I’m often a little picky about the movies I see in the theater. I figure if I’m going out and paying to see something, it should be something I’m really interested in that I’ll likely enjoy.

But when there’s a film festival things are a little different. Especially if I’ve gone and bought a full pass. Then I’ll go and see pretty much anything.

That’s the situation tonight. After watching the trailer for Valley of the Sasquatch, I’d have been hard pressed to decide to see it if I hadn’t already paid for the festival pass. I most certainly wouldn’t have tried to dig up anyone to go see it with me. Maybe I’d have caught it on Netflix, eventually. (I’ve been surprised by movies before that I didn’t think were going to be that good… notably, in this case, because they’re similarly premised films, is Wendigo.)

Needless to say, I didn’t care much for this film. Despite the fact that it’s won awards, it really didn’t work for me.

It lacks any sort of heart. It’s inconsistent. And, in my opinion, it misses the chance to make a number of statements about a number of things.

See, good writing naturally has themes that develop as the story plays out. Maybe it’s an environmental theme–how our destruction of natural habitats put us at odds with animals (or monsters) we don’t normally interact with. Or maybe it’s how the ties of family, memories of the good times, shared suffering, or some other really human aspect, help us get past some pretty serious problems. Perhaps it’s just the simple message of “Don’t be a dick” or “Poking at Bigfoot is a bad thing.”

You can create a story without a theme… you can just string scenes together, have characters doing what’s typical to do for their archetypes, not deviating from what’s expected. But that’s not good writing. That’s purely utilitarian writing. It’s passable, but, at best, it’s mediocre.

It’s just a walk in the woods… or just being chased by things in the woods. And that’s not anything really special.

Mediocre is worse than bad. At least with bad you stand a chance of becoming a cult classic by finding a viewership that loves poking fun at your film.

So, for all you creators out there, strive to be excellent… but go all out. As long as you go all out, you’ll either be awesome or awesomely bad. Don’t play it safe. Playing it safe is how you end up mediocre. And there’s really no winning like that.

Unless all your competition is on the down side of the mediocre plateau, I guess.

Tomorrow will be another movie at Spooky Fest, this time with a Q&A with the directors. I really hope the movie is awesome, one way or the other.

Anyway, here’s today’s vlog wherein I talk a bit about the problems with the movie.

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

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When it comes to many things I enjoy, the amount of “heart” they have is kind of important.

That basically means that they have some emotional substance, usually positive or, at least, humane. It’s something that makes the show or movie (or music or book or whatever) enjoyable on a deeper level. It’s the whiplash deep belly laugh to near tears that Robin Williams could bring out in movies like Dead Poets Society. Or when the Terminator says “I know now why you cry” in Terminator 2.

It even exists in horror films. A little more rarely, being that horror is mostly about people at their worst and/or most harried, but it still shines through sometimes. The scene between The Monster and the blind Man in Bride of Frankensteinien.

Heart is that moment when something suddenly becomes very, very real. When it crosses the line from just being entertaining to having meaning. At least meaning for you.

What you consider “heart” may just be “sappy” or “trite” or “twee” to someone else. That’s… okay. It’s about your experience with that bit of entertainment. It’s about how that creation interacts with the life forces within you.

The Final Girls is more of a meta-horror film than a straight horror film. It’s at least a horror-comedy… and commentary on the genre. But, as far as I’m concerned, it’s got heart. And, on top of the technically solid nature of the film, that puts it more than a little ahead of a lot of other things out there.

I may gush a little over the flick in today’s vlog.

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

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Another popular monster archetype today. Vampires have been a staple of horror for a really long time. They have changed more than a little in that time, though. I don’t even cover half of those changes, but I do look a bit at what those classic bloodsuckers mean right now.

Well, what they mean when they’re not sparkling and being fawned over by preteens.

After all, we’re talking about horror here, not bad romance.

Running with this one today leaves me in a bit of a bind for tomorrow, seeing as I have no idea when I’ll be back in my apartment. I’ve got an event right after work that usually keeps me entertained until well into the pre-dawn hours of Saturday.

Because of that, you may be getting my first attempt at a phone-shot walk and talk vlog on Friday. One that won’t have a “behind the scenes” component (or a fancy front card) until I get home and write one. We’ll see how that goes. (And we’ll see how busy I end up on Saturday, too… it may be a weekend of ad-hoc video-on-the-go posts.)

Anyway, sink your teeth into today’s bit about vampires.

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

[jbutton size=”xxlarge” color=”green” link=”http://durosia.com/vlog-questions” newpage=”yes”]Come Ask a Question Here[/jbutton]