My wonderful history with HORROR MOVIES and the new technology that lets me create memories for my grandkids.

 

When I grew up in Sheridan, Wyoming, my parents owned a drive-in theater. I saw every movie between 1952 and 1963 at least three times. My favorites were horror movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Werewolf. Naturally, when I raised my own children, I delighted in watching Friday night's CREATURE FEATURES, or KOLCHAK THE NIGHTSTALKER, or taking them to ALIEN. In that first ALIEN, I noticed they all had their hands over their eyes. So I said, "Hey, you know Tom Skeritt isn't going to die, because he's the star." The signed and uncovered their eyes just as the alien monster killed him. Heh heh. Signorey Weaver was the star! I went home that night with black and blue arms from getting punched. Early on, I told the kids how I learned to deal with nightmares about monsters. I'd turn around when the monster was about to pounce and say, "Let's go have a peanut butter sandwich upstairs." In the history of advertising, that original Frankenstein movie (where the little girl was picking daisy's by the stream) inspired the greatest political ad of all times: Tony Schwartz's DAISY commercial, which ran only one time on one network and completely destroyed Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign. Now, thanks to ClearPlay on-the-fly DVD movie-editing (I put them on the map with their first WSJ ad), I created a new family tradition with my grandchildren: I play the cleaned-up (no foul language from Woody Harrelson) movie ZOMBIELAND. One of the great lines from the movie involved zombiekiller rule #2: DOUBLE TAP. In fact, in her church talk prior to leaving on an LDS mission for Chile, my granddaughter Aimee was challenged to use the term "double tap" in her farewell talk. Not only did she cleverly use it, but the other speakers that Sunday mentioned it in their talks. Double tap. Words to live by. Interestingly, one of my Wall Street buddies ran a brokerage firm. While he was at lunch, is brother Sean Cunningham met with his team and funded the movie FRIDAY THE 13TH. I still remember that knife going through Kevin Bacon's heart from underneath the bed. Besides ZOMBILAND, I haven't seen a horror movie in over 30 years. It's just no fun, now that the kids are grown. In fact, most of my grandkids are married with their own children. But it's about time for me to introduce my growning heard of great-grandchildren to the edited version of ZOMBILAND. Sincerely yours, Rick Bennett Ad Hit Man