Texas Frightmare Weekend 2015: Day Two

 

This is the big day, guys, let's get into it. On the Thursday night before the con, the Alamo Drafthouse hosted a special 35mm screening of Scream, with a Q&A afterward with Neve Campbell. But of course I didn't plan ahead well enough and didn't make it to that event. While I was groggy and trying to get ready for the day on Saturday morning, I'm flipping through the channels on TV and they were actually showing footage from the Q&A on the hotel's channel. This just gets me so pumped up for the day and I'm ready to get back at it!

 

The first thing I did really quick was check out the Dark Arts Show, which was a horror art gallery. Some pretty cool stuff here, but the main attraction was the original "Grandma" prop from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Very, very cool.



 

My first celebrity meeting of the day was with someone I was incredibly stoked about - Kim Coates from Sons of Anarchy! I could just tell that he was going to be an awesome guy to meet, and I was not disappointed. We posed for our picture first and I had no problem asking him for a hug right away. Then the guy taking our picture didn't do it right, so we had to get all close and snuggly again, which I of course didn't mind one bit. I was SHAMELESS this weekend, guys. Absolutely shameless. I told Kim that my dad and I sort of bonded over watching Sons of Anarchy together, and he thought that was great and talked about how so many different kinds of people love the show. I mentioned that I was the one who got my dad into watching it, and that got me a high-five. Love this guy!

 

 

 

As most of you may have figured out, I am just a little bit obsessed with Child's Play. So you can imagine how much I freaked the fuck out when they announced Alex Vincent and Brad Dourif as guests this year. I still wasn't quite ready to meet Dourif, so I went to Alex first. Again, great guy. Great at keeping up a conversation with me and answering my dorky questions. He said I was very sweet, so go me. Ah, you have no idea how big of a deal this was for me. Andy Barclay, people! Amazing!

 

 

 

By the way, I carried my Chucky doll around with me all weekend. People really liked him and kept asking me where I got him, even though there were obviously a lot of Chucky dolls there, some way bigger and better than mine. I still love my little guy, though, and I'm not sorry at all to say that I scared a bunch of children with it this weekend.

 

Now the one guy that I was the most excited about meeting wasn't at his table at this time because he was doing a podcast, so I went up to my room to get the poster that I brought to be signed by the one and only Malcolm McDowell. Where do you even start with how awesome this man is? I'm glad I brought my own item for him to sign because he had a ton of pictures from all different movies to choose from at his table, and I would have never been able to make a decision. I had him sign a picture for one of my friends back home, and then I finally put good use to this Japanese poster for A Clockwork Orange that I bought about ten years ago. I didn't really rehearse what I was going to say to Malcolm beforehand, so I probably sounded like a nerd but who the fuck cares. I met Malcolm McDowell!

 

 

 

 

I came back down from my room and my most anticipated guest was finally back at his table. AJ Bowen has been my favorite actor ever since I saw A Horrible Way to Die years ago, and I have loved him in everything I've seen. And yes, he's adorable so I've also got a bit of a crush. He was no doubt my favorite part about the whole weekend, because he was so easy to talk to and didn't mind my fangirling one bit. He seemed to like it when I mentioned A Horrible Way to Die because like he said, nobody ever talks about that movie (when they totally should). I complimented him on his natural acting ability, which is the reason I love him so much, and we just had a really great conversation. The people behind me in line were listening in, and he had us all laughing and loving him even more. All I could find at the show for him to sign was a mini poster for You're Next, and I wish I had been more prepared and brought something from AHWTD or The Sacrament. But again who the fuck cares - I met AJ Bowen. I sat down next to him for our picture and had to give him a hug first. Did I mention how shameless I was? Then I got a great picture with him and another hug goodbye and this meeting became my absolute best memory from the convention. Thank you for being awesome, AJ!

 

 

 

 

Also, he was wearing a Camp Crystal Lake shirt so that gets him extra cool points.

 

Across from AJ was Elvira. She was only dressed in costume for that one day and wasn't allowing pictures with her at her table. But they were allowing you to take a quick picture of her, so of course I did! I did meet her as herself, Cassandra Peterson, the next day so look for that. I love the expressions I got on her face!

 



 

The next thing on my agenda was my first of only two panels. I went into the room a little bit early and actually caught the last few minutes of Udo Kier's Q&A. I immediately wished I had been there for the whole thing, because he was so adorably funny. I heard the story of how he kissed Elizabeth Taylor and it was awesome.

