This is a big year for Fantastic Fest! The genre film festival is turning 20 years old and to celebrate, we’re highlighting the women who have made the festival special. Today, we’re shouting out Zombieland‘s own, Emma Stone!
Stone went to Austin, Texas for the premiere of her film Zombieland there, which she stars in with Austin resident Woody Harrelson. The movie is a fun take on the zombie genre with Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) telling us how to survive. Never forget the double tap. But what makes Zombieland one of the best movies is that it mixes comedy with horror in a perfect blend of the two genres, making it perfect for Fantastic Fest.
Harrelson, Stone, Eisenberg, and director Ruben Fleischer all at attended the 2009 premiere at the festival and Fleischer would go on to direct one of our favorite genre bending movies (here’s looking at you, Venom). But Stone’s work in Zombieland is still some of the best of her career.
In her early work, Emma Stone leaned heavily into her comedic chops. With movies like Superbad and Easy A putting her in the mainstream, it took films like Zombieland to show how she was willing to take risks with her work. Her character Wichita is caring, especially for Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), but also fierce and really badass.
Zombieland was before movies that are now Emma Stone staples and so Fantastic Fest was really celebrating one of our best stars before people knew just how talented she was. We’re talking pre-Easy A and long before Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man movies! La La Land was nowhere on the horizon and that’s pretty rad!
And hey, it helps that Zombieland is still herald as one of the best horror comedy movies around. I, unfortunately, will never look at Bill Murray the same again.
You can check out our first spotlight of Festival Director Lisa Dreyer here. Fantastic Fest is returning to Austin this September!
(featured image: Fons PR/Fantastic Fest)
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