Scary monsters

Six horror shorts were up for viewing tonight "On the Lot." I am one of the few geeky movie types watching this crappy series. Steven Spielberg's name is on it and so is Mark Burnett's but you'd never know it. The production values suck -- Burnett must have assigned his third string rookie production crew to this one. The host was replaced without comment after the first episode to one who has nothing to contribute to the proceedings other than following direction enough to keep this live train wreck on cue for the next commercial break.

In case you haven't seen it, the show features a bunch of wannabes competing for a film deal in Hollywood. Every week they show a short film and get judged by industry insiders Carrie Fisher and Gary Marshall plus one Hollywood guest director.

One of the candidates, Mateen Kemet, chose to make a real horror movie about racial profiling -- a risky choice, but it worked all too well. At least, I thought so. The judges gave mixed reviews. Tonight's hot young horror film director guest judge, whose name escapes me, said the problem was that the director didn't stick with one character's point of view, which weakened it. It's those little technical tidbits that lured me into this show and keep me hooked.

I hope Mateen doesn't get voted "off the lot." He's absolutely right -- what is going on in the real world is far more horrifying than any splatter flick could ever hope to achieve.

The executive branch of our government is operating without any oversight. The Bush-Cheney regime is one long escalating nightmare of horrific choices and terrifying build-ups to ever worsening conditions and heightening alert levels. Who needs horror movies these days?