Spreading your horrific seed
By SpookyDan

Great Ideas are worth spreading, and we should encourage this inside of the horror community. Three (non horror) examples:

1. Avenue Q:
Last week I went to a play called Avenue Q, to describe it quickly; it’s like a Sesame Street for adults. Puppets sing about porn, racism, commitment and have sex, while interacting with live actors. Just to be clear, the puppets don’t have sex with the people, (but if you are into that sort of thing, there is an amazing porn called “Let my Puppets Come”). The stage play was transported from Broadway to Toronto and is playing to sold out shows daily. It’s a classy and well-produced show with video graphics, amazing props and some of the best puppetry I have ever seen. You may be wondering why I am telling you about this weird play. It all started with a single idea, and capitalized on the fact that we all grew up watching Sesame Street. But someone had an idea to turn what could have easily been a small local theater production into a full blown ordeal, with an orchestra, top notch performers, and set it inside a silly world of puppets and people.

2. Guitar Hero/Rock Band:
The other example I like to talk about is Guitar Hero, and Rock Band. Can you imagine was it might have been like to be in the pitch meeting for that idea? “ Ok its like air guitar meets karaoke, but on a controller that looks like a guitar. That’s great right? Right? Now Rock Band and Guitar Hero have created a whole new outlet for bands to make money, a whole new generation of children are being introduced to all sorts of different music, and more importantly, getting the feeling that they too can play like a rock star, even if they cant play an instrument.

3. JCVD
The opening film of the Midnight Madness section of TIFF was JCVD, as in Jean Claude Van Damme(it). The film is a semi fictional take of Van Damme(it) playing himself, stuck in the middle of a bank robbery in Belgium. The style of movie has been done before (Pauly Shore is Dead, Being John Malcovich) But what sets this film apart is the sincerity behind it, while still being a entertaining film. Van Damme(it)’s quietly honest performance is shockingly good, and very eye opening as to what it would be like to be an international action star, while poking fun at his image. Again, It came from an idea about what it would be like to see the world through his eyes. An interesting idea, that turns out to be a fascinating one.

What the hell does this have to do with horror??

It’s the idea that YOUR idea, may be “the next big thing” in horror. YOU; the horror freak who just watched the latest genre flick that seemed familiar. And hopefully YOU decided to do something about it. We as horror fans have seen the old, teens go to a cabin in the woods and get off-ed one by one, so many times. Even my favorite horror flick of recent .REC (remade by the Dowdle Brothers as Quarantine) is a variation on get a bunch of people in one room and kill them off. It can be done in smart and clever ways and it can be genuinely scary and great cinema. Like music, horror goes in waves of popularity. From zombies to vampires, psychological horror to torture porn.

Horror is ready for its next big thing, and we need YOU the hardcore horror fan to make it happen! Regardless of your chosen profession, and regardless of how weird you may think your idea is, its time for the horror FANS to start making some noise for some quality films!