by Alan Spencer
"I apologize to you directly, because I also own pirated versions of Bloody Mask. You may not realize it, but there's people out there who claim to own the true uncut version. I have multiple versions of the uncut version. There's the original director's cut, then the producer's cut, yours, Brian, and there's the extended version. I watched them all. It's funny how a few seconds more of a kill scene can make all the difference."
Dan wasn't sure how to break it to the kid that there was only one version of the film they shot. "Andy, I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but we only shot one version of the film."
Andy raised one finger up in the air. "That'll make a great story for the commentary. You didn't realize that Mitch Brundage got a hold of one of the versions of the film before you cut it for release. He saved the tape as a souvenir. I've talked to Mitch. He'll be at the reunion party."
"Mitch the Bitch is going to be there?" Dan let it slip.
"Why's Mitch a bitch?" Brian asked.
Dan explained. "Because he hounded me for years after the movie was made. I moved to Virginia, and the guy kept calling my dad's house and saying I owed him money. And the asshole stole tapes from us. He's a douche; I mean a bitch."
Brian was going to town on the cheese sticks. "Why did Mitch think you owed him money? Mitch didn't invest in the movie. The dork just tagged along on our shoot and pretended like he thought horror movies were cool."
Dan said this to Andy, "Mitch the Bitch was my next door neighbor growing up. He was the youngest kid on the block. The runt always tagged along with the older kids, and our mothers made us play with him. I still don't get why Mitch thought I owed him money."
Andy had the answer.
"When I talked to Mitch, he told me about the money thing. Mitch is just confused, I think. He sold his uncut tape to a bidder online. Through an email, this guy tricked Mitch into sending the uncut video in the mail without getting paid first. The guy ripped him off. Years down the line, that's why you see uncut rips of the movie. The guy who ripped your friend off told Mitch to contact you, Dan, to get the money."
"So Mitch the Bitch was bamboozled. I'll be happy to clear it up, finally. Thanks, Andy. I guess it's another story for the extras on the release."
Andy poured them a new round of beers and asked the waitress, a woman Dan didn't recognize from town, for another round.
"Speaking of the release, I wanted to give you a rough itinerary for the week. I've called old actors, and others who've agreed to give commentary. You'll meet up with them throughout the week. The real work won't start until tomorrow. I just wanted to introduce myself, get to know you guys in person, and start the fun off right."
Dan and Brian were going to say thank you, but Andy kept talking.
"So because of you guys, I tried out for film school. I realized how much work it was, and I had trouble getting enough friends to help me shoot a cheap movie, so I decided to become like one of those independent companies that re-release old horror movies. I got an inheritance, some starter cash. I've also bought the rights for some other movies, but Bloody Mask will be the first to be released. Once we get these commentaries done, I want to throw a reunion party. I've already contacted everybody and the time and date and sent the invitations. I reserved the party room here at this bar, and we'll have an awesome time. The party will be this Thursday."
Dan imagined what meeting everybody again after all these years would be like. Maybe it was the alcohol creeping up on him, but this was starting to feel like the happiest moment of his life, second to finishing Bloody Mask.
After drinking and talking about horror movies for several hours, they ended the meeting. Andy Cummings was across the street staying at Prudence's finest motel, The Sun Inn. Dan walked out of the bar with Brian, and they both realized how drunk they were.
Dan knew he was well past that fuzzy feeling. "I had more than ten beers. I'm going to be pissing streams."
Brian belched. "I've got a lake brewing in me, buddy."
"We shouldn't drive. We're too tanked."
"It's only like three miles of back roads to my mom's."
"Oh yeah." Dan forgot his mother lived so close to the bar. "Fine, but take it slow. I don't want the cops pulling us over. It's bad enough our van's got a hideous mask on the side of it."
