Little thing about me. I’m not exactly a fan boy of anything in particular. I mean, I like certain things like we all do. I like animation. I like football. I like pizza. But I’m not fanatical about it (not about football anymore).

But there’s one thing that I’m pretty passionate about: Day of the Dead.

Not the holiday in Mexico, although that’s a crazy fun time, but the George A. Romero film with the same title. You know the third installment of the Dead franchise LONG before the phenomena of Walking Dead. This is a film after the mall film, where a group of military dudes and some scientific folks bunker down in a…er…bunker to escape the walking…umm…zombified humans, or the dead.

For me, this movie had the best effects of any of the others. Tom Savini and his crew HAD to have a blast on this one. Chopping arms off, pulling out guts, yanking off heads. It’s great for a fan like me.

Little did I know, just a few years later I would be linked with the lead actress of the film. Since moving to Pittsburgh, I’ve met quite a few of the “Romero’s clan” from all of the films. They are a fantastic group of folks that had either worked on the movies, starred in the movies, or in most cases, did both! This town has such a penchant for that genre and it doesn’t get the credit that it deserves, in my opinion.

One day, I got luck enough to meet Lori Cardille, who plays Sarah in Day of the Dead. She couldn’t have been sweeter. To me, she still looked the same as she did in the underground bunker hacking off limbs and shooting zombies in the head. It was really a treat just chatting with her.

I had no idea then that she would be my demon for my movie, Help Me First!

When I wrote the script, I envisioned a gentle, motherly influence when the demon was in its human form. She had to be calming almost to the point of sickening nice. Deep down, I wanted the audience to think that maybe this poor woman was delusional. When the time came in the movie for its true self to be shown, the character had to have a dark side. A very evil side.

I had no idea who I was going to get for this.

Then I thought of Lori again. She’ll kill me for that but I did think of her not because of the dark side but because of the gentle side. That was her. She could play that very well. The challenge would be the demon. How could someone so nice say such horrible things and want to rip our sweet main character to pieces? It’s called acting.

When I offered the role to Lori she laughed and then giggled with anticipation. She couldn’t wait to jump at the chance to play a demon (she even signs her emails to me – Your Little Demon). Even on the phone she went into what she thought the creature could be and I nearly dropped my device. She can do it for sure.

So to say I’m not a fan boy of anything is a lie. I’m a fan boy of Day of the Dead and now even more so of Lori Cardille. I’m betting so will everyone else.

Check out our kickstarter here so we can actually make this movie!: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1271821223/help-me-first