Fangoria Weekend of Horrors Report
Dread Central Staff
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It was a chilly Friday afternoon in sunny California. The normally picturesque city of San Jose was about to be invaded by horror fans as Fangoria was set to unleash its own brand of mayhem on the Doubletree Hotel and Convention Center. The time had come once again for another …
Friday’s festivities started off (strangely enough) with more of a stretch than a scream. Most three-day conventions start on Friday evening. Fangoria opened its doors at the ungodly hour of 11:00am. This was both a plus and a minus for fans. As it was a weekday, most attendees would surely find themselves working until 5:00pm, leaving them little to no chance of getting in on the first day frights. But then there were the folks who had wisely taken off that day. They were in for a real treat.
Being that it was the first day of the show and traffic was kind of slow, lucky fans got to really take their time with the celebs, and the stars were more than happy to go that extra mile for the early birds. If there is one thing that makes me proud to work within our genre, it’s the way that most celebrities interact with the fans. No request went ungranted as Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Ken Foree, and the gang spouted rapid-fire movie quotes to the delight of many and took numerous photos with their adoring public.
Once done star schmoozing and hunting around for movies and bargains at the dealers’ tables, folks could then head up to the ballroom for exclusive looks at trailers, some photo ops, a look at the new Fangoria line of comics, and a couple of panels for upcoming films like Greeley’s Field and The Flesh Keeper.
Hellraiser‘s Doug Bradley was the star of today’s show. During his panel he discussed everything from Pinhead’s make-up process to his thoughts on the upcoming Hellraiser remake. “Let me tell you everything I know about the remake,” says Bradley. “*long pause* Okay, that’s it!” It seems that even the king of the Cenobites is in the dark when it comes to anything having to do with this latest endeavor into the world unleashed by the Lament Configuration. Hopefully Bradley will get to don the make-up once again. Can you actually picture anyone else playing Pinhead but the man himself? Talk about legendary suffering.
Goth Guru Voltaire closed out the day’s events with a very funny acoustic set, and before you knew it — it was party time.
Want to know what happens after a convention? It’s like Vegas, baby. What happens there stays there! Get your ass to a show and see for yourself!
After the drunken haze wore off, the Dread team realizes Saturday’s show is in full swing and it’s time to head on down for the goodies. Now this is more like it! The Doubletree was a hell of a lot more packed than the day before. After paying $20,000.00 for a bagel in the hotel cafe, it was back up to the ballrooms to check out the meat of the day. What a fucking line-up!
Things kicked off about noon with a 2001 Maniacs reunion panel featuring director Tim Sullivan and his cast. During it the crowd got the first bit of news regarding the upcoming sequel. After that genre favorite Robert “I want to give you a piece of my mind” Picardo took the stage to discuss his many roles from The Howling straight through to his time on Star Trek: Voyager. Good times, good stories, good shit.
Around 3:00pm surprise guest Darren Lynn Bousman showed up with a look at Lionsgate’s upcoming unrated Saw III DVD. Let’s just put it this way — oh yes, there will be a lot more blood! Expect a review of that package ASAP.
The next bit of goodness came at around 5:30pm when director Tim Sullivan once again took the stage to discuss his newest film Driftwood. The best part? Right after the panel attendees were invited to an exclusive Fangoria screening of the film. Does it get better than this? For a horror geek, no! Expect a full review of Driftwood soon.
The day’s events came to a close with Fangoria TV‘s Professor Griffin conducting a roving trivia challenge. I myself got to take part in said challenge and am happy to say I got one out of three questions right. What can I say? I was still recovering from Friday night. The name of the captain of the ship in The Creature from the Black Lagoon (it’s Lucas BTW) was taking a back seat in my mind to the location of the nearest store selling Extra Strength Tylenol.
After a very long Saturday night that included a meet and greet ice cream social(!) for gold ticket holders, Sunday was upon us, and it was time to indulge in the last bit of fun.
To my absolute surprise the place was packed. Never have I seen the third day of a show so well attended. It was easily the best day crowd-wise of the bunch. Everyone had a line at their tables, the longest of which was for Sid, Bill, Ken, and a few vendors like Dread’s Sean Clark’s Horror Shirts, horror’s own men in black Rotten Cotton, and Eddie Allen’s Haunted Memories. If you’ve been under a rock and have never seen their stuff, I suggest you click those links if you know what’s good for ya!
There was another group downstairs who were causing a hell of a stir, The Living Dead Girlz. These ladies have a seemingly infinite amount of energy. They danced, did splits, and gyrated to the delight of the entire room. Well, almost the entire room. Some of the other women there were giving the serious stink eye to their respective boyfriends for ogling, but come on! Did I mention they were doing splits? How could we not drool … err … I mean look?!
Upstairs things were moving along smoothly as well. Sid, Bill, and Ken had their panels and photo ops this day, and the crowd simply ate them up. There’s no question, Sunday belonged to the Rejects. After they had their rightful chance to shine, fans were then treated to a look at the upcoming Vampira documentary, a costume contest, and a live performance of Re-Animator of the Dead by the ever crazy Primitive Screwhead troupe.
With that all good things had come to an end. Another Weekend of Horrors had been committed to memory. There’s a reason why Fangoria has been around so long. Love ’em or hate ’em, they do their best to further along the genre and bring fans together with their movie idols.
A job well done.
For more pictures from the event, make sure to check out our gallery.
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