Professor Elam

Charles Band is bringing his horror movie festival to Pat O Brien's in San Antonio this month, this except is from page 7 G of the SA Life Section of the Sunday San Anonio Express News.

On the opposite page of this very paper, local columnist Gary Clack notes the lack of humanity in someone doing a video of a teen being beaten to death in Chicago, for no apparent reason. My point?

As the mood has turned negative about the economy, the mood in general is negative, again, the piece below appeared in this Sunday paper, not in some goulish web site. 

Decapitations, fantasy and fun, well sorry Charles, you are really caught up in the negative mood. The fact that there is a market for this tells us just how much more negative the mood may get before the bear market ends. No doubt such reports about Chicago did not help in the US Bid to bring the Olympics to that city….

"I think a lot of kids are into the edgy horror side of life when they're young," Band says. "Maybe when they're older it's the last thing they want to think about, but it's kind of healthy, fun escapism. I've never made a slasher movie. I'm not into something that is so close to what you see on TV and so close to what happens in this world. To me that's not entertaining or fun.

"As a kid, I enjoyed films that weren't quite as mean-spirited but were full of fantasy and fun, whether they were the Ray Harryhausen films, the old Universal horror films, some of the great sci-fi films of the '50s. That was what I really enjoyed, and I really wanted to make those kind of films, and there seem to be a lot of kids of all ages who really enjoy these movies and have fun getting into what they are without the films being really horrible and mean-spirited."

Mind you, this is an R-rated show for grown-ups only. Band will tell stories about the movies he's made and the famous actors he worked with. He'll show previously unseen clips.

"There's blood, there's decapitation,  I have no idea why, it happens," he says. "It's sort of a Grand Guignol of everything with music and effects."

There's lots of audience participation, and one lucky winner at every show will be chosen to get killed in an upcoming movie. For fans, it will be like they've died and gone to Hollywood. They'll be part of "the biggest mass electrocution in movie history" for a little direct-to-video item called "Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver." That's the sequel to "Gingerdead Man 2: The Passion of the Crust." Really.

Charles Band's Full Moon Horror Road Show stops at Pat O'Brien's, 121 Alamo Plaza, at 8 p.m. Wednesday.

Tickets, which cost $10, can be bought at the door or through the Web site at http://www.fullmoondirect.com. Expect to buy drinks and make noise.