Nerding Day: The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill

Hello and howdy to you all in this hot dog communality, we do make fun sometimes here but i think we can admit it that all of us have a real fondness for The Movies and even the behind-the-scenes of how they make em, and I am personally considered something of a cinemophile in my real life community because of sometimes ill watch a movie just based on whos the DIRECTOR even if Tom Cruise is not in it. For example one time i was checking out the Body Double DVD from the library and Sherril was workin the checkout and said This one looks pretty spicy! and I just said Maybe for you but I’m watching it because of how its a homage to Hitchcock and she dident say anything else and I was pretty excited to tell LaRene about that one, she never liked Sherril much cause of how she always pretends low-fat ranch doesnt taste any different from regular.

Anyway so heres my chance to tell you all about a good movie experience I had recently and maybe its extra fun because its sorta like a hidden or forgotten gem, but when we wipe the dust and grime off to let it shine we discover it was a old friend all along, yes its about our good bud:

Stephen Elizabeth King

Now were probly all aware of how Steve forwarded the science and art of the motion picture through his writing books what get turned into movies and sometimes just straight up writing a masterpiece screenplay and sometimes even DIRECTING a movie without even killing anyone AND when some other director used one of his books to make a real good movie pretty much everyone loves, Steve is so secure and confident enough in his genius that he says “Nah that’s not how its supposed to be Im redoin this one so its good” But a under-discussed and -preciated aspect that were gonna talk about today is:

Now i know yes we talked about a King on-screen appearance before in Sleepwalkers but that one was more sort of a camneo. There is another acting credit in which Steve is the Lead and Main Actor and its even kind of a one-man show so the whole thing pretty much is gonna live and die depending on Steve’s performance, but if that got you worried: don’t, because when has he ever disappointed any of us?

The movie in question is Creepshow from 1982 and it is a “anthrology” which means its like a short story collection instead of a novel. And maybe your sayin; Creepshow is that the one with the cryptkeeper? Nope that’s tales from the crypt. In Creepshow, instead of a leper muppet making funny jokes and telling us scary stories, the “frame story” is: theres this little kid reading all the stories in his comic book:

Which that is Stephen Kings real son Joe in real life Who is also a writer now and it looks like he and his dad share a love for a shared fiction universe…

…and a hatred for all hair product.

And the trivia for creepshow says that King was a very good on-set dad and dident want Joe to get upset from bein slapped by another actor so instead he had Joe slap himself, which i guess it worked, look at these happy guys:

I can only hope I would do the same for my Trayton.

So all the stories in Creepshow are in lil Joes comic book and the movie shows us that by kinda fading from movie to illustration…

and using weird frames and angles and stuff…

George Romero directed this and in the commentary he says that they thought it would be funny if the doctors chair rolled “downhill” because it looks like the floor is tilted and that is just kinda one of the weirdest ideas Ive ever heard. Heres the link to the commentary if you want to listen but I can tell you that for some reason they spend way more time talking about the makeup and special effects than our topic today which is: Kings masterclass in actorly filmic performance, in the Creepshow segment intitled:

…based on his very own magazine story. And this is a good Title choice because 1) forshadowing of tragic end and 2) bob dylan reference which means very poetic and 3) there are no real people named Jordy and so when they say it in the movie, it doesnt sound right in your brain and you think: Are they sayin Jody? Or Jorgby? So this is a challenging artwork from a author PLUS performer who is not afraid to agitate your comfort and sensibililies.

(Correction: I felt like I better look that up and it turns out I told a lie there is exactly one person named Jordy here are the pertinents from his Wikipedia page: “Jordy is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest singer ever to have a No. 1 charted single. He achieved this in 1992, at the age of four-and-a-half, with the song “Dur dur d’être bébé!” (“It’s Tough to Be a Baby”).” I regret the erratum.)

And what happens in the movie is a man is by his house (place of comfort) and a meteor falls from the sky (meeting with the goddess):

And right away we are THERE and FEELING what it would be like in this situation because of the sublimeness of the first moments of King’s performance:

Also: he immediately starts calling it a ‘’meatier”, and out of respect we will also do that. I am not includin the dialogue audio because patreon cant do that and also if youve ever listened to a audio book King has narrated you already know his voice sorta sounds like someone kicked a plugged-up nose in the nuts.