 

 

Anyway, the thing I came into the room to see was actually a very cool and unique event. Victoria Price, daughter of the incomparable and amazing Vincent Price, gave a presentation in honor of her father and his legacy. She began the presentation by playing an audio clip of the voiceover that he did for "Thriller." I've always loved Vincent Price and the joy and glee that he seemed to have about his work, so hearing that actually almost made cry a little bit of happy tears. It was cool because that's what Victoria's presentation ended up being about - the memories of what her father was like off-screen and all the joy that he took out of his work, the people he met, and life in general. She had hilarious pictures and stories about him, and now I just want to go and watch all of his movies. Lovely lady.

 

 

Panels are always a good time to sit down for a bit and get your momentum back because the day was definitely not over. I did some more wandering, and actually went over to where to Victoria Price had a table, so I could talk to her more but she wasn't there. However, her table was near where Neve Campbell's room was and she had literally no line, so I had to take the opportunity to get her autograph. Like I said before, she wasn't allowing pictures with her at her table, and for some reason my mind went all blank on what I wanted to say! It was still very cool to meet her, because Scream was another big movie for me in terms of developing my love of horror. Neve needs to do more cons! I know she'll love it!

 

 

I ran into my TFW friends, Heather and Acacia, again several times over the weekend and we hung out together around this time while they got some of the autographs they wanted. Acacia and I spent some time at the table of Joseph Gatt (from Star Trek and Game of Thrones) and then Heather got in line for Angus Scrimm. I'm pretty sure Angus was staying in a room down the hall from mine, by the way.

 

 

Anyway, we all decided to get Brad Dourif together so I could have a photographer to take pictures for me, so my moment has finally arrived! Brad Dourif is freaking AMAZING, you guys, and I have been dreaming about meeting him for years. He was obviously very popular with everyone else, too, because whenever he was at his table, he always had a line. I just told him what an honor it was to meet him and how big Child's Play has been in my life. I also had to give him praise for the phenomenal One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is still one of my favorite films of all time, and he was a very nice, cool guy with a great smile for everyone. So going back two years when I met Chris Sarandon, and now Vincent and Dourif, I have actually met three of the major stars from the horror film that has probably been the most influential one in my life. I never thought that would happen.

 

 

 

 

I am now the happiest horror fan on the planet.

 

The show was almost over for the night, so Heather, Acacia, and I parted ways so we could have a dinner break before meeting back up again in an hour for another movie. We saw the vampire horror-comedy Bloodsucking Bastards, and it was really good! It's a very simple, straightforward story about a lowly office worker whose colleagues start turning into vampires, but the comedy is non-stop and perfect, and the minimal locations is something that I always like in movies. It stars Fran Kranz from The Cabin in the Woods and Joey Kern from Cabin Fever. Hey, they both got out of the cabin! Haha! Um, yeah... definitely see Bloodsucking Bastards if you get the chance!

 

 

After the movie, the three of us took our yearly picture together in front of the Texas Frightmare Weekend backdrop. Man, we're adorable.

 

 

This is also when a guy dressed as Ghostface came by and tried to scare Heather. He was literally the only Ghostface we had seen so far all weekend, which is weird because I expected there to be a ton of them there. Anyway, I grabbed him for a picture.

 

After this, I had to say goodbye to my friends so I could attend the cocktail party that was just for VIP passholders and celebrities. Again, I missed the beginning of the party so maybe there were more celebs there earlier, but I did see Don Coscarelli, Alex Vincent, and Jennifer Lynch hanging out and talking to people. Lynch was chilling with Sherilyn Fenn, who I really wanted to get a picture with, but they were both grabbing food and seemed to want to be left alone. When Sid Haig showed up, people yelled and cheered and he was cool about stopping to talk to people and take pictures with them. Camille Keaton asked me what I was drinking and got the same thing. Later I asked her how it was and we chatted for a bit. Probably the coolest thing about the party was that it was after midnight and Angus Scrimm was still there! I was so dead tired and he looked awesome. I talked to two other guys for a while, then headed over to the hotel bar to see what was going on. I was just hanging back checking my phone at one point when I catch eyes with Kim Coates as he's walking in front of me and he says, "Hey, sweetheart." I melted. Then I went outside to talk to more people, and one girl pointed out Loyd Cryer, the founder of Texas Frightmare Weekend, to me and I had to go over to him. I thanked him for the show and the great memories that he's helped to give me over the years, and he was a really cool and sincerely appreciative guy. Are you ready for ten more years, Loyd? Because I know I am!

 

Oh, Frightmare, why does my time with you have to go by so fast?? There's only one day left!

 

 

Read my Day One recap right... about.... HERE!

And read all about Day Three here!

