Horror writer: I see dead people — votingLenoir-Rhyne prof's short story set for TVYou know the joke about dead people voting in corrupt elections? In Chicago, perhaps? Dale Bailey has heard it, too. Except it prompted him to wonder what only a prolific horror writer could: What if the dead really could vote? The Lenoir-Rhyne English professor's answer to the question — a short story titled "Death and Suffrage" — has already earned him acclaim. Now, it's headed to the small screen. A television adaptation of "Death and Suffrage," renamed "Homecoming," will air this fall (around Halloween, naturally) as part of Masters of Horror, a Showtime series of 13 (of course!) hour-long films. All will be directed and written by prominent horror movie screenwriters and directors, including those behind The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, An American Werewolf in London and Poltergeist. Mick Garris, who has directed several Stephen King miniseries, is overseeing the entire project.Bailey's story is about to begin production in Vancouver, British Columbia, Showtime spokesman Frank Marchesini said. It will be directed by Joe Dante, whose resume includes Gremlins, and scripted by Sam Hamm, who wrote the first "Batman" movie. Casting information was not available. "I had seen all of these horror movies about zombies rising from the grave," Bailey said. "What they always wanted to do, apparently, is feast on human flesh. I was kind of fascinated with (was), what if they just wanted to cast their ballots?" The story opens on a presidential election day, when the dead approach the balloting station to vote and "throw the election into disarray," he said. And as it turned out, the tale eerily aligned with real events: Not more than a month after Bailey finished the story, the 2000 presidential election was also thrown into disarray, in Florida — minus zombie involvement, of course. (Or so we think!) "Death and Suffrage" was published in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2002 and in Bailey's 2003 short story collection, The Resurrection Man's Legacy and Other Stories. In 2003, it won the International Horror Guild Award for intermediate-length short fiction. And it stood out earlier this year when the pay cable channel went hunting for stories to film. The publisher of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction passed it along as part of a bunch of recently published horror stories, Bailey said, and representatives contacted him in March about obtaining the rights. After months of negotiations through his agent, Bailey sold the rights in July. Bailey said he wasn't sure why "Death and Suffrage" was chosen, but speculated that it appealed to Dante's morbid humor. "His movies always have kind of a comedic element," Bailey said. "I suspect he liked the idea of taking this very old convention and doing something kind of comedic with it." Bailey's stories have been optioned for movies before, he said, but none ever made it into production — even "The Resurrection Man's Legacy," which has been optioned three times. "That story has been very good to me," he joked. Bailey will teach several sections of introduction to creative writing this fall, and he said he hopes to teach gothic literature in the spring. In addition, he has a novel coming out next June. But before then, he'll wait and see how the film version of his story turns out. "It's sort of out of my hands now," he said. "I'll watch it on TV, I suppose." Or, he would, he says. But he doesn't have Showtime. — Jen Aronoff, Staff Writer, The Charlotte Observer, August 17, 2005
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