HorrorHound Indianapolis 2011

 

Last weekend fellow blogger KW Monster and I attended the HorrorHound convention in Indianapolis. It was the first time either of us had gone anywhere fun in at least six months. I was happy just to be going somewhere besides one of my jobs. I'd have been excited to go to a quilting bee; it's been that long since I've done anything recreational.

The last time we went to this show it was so crowded inside we could barely move. They weren't even letting anyone in unless someone left-- it was that bad. Fortunately this time they opened up several more rooms in the venue, and there was enough space to breathe and move around.

Which one's the mutant?

Here we see me meeting some sort of mutant soldier. The character looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place where I'd seen him. I'm kind of thinking he might be from some video game, which would explain why I don't recognize him. Anyone out there have any ideas?

KW gets chummy with the mutant.

Whoever he's supposed to be, his costume and makeup were top notch. Movie quality even! His goggles were even glowing with light. The person playing him did an excellent job as well. Instead of portraying him as a stereotypical scary monster,  he made him simple and childlike, communicating through a series of hoots and grunts. He was pretty funny.

  

 

In addition to the usual dealer room full of merchandise, they also had a large room full of masks for sale. All the masks were very impressive, but unfortunately they were way out of my price range. Some of my favorites were these giant baby head masks. They were incredibly realistic, and honestly a little disturbing. If you look closely at the screen behind the baby mask, you can see them in action: they were playing a video of people wearing the masks and walking around some city. The oversize baby head on top of an adult body was a pretty bizarre sight.

The same company that made the giant baby heads also made this incredible Charlie Sheen mask. It was truly a wonder to behold, especially close up. My hat's off to the sculptor. This whole Charlie Sheen business started up barely a month ago, which means he sculpted this thing (complete with realistic skin texture and pores), painted it, and hand applied every strand of hair to it in that time. It even has realistic teeth! Incredible!

And yes, that's some white residue under his nostrils. I have no idea what that's supposed to be. No idea at all.

Here we see the mask in action. If not for the fact that it was just a wee bit larger than normal, I would have sworn Charlie Sheen was in the room. It was that good.

Note that the baby head mask in the foreground has the exact same expression I wear any time I hear about Charlie Sheen in the news.

By the way, this is the only time you will ever see anything relating to Charlie Sheen on my blog. He doesn't need any more attention, thanks.

Here we see KW being menaced by a ghoul. This guy's mouth (the ghoul's, not KW's) was about eight inches wide and full of rotten teeth. At first we thought he was just wearing a mask, as no human could have a mouth that wide (apart from perhaps Mary Tyler Moore). But just then he closed his lips over the teeth! Can't make a mask do that! I guess he was wearing some sort of special dentures that stretched his mouth & lips far past normal human limits.

 Some more of the masks on display.

I liked the Maggot Head mask. And the Honeycomb one in the background. But not enough to pay several hundred dollars for one.

I thought these cartoony Universal Monster masks were pretty cool. Actually I don't think they were masks, as they were a bit too small to put over your head. Maybe they were puppets?

There was also an entire room full of current horror hosts from around the country. I'm not sure what show these two were from though. It did my heart good to see that there are still so many horror hosts out there, even if I can't see any of their shows. I thought horror hosts had gone the way of buggy whips and land-line phones, so it's good to see there are still some out there.

By the way, that guy above is wearing a pair of plastic "nerd glasses" that you can buy at many novelty stores. I have a pair of those in a drawer somewhere, and I remember I couldn't wear them for more than a couple of minutes before becoming seriously nauseous. Kudos to him for being able to wear them for hours at a time.

There were also lots of horror/sci-fi celebrities there. In the interest of saving money, I didn't get any of their autographs (which of course I now regret), but I did talk with quite a few. I met Kristanna Loken, who was the female terminator in Terminator 3. She was surprisingly tall, at least six feet without her heels. Most celebs I meet look tiny to me. What's really depressing is that she was born the year after I graduated high school. Excuse me while I go take my rheumatism medicine.

I also talked with Jeffrey Combs, who's been in a ton of horror movies, including the Re-Animator movies, The Frighteners and three different Star Trek series! I've been a fan of his for a long time, so it was nice to meet him. I also talked with Andrew Robinson, who's also been in a million things (horror and otherwise), including Hellraiser. He also played Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

After the show was over we were starving and found a really awesome authentic Korean restaurant. The food was amazing, and we ate till we practically popped. If you're ever in Indy, check out MaMa's House Korean Restaurant. You'll be glad you did!