Event Report: Rock and Shock 2011 Thrills Attendees Again

Steve Barton   |  

Oct 17, 2011

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As it’s been doing for years now, the Rock and Shock festival in Worcester, Massachusetts, delighted fans again this past weekend (October 14-16) with three days filled with screenings, celebs, and music. If you are a horror fan on the East Coast, this is your Graceland.

For those unfamiliar with the event, let me lay it out for you. You stroll into the beautiful DCU Center in Worcester and enter a Mecca of horror. I was personally lucky enough to walk in just as horror author Joe Knetter was hitting his stride during a book reading. Knetter may indeed be the funniest guy at the entire event. Really entertaining!

As you stroll the vendor area, you find absolutely anything related to horror you could possibly want … custom fitted fangs, theatrical contact lenses, artists, filmmakers, T-shirt booths, website representatives like the guys from Killerreviews.com … you name it. It’s there.

From there you can venture into the celebrity room and literally look from table to table and see some of the most recognizable faces in horror. Once you get past the twin towers of Derek Mears (Friday the 13th) and Nick Principe (Laid to Rest), who both stand taller than 6’5″ and prowl their table areas, you have Bill Moseley, Robert Englund, William Forsythe, Kane Hodder, Lance Henriksen, Miko Hughes, even Roddy Piper and Ace Frehley. And this just scratches the surface. The celeb list is amazing.

But the weekend was owned by the Chad A. Verdi produced, Glenn Ciano directed film Inkubus, which made its world premiere. Starring Robert Englund, William Forsythe, Joey Fatone, Jonathan Silverman and Michelle Ray Smith, the film delighted audiences who got the first look at the movie. A quality effort indeed. We also got the biggest news scoop of the weekend from Verdi, who announced to Dread Central that he had offered $1 million to Amanda Knox, the American student who was imprisoned in Italy for four years in a controversial murder case, for her story.

If it was music you were interested in, Mushroomhead headlined a full slate of bands on Friday night with The Insane Clown Posse taking top billing on Saturday, playing in front of lively, full-house crowds.

With the dust hardly cleared from this year’s event, Gina Migliozzi and the rest of the Rock and Shock organizational team are ready to get down to business and begin planning Rock and Shock 2012. Do yourself a favor and mark your calendar when the date is announced. Follow Rock and Shock on Twitter (@rockandshockusa) to keep up with the latest info. Plan on attending; you’ll thank me for it.

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