HorrorHound Indy 2012

This past weekend my pal KW Monster and I went to the semi-annual HorrorHound convention in Indianapolis.

For me the highlight of the convention was a reunion of most of the cast of ALIENS, one of my hands down all-time favorite movies. Among the stars in attendance was Jenette Goldstein, who of course played Lt. Vasquez, my favorite character from the movie.

I got to meet and chat with Ms. Goldstein, which was a lot of fun. That's me with her above, her normal sized head dwarfed by my giant one. She was much tinier than I expected, which seems to be the norm whenever I meet female celebrities. Despite the fact that actors appear to be sixty feet tall on the movie screen, they're generally not that big in real life.

If you look just behind me you can see actor Mark Ralston. He played Drake, Vasquez's smart gun partner. And if you look really close just behind my right arm you can catch a glimpse of Ricco Ross, who played Private Frost in the film. Hey, I got three celebrities for the price of one photo!

Vasquez and Drake, doing what they do best.

One of the most famous scenes in ALIENS is between Vasquez and Hudson (played by Bill Paxton). In it Hudson asks, "Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" Vasquez replies, "No, have you?" Haw! So ever the wiseacre, I walked up to Ms. Goldstein's table and said Hudson's line. She looked a bit puzzled and did her best to smile politely. Heh. That's me! Making celebrities feel awkward and uncomfortable since 1993.

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In addition to ALIENS, Jenette Goldstein was in two of James Cameron's other movies. She starred in Terminator 2 as John Connor's foster mom (or I guess more accurately as a copy of her).

And she was an unlucky Irish immigrant mother who politely drowned with her family in Titanic.

Since she's been in so many of Cameron's movies I said that I missed seeing her in Avatar. She said she auditioned for the role of the Na'vi Queen, but alas didn't get it.

I told Ms. Goldstein that since Michelle Rodriguez's Trudy Chacon character in Avatar was very similar to Vasquez, she should have played her mom or big sister or something. For a minute she actually looked like she was thinking about the idea. Or maybe she just wanted me to go away. All I know is that if she shows up as Michelle Rodriguez's mom in Avatar 2, I am so gonna sue for story credit.

Also in attendance from ALIENS was Michael Biehn, who played Corporal Dwayne Hicks, Lance Henrickson who played Bishop, Cynthia Dale Scott who played Corporal Dietrich. Sadly, Private Spunkmeyer wasn't there, robbing me of my chance to yell his name across the crowded room.

Carrie Henn was there as well. She of course played Newt, the only survivor of the colony on LV-426. She's grown up just a bit since 1986. Henn had no previous acting experience when she was cast as Newt; she was hired because she didn't smile as she said her lines like all the professional child actor brats that auditioned.

I would have loved to have gotten autographs and photos of the all the ALIENS cast who were there, but since I'm not independently wealthy I could only afford one.

I also chatted a bit with Timothy Balme, star of Dead Alive, or as it's known in New Zealand, Braindead. It was one of director Peter Jackson's early films from his "splatterfest" period. I've seen hundreds of gory horror movies in my time and not one of them has ever made me sick. In fact I usually end up laughing at all the gore. Dead Alive was the exception. The climax of the movie features Mr. Balme wielding a lawnmower and chopping up hundreds of zombies into a frothy, bloody paste. It was the first, and so far only time that a movie actually made me feel a little bit queasy. Mr. Balme seemed quite proud when I told him that story.

There were also several actors from the Terminator franchise in attendance. Linda Hamilton, aka Sarah Conner was there. Edward Furlong, who was John Conner in T2 and Kristanna Loken, who played the female terminator in Terminator 3 were also there. At one point Kristanna Loken left her table to take a well deserved break. As she walked away she told a nearby fan, "I'll be back!" HAW!

Elvira was there as well, but she was in some special room with a huge line and we didn't want to stand in a queue for three hours, so we didn't meet her. We caught a glimpse of her though, so I can confirm that she does indeed exist.

