DAY OF THE DAD

Inspiration

"DAY OF THE DAD" is inspired by the iconic zombie films of George Romero and the legendary practical effects work of Tom Savini. The project pays homage to the analog VHS aesthetic and the wild energy of trash B-movies from the 1980s and 1990s. The main goal was to recreate authentic zombie visuals and atmosphere, channeling the spirit of cult classics and video store horror.

What it does

This short film delivers a raw analog horror experience: authentic VHS-style zombies, campy visual language, and plenty of references to classic trash cinema. "DAY OF THE DAD" transforms familiar genre tropes into a new fever dream full of “dad energy” and retro apocalypse.

How we built it

Solo production: Every step—including creative concept, Midjourney mood boards, video editing, color grading, and sound design—was completed independently.

Visuals & research: Custom mood boards in Midjourney using a hand-curated zombie dataset, referencing VHS covers and 80s/90s iconography.

Editing: Manual color grading, film grain overlays, intentionally “imperfect” transitions, and extra trash aesthetic tricks to maximize the B-movie impact.

Challenges we ran into

The hardest part was sorting through a huge library of zombie visuals and selecting the scenes that perfectly matched the analog vibe I wanted—choosing the best clips took more time than the technical work itself. Achieving true VHS authenticity required careful iteration and genre research.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I’m proud that every aspect—from zombie design to trash stylization—turned out exactly as envisioned. The work fully captures the nostalgia, fun, and genuine weirdness of lost 80s and 90s horror, making every shot feel like a rediscovered tape from the video rental era.

What we learned

With the right dataset and references, Midjourney mood boards are great at capturing vintage style and atmosphere. Solo production forced creative problem-solving—balancing humor and homage, embracing genre “flaws”, and finding art in camp. Genre research and analog techniques pushed me to rethink AI-assisted filmmaking beyond just modern effects.

What's next for DAY OF THE DAD

The goal is to launch a full series: analog horror episodes of 12–20 minutes each, expanding the universe, characters, and VHS-trash adventures. With enough funding, “DAY OF THE DAD” can become a retro cult classic, bringing even more dad jokes, zombies, and B-movie nostalgia to a wider audience. I also hope to involve the community—inviting crowd-sourced “dad horror” stories and exploring deeper analog effects as the project evolves.

Built With

• 4.0
• hailuoai-minimax
• kling-ai
• photo-ai
• prompts:
• seedance-wan-2.5-upscale:-topazlabs-(gigapixels
• seedream
• video-ai)-voiceover:-elevenlabs-music:-suno-v5-image-generation:-midjourney-v7-character-creation:-flux-1.dev-editing:-google-nano-banana
• video-generation:-higgsfieldai