Rue Morgue Festival of Fear - Blog and Pics
 

I should have this done sometime tonight - but i'm trying to straighten everything up, clean the wreck of a place, upload the pictures, etc, etc. and i'm tired as HELL

but i want to mention off the top : I never met Despare !!!

where the hell was he ?

first off - here's the DVDs i bought :

- Four Flies on Grey Velvet (supposedly pure DVD quality)
- Dead by Dawn
- Dead By Dawn 2
- The Expedition (these 3 films are canadian ... got them signed by the director and one of the gorgeous actresses in Dead by Dawn
- The Machine Girl
- The Perfume of the LAdy in Black
- Faster Pussycat Kill!...Kill! (signed by Tura Sutana)
- Cannibal Apocalypse
- Spider Baby (signed by Sid Haig)
- Blood and Donuts (canadian vampire film)
- Deadly Friend
- Zombiegeddon (Troma)
- Full Metal Yakuza
- Sabu (Miike)
- Celluloid Horror (documentory - signed by the director Ashley Fester)
- The Manitou
- Seven Deaths in a Cat's Eye (blue underground)
- Frag (documentary on professional gamers)
- Diamonds & Guns (signed by Renee O'Connor)

and - all the rest are Tartan Asian Extreme - one DVD place was selling them for $8.99 each so i went nuts)

- Apartment 1303
- Cello
- The MAid
- Carved - The Slit-Mouthed Woman
- Silk
- Pray
- A Snake of June
- Spider Forest
- The Heirloom
- Dorm
- Ghost of Mae Nak
- Koma
- Bloody Ties
- The victim
- Vital
- The Ghost
- Acacia
- The Red Shoes
- Sorum
- Whispering Corridors
- Unborn but Forgotten
- H

I bought a few others that i got signed for friends.

very nice....can't wait for the pics:)

uploading them now ..


the 1st wave will be the ones where my son and or I am in the pictures with guests ..

then i'll put up misc stuff. then i'll put up some of the people who dressed up for the event.

this was the least amount of people i've seen dressed for horror in the 4 years i've gone ... most were superhero or anime characters.

sadly - Toronto is not a horror town..

I'm curious to find out what happened to Despare....I thought you were going to meet up?

pics?.........................................

i'm catching up at work here - but as soon as i get a chance i'll be blogging here - along with corresponding pics ... but here's a small taste to begin with :



Wed night i get an email from my friend Chris. (Fango writer)

"are you and your camera free Friday morning ? We're having breakfast with Tobe Hooper"

It turned out to be 11:00 friday - long after breakfast - but we were on !


So it begins :


Friday Aug 22 9:00AM

- Stop at Drs ... get needle in knee. fun.

10:00AM
- drive downtown - get to hotel about an hour early
- sit in lobby - Sid Haig walks by (picking up mail) looks right at me - so i say 'hi'

10:20AM
- Chris shows - we sit and shoot the shit for a while - he calls Tobe's publicist and we're told he'll be down in a bit.

11:10AM (or there about)
- We're ushered up to Tobe's room ... it's about a 5 mile walk through winding corridors - felt like the scene in Spinal Tap where they can't find the stage.
We finally get there - and knock several times - looks like he isnt going to open the door.
- finally it does open and there he is ... a really nice, friendly, down to earth guy. It's a comfortable, informal atmosphere. The publicist leaves us 3 alone .. Chris thought we'd only need 15 minutes but we ran a lot longer as Tobe was very easy to talk to - making it less of an interview and more like a really interesting chat. I took a pile of pictures - playing with the light values ... got a couple i liked.

The article ran in the Sunday Morning Toronto Star - but they ended up using some stock photos - which didnt bother me in the least - i already know how these things work. I was just thrilled to be there. (and got to chat with Tobe myself - without feeling out of place) He was also interested in seeing the pics i took which i like...

so - here are a couple of the pics :

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4322.jpg

Chris and Tobe getting started


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4331.jpg


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4357.jpg

This is the pic that Chris, myself, the publicist, and Tobe himself liked and figured they would use.


More of Tobe later at the Con !

Thats pretty cool. Tobe looks awesome.

Think I know what happened to Des - he was feeling under the weather the last time we talked, so maybe he couldnt make it to the Festival.

Waiting for more, Dave. :)

Man, that's AWESOME!

Very nice start urge........keep em coming.:D

I made it finally (super late) but we took a while finding a phone card, and finding our way around... when I finally called Urge it was too late (Sunday around 11 I think). I'm going again next year though, it was a blast! I might put some pics up in the pimp your photos thread so as not to defile Urge's gorgeous pics with my trash. :)

no ! put them in here !

all the rest of mine are pretty messy so yours will probably be the good ones :)

ok ... here we go.

The Interview with Tobe ran much longer (happily) than i expected - so i had to rush around after that to make it to the con on time.

