Andre Kriegman (born July 17, 1982) and Calvin "Cal" Gabriel (born February 5, 1983) announce their intention to attack Iroquois High School, where they are both students,[3] calling their plan "Zero Day". Both teens are extremely troubled, Cal suffers from depression and suicidal ideation and Andre is a violent and hateful individual. The majority of the film is portrayed through their video filming camera, and shows them documenting their planning and preparation for the attack, while hiding it from their friends and families.
Other scenes show the two attending Andre's birthday party, egging the house of Brad Hoff, and Cal going to prom, while Andre closes up and works at a pizza establishment. In one video entry, Cal notes the origin of the name "Zero Day": when Cal and Andre originally planned to attack the school on the first day that the temperature would drop to zero degrees Fahrenheit, after they had finished their preparations. However, this only occurred once, during which Andre was sick, and they set May 1, 2001, as the new date. Wanting their attack to have a memorable name, they agreed to keep the original title.
The two arrive at school on May 1 and prepare their plan and weapons in Andre's car. Andre says that he could never have carried out Zero Day without his partner Cal's help, a sentiment that Cal echoes. The video camera continues to film as they both run into the school through its west entrance, armed with a large number of firearms stolen from Andre's father and cousin, including both handguns and long guns, as well as homemade explosives and knives. The massacre is shown through the viewpoint of several security cameras throughout the building, with audio of a 911 dispatcher playing in the background, who is attempting to persuade the two out of the attack and into surrendering peacefully. The dialogue is heard via the cellphone of student Omar, who was shot and killed.
Shooting at anyone they see and threatening and taunting several witnesses, Andre and Cal killed eleven students, and one school resource officer. They wound eighteen others.[3] Eventually, the two see law enforcement surrounding the school after fourteen minutes of the incident in progress. After debating over whether to exchange gunfire with police, the pair decide to commit suicide by gunshot inside the library of the school.
Nine days after the shooting on May 10, a group of teenagers film themselves driving to a memorial for those slain in the attack, including Andre and Cal. The group finds the pair's wooden crosses, before subsequently setting them on fire and swiftly escaping the area.
The director of the film, Ben Coccio recalls that he was in a pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York, just finishing his first 35mmshort film, on the day of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, and saw coverage of the event on the eatery's television, commenting, "I remember thinking that I was surprised that it hadn't happened sooner." Coccio was also struck by the extent to which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planned that shooting, compared to the impromptu crimes of passion that typified other school shootings. Coccio became eager to address a story in a way that was very different and not exploitative, and drew upon his own views of high school as a place of tension where "anything could happen at any time". Coccio felt as if it had to be "done just right." He continued, "if it turns into a oversimplified polemic or melodrama, then it’s worse than making a bad movie—it’s taking a dump on someone’s grave." Coccio's theory of student school shooters is not that they are the most bullied, as such students tend to develop feelings of inferiority and are likely to harm themselves. Coccio feels that shooters tend to be students with feelings of superiority, and that "when other people don't confirm that, it really gets under their skin."[2][4]
While working at a temporary job in March, 2001, Coccio almost died during a car crash. The experienc gave him the motivation to make the movie, "If I want to make a movie, I'd better make it, because tomorrow may never come". The idea of the video camera came while Coccio researched further into the Columbine High School massacre, where he discovered Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold recorded part of their preparations for the massacre through a video camera. Coccio started writing the script in April, and shooting for the film began in July, and ended in October.[4]
None of the Connecticut high schools where he sought to film the movie would allow Coccio access, and he ended up using the interior of a building at State University of New York in Purchase, New York. The "appropriately fortress-like" exterior of the High School was New Milford High School in New Milford, Connecticut, where Coccio lived at the time.[2]
When casting, Coccio inquired at high schools throughout Connecticut looking for teenagers interested in acting who might not have much or any professional experience. Coccio had three days of open auditions. Andre Keuck responded to an ad Coccio placed in Backstage Magazine and brought his classmate and fellow theater enthusiast Cal Robertson along to the audition. Both boys had acted in Shakespeare productions at the Stratford Avon Theater in Stratford, Connecticut. They were encouraged to improvise throughout the film's production.[2]
Website
An official website was made as a tie-in to promote the film, made to look like an official police report by the fictional "Essex County Sheriff's Department" on the event, describing details about the massacre that were never seen in the final film and glimpses about the perpetrators, the weapons used, and mentions that the movie actually consists of footage sent at the request of Kriegman and Gabriel's parents to an amateur filmmaker friend.[3][5] The website is now archived by use of the Wayback Machine, although some features pushing the narrative that it was real have been lost.[3][non-primary source needed]
Reception
Zero Day has received mostly positive reviews from critics, currently holding a 68% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 41 critic reviews.[6] Despite the positive reception from critics and audiences, Zero Day was a box office bomb, gaining only $8,466 against a $20,000 budget.[citation needed]
At the 2002 Denver Film Festival, Coccio took part in a panel with Michael Moore, director of Bowling for Columbine, Paul F. Ryan, director of Home Room, and Tom Mauser, father of Columbine victim Daniel Masuer. During the panel, Mauser campaigned against the gun show loophole law in Colorado. The discussion also brought up violent films. According to Coccio, Mauser would watch all these films and would endorse them, saying, "it's a good thing people and artists and filmmakers are exploring this subject matter, we should all explore this subject matter". Mauser did not comment specifically on Zero Day, Coccio speculated, "what he thought of my film I don't know, but if I had to guess I would think my film probably distressed him. But as I say, he endorsed these films across the board, which was a brave thing to do".[7]
Discussing mental illness and its portrayal in films, Alyssa Miller, a writer who writes for the site 'Scriptophobic.ca', wrote that "director Ben Coccio created a perfect portrayal of psychopathy in character Andre, who does not have remorse for the things he does, even if they are done to people close to him". On the other hand, Alyssa continues, "character Calvin, Andre's accomplice, is more of a sociopath due to his visible remorse towards the people he cares about and his reckless disregard for his own safety".[8]
Home Releases
Zero Day would receive it's first DVD release in Japan on November 25, 2004, by Orustak Pictures. The release did not have a Japanese dub, only Japanese subtitles.[9]
↑Mitchell, Wendy (June 19, 2003). "Atlanta Fest Awards Top Prize to Benjamin Coccio's Teen Drama "Zero Day"". IndieWire. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 20 February 2025. The 27th-annual Atlanta Film Festival wrapped its nine-day event on Saturday, with Benjamin Coccio's "Zero Day," about two violent teenagers, capturing the grand jury prize.
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