The road behind the bar directed them through acres of cornfields that stretched on forever in both directions. Dan and Brian walked these roads to and from school as kids. They would dream up ideas for scary movies during those walks. In elementary school, they would point at the abandoned mansion west of Chester Williams High School. Brian swore he saw a skeleton stand in the upstairs window and look down at them. Dan always watched that window for the skeleton man and never saw it, though Dan saw the figure in his dreams.
Their childish ideas turned into the harder stuff as teenagers. They talked about rapists, killers, and slashers. Dan started mentioning the idea of making a movie. Girlfriends and bad grades got in the way, but when they graduated and worked full-time, they talked more about the movie.
It was one day walking down this road that they got the idea for their movie. They were both nineteen at the time, and Dan and Brian were headed home on this very road after a night of heavy drinking at the bar. From the tall shoots of corn stalks, the wind blew a mask on Dan's feet. It was the exact mask they used for Bloody Mask.
Brian said the mask appearing out of nowhere was destiny telling them to make a horror movie. They just needed an idea. The cash, the actors, and the time would follow. Dan decided the movie would be based on a mask that blows from town to town. Whoever finds it, they are compelled to put it on. That person then assumes the spirit of a dead killer who wishes to continue his killing ways. Then once the killings were done, the mask would simply blow on to another town for another to pick up and wear and start the killing again.
The drive was short to Brian's Mom's house. Brian took care of her needs, the woman being eighty-seven. Brian's father passed away three years ago after a fatal stroke. Brian didn't want his mother living alone, even though after California, Brian never officially moved out of this house again. The house was a one story structure with two bedrooms and a garage separate from the house itself. For Dan, there was a lot of memories here. He was sad to see the clubhouse was missing from the backyard, and the tire swing was long since cut down from the oak tree in the front yard. There was a mud pit in the backyard, a big dirt hole, where Brian and Dan pretended to be Swamp Thing. Grass replaced the big hole now.
Dan supposed their childhood was over. How could he swing in a tire swing now, being two-hundred and forty pounds? He'd snap the damn tree limb, and he'll fall on his dumb ass. Some memories were better left looking back at instead of reliving, Dan thought.
Brian's mother, Lucille, opened the front door. She was much older than Dan remembered. The woman used a walker to get to the front door. The woman seemed brittle and half her previous weight. Lucille was balancing a lit cigarette while trying to get over the threshold of the door and meet Dan and Brian who were standing on the wooden porch. Dan gave her a hug, and Lucille went in for a kiss on his cheek.
"I missed you, boy. You two made my hair turn gray, but I loved you both very much. It's good to see you, Danny. You two finally going to make that movie?"
Brian whispered that she was going a bit senile. Dan could see a flicker of sadness in his friend's eyes. Dan had a similar experience. His parents were getting older, though his dad stayed solid as a rock, and his mom was still with it. Brian had it much worse in the aging parent department.
"No, Mom, we already made the movie. This week we're celebrating it's twentieth anniversary. We made it twenty long years ago, Mom."
"Why don't you let me see it then?"
"You have, Mom." Brian gave an exaggerated smile. "And you loved it, remember?"
"Oh, yes. That's right."
The woman was going senile. Lucille was in the Dan and Brian are still kids mode, Dan realized.
"You two boys want me to make you a grilled cheese?"
Dan was about to explain how they had a bunch of bad bar food when Brian cut him off. "Sure, Mom. We'll just be sitting out here talking on the front porch."
"Okay, boys."
It took Lucille a few minutes to get back into the house. When she was inside, Brian sighed. "She's on oxygen too. I don't know how that woman can still smoke."
"Old habits die hard."
"I have to constantly remind her not to light up when she's using her oxygen. Sometimes she forgets I'm her son. She looks at me like I'm a complete stranger. No matter how hard I try to refresh her memory, it doesn't do any good. I keep a photo album out on the coffee table for a quick reference. It doesn't help one damn bit. Then suddenly something flickers back on in her mind, and I'm her son again. Getting old sucks."
"Right on, buddy. You're a good son to your mother."
