Waiting around the corner
By ANDREA JOHNSON Staff Writer ajohnson@minotdailynews.comArticle Photos
The "Cornerboys" are waiting just around the corner for poor Jennie Lynn, "rat-eyed and restless," according to the promos.
Like other foolish young girls who are interested in excitement, the heroine of Jamieson Ridenhour's dark fairy tale ignores her grandmother's advice that the street fair in the city is a dangerous place.
"It turns out that, as in most fairy tales, she should have listened to Granny," said Ridenhour, a professor specializing in Gothic literature at the University of Mary in Bismarck.
The "very Halloween-ey" short film based on Ridenhour's poem will make its debut Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Aleshire Theater on the Minot State University campus. Also showing will be the Boris Karloff film "Bride of Frankenstein." Ridenhour will talk about Boris Karloff's time in Minot, when his theater group ran out of money and spent a time showing at a downtown Minot hotel.
Ridenhour said "Cornerboys" is a collaboration between himself, artist Ali LaRock, and composer Kevin Smith, all of whom will be at the showing. The short film is based on a long poem Ridenhour wrote 10 years ago that was published in a now defunct horror magazine. He resurrected it with the idea of turning it into an illustrated book. That evolved into a short film lasting about 11 minutes.
"It's a pretty impressive, devilish piece of work," said Ridenhour. "The music sounds amazing, the art is amazing."
Ridenhour also loves old horror films like "The Bride of Frankenstein" and will talk about both Karloff and how the movie "Cornerboys" came to be made.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
