The Twilight Zone

The good news: a trip to my grandparents' farm meant I could make a movie that wasn't set in my living room! The bad news: no actors. Thus the stage was set for my surreal triple-performance as a bratty kid, the kid's grandpa, and Rod Serling.

The plot is deliciously stupid: two siblings dare each other to perform increasingly dangerous feats until a climb up the side of a silo ends in tragedy courtesy of a gun-happy grandpa. The teen falls to his death (with an impressively wet smack! noise), whereupon the barely perturbed grandpa utters the most disinterested eulogy in history.

Two recollections: 1) I remember trying really hard to make the dares look difficult, but walking across hay bales? Climbing up a five-foot rock pile? These things are not difficult. 2) About half-way through the taping, Julie and I were abandoned to finish it ourselves, which meant that one of us had to be behind the camera at all times. The trippy result--no character could be in the same shot as another character--approaches a level of weirdness that's almost avant-garde.

Practically my favorite Danman Production, perhaps second only to The Blob. Watch it!