Read the credits

I'm thinking I may have to go see The Box. From the commercials, some guy missing a chunk of his face gives Cameron Diaz a box. She pushes the button and some random person dies while she gets rich. I guess if she doesn't, he doesn't and she doesn't.

While I'm sure there's more to the plot (at least I hope there's more), I'm much more interested in the writer, Richard Matheson.

It's a name you should recognize and if you don't, you have to know some of his work. He wrote the stories they based I Am Legend, Legend of Hell House and What Dreams May Come on. Yeah that's an awkward sentence. Suck it up. He also wrote Duel (think Joyride with less talking and more tension) and all three stories from Trilogy of Terror.

But I first payed attention to him, and so did most of the country, when he wrote for the Twilight Zone. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet ("There's a man on the wing of the plane!"), that's him. He wrote The Invaders, where a country woman is attacked by six inch tall aliens. Matheson's responsible for Little Girl Lost about a girl who falls into the 4th dimension, a clear forerunner to Poltergeist. Remember Night Call, where an old lady keeps getting phone calls from her dead husband? Yup, that's his too. The only person who wrote more TZ eps was Rod himself.

I'm not saying everything he does is gold. I remember reading one story about a guy who had a curse or something on him and a voodoo priestess has sex with him to clear him of it. Lame idea and sad execution. Not enough voodoo for science fiction and not dirty enough for the sex to be important. Just a bad idea all around there. But most of his stories are at least interesting enough to make you finish them in one sitting and I like having a little twist at the end of them. Obviously he does too.

When Hollywood cashes in on something like this, I win. I managed to score the basis for The Box and a lot more other short stories of his in Wal-Mart. Put a picture of the movie poster and the cover and wait for the saps. Doesn't bother me.

The point? I guess I'm telling you to pay attention to the writer whenever you're watching a movie or TV show. How many of you know which actors in the Office are also regular writers of episodes? Did you know that the same person who wrote When Harry Met Sally is also to blame for Bewitched? Follow those odd connections when you get a chance. You never know where you'll end up.