Crypticon and Horror and Such
Had a great time at Crypticon Seattle this past Saturday, despite only being able to go for a short time (sorry if I missed anyone). To explain, we have a yearly garage sale, that’s become a big family thing and I accepted the invitation at Crypticon prior to our city declaring a date for the citywide deal, that combined with Father’s Day swept the weekend and the con up in a perfect storm of bad timing.
I was happy I got to hang, albeit briefly, with S.G. Browne and read him unedited shit-because for a while he was the only person at my reading. It was a bit weird to read from Flaming Creatures since it’s still evolving, but I wasn’t unhappy with the chapter and reading it aloud gave me tons of ideas for making it richer and more textured (which is to say, more vulgar and piss-stained). Also met Robert Elrod, who does these really awesome Monster portraits, like the one Caroline had done for Christmas. Robert was fantastic and gave me this awesome original piece…which I foolishly mistook for the gravedigger in Salem’s Lot instead of American Werewolf in London.
Thought it was interesting that people on the zombie panel thought that the original Dawn of the Dead would hold up and draw the current youth of America into the genre. At an earlier panel, a 13-year old expressed that he loved horror as a result of the Nightmare on Elm Street remake. When asked about the original, he said it was laughable. The effects were very important to him. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the original DAWN, but I ask, does it hold up for a generation reared on frenetic video game play and realism on film?
I went through stills to try and make my point and found these two.
Now. Both have their faults. The first is the remake, clearly. And while at first glance, the make-up seems well done, the running zombies apparently don’t rot on their bellies. Likewise, in the 70s only heads turned blue and not hands. Seriously, though. If the kid laughed, and not in a this-is-hilarious-camp kind of way, at Elm Street, is he likely to be won over by Romero’s blue zombies? Doubtful.
Along that line, though. Night of the Living Dead holds up tremendously due to the black and white film. Very forgiving. It makes me think that when I’m out and about and come across someone who’s colorblind, I might actually be totally hot in their eyes.
What? It could happen.
Originally published at Mark Henry. You can comment here or there.