The Bats Have Left the Bell Tower

This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

It's funny when my day job and my side hustle overlap. I get asked to be on a lot of searches because I have a good eye for talent, even if I am bad at other things.  One thing I do on searches is google the names of finalists to see if anybody has said or done something bad that's been left lying around on the internet (and I have found a surprise or two, from time to time). 

But suddenly I'm finding out a lot of people have been in b-movies.  Here's the trailer for one you can rent on Amazon Prime right now but this one seems lost to the ages. 

I think a lot of people like to be around the excitement of the movie business, It can be an absolute grind, though, which is why I think it's funny that viewers think filmmakers set out to make "intentionally bad" movies. I tell anyone who asks, don't start a movie you don't want to live with for at least a year.  It's so hard, so ridiculously hard, to make any movie, I can't see any reason why somebody would want to make a bad one.

I was on a podcast last Friday where I talk a ton about filmmaking, and a surprising number of people have already watched it; you can check it out here if you missed it.

Kind of puttering around on writing, but I am proud of a two-part story I did for the Weekly Spooky podcast, Calamity Jane vs Dracula.  After writing Calamity Jane's Revenge (now free on Tubi), I had a dream I wrote this and was in a movie lobby waiting for it to start.  I've thought a lot about that dream over the years and felt it was time to bring it to crazy reality.  

A few things percolating and I hope I can report back soon.  Thanks for sticking around.

I'm On A Wavelength Far From Home

This post first appeared in my newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

Easter has come and gone, always a busy season for me.  It's when I get on social media and interact with all of the people watching PETER ROTTENTAIL.  For something I wrote back in the early 2000s, it has just hung around and hung around.  It's fun to see.

It doesn't hurt that now you can watch it for free on Tubi.

If you want to add more spirituality to your Easter viewing next year, another movie I wrote, NOAH'S SHARK, is free on Tubi now too.

Man, Tubi, I tell you what.  Not that long ago I didn't know what it was, and now almost my entire career is on there (including what I thought was a lost movie I didn't get a credit for writing!).  A lot of people are saying it's now the go-to place to see independent movies and it's hard to argue the point.  What I like to do is type a word into the search engine, like "Amityville" or "Zombie" or "Ninja" or "Scarecrow" or "Massacre" and just click through a bunch of stuff and get the ebb and flow of it.  It's a fun exercise to sort of get the juices flowing.

We are all trying to figure out how to get the machine running again in the movie world, even way out in the hinterland where I am.  I am still quietly writing away, and maybe yet this year some of the fruits of that b-flavored labor will be out in the world.

I'm even falling behind on my annual goal of reading 50 books a year, but one I've read this season-- THE HEAP by Sean Adams--is a book I can recommend to people who like my stuff.

Hopefully will have some news to report soon, but until then, best to you all and thanks for sticking with me.

Top Ten Reads of 2021

In another bad year, I had a good reading year, with a lot of great choices below.  Here are my Top Ten books, in a year where I passed by goal of 50 and hit 64.   Enjoy!

RAZORBLADE TEARS by SA Cosby

STILL LIVES by Maria Hummel

ZERO ZONE by Scott O'Connor

UNDER THE HARROW by Flynn Berry

THE RESISTERS by Gish Jen

HARLEM SHUFFLE by Colson Whitehead

THE KILLING HILLS by Chris Offutt

THE GUIDE by Peter Heller

THE BODY SCOUT by Lincoln Michel

THE MISSING AMERICAN by Kwei Quartey

To Get A Jolt From My Electrodes

Happy Halloween, all. If you haven't picked a movie for tonight, you can find several I have worked on, on various platforms, for free.

THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE (writer/director): https://tubitv.com/movies/512259/the-girl-in-the-crawlspace?start=true

SCARECROW COUNTY (writer/director): https://www.amazon.com/Scarecrow-County-Iabou-Windimere/dp/B096VR4G62/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=scarecrow+county&qid=1633130749&sr=8-2

AMITYVILLE ISLAND (writer): https://tubitv.com/movies/566011/amityville-island?start=true

SHARK ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (writer): https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08HMVS445/ref=atv_sr_def_c_unkc__24_1_4?sr=1-24&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B08HMX1KGV&qid=1633130933

JURASSIC PREY (writer): https://tubitv.com/movies/525848/jurassic-prey?start=true

RAZORTEETH (writer): https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08W8DHVHX/ref=atv_sr_def_c_unkc__8_1_8?sr=1-8&pageTypeIdSource=ASIN&pageTypeId=B08W8Q94W6&qid=1633130872

PETER ROTTENTAIL (writer): https://tubitv.com/movies/581566/peter-rottentail?start=true

Bonus movie I wrote if you don't like scary movies, CALAMITY JANE'S REVENGE: https://tubitv.com/movies/455264/calamity-jane-s-revenge?start=true

Enjoy!

For my own viewing, I didn't get to see a lot of new ones, but I did finally face my childhood fears and watch PHANTASM.  When I was a teenager, my friend Eric Mayse (who would later, famously, be sculpted as this action figure), described the plot to be in such a way that I was too terrified to watch it.  And that was a terrible oversight, as it is a crazy, dream-like film that would have appealed to my teenage sensibilities back in the 80s.

Along those lines I also watched CENSOR, which is about a British censor in the early 80s watching "video nasties" and recommending cuts, even as her personal life starts to unravel.  

And even more along those lines, my old b-movie pal thought I would like BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW, and he was right, a movie set in the 80s about a young psychic being held prisoner in a weird institute.

So if you like my movies, any of these three are worth a look.

A movie I wrote, NOAH'S SHARK, is supposed to street next week, so I will report back when I see it, though I assume it is crazy.  My good friends at Film Scene screened it a few weeks ago, but I unfortunately had car trouble on that very day and couldn't make it.  I would have liked to have known how it played.

Have a good Halloween!

Talking in Our Bed for a Week

This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

I was as surprised as anyone when my new film SCARECROW COUNTY hung on for four straight weeks in the Amazon Hot New Releases in Horror.  Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy or has seen it on some other platform.

