was not released online shortly after completion. Instead, the short toured film festivals before an eventual online release. The film made its world premiere at the Something Wicked Film Festival in Lawrenceville, Georgia on August 14, 2021.

A professional review was published by The Film Festival Network on July 23, 2021 - a first for the franchise. The review was quite positive, with specific praise directed toward the story's originality, the acting (with Lightner's performance of "real heartbreak" being commended) and the usage of music.

After screening at three more film festivals, The Undead Heart was released to YouTube on October 10, 2021.

Festival Selections

 * Something Wicked Film Festival
 * Lost River Film Fest
 * Nevada Short Film Festival
 * Screaming Ostrich Film Festival