Steering away from my Memoirs of making a movie, I thought I'd write about other stuff too.
I grew up in the eighties. Apple Computers were just introducing the Macintoshs. Izod and his gator were sporting their bright pink shirt and getting away with it and Reagan was running a stunningly peaceful country with the exception of a slight cold war with the USSR. It was good times and great entertainment.
I was watching Miami Vice and Cheers on the television and hitting the theatre for Raiders, Star Wars and even snuck into Platoon. I was also going to my friend, Russ Russells house a lot on the weekends and pulling the sleepover. We were good friends and he had twin sisters that were hot and flirted with me a lot so I was always enjoying a chance to go over there. I saw many of my most influential movies of my life with my buddy, Russ. There were the Goonies, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, The Temple of Doom, Pretty in Pink and yes, his sisters even got us to Dirty Dancing, (which Im still not ashamed to say I loved.) He, also at his house had what they called a HBO Box. Back then it wasnt really a household name. It was an expensive form of not having to go to the theatre and was a little more expensive than it is now. Never the less this piece of machinery contained R-rated movies in it. And after dark on Saturday nights, you could catch movies like My Bloody Valentine, Near Dark, Cujo and Halloween. I was never affected by the rabid dogs, zombies, psycho-horror movie genres, but at the sight of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, or Freddy Krueger, I would deficate myself everytime. Russ lived in his basement. I guess thats where all boys with basements live. I wouldnt know and honestly after a night of HBO After Dark in Russ basement, Im glad I didnt. The first encounters of the slasher flick genre were a back-to-back dose of the drowned and deformed boy, Jason. It was Part 2, followed by the Final Chapter, meaning I never caught the transition between the bag and the hockey mask. That night it didnt matter. As I tried to sleep on the couch down in that dark, quiet, basement, I could not stop seeing Jason popping out of the dark with that terrifying bag on his head. I had two choices: Run upstairs and sleep with his sisters and totally embarrass myself, plus ruin my aura I felt I had built with them or just stay under that cover, listening to Russ snore, hoping my homeboy Voorhees would get him first. After that night, for seven years I would never go back in the woods alone. I had no problems before and honestly, I still can get creeped out in the perfect situation now, but after the scars of the first HBO After Dark healed, Russ and I were back in the ring and I mean, every other weekend I was spending the night and we were getting horror movied up. My parents were completely against me seeing these movies, so I had to keep my excitement, fears, and reasons of why I always wanted to spend the night over there to myself. We indulged ourselves on Michael Myers, Killing Santa Claus, Freddy Kruegers, men with womens skin on their faces and any others they would show. We did it all and everyone scared me even more.
The horror movie craze subsided as Footloose, Dirty Dancing and lighter movies of that genre made their debut. I will completely admit that I own both of those movies,(well, I did, until some closet queer bag, stole them from me.)
I am thirty years old and still have my Friday the 13th Marathon weekends. I have traveled to Lake Lure and found every location set that was used for Dirty Dancing. These kind of movies still take me back to a time less trying and simple. The adventures in the Goonies, I wish I could experience still today, but I know that will not happen, but maybe some how I can relive it in a movie. Maybe.
The four states surrounding North Carolina, have small towns USA throughout their landscapes. Little towns that resemble Crystal Lake and Astoria every twenty miles and man Id love to capture a small 80 esque film in one of each of those places.
About six years ago, I was in one of my moods and started thinking about what films would be like in late 2000. Would there still be a retro fill or would it be more state of the art, new shit and a fuck the old bastards kind of attitude? I thought, would it be possible in this days economy and marketplace, to shoot a small $2 million dollar slasher flick in small town America? I mean, of course, slasher flicks have been demoted to B grade cinema, which is fine, but instead of hacking an already done slasher flick, what if you created your own slasher and shot it as if it were the eighties. Twenty years later, would it be hip to shoot a slasher flick in the woods or old town suburbia, and make it look and feel like an eighties film. Would it be possible not to stylize and schmancy up the story, effects, or weaponry? Would it be possible to make it that way and let your audience know, thus being innovative?
Six years ago, I also wrote a treatment for this movie, but thats a different story. Ill get to that in Chapter 2.
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