Even demons deserve love!

In our third year going to Baycon, we hoped we would strike a rich vein, instead of wobbling. Our first year’s movie at Baycon was great, but our second one had many technical flaws. We consoled ourselves that these flaws were to be expected in a movie shot in about two hours, but nevertheless, we hoped year 3 would be the upswing, instead of following the existing curve.

Happily, It’s a Terrible Life went swimmingly and the results are absolutely delightful, in a horrific “I can’t believe they did that!” sort of way.

The convention certainly gave us lots of press and love, including daily updates in the daily newsletter. That was only one of the many unprecedented things. Another was that we ended up being assigned to the Ballroom for our filming. To understand the strangeness of this, imagine the biggest reasonable room you’ve ever seen (Boeing employees and people who live at the Taj Mahal need not apply). The Ballroom is bigger. Now imagine we’re there, with our little camera, one mic, and one light. What shall we shoot?

We did figure it out eventually, of course. Oh sure, we planned for what to do in case no one showed up, but as it turns out, about a dozen people showed up, and shortly after we got started, the ideas came thick and fast.

Making up a brand new story (as opposed to a parody) is a lot of fun, and this is (well, more or less) an original story.

So goes the story: Due to an extremely rare dice-rolling situation, a minor demon is brought into existence. She is a minor demon, practically powerless, and has only a short time to commit Ten Heinous Acts in order to earn her horns and become a full-fledged demon.

Thus begins her terrifying Rampage Of Evil across the otherwise innocent-and-pure populous of Baycon. One by one, she earns her points, sometimes losing them in unexpected ways, until finally, defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory and the poor minor demon finds herself on the Walk of Shame, surely heading back to Hell, where all her cohorts will torment her for her failures.

Until, however…

Learn more about the movie by checking out Ryan’s writeup on it!

Cast

  • Demon: Seanna Ladd
  • Mother: Taunya Gren
  • iPhone finder: Edward Goldstein
  • Peter S. Beagle: Peter S. Beagle
  • Slapper: William Tracey
  • Slappee: Miki Violet Sun Goddess
  • Goth girl: Kayla
  • Lawyer: Christopher Lipp
  • Cookie girl: Kathryn “Ryn” Bruce
  • Banana-eater: Chris Drennan
  • Banana-slipper: Mike Drennan
  • Girl with cheatin’ boyfriend: Meg Creelman
  • TV’s David Tennant: Jarrod Golgoski
  • “Lost” fan: Christine Doyle
  • SCA’ers: Trudi Villareal, Miki, Vega
  • Gamers: Jarrod Golgoski, William, Joe, Erin Mittmann
  • Filkers: Actual Filkers!

Crew

  • Produced and Written by Edward Martin III and Ryan K. Johnson
  • Directed by Edward Martin III
  • Photographed and edited by Ryan K. Johnson
  • Edited by Ryan K. Johnson
  • Sound and DVD authoring by Edward Martin III