WHY YOU SOV

Ever heard of "SOV Horror?" Until quite recently, I had not. It stands for "Shot-on-video horror," and refers to the gruesome, tawdry, very low-budget shockers that tended to clutter the shelves of video rental stores back in the '80s and '90s.

I was unaware that fandom of this mostly disreputable class of flicks was a thing, despite the fact that I appear (very briefly) in such a movie, one that I'm told is now well-regarded as a classic of the kind, and that I also made a (very minor) contribution to its script. The opus in question is Writer's Block: Truth or Dare 2; Playing for Keeps.

It isn't really a sequel. The convoluted title comes from the movie's vague relationship to Tim Ritter's Truth or Dare, a popular SOV gorefest made in Florida in 1986. Ritter's opus is watched obsessively by Elliot (Jeffrey C. Hawkins), the psycho killer in Writer's Block, but otherwise the movie, directed and co-written by my friend Chris LaMont, is free-standing.

The hero of Writer's Block is Jack (Joey Michitsch), a young horror novelist suffering from the title affliction. Under the opening titles, you can see Your Humble Narrator as "The Woodcutter," the title character in the movie-within-the-movie based on one of Jack's books, plodding along with an axe, in not very frightening pursuit of three lovely young ladies in bikini tops and jean shorts, out for a "midnight skinny dip." This may arguably give me the distinction of being the most obscure (and least scary) masked, axe-wielding maniac in horror movie history.

When "cut" is called on the set of the movie-within-the-movie, my pal Dave Gofstein also appears, as the assistant director who offers the cast and crew pizza. As I recall, Dave's line was more important than mine, as it was a product placement for Peter Piper. Despite the woodsy setting, these scenes were shot in central Phoenix, at Whitfill Nurseries on Glendale Avenue near 8th Street.

LaMont had also asked me, along with several other local writers, to do some work on the script. A few lines of my dialogue may be heard in the very last scene of the movie.

I had hardly thought about Writer's Block in the 27 years or so since it was made. I certainly had no idea that it had a following on VHS. But apparently it does, and now it's been released, for the first time, on DVD from SOVHorror. It was fun to hear LaMont's amusing, self-deprecating audio commentary, reminding me, for instance, that the crew blew out the power at the nursery the night we shot there. Also among the "Special Features" is a "Director's Cut," presenting the flick entirely in black and white. This was how I watched it, and it truly did look better that way.

Along with Dave, it was a jolt to see other old friends from the Phoenix-area theatre, like Jeff Hawkins, John King, Kevin Cleere and the dear, late Tim Reader, turn up in the crowded cast. It's a cliche, but I can't help it: Were we ever really that young? Somebody seems to have taken a blade to The Woodcutter's head of hair.