I stopped for a couple of street dogs - thank god - because i always forget to eat at these things. eventually the sensory overload has me walking around in a sweaty daze.

I had to go back to where i parked my car - swap out the unnessessary photo gear with DVDs i wanted to get signed. By the time i dragged my stuff back to the con and made it through the sign in line i was soaking wet with sweat. - attractive - i know. I eventually went into the washroom and did the cold water and towel thing until i felt refreshed again.

finally at 2:00PM the doors opened to the early bird folks. I ran around to see what deals there were with the vendors - suprised to see that Sid Haig was already at his seat for signing (the guests dont usually show up until 5:00 or 6:00 ... this guy was a work horse.

1st thing i did is to hit Suspect Video - one of the 2 essential video stores at the con. I bought Spider Baby and Faster Pussycat Kill Kill to get signed as well as a couple of others.

Sid's line was still short at that point so i went straight there and got Spider Baby signed. Nice guy - likes to joke around ... shared my grief that Galaxy of Terror wasnt available on DVD.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/.../DSC_4395b.jpg

From there i went to Cinema 1 - the other essential DVD place and found that they were selling several Tartan Asia Extreme titles for $8.99 each .. so I bought 10 titles and a couple of other things. Now I have an additional heavy bag to haul around that i attached to my case (that had wheels and a handle)
this case would pull out of my grasp and fall over spilling half the contents every time i ran over taped down cables or carpet edges - so in other words - every 5 minutes.

Swinging past the guest area i saw Tura Santana had arrived so I popped in her line ... nice gal .. very friendly and obviously having a good time ...
She insisted everyone sit on her lap to get their pictures taken with her .. i told her i'd kill her but she made me anyway ...

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/.../DSC_4419b.jpg

I popped by Tobe Hoopers signing - the promotional guy i met later wouldnt let me pay to get the 3 DVDs i had to get signed - and gave me a promotional photo for me to scan and pass onto chris for the newspaper article - but it didnt get used either. I got Lifeforce, Texas Chainsaw 2, and Invaders For Mars signed. the picture someone took of us was horrible but I told Tobe i would be back with my son the next day and we'd get a good one then


After my stuff falling over and me getting heavier and heavier with every purchase and freebee i figured i'd better make the 30 minute trek back to the car, unload a lot of weight and change t-shirts. I bought a Video Dead t-shirt despite the lighter - more flimsy fabric - but became greatful as it was nice and light - so i changed into it and felt cooler immediately.

On my return i was suprised to see Ruggero Deodato had arrived ... and i was pissed because i just left my Cannibal Holocaust laserdisc back in my car. there was no one at his table so i decided to go over anyway.
Before i got there - Rugerro's assistant was all excited and asking me where i got the Video Dead t-shirt so I told him (he bought one soon after)
I got Ruggero to sign a photo - saying i'd be back the next day with my son and the laserdisc ... I did get a picture - then he started asking me about my camera (he has the D200 - i have the D300 ... so i gave it to him to check out.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/.../DSC_4462b.jpg

Next i went to see Kristy Swanson. Lord is she beautiful. If you wanted a proper picture of her you had to buy a phoro op pass - which i did (pictures to be taken professionally in a seperate room 6:00pm that night) but we could get pics of her signing stuff. (she signed my laserdisc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

I took pics for the guy ahead of me and he took some for me - and when she saw my cam she asked to see it - then took a terrible picture of me that i'll only keep because she took it :) lovely girl and very fun:)

I popped by the horrorfest booth and checked out the 8 Films to Die For box sets (1st 2 years) we cant get them up here unfortunately. Got my picture taken with the gal in the booth (she has a small part in Butterfly Effect 3)
She was a lot of fun, but as i noticed through the next 2 days she seemed to be losing her entheusiasm rapidly ... (maybe had to deal with too many jerks and weirdos)

I only found out later that this was the girl that Lilmissscareall was competing with !

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4485.jpg

nice enough, attractive girl ... but in all honesty - lilmissscareall is way hotter.


I popped by another booth run by a local Canadian horror filmmaker ... bought 3 of his films and got a pic of a really pretty, bubbly girl in one of the films.
Really nice folks ... and honestly friendly.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/.../DSC_4488b.jpg


I also met Edward James Olmos that night (no photos please) and got American Me signed ...he was nice to chat with ... probably glad to have a break from Battlestar Gallactica fans (although he said he's directed some of those episodes too)

I think the last guy I met was Henry Winkler who signed my Lords of Flatbush.
He was selling childrens books he wrote so I said when my son comes the next day, we'd come by and check those out.
(this happened Sunday)

I stopped by Suspect Video and picked up the Saw Trilogy for a young lady i know and got it signed by Shawnee Smith. I'm sad to say that she's the one person at the con that looked like she didnt want to be there. she rarely smiled - and when she did - her eyes werent smiling and her mouth was a tight line. made me uncomfortable to speak to her. she was overcharging for her autograph as well ...and i noticed that for the entire weekend she barely had anyone in her line. Maybe she was having a bad weekend - i dunno.
Kind of felt bad for her because it would be a fucking horrible place to be if you didnt want to be there.

found out Linea Quigley wasnt able to make the con due to sickness - that was a bummer. Also Gaslight Studios - the FX house that did Diary of the Dead, etc. Supposedly they had to get a project completed .... i was disappointed because i had brought them a DVD of the pics i took of them when Chris interviewed them last year.

