Well, we are back from our trip to Chicago for the Midwest edition of the Fangoria Weekend Of Horrors. I believe the trip was a pretty successful one, even though I'm still suffering through the final throes of a killer cold/laryngitis (which of course, was exacerbated by the snowy, cold Illinois weather).
I arrived on Thursday, picked up my rental car (somehow upgraded to a 2006 Mustang at "economy class" rates - thanks Hertz), checked myself in to the hotel, and pretty much slept until dinnertime to try to get the sick out of my system. Later on, I hooked up with Mike (WC13 sound guy) and Will (WC13 DP), and we hooked up with Shaun (WC13 producer) and Mike Wolinski (WC13 writer) and had some "pie" aka pizza.
Friday, we pretty much killed time until that evening, when it was time to start setting up our booth for the convention. We put up posters for Witchcraft and Drawing Blood, and generally situated things. We also met up with Zoe Hunter (one of the witches of WC13 in attendance for the convention), and it was good to see her again. Then we popped into Chicago proper to see Jeff Wolinski's (WC13 writer and brother of Mike) new band play. I enjoyed what I saw/heard, but I felt like utter crap, so we had to bail relatively early.
Saturday morning I got to the convention center about 8 AM, and things were ramping up. The con ended up being pretty freaking packed, and there was a lot of traffic around our table. Zoe sold and signed a bunch of pictures, and even I did a few, but the big crowds started forming when Robert "Maniac Cop" Z'Dar joined our merry band of misfits. He was signing at the Tripod Films table to promote Drawing Blood (which he stars in), and a lot of the fans showed him some love, most of which spilled over onto us through osmosis.
Saturday night the gang and I caught an advance screening of Slither (with cast and crew in attendance), and I have to say that it was pretty much everything that I expected. Slither wears it's influences on it's sleeve, but what's great about that is that the aforementioned influences are the wet, slimy, hard-R body horror movies of the 70's and 80's. No pussy PG-13 "horror" here. Kudos go out to James Gunn and company - the audience enjoyed the hell out of your movie.
Sunday was more of the same, although I did get to see the Silent Hill panel, which amped me up for the movie even more than I already was. The SH producers showed the brutal clip that they showed at the Comic-Con a while back, and it looks freaking sweet. Thank Christ that someone finally applied the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage to these survival-horror video game adaptations. We can finally have one to be proud of, it seems.
Thankfully I didn't go swag-crazy this time (although I did finally pick up the Meet the Feebles DVD), but it looks like I'll be going to the Burbank show as well, so maybe I can go broke then. I was also informed that Witchcraft 13 will be screening in Chicago next month, so I'll be heading back up there for that. Hopefully, it won't be so freaking cold.
I'm a director, editor, writer, producer, and quasi-composer whose work has been seen worldwide through clients such as Fuse Networks, OvationTV, Fangoria Magazine, Alternative Press, Limekiln Records, Blacktop Records, RSquared Films, Big Bite Entertainment, and Lionsgate Films. I've been doing the film thing "for reals" for about 17 years now. It ain't always pretty, and it doesn't always love me back, but it's what I love doing. Read on for more.
No comments:
Post a Comment