SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back to the Dread Alert Podcast. Today we're joined by Gene Blair Jr., the co-writer and director of the short film Stay. This is an interesting short film that really kind of got under my skin in some positive ways. It is a ghost story, but it deals with interests of preventing self-harm and it deals with inclusivity and folks with special needs. And all of these things are important topics to explore through film, and they're all important topics to me. So, Jean, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. I love the film.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Thank you. Thank you very much. It's uh uh I'm very excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Um and I am very, very um honored, you know, the kind words about the film. I am.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

So the film came my way through the George A. Romero Foundation and Jeff Whitehead, who was actually the first guest, him and Ryan Carr, who did the artwork for the film, on this podcast. Uh, and so having those folks in your corner, I thought was a really uh it spoke highly of you as a director and as a co-writer. So I wanted to check it out. Why don't we start by telling our audience what the film is about, in your words? Give me the quick log line.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Um, the quick log line would be a um, it's it's in the spirit of a uh a Christmas story, uh the the uh Charles Dickens tale um about a young girl uh who's going through a very difficult period in her life, and uh she encounters essentially some spirits, and these spirits help her cope with a uh a life-changing decision. And um so it is a ghost story in a way, uh, but is a is a straight off straight ahead horror. I don't I don't know, I wouldn't go that far. Um but yeah, I would definitely uh Jeff coined the phrase Dickensian very early on in the writing, and I fell in love with it because he's he saw that connection, something that I didn't see when I wrote the first draft. So yeah, I would say that's the best way to put it. If you enjoy the Christmas story structure, then you'll you'll enjoy the structure of this.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

I just watched Mickey's Christmas Carol with my two-year-old, and uh and I'm watching it going, why is Marley the only one who's like transparent or translucent? And uh it occurred to me that Marley's a ghost, and the other three are spirits, and that is an interesting delineation to draw. And I'm so glad you mentioned that this is that these are spirits, and and they have every bit of an important message to deliver to our main character than the the ghosts in Christmas Carol do for sure. Um where did the idea for this come from? So I I it is Dickensian, as you say, and I totally agree with that. And I just wonder where its genesis was, if it wasn't directly inspired by that.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Um it was inspired by Ashley, Ashley Spears, the the young lady who plays Emily in the movie. Um, but it was not inspired by any type of uh there was no actual incident or there was no moment or that it was just being her friend and her being my friend, and it's just us spending time together. There was an intangible feeling that came out of the our relationship, and I wanted to I wanted to write about it and I wanted to show it, but I didn't know how to go about that. And um it's just kind of that would be the best way to put it, would be just having that uh that relationship with that young woman. She's such just such an amazing, amazing human being.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

So there's such an empathy and compassion that uh evolves in that relationship with the skateboard and the the trust that builds quickly between those two characters. She seems like I don't know uh I don't know her, but she seems like just such a wonderful human being and and uh it's such a moving performance. I I'm I'm curious how was the a lot of these folks weren't actors, right? You have a couple of actors in the film, but a lot of these folks, it might have been their first time. How was it working with them and getting these performances out of them? Because I don't think there's a weak performance in the movie. Most of the performances are just really compelling.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

I could not be happier with the with the the entire the cast as a whole. Um it it the genesis, the the the whole keystone of it was my daughter, uh, who was 13 at the time, going on 14. And um she's she's a dancer, she's got a lot of experience dancing, you know, ballet and jazz. And but this was her first time acting, and she said she'll never do it again unless I'm directing. Um so she it was easy for me to work with her because there was unspoken elements that in my father's ramblings, she was able to pick out. Like when I would explain to her, there's the scene with Lori on the bench, it was a lot of you have to act with your eyes, you have to react with your eye. And and if I was able to get that across to you know to my to Stella, then I think I would with a with an actress that I barely knew, um working with Say Marie, uh who who played Abby, she was not, I mean, not only is she just drop dead beautiful, but her she's the she's the definition of professional. Um we had her in a in a tank top, ripped up jeans. It was in the high 30s, it was not warm out. Um and she literally, her scene, I don't want to give too much away, but uh she really went when we were filming it. There was several times where I grabbed Jeff because I I held my breath. I'm like, eh. Then I called cut. But um, and then Logan, who played the character of Jessica, uh, that was a divine moment of the internet. Um I was just scrolling along on Facebook uh after the movie had been written, and this documentary called My Superpower came across. I watched it, and it was this documentary that another filmmaker had made about about Tiffany, and um it just blew me away. I said, I gotta work with her. I have to I have to. So I reached out and the connection was made, and thanks to the investors on the movie, uh, we were able to bring her all the way from Astra Bula. Uh she we had her, we we got her in the hotel for four days, and she did the makeup and acted in the film, and uh we're friends to this day. Um T-Rex talents is is is their op like it's very difficult to make your way in the special effects industry. And uh so if I can pitch anything, it would be T-Rex Talents and Logan Register, they had just an amazing talent.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Um and Logan uh I saw some behind-the-scenes footage, and Logan did do the makeup, and Logan needed some accommodations to do the makeup. Can you talk about some of the inclusivity aspects on this film and how uh how that was all achieved?

