Peter Rosch's "What The Dead Can Do," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Peter Rosch's What The Dead Can Do.

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In many ways, What The Dead Can Do is a possession story. A unique one, but as a film, it’s a safe bet that it would pop up in the “Viewers Also Watched” section on Netflix underneath The Conjuring or The Exorcist and other possession films. Of course, like those, it’s much more, too.

What The Dead Can Do is the story of a recently deceased mother, grieving for the child she left behind after a plane crash, who seeks out a way to possess the living to kill that still-living child and reunite her family in the afterlife. Dark stuff. Heady stuff. Taboo stuff, maybe. But if I did what I think I’ve done with the story, it and the film adaptation will not be inaccessible to a broader audience. It was important to me to write this paranormal thriller in a way that would appeal to a wide array of people. Even now, as I wander the country promoting the book, I’ve referred to it from time to time as a paranormal family drama or a gateway book to horror. It’s a story that’s terrifying in a way similar to Poltergeist, which scared many of all walks and ages.

To achieve the right balance of horror, hope, and even humor, I had a handful of films on my mind as I penned the manuscript: 1982’s Poltergeist (story by Steven Spielberg) because it was so accessible as an instrument of horror. And because at 10, I saw it, and the family felt authentic and grounded to me. Still...[read on]

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Q&A with Peter Rosch.

My Book, The Movie: What The Dead Can Do.

--Marshal Zeringue