And I was extremely flattered by this interview and review of a film I wrote, SHARK ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, by the British website The Schlock Pit.  I am appreciative that the people there give thoughtful attention to the b-movie world, and are good writers to boot.

They used just a few snippets of an interview about the writing of SHARK ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, so I thought I'd share the whole of what I wrote back when they asked a few questions via email, probably more than they wanted to know.

Mark had asked me to write all the scripts for a three-movie deal with Wild Eye that all already came with titles and basic descriptions; the caveat being is that he needed all three in six weeks. I'm to the point in my career where if I write something for somebody, there has to be a reason; and I have always been interested in director Thomas Carr, who once shot 6 b-westerns in 30 days (I wrote about it here), which I think not enough has been made of. So I thought this might be a neat challenge.

I had NEVER written this fast in my life; typically I can write a full script in three weeks, if I'm pushing it. I think I worked on these an average of 10 days each. They were written at a fever pitch and honestly I didn't remember a lot of detail until I saw the final product, and even then wasn't sure what I thought up and what Mark added.

Rewind to when I wrote my first movie for Mark, AMONG US, and he had a three-picture deal afterwards and asked me to write all three in a year, and I wasn't sure I could write three movies in one year! In that case I rewrote two and then wrote a third from scratch.

The first was PSYCHO CLOWN, which was turned into PETER ROTTENTAIL. I took John Polonia's handwritten script and rewrote it as I was typing it into a screenwriting program. Next I did a rewrite of RAZORTEETH, then my original script was DEMONS ON A DEAD END STREET which remains one of my favorite scripts but didn't get made.

PETER ROTTENTAIL has been rated one of the worst horror films of all time by Nerdly, and Fangoria did a whole podcast dedicated to it; as well as all the people who watch it on Easter every year. RAZORTEETH disappeared almost without notice; and frankly, which is worse? To me, at least, it's the latter.

So for this new trilogy of scripts: AMITYVILLE ISLAND was the easiest of the three for Wild Eye; I had written a movie for Mark a few years before called DOCTOR ZOMBIE that had not been made, but I noticed had a lot of similar beats as the Amityville premise. It was heavily influenced by Mark's love for ZOMBI 2 and TOMB OF THE BLIND DEAD with my own interest in LUST FOR FREEDOM thrown in. So I knocked that together quickly and it has been noted by reviewers that it has a little of everything, and all of it crazy, as I intended. I wrote another one whose title I will hold back as it hasn't come out yet, but it was full of time travel and dinosaurs and alternate timelines and I had a blast with it. My favorite script of the three. I hope it streets yet this year.

ALIENS VS SHARKS (the original title) was the hardest to get my mind around for some reason so I saved this to write last. But once I got going it started cooking, and again I don't exactly remember writing it. In fact I went back and read the outline before responding to this email. It came with a four-page outline with a lot of the beats, mostly the effects that were going to be made or on hand, and a little bit of story. I made the Jenni Russo character a therapist when she was a photographer in the original, because I wanted to include an alien abduction storyline; I think the other characters were pretty much as presented in the outline. I thought the treasure hunters were a neat touch in the original. I thought the movie was very ambitious, but especially the third act, which I thought was going to be too much to get on screen in a workable way, so I toned it down quite a bit. My ending, which featured a group of teens on the beach Frankie Avalon-style inadvertently re-starting the whole mess, was not used, and I think the whole part with Dave Fife was created so that Mark could work with Dave before he moved. I think I had somebody quoting a lot of Shakespeare which was cut out, understandably enough. Otherwise, by and large what I wrote is up there, for better or worse.

It's funny now, but I can see the seeds of my own later movie, THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, in this script, including the therapist and the character obsessed with westerns. I always try to hang my stories on things I was interested in, and one in this case is a lawman who is basically on his last day on the job and isn't going to be a lawman any more, and what that means. Honestly, I had also buried a family cat in my back pasture and thought it might be a good set piece for a movie, and that's in there, too. Just all the flotsam and jetsam you pick up through life, interest in culture, interest in other people. Whether people see it or not, I try to put in elements that might resonate with someone besides aliens shooting rayguns or whatever. I think Jennie Russo and Titus Himmelberger are both enjoyable in this. I thought Titus gave his lines an especially eccentric read and it turned out like I hoped. Jeff Kirkendall is good as always. I try to write for the people I know Mark is going to use, but sometimes he changes it up or introduces somebody new, so it's always a nice surprise.

I think when you have a movie titled ALIENS VS SHARKS you are either in or out when you hear the title, and the rest doesn't matter. You are going in it to have a good time. So for this kind of movie, or all three of these movies, I like to try to make them funny, with a lot of nods to horror fandom, lots of energy and outlandish situations and characters. I'm not sure every viewer is in on the joke, but that's what I hope. I think the biggest thing to note is that I have never been involved with a movie that comes from cynicism; these kinds of movies are made by people that love the genre for people that love the genre. Horror fans, by and large, are the most loyal and devoted and will follow you where you want to go, whether you have the money to make the trip or not.

I badly want to see THE SUICIDE SQUAD for my upcoming birthday but I think I'm not going back to the movies quite yet.  I will, however, watch the Mooreland Fair Parade, which leaves tomorrow from my large side yard (as agreed to when we bought this place) and shoots straight down the road a mile to the fairgrounds.  It's always fun to tailgate with the grandkids and check out the fire trucks, floats, and horses from up close.

It seems like we took one step forward and two steps back; hope all is well with you and yours, and thanks for reading.

Blackbird in the Barn

This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

My second film SCARECROW COUNTY hit DVD on Tuesday, and as I have always done when something I wrote or directed comes out, drove around looking for it.  I am still working from home in a pretty rural area, so I didn't have any luck at local stores, but pictures from all around of my movie in WalMart started showing up, which was flattering to see. 

 And thank you to everyone who has purchased it from Amazon.  It has cracked the Top 50 New Releases in Horror, which is great since some Godzilla movie and some movie about being quiet are perched at the very top.

