Article by: Brandel Gempp

Previous to HorrorHound, I had never been to a horror show or festival (see I don’t even know what they are called) in my life.  I went to meet up with one of my old high school buds because this is one of her passions: HORROR, bru ha ha ha. See was that scary?  Oh well, my sad attempt.  Anyways, she had asked me to write a little bit about how I lost my horror show virginity so here goes…

Upon arrival (Friday night) to the convention center (which was packed) I stepped out of my car to find creatures of all sorts roaming the parking lot.  It felt like Halloween but scarier because all the costumes were pretty realistic.  Some were humorous; however, I couldn’t identify a single costume.  What can I say, I don’t watch horror flicks.  There was some point that I had wish I had worn a costume just because I thought it would be cool to dress up outside of Halloween.

Erin (known as Tex on the From Dusk Till Con site) quickly came to greet me; we smoked a cigarette, and then proceeded in.  There were lines upon lines of people waiting to meet their favorite horror icons.  Erin could name all of them as she led me around the hall.  She even stopped and chatted with a few as if she knew them longer than she’s known me.  I was shocked at all the facts she knew about every actor, actress, and demon spawn.  I figured mostly everyone there knew all of these people.  Except me – silly virgin.

We then went to the convention center bar where we met up with her husband (none other than From Dusk Till Con co-founder, Mr. Chainsaw) and some friends (among them, many awesome FTDC board members).  They all chatted about how exciting it was to be there and every time someone walked by that they recognized they would point him/her out to me and fill me in on who they were and what movie they were in.  It’s always good to have someone around who gives you the down low on the good stuff, or in my case, any stuff.  After a few beers (go figure), I let Erin talk me in to coming back on Saturday to see the real show.  What the heck, right?

Well, Saturday was insane.  I couldn’t tell you how many people were there.  On a funny note, they had a Veterans Memorial going on at the same time so I bet those people were a little freaked out. Some of them probably had flashbacks when they saw dead people roaming the halls.  I’m surprised no one got hurt.  Anyways, I found Erin and her husband in the convention hall.  There was just tons of stuff in there.  When I refer to stuff I mean, posters, movies, clothes, people to autograph things, dead bugs to collect, jewelry, and make-up.

I had brought a friend who tried his luck at the balloon popping dart game there and actually got 3 in a row and won.  So now I’m the proud owner of the VHS “Come.”  I met the starring actor and all.  He told me that it’s about how he picks up prostitutes and rips off their va-jay-jays and sows them to their faces.  Sounds exciting, but unfortunately I don’t own a VHS player – damn.  At least I understand the clever title of the movie now.

After the convention hall, I wandered into the mask room. This was my favorite part.  Every mask in there was so realistic.  I took pictures of most.  Even in the pictures they look real.  There were also actual figures in this hall from actual horror movies.  All in all, it was pretty cool.  Before leaving I wore some claw things and tried on a few masks.  I enjoyed it.  It’s always fun to play dress up.

Overall, it was a good experience.  On a personal note, it was awesome just seeing Erin in her element.  It’s good to see her enjoying herself.  Plus, she’s good at it.  I was very impressed with her ability to talk and ask all the right questions with the stars.  It was exciting to see her pursuing one of her passions and I could truly see that she loves it.

Now I didn’t get the pleasure of meeting Clive Barker like Erin did, but realistically I don’t know who he is anyways.  But I have decided that I’m going to start watching more scary movies.  The whole experience was pretty interesting and I don’t know of any other actors or actresses that travel around meeting their fans.  For example, I have never heard of the romantic movie tour.  Sounds lame anyways.  Instead of drinking beer and watching freaks in costumes walk around we would be eating bon-bon’s discussing kissing scenes from The Moulin Rouge.  LAME!  I’d much prefer a horror show!

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