Horror Hound Weekend
First things first: Horror Hound is a magazine. A couple times a year, they hold a convention somewhere, where they have various people from the industry come and sign things. They have actors, directors, make-up artists, etc. This year, featured were Jason Mewes, Michael Biehn, Tom Savini, Joe Dante, Jeffrey Combs, Derek Mears, Kane Hodder, Sammy Terry, Doug Jones, and others.
I found out about this from Doug Jones's website a few weeks ago. I thought it'd be cool to check it out at least for one day. I mentioned it to Jessica Seaton and she informed me that someone from the magazine had contacted her and said that she was a big Doug Jones fan and offered us a free table at the convention to promote My Name Is Jerry. This disappeared for a while, and then I e-mailed someone at the convention and asked him about it and over the next week, he and I arranged to have the promotions crew from the film come down and spend the weekend at the convention.
So I drive down to the east side of Indianapolis, and I found the Marriot Hotel where this was at, and eventually found my way around the place to the convention hall. First thing I did was talk to the person who had originally e-mailed us. Her name was Jessica, and she was a writer for the magazine in her 40's with neon pink hair. She was nicer to us than I could've hoped for. We talked for a little while about the convention, the people there, the magazine, the movie, etc. Eventually, she showed me where my table would be at and where I'd be spending virtually all weekend at.
After I set up (taking all of about 5 minutes), I went looking around for a while. I spent quite a bit of time perusing all of the cool merch that I don't usually find anywhere else. Particularly the DVDs. There were thousands of DVDs there, many of them bootlegs, of Troma films, foreign films, TV shows, etc. They even had the original Adam West Batman series in its entirety there. Apparently that show was owned by so many companies, that it's unlikely that the rights will ever go to one company and it will never be on DVD. Bummer. I turned around, and I was surprised to see Tom Savini himself just lounging around. The legendary make-up artist and gore creator, Mr. Savini himself was about five feet from me! I was starstruck, I admit. I went up to him, shook his hand, told him I was a fan and that was that. I got to meet Tom Savini. And only a few minutes later, I met Jeffrey Combs, the man of the Re-Animator trilogy, Castle Freak, From Beyond, and small character from the Frighteners of which Bottom Dollar wrote a song about. Got to meet him as well! The weekend was off to a great start already.
First day was kind of slow after that. The doors to the convention hall opened and people came through rather slowly and Doug Jones wasn't able to come down that night due to his manager making a big deal about a type-o in his convention contract. That made me mad, because I know Doug wanted to come down there, but his manager basically held him down. I can't blame him for listening to his manager, though, with Doug's recent streak of good luck in films, he must be doing a pretty good job. I met a few cool people there, got interviewed for a local podcast and talked to them about My Name Is Jerry, and had fun with the whole crowd. Even though I am a horror fan, our booth for the movie stuck out soooo bad. Our table was set up right next to a booth for a company that specializes in props, costumes, and special effects. The booth had on display some of its leather outfits, some weapons, and a big werewolf with blood coming out of its mouth. You had blood and guts at all the tables except for ours which was basically buckets of sunshine and puppy dogs. It's okay, though, it got some peoples attention at least enough to come over and ask about it.
That night, I went and hung out at the hotel bar with some people from the convention and we had a few beers and talked about the convention. We had fun, and eventually I started to get sleepy so I left. My intention was to drive back to Muncie, get a good nights' sleep and come back in the morning. I got out to my car and realized I shouldn't be driving, so I slept in my car that night for about four hours. I woke up around 6 in the morning feeling very sober, but very sleepy. I drove home, took an hour nap, made some coffee, grabbed a change of clothes and a few other things and headed back.
I came back, sat there for a while again. A couple hours later, Doug showed up! I walked up and hugged him and we talked for a minute, but he had to get to his table as he had a long line waiting for him. The line was huge too, I was happy to see such a long line for him here of so many excited fans.
I've spent way too long writing this, so I'm gonna wrap it up.
Basically, I got to meet a few of my favorite horror movie figures, I got to hang out with a gang of mutants that I could relate to, laugh with, and drink with. I also ended up on a local podcast, to promote My Name Is Jerry. Probably my favorite item I had signed was a copy of The Frighteners. Not a great movie by any means, but a few years ago Bottom Dollar wrote a song about one of the characters in the film, played by Jeffrey Combs. I told him about it and he signed it with one of the song lyrics. Awesome!
