Michael Gilbert dishes the good and the bad from the recent Chiller Theatre in Parsippany, NJ, which featured such guests as Alice Cooper, a Dawn of the Dead reunion, and the ever so warm and friendly, David Hess!

Chiller Theatre has been know for two things, having a massive guest list for every convention they hold, and having the most inept staff with no idea as to what is happening around them. I only went for Friday, making the hike from southern Maryland to Parsippany, New Jersey. With Alice Cooper, and a massive alumni of the Romero films who wouldn’t!

I had purchased the pre-show ticket, allowing me access to the show an hour before the doors opened to the regular public. First stop was the dealers room. Which is the biggest dealers area that I have ever seen from the cons I have been to. Any horror fan could probably spend their entire life savings in a blink of an eye in there, they have everything from rare DVD’s to some of the hardest action figures and posters to find. I grabbed a Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Creeps, and Phantasm 11 x 18 and left before I spent all the money that I had set aside for autographs.

Afterwards, it was onto get in line for Alice Cooper. Bringing the inept staff into play. The program stated where he was holding the signings, but none of the staff knew where the room was, the only help that I had received was “I know he is down one of the halls” (greatest help ever!). Finally finding where his room was we were told that he would not be signing until seven. Since it was a quarter to six, we decided to not wait in line and go meet everyone else that had enticed me to make the 4 hour trip.

Being a HUGE Romero fan, especially with the dead films, the Romero room was the first stop. In the room I had met Michael Gornick, Terry Alexander, Sharon Ceccatti, David Early, David Crawford, Leornard Lies, Frank Serrao, G Joe Shelby and Nick Tallo. Each and every one of these people were the most nice and humble people that you could ever ask for, they took the time to tell you stories and their favorite moments from the time on the films, and would say how grateful they are that fans still take the time to meet them and show support for the movies they had been in.

Leaving the room I headed across the hall into the Italian Invasion room. Being the second one that Chiller has held, they still made it a point to please the most rabid of Giallo fans. Having cast members from films as Demons, Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox and much more. I started off meeting David Hess, from the original Last House on the Left. Awesome guy to meet, very nice to his fans and is hilarious. After him I wanted to meet the four Cannibal Holocaust cast they had slated to appear. Robert Kerman’s flight was delayed, so he would not be able to make it until Saturday. So there was only the director Ruggero Deodato, and two of the main cast members, Francesca Ciardi, and Carl Yorke Gaberiel. The first two were very nice to meet, disregarding the fact that Ruggero does not know any English. The only sour apple was Carl Yorke, who seemed uninterested in doing anything other then getting money, very little conversation, just signed my poster took a pic and have a nice day.

It was finally time to meet Mr. Cooper. The line was in decent size, but moved rather quickly. I was shocked to find out the prices for meeting him. It was $40. for each autograph, $5. for the 8 x 10’s at his table, and $50 for a picture taken with him. I wanted an 8 x 10 and two posters signed, so I coughed up the $125. and decided that that was way to much for a picture with him. As for Alice himself he was a real class act to meet. Even though his manager was trying to rush people like an assembly line. Alice tried to take the time to make sure everyone he met didn’t feel like they were just in an assembly line. I got my Nightmare on Elm Street,and Friday the 13th montage posters signed by him and when he signed the 8 x 10, he didn’t liked the way it looked so he had his manager go over and grab another one so he could do it again. Which I thought was a classy move on his part. I had my friend stand off to the side and steal a pic of him signing my stuff, so that was $50 well saved.

All in all Chiller was a lot better then the other two times I have attended. I got a lot of my posters signed, and can say that I enjoyed myself. To anyone that has thought about attending one of these shows, I can say it is a fun place, just make sure that you don’t ask the staff any questions.

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