MIXED-UP HORROR DADS MIXING IT UP-- PT 2!

“I’m also more sensitive to the reactions of parents in movies now. Not just if they’re experiencing grief but in empathizing with their protective instincts. The remake of The Fog (2005) was shit but it came out the fall after my son was born and I remember liking that Selma Blair’s Stevie Wayne actually left the lighthouse to go after her kid. That seemed right to me. I must have seen the original The Fog (1980) about thirty times and never thought twice about the fact that Adrienne Barbeau stayed on the air but when I watched it again after having my son, I couldn’t help but think that it was a movie clearly made by people who didn’t have kids at the time. I still love The Fog but the idea that Barbeau’s Stevie Wayne would stay on the air no matter what rather than get the fuck back home when the only thing standing between her son and all the shit in the fog is the decrepit Mrs. Kobritz is insane. The hell with staying on the air - get your ass home and protect your kid! For that matter, the old lady could use your help, too!”


That’s horror dad Jeff Allard, one of six panelists (including the Old Codger Speaking Now) sounding off on mixing horror films with the perspective of parenthood, as Richard Harland Smith continues his terrific feature The Incredibly Strange Film Fiends Who Had Kids and Became Mixed-Up Horror Dads Part 2 today over at TCM’s Movie Morlocks.

It was a real honor to have been asked to participate in what I naturally believe to be a pretty fertile subject. How great it is, then, that the feature itself has turned out to be deliciously readable, I think, for non-parental horror fans as well as those of us who have had to evaluate and re-evaluate our passion for the fantastic and the terrifying as the arrival of our little ones changed and continue to change the way we go about life.

So please visit our discussion, which is far more suitable for the Overlook than the Algonquin (but no less fun for that!) and join in with your own thoughts. Part three comes your way next Friday. The Incredibly Strange Film Fiends Who Had Kids and Became Mixed-Up Horror Dads Part 2-- fear not the grue, for it beckons to you… !

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