I’m not sure I have more than a couple of examples of SciFi movies that portray small towns (with a Southern feel) accurately, but here goes:
“Dark Was the Night” 2014
- Kevin Durand (Sheriff)
- Lukas Haas
- Bianca Kajlich
“The Crazies” 2010
- Timothy Olyphant (Sheriff)
- Radha Mitchell
I like the above movies because the small towns they portray, and the small town stereotype characters they portray feel comfortable. They are a “grown up” version of Andy of Mayberry… if Mayberry is attacked by weird creatures or a zombie creating virus.
NOTE [08/28/22]: A short time ago, I came across the 1973 version of “The Crazies”. I tried to watch it, but the remake was so much more interesting, and the earlier version focused much more on the military side of the incident. I did fast-forward to the end of the movie, and wasn’t impressed. The remake is much more interesting having the main characters escape to the big city, but not really, being tracked via satellite.
“The Mist” 2007
- Thomas Jane
- Laurie Holden
I love this movie for many reasons. The creatures are numerous and bizarre. The military has been working on some transdimensional gate, lost control, and these creatures are crossing over into our World. The personal interaction of those trapped in the grocery is intense. And, the ending, bleak and leaving us reeling as must be the Thomas Jane character. Rescue so close, and yet a step away from being able to rescue in time.
*Netflix has just made “The Mist” available for free viewing and I have re-watched it, twice I think. I started googling and found that the exterior shots of the grocery store as the mist rolls in, were filmed in Vivian, LA. I did a StreetView tour around the Vivian, LA filming location. Two notes, are that the rear loading window (important to the tentacled monster attack upon the bag boy) wasn’t actually located where the movie seemed to place it. Also, there is a King’s Pharmacy shown as the mist rolls in. That building didn’t actually exist, and the structure was added as a testament to Stephen King. It was torn down shortly after filming. * I found that the abandoned grocery store in Vivian is scheduled to be demolished so that a new bank building can be built. Most of the movie’s store locations was filmed on a sound stage.
First Guaranty Bank Reinvests in Vivian Community with Plans for New Branch [Bank blog posting 2022]
Depending upon which street you now navigate to (Oct. 30, 2023), in Google Streetview, you can see the Food House location (outside view) from “the Mist” movie (minus King’s Pharmacy) and during the building of the new First Guaranty Bank branch (old grocery store demolished). Recall that interior shots of the grocery store for the movie were from a Hollywood constructed set.
Burning Train Passing By
Gigantic Mist Monster
Above are two “iconic” images, one from “The Mist” and the other from “The War of the Worlds.” They only last seconds in each film, but their “scifi-e-ness” makes them “haunt on” after the movie.
The lumbering six legged gigantic monster even has large flying creatures (in my mind they are some of the larger bird-like creatures that attacked the giant bug-type creatures in the store), very small in comparison to the six legged monster, but definitely imaginable as birds hovering over a cow or moose might do when looking for hovering insects.
The empty burning train just so haunting, without a ‘dead man’s switch’ and all train staff and passengers dead, a train might just barrel on through, with automated railroad signals activating, not dependent upon whether any human being was alive on the train or not.
Not having to do with Sci-Fi at all, but portraying a small town, as I remember it when I was growing up, is the movie, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” Those early scenes of the bus (Trailways?) coming into town reminded me of the “feel” of how it was growing up in 1960s eastern North Carolina. I don’t recall if we drove up to Jacksonville each Saturday, or every other Saturday to buy groceries at the Colonial Store in New River Shopping Center. But, New River Shopping Center was the hub of commercial activity in Jacksonville at the time. There was Sears and Roses Department Store, and the Center Theater (25 cents for a movie). Bill Rollis’ Steak House was on a corner, and near it was Ron-Cor (a hobby shop that at some point had an 8 lane slot car track). There was a drug store, and a small US Post Office next door to it. And in one little interior corner was a little room, with a fancy door, that was where Santa came each year before Christmas so that the local children could come stand in line, with their parents in order to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.
