'8 Wheels of Death' premiere

The credits for “8 Wheels of Death” rolled after 36 minutes, and I sat on the couch with my mouth slightly agape thinking, “What did I just watch?”

The zombie thriller, made by Bloomington locals, seemed to try for the classic, laughable horror film along the lines of “Grindhouse.”

But where you see solid, well-produced short films being made by numerous telecommunication majors, this was not one of them.

The movie told the story of the Bleeding Heartland Roller Girls, a Bloomington roller derby team played by the girls themselves, who turned into flesh-eating zombies.

The disease spread from contaminated Pabst Blue Ribbon into the quarries, where a derby fan picked up the virus. After biting one of the roller girls and a few other fans, zombies started popping up all around the arena.

I couldn’t help but think that, to come up with the lines for this film, writer Tony Brewer and director Chris Rall sat around in a basement coming up with as many death puns as they could.

“Oh, wait dude, I got one,” Brewer might have said. “You guys look like the living dead out there.”

“Yeah,” Rall would have responded. “Totally use that!”

I will admit; it made me laugh. PBR killing people? Come on, that’s funny!

So, if you know anyone involved in the film and want to have a good laugh at them, the movie will premiere at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, followed by an aftershow performance by girl group The Vallures.

Rollergirls eating people; it’s not something you’ll get another chance to see.