Texas Frightmare Weekend 2014: Day Two

 

Saturday always seems to be the best day of this convention just because it's the longest and the craziest, with the most going on throughout the day with panels and movie screenings. I ran into my Tobin Bell line buddy Ryan again while we were waiting for the doors to open, and we talked about what our plans were for the day. I didn't even get a chance to see the other room the night before so I did a quick lap before getting in any more lines to scope things out. Ahhh! So much to see and do!

 

I stuck with my must-meet list as it stood and got in line to meet the badass T-1000, Robert Patrick! I have always loved this dude - his voice and face have always made him a stand-out in whatever role he's in. While I was close to meeting him in line, Scott Wilson came over to say hi to him and some lucky girl got to have both Scott and Robert in a picture with her. Jealous.

 

 

As a big fan of his and of Sons of Anarchy, I had to ask Robert if he was coming back for the last season of the show (he is!) and he started telling me about all the other TV stuff he's involved with. This guy is going to be all over the place - he mentioned True Blood (which I, um, have never watched... sorry, Robert), the From Dusk Till Dawn series and one other new one that I forget the name of. He sounded excited and was just such a cool guy to be around. I put my arm around his beefy manliness and got a great picture with him. Another great meeting!

 

 

 

As I'm walking around, I come to a dead stop at one of the vendor tables when I see that on the wall they have a freaking Battle Royale t-shirt. Gimme, gimme, gimme! Never seen a Battle Royale shirt before so this was a definite must have.

 

 

Then at another table I want this House on Haunted Hill (original) shirt that I see, but they don't have my size so I get this bitching Carrie one instead. 

 

In the corner of the same room is John Kassir, the talented and hilarious voice of the Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt. Every once in a while, John would get on the microphone in the Cryptkeeper voice and laugh and say some of his cheesy puns - "Come on over here, we're DYING to meet you!" - which made me laugh every single time because I absolutely LOVE the Cryptkeeper.

 

 

BUT, just before I'm about to get in line to meet John, I randomly run into someone else I was looking forward to meeting. I have good online relationships with a couple of different horror authors because I've reviewed some of the books they've sent me, and one of those authors is Texas-based Brian Moreland. I loved his books Dead of Winter and Shadows in the Mist. I mentioned how I wished he had a table at the convention that year so that I could get an actual physical copy of one of his books (I've only read PDF versions thus far) and he actually runs out to his car to get me a copy of his most recent book, The Devil's Woods. Awesome! We talked more about the convention and his upcoming works. Very cool to finally meet him in person!

 

 

Also, we noticed that nearby where we were standing were these Nazi zombie life-sized statue things that look like they came straight out of one of his books, so we had to take pictures with them.

 

Cryptkeeper time! Stoked to meet John Kassir, and I tell him that practically the whole week before the convention I'd been watching Tales from the Crypt episodes to get pumped up for the event, and that makes him happy. Also mentioned how last year they had the Cryptkeeper doll at the FearNet table and how cool it was that he was there this year. He signs my picture "To Michele, My Ghoulfriend" (HAHAHAHAHA) and for his pictures with fans he has this cutout of the Cryptkeeper's head on a stick to hold up. While we're posing, John starts giggling like the Cryptkeeper in my ear and I can barely hold in my laughter to get a good picture! Seriously, love love love this guy!

 

 

 

I got lucky with my ticket purchase this year and was able to get a Premium Pass, which not only got me into all three days of the convention, but also got me the opportunity to use a line skip on two celebrities. I had to be a dick and use one of them for Scott Wilson, my beloved Hershel from The Walking Dead, and Eugene from Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Oh my goodness, what a doll. I told him that it was the saddest day on the show when he left and we talked about the possibility of the Behind the Mask sequel or prequel. We take our picture and I say thank you before trying to leave and let him get to the rest of the people in his line, but he won't let me leave without a hug! Ah, such a sweetheart.

 

 

 

 

Did I also mention how excited I was that he still had the beard and hair? He looks so good with it!

 

There were some pretty great costumes this year, including a group of Terminator and T-1000 guys to celebrate the reunion...

 

 

...and a very cool chick donning some sort of feminized version of Jigsaw's puppet.

 

 

Wow. Talk about bad angles.

 

Anyway, I had planned on meeting Linda Blair, which would have been awesome but I decided against it and just managed to get a sneaky pic before I was shooed away.

 

 

Last year there was this one booth with some amazing paintings, but I didn't get to meet the artist. Well, he was back this year with some equally great paintings covering all different kinds of horror movies, TV shows, and general horror icons. Look at this stuff! This guy is really talented, I almost felt bad for not buying any of his paintings. Couldn't bring them home, sorry!

 

 















 

I sadly only made it to two panels this year, and consequently they were back-to-back. First up was the Night of the Demons reunion panel with stars Linnea Quigley and Amelia Kinkade and director Kevin Tenney, with moderator Kristy Jett. Lots of great stories from all of these guys about the overall making of the movie, how the shot with the broken mirror was accomplished, what it was like for the actors to work with the prosthetics and makeup, and antics behind the scenes. Since I didn't meet any of these guys either, this was such a great panel to go to!

 

 

 

 

Right after this panel was one with just Scott Wilson (again moderated by Kristy Jett) where he of course talked about his career, In Cold Blood, Behind the Mask, and The Walking Dead. I just loved his attitude all weekend - he seemed to be having a really good time and genuinely enjoyed meeting and talking to his fans. I got to ask him the last question of the panel, which was about who on The Walking Dead would replace him as the sort of moral compass or conscience for the people left on the show. His response? Lil' Asskicker. So sad I'm not going to be able to see him on TWD every week now! Love this guy.

