Living
Dead
Red
Pretty
Lights
MEDIA
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Twenty-two years after he shot the most famous low budget black &
white cult horror movie of all time. "The Night of The Living Dead."
producer George Romero has decided to remake the original; horrified
people fleeing zombies that only come out at night.
This time though, it's in living dead color and Romero hired some experts
in the gore business to make the zombies look like they really did just
crawl out of their graves and come back to life.
Hatchet wounds, exploding heads, rifle and pistol shots in the chest.
shotgun blasts, eye scars, slit throats, knife wounds and the differing
colors of blood... These are the stock in trade of Everett Burrell, 25, and
John Vulich, 28, two ace special effects men from California.
"When we sculpt a wound, we try to find a real character in a real book
and copy the face exactly," said Vulich recently. "Knife wounds are really a
lot different than you think, because when a knife goes through someone's
hand it might make a shape you wouldn't really expect. In a knife attack
the hands get cut first because the victim is defending the face. Details
like that tend to make our job a little more interesting."
Realism is the key, said Vulich. "One of my pet peeves in movies is
seeing blood that's just red, especially on characters that have been lying
around for a while, wounds that are old. So we mixed up three shades:
the regular red, a brown red, and a yellowish fluid like plasma."
There are no teachers; Burrell and Vulich learn from forensics
pathology textbooks or from actually watching a body being cut
open. "Everett went to an autopsy to learn how humans are put
together," said Vulich. "We consider ourselves craftsmen
first, then artists. An artist wants to stylize. You have to fight
that in this kind of work."-Harry Moss
"BLITZ
QUICK STROKES
****** LASERIUM *****
If you're sitting around bored one weekend and need a
little optical stimulation, relief is as close as your local
planetarium. You might have been to one during some
field trip to see the night sky projected onto a huge dome.
But these places can't expect to pay the bills with star
shows alone, and that's where Laserjum comes in.
Conceived in 1973, Laserium provides wholesome
family entertainment and covert enhancement of illegal
experiences. Under a circular dome in real comfortable
chairs, everyone leans back, gets mellow, stares at the
pretty lights and listens to music.
Skateboarding barged onto prime time tv
last July with the premiere of Nickelodeon's SK8 TV.
Since then, the show has expanded and improved with
everything from pointers on board maintenance by Lance
Mountain to entertaining interviews with prominent pros
by man-about-town Skatemaster Tate, not to mention the
ever-radder skate action. Even semi-clued dude Mathew
Lyn seems to be getting less annoying as time goes by...
SKATE OR DIE 2
Just when you thought it was safe to play Nintendo, along comes
Skate or Die 2: The Search for Double Trouble, from Electronic Arts.
Here's a game that actually approximates reality: a bitchy mayor's
wife wants to see your ramp reduced to sawdust after you accidently
run over her poodle. It's up to you to collect CDs, tapes, tacos, chili
fries and better boards while learning new tricks and earning enough
green to build a new ramp. Meanwhile, in the alleys of Elwood.
there's a huge, radical halfpipe where you can pull ollies, railslides,
McTwists and lip tricks for extra points. This game has it all: Bettys,
zombie mall shoppers, rival gangs, mohicans, skate hating dogs.
bulldozers and sewer rats. What more could a poor skater ask?
78 THRASHER MAGAZINE
Traditional Laserium shows are usually created around
rock-opera style bands like Pink Floyd. The Wall and
Dark Side of the Moon are two albums that laser
choreographers are intimately familiar with. But these
are the nineties and, although the Summer of Love is
re-created over and over again through shows.
reeking of The Strawberry Alarm Clock, you can also
watch the lights pulse and zap around tunes by
bands like Living Color, the B-52s and De La Soul.
The images are shot out of lasers into every color
as animated figures and firecracker bursts of light are
drawn onto the dome of the planetarium, Everything
is synchronized to the route of the music.
The music isn't too loud and the lights are bright but
harmless (unless you look directly into the lasers, in
which case you'll be blinded). Small children aren't
allowed in for reasons that are obvious after the first
couple songs.
Consider it. A trip to a Laserium is no more expen-
sive than a movie, and the operators are glad to ex
plain the whole thing to you and turn it into an educa-
tional event. Or just think of the entire evening as a
legal psychedelic trip.-Kirsten Voris
Reclor
CROSSING TERRAINS,
OMAR HASSAN
Fecior
FATERY