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Um, Logan uh is uh, I want to say she's a uh he's a little over two foot tall. And they suffer from osteogenes imperfecta, which is the riddle bone disease. Uh they have broken their bones over 200 and some times. I remember when I first met them uh at the Monroeville Mall, mom, when we when we went on or walked around and did our thing, before we walked away, mom pulled me off to the side and was like, if if they start coughing, like you you have to like, you know, give them some water because she can break a rib. Like very brittle. So basically, it was me just putting the question, what do you need us to do in order for you to do your your job? What do you need? Don't hold back, you know, don't be shy. You know, do you need this, that? And they gave me a list of uh, you know, their their supplies, you know, if they needed any special brushes or and um then I put the question to everybody that we're gonna be working on the floor. Uh the best way to do it, you know, because at home, Logan Studio is all at floor level. Her table is adaptive, her computer, you know, everything is all at floor level. So and the cast was absolutely, you know, they they jumped right down. I granted it wasn't like a cement floor, we was carpeted and we had moving blankets and everything laid out, and but um yeah, it just and then about adapting to um it was very important to know that if call time was at 4 p.m. You know, you had to keep in mind that 4 p.m. also meant you know 3 30. So everybody who was in preparation kind of gave that grace, okay. Yeah, we're scheduled, but we're ready to go a little earlier or a little later, depending if some, you know, something should arise. So um the inclusiveness is met just by being open and it being a two-way street. Because I I knew they were gonna bust their ass for us. So I was willing to do anything I had to do. So it was it was definitely a two-way.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Well, there was a lot of tattoo work that was done uh on characters and and some sort of spirit makeup. I it was a it wasn't a light lift. It wasn't like let's get people camera ready. There was some makeup that was done. So I just want to call that out. And I think the film is better for the inclusivity. I I found it to be a surreal film, uh just put that aside, but everyone is interesting to look at, and everyone has their own, you know, physical quirks, vocal quirks that they bring to it. And it adds to this rich tapestry of a film. And I just I think that your eye in capturing that and and and the strength that the inclusivity lends to the film is a commendable thing for you as a director in going through the casting process and finding the right people for these roles and finding people who are interesting for these roles. I really I just think it the film is better for it. And uh, I just want to call that out. Also, I have to call out for our listeners who can't see this, I'm wearing a Monroeville Mall t-shirt right now. So when you mention Monroeville Mall, uh you have a fan in me. There were some oh you have the George Romero bust. It's mine is just off camera. I we both we met. So for for our listeners, Gene and I met for the first time at Living Dead weekend in October of 2025, and they had for sale scans of the bust that sits in Romero Court at Monroeville Mall. And you know, if you have a chance to get one, I highly recommend you do because they're really well done. But also, who knows how long there will be a Romero Court. Uh the mall has been sold. The future is unclear, although there are some pretty strong rumors about what will happen in the mall. So if you're back in October for Living Dead Weekend, or if you're back in June, I should say, for Living Dead Weekend, and they still have those busts available, get one because George Romero means the world to Pittsburgh, and he means the world to me as an artist. And I have two Romero-based questions, actually. This is a wonderful segue. The first is more practical. How did you get involved with the with the George A. Romero Foundation with Garf?

