When I started writing this blog earlier I didn’t anticipate being put out of commission for several hours due to a headache which caused me to be nauseous and vomit several times. Wow, so glad that’s over.
This past weekend my husband and I went to a Horror Convention. The Spooky Empire Ultimate Halloween Weekend to be exact. This was our second time going and the first time for the full weekend. We stayed at the overflow hotel.
There was a really good line up of activities from movies to lectures to Question and Answer sessions with top celebrities and directors.
We jumped right in on the first day, attending several lectures and checking out the vendor hall and the celebrity hall.
We went to:
Brains vs Blood – panel discussion by authors of the horror genre who discuss vampires and zombies. Fairly interesting
Witches, Ghouls and Haunts– a paranormal discussion on ghosts, haunting and bringing the darkness back to Halloween. (many of the same members of the previous panel were on this one with some new people. It was interesting.
Sick and Twisted – A panel discussion about what is wrong with you. Basically if a rational adult shouldn’t think it and a sane person shouldn’t want to see what it looks like they talked about it. It was pretty heavy duty adult stuff. We should have really gone to see a screening of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.
Unfortunatly I didn’t make it to the midnight screening with shadowcast of The Rockey Horror Picture Show. My husband had never been to a shadow cast screening of it and I’m sorry we had to miss it. It was being introduced by Patricia Quinn (Magenta)
The Second Day (Saturday) we hit the celebrity hall first. We spoke with Brandon Adams (Fool) from the People Under the Stairs (we didn’t meet although we saw the rest of the cast there including Sean Whalen (Roach).
I was privileged to meet, speak to and have a photograph taken with Kane Hodder (jason from Friday the 13th 7,8,9 and 10) I also purchased his book Unmasked: The True Life Story of the Worlds most Prolific Cinematic Killer. He was the nicest man. He is also HUGE. He signed the book for me.
I also spoke to Warrington Gillette, Jason from Friday the 13th part 2. I did not get a picture with him.
I got a picture of Tom Savini but not with Tom Savini. He seems like a really nice guy.
My husband got a photo with and bought the book written by George “The Animal” Steele. He was thrilled and told him of the time he saw him at the old Boston Garden. Turns out Mr Steele was only a part time wrestler and was a teacher like my husband. His wife was also there.
We didn’t get to meet George Romero because his line was very long.
Others that were there of note. Cast reunion of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (including Marilyn Burns), Danielle Harris (I saw her but we didn’t approach) Jason Mewes (saw him too and he looks so different) ,the cast of the Creature from the black lagoon (another reunion), Meg Foster (Lords of Salem), someone else was there from Lords of Salem not sure if it was Sherri Moon Zombie because I can’t think of anyone else who it might be from the movie.) Tom Savini had a table and he’s not a dick. Others who were there included Doug Bradley (Pinhead- Hellraiser) Dee Snider, Peter Criss (KISS) and Gunnar Hanson (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Sunday, I went to the Q & A with makes up FX master Tom Savini. The Room was packed and he was kind of a softer spoken guy and he answered a lot of questions giving thoughtful and interesting answers.
We also went to a lecture called Why We Like to Be Scared. This guy had a lovely power point presentation about why we like to be scared what happens when we are scared and the pleasure response we get after the “fight or flight” cascade. Very interesting.
At 4pm we went to the Q &A with George Romero He didn’t sit on the stage so we couldn’t see him about halfway back. That room was also packed. He said some interesting things including that he doesn’t hold the copywrite on Night of the Living Dead and it is now Public Domain (You can watch it, in it’s entirety, HERE)
We went to a panel about Zombie survival where they were talking about surviving during a zombie apocalypse, the best places to hide, what to take, how to prepare, slow zombies, fast zombies, and The Walking Dead.
At 6:30 we went to a lecture about the History of Zombies, which was given by the Daughter of the gentleman who did the Zombie Survival lecture. She was very smart (graduated early and holds a college degree in Biochemistry) but she was a terrible speaker. We could tell she was nervous and very breathy in speech. She jumped around too much and it got very confusing to follow so we left before it was over.
At 7:30 we went to watch a screening of The People Under the Stairs which I had never seen.
We watched some independent films at the Freakshow Independent Film Festival which was part of the Con.
Movies
Mr White -filmed in ocala. A story loosely based on the legend of Madam LaLaurie in New Orleans according to the film maker in the Q&A after the film. It was a fair film. Teaser Trailer
Dirty Bill Of Health – Short – Canada 13 minutes You think you know whats going on but you soon find you do not. BEhind the Scenes Trailer
Next Exit – Short – United Kingdom WHat it’s about. No trailer available
So Dark – Short – USA 21 minutes
So Dark is a follow up and continues the story of So Pretty
Sound of Nothing- 80 minutes United States. This was my favorite of all four.
Trailer