My movie's producer Henrique Couto has a fun podcast called WEEKLY SPOOKY, and he hit me up last week to write about that long-ago ancient world before air conditioning called the 1980s, during which time I was alive and a teenager, so I knocked out a quick one in that grand old style of a bunch of counselors under siege by a nutcase at a ramshackle old summer camp.  You can listen to it here.

I'm going to leave you with this curiosity; a custom action figure by MCWF Customs based on a movie I wrote called SHARK ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, which had the more introspective title SHARKS VS ALIENS when I wrote it.  If you missed the trailer, check it out here.

Until next time, thanks for following along and let me know if you see my movie SCARECROW COUNTY in the wild. 

Four Walls

 This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

Timehop showed me this image just the other day; that brief, shining moment when I had four movies I'd written in Family Video at the same time; especially memorable to me in that writing HAUNTED HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW and JURASSIC PREY is what coaxed me back out of self-imposed exile, because I really wanted to write a movie called HAUNTED HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW and I really wanted to write a stop-animation rubber dinosaur movie.  Working with friends Henrique Couto and Mark Polonia was also a bonus.

My latest for Mark is DUNE WORLD, which I wrote in quarantine and is already out.  One of my favorite things is when I write a script that gets turned into a movie that gets turned into a tee shirt, and it's happened more often than one might think.  

It is obviously a mockbuster, but it's more Philip K. Dick and Samuel R. Delany than Frank Herbert, with a coda from the Strugatsky Brothers.  I finally had a chance to see it, and was happy to see director Mark Polonia really leaned into the psychedelic sci-fi elements.  Who knows what the world will think of this one.  The trailer is here.

It is leaking out there that I wrote a movie for Henrique Couto called JESSE JAMES UNCHAINED and after a few COVID-related fits and starts over the last year or so it finally wrapped in Ohio.  I worked as a Production Assistant two days on set--one very cold, one very hot--and it was neat seeing it come to life.  I got to be there to see scenes with John Hambrick and Rachael Redolfi, who appeared in both of my films, and work with some people who crewed mine as well, Eric Widing and Buck Marinara.  I had forgotten it is more boring to PA than to direct but it was fun to hang around anyway.
There's more coming.  I believe three more I have written over the last few years are in post or completed.  One is going to be announced pretty quickly, I think, and is for an established b-movie director I had not written for prior and always wanted to.  Could be a big year for releases.

As the doors slowly open up again everywhere, I was happy to see my old friends at Film Scene back at it. I hope to return to Iowa City one day with another film but until then will happily rep this shirt they sent me.

The Midnight Hour live horror podcast invited me to be interviewed on their show which I only agreed to when I learned it started at 10 p.m. and not midnight because I'm in bed by then.  They said they have a lot of questions for me, which actually worries me a bit.  You can check it out here July 25.

After a year of driving the highways and byways hunting Little Free Libraries to stave off the isolation, somebody went and put one in my town, just a half mile away.  Check it out if you are ever around.

Our summers on the Back Five are full of projects and weekend trips.  Hope you are enjoying yours, and thanks for sticking with me.  More soon.

Somebody Holds the Key

 Timehop and Facebook Memories are showing me production photos of both THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE and SCARECROW COUNTY, which I shot in the same week one year apart in 2018 and 2019 (which happened to be spring break from school).  It's like looking at vacation photos, you remember all the fun parts and forget the parts where your feet hurt and you were hungry or tired or you were crabby with someone.

But tonight at 11 p.m. EST I am really going to have to pry out some more memories, as I was asked to join Film Scene's Late Shift at the Grindhouse for a virtual screening of SCARECROW COUNTY with running commentary from me, right here on Facebook Live.  SCARECROW COUNTY debuted at Film Scene in Iowa City in 2019, so I am so glad to be asked to be a part of their programming in some fashion.

I did live commentary with them for THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE about a year ago, back when I thought I was going to be working from home for a few weeks, now coming up on a year March 13th.  I thought it was a fun idea to patch us over to when we could be there in person again, and here we are doing another one.  But my number came up in the vaccine lottery in Indiana, so it won't be long now before the mind turns to new things.

Just grabbed some new pullets Monday to add to the flock, so spring is in the air, and hopefully more good things.  I hope all of you are well and thanks for reading.

Crossroads Seem to Come and Go

This blog post originally appeared, in a slightly different form, in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.  

It was a year ago today that my debut feature THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE hit WalMart and Family Video nationwide.  It was such a memorable day that has obviously been eclipsed by the smoldering dumpster fire that was just on the horizon.

Just the day before that, I had been driving back from Chicago for my day job and had decided to visit Family Videos along the way to introduce myself and ask if they were carrying the movie.  The people there were to a person very kind and excited for me.  I'm sorry to see Family Video go.  Even at the time, it seemed as if they were closing faster than they could stock my movie.  But it was always fun to find movies I wrote there--I once had four I had written in Family Video all at once--and it was especially a thrill to see one I directed there.

Since THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE had already hit streaming, I didn't think it popping up at WalMart would be that big a deal, but my social media went crazy that day with people from all over the country sharing photos that they had purchased it somewhere.  I'll never forget that.

It didn't hurt that my friend Henrique Couto, who DPd my movie, had his own effort OUIJA ROOM street the very same day at WalMart, with some of the same people in both.  Check it out, if you haven't.

And if you didn't catch mine yet, people are now sending me pictures of it at Dollar Tree, or if a dollar is too steep, you can see it for free on Amazon Prime and Tubi.  I'm glad it's still out there and still getting seen and reviewed--no less than Film Threat, a magazine I have read for many years, gave it a look recently.

I think I used to recommend a book every month in my newsletter, and I don't know if I am exactly starting back up again, but I've got one for January I just read:  it's Zero Zone by Scott O'Connor, which is the kind of book I like; it takes place in 70s LA, and is all about art and movies and sort of a doomsday cult.

I've been reading and also giving books away, after seeing an article about Little Free Libraries.  I found a map of them online, and now on weekends my wife and I have been driving all around Indiana and parts of Ohio seeking them out and leaving books.  

