What would you do in the event of a zombie apocalypse? Would you traverse the country looking for a safe place to hunker down? Maybe scavenge for food? Or would you just chill in your luxurious LA home with your best friend and ex-girlfriend, ordering takeout, and watching Waterworld? Not a bad way to spend the rest of your time on Earth, right? Well, in a similar vein to 2004’s Shaun of the Dead, this is exactly what Mike Castle, Oliver Cooper, and Taylor Blackwell did in the new zombie comedy As We Know It.

As We Know It is a delightful buddy comedy packed full of ’90s pop culture references. Its punchy jokes and absurd moments of comedy are all elevated by a fantastic comedic cast with infectious chemistry. While no one can deny the fact that As We Know It is a zombie film, it primarily focuses on themes of “love, loss, friendship, and heartbreak,” as stated by the film’s director, Josh Monkarsh.

MovieWeb recently sat down with As We Know It’s writer, and director, Josh Monkarsh, who talked about his admiration for his cast, ’90s nostalgia, and his inspirations behind the movie.

Josh Monkarsh’s Inspirations
As We Know It Release Date November 10, 2023 Cast Oliver Cooper, Pam Grier, Chris Parnell Rating R Runtime 84 min Genres Horror, Comedy
As We Know It oozes with homages to films like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. However, As We Know It wasn’t always a zombie film. Monkarsh commented, “Originally, I optioned the script-from a UK-based writer. And this was, I want to say, five or six years ago. It was still called As We Know It, and there were still the nuclear aspects of it, but there were no zombies.”

“I remember speaking to the writer, Christopher Francis, and we were kind of throwing out some ideas,” added Monkarsh. “I told Christopher, ‘I gotta really think about this, and how we’re going to make this a little bit more commercially appealing.’ Because when you’re dealing with a story that’s just like the impending nuclear apocalypse, it’s tricky,” said Monkarsh before getting into his love for zombie films. “I thought about it for like a year. And I’m a huge zombie film fan. So by that time, I was watching a lot of very different types of zombie films, like Warm Bodies, and Zombieland. And the idea was, ‘How do I kind of create the perfect storm?'”

Related: Best John Hughes Movies, Ranked

While the inspirations from other zombie films are apparent, it wasn’t necessarily Monkarsh’s favorite zombie movies that served as his biggest influences here. “I would say there are definitely zombie films, like the ones I just mentioned, that were inspirations for the zombie aspect of it. But in terms of the core dynamic between the three leads, that’s more kind of a John Hughes-type inspiration.” He says As We Know It nods to “the ’80s classic tales that I grew up on, where you have these kinds of friends and these obscure incidences and obscure surroundings. And so that was like a perfect storm of those two worlds, essentially.”

Kevin Costner and Waterworld
Buffalo 8

One of the more memorable moments of As We Know It is when Oliver Cooper and Mike Castle sat around watching Waterworld and engaged in their love for the film, calling it “Kevin Costner’s best film.” However, Waterworld wasn’t the movie that Josh Monkarsh and his writer Christopher Francis intended to include in the film:

It’s funny, originally, like in the first draft that Christopher wrote, it was Timecop. And we just had some issues with clearance. Because apparently it’s owned by five different entities. And so, we were like, ‘Is it worth chasing down all these different entities? Or, let’s look at some other options.’

Monkarsh then went on to state how they came about the Costner film. “We were really lucky that Universal owns 100% of Waterworld. And they were so cool about licensing the footage to us for the amount of time that you saw it on screen.” Waterworld wasn’t the most beloved film with critics, but it’s since found love with audiences, despite its quality. “Obviously, it’s controversial to say that you like Waterworld. But it’s a guilty pleasure. I would say, if I’m just chilling on a Sunday, and if it’s on, I won’t turn it off, right?”

As We Know It’s Great Cast
Buffalo 8

Starring the likes of Oliver Cooper, Mike Castle, Taylor Blackwell, the hilarious Chris Parnell, and even the legendary Pam Grier, As We Know It has a phenomenal cast. When asked how difficult the casting process was for the film, Josh Monkarsh said, “For me, as a filmmaker […] what’s on the page is one thing, right? What’s in your head is another thing. But, when you actually have to put it all together, it’s tricky.”

Oliver Cooper, who plays James’ eccentric best friend, was one of the major highlights of the movie. But as Monkarsh soon points out, Cooper had a much bigger role to play in terms of the film’s production. “So Oliver Cooper,” he began, “was a mutual friend of mine. And it was a phone call and basically, I’m like, ‘Look, dude […] this is you. You are Bruce.’ He read the script, and we kind of spit-balled some ideas back and forth for his character, some changes that he would want to make, [and] we implemented those changes. So Oliver was very much involved in this movie from […] the conceptual stage, at least towards development.”

Monkarsh continued:

“Mike and Taylor were cast later. Taylor was cast first, and Mike was after Taylor. And I would say […] based on the Zooms, that the chemistry was there. But it’s hard, because you don’t know until they actually meet each other. You have no idea […] It’s tough. You can’t actually arrange for meetings without a formal offer. And so it’s tricky. It’s like a crapshoot. So I had to kind of bet on the odds, and I feel like it paid off.”

Related: 10 Best Comedy Movie Casts, Ranked

With a cast full of comic talent, you can bet that there were plenty of moments where actors went off script, spit-balling their best improv. Monkarsh spoke about his experience directing a cast full of comedic actors, proclaiming that the actors did “a little bit of both” in terms of sticking to the script and venturing off into improv. “I’m pretty lax when it comes to improv,” he said.

“The way I look at it is, these characters that are written on the screen, it’s so black and white and 2D. But what [the actors are] bringing is 3D. And that has to basically be a duplicate of themselves. And so, if Ted Summers is written one way, but Chris [Parnell] wants to deliver it the other way, then I’m definitely not going to stop him. Especially if he’s riffing and feeling it,” continued Monkarsh.

“I would say we kind of have the script as a good foundation for the characters, and how far [the actors] could push it,” added Monkarsh, who mentioned that the majority of footage they used in the final cut was improv. “So much of the stuff that we actually ended up keeping was improv. A lot of the Chris Parnell, Oliver Cooper final credit roll scene was 100% improv.”

’90s Nostalgia

Full of references to home videos, landlines, phone books, and memory boxes, As We Know It offers an immersive ’90s nostalgia trip for audiences, as well as Monkarsh himself,

I grew up in the ’90s in LA. And it’s a very nostalgic time for me, and I just remember certain memories and kind of trinkets from my childhood, like the Memory Box stuff.

Monkarsh continued, “Also, when it comes to the ’90s, there was no — unless you’re talking about the late ’90s — there were no real cell phones. And so I wanted to eliminate tech in that sense. And like, when you’re shooting a movie now, it’s almost impossible not to integrate cell phones and smartphones. So I was in my mind thinking, ‘Yeah, the 90s are great.’ But it’s also amazing because we don’t have to worry about cell phones. And you also combine the fact that James is an antiquated guy — it kind of worked a little bit better,” Monkarsh concluded.

It worked out pretty well. From Buffalo 8, As We Know It was released November 11th in limited theaters.