My Favorite Movie to Watch During Pride Month is Full of Zombies, Love, and Rock ‘n’ Roll
“Love has no borders, nationalities or genders!”
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I’ve watched Wild Zero many times over the years. It’s not a movie that I only watch during Pride Month in June, I love it any time of year, but it is one of the first films that I always think about when Pride Month comes around. Why? Allow me to explain.
Many Ways to Tell a Good Story
There have been many horror movies throughout the history of cinema that tell LGBTQ+ stories. The genre is well-suited for the subject matter thanks to its frequent explorations of otherness. Even in eras when it wasn’t as acceptable in the mainstream view to tell explicitly queer stories, you can still find plenty of queer-coded horror movies and characters.
Now look, I love a complex story as much as anyone. Give me layers of metaphors and allusions that subtly express the emotions of a horror film’s characters and themes, and I’ll be happy. I Saw the TV Glow (2024) comes to mind. That’s an amazing film that, if you get it and you connect with it, can resonate on a level that you didn’t know existed.
But I also grew up loving a much more blunt and in-your-face style of storytelling. Horror movies where blood and guts and violence are the main draws, and stories are told with straightforward plot lines and simple ideas. I don’t think of these types of movies as “lesser than.” All horror is beautiful, and sometimes being blunt is the best way to get a point across. That brings me to Wild Zero (1999).
Wild Zero is Never Subtle
Wild Zero is not a subtle movie. It’s filled with explicit gore, zombies, UFOs, bursting heads, and plenty of explosions. The overall story line is as basic as this: Aliens come to Earth and cause people to turn into zombies, so a bunch of people fight to survive as day turns into night.
At the center of the action is Guitar Wolf, a band (Guitar Wolf is also the stage name of the band’s leader, along with Bass Wolf and Drum Wolf) who play incomprehensibly loud music and fight in the name of love and rock ‘n’ roll. Guitar Wolf meets various people throughout the movie, eventually bringing most of the survivors together in a final fight against the zombies and UFOs, or against each other when necessary.
I’ve been a fan of Guitar Wolf for a long time, so when I found Wild Zero sometime in the early 2000s, I knew I was going to enjoy the movie regardless of how good it was. I expected to like it, but I didn’t expect to love parts of it.
Wild Zero is About Love
One of the parts I really love in Wild Zero is its love-story plot thread. Specifically, the love story of Ace and Tobio. Ace is a Guitar Wolf superfan and a wannabe rocker. He has the motorcycle, the leather jacket, and the hair, but he doesn’t quite have the attitude when we first meet him. [Spoilers ahead!]
While on his way to a Guitar Wolf concert, Ace accidentally stops a robbery at a gas station by opening a door and hitting a guy holding everyone up. The robber flees, and Ace hangs around to make sure that a soft-spoken woman named Tobio is okay. She is, and Tobio and Ace make an unspoken love connection before he rides away.
As events unfold, Ace ends up reuniting with Tobio and saving her from a zombie attack. They find shelter in an abandoned building, but when Ace sees that Tobio is a transgender woman, he doesn’t react in the most positive way. Ace leaves to wallow in self pity, but when he’s at his lowest, Guitar Wolf appears to him as if in a vision of clarity.
Pointing at Ace and literally shouting at him, Guitar Wolf exclaims, “love has no borders, nationalities or genders!” Ace is still slow to fully get it, and in the time it takes for him to decide to go back to Tobio, she has already wandered away.
It takes another shouting pep talk from Guitar Wolf, but Ace finally accepts his feelings and finds Tobio. Defying the odds and horrible death, Ace proclaims his love for Tobio, and they kiss as Guitar Wolf cuts an alien mothership out of the sky with a sword he pulls from his guitar. It’s about as perfect of an ending as there is in cinema.
Sometimes Subtlety Isn’t Necessary
I know there are more nuanced portrayals of love in other movies, but for me, Wild Zero is the best. Or, it’s at least the most satisfying.
I mean, it’s not complicated. Love is love, and people in the LGBTQ+ community should be free to live as they are without judgement or persecution. Many people get that, but some people, like Ace, need to have it shouted out loud for them to understand. And if that sentiment of love crossing all borders, nationalities, and genders comes from a rock ‘n’ roller like Guitar Wolf who is known for being extremely loud, then so much the better.
