What a night! First off, the theater is way deep in the woods. Like, turn right, turn left, turn right, go down the cow path, get out and walk over the hill, slide down the tree swing, and there you are. The lonely American countryside. The only other sign of civilization is the occasional house set far off the road, witch-house dark except for one or two weak lights floating in the night. It's raining like the world's about to end, and we're going to watch a zombie apocalypse movie preceded by a bunch of short horror films. On the way back to the car, surrounded by the dark, rainy stillness of the country, we all fought the temptation to run and scream.
Especially Mrs. RC, who got a bit of a fright during Deadlands. By herself! There's dead Mrs. RC on the screen who -- BANG! -- reanimates. So real Mrs. RC next to me lurches in her seat. Um... Darling, you knew that was coming. I hope. Or have you recently been replaced by a pod person? I can see how that would be scary: "Shit, I replaced a crazy zombie chick. I wonder if these guys sitting next to me know?"
An interesting cultural note -- The Hagerstown 10 theater (linked in RC's post above) is a big horror supporter. The owner is crazy about this stuff. Every Saturday sees a horror movie double feature with some serious classics hitting the big screen. It's 67 miles from DC, but some of the previous double feature billings made me consider Saturday nights at the Super Eight in Hagerstown, drinking myself to death and catching movies that I've never seen in all of their cinema glory before.
Okay, so -- Deadlands: The Rising.
www.playingwithdeadthings.comEveryone in it has poured their hearts out. It has the flaws you'd expect, but these folks just loved the project and that enthusiasm shows. In fact, it shows so much that you can go from start to finish and forgive the flaws. And sit and watch the autograph line afterwards as the DVD's sell out.
And rumor on the street is that big things are happening.
(Speaking of autograph lines: Our little boy RC and his wife showed their coming strength, as well, collecting a line for themselves. I'd say it was their cameo zombie roles, or Under the Bed, but the evening started out with the Womens Studies promo and 150 folks watched that without making a noise. No laughing, no talking, no bobbing heads, nobody running out to get last minute popcorn. Just 150 horror fan faces captivated by the promo. The bobbing heads came after. Gotta see, gotta see.)