"I'm a loser, Dan."
"Well, so am I."
Brian looked out at the acres of cornfields. He motioned for Dan to sit on the porch swing. "Wanna fresh beer?"
"Yeah, sure."
Brian came right back out with a longneck and sat next to Dan. "You ever figure out what we did wrong in life?"
Dan sucked back a drink and really thought on it.
"We never got over it."
Brian furrowed his brow. "Got over what?"
Dan lowered his head. "Our movie failing. We thought we were going to do this for a living. That we'd have a wonderful career. It didn't happen, and we didn't move on. We didn't have a Plan B."
"That's because we didn't want a Plan B," Brian said. "I think we wanted to at least make that second movie. The sequel, I mean."
"Maybe we should go back to the drawing board." Maybe it was the booze in his system, but Dan was picturing them wandering the streets, the empty fields, the abandoned houses of Prudence, Missouri, and shooting a film on video again. The market was turning, and it was turning in their favor. Trash was good now. "I mean give it a better go. I bet with Andy Cummings' help, we could get more investors, more money, better special effects, and actually afford catering and all that real movie making shit."
Brian tinked his longneck against Dan's. Beer frothed over onto both of their laps. Dan didn't care. Brian whooped in the night, then Dan matched it, screaming like a banshee.
"Let's do this," Brian said. "I'll quit my fucking job if I have to. Fuck the grocery store in the ass. I can find another job. I have a small savings nest egg. We can do this, Dan. Come on. You with me?"
"I'll call my dad, and see if I can get more time off, and then—"
"Are we both forty? You don't sound forty, Dan. Let's cut the umbilical cord. You're not married, I'm not married. We're unhindered by anything but our ambitions. You need me to kick you in the ass, Dan? You always needed it more than I did."
"Hey, you're as much a lazy piece of shit as I am, Brian. Don't even."
"Then we'll kick each other in the ass. Let's make another movie."
"Okay."
"Okay? That's not good enough. You want to work for daddy, be my guest, but if you want to make another horror movie, I'm going to need you to say more than that."
"Fine. Fine. FUCK YEAH!"
Dan heard Lucille call them from inside the house.
"Boys, your grilled cheeses are ready."
After eating their grilled cheeses and drinking yet another beer, Dan followed Brian down into the basement of the house. This was Brian's part of the house. There was no walls to section off the different parts of the room, only two long blankets that cordoned Brian's bed, a shower and toilet that were stand alone without a partition, and a black leather couch facing a big screen Plasma TV. Dan lovingly said the place was designed by the white trash home designer. There was even exposed pipes in the ceiling.
Dan surveyed the rest of the room. Brian kept his seven hundred movie plus collection of VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray on shelves made of boards and cinder blocks. Posters for Bloody Mask and magazines reviewing their movie were kept in display cases for safekeeping.
"I don't think we received a single positive review for our movie." Dan said, reading over the open magazine of The Reaper Chronicle that showed the Bloody Mask review. Under the review was an ad for a t-shirt that had blood stains on it. "ORDER THE GORE SHIRT...while supplies last." "And it's odd how twenty years later, people suddenly give a damn."
"It's like anything artistic, Danny boy. We were ahead of our time."
"Are you kidding? Our movie wasn't good. People enjoy it because it's bad."
"If they enjoy it period, then we succeeded. I don't care if it's so bad it's good, or whatever. If people want to pay for it, then that's merit enough for me."
Dan enjoyed Brian's stubborn viewpoint that their movie was actually any good.
Brian pointed at the couch. "Sit down, man. I've got a mini fridge next to the open air toilet with plenty of beer. I'll set the alarm, and I say we watch Bloody Mask for old time's sake. Then we hit the hay. Andy's got our work cut out for us. If you look on the itinerary he printed out for us, it says we're going to Trisha Cooper's first."
Dan perked up. "You mean One-Tit Trish?"
"That very same Trish."