I've lost track, but I'm guessing we've visited more than 50; we had one long day we hit 15 and then the last time we went driving we hit 16.  It's something to go out and do safely that might help somebody else, and helps fight cabin fever--we were both sent home from work for a couple of weeks almost a year ago, and are still hanging in from home.  

Hope you all are safe and well, and thanks for reading along.  Talk soon.

Best Reads of 2020

 Passed my goal of reading 50 books in 2020 and topped out at 66 in a strange year.  Here are my favorites, if you are looking for a new read.

The Black Jersey by Jorge Zepeda Patterson

These Women by Ivy Pochoda

Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby

The Last Weynfeldt by Martin Suter

The Fragility of Bodies by Sergio Olguin

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel

Winter Counts by David Heska Wambli Weiden

Red Dust by Yoss

The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Philippe Blondel

Enjoy!

But Instead It Just Kept On Raining

This post first appeared in my eNewsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

I hope my e-newsletter finds you all well.  It's been a long while, but that goes without saying.  I don't have anything to add to the discourse, as I don't know how to make a dumpster fire into a risen phoenix.

It seems quaint now, but when I sent my last newsletter in March, I had just canceled the first weekend of shooting for HIS WIFE MY KILLER at the last second, and I mean the last second, as I had already bought the lunch meat for the first day's sandwiches.  I thought, as it turned out correctly, that I could have gotten the first weekend of shooting in, but would have been under restrictions for the second.  And I would have been sitting here today with half a movie, which I honestly think is worse than no movie at all.

It seems a long-ass time ago, but around then my first movie, THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, had just dropped in Walmart and Family Video and a ton of other stores nationwide, and I had been tooling around finding it places.  Back then Family Video stores seemed to be closing faster than they could stock my movie, but I talked to a lot of store managers around my neck of the woods about it, which was fun.

If you haven't seen it yet, it is still free on Amazon Prime, and also free on Tubi.

Speaking of Tubi, my second movie SCARECROW COUNTY also landed there ahead of the physical media release, so dare I say 2020 wasn't all bad, as both my movies came out this year.

Strange but true, but two movies I wrote, AMITYVILLE ISLAND and SHARK ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, also came out this year.  Both are available streaming, although only the former is free.

I wrote these in a white heat some while ago, when I actually penned three movies in six weeks, and I can't recall much about writing either one of them.  As many reviewers have already noted, they are both deliriously crazy, and I can't argue the point.

My freelance output hasn't been much during this time.  I was sent to work from home for three weeks, nine months ago, from my day job in marketing and communications for a regional college campus.  Since then we have been the main window into the campus, though press releases, social media, live Facebook and Zoom events, and more; unlike a lot of people, I have been fortunate to actually be busier during this time than if I was back at the office.

So I haven't been able to make the sourdough starter and other things cooped up people have done.  I have cartooned a little, and started building Gundam models after a friend gifted me one.  We bought a camper in case we need to stave off of the Apocalypse and have enjoyed that, including an outdoor (cold but fun) camping Thanksgiving.  My wife has been teaching from home, at a different university, and it's been nice to have lunch together every day, after working at campuses 50 miles apart for the last 15 years.

I wrote two scripts; one a science fiction adventure and one a western.  The western had started shooting under the direction of my old friend Henrique Couto, but like everyone else in our industry the production had to take a time out when they struggled with COVID restrictions (and weather).  I'm not sure about the fate of the other.  But that's the nature of the beast right now, perhaps even more so.

I haven't been able to get the machine running for myself writing-wise, and I'm not sure when it will be safe to ramp up HIS WIFE MY KILLER again.  We shall see.

It is extremely weird to write this, as when I lay it all out and read it I think I had my best year as a screenwriter and filmmaker.  And yet. 

When we talk about the first thing we will do when it's all over, if it is truly over, I always say I am going to make my (regionally) famous beef brisket for my extended family, who I have seen only in small doses in exterior settings (so much so that my two-year-old grandson calls our camper 'Nana's House').  If I could George Bailey this noise, and have all my movie stuff never exist and instead be making that beef brisket today, I would take that deal.

But as I said when I got my emergency root canal and crown a month or so ago to end 2020 in style, it's not the crown I wanted, but it's the crown I was given.

I promise I won't be too long before I write again, because I always like to share my favorite reads of the year, and I have read some good ones, including one I'm half through now. 

Until then, thank you for reading and sticking with me and I truly wish you all well in this time.

Well When This Train Ends I'll Try Again

This post first appeared in my eNewsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

It seems quaint now, but a week ago I was really debating about canceling the first weekend of shooting for my new movie HIS WIFE MY KILLER.  I was having a number of cast and crew people from Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and Dayton reaching out, including someone whose family member was currently being tested for Coronavirus at an area hospital.  I went ahead and pushed the button on canceling and felt pretty low about it.  But so much closing in rapid succession afterwards really overshadowed that, obviously.  I really thought we could get the first weekend in, but that things would change so rapidly we wouldn't be able to get in the second, and I was right.

I don't talk much about my day job in my newsletter, only my side hustle, but I work at a regional university in communications and marketing, with about five percent of my job in emergency management.  Suffice to say that changed to 95 percent emergency management overnight and I am finishing my first week of working from home for the near future and being on Zoom and Skype calls five or six hours a day.  There's a lot to talk about and think about but I don't know if I have anything to add that hasn't been said, but would just say be safe and be careful, all.

When you make a b-movie you go to war with a group of people and can really bond with them, and I have seen very little like it, except when I have been in a play, or worked in live television.  But maybe working with my day job team on this has been close, though not by choice.  I hope you can rally your own squad, personal or professional, whoever they are.

On the other side we will reschedule the shoot, and you'll be the first to know.  Best wishes you to all.

Half My Life is in Books' Written Pages

 This post first appeared in my secret eNewsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

The last time I sent a newsletter was the morning my movie THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE streeted on DVD.  I genuinely thought it would pass without notice; I felt when it hit streaming, especially Amazon Prime and a few other platforms, that was where the most interest would be.  But I was wrong.  

