Zombillenium (French: Zombillénium) is a 2017 French-Belgian animated film directed by Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord, based on the comic series of the same name. It was shown in the Special Screening section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
In Zombillenium, the Halloween theme park, the monsters are unhappy. Not only are the zombies, vampires, werewolves, and other demons real monsters whose souls belong to the devil forever, but they are also tired by their jobs, tired of entertaining consumerist, voyeuristic, and egotistical human beings. In short, they are fed up with office life in general, particularly when it is destined to last for eternity. Then Hector, a human being, arrives. This Standards Compliance Officer is determined to close down the park. Francis, the vampire manager of the park has no other option: he must bite to keep their secret. Transformed into a strange monster, separated from his daughter Lucie, and stuck in the park, Hector has a dark outlook on life. What if he finally became the new leading attraction of Zombillenium?
Zombillenium provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: What Lucie's teacher becomes to Steven.
- Absolute Xenophobe: Steven sees any other monster race than vampires as inferior and disgusting.
- Adaptational Heroism: In the comic book, Hector attempted to kill a man his wife had an affair with and apparently sold his soul to do it, which seems to be why he becomes a demon. Here, him being a demon is inexplicable, the only apparent cause being bitten by a vampire and a werewolf. His characterization is changed to being working very hard to be a good single father and provide for his daughter.
- Alpha Bitch: Steven is the most popular attraction at the park and the undisputable employee of the month, at least until Hector arrives; he is also a jerk to his zombie coworkers.
- Ambiguously Human:
- Gretchen is the most human-looking employee of the park, yet, she is a witch. And her father is the Devil himself.
- The vampires argue that they should be allowed to leave the park, as most of them are human-passing.
- Amusement Park: The movie revolves around a monster themed park called Zombillenium and its employees.
- Asshole Victim: The teacher kinda get what she deserves from Hector for being a bully to the children, specially his daughter.
- Attractive Zombie: Dolores. Before her makeover she was quite pretty for a zombie, but after the Costume-Test Montage she is straight up hot. It helps that she's wearing a tight bodysuit, high-heeled boots, and make up that makes her look like she is from the Dia de los Muertos holiday, which makes sense, given she has a Spanish accent.
- Bad Boss: What Steven is after he takes over the park.
- Beauty Is Bad: Steven, the most handsome of the vampires, is also shown to be a Manipulative Bastard.
- Benevolent Boss: Francis,though stern and a bit old fashioned, geniunely cares for all his employees and treats them right.
- Big "NO!": What Lucie screams when Hector, in a fit of rage, tries to strangle her teacher for harassing her.
- Big Red Devil: What Hector becomes when he is bitten by Francis, a vampire, and Blaise, a werewolf. Exaggerated after his second transformation.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Before her Heel–Face Turn, a number of the park employees see Gretchen as this, as she is pretty bratty, and the daughter of the park's owner.
- Canon Foreigner: Steven and Dolores do not appear in the comics.
- Hector and Lucie are made to be Canon Character All Along in the later books of the comics.
- Car Chase: One of the villagers chases Hector and Gretchen in his van while trying to hunt Hector.
- Character Development:
- Hector starts as a safety-obsessed inspector who wants to shut down the park, but he slowly starts to care for it and even tries to save it from Steven and the vampires.
- Gretchen has some too. She starts being dissmissive and annoyed by the zombies, but then starts to genuinely care about them and even falls in love with Hector.
- Constantly Curious: Lucie's interest in the living dead really drives her teacher up the walls.
- Costume-Test Montage: Hector and his zombie team have one when they try to find new ways to become scarier.
- Deadpan Snarker: Everyone gets a moment of this. Bonus points for Aton and Gretchen.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Steven may be pretty by human standards but he is wicked, cunning, and an absolute bastard towards his zombie coworkers.
- Fantastic Racism: All vampires, with the exception of Francis, and even Gretchen at the beggining of the movie, believe all non-vampire monsters are lower class and should disappear from the park.
- Flying Broomstick: Witch Gretchen uses a standard broom, except she stands on it when flying, using an attached skateboard deck to facilitate a Sky Surfing-style.
- Friend to All Children: Gretchen shows her sweeter, caring side when she interacts with Lucie.
- Fur Against Fang: Downplayed; Francis tries turning him, which elicits a bite from Blaise, the werewolf from HR, as he thinks there are enough vampires at the park. In the comics they go back and forth biting him until he wakes up.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: If any of the characters gets this, there is a high chance you're screwed.
- Good Parents: Zig-Zagged, Hector, despite truly loving his daughter confesses he was a bad father for not being there for her enough after her mother died, and for sending her to a boarding school. He gets better.
- Heroic Build: Hector's monster form.