SPEAKER_00 12:41

It was one of those moments in the universe that just happened. Um, that's the best way to put it. I went to Living Dead Weekend with my with my son. Um and the Romero Foundation had a panel scheduled, and I got the list of things, and I knew nothing about it at all. I said, Hey, look, I told him, Hey, look, the George Romero Foundation, we have to see their panel. And it was Jeff and it was Christian Stavrakis, and it was Dr. Adam, Dr. Hoare, Adam Lowenstein, and and uh Suze was not there. She was not there that time. But they went up and Jeff did all the talking, and he basically said, We are the George A. Romero Foundation, and our mission is to our mission right now is to um help a filmmaker, an emerging filmmaker, who wants to tell a story that is different, that is of an underrepresented population, that is a story that has a horror edge, but as George liked to put it, had the story underneath. Yeah, the story's about this, but there's always George always said the story underneath was what was where the real meat was. I totally agree with that. Just to, I mean, just to not go off the subject, but it was one of those moments where the entire time Jeff spoke, I couldn't move. I mean, and I don't know how I know that sounds weird, but I just looked at my son after it was over. I says, I I have to talk to them. We have we went right to the table, and it was busy, you know, and they didn't know who I was. And they and Jeff says, Yeah, you know, here, you know, actually, ironically, uh I still have the the the badge. Jeff says, I'll tell you what, he gave he gave me the sticker and he wrote his the the foundation email on the back. He said, Send me an email, we'll talk. So I ran I ran home, I sent him my first draft, and a couple months went by, and he got back to me, and it was very positive, and and we kind of built a little trust relationship. He, you know, we went back and forth a little bit, and then he formally said, you know, I think we have something here. Uh, if you with your permission, I would like to maybe come aboard and and help you craft this into a real film. Because at that point in time, it was a lot of imagery, a lot of just metaphors, you know, this is what I want to do, this is what I want. And Jeff's like, well, you gotta, it's interesting, but you don't have a film. And that's when his brilliance came in. I mean, he just I said, Yeah, absolutely. You can do. And then Jeff looked at it, and I think his immediate pass was like five or six pages. And but it wasn't a it wasn't a whole thing. It was like here, here, here. But he brought things out of it that I never knew were there. And I read his draft of it, and I'm like, I was completely blown away. Because I didn't know, I didn't know where any of it came from.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

And he was like, no, my man, this was there. This is this is where I saw, you know, not knowing any of the backstory. And um, so as we talked about the characters, um Suzanne was uh asked Jeff, you know, if they would be what if I would be interested in having her play the role. I said, Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

And and we should say that's George Romero's widow and uh the the head of the foundation, uh just a a a monumental person in Pittsburgh horror, Pittsburgh film, and and and the legacy of George A. Romero.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

She's um she's just as beautiful in person as as she is. I mean, she and I don't mean physically. I mean I've I've spent time with her. We went to Salem Horror Fest, we spent uh several days together. Um I I've done weekly meetings with her now, every week now for uh over three years. Just a just a great human being. And and she really um the foundation, it it truly 100% has the legacy of her husband, who she dearly misses. I mean, it's so you know, you can't go to dinner with her and talk about George. I mean, she gets choked up. It's like because to us, it's it's George Romero, you know, you gotta check yourself when you're talking to her because that's her husband. Yeah, so you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 17:45

We all feel ownership, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

You know. Um and then and then to put a bow on the whole thing, like I I described the look of the lady in the garden. I said, This is what I think she looks like. And it was the long gray hair, the motherly look. And Jeff says, you know what? I I do know Lori is on our board. I said, Jeff, you're kidding me. You're gonna ask Lori Cardell. He goes, Yeah, she's on our board. It's she'll we'll see what she says. And Lori, um, who I I still keep in contact with, uh, isn't there's another person that just she read the script, she believed in the project, and um it's it's just it was uh it's been a real just surreal experience, you know. Being that's the first organized like film that I was involved with, where I was you know working with other filmmakers like Colin, having the final say on a lot. But it when I say final say, it was always a a three-way street between myself, Jeff, and Cam Alderman, our our DP. And Cam, he he's a young kid, he's in his 20s, and his real name is Cam. He's a cameraman. His real name is Cam. He's he's amazing, he is amazing. He's got the technical know-how. His collaboration skills and people skills are just so like so many things worked out on this project that were just other than filmmaking. There were all those intangibles, you know. And you know, I I can talk for hours about it.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