Local Indianapolis horror host Sammy Terry was also there. Well, sort of. Bob Carter originated the role way back in the early 1960s, and retired in recent years. His son Mark has now taken over the part and is making appearances at conventions as Sammy. Once he's got the makeup on he looks just like the original Sammy and he's got the spooky voice down as well. I saw many fans telling him how much they enjoyed watching him when they were kids. I don't think they realized they were really talking to Sammy Terry 2.0.

There was the usual dealer room full of horror and sci-fi merchandise, but I managed to restrain myself and not spend all the mortgage money on stuff I want but don't need.

There was an entire room devoted to nothing but horror masks and makeup. The Werepups people had one of the coolest booths. They make these incredibly realistic baby werewolf dolls. They looked absolutely real. They had translucent skin, realistic eyes and peach fuzz all over their little bodies. The woman in the photo above was subtly moving her sample werepup around and it looked uncannily like a real, fussy squirming baby- that just happened to be a lycanthrope. In fact one lady walked by and saw her holding the werebaby and exclaimed, "Oh my god, don't drop him!" I guess motherhood knows no species bounds.

On big surprise: I didn't spot a single Utilikilt at this show. That's definitely a first. I have to admit I was a little disappointed, as I had nothing to mock.

There were a few cosplayers there, as always. One question I have: every time I go to this show there is always at least one little kid dressed as Chucky the Homicidal Doll. Red hair, overalls, butcher knife, the works. Do their parents dress them like that and the kids don't really understand who they're supposed to be? Or are these four year olds big fans of the Chucky franchise and demand to go out dressed as their hero? Just wonderin.'

Now THAT'S Scary!

A month or so ago my pal KW Monster and I went to the Fright Night Film Fest in beautiful downtown Louisville.

Among the many attractions at the show was a booth taking green screen photos of people... at no charge! Never one to pass up anything free we had are picture taken, complete with murder props and spooky background matted in behind us.

The results were terrifying to say the least! I don't know which one is scarier, KW's brain dead gaze or my murder-death-kill scowl. By the way, that's the same look I will give you when I'm behind you in the grocery checkout line and you wait until the clerk tells you the total before you start looking for your checkbook.

There were several backgrounds to chose from, such as abandoned shopping mall, creepy mansion and the one we chose, dilapidated hotel. There's actually a couple of twin girls, ala The Shining, at the end of the hallway, but KW is covering them up.

I'm not sure how taking free scary photos of people makes the tshirtbordello.com people any money, but hey, free scary photo!

The Doctor Is In!

This past weekend my pal KW Monster and I went to the Fright Night Film Fest in Louisville, Kentucky, just a hop, skip and a two hour drive from home. As its name suggests, it's primarily a horror movie-themed convention complete with a film festival, dealer room and lots of celebrities.

This year they held Fright Fest at the Galt House in downtown Louisville. In previous years it was held at a hotel on the outskirts of town. To be honest, the old facility was never quite large enough and there always seemed to be a problem with the cooling system. When you're dealing with several thousand sweaty nerds (of which I am admittedly one) in an enclosed space, believe me that can be a concern.

The Galt House was definitely a larger venue, but still didn't seem to be quite large enough. I guess the show keeps growing each year. Luckily the cooling system seemed able to keep up for the most part, which was important as it was a balmy 106º outside (no joke). 

The highlight of Fright Fest for me this year was meeting Peter Davison of Doctor Who fame. Mr. Davison of course portrayed the Fifth Doctor (aka "the one with the celery"). That's me with him above.

If you're a regular reader of my blog (and honestly, who in the country isn't?) you'll know that I'm a big fan of all things Doctor Who, so it was fun to actually meet one of the Doctors. Short of moving to Cardiff, I honestly never thought I'd get the chance to meet anyone involved with the show.

If you look closely just behind Peter Davison you can just make out Luke Perry's head.

I always liked Peter Davison's Doctor. He had the impossible and unenviable task of replacing fan favorite Tom Baker as the Doctor back in 1982. He did a great job though and I've always enjoyed his episodes. I could have done without the question marks on the lapels though...

