CO-DIRECTOR AARON TRUSS DISCUSSES ZOMBIE FILM ‘EMPLOYEE OF THE DEAD’

IT IS NOTABLE FOR STARRING ROB KNOX, WHO WAS TRAGICALLY MURDERED IN 2008, AT THE AGE OF 18

The 2008 zombie student short film Employee of the Dead on YouTube, and you can watch it for yourself in the player below. The film was written and directed by Aaron Truss and James Shovlar, and it is notable for starring Rob Knox, who was tragically murdered in 2008, at the age of just eighteen. Knox also played Marcus Belby in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released in 2009, the year after his death.

Employee of the Dead focuses on two supermarket workers (played by Joe Acres and Todd Stammers), as they work through a gruelling night shift while being berated by their overbearing manager, who is played by Knox. However, things soon take a turn for the worse when a zombie outbreak suddenly occurs, leading the workers to resort to desperate measures in order to survive the night. Truss himself also shows up as a supermarket worker who meets a grisly end.

As you can see, Knox delivers a hilarious and memorable performance as the overbearing manager throughout Employee of the Dead, and the young actor would probably have gone on to become a major star if his life had not been tragically cut short. Truss and Knox had been friends growing up, and they would no doubt have collaborated on more projects in the future.

Truss also produced Employee of the Dead through his production company, Q Cumber Films, which seems like an appropriate name when you see that a cucumber was used as a weapon against a zombie in the short. In the years after the short was produced, Truss went on to direct a number of other projects, including an acclaimed short film called Pareidolia and a documentary about Knox called (K)nox: The Rob Knox Story. And Truss is also heavily involved with The Rob Knox Foundation, a charity serving young people which was established in the late actor’s memory.

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