Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Scott Emerson


Scott Emerson willingly spent a whole year with the undead. Somehow he managed to make it out alive and with brains intact. Here he reflects upon his time with the cinematic living impaired.

1) What do you do that people know you for in Meadville? Currently I work as a projectionist at The Movies @ Meadville, sacrificing my weekends and holidays so people can see BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA. I also write scary stuff.

2) What inspired you to watch a zombie movie a day for a year? I was looking to gain a readership and was having difficulty breaking in through the traditional publishing venues. Author Brian Keene (who knows a thing or two about the dead, having written the excellent zombie novel THE RISING) suggested I start a blog as a way to get people's attention. Trouble is, my life pretty much revolves around work or watching movies, so I didn't have anything interesting to write about. I thought a blog where I watched and reviewed a movie a day would be just gimmicky enough to work, but I needed a hook to give it its own identity. I figured zombies were the way to go--they've always been a favorite of mine, they're immensely popular, and there were plenty of movies to last a year. Then it went and took on a life of its own.

3) Were there days you skipped your daily movie? In the course of a year real life will always find a way to intervene, so there were times when I was forced to skip a day. Which meant I had to watch 2 the next day.

4) What impact did your project have on your life? It dominated my creative life for pretty much the entire year, leaving me without the time (or the will, sometimes) to write anything else. It also meant that I couldn't even watch a toothpaste commercial without critiquing it.

5) What was your favorite movie of the experiment?
Barring the obvious classics, I'd say Grace Lee's AMERICAN ZOMBIE. It's a really well-made film. I could also mention Scott Phillips' THE STINK OF FLESH and Naoyuki Tomomatsu's STACY, two very inventive and unique films I probably would've overlooked had I not done the project.

6) Are you going to do anything further with "365 Days of the Dead"? Well, I'd love to do a book version, but for now I'm currently doing a "365 Days of the Dead Revisited" on my website, where I collect some of my favorite reviews, as well as including some films I missed the first time around.

7) Do you get a lot of zombie themed gifts for holidays? Not really, though if anyone wants to send me some I'd be glad to accept!

8) Do you think there is a lesson or moral we could pick up from zombie movies? What should we learn from the undead?
From a creative standpoint I learned that unless you're using the dead as a metaphor the zombie subgenre can be very, very limiting (there's only so many ways you can do "people trapped in a house," y'know?). But when done well, zombies can--almost paradoxically, it seems--say an awful lot about the human condition. I'm not really one for finding morals in fiction, but zombies often represent our fear of humanity--usually the "Other," who looks just like us but is in fact different. Maybe if we didn't try to define, or judge, people by the god they worship, or where they come from, or who they take to bed zombies wouldn't be quite so scary.

9) What are your current or future projects?
I'm sure there's a zombie novel of my own stewing in my brain-pan. I did recently write a screenplay for a zombie-comedy that's currently being looked at. Otherwise, I just follow the muse and write whatever comes along. Fans of flash fiction and haiku can follow me on Twitter , where I regularly post absurdities. You can also find reviews and essays (on writing, on movies, on other people's books) on my website.

Scott lives in Meadville with his hot wife Kathleen. He also occasionally performs in local theatre.

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