All day long that day, and in the days that followed, I was getting pictures and texts and DMs and emails from all over the country where people found copies of THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE in WalMart.  If I had known how much I would need to respond to that first day I would have taken the day off, as my phone literally chattered all day with hundreds of notifications and messages.  It was a very heady day in what has been a wild experience, with the movie getting a much wider release than I anticipated in streaming and physical media.

I think one thing that helped is that Henrique Couto's OUIJA ROOM streeted on the exact same day, and Henrique was offering a deal at his webstore for people who bought his movie at WalMart and took a picture with the receipt.  A lot of people picked up my movie too, and I think some that went looking for mine got his also.  His movie was shot first, features a lot of the same cast, and Henrique DPd and produced mine as well, so there was a lot of synergy in promoting these two in one swoop.

Thank you to everyone who picked one up that day and in subsequent days, whether you sent me a photo or not.  

When you have something going, everybody asks you what you have going next.  And I do have something, an exclusive for newsletter subscribers.  Starting next weekend, and throughout the month of March, we are girding up for a new thriller, HIS WIFE MY KILLER, the third film under the Midwest Film Venture banner.

This feature will once again feature my friend Henrique Couto as producer and director of photography, and will have some new faces and some familiar ones from previous films.  Here's a synopsis:

Trond is a film composer who is unlucky at love, so he tries a website featuring Eastern European women looking for marriage.  But when Oja arrives at his door, mayhem ensues.  Trond's first wife, their college-aged daughter, and his best friend all get caught up in the maelstrom.  

We are doing a little pre-shoot next Saturday, then shooting solid the next two weekends, then doing a pickup day on the last Saturday of the month.  It's going to be full blast, and you can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,and if I'm not too tired Snapchat.  I'm @johnoakdalton all of those places.  

My main thing I promised myself was no more cold weather shoots, and it looks like it will be in the 50s at least part of the way, which means it looks like I will be sort of keeping my promise to myself.
 

And lastly, longtime newsletter readers know that I like to keep a "secret soundtrack" of songs that inspire me when I'm writing a movie, any one of which the rights to would cost more than the movie.

So here is the first look at the "secret soundtrack" for HIS WIFE MY KILLER to give you some ideas about what I was thinking:

Fox on the Run, The Regrettes 

Imaginary Lover, Atlanta Rhythm Section 

For the Love of Money, The O’Jays 

Where is the Love, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway 

Ain’t No Sunshine, Bill Withers 

Can’t You See, The Marshall Tucker Band 

Cinderella, Firefall 

Tuesday’s Gone, Lynyrd Skynyrd 

He Stopped Loving Her Today, George Jones 

Dream On, Postmodern Jukebox 

Keep your eyes peeled for a lot more updates this month, and thanks for following along.

Tuesday's Gone with the Wind

This post first appeared in my secret e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

Last Friday I had a chance to go to the Indiana University Cinema to hear Jim Jarmusch talk. He as an absolutely formative director from my early years of interest in cinema; STRANGER THAN PARADISE had a lot of influence on me, but MYSTERY TRAIN and NIGHT ON EARTH are two later, great movies, and I would recommend GHOST DOG: WAY OF THE SAMURAI as an entry point to anybody.

He said so many things that hit me right where I live:  that there are as many ways to make movies as there are movie directors, but there is only one way for a director to direct an individual actor, that a movie will tell you what it wants to be.  He talked about how you had to be interested in all different subjects to make your movies interesting.  He had a million stories about moviemaking but one of my favorite things he said was that, no matter the state of the world, his memories of the movies he's seen can't be taken away from him.  I have said forever, to make a good movie you have to come from a place of honest appreciation of movies; if you come from a place of cynicism, you'll get found out by the fans.  I got a tremendous charge from this trip.

Yesterday I was driving back from work meetings in Chicago and passed a Family Video in Frankfort, Indiana.  I thought I would stop and see if they were going to stock my movie THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, which streets everywhere today.  It hit streaming platforms in October, but I'm old school, and was eager to see it on the shelf somewhere.

They actually had it, but had not shelved it yet, and let me take a picture without asking why, though I eventually told them, and they vowed to promote it.

It was a dizzying and humbling feeling to hold this movie for the first time, in a rural Indiana video store along Highway 28.

About 30 minutes later I passed another Family Video in Elwood, Indiana, and they had it too, and the staff there was very friendly and excited for me.

I think this is everything I hoped would happen; that the movie would appear on the shelf in small towns and all the highways and byways in America.  Because I hope somebody like me will see it, and be inspired to make their own movie.  Even if they see it and think "I can do better than that," as my wise old b-movie friend Mark Polonia says, if someone says they can do better than you, it means they can learn from you. 

And now it exists and is out loose in the world for real and for true.  If you see it anywhere, please send me a picture, or post one and tag it.

It's a long road.  I starting shooting at my own house with a group of friends and a handful of favors in March 2018.  Again, it is a humbling experience to see it exist now.  But if it wasn't feeling humble, all I have to do is remember this picture, from my first day of shooting ever as a director, wearing my sweatshirt inside out.

I have some news coming soon, and I promise my loyal e-newsletter people will get to read it first.  Until then, thanks for being there.

Another Year Over, A New One Just Begun

2019 was quite a year of ups and downs, like I am sure it was for most everyone.  I sold both my movies intro distribution after shooting one in 2018 and a second in 2019.  But I also had a couple of health scares, the first since I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes in 2014 and set out to go down four pants sizes.  I had emergency gallbladder surgery and then had a chronic bladder infection I couldn't shake.  But all ends well.

I think it was the author Sherman Alexie who said if you can take the good and subtract the bad and still smile you are doing okay, and I agree with that.

My public resolutions for 2020 are to keep an eye on my health, shepherd my kids and grandkids as best I can, continue to work on my creativity, plus one or two private ones.

2009-2019 is a large chunk of real estate to get my mind around.  In 2009 I made a big mid-career change and left IT/television and went into marketing and communications at a midwestern regional college.  I have had a tremendous ride during that time with a lot of successes.

