Ever think there just aren’t enough musical numbers in zombie films? Or love stories for that matter?

New indie flick Rigamortis: A Zombie Love Story delivers plenty of both, bringing together the disparate worlds of Glee and gore in a 40-minute blast you can watch online for free. (See the first part above; the second and third segments are below.)

Inspired by Joss Whedon’s web hit Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the zombie musical was made with $25,000 in donations and investments as well as a lot of freely given time and equipment. The creators hope to show that it’s possible to make a quality picture outside the studio system, said Jenny Stolte, the film’s co-writer–producer and cinematographer.

“Creating our film the way we did, with the intended distributor being the internet, we hoped to show people that with a not-unreasonable sum of money, you can make a product that is both high quality and entertaining,” Stolte said in an e-mail to Wired.com. “More importantly, we hope to demonstrate that works such as ours can be a success, not only critically but financially as well, even without big names and studios attached.”

It’s the kind of loopy labor of love that thrives online, where fans armed with offbeat ideas and DIY tools can realize their wildest dreams — and share them with the world. Rigamortis gives us a hero in Brock (“a one-man sausage-fest”) and star-crossed lovers in Parker and Zoey (the last two zombies left after Brock’s undead-killing scourge). The filmmakers cram in an impressive amount of comedy, drama, humanity and some of the best zombie musical dance numbers since Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

Despite the fast-and-loose style of the movie, Rigamortis took the creators almost two years to make. The script was written by Stolte and director Dave Dewes before they brought it to Greg Szydlowski, a composer Stolte had worked with previously, to write the music and some lyrics. The film was shot over seven days last October in and around Madison, Wisconsin. The creators spent the next five months editing and adding the visual effects — when not working their day jobs.

The finished product looks incredibly professional, considering it was a largely DIY affair. And aside from the zombies, the flick looks incredibly realistic — probably because it is. Most of the locations are actual places, and the extras were just average Wisconsin folks.

“The town of Cambridge, Wisconsin, bent over backwards to shut down their Main Street and provide police for us to film the opening scene, and several businesses opened their doors to us free of charge,” said Stolte. “Our background dancers, who were all Madison locals, took off work, missed classes and endured freezing nights to come out and be a part of the film.”

‘People need a little silly in their lives.’

To repay all the generosity, the film’s creators are taking donations to pay back Rigamortis investors and give something back to the people who participated in the film.

“Even though what we’ve made is really quite silly and wouldn’t have been given a second glance in the world of traditional media, people need a little silly in their lives,” Stolte said. “We just hope that, in the end, the numbers show that providing them with that bit of silly is financially viable as well.”

[Via Nerd Approved]