I found out about this from Doug Jones's website a few weeks ago. I thought it'd be cool to check it out at least for one day. I mentioned it to Jessica Seaton and she informed me that someone from the magazine had contacted her and said that she was a big Doug Jones fan and offered us a free table at the convention to promote My Name Is Jerry. This disappeared for a while, and then I e-mailed someone at the convention and asked him about it and over the next week, he and I arranged to have the promotions crew from the film come down and spend the weekend at the convention.
So I drive down to the east side of Indianapolis, and I found the Marriot Hotel where this was at, and eventually found my way around the place to the convention hall. First thing I did was talk to the person who had originally e-mailed us. Her name was Jessica, and she was a writer for the magazine in her 40's with neon pink hair. She was nicer to us than I could've hoped for. We talked for a little while about the convention, the people there, the magazine, the movie, etc. Eventually, she showed me where my table would be at and where I'd be spending virtually all weekend at.
After I set up (taking all of about 5 minutes), I went looking around for a while. I spent quite a bit of time perusing all of the cool merch that I don't usually find anywhere else. Particularly the DVDs. There were thousands of DVDs there, many of them bootlegs, of Troma films, foreign films, TV shows, etc. They even had the original Adam West Batman series in its entirety there. Apparently that show was owned by so many companies, that it's unlikely that the rights will ever go to one company and it will never be on DVD. Bummer. I turned around, and I was surprised to see Tom Savini himself just lounging around. The legendary make-up artist and gore creator, Mr. Savini himself was about five feet from me! I was starstruck, I admit. I went up to him, shook his hand, told him I was a fan and that was that. I got to meet Tom Savini. And only a few minutes later, I met Jeffrey Combs, the man of the Re-Animator trilogy, Castle Freak, From Beyond, and small character from the Frighteners of which Bottom Dollar wrote a song about. Got to meet him as well! The weekend was off to a great start already.
First day was kind of slow after that. The doors to the convention hall opened and people came through rather slowly and Doug Jones wasn't able to come down that night due to his manager making a big deal about a type-o in his convention contract. That made me mad, because I know Doug wanted to come down there, but his manager basically held him down. I can't blame him for listening to his manager, though, with Doug's recent streak of good luck in films, he must be doing a pretty good job. I met a few cool people there, got interviewed for a local podcast and talked to them about My Name Is Jerry, and had fun with the whole crowd. Even though I am a horror fan, our booth for the movie stuck out soooo bad. Our table was set up right next to a booth for a company that specializes in props, costumes, and special effects. The booth had on display some of its leather outfits, some weapons, and a big werewolf with blood coming out of its mouth. You had blood and guts at all the tables except for ours which was basically buckets of sunshine and puppy dogs. It's okay, though, it got some peoples attention at least enough to come over and ask about it.
That night, I went and hung out at the hotel bar with some people from the convention and we had a few beers and talked about the convention. We had fun, and eventually I started to get sleepy so I left. My intention was to drive back to Muncie, get a good nights' sleep and come back in the morning. I got out to my car and realized I shouldn't be driving, so I slept in my car that night for about four hours. I woke up around 6 in the morning feeling very sober, but very sleepy. I drove home, took an hour nap, made some coffee, grabbed a change of clothes and a few other things and headed back.
I came back, sat there for a while again. A couple hours later, Doug showed up! I walked up and hugged him and we talked for a minute, but he had to get to his table as he had a long line waiting for him. The line was huge too, I was happy to see such a long line for him here of so many excited fans.
I've spent way too long writing this, so I'm gonna wrap it up.
Basically, I got to meet a few of my favorite horror movie figures, I got to hang out with a gang of mutants that I could relate to, laugh with, and drink with. I also ended up on a local podcast, to promote My Name Is Jerry. Probably my favorite item I had signed was a copy of The Frighteners. Not a great movie by any means, but a few years ago Bottom Dollar wrote a song about one of the characters in the film, played by Jeffrey Combs. I told him about it and he signed it with one of the song lyrics. Awesome!