Oh no, I I should point out that that's Lori Cardill from Day of the Dead. So if you are uh a Romero fan, you'll recognize Lori in this movie immediately. I I was watching it and I was like, hey, wait a second, I had to look at the credits, and I was like, no way. And you know, Lori probably wouldn't even rem remember this, but uh a decade ago, she was one of our early supporters for our theater company. We were producing a play called Underneath the Lintel, and she was a supporter of that with Randy Kovitz, who is in Dawn of the Dead. Um so Lori will always have a special place in my heart, just a truly generous human being, and I'm so glad that she was uh in this film. And Cam's work is beautiful. I think one shot in particular, we talked, you talked about metaphor, and you're talking about great cinematography and having a great DP, is you're entering that garden tunnel, and it something's about to change, and it's almost this like rebirth moment for everybody in the film, and it's this just archway of the garden, and you're shooting straight down it. It was just a visual metaphor and just so well shot.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

And it strikes me the picture that's behind me, the the water on fire that's a festival that they it just wrapped up. They had it for 13 years um up here in Sharon, and that was another happy accident. We didn't write this into the movie. The city already had this festival scheduled. We locked our shooting dates, the shooting date intersected with this festival. This festival took place right outside where we the studio where we filmed at. This is the river, you know, that we shot.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

And this was another moment where Jeff, in his moment of zen, told me to look because when I called him, I was in a arm. Jeff, what is good, what are we gonna do? There's gonna be 10,000 people. The river's gonna be on fire. And he goes, we use it. I said, What do you mean we use it? And he goes, There's got there's gotta be a way we can use this. And he and he and he got into my head and he calmed me down, and in his way, um, we just worked out these metaphors. And but then if you think about the story of the above as below, and the water and the fire, and it's to I don't know of a better way to show the inner turmoil of this young girl than this is happening right outside her bedroom window.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

100%.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

It's and yeah, just to tie it in with. Cam, I mean, this is his shot. He got on the boat. He got up next to these things. And it is, I just want people to watch the movie. It's it's he he killed it. He killed it.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

He did a great job, and it's so generous of you as a director to credit the people who are around you. It is always a team effort. Speaking as a theater director, I'm nothing without my scenic designer, my lighting designer, my costume designer, my prop designer. They help me take what's in my head through their subject matter expertise and put it out there. So it means the world to hear directors credit the people who help them translate their vision. And we should talk about Jeff for just a second. He'll probably be embarrassed that we're doing that. But Jeff is a brilliant writer and writes for audio dramas. He adapted George A. Romero's The Amusement Park into graphic novel form. Ryan Carr, who did the artwork for the film, did the artwork in that book. I've talked about that book probably too much on this channel. It's a brilliant piece. But Jeff was your co-writer as well. And I just want to highlight that Jeff is a heck of a guy and how I found my way into the Romero Foundation as well. I was busy gushing about the amusement park at Living Dead Weekend. And he's like, Marty, just send me an email. I'll come on your show. And uh honestly, we all we owe a lot to his generosity. Um speaking of the amusement park, when I was chatting with Jeff about Stay, uh he said it was maybe sort of an attempt to bring your all's version of the amusement park to an audience. Not necessarily a PSA, but a film with a social message that is leading with a social message, but also telling a compelling story, much like the amusement park. And I'll also put my button on this, my take, it's a surreal story in and of itself, uh, much like in a different way than the amusement park is a surreal story. But I got so much dream logic out of this, and it's centered on a dream, so that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Uh well, the dream logic is directly from uh David Lynch and uh it may be my favorite director. He led me to tr uh to transcendental meditation, which I um went, I learned the technique, I practiced the technique, and it did change my life. I see that's kind of a it's that's a tough question because I didn't write it as a like I didn't want it to have like a social message. It was like I said, when it was the original draft was metaphor and and and you know imagery. Um I I do see the amusement park analogy. Um I I like the like I gotta I gotta figure out how how I want to say this because a big part of why I needed to do it was because of the inclusive aspect, both in front of the camera and behind the camera. Um because we had individuals helping out, even in the pre-production, you know, like folks helping me scout locations, like when I would send photographs to Cam, the individuals that I was working with, you know, we would set up scenes like in the tunnel, and I'd take photographs and I would send them to them. Um the artwork that is in the bedroom scene was all painted and drawn by individuals of special needs, you know, and we put it in the background. Um so I did want to accomplish a social message of people seeing a film, watching a film, but going in blind to the fact that they weren't watching an inclusive film until they were in the seat. You know, like it wasn't, it wasn't like like, for example, um like a great film that came out, an inclusive film, was called The Peanut Butter Falcon. The lead actor uh was a young man um who has Down syndrome, but and and it it was advertised, you know, that that it was about this young man who was in a personal care home and he and he leaves the personal care home and he goes on an adventure. And and I and I loved the film, and we need more movies like that, but I didn't want it to come out of the gate as wearing that on the sleeve. You know, I wanted I wanted people to just go into it blindly and watch a film and see Ashley as an actress, and see Logan as an actor, and and and to not know that we had production assistants with art that were autistic, you know, like and not and to know that one of my assistant editors was is a young man on the spectrum. It's like all of these things happened, you know, and this is what we made. So um that's indeed that's what I'm most proud of of the whole process. You know, we think that's a really inclusive film.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