Dan gave Brian a high five. "This week's going to be so much fun, buddy boy. Pop the movie in. Let's watch this thing."
Dan had fallen asleep on the couch last night. When he woke up, Brian was snoring in his bed. Dan swore the bed sheets for walls quivered with every new round of Brian's snores. Standing up, Dan smacked his mouth, tasting cottonmouth and cheap beer. A shower would be nice, but Dan eyed the open aired shower with one grungy towel on a hook and wasn't so sure. But where else was he going to shower? Then Dan noticed the shelf stocked with toilet paper and fresh towels. Dan decided to perform the quickest shower in human history.
As he showered, he couldn't help but think to the script for Bloody Mask 2 he brought with him. The script was kept in plastic for twenty years. He taped it up and hadn't broken the seal since he wrote it. Dan would have to storyboard with Brian and decide if his idea was up to snuff.
But that could wait. Who knows what would happen after this week, Dan thought. They were drunk and talking big last night. Brian had his ailing mother to take care of, and Dan had responsibilities back home. He had child support to pay, and his dad was paying him good wages to help him run the construction business. It would be a lot to give up.
What Brian, and nobody else understood, Dan had put himself into serious debt by making Bloody Mask. It wasn't four thousand dollars he spent, like Brian thought. It was twenty thousand. Most of the money Dan spent was in advertising, actually paying for the VHS tapes to be made and distributed. Everything involving Bloody Mask was independent and on Dan's dime. Brian didn't know how much money they'd really spent. Brian was "producer", but it was just a title Dan assigned him. Brian was more like an assistant director and helper. Brian only put up five hundred dollars of the cash. Dan couldn't remember exactly why so much money vanished. He was young and stupid, and his parents were kind enough to put up their construction business as collateral against the bank loan.
Dan felt indebted to his folks to pay back the loan before he could move on with his life. Unfortunately, with his parents having a struggling business back then, and dealing with normal everybody bills on top of that, Dan couldn't let them sink with the ship. He worked for his parents until they were financially afloat. By the time the bank loan was paid back, Dan had fallen into a paycheck way of life, just like a lot of other wannabe movie makers who didn't make it.
He could only wait and see how the end of this week would turn out. Moving back in with Brian would be fun, but realistically, moving from Virginia to Missouri, was asking a lot.
Dan kept telling himself they were drunk and talking big. Life only allowed so much room for pipe dreams. Together, they made a movie when the time was right, and now, twenty years later, Dan wasn't so sure about another film.
Dan decided
to concentrate on enjoying the week and reliving the glory days of Bloody Mask.
Brian stumbled out of bed. He headed straight for the shower without saying a word. Dan stayed upstairs while Brian showered. Lucille was already up and cooking a wicked spread of scrambled eggs, sausage links, bacon, and orange juice.
Lucille talked to Dan like they were enjoying a summer vacation from school. The poor thing, Dan thought. He talked to her nicely. Why confuse the poor woman by trying to correct her? Lucille was an amazing woman, Dan thought. Here she was cooking like a madwoman while on her walker. She even smoked a cigarette in between tending to the various pots and pans on the stove.
Brian arrived upstairs clean shaven and looking sharp in a button up shirt and cargo pants.
"You look very professional this morning."
Brian shrugged. "If I'm going to see Trisha Cooper, I gotta look good."
"You always had the hots for her."
"I never had an honest chance with that lady. Plus, she's super religious now. Her husband's a minster at that Mormon church."
"Ouch. It's still okay to dream, right?"
"She'd be too busy reading the Bible to put out anyway. I bet reading the scripture gets her wet."
"Nice," Dan said.
They ate their food, and then Brian drove then in the cool van to Debby's to meet up with Andy. Andy was in large white van with the logo Cult Crushers Inc. on the side. Andy was dressed in a death metal t-shirt and jeans. The kid was beaming with dorky energy, Dan thought. This was their biggest fan in the entire world.