I decided to use that as an excuse to walk away from screenwriting, but it never left my mind, and a few years later was back writing a handful of movies for directors Mark Polonia and Henrique Couto.  In late 2017 I decided to make a leap and direct my first feature, which we shot in March 2018.  It is dropping next month on DVD but can currently be streamed on a number of platforms, which exceeds my expectations for a movie I shot at my house.

Both my kids got college degrees, and my wife got her MFA in creative writing and a professorship.  Both my kids got married and I have three grandkids, with promises made to each that I will try to live a while longer.

I bought what I hope is my last home, on five acres in a rural area, and built a chicken coop there, and living this way keeps me grounded, I hope.

This may have been the decade with the most changes in my adult life, but I have a feeling the next one may be even more so, both good and bad.

I wish the best for my loyal readers in 2020 and beyond.

Feed Your Head, 2019 Edition

I read 63 books this year; I struggled a bit to pick a top ten, but my top five all blew my mind in different ways, and could be recommended to anyone wanting a fresh read.  Enjoy!

Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Easy Motion Tourist by Leye Adenle

The Ready-Made Thief by Augustus Rose

The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag

 Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Big Sister by Gunnar Staalesen

My Sister is a Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris

Orson Welles's Last Movie by Josh Karp

'Neath the Cover of October Skies

This post first appeared in my secret e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

I've just wrapped up four weekends in a row of screening SCARECROW COUNTY, from Iowa City to Englewood Ohio, and it was a fun run.  We averaged 25-50 people at each screening, and it was a good mix of cast and crew, old friends and new, fans and (I hope) newly-converted fans.

The most interesting Q&A was probably in Iowa City, where discussion ranged from Ursula K. LeGuin to Steve Alford, but the best audience reaction was at the Englewood Cinema, where somebody yelled "KILL HIM!" when the scarecrow began chasing Jeff Rapkin's character Cotton.

In the middle of all this, SCARECROW COUNTY got picked up for distribution, and more details on that will be available soon.

And also in the middle of all this I had an infection that sent me to the hospital for a day.  This caused me to cancel my trip to Columbus Ohio to give a screenwriting talk, which I was deeply sorry for, as I was looking forward to that one a lot.  And I'm on my second round of antibiotics trying to kick it, so between good times and bad I didn't get to all of my October challenges.

We only saw a handful of horror movies, but my running away favorite was the zombie movie THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD, if you haven't caught that one.

I only got in a handful of #inktober sketches as well.  My most popular sketch--as voted on by Facebook and Instagram likes and comments--was this "dream team" Fantastic Four line-up I revisit every year.

I don't think Cecilia Reyes ever had an X-Men name, but the others are Black Goliath, Power Man, and Deathlok, squaring off against Moebius the Living Vampire and Bloodstorm, an alternate universe version of Storm, and who wouldn't want to read this comic?

I've been poking around on some short stories for my pal Henrique Couto's podcast WEEKLY SPOOKY, and the first one aired last week; you can listen to I SAW THE DRAGON here or here.  I originally called it I DREAMED I SAW DON "THE DRAGON" WILSON if that tips you over into listening to it.

Trying to get the machine running on whatever is next; thanks for sticking around until then.

Two of Us Sunday Driving, Not Arriving

This blog post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

We had the World Premiere of SCARECROW COUNTY at Film Scream, a dusk-to-dawn horror movie marathon, in Iowa City and it went great.  Henrique Couto's movie HAUNTING INSIDE played after mine, and we both took questions and ran a merch table in between shows.  We were treated like kings by the staff there and very graciously by the patrons.

The new Film Scene theater is one of the top-flight venues I've ever seen, and if I lived five or six hours closer I would probably go see movies there a couple of times a month.  I felt way too low-class when we rolled up to the place but felt at home by the time we left the next day.

Before the screenings we were taken to an excellent vegan restaurant and got to wander around a cool area nearby called the Pedestrian Mall.

My Q&A, as well as questions after, were highly interesting to me, being able to see my "Hoosiersploitation" feature through other people's eyes.  One question:  was that a real one-room library in that town?  Answer:  yes, that was the real Parker City Library.  Another question:  were the streets really that empty or did you keep people off them?  Answer:  sadly they were that empty.  Question:  Is high school basketball really that popular in Indiana?  Answer:  DID NOT DESERVE AN ANSWER.

The question that floored me the most was when someone came up after and asked if I intentionally had the town librarian (played by Chelsi Kern) reading Ursula K. Le Guin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS in the library, and I told that person I 100% did, and in fact Chelsi's character read it in THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE as well.  The book was highly influential in writing both movies and I was glad to have a chance to talk about it with someone.  It's a little detail I didn't think anyone would notice.

I think I have mentioned before that I have given my leads a book at the end of principal photography on both movies, and THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS is the one I gave Chelsi.  In fact she is reading the copy I gave her (my own copy is in my former movie).  After THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE I gave Joni Durian another Le Guin, THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, if that gives you any clues about that movie.

Drove all day, slept a couple of hours, drove straight back, but really worth it to be introduced to a new film experience and a new group of film lovers.

Next screening is Farmland Indiana this Friday, at the Community Center where a lot of SCARECROW COUNTY and a bit of THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE was shot.  I expect this to be almost a "friends and family" show with a lot of the cast and crew in attendance.

In the midst of all this, THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE dropped on Amazon a week ago today.  Typical of my glamorous Hollywood lifestyle, I was washing dishes after dinner when my phone started buzzing with texts.  I quickly found out that CRAWLSPACE had dropped on Amazon, Vudu, FandangoNow, and XBox, with more to come.  So I immediately went and fired up the TV and found it on streaming, and had this very strange feeling of sitting on my couch in my living room in the midwest looking at the movie I shot in my living room in the midwest.

Loyal readers, I have one small favor to ask.  If you have seen the movie, please go to Amazon and give it a rating and/or review.  It means a lot to independent filmmakers like me as it will encourage others to give it a try.

Thanks so much for reading, and see you out there.

Friends in Low Places

Getting ready to set sail on a midwestern tour with SCARECROW COUNTY over the next several weeks and thought I would drop a quick line to let everyone know when and where we will be.