It's interesting. There's stuff in there that I didn't know. And coming into this, I knew none of that. It wasn't until we started talking uh in person and prior to recording today that I found out a lot of this. Um and I think that's effective. I think that it's it asks you good horror, and not that this is straight horror, but good horror always asks emp uh asks of us empathy. It asks us to see across gender lines if we're rooting for a final girl. It asks us to put ourselves in positions that we hopefully will never find ourselves in. And I think this film asks empath, asks of us a strong amount of empathy as well. And I, you know, I noticed at the end this there's an anti-self-harm message at the end of the film that's tagged on and saying if you need help, you here's the resources to get help, and that's an amazing thing. Um interestingly enough, I think the strongest theme I took, and without spoiling the film, was a line from the end of the movie. And I mentioned this to you in person, uh, where a character says, Everyone I love is going to die. And how do I stay, knowing that you know, there's a world of hurt in, you know, in it for me. And um I think when we met, it was probably two days uh after my mom was hospitalized and moving towards hospice care, uh, which she's at home now on hospice, not to get too personal with the audience here. Um, but that theme was really relevant for me and something that was on my mind. Um was that something that was, you know, baked into the film from the beginning? Is that an unintentional theme that I, as a viewer, am collaborating with you as a filmmaker on, or was that something you were considering when you were making the film?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

It was something that I was definitely considering because, like I said, I was it was I was heavily influenced by the way Ashley made me feel the intangibles of that. Um and I and I I I don't want to go in I don't want to go into too in-depth with it because I want people to see it and I want people to draw their own conclusions like you did. You know, people see these things that I didn't know were there. Um there is a scene, and it's just one line um where Suzanne's character is on the bench and Stella's character says, Grandma, I love you. Yeah, and Suzanne's character says, Look, all she does is she looks up, she says, Oh, I love you too, sweetheart. Very simple line. Um, I cannot hear that line in any other voice other than my grandmother's.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

And when I was directing Suze in that scene, I used that as my example. I said, Whenever I parted companies with my grandma, and I says, I love you, I'm leaving. It was always, I love you too, sweetheart. But it was the cadence.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

And Suze nailed it. It took her a couple takes to get into that, but the whole scene was built around that, just that cadence of I love you too, sweetheart. Um I felt like if people were to take away what I take away from hearing that, then it was mission accomplished, you know, just empathy, you know. Uh if you look at the character itself, you know, the smoking while they're on oxygen.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

I right.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

You don't want to judge them. You know, you you don't judge them. You got you love them for who they are, and they're just a sweet person. And I mean, Jeff, Jeff had this, he said this thing, he said this at this last Living Dead weekend on our panel, and he was talking about Dr. Adams' book and it's how how it's called Horror and the Otherness, and about how we as the horror community, we we accept we we had a copy here to show.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

It's over there. Like the otherness, like we're so willing to accept, like we watch a horror movie and we see like the most crazy, you know, the otherness, and we accept it. Why is it so difficult for us to bring that into real life? Yeah, why and but Jeff had a very elegant way of putting it, and it but and it was but if you think about it, when you break that down to the to the bare root of that, is we can accept these horrific things, and we can accept these beautiful things, and we can accept these, you know, uh the space invaders from Mars and the invasion of the body snatchers, and we can accept all of these different things. Why do we have such a difficult time of transitioning these empathetic feelings into our own life? You know, what is the what is the barrier? Why is there a barrier?