One of the people in this photo needs to start going to a gym, and it ain't the one who drinks tea in the afternoon and drives on the left side of the road.

I had a mental list of topics of conversation and questions I was going to ask Mr. Davison, but of course I forgot them all once I was there with him. Typical. One question I was going to ask him: How's it feel to be your own father-in-law? See, in real life Peter Davison has a daughter named Georgia Moffet, who is married to David Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor. So in a way, the Doctor married his daughter and he's his own father-in-law! Haw! Get it? Eh, maybe it's just as well I forgot to ask that one.

In addition to Peter Davison and Luke Perry, there were a ton of other genre celebrities there as well.

The main draw was  Bruce Campbell, who of course is the Laurence Olivier of nerd-dom. I knew we'd never get within a country mile of him, and I was right. There was a huge crowd that turned out just to see him, plus they had all these elaborate and Byzantine procedures you had to go through (which involved purchasing a special ticket just to get into the same room with him, in addition to his autograph and photo fees) and you had to stand in line for literally hours, so as cool as it would have been to have seen him, we decided to pass.

Sean Astin and John Rhys-Davies of Lord of the Rings fame were also there, along with James Marsters and Nicholas Brendan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame. They were all in the same venue with Bruce Campbell, so again, we passed rather than spend the entire day standing in line. I did manage to catch a glimpse of Mr. Rhys-Davies, so I can confirm that he is indeed real and does actually exist.

National treasure Corey Feldman was also in this same big shot celebrity room. I didn't realize that a celebrity of his stature required such security, but what do I know?

In addition to meeting Peter Davison, my other goal was to meet Norman Reedus, who of course plays Darryl Dixon on The Walking Dead. I'm a huge fan of the show (as well as the comic), and Darryl has fast become my favorite character. Norman was there along with several other people from the series. Their room was a little easier to get into, but unfortunately every time we tried to see Norman, he was either taking a break or at a panel discussion or in the bathroom or out slaying zombies or some such thing. Plus there was a line several blocks long to see him, and again I didn't care to spend 89% of my time at the show standing in a line full of sweaty nerds, so... sadly I had to pass on meeting Daryl.

We did inadvertently get to see Norman Reedus close up. We were hanging around in the main hall as he walked by, surrounded by a phalanx of burly security guards who were clearing a path for him. He passed within about a foot of me and actually brushed against KW, who got to touch Norman's raiment. I am so jealous.

I didn't get to talk to them, but I did manage to at least observe several of the other actors from the show, including Madison Lintz, who played Sophia, Jeffrey Demunn, who played Dale, and the preposterously named Iron E Singleton who plays the underutilized T-Dog. I watched Mr. Singleton for several minutes and he seemed like the nicest person ever, asking each and every fan their name and where they were from and more. He even held someone's baby as they snapped a photo.

I spent way too much money as the show, but what the heck, it's only once a year. My biggest purchase: I ended up buying a vintage Mattel Herman Munster hand puppet for a pretty reasonable price. I had one when I was a kid and sold it in a yard sale years ago, and have regretted it ever since. Yes, I'm now at that age where I'm rebuying all the crap I threw away in my twenties.

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!

Another Weekend, Another Horror Convention

A couple weeks ago I went to the Sixth Annual Fright Night Film Fest in Louisville, and I met some more horror movie icons.

It was a pretty good show, except for the part where the hotel's air conditioning system went on the blink and the temperature in the convention hall shot up to 95 degrees or so. Geeks + heat + enclosed space = bad news for everyone.

One of the celebs I met was Tom Atkins. His name might not be a household word, but if you've seen any movies in the last 20 years you'll definitely recognize his face.

He was in Night Of The Creeps, one of my favorite movies. If you've not seen it, it's worth checking out. It's got aliens, ax murderers, zombies... you name it, it's in there. Tom Atkins plays a washed up, burned out detective who always answers his phone with his sarcastic catch phrase, "Thrill me."

In addition to Creeps, Mr. Atkins has been in a ton of other things, including Lethal Weapon, Halloween III, Creepshow, The Fog (the original), and a couple hundred TV shows.