There wasn’t the Internet, so you couldn’t go “online” to look at stuff, or buy stuff, and have it delivered “next day.” Sears was an international company and they produced thick “shopping” catalogs with hundreds of pages in each catalog. The catalogs were free. There was a summer and a winter catalog, and maybe even a special Christmas catalog, and the catalogs had men’s and women’s and children’s clothing sections, and you could buy household appliances, or lawn mowers, and loads of toys. This Sears had an automotive section with “drive bays” and mom would go there periodically to have our car checked or tuned up, or repaired as needed.
It was rare that it snowed in eastern North Carolina for Christmas. Christmas was more of a special time back then because it only lasted a brief time, or at least the advertising, and special seasonal TV programs only were shown within a few weeks of Christmas day. “Have a holly jolly Christmas. It’s the best time of the year.” Was that Burl Ives? And I think mom said that Burl Ives had stopped in Swansboro once, as he was bringing his boat along the Intracoastal Waterway, and that he had been “rude” to the locals, who then didn’t think much of him. *Which reminds me of something that I once heard the actor, Ernest Borgnine, say on TV, “Be good to your fans on the way up, and they will be good to you on your way down.” I’m not sure if that always proves to be true, but if what goes around, comes around, then it is added protection for that time you know will eventually happen (to us all).
The Roses Department Store had a cafe counter up front near the check-out registers. Comic books were 10 or 12 cents for the monthly installment, and the inside pages weren’t glossy, hi-resolution images. I might have bought Superman, Batman, Lost in Space, Spiderman and even Silver Surfer eventually from Roses.
I’ve written elsewhere that we shopped at the Colonial Store, and that mom would also buy the “wheat pattern” dishes as they came up for purchase, and you would get “Gold Bond” stamps with each purchase, that you would stick in a little booklet. Once the booklet was filled with stamps, you could take that to the distribution center (I think this was in New Bern, NC.) to redeem for various items.
Mom bought a complete set of children’s encyclopedias. You couldn’t buy the whole set at once, but had to buy one of the 16 volumes as it became available. I don’t recall if they became available weekly, bi-weekly or every month. I’m thinking it wouldn’t have been monthly because it would have taken almost a year and a half to buy all 16 if that was the availability period. *I bought a complete set of these encyclopedias several years ago and the set came with and additional 5 or 6 volumes that represented the continents. Atlases? The shipping, from Alabama, cost more than the cost of the books. **I had in my mind that there was an illustration of an insect trapped in amber in one of these encyclopedias, but the illustration I found didn’t match my memory. Nor did my memory match the blue suede tennis shoes that I actually owned (once I compared a picture I had in my Swansboro High School annual). I did actually have a school outfit that I combined that had white Navy mess pants (with button fly), a red terry cloth short sleeved shirt, red/white& blue suspenders that I added a couple of white stars to, and the blue tennis shoes. I can’t believe that I actually combined this and wore it to school, apparently my Senior year.
I do recall that a local TV personality from Wilmington, named Rick Tash, came up one Saturday and gave out balsa wood airplane toys. **I did find his name, Rick Tash, in some online document once, so I know I didn’t imagine him. These toys probably had the red plastic propellers and you would stretch a rubber band along the length of the toy’s fuselage, wind the propeller and then let it go into the air. The wound rubber band would cause the propeller to spin and propel the toy through the air. Not a long distance, but it was satisfying. And, if you managed to put the toy together successfully, it wouldn’t be long before it crashed into the ground or something else and part of it broke.
Note [05/01/24]: I made some Tuna Salad early this morning. Probably about 2 am. The only thing I do not add if I am making this ahead of time is the tomato. If I am going to put this salad or a Greek Salad in the refrigerator I leave out the tomato because refrigeration affects their flavor negatively. Don’t refrigerate tomatoes! It ruins their flavor. [end Note]
It is the human condition to suffer angst or dread periodically through-out life. It comes at various times, and for various reasons, and to various degrees. *If you take a test, especially in college, the “End of Time” will never come before you get your “bad” grade back, so just “suck it up” and live with the grade you earned. It might be the thought of getting a girl, or losing a girlfriend that generates a degree of angst. It might be something you said, that worries you because you wish you hadn’t said whatever it was. Or, you might dread having to read a report in front of class. I always liked to volunteer early for these oral reports so that there wasn’t anyone to compare me to. I usually wasn’t first to read or speak, but usually by the fourth person.
Bill Gibson, II 