SPEAKER_02 32:20

You know, that's a wonderful question.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

And and I and I feel that you know, and I heard an interesting, very interesting quote. And I and I wish I could think of the filmmaker's name to give proper credit, but they said when you get it, when you decide to make a film, you better be prepared to be married to that film for the rest of your life. Do good or bad, you know, and it's like that's why I feel I've been very self-judgy of what I involve myself with because it's like I want I want it to mean something, you know, I want it to have something underneath. And and I want to work with good people doing it, you know, being up here and sharing PA, man, it's this is like a this is a ghost town for filmmakers. So being blessed to make the connections that I've made in the last couple years, you know, with Pittsburgh and Georgia. Like I've been working with a team of filmmakers that are based out of Georgia. And it's just been working like it's like working with real filmmakers, like how they say iron sharpens iron. That's such a true statement. You know, everybody makes themselves better. You know, George George had a favorite. I read a quote once in a magazine interview. He said, you collaborate, you don't dictate.

SPEAKER_02 33:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Directors collaborate, they don't dictate. You, you know, everybody around you is in a position for a reason. You know, they're not they're the that professional is there for a reason. They weren't uh so give them the respect and and learn, you know.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Yeah, the best idea in the room wins. It's just the director's privilege to choose which one is the best. That's uh that was at least my philosophy. And and I I will say that I just want to put a button on that. That the the thing you captured in that empathy of this film, and and I will say that that's the one thing that I think has come up the most in this conversation is empathy and compassion, is the pre-grief that you feel. That no one no one gives you a hug and says, Oh, you're gonna be sad soon. You know what I mean? Uh, but it's a very real feeling of that pre-grief. And I think that's at the heart of some of these character uh conflicts or or turmoils or inner conflicts is the grief that you know you're going to feel and the fear of the grief that's coming. And it's not a theme that's really explored too much. And I it just it struck a chord with me. I just needed to say it again. And if you're interested in those sorts of things, this is a film for you. It not only is uh inclusive, having a number of different people with a number of different abilities, uh, having a really interesting cast, having some horror legends in there from Suzanne to Lori Cardill. Um, but it's just really well made. And it's, you know, if you like short films, this is one you should add to your list. Um, is there anything else you'd like the audience to know about this film coming in if they haven't seen it yet, or uh maybe even if they have seen it, any other context you'd like to provide to them?

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Um just watch it. Really, just watch it. Um, let your friends know about it. Uh right now, the uh the only place it is available, it's streaming on the Fossum app. If you have Roku, uh you can download the Fossum app and type in Stay. There are a couple films called Stay. However, we're the 2024, and you'll see Ryan's amazing poster, who which which actually the art design was done by an insanely brilliant, talented graphic artist, uh Lisa Bradley, LB, who is also a George A. Romero Foundation member. She did the art design, and Ryan did put his finishing beautiful touches on it. And uh so yeah, it was a total team effort all the way around.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

That's really good to know. I didn't know that actually. Um yeah. So I have a few questions we ask of everyone who comes on the show. Uh, they're tailored for you. Um, and let's dive in. So, first up, do you have a favorite ghost story or ghost film, haunting film, something of that nature?

SPEAKER_00 36:50

My favorite ghost story um is actually a local ghost story uh that I had the opportunity to write a uh nine-page graphic novel uh story that was published in a comic book. Um the story is uh the lady with the lantern or the lady, the ghost of Bile Hill. Um there's a local legend in up in Greenville, the Greenville Reynolds area, that back in the late 1800s, a woman was leaving her in-laws' house. And there's a couple different versions, but the version that I gravitate towards has a baby in the story. She was leaving her in-laws and she had her infant child. They got in the horse and buggy, the horse was spooked, she lost control of the buggy, the the carriage overturned, the baby was killed, the woman was gruesomely, you know, they say decapitated, drugged down the road, you know. Um, and they say if you go out on certain nights that you could see her looking for her lost baby, you could see a lantern swaying, you could you could sometimes hear the moaning. Um, my father told me a story. This would have been in 1965, 1966. He claims he went out with three other guys. They were they were football players, they played for Hickory. He said, these two guys they went with, they were these badasses. They were, yeah, we're gonna go out there, blah, blah, blah. And this is before solar lights. Now everybody got them solar lights, they stick in the ground. Supposedly, they saw the lantern out in the field. The two guys got out of the car, walked towards the light, the light went out, they walked a little bit closer, the light came back on, they turned around, they ran back to the car, they hightailed it out of there.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

