Horrors within, horrors without

Even though I graduated from the warm and comforting womb of student-hood some two and a half years ago I still shamelessly hang around with quite a lot of students. I’m not ashamed of this, not yet anyway. If I’m still doing it in five years time then there might be some cause for concern. Anyway; I spend a fair bit of my time larking about with my old uni’s science fiction and fantasy society (SFFS for short). Some time in the not to distant past some one had the idea that we should make our own short film, just for laughs. The initial idea was to do some take of Lovecraftian horror. It was all well received and met with great approval. And then nothing happened. Like many ideas it failed to overcome the treacherous hurdle of effort. The terrifying barrier of actually having to do something. So it fell by the wayside and was largely forgotten.

A couple of weeks ago the idea bubbled back to the surface of my mind, like a corpse in a tar pit. I was in the shower, the shower is where I do all my thinking. After all there’s not a great deal to do when you’re soaping yourself with a cocktail of pleasantly smelling chemicals other than think. I thought that the idea of the Lovecraftian horror could be very nicely mixed with an idea for a little psychological drama I’d had a few weeks earlier (also in the shower). I foolishly went and expanded on this idea, thinking about how I could muck about with lighting and the descent into madness of the characters involved. And then rather foolishly went and told someone about this confluence of ideas.

Needless to say things quickly went downhill from there. It seems the idea’s back on track, it might actually happen, what do you mean I’m in charge? Somehow I have to cobble together a rag-tag band of misfits, to write, film and act in what is likely to be the greatest catastrophe in the history of amateur cinematography. Maybe. Despite the fact I have hardly any experience in doing anything like this I’m quite excited by the entire thing. Cautiously excited. The sort of excitement you get when you see a really, really big fucking wasps nest.

Our first meeting’s on Saturday. I decided to have it in a pub. It means if everything starts to go a bit wrong I can at least drink myself into a coma without having to move very far.