Pittsburgh Style

The City of Pittsburgh with its diverse population [http://www.hellopittsburgh.com/Census.Cfm ] and architecture [http://www.library.cmu.edu/Research/ArchArch/PGHARCHres/index.html ] , along with its spectacular Victorian and Machine Age vistas ["The Spectator and the Topographical City" Martin Aurand University of Pittsburgh Press 2006] , has a reputation for depicting its own macabre and science fiction genre. [http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_530761.html] Television personality Bill Cardille's Chiller Theatre, [ [http://www.chillertheatermemories.com Welcome to Chiller Theater Memories! ] ] created more than one generation of Pittsburghers with an interest in horror, fantasy, science-fiction and the macabre. Notable film director George Romero's definitive work "Night of the Living Dead" in 1968 [http://www.houseofhorrors.com/night68.htm] cast Cardille as one of its characters. The film is considered the archetypical work in the Pittsburgh Style with its depiction of Zombies as metaphor. This style is sustained by Romero himself as well as by film director and writer Rusty Cundieff [ [http://www.nndb.com/people/361/000045226 Rusty Cundieff ] ] and makeup effects guru Tom Savini. [ [http://www.savini.com SAVINI.COM: The Official Tom Savini Home page ] ] Lately, works by noted Pittsburgh Writer Michael Chabon have captured the genre.

PARSEC, Confluence and the writer's workshops

Pittsburgh has several very influential local writer's workshops in the genre including the Pittsburgh Worldwrights [ [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mslee/pw.html/ Pittsburgh Worldwrights ] ] founded by Mary Soon Lee [http://www.sfsite.com/02b/msl122.htm] and continued by protegee Barton Paul Levenson. Write or Die [http://word.pghfree.net/ Write or Die] and The Pittsburgh SouthWrites [http://www.interzone.com/~jafriedl/SW/sowrites.htm] are two other local workshops with prolific writers. The writers from these workshops have had hundreds of short-stories, novels, novellas and poems published across the spectrum. The PARSEC Organization [http://www.parsec-sff.org] with its annual convention known as Confluence, has done a great deal to sustain local writers of fantasy, science fiction, horror and the macabre.

Film

Recently this genre has been reflected in Pittsburgh Film Director Rusty Cundieff's "Tales from the Hood" [http://www.esplatter.com/reviewsttoz/talesfromthehood.htm] . Some films of the macabre genre made in Pittsburgh have included "The Dark Half" [http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0106664/] by Stephen King and "The Silence of the Lambs" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/trivia ] . The Zombie film however, is Pittsburgh's trademark thanks to Romero. Witness Mark Menold [ [http://www.revenantmagazine.com/MarkMenoldinterview.htm Revenant: The Premiere Zombie Magazine - Features ] ] who showcases the classic Pittsburgh zombie tradition through cinematic and televised works on The It's Alive Show and by holding the annual "Zombie Fest".

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