But lets zoom back out for a second: George Romero says in the commentary that King is real good at writing a realistic “common man” and wow he is also good at being real relatable and normal for the camera. Romero also said that he told Steve to act like the coyote in the roadrunner and Steven said I think people will hate that and then Romero says: yeah actually a lot of people did hate it and also Stephen King doesnt talk to me anymore.

But we know better: Steph’s actor instincts were good and true and look heres a example and proof:

So next Jordy starts imagining how he will be able to profit from this situation by taking this meatier up to college and selling it. Well not profit so much as get enough money to “pay off the bank loan”. But in his common man foolishness and haste he does what you should never to do a fresh meatier, folks, and throws cold water and cracks it open and some of it gets on him

And he yells “MEATIER SHIT!” Which I can relate: some years depending on our thanksgiving budget I also have had some meatier shits than is probably healthy! hawhaw im jokin, i understand hes sayin it allegoricly.

So Jordys dream of riches is dashed and, newly broken, he again evokes the common man in all of us by retreating into his house and drownin his grief into professional wrestling and alcohol.

Scholar notes: that is a wrestler who was a early prototype of our now well-established lineage of Professional Samoan wrestlers, his name is Afa Anoi or “The Samoan #1” and that drink was a “carbonated fortified wine” named Ripple which NOT coincidentally they stopped making it soon after this movie came out. I think they realized their viticultural mission had been fulfilled. But enough wrestle ‘n’ ripple, let’s get back to PERFORMANCE. Watch again, this time with a helpful and tasteful zoom affect:

observe the Eye of the Trouper as he drinks his fortified wine drink. Thats right it doesnt close for a second, he show us how INTENT he is on watchin his wrestling stories which, remember: might not even of been on TV when they were filming this. Such is the dedication to craft and body as instrument.

And you can guess where things go from here, the meatier fungus grows and grows and starts to demand hydration; which Stephen King helps us understand better by saying that a plant that needs water is “itchy” rather than “thirsty”.

You might take a moment to look at any plants around you and ask, “Who’s itchy?” as a exercise in accessin this level of floraul empathy.

And then as we all know, the bravest thing a actor can do is: shave their head if their a actress and for the men-identified ones: go in the nude. And do you think Steven King is scared of showing it all? Not for a minute, he undresses and even though the camera is apparently afraid to show the complete human form, King tells us the Truth of the Tale and chills us with horror by lookin down at his crotch and cryin out, “Oh no not there!”

And so we know he is a mossman even on his bush.

So: even though his ghost dad shows up in the bathroom mirror and says Jordy you dumbass dont get in that water; the tub is just too enticing and he jumps in the water and we see another Actorly Choice which is: a good actor works WITH his crew as opposed to ALONE or AGAINST them. I learned in the commentary that they tried lots more special effects with Kings body, like they took a cast of his tongue and his eyes to put stuff on them, but his “body rejected them” and gave him a allergy that he had to treat with “shots and medication ‘so the work would be bearable.’’’

But was it JUST sensitive body parts and fondness for shots and medication that was at work here or was it Stephen King: mind and soul and body as one, using good judgement about how much special effects was just right? For, take a look:

Yes, no need for fancy contacts or prosthetics, just this much costume, COMBINED, mind you, with Kings ability to express and emote, is the perfect cinematic black & tan.

Anyway onto our final disturbin moments of this short film: we get some shots showin us just how far the cosmic mess has spread.

The set designing is pretty cool here, just look at how much work they put into makin it look like the meatier stuff was just spreading everywhere. And then we see just another lump of vegetation, but whats this!?

Oh dear jesus it is Alive and its Jordy in there and I guess hes just so itchy now he wants to die and you know what: its a little disturbing and I heard its not even Steven King in there, its a stuntman, so we will transition at this point to the comic book version so nobody gets to upset especially not me when I read my cousin Jeffs copy of this when I was like 8 and had nightmares for a while after:

Hell I gotta be honest I still have the nightmares sometimes. But remember: the comic in this case came AFTER the movie so in some ways we still have to give King credit for anything the comic made us feel. Thank you Steven King.

So this was surely a tantalizing morsel of performance from a gone-too-soon actor (not dead just dident really keep acting) and i think your probably with me in grievin what might have been and what we could have seen if Mr. King had decided to grace us with accepting and just KILLING it with more movie roles. I mean just imagine…

He might have saved Cloud Atlas.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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