He was pretty nice, and seemed genuinely interested in talking with us. Some actors get the whole "meeting the fans" thing, and some don't. Tom Atkins is one who definitely gets it.

Now that I think of it, I've met a lot of celebrities at conventions over the years, and the horror stars are consistently the nicest of the lot. It seems like the worse their onscreen personas, the nicer they are in real life.

I also met David Emge. Again, you may not recognize the name, but if you call yourself a fan of zombie movies, you'll definitely recognize him-- he was Flyboy in the original Dawn Of The Dead. His portrayal of a zombie at the end of the film set the bar for cinematic zombies for decades.

Mr. Emge is originally from my city of Evansville, so we had that in common. He was also very nice and spoke with us for quite a while, asking how things were back home. Oddly enough, two of his Dawn of the Dead co-stars, Ken Foree and Gaylen Ross, are from Indianapolis, making it the Hoosierist zombie movie I know of.

Here he is in a pensive moment from Dawn Of The Dead.

And here he is as possibly the most famous movie zombie ever!

Famous Monsters Convention 2010

A couple of weeks ago I went to the first annual Famous Monsters Convention in Indianapolis. Apparently the old Famous Monsters magazine is making a comeback, and the publishers sponsored this show.

I went with my nephews Kyle and Aaron, and non-nephew KW Monster (not picture: me). This was Aaron's first ever geek convention. I was so proud (Sniff! Sob!).

Kyle had been to a horror con once before, but fortunately this time he didn't get sick and vomit in my car.

We saw this while standing in line. Don't jump, Kong! Peter Jackson's remake wasn't that bad!

It's Sammy Terry, famous Indiana TV horror host. I drew an illustration of Sammy and wrote a piece on him here. This is actually a statue of Sammy, as he wasn't there in person. He's getting up there in years, and I'm assuming the convention grind is too much for him these days.

His son was there though, and he's spearheading an effort to have Sammy inducted into the Indiana State Museum!

Kyle got to meet Rupert Boneham of Survivor fame. OK, I'm not quite sure why Rupert was at a horror convention, but whatever. Rupert has a charity called Rupert's Kids that helps troubled teens, so I'll give him a pass. He also lives in Indy, so maybe that's why he was there.

Kyle got an autographed photo, book and his picture taken with Rupert.

Yes, Kyle's wearing a Dr. McCoy t-shirt.

Dr. Tongue (from Day of the Dead) and the American Werewolf in London browsed the convention as well.

There were a lot of horror celebrities in attendance, including the casts of Return of the Living Dead (minus James Karen though, darn it), Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, the Lost Boys, and Halloween. Ernie Hudson, the 4th Ghostbuster, was there as well. And Paris Themmen, who you know better as Mike Teevee from the original Willy Wonka movie.

Aaron was most impressed by a group of guys dressed as Ghostbusters, complete with proton packs and ghost traps. He wanted to know where one went to buy a proton pack. I tried to explain that you don't buy them anywhere, you have to make one yourself, but I don't think he believed me.

I was happy to find a rare and out of print art book that I'd been looking for forever, and for a reasonable price. We sat down to rest for a while, then headed for the car. As I got to the car I realized I'd left the sack with my book in it back in the convention. I ran back inside, and amazingly the sack was still leaning against the wall where I'd stupidly left it. I guess horror fans are an honest lot. Soon I'll be forgetting to wear pants when I got out.

As we left the show, we saw Death walking through the parking lot. I'd seen Death before at another horror show earlier this year. We asked if he needed a ride and he said he was good. He bid us farewell, told us to drive carefully, and said he'd see us soon.

See you next year, Famous Monsters Horror Convention!

HorrorHound Weekend 2010

My friend KW Monster and I went to the semi-annual HorrorHound horror convention in Indianapolis this weekend. It's a place for horror fans to buy videos, books, masks, toys and other horror-related items, as well as meet famous horror movie stars.

