Well it is just about bedtime for yours truly; today has been incredible and I've seen so many amazing things and met so many great people. Here are the details of my adventures from day one of Monster Mania:
A lot of today revolved around killing time as the events, autograph signings, and mass vending did not begin until 5 PM. The morning and early afternoon really dragged on as my anticipation grew. Around 4:30 I met up with Bill Adcock, the mastermind behind Radiation-Scarred Reviews and his good friend Dan. Bill, like my girlfriend Tara and myself, is a convention newb, but luckily it was familiar territory for Dan.
Our first mission was to scope out the swag that the vendors were selling. Everything from movie posters, to DVDs, to t-shirts, custom artwork, and custom sculptures was on sale and I went a bit crazy and spent far more than I had intended. I ended up snagging mini-posters of "Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood," "My Bloody Valentine," and "Night of the Creeps," along with a one-sheet of Harry Warden, armed with his trademark weapon of choice; a pick-axe.
I also picked up a gift for my best bud Chris (which I can't divulge on here, in case he were to read this blog post), an awesome sculpture of THE STUFF (made from stone and a dixie cup! lol), and a replica Necronomicon! I also splurged and got the entire WEREWOLF TV series (on DVD-R), Kung-Fu Cyborg, and Evil Dead: The Musical for a mere forty bucks!
After an hour of gawking at the rows and mountains of cool stuff to buy, I made my way into the first room of celebrity guests. My first stop, with newly purchased "My Bloody Valentine" poster in hand, was Peter Cowper, the Canadian actor that portrayed the original maniacal miner himself, Harry Warden.
Peter was a great guy, very interesting to talk to, and shed a little light on the fact that despite IMDB's claim that "My Bloody Valentine" was his final movie credit, he has actually had a steady acting career up in Canada. I had originally intended to have the remaining eight cast members of "MBV" sign my poster, until I realized that it was TWENTY BUCKS A SIGNATURE! (Holy f*ck was I surprised!)
After thanking Peter, I ventured onward to Kane Hodder's line, and let me tell you, this guy is one of the nicest people you could meet. I got him to sign the "Friday the 13th Part VII" poster for me (as it is my most favorite film in the series), talked about his upcoming films ("Hatchet 2" is coming soon, with more of Kane Hodder as Victor Crowley's dad and a much bigger dose of Tony Todd goodness. Also be on the lookout for a small role by makeup f/x and puppeteer master, John Carl Buechler!), and got a picture with the former Jason Voorhees. (By the by, before putting me in a stranglehold, Kane told me that he'd go easy on me seeing as how he once choked a fan until he passed out at a previous horror movie convention! How friggin' awesome is that?!)
After that, I hit up Jake Busey for an autograph. He was kind of cool, but I got the feeling that he didn't really want to be there. (Also, he was the only guy charging for photographs, and was trying to pawn his "Starship Troopers" armor for $7,500!) To be honest though, he was very kind and pretty receptive during our conversation and I think the only reason he felt a little uncomfortable is because his dad, the amazing Gary Busey, was getting lots of love.
Jake told me that he's got a new movie coming out called "Cross," and that he now has a little brother (that's right folks, Gary Busey is BREEDING again!), and that we can expect a reality show that follows the exploits of the Busey clan in the not-to-distant future. During our conversation, Gary glanced over at me, and shouted "That's my son!" I replied, "Yeah I know, he's quite a guy!" Gary's reply: "You're DAMNED right!"
Afterwards, I left the room (passing up the chance to meet several stuntmen, Thom Matthews from the first two "Return of the Living Dead" films, AND Bill Moseley.) dropped off my collectibles in the hotel room, and ventured back downstairs to another room full of celebrities. With my funds rapidly depleting, I opted to seek out Tom Atkins for an autograph. As I waited in line, I noticed that Tom and his "Night of the Creeps" co-stars were getting a good amount of lovin' from the fan community, as were Malcolm McDowell, Dario Argento, and William Katt. However, I glanced to Tom's left and saw a very lonely and obviously bored Bruce Abbott. Seeing the man's plight, I declared to myself that I would pay a visit to his table and get his signature on something.
After some time passed, and I was getting closer to my rendezvous with Tom Atkins, I heard someone say, "Hey look, it's Gary Busey." I turned around and saw Gary stroll into the room with an entourage of five people. He made his way over to Malcolm McDowell's table and chatted it up with the English actor, while Busey's "bodyguards" pushed fans back until the conversation was over. After that, Gary headed our way, and conquered Tom Atkins' table for a few minutes. (They both starred together in "Lethal Weapon.") Eventually, he moved on, but I would see him later on in yet another classic Busey moment.
