Back tracking to Wednesday, the Necrophobia premiere finally went down. It was fun, albeit kinda rowdy and uncomfortable at times (and not in a good way...people need to learn to respect the fact that they aren't the only ones watching the movie. Assholes). Anyway, the whole thing was kinda ruined for me because, due to technical difficulties, the new Closet Space trailer didn't play prior to the show. It sucked even more that people asked about it afterward....people that were actually looking forward to seeing it. Well, it didn't suck that they wanted to see it, but you know what I mean. Anyway, it kind of set me up in a sour mood for the rest of the week - probably because I worked a sleepless night to cut it, but more likely because I deliberately cut the new trailer with a lot of dialogue at the beginning so that I could listen to my audio engineering work in a large room to see how it sounded. So, for those of you that might think the new trailer is long-ish, there's an actual reason for it...but fuck you anyway for not having an attention span. If you want to see a music video, go watch MTV. Wait, they don't play music videos anymore...
Anyway, so then I had to prepare for Fear Fest this past weekend. Dwayne and I drove up on Friday to set up our table, and after a little bit of craziness and disorganization we got things figured out and got our spot. Friday night started out slow, but the Closet Space trailer was working its magic. First of all, we were right across from a "Smokeless Tobacco" booth manned by young, cowboy types. Nice guys, but not really horror fans (their words). Still, they could not take their eyes off of the trailer, even after about the 100th time it played. And, each time when the gory stuff would kick in (especially Evan's neck-bubbling), they would all cringe, gasp, or look away, only to quickly look back. One of the dudes said that I fucked him up for life. Mission accomplished. Okay, so I've got Joe Public...what about the horror fans?
Friday night was actually pretty damn productive for us in that regard. Several people stopped to watch the trailer and were visibly blown away. I like to sit back and watch their faces as things happen on screen...I can usually tell exactly what part they have just seen even if I can't hear the soundtrack. Most everyone had the desired reactions...a few of them even shaking their heads in disgust and walking away...which is ALSO a desired reaction. We had a couple of Ain't It Cool News guys watching the trailer and loving it, as well as fellow filmmakers, but my favorite quote came from a 20-something female horror fan. After standing transfixed for both trailers (I had the 2nd and 3rd cut playing on a loop), she turned to me and said:
"I want to see this movie. RIGHT NOW."
That was awesome, and made everything worth it for me. I high-fived her and gave her my assurance that we'd screen it in Dallas sometime soon after it's done. Then after that, Joe (Wrong Turn 2) Lynch talked us into attending the screening of The Funhouse. That was pretty fun, even though guest of honor Tobe Hooper had cancelled. The fact that Lynch, Ryan (Abominable) Schifrin, Adam (Hatchet) Green, and John (Feast) Gulager were there pretty much made up for it. I don't even necessarily like all of these guys movies (haven't even seen some of them yet), but the solidarity and support is awesome, and everyone seemed to be having a blast.
Here's the table (with Melanie):
The good vibes continued throughout the weekend, and many more people were turned on to the tentacley madness that is Closet Space. I got lots of positive comments on the acting, cinematography, music, and subject matter...lots of "I'm glad it's not a slasher film", "It looks awesomely disturbing", and "Thank god you did lots of practical FX". Melanie and I also lucked into doing a couple of podcast radio interviews with the guys from Pop Syndicate:
The interviews were extremely fun, and they want to have us back around when the movie actually is released, so we look forward to it.
Saturday and Sunday, Melanie signed and posed for a bunch of photos....I signed a few autographs, we raffled off another signed CS poster, and lots and lots of people asked me about
At the convention I met quite a few people who don't seem to be drinking the same cinematic Kool-Aid that both horror fans and the general public seem to be imbibing lately (well, for a long while in some cases). It was refreshing to talk to folks that thought 300 was just "eh...", that were worried/depressed about Rob Zombie's Halloween, that see Grindhouse as not necessarily a watershed cinema moment, but a fun experiment for a specific niche audience, and that weren't really fans of Italian horror. Yeah, I said it. I hate Italian horror movies (with the notable exceptions of Bird With The Crystal Plumage and Deep Red). So fucking sue me. If anyone replies to this with that "look at the colors and mood in Suspiria" bullshit, I will personally come to your house and put a steel-toed Dr. Marten in your crotch.
But...you know, that's what's beautiful about the best films of the horror genre. You have lots of disparate viewpoints and tastes, with (hopefully) no one trying to parrot or rip off anyone else. Anyway, it was fun to rant and argue with people who knew their shit.
So...now I'm back at home doing the movie edit thing again, and laying plans for a few different things to come in the few months, so stay tuned. Closet Space goes off to the composer very soon (like today or tomorrow), so that process will be started shortly.
Back to the edit...
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