Event Report: Texas Frightmare Weekend 2016

Name: Event Report: Texas Frightmare Weekend 2016
Uploaded: 2016-05-11
Duration: 4 min 31 s
Description: Event Report: Texas Frightmare Weekend 2016

Mr. Dark |

May 11, 2016

It’s getting hard to write about Texas Frightmare Weekend and keep it interesting. The show has easily established itself as the best in the nation. The guest list is always incredible. The hotel and volunteers are always amazing. The list of films and filmmaking seminars are universally entertaining. The parties are the stuff of legend.

How do I explain what happened this year without just listing the schedule of events and saying, “Yeah, that was awesome?”

I’ll do my best.

The guest list this year could be summed up in one word: legends.

Romero, Englund, Todd, Hodder, Henriksen, Savini. You could stop there, and it’d be worth the trip.

Then you add some of the newer blood: Arquette, Lillard, Ulrich, and McGowan from Scream. Remar and Beck from The Warriors. Mass reunions for Halloween II, Return of the Living Dead, and the entire Nightmare on Elm Street series. Carlson Young and Bex Taylor-Klaus from the “Scream” TV show.

And it goes from there. I could write an entire piece just listing who was there. Universally, everyone I saw was awesome to the crowds and their assigned volunteers.

While I wasn’t able to attend any due to my other journalistic demands, the panels were reportedly awesome, including announcements of the reboot of Puppet Master and Final Destination 6 during panels by Charles Band and Tony Todd, respectively.

The parties? The parties were wild, as always, especially Scaryoke. I was in screenings and missed the shenanigans, but a surprise performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Rose McGowan was her first public performance as a singer. Yeah, that happened. See, there was even video.

Rose wasn’t the only celebrity that showed up to wow the crowds. Wildman David Arquette busted out his best metal hip-hop chops for a Rage Against the Machine performance with The Color Morale vocalist Garret Rapp.

Was this some exclusive VIP party? No, although there was one of those for VIP passholders featuring a performance by composer and performer Allan Howarth. This was available to all attendees of the con at no extra charge. The guests feel at home at Frightmare, so they hang out and get wild every year. (Do I need to mention the infamous Human Centipede reenactment with Dieter Laser and the cast/crew from Helldriver at the pool a few years back?)

That’s really the magic of Texas Frightmare. It’s run extremely well, absolutely professional, but it feels like one big family reunion. If you attend more than one, you’ll gain “Frightmare friends” that you only see once a year at the show. I have several and missed a few this year. (Larry, Grace, Lisa… I’m calling you out!) As packed and crazy as it gets, it’s one big love fest. The Texas spirit of generosity and hospitality pervades the show and leads to a very special event not found anywhere else.

I’m already in my post-Frightmare funk. It feels weird I can’t just drive down there and see all my friends, old and new.

Next year? Get your ass out here. I’m working on getting our editor-in-chief and resident pop-culture icon Uncle Creepy out here to make an appearance at next year’s show, and that’s worth the price of admission right there. (Although, if he sings at Scaryoke, airport counter-terrorism troops might be summoned due to the presence of karaoke of mass destruction.)