Friday October 18th we will be at the dusk-to-dawn Film Scream event at Film Scene in Iowa City.  SCARECROW COUNTY plays first at 8 p.m. and I promise to try and stay awake until midnight.  This is the World Premiere of the film and I am super eager to be there at this cool venue.  Henrique Couto's OUIJA HOUSE (shot as HAUNTING INSIDE) is playing right after mine and we are going to drive out there together, which could probably be a movie in itself.

The next Friday, October 25th, we will be at the Farmland Community Center in Farmland Indiana, where a chunk of this film was shot (and a good portion of THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE).  This will be the Indiana Premiere and I suspect a friendly crowd.

Wednesday October 30th I am going to serve as a dire warning to other screenwriters during a presentation at the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, Ohio.  No screening but I will be talking a lot of trash.  This is being kindly hosted by the Central Ohio Group for Screenwriters.

On Friday November 1st the Morrisson-Reeves Public Library in Richmond, Indiana is hosting a screening with a Q&A from me afterwards, and I'll try not to get my library card revoked.  

TV Horror Host Baron Von Porkchop and Cult Cinema Dayton are hosting the movie at the Englewood Cinema in Englewood Ohio for its Ohio Premiere on Saturday November 9th.

If you haven't seen the movie by then, you probably don't want to see it, but we can still be friends.

There's been a lot of neat advertising from a lot of nice people for these events, but this one from the public library is my favorite as it riffs on the VHS nature of my movie, and thus has a place in my heart. 

See you out there, and talk soon.

The Moon a Phantom Rose

Slipped over to Dayton to sign some more of the Special Edition DVD/Blu Ray combo of SCARECROW COUNTY ahead of Cinema Wasteland this weekend.  You can grab one there, or right here.  The brand-new trailer is here. 

The Grand Tour

THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE is hitting the film markets with another new poster.  It  is on its way to the MIPCOM broadcasting trade show in Cannes, repped by ITN, and we made it to the front page of the email blast and the fifth page of the catalogue, with this new art.

Never Had To Battle With No Bullet-Proof Vest

I haven't sent a newsletter all summer, and I guess my only excuse is that my summer kind of drifted away.  One morning early this season I woke up vomiting with what felt like a hot knife under my ribs.  Shortly thereafter I was standing in the emergency room and they were handing me a gown.  The next day I was short a balky gallbladder.  Then came a few weeks where I couldn't even walk my dogs or pick up my grandbaby, a terrible way to live.

But all of a sudden I have had to jump back on the train, or it would leave without me.

ITN Distribution has my first movie, THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, at the Toronto Film Market, and here is the brand-new cover art for it.  I think it really jumps out, and I hope people like it.

That was two days ago, and then yesterday ITN dropped the trailer. I thought their take on it was interesting and again I hope others feel the same.

It looks like I have one more screening of CRAWLSPACE at the end of September, courtesy of the Chicago Horror Society (details forthcoming) and then I'll be full-bore promoting my second film SCARECROW COUNTY.  We are setting a goal of finishing it up by the end of September to be ready for a big convention and spooky fall screenings.  I believe I have a pretty cool screening locked up for the world premiere, and another one back at the Farmland Community Center where we shot two days on SCARECROW COUNTY and one on CRAWLSPACE.  Two or perhaps even three more I can sniff in the wind, so if you live in the midwest you should have every chance you could ever want to see SCARECROW COUNTY out in the wild.

After this, it's always best to have a couple of things brewing, and I do, and you hope and hope and some things fall by the wayside and once in a great while something takes off.  Everybody thinks they are going to retire and write a book or make a  movie or take up painting and it will all be there in front of them, but it's work and it's catching lightning in a bottle to make something happen, and then to do it again and again.

Today is my birthday, and when I turned 50 I took the day off and took myself to the movies, and it was very luxurious, so I have been doing it ever since. I don't know if there is anything in particular I want to see, but I have an interest in eating an Impossible Whopper, so if I can find one, I might do that. There is a screening of READY OR NOT right at high noon and I hear good things about it.

The last couple of years I have walked my dogs past a graveyard down the road, just to keep things in perspective, so I might do that as well.  I'm not sure that it's a coincidence that me and two of my most frequent collaborators--b-movie directors Mark Polonia and Henrique Couto--all live within walking distance of a graveyard.

Since I am taking the day off, when I got to work yesterday I got a super nice surprise and early birthday present from friends and colleagues. This is the framed movie poster THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE undoubtedly stolen off the wall during its screening at Film Scene in Iowa City by my pal Jason. I loved this retro poster they did and am flattered to have this framed copy that several people chipped in on to have done up nicely.   I think they wanted me to hang this in my office, but then I would have to explain it to unsuspecting ordinary people, and I try to keep my higher ed day job and b-movie night life separate as much as I can.

My wife asked me if I were going to make any birthday resolutions and I think all my resolutions take the same shape--watch my diabetes, try to help my children and grandchildren as much as I can, try to be a good partner and friend and colleague, keep working on projects.  I have had versions of these same ones for a long time and they ain't a bad list of things to try and be good at.

The poet (not the actress) Maggie Smith once said, "For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird."  (You can read the whole poem here).  That really struck me as the truth but I think it's important to remember that the world is full of small kindnesses and it's best to try to stand on that side of the line as much as you can.  Another smart person said to me recently "give yourself permission to rest" and that kind of pulled me up short.  So I'm taking today and this long weekend to do so, I hope.  Then I'm going to try and wing my way into Fall with my flock.

Thanks for sticking with me, and more details on both my movies are coming soon.

This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

But Your Mind's on Tennessee

I was very flattered to have THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE part of a movie marathon for Indie Horror Showcase at the Danbarry in Huber Heights, Ohio.  There was a warm crowd of cast, crew, friends, and (I think) receptive strangers.  It was my first screening at an actual movie theater and, having not viewed it since Christmas, nice to see with fresh eyes.

My second feature SCARECROW COUNTY is winding its way through post and I'll give you more news as soon as I have it.

