Smash or Pass by @thisisadickinson; author’s, friends’, + personal copies.
Lydia Deetz finds a new horror podcast to listen to while she tries to fall asleep. The host has a nice voice. Too bad that's all he's got going for him.
21,591 words | 172 pages | 6 copies
Smash or Pass is one of those fics where immediately after finishing it, you start reading it again. It is so side-achingly funny and over-the-top emotional drama—often at the same time—that you can’t put it down. And it fits the alternate universe setting perfectly! If Alex Brightman had been hired to play a sleazy podcast host, this is exactly how he would have done it.
One of the things I love about Smash or Pass is how cleverly horror movies are incorporated throughout, and what each character does or doesn’t know—or pretend to know—about the genre. I osmosised so much info reading this fic. From Lydia’s artistic sentiment to Betelgeuse’s low-brow focus, it’s a treasure trove of info and clear love poured into Lydia’s lofty essays on the evolution of the genre that BJ disregards on air.
For this bind, I pulled design ideas from Suspiria, one of the most important movies to the plot. Seriously, if you’ve never seen it, the Technicolor in this movie is STUNNING (and it also has a bangin’ soundtrack). I wanted to pay homage to old horror posters with tons of fonts and more modern designs, which I did by starting each chapter with a 2-page spread of one of the iconic horror characters Betelgeuse rated Smash or Pass (spoiler: they’re almost all smash), recolored using different iconic combinations from Suspiria.
Other design elements take inspiration from the podcast where BJ does his reviews + ratings. The cover replaces the bloodied ballerina on Suspiria’s cover with a microphone stand and a cable pooling beneath it. Instead of page numbers, an episode progress bar crosses the bottom of the pages, color-matched to the character spread that starts the chapter. Each chapter also features icons tied to each character (Godzilla’s spikes that glow before using atomic breath, the curling iron Angela uses to kill Judy…) And the bookmark has a pause button on it, which I thought was a perfect fit!
Smash or Pass is a hilarious, hot story that celebrates horror + perfectly captures two classic characters we know and love. Read it on AO3, and thank you Saluvril for writing such a fantastic story!
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romaincrisis
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