So I that as gruesome as that is, and as a parent of a young child and one on the way, as horrifying as that story is in its content, I absolutely love local myths and legends. We did a series called Mythburg in a it was like site-specific in a bar where we told and dramatized and had a running storyline with all sorts of local Pittsburgh legends. So I'm gonna have to track this one down. I've not heard it before. And um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Well, the movie that I uh had the opportunity to work on, I was uh this the camera operator, and I also was on the crew and did whatever they needed me to do. It's called Mr. X. It's gonna be coming out in 2026. It's the sequel to the movie called Spooked, S-P-O-O-K-T. It was filmed in Greenville. It does mention the lady with the lantern. It's a very small part of the story. Um, it's mentioned in the Mr. X sequel briefly. That's where the writing me. I wrote the story for the graphic novel that accompanied the first movie. I met the director, Tony Reims. Tony broke brought me in to write the story. Our relationship went from there. Um, yeah, Tony's another insanely gifted director. For my neck of the wood, he built his career down in Georgia.

SPEAKER_02 40:15

So I'll have to check both of these out. I have not seen uh the first one, and uh have to watch it before the sequel, of course.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

Oh, yeah, spooked is all over the place. You can get that on like Tubi, Amazon. Like it's everywhere. It it premiered at the London Horror Fest.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Like it was these conversations. I always find something to add to my watch list talking to uh such gifted artists that you all have you all have such specific tastes. And of course, you know, I I watch a ton of horror movies, but I've never been through one of these podcast conversations where I didn't have something to add to my watch list at the end. So thank you for that. Which leads me to my next question. What is your favorite horror movie of all time? We ask everyone who comes on the show.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

It depends on so many different factors. Um, I I guess an easy one would be the the one that scarred me as a child was um Rob Bouteen's full body transformation in the howling. And what it was is I watched the movie Way Too Young. Yep. It was on HBO, my dad was working midnight turn. I should have not watched it. Full frontal nudity aside, I still should bring the howling. Um the the full body, it it it messed me up in a good way to the point where I needed to know how they did it. And and my cousin, who was nine years older, who's nine years older than me, had a subscription to Fangoria. So then I got to see Tom Savini, I got to see Rick Baker, I got to see Rob Bouteen, but I got to see them like them working. It wasn't what I was seeing on the screen. Um and then so yeah, I would say that would be my big introduction to horror. Um but as far as like on-screen trauma and what turned me, and this is like I don't want to say turn me on to want to be a filmmaker, was the emotional and psychological impact that I saw the movie Platoon make on my father. Yeah, not a horror movie, but a horrible, horrible story.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Horrific. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

And to see somebody who went through, you know, a bad divorce and you know, all these other personal issues, to never see that stone faced demeanor crack, to never see him show any other emotion, and then to watch Platoon when you're 10 years old, and you see somebody go from never showing any emotion to just being like a blithering, sobbing idiot, like something clicked in my brain where it was like, wow, that's like films are powerful. Yeah, they're powerful. Art can be dangerous. Or very or very, you know, they can change the world. I've always said that. Films, films will continue to change the world. They're they're they're just the the culmination of all of the art forms.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

