* I have several upcoming movie and TV blogs coming up which were written before the writers’ strike. I’m just going to post them until I run out.
This blog will be short because I don’t think I can relive this film for too long.
In 1985, horror writer Whitley Strieber claims to have had encounters with possible beings from another world. In 1989, New Line Cinema decided to make a movie based on Strieber’s book of the events starring Christopher Walken.
This movies . . . awkward. I’m not just talking about the parts with lame rubber mask aliens who don’t move much because they didn’t have an animatronics budget. Every time people are talking or interacting, something feels off. Like no one reacts or says what you would expect in such situations, even when they are just sitting around laughing. Anyway, the movie is about this author who has to come to terms (and dance with?) the beings who experimented upon him more than once. There’s also a son who it’s hinted at was also experimented on, yet the parents decide to just let him deal with that when it becomes a repressed memory in his forties. Let’s get to the part about writing.
Strieber’s process is unusual. I wouldn’t judge but this movie begs to be judged. Walken’s character writes while wearing a fedora. Sometimes there’s no pants or no shirt yet the fedora remains. I love a fedora and I love being without pants. Not sure if doing both would help my creative process . . . then again, I’ll try most things once. Strieber also records himself and has his face live on TV next to the computer where he writes. The computer is a fantastic 80s model with green letters against a black screen that breaks on him constantly.
There are several of the standard practices as well. Talking to one’s characters while thinking out loud. Reviewing what you’ve already written while trying to fit in other household chores like cooking (yes, cooking is chore - don’t care that it’s needed for survival). And naturally the being super excited when a big idea comes. However, because all of this is being done by my beloved Walken, the behavior rides a thin line between psychotic and endearing.