- Hidden Depths: It is revealed that before his wife death, Hector used to play in a band. But he had to give that up and get a better job to take care of his daughter.
- Hulking Out: Hector, when he first becomes a monster, his transformation advancing as his rage peaks. After his second transformation, he gets massive.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Hector after being turned just wants to return home to his daughter.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Played with, since all the monsters have been dead for a long time and are way older than Hector.
- Karmic Transformation: Hector at least thinks he earned his transformation by being a bad father to Lucie. In the comics it's because of his immensely sinful act of attempting to kill a man his wife cheated on him with.
- Kick the Dog: Lucie's teacher seems stern but understanding of her grief, telling her other students to stop mocking her for it, but when Lucie's curiosity of Zombillenium (and Hector's demon form) gets on her nerves she makes a point to scold her for still thinking her father is alive, emphasizing that he's dead and rotting in the ground.
- Knight Templar Parent: Hector will become this if he sees someone trying to hurt his daughter.Just ask her teacher...
- Lighter and Softer: This is considered a softer adaptation of the original comic, more oriented towards a more mature audience.
- Manipulative Bitch: Steven manipulates Gretchen into believing he is jealous of her attraction to Hector and that he wants the park to be better, when what he really wants is to take over the park and turn it into an only vampire amusement park. He also tells her he wants her to shine and convinces her to perform in front of the investors so they can see her potential, when in truth he is just using her to distract Francis so he can talk to the investors into making him the new manager.
- Mark of the Supernatural: Gretchen's tattoos represent her high rank as a witch.
- Missing Mom: Hector's wife and Lucie's mom is revealed very early in the movie to have been dead for a long time.
- Morality Pet: Lucie is this to Hector, since her terrified scream is the only thing to snap him out from his rage-fueled mind state.
- My God, What Have I Done??: Hector when he sees how his actions have utterly scared his daughter.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Despite being zombies, demons, werewolves, etc. The monsters at Zombillenium are pretty chill guys who are just doing their jobs, in fact some of them are very friendly. Then there's Steven...
- Not Quite Dead: Hector resurrects as some sort of demon-looking monster.
- Our Monsters Are Different: They are businessmen, workers at an amusement park with a labor union, interns...
- Papa Wolf: Hector is very protective of Lucie, his transformations being fueled by anger and grief over her safety and wellbeing. He flies into a blind rage when her teacher starts verbally abusing her.
- Parents as People: Hector's character is made a widower trying provide for his daughter by throwing himself into work, which makes him too busy to spend as much time with her as he should.
- Parent with New Paramour: The ending implies that Hector and Gretchen are in a relationship, which Lucie totally approves.
- Ret-Canon: The movie came out between the third and fourth book of the comic. Initially meant to be a more faithful adaptation, the screenwriters found that they had a lot of issues with the character of Aurélien, so they altered his backstory and design, gave him a daughter, and renamed him Hector. In the later books of the comics, the movie was included in Gretchen and the park's backstory, with now teenage Lucie having a prominent role and Hector having a couple of cameos, having moved on to the monster corporate world thanks to his demonic nature.
- Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Hector's mood when he hears Steven manhandling his daughter over the intercome. No need to say Steven is in for some epic ass whooping.
- Shipper on Deck: Lucie becomes this for Hector and Gretchen.
- Shout-Out: Sirius is shown in some promotional stills to have a shirt for the band Skip the Use under his jacket. Frontman Mathieu Monnaert/Mat Bastard provides both his voice and the reference for his past living self, and the music video for the band's song "Nameless World" features his backstory.
- Single Specimen Species: Nobody at the park, not even Francis, has any idea of what the heck Hector is after he becomes a monster. At the climax of the movie, it turns out that being bitten by a vampire and a werewolf basically turns you into a Big Red Devil.
- Take That!: The main antagonist of the film is basically an Edward Cullen expy. In general, the movie seems to satirize the trend of sanitized "romantic" monsters as something dull and commercially motivated.
- Token Evil Teammate: The employees of the park actually are all nice people, with the exception of Steven, who is a narcissistic Jerkass who looks down upon other monster races, especially zombies. He is also the main antagonist who wants to take over the park.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Due to the Ret-Canon. The movie is set ten-ish years prior to the comics, but in both, Von Bloodt has been the director of the park for fifteen years (the date of creation of the park being very relevant, as Astaroth was abandoned as a newborn by his mother on the construction site).
- Would Hit a Girl: Steven has no problems knocking down Gretchen to stop her from helping Lucie find her dad.
- Would Hurt a Child: Steven is a bastard who has zero problems with threatening to attack and bite Lucie to turn her into a vampire so Hector doesn't smash him into pieces.