I think we have I have a responsibility with the small platform that we have to uplift the right voices and to find the voices that are working to tend the part of the garden that we all can reach to make this place a little bit better, to tell stories that examine society while scaring us. And it's a it's our words matter as reviewers, and I know this from the artist side of things as well. And so to find a filmmaker who understands the power of the tools that they have, it's always a lovely conversation. I also want to highlight something you said, because I think horror can be an a rite of passage or an initiatory experience. And so many of the people we talk about say, Oh, I saw that film way too young. In fact, my wife, we've we met Tommy Lee Wallace at Scarefest weekend in Kentucky, and she said, it traumatized me. And he's like, You saw it too young, didn't you? And she's like, Yeah, I did. We all, if you're a horror lover, we all saw it too young, probably. And I think a part of us, and and I would love to hear your thoughts on this, are still chasing that thrill of that first transformation or uh or of the the goo scenes in Troll 2, which Troll 2 is an objectively bad but awesome film. Uh, but that was one of the first horror movies I sat through all the way, or or the the opening to Halloween 2. We're still chasing that thrill of the taboo and the I'm not allowed to be doing this and I'm scared shitless. Uh but it's how we it's it it's it's stepping over that line from pure innocence and childhood into adulthood in some ways. It's we don't have strong rights of passage as a society, and horror is one of the remaining ones. Um I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

Well, I'll the best way I can I can explain that, and I've told my son the same thing, and I and I tell other people, I we our generation was spoiled. To use music analogy in the 60s, you had Paul McCartney and John Lennon, you had Keith Richards and and Mick Jagger, we had George Romero and Tom Savini.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 45:41

And it's like it was a combination of so many different things. Lightning in a bottle, the fact that Tom was doing something that was never done before, George was doing something that was never done before, the two of them were doing it together in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a place that it was never done before. And the fact that not only was it not done before, but they were doing it so well. And so, and and and the fact that to this day you do you still don't hear a negative thing about George Romero in all of the social circles. You can do as much digging as you want and and talk to people that he collaborated with and worked with, and they'll say, I loved working with him. He respected me as an artist. He um so I I think what what we can our opinion is jaded. We were spoiled.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Yeah, probably so.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

You can like the CGI and all that stuff, it has its place, it's done delicately, but back in the day, you know, I heard like Greg Nicotero use the phrase the money hose. Like nowadays, how do we fix that problem? Well, you get out the money hose and you spray it with the money hose. He goes, When we're working on Creep Show, the show, we don't have a money hose. You know, we have a week to do the episode, so we need to figure out creatively how we get the shot done. And that's reminiscent to true filmmaking. You know, there's it's not just we'll fix it in post. It's you know, when when they were doing the the I don't even know how to reference them. The the the special effects scenes in Day of the Dead when they're pulling Joe Palato in half. If you don't get that in the first take, I mean think about it.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Those limitations, those limitations add to the creativity, they make you a better artist a lot of the time. I I love watching indie horror because creative solutions make good art. And uh yeah, well said, well said. Uh Gene, where can people find you if they want to stay up to date on your work?

SPEAKER_00 48:09

Um, right now I'm just creeping around on YouTube at Gene Blair Jr. I try to throw some stuff on there. Uh Facebook. Um I don't have a formal web page. Uh, like I said, I am involved with the Mr. X film that will be coming out. Um anything that's having to do with the George Merrow Foundation, I know we have a lot of irons in the fire as far as that goes. Um, I do have some projects that I'm that are in the writing phase. Um I don't know. I guess the best thing to say would just kind of just stay tuned and yeah, because I I I hope to gravitate wherever good stuff good story making has the opportunity to be told, you know.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

Yeah, absolutely. Well, go give Gene a follow or a subscribe. Uh I'll link that in the description of this episode. And is there is there any other projects that you want to plug or or just check out Mr. X whenever it's available next year?

SPEAKER_00 49:12

Um, well, I mean, my st I I do my Steady Gig is a television show based out of Youngstown, Ohio. Um, I I doubt the audience is gonna dig it, but um it it's uh like if we're local variety shows. That that keeps me busy. Um that that that's all over my YouTube page for the most part. Um but film-wise, uh just a a lot of writing in in progress stuff. Um I don't even want to give divulge any of the you know that happens from time to time. Because you my mind, I I well, I'm working on like four different things at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 49:51

Um there's a magic to art, and when you let the cat out of the bag too early, some of the magic goes with it. Uh and we totally understand that. I will say that whatever you have coming up next, we'd love to have you back on the show. And uh it's been a pleasure talking with you.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

I I I really appreciate your time. I appreciate the support. Um yeah, I I just I just feel blessed. I I really do. The last the last four or five years of my life have uh been something else, and I just look forward to seeing where we're we're where we're gonna keep going.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

That's fantastic. I look forward to it too. And as always, stay spooky, my friends.