In one particular episode of Mythbusters, Adam Savage utters the line: “Reality makes a crappy special effects crew.”
You know what else reality often makes? Crappy genre fiction.
Obviously, it depends on the story, and it depends on the reader (or viewer, or what have you). But let me give you an example. I will use me as said example, because I’ve discovered that I tend to be more familiar with my own opinions and preferences than almost anyone else’s. Odd how that works out.
Let’s take Night of the Living Dead. It’s not only the first of the true “zombie movies,” but it’s still held up today as one of the greatest of the genre. The mood, the story, the effects, the tension, even a societal message… It’s, in almost all respects (and allowing for the differences in time period, of course) a phenomenal movie.
I can’t watch it.
ARI MARMELL is the author of The Conqueror’s Shadow and The Warlord’s Legacy (Spectra), and Agents of Artifice (Wizards of the Coast). His newest novel, The Goblin Corps (Pyr Books), is now available as well. You can read a free excerpt of The Conqueror’s Shadow by clicking here, and of The Goblin Corps by clicking here.
You can see more of Ari’s credits, and read more of his so-called “thoughts,” at mouseferatu.com, or find him on Twitter at twitter.com/mouseferatu.