Project Terrible: Death Machine (1994)

Hey there, folks! So I decided to torture myself and become a part of Mondo Bizarro's Project Terrible thing where other bloggers make me watch bad movies and then review them. Happy to say that I survived all the movies fairly well, and here's the first review of a movie challenged to me by Wolf Ninja at Gaming Creatively.

Wow, Death Machine was, indeed, pretty terrible. But at the same time it was still strangely watchable. Most of this has to do with some pretty hilarious effects and the acting by the film's only star, Brad Dourif.

So for the longest time I wasn't really sure what this movie was about while I was watching but I think I got it now. Let's just go through the whole plot to get it straight. It's in the future and this hot chick named Hayden Cale is the new chief executive of some company called Chaank which makes these super-duper weapons and shit. There's been some bad press about the company having to do with the Hard Man project (where they make half-man half-machines and they do bad things sometimes) and she goes in there to change it all around, and there's a guy who looks like Jake Busey who doesn't like her or something. There's also Brad Dourif, who plays Jack Dante, and he's the cliched eccentric mad scientist genius who has built this mega-all mechanical-weapon called Warbeast. He's in love with Cale but she wants to fire him and he's batshit crazy. So one night, Cale's at the company for some reason I can't remember and there's also these terrorist-type dudes who break into the building to steal or blow up some shit, and Dante is there and he sics the Warbeast on all of them so they have to try to get out.

As crazy as all that sounds, I still say that this movie was slightly entertaining, believe it or not. There are some terrible moments - the bad dialogue, the over-the-top acting, and the plot that is hard to follow at points - but this is part of the fun of terrible movies. And I was actually able to sit through the whole thing in one sitting and stay somewhat interested so we've gotta give Death Machine points for that.

Sidenote: Warbeast, the name of the "death machine" that stars in the film, probably would have been a better title than Death Machine for this movie. Still a little vague, but intriguing.

The best thing about this movie was Brad Dourif, who is probably the one reason that some people might actually seek this movie out instead of being forced to watch it like I was. His performance is pretty much what you would expect if you tell someone "Dourif is an eccentric mad scientist genius." He's got a bitchin' haircut and delivers his lines with all the craziness and hilarity he can muster and it is absolutely enjoyable to watch. If not for him, I probably would have zoned out on this flick a third of the way through - EVEN THOUGH, as some of you who know me might guess, I am slightly terrified of Dourif himself. I'll give you a hint why: it's the voice!

Now, one of my problems with moves like this that I don't really care about is that I hardly ever catch any of the characters names. I got Ridley and Cale and Dante, but fuck knows who those other people were. Stopping to read the credits, however, I find out that many of the characters were actually named after horror directors. The fat bearded guy was John Carpenter; somebody else was Sam Raimi (maybe one of the terrorist guys); Ridley's first name is Scott so there's Ridley Scott; and Dante is probably Joe Dante. Normally I like this kind of homage-y stuff but it really doesn't make sense here because this is a piece of shit sci-fi future movie that no one has ever seen.

As for the sci-fi aspect, it wasn't that bad. Apparently in the future, hi-tech companies still use keycards and the look of their computer programming hasn't changed since 1994, when this movie came out. The setting and the Warbeast itself, however, were fairly well done. The building is a maze of cold metal hallways and heavy doors so there is some attempt at a good design. But the Warbeast... oh the Warbeast... he's amazing.

The Warbeast is this like 8-foot tall mechanical thing with a bit metal mouth and big metal claws. Think of that robot that Lara Croft was practicing with at the beginning of Tomb Raider. And the claws move around in a way that also reminds me of the beginning of Wes Craven's New Nightmare when the Freddy glove goes crazy on the movie set and kills those two dudes. Put those together and you've got the villain of Death Machine. The effects on this thing are kind of funny with the way it moves and kills - which we sadly hardly get to see any of. I wanted to see that big metal mouth biting someone in half or something but the attack scenes are conveniently edited so we miss all the good stuff and we just see a bit of the aftermath, which is not that exciting.

I was expecting a lot more bad dialogue than was actually present in the movie. Not to fear, though! There are some pretty funny lines to be found. When Dante sends the group a threatening fax (scary, right?) one of the men actually says the line, "Go fax yourself!" I know. I couldn't believe it either. Probably the worst one is when Cale and the other dude finally escape the building and run into a cop. The Warbeats jumps off the roof right onto him, but before he dies, the cop yells out.... wait for this... "Holy donuts!" Fantastic.

While not a complete disaster, Death Machine is certainly deserving of a spot in Project Terrible.