There’s rarely a lot of good news to wake up to these days, but rarely has that “Oh no, THIS is the first thing I see when I look at my phone in the morning?” feeling been as crushing as today when I saw that filmmaker Jamie Blanks had suddenly passed away at the age of 54. Best known for his feature debut Urban Legend (which has been and always will be my personal favorite of the post-Scream glut of modern slashers), Blanks’ later career may not have achieved the same success at the box office, but all three of his following films — Valentine, Storm Warning, and a Long Weekend update often retitled Nature’s Grave — were all solid as well, and worth watching if you haven’t already.
It was at a screening of Storm Warning that I had my only in-person encounter with him, though we kept in touch via social media and email over the years. It was in 2007, and the film was premiering at Screamfest LA (where it won a few awards!), so he was on hand and I took a moment to say hello after the film wrapped up. I also told him how much I loved Valentine, and he said “Why?” with a laugh. Again, this was 2007, so hearing positive things about it was probably infrequent as the Scream Factory Blu-ray and online chatter weren’t around yet to rightfully get this film the respect it deserved. So while his passing is unfair and terrible, I take some solace in knowing that he at least lived long enough to see that, despite his own issues with it (the studio interfered with some elements), it still had a large and appreciative fanbase, and often joins My Bloody Valentine as an annual viewing in February among slasher fans.
Blanks was also a composer (the Albertus font on the credits for Urban Legend was no coincidence; he wore his John Carpenter appreciation proudly on his sleeve), scoring his last two films as well as a handful of others for other directors, including the much-loved Cannon films documentary Electric Boogaloo. Future directing projects unfortunately didn’t pan out (he was briefly attached to the Silent Night Deadly Night remake under a different studio before it changed hands and got made last year with Michael P. Nelson) but thanks to his considerable musical skills he kept on working up until his death. Per the IMDb, he was composing the music for a short called Man in Peril, and I can only hope he completed his work before his untimely passing.
But most importantly, he was a genuine film fan. Buried in my Twitter DMs is a lengthy reply from him to a public post I made about all region Blu-ray players back when I finally decided to make the plunge and see what Regions 2-4 had to offer. He gave me invaluable advice on which player to get, the best editions of certain movies we both loved, etc. Another time he messaged to gush about an Escape from New York book he was reading. And despite his career, he still had the same geek passion a lot of us do; in fact, this morning a mutual friend from Massachusetts noted that Jamie was excited to visit him this summer and check out the nearby Jaws shooting locations. One of his last tweets was beaming about his excitement for an upcoming book about the Friday the 13th soundtracks. Some genre filmmakers kind of lose their love for it after being on the other side for a while, but not Jamie.
He was also always so kind to fans online. His Twitter feed is full of genuine and good-natured replies to fans who told him how much they loved his work. Some filmmakers settle for a mere “like” or ignoring such messages entirely, but he always took the time to show his appreciation for those who reached out with kind words. But even beyond that, you’ll see him replying to people about celebrating a birthday or their sobriety, offering condolences to people posting about their losses, etc.
Long story short: he was just a genuinely GOOD GUY, the sort of person we need more of in the world, not less, and it is simply unfair that such a lovely source of positivity has been cut short. We at FANGORIA offer our sincerest condolences to his family and friends, and hope that more follow his example of continuing to be kind and gracious in a world that is so often hard.