They've been having this show for 3 or 4 years now, and it grows a little bigger each year. It's always a fun time, but this year the fun was marred somewhat by the enormous crowds. They've been having the show in the same hotel since the beginning, and it's painfully obvious that it can no longer comfortably contain the show. The crowds this year were absolutely brutal. The hotel parking lot was filled to the brim, so we had to park about a good half mile away and hoof it to the hotel. At times the crowd in the main showroom was packed shoulder to shoulder, making it difficult to look at anything of interest. It was so bad that they started barring showroom entry until someone inside left. Hundreds of people were left cooling their heels in the lobby waiting for someone to leave so they could be let in. Luckily I didn't have to visit the restroom while I was there, because if I'd left the showroom I wouldn't have got back in. Crazy. I don't think they'll have any choice but to hold it at a larger venue next time.

Anyhow, we met and talked with quite a few horror movie celebs, including Joe Bob Briggs (famous drive in movie critic and TV personality), Robert Z'Dar (star of many b-movies) and Catherine Mary Stewart (star of Night of the Comet, The Last Starfighter and many other 80s movies). I have to admit I had a crush on Catherine back in the day, with her sultry eyes and giant 80s hair. She still looks pretty much the same too!

I've met quite a few celebs at this horror show over the past few years, and 99% of them have been extremely nice and accommodating. There's just one problem with meeting these celebrities-- while they're well known in the world of horror cinema, the majority of the population is clueless as to their identity. When I go back to work on Monday and gush to my co-workers that I met Sid Haig, Ken Foree or Michael Berryman, they'll all look at me like the RCA dog.

George Romero, Clive Barker and Elvira were also in attendance. We caught glimpses of them, but their respective lines were each several blocks long, so we didn't get to chat with them. I have a feeling the huge crowd this year may have been due to the presence of Elvira. I wouldn't be surprised if there are still a few people in line.

By the way, Elvira looked pretty much the same as she has for the last 30 years. Behold the power of makeup and the mighty bustier!

Death was also in attendance at the show. This was an awesome costume that was a good 10 feet tall, complete with an animated jaw, light up eyes, and deep, booming voice.

Death was pretty friendly too, and didn't mind posing for photos. Now when he comes for me someday, I can say, "Hey Death, remember me from that horror show?"

You don't see many photo ops like this every day. Here's Death posing with a zombie surgeon and a dead mother and her baby. This couple definitely had the most original costumes of the show. Hilariously as we walked to the car we saw them walking down the street back to their motel! That had to turn a few heads in the lobby.

Conventions can be exhausting, so be sure to take a few moments to rest your feet from time to time.

One Mr. Frederick Krueger and date.

The Miner from My Bloody Valentine (the 2009 version).

A Gammorean Guard somehow wandered into the horror convention by mistake. A side note: this costume could have used a little Fabreeze. I guess it's understandable; it's probably tough to dry clean a Gammorean Guard costume.

Meg Mucklebones from the movie Legend. For some reason, Meg was played by Robert Picardo, the holographic doctor from Star Trek: Voyager. What's that? I'm a colossal geek for knowing that without googling it? Why, thank you!

There was also a room full of mask makers and sculptors displaying their work. Some of them were amazingly lifelike and detailed, and would no doubt be displayed in a museum if not for the subject matter.

My favorites were a trio of full sized statues. Here's a Frankensteinian creature, complete with flashing L.E.D. brain. I couldn't believe all the detail. Realistic eyes, translucent skin, eyelashes, and those teeth! He even has individual whiskers, each one punched into this skin by hand!

Here's a zombie carrying a voodoo priestess on his back. Again, the attention to detail was just amazing. I can only imagine the amount of hours, effort and material that goes into creating something like this.

This was my favorite of the life-sized sculptures. A rich, psychotic dowager out for a night on the town, armed with her trusty razorblade. Her eyes and teeth looked absolutely real. Her skin was translucent and very realistic. Someone should make a movie starring this character. I'd pay to see it.

That's all the photos I have. It was a fun time, and hopefully they'll hold it in a larger venue next time.