At a glance

Agood scare and a good laugh have a common denominator: Timing is everything.

Graham Skipper knows as much. The director of the sci-fi/horror movie “Sequence Break” has been a horror-film fan since childhood but cut his performing teeth on improvisationalcomedy stages.

“I think there’s an inextricable link between comedy and horror,” said Skipper, 34, of Los Angeles. “The setup of a joke and a punch line is identical to the setup of a scare. On some level, it (a comedy background) helps with the ebb and flow of how a good horror film needs to work.”

“Sequence Break” will be screened this weekend as part of “Shock Around the Clock,” the annual 24-hour horrormovie marathon at the Drexel Theatre.

Skipper’s work should be familiar to fans of the event: He starred in “Beyond the Gates,” shown last year.

The movie was wellreceived, said Joe Neff, who, along who Bruce Bartoo, organizes “Shock Around the Clock.” noon Saturday to noon Sunday $40, or $45 at the door visit www.scifimarathon.com

“‘Beyond the Gates’ was a testament to the power of inventiveness and the power of ideas in a low-budget setting,” Neff said.

“Sequence Break” centers on Oz (Chase Williamson, who co-starred with Skipper in “Beyond the Gates”), a reclusive video-game technician who specializes in working on cabinet-style games found in bars and arcades in the 1980s and ‘90s. He begins to develop a relationship with Tess (Fabianne Therese), a gamer who visits the shop.

When a new, unmarked game appears in the shop, though, Oz plays it — with terrifying results.

The movie incorporates elements of science fiction.

“I think that horror can be a really broad genre,” Skipper said. “Different things are horrifying to different people. To me, what is horrifying in this film is not being able to trust your own reality and to be changing without realizing you’re changing.”

The director was also interested in incorporating a romantic component, too.

“That was really important to me,” Skipper said. “At the heart of every good horror story there has to be a good human story. Even ridiculous stuff, like ‘Evil Dead 2,’ you care about Ash (the lead character). It might not be realistically acted, but at its heart, you’re caring about the character.”

Skipper’s interest in video games stems from his youth in Fort Worth, Texas, when he would hang out in a theater arcade and play games as his parents watched R-rated movies.

“When we would go to the mall,” he said, “I would send my parents on their way, and I would go to the arcade.”

He studied acting at Fordham University in New York City. After graduating, he performed improv comedy and met George Wendt, who played Norm in the hit NBC series “Cheers.”

Wendt recommended Skipper for “Re-Animator the Musical,” a stage version of the 1985 horror movie “ReAnimator” that was playing in Los Angeles.

The role served as Skipper’s big break.

“It immediately connected me to the entire horror community in Los Angeles,” he said. “I started to get cast in horror movies. What a perfect career path for me.”

Eventually, he started to consider a script about a deadly video game, but the story wasn’t jelling.

“It struck me that I was approaching it all wrong,” he said. “It didn’t need to be a story about a killer arcade game; it needed to be a story about a person and his interactions with a killer arcade game. It was a subtle difference but important.”

With his first feature film under his belt, Skipper hopes that audiences can connect with the decisions that Oz must make in the movie.

“Perspective is everything,” he said. “We all have choices to make in life, and sometimes you have to look at things from a different point of view to make the right one.”

“Shock Around the Clock” Drexel Theatre, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley 614-231-1050, www. drexel.net; www.scifimarathon. com