 

 

 

Soon after this panel I head toward Cenobyte Row, where they were having a Hellraiser reunion with Barbie Wilde, Nicholas Vince, and Doug Bradley. And who should already be in Doug's line but my friends from last year, Heather and Acacia! I saw Acacia for a little bit on Friday but it was so good to run into some friends after being on my own for most of the past two days. We hung out with each other while we all got the autographs we needed and caught up a little bit on the last year. Yea for convention friends, that's all I gotta say!

 

Did I mention that I met Doug Bradley, Mister Pinhead himself? Yes, I did! Hellraiser has always been a huge favorite of mine and there was no way I was passing this opportunity up. In hindsight, I guess I should have gotten autographs from all the Cenobytes but I was trying to hold onto my money at this point. No matter, I still got to tell Doug about my admiration of him and his voice in Hellraiser and I got a great picture of him signed!

 

 

I hadn't really planned on going to any of the movie screenings this year because I wasn't sure if time would allow, but Heather and Acacia talked me into meeting up with them later to catch the Spanish comedy flick, Witching and Bitching (Spanish title: "Las Brugas de Zugarramurdi," or "The Witches of Zugarramurdi").

 

 

Oh, how I loved this movie. Great comedy, great effects, great acting. The story moves fast and never lets up the momentum and it was completely unlike anything I was expecting. Witching and Bitching - keep this one on your radar, folks!

 

After the screening, I was done for the night. Twelve consecutive hours of awesome is too much even for me. But my goodness, there was still another day left! More stories and celeb meetings! Could it get any better???

 

 

 

Read my Day One recap here!



 

Texas Frightmare Weekend 2014: Day One

 

Well, guys, another totally amazing convention to add to my list of memories! This year's Texas Frightmare Weekend was arguably bigger and better than last year, with a whole new set of wonderful guests and opportunities for horror fans to have an awesome weekend celebrating with each other! Just like I did last year, I'm going to break down my experience by day, so here we go with Day One, Friday night!


I had a huge list of celebs that I wanted to meet this year, some who were making very rare convention appearances, so I wanted to get them as soon as possible. One of those was Tobin Bell, a.k.a. a guy from ONE OF MY FAVORITE HORROR MOVIES EVER. He was definitely on my list. TFW had been warning us for weeks that Tobin was probably going to be ridiculously busy all weekend (even had to pre-order an autograph ticket for him) - and they were right! I thought I had a fairly good spot in line, but still ended up waiting almost four hours before I finally met him.

Part of that had to do with the fact that his flight was delayed and that he had to leave to do a photo op at 9 p.m., and part of it had to do with the fact that Tobin was just being an awesome guy and actually taking the time to talk to everybody that came through his line. He asked me about my Fright Night t-shirt, and commented on how amazing the dedication of horror fans is when I told him I came from Missouri. I told him that I love the movie Malice (seriously, it's a good movie) and he told me about how Bill Pullman almost broke his nose in their fighting scene. It was so worth the wait to meet this incredibly kind and appreciative man. Love him even more now!

(I'd also like to give a shout-out to my Tobin Bell line buddy Ryan for being a great conversationalist and for providing me with two of his Kit Kat bars to stave off hunger while we waited. Great meeting you!)

 

 

It was about 10 p.m. by this time and the convention was almost done for the night, so I skedaddled down the hall to hook up with my next celeb. And this one was a biggie. Huge. I'll give you some hints:

 



 

Yes! It was The Godfather himself, GEORGE A. ROMERO. As you can see, there was a ton of stuff laid out on his table to pick from for him to autograph, but I had purchased a Dawn of the Dead poster just for this event. I guess I could have gushed over him a lot more but I held back and just thanked him for being there and asked him to sign right on the zombie head of the DotD poster. Man, such a freaking surreal moment to be RIGHT THERE with the man who created such iconic movies, characters, and creatures that we are still emulating to this day. Once in a lifetime opportunity and I will always treasure it!

 





 

Just across from George were two of the other people I wanted to meet that night (so I wouldn't have to carry around that poster all day Saturday). I jumped up to the table of the great David Emge, who played Flyboy in Dawn of the Dead. I was totally being serious when I told him that he gave the best zombie performance ever in that movie. I mean, that walk? Oh, it's just perfect. Very cool to actually meet him! And so I added another signature to my poster!

 

 

 

Right next to David was his co-star Scott Reiniger, a.k.a. one half of the great bromance that is Roger and Peter from Dawn of the Dead. Wonderfully nice guy, actually asked me if I wanted his signature personalized - of course, dude! My poster wouldn't officially be complete until Sunday when I added Tom Savini's autograph, but it was such a score to get all these guys in one go - a Dawn of the Dead marathon signing, if you will. I can't wait to get this bad boy framed and hung up on my wall!

 

 

I stopped with the autographs for the night and took the opportunity to do a quick walk-through of the room. I came upon the Atomic Cotton vendor table, one that I was really looking forward to visiting again. I found some great shirts there last year and became internet friends with one of the people who runs it, so we talked for a bit and she gave me free stickers and I scored this great Texas Chainsaw Massacre t-shirt.

 

 

 

All in all, a pretty fucking awesome night, but it was really just the tip of the iceberg. Still a lot more amazing experiences to come! Stay tuned for my Day 2 and Day 3 recaps!