Say what you want about GAME OF THRONES, but as my wife pointed out, it shows that we as a people still want and need good storytelling (and shared cultural experiences).  For my part, I thought it started literature-sized and ended up kind of television-sized, for what that's worth.

But the best thing that happened is that in between Sundays I watched Season Three of TRUE DETECTIVE.  Sometimes I binge on a day of SyFy movies or some guilty pleasures from my Netflix queue and wonder where all that screenwriting money is that got thrown on the ground.  But when I watched this past season of TRUE DETECTIVE I felt unworthy.  From the opening shots--which, to me at least, were a riff on Chester B. Himes' novel BLIND MAN WITH A PISTOL--to the very last shot, where our tarnished hero goes off into the jungle, and the jungle of his mind, I thought it was great writing and storytelling.  So if you haven't shut off HBO yet--we haven't, because we are waiting for the DEADWOOD movie--then there you go.

I guess there is a lot going on with the WGA and I am trying to follow it all on Twitter, but it's sort of like following a far-off war in a country I'm never going to visit.  In the meantime I am sitting at a little handmade desk that a large animal vet used to work at, early in the morning, listening to a spring thunderstorm growling through my five acres and petting a scared dog, rattling around in my skull what I might do next.

Thanks for hanging around until then.

This blog post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

One Last Bell to Answer

This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP.

Finally wrapped for well and for true on SCARECROW COUNTY Saturday night in Dayton, which started with a scene where the actors use a Ouija board to summon a scarecrow, as one does, and ended with a surprise blast of ice and snow on the way home.

This cold open (so to speak) for the movie features Joe Kidd and Iabou Windimere, a real-life married couple who were also the cold open couple in HAUNTED HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW, a movie I wrote for Henrique Couto, and as it happens I met them on the set the night they shot that scene for Henrique.  In fact Joe began to speculate as to whether they might have a career as a cold open couple, as some people do playing dead bodies on tons of television shows.

Iabou plays the newscaster, and Joe the mysterious gunfighter, in THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, which we also shot on the pickup day outside of principal.  My movies keep gently weaving themselves together, in my mind and elsewhere.
On the last full day of shooting THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE, I gave my four leads--Erin Ryan, John Hambrick, Joni Durian, and Tom Cherry--each a book as a thank you for being a part of the project. All four books were important to me and in some way influenced the movie. Those books were Marisha Pessl's NIGHT FILM, Emily St. John Mandel's STATION ELEVEN, Ursula Le Guin's THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, and Jim Thompson's THE KILLER INSIDE ME.

When I wrapped principal on this film, I did the same for my three leads Chelsi Kern, Rachael Redolfi, and my old friend Tom Cherry (again).  These books were Ursula Le Guin's THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (which Chelsi's character is seen reading in CRAWLSPACE, actually), I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS by Fletcher Hanks (a comics collection), and FUN HOME by Alison Bechdel (a graphic novel I gave to Tom, although Chelsi was acting in the musical version of it on stage in Fort Wayne while also shooting SCARECROW).  All three of these works have something to do with the making of SCARECROW COUNTY and I hope you see the connections when the film comes out.

Now SCARECROW COUNTY heads into post, and I'll share more news when I have it.  Thanks for reading.

Thirteen Month-Old Baby, Broke the Looking Glass

This post first appeared in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP, which you can subscribe to in the sidebar.
 
I have been remiss in not talking about two things.

First, my brother called BS on me for not including John Cougar Mellencamp's "Scarecrow" on my Secret Soundtrack of songs for SCARECROW COUNTY, and he was totally right--not only the obvious title but Mellencamp's Hoosier roots.

Second, I keep forgetting to talk about watching Orson Welles' formerly long-lost final film THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, which I watched right in the middle of the week between the two big shooting spates on SCARECROW COUNTY.  The caveat here is that it fits right in my groove--that time period when the studio system, staggering and out of touch, imploded on itself and gave rise to independent film, as goaded on by French, Italian, and Japanese filmmakers--that is, until movies like STAR WARS and JAWS and other summer blockbusters pushed it to the margins again.  I liked it so much I immediately stayed up late watching the documentary on its making, THEY'LL LOVE ME WHEN I'M DEAD and am just about done listening to the audiobook ORSON WELLES' LAST MOVIE by Josh Karp.

Orson Welles, whose CITIZEN KANE is so visionary, mostly because there was nobody around to tell him not to do things, and he didn't know any better.  Then decades of crashed projects and unrealized dreams, a few more flawed masterpieces, and then, at the end of his life, tooling around with a skeleton crew of hippies pretending to be a college film crew to avoid permits, and outrunning bills to finish one more crazy movie.  Broke, crashing at Peter Bogdanovich's place, doing commercials for cheap wine to get to the next day.

Welles, an ogre, a charmer, larger than life, petty and small.  But lurking in the background of this story is Gary Graver, a prolific b-movie and adult film director who gave his life over to Welles for six years as DP of this film, hoping it would catapult him into the big leagues alongside the legendary auteur.

It didn't.

Gary Graver crashed his marriages, burned up his life and died young.  Gary Graver, a guy making pornos who boldly called Orson Welles up one day and said he wanted to shoot a movie for him, and, astoundingly, Orson Welles answered "okay."  Despite everything that happened after it doesn't seem like Graver regretted it.

Orson Welles is a legend and a master now and forever, but my heart is with Gary Graver, one of us.

I've quit the b-movie biz before, and have been tempted to again from time to time.  But I once told an actress who was thinking about quitting movies that you can quit but you'll never stop thinking about it.  If you don't do movies, you'll think about plays, podcasts, something.  When I am not thinking about screenwriting I'm thinking about playwriting or drawing comics or writing a pulp paperback of some kind.  I crashed very hard at the end of CRAWLSPACE and very hard again at the end of SCARECROW COUNTY and yet here I am typing and thinking about Gary Graver.

It's a long ways for most of my loyal readers, but the awesome independent movie house Film Scene is screening THE GIRL IN THE CRAWLSPACE in April in downtown Iowa City, and how cool is that?

More soon.  Thanks for reading.