Eventually I got to meet and greet Tom Atkins and he is one of the nicest guys in the world. He signed my poster, chatted it up about his next big-screen role in a revenge/thriller called "Drive Angry," got a photo with me, and coolest of all, CALLED MY BUDDY RYAN at his comic shop and spouted out a few one-liners! ("Hello? Ryan? This is Tom Atkins. Thrill me... 'cause it's Miller time!")
After that, I cruised over to Bruce Abbot's table and chatted with him. He was a super-nice guy, and his acting career is still alive and well. Sadly though, he claimed that we may never see "House of Re-Animator." After getting a photo and having him sign a bad-ass picture of himself as Dr. Dan from "Re-Animator," Tara and I dropped off our swag in our hotel room, hit up a buffet, and then caught the 8 PM world premiere of "Closed for the Season."
Alas, things were not meant to go well for the first audience viewing of Jay Woelfel's newest film. The movie refused to play, so Jay, stars Damian Maffei and Joe Unger, and two of the films producers (Jay Ellison and... what was that other guy's name? John maybe?) came up front and did an impromptu Q&A session to keep people interested.
About a half hour later (yeah, I felt terrible for these guys) the movie finally began to play and boy was it a doozy. I'm still sort of on the fence about it, as it is two hours of complete insanity that is borderline impossible to explain. Essentially it a film about two people trapped in some sort of limbo (at a creepy, abandoned amusement park), and their attempts to survive attacks from mobsters, alligators, a lake monster, and an evil carny that seems to be running the quasi-supernatural show.
Now, I already felt bad for Jay and company because the film didn't start right up due to technical issues, but I felt even worse when I noticed a good chunk of the audience had vanished by the halfway point. Admittedly, the movie runs a bit long, and doesn't really explain to us what is going on, nor does it give us many hints. I believe that this lack of traditional narrative scared a lot of people off, but truthfully I think they missed out. Big time.
Actor Joe Unger (who was sadly missing by the time the film ended) was AMAZING as "The Carny." His character is hilarious, mysterious, and menacing all at the same time, and its Joe's acting that kept the film moving along and kept us hardcore moviegoers glued in our seats. After the movie ended I promptly went over and introduced myself to Mr. Woelfel and his fellow film makers.
Because I am a smooth criminal and all (wow, I can almost FEEL all those rolling eyes) they hooked me up with a free t-shirt, and thanked me, and Tara, and Bill, and Dan for sticking around for the entire movie. I think that it meant a lot to them, seeing as how everyone else ran off to either get drunk or watch a Dario Argento movie instead. Also, I ran into a film producer/director named David Boorboor who is currently working on an indie supernatural horror feature called "Underground." I gave him my contact info (via my crappy, homemade business card!) so hopefully I'll hear from him in a few months concerning the progress on his latest feature.
At this point it was 10:30 PM and "My Bloody Valentine" (the director's cut no less) was next on the menu. However, I opted to have a few tasty alcoholic beverages with Tara and my new friends, to share stories and just take in all that we've seen today. Along the way we were joking that Gary Busey was probably lurking about, robbing each floor's ice machine until there were no cubes left for the rest of us? Why would we think that he'd do that? Because he is hilariously eccentric, that's why!
Just as we began discussing this Dan says "speak of the devil," and as we turn, we see Gary Busey, at the main desk in the lobby, wearing his PJs, and holding two (possibly even THREE) styrofoam cups full of ice cream! I kid you not! We had a good laugh at this sight, and watched Gary take his prize and rush off to the elevators. (Methinks Monster Mania is quickly turning into BUSEY-CON 2010!)
To cap this already great day of, Tara, Bill, Dan, and I hung out and talked about nerdy stuff while tipping back a few, and now here I am, polishing off a lengthy blog post and ready for bed. Wow.... what a fan-friggin'-tastic day!
Day Two of Monster Mania promises even greater things with multiple Q&A sessions, movie screenings, a tribute to the recently deceased Corey Haim, Charles Band's Full Moon Horror Road Show, and finally a midnight screening of "Rocky Horror Picture Show!" As if I wasn't already suffering from sensory-overload....
Well I'm off to bed b-movie fans; stay tuned for more updates tomorrow, during day two of MONSTER MANIA XIV!
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