All I can remember after that was getting my photo op done with Kristy Swanson (who was very sweet there too) and then driving home to unload my loot, send photos of Tobe to Chris - and then crashing hard with an aching knee and feet.


Saturday up next ....

Wow...sounds like it was a blast!

I'm going to be there next year for sure...I'm already putting money aside :)

Wow...



http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...rm/thumper.jpg



...woW.

Man, what an amazing experience.

Saturday !

Bundled up the family, loaded up the van, picked up a friend going to the con (for comics) and off we went.

We got there around 11:00 and waltzed right in.

Before hitting the main floor i saw a gal with amazing legs setting up a small table - with DVDs and stuff. I went over to see that she was promoting/selling a horror documentary (about movies and fans called Celluloid Horror - by Ashley Fester. turns out this gorgeous girl was the director. I took her pic, and my wife took some of me and Ashley.

I have better pics but i'm including this one because it's funny ..
My wife was having trouble with the camera and kept hitting the shutter release when we werent ready - 3 times in a row. by the 6th - 7th picture we were just laughing.

Really cute girl .. devastating legs.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4516.jpg

once downstairs we went straight to Ruggero - who signed my Cannibal Holocaust laserdisc - he was interested in the cover - and then got a pic with my son ... he lifted him up on the table right on top of the pictures he brought :)

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4527.jpg


From there we went and saw Tobe again. I insisted the promoter guy take money this time and got Eaten Alive signed for some chap in the UK, TCM for me, and Invaders for Mars - for Karen Black. (i'll explain this one later)

got a much better picture with Tobe :

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4528.jpg


right next to Tobe was a display of weird curiosities - stuffed 2 headed chickens, etc ... my kid was staring with great and perplexed interest.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4531.jpg

Amazing stuff!

had to leave work - goin' home time..

I'll see if i can finish the rest tonight at the risk of boring everyone to tears ..

(i figured at least the guys would get a kick out of the pretty girls ... more of them to come as well)

there is an old r2 version knocking around








---------------- Now playing:

Eels - Flyswatter via FoxyTunes

i thought there might be something - i downloaded a DVD quality rip once - i'd just love to have an origional.

If I were a guy, I would have creamed my pants.


Coolest Thread EVER:cool:

Love the pictures! But I didn't see one of you with Shawnee? :confused: Did you end up not getting one with her?

That Miss Horrorfest thing was no competition... that was a SCAM. they knew from the start who they were gonna pick for the winner of that contest. There was another girl with like 1,000 or more votes(way more than anyone else, anyway) on her video & 4.5 stars and she didn't even get chosen as a finalist either... she should have been in first place according to the online votes & I should have been in 4th, yet neither of us were sent to California. Definitely a "fixed" "contest". I won't be entering that scamming crap anymore. :p

i got a pic of her signing a DVD - but not one with her ....(she wanted an extra $20 to be in a pic with you - NO ONE else did that)


I'll post a second wave of incidental pics after i finish the blog.

That sucks when they do that. What a waste of everyone's efforts.

yep - but it sure gets the name out there doesnt it.

it's pure advertizing .. all of the 'hopefulls' get the people to know to vote - next thing you know - 20,000 people know the name 'Horrorfest'

quite a rip-off ... but a smart one.


too bad - because i think the movies sell themselves. no need to bullshit people.

Yah- I know all about the marketing biz- I'm in it. I was just commiserating with Miss.

With your blog and all these pics.....its like we all went to the Festival Of Fear



only cheaper....for us:D

Kudos!
 

WOW! WHAT AN AMAZING EXPERIENCE!

... I can only wish I'd be there sometime :o

lots more to come folks ... got tied up last night - i'll try to finish today

I'm curious to find out what happened to Despare....I thought you were going to meet up?


___________________________
World of Warcraft GoldWOW GoldCheap WOW GoldWOW GoldBuy WOW GoldLogo Design

here we go:rolleyes:

zwoti's gonna be busy today

Saturday - continued .......


because I'm a dirty old man, I present to you : the Evil Cheerleaders.

i think its some kind of Suicide Girls competition.
I'll lighten this picture and repost in the near future - but i'm sure you get the point :

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4536.jpg


some of my memories are getting a little hazy already - i have to piece things together by the order the pictures were taken.
I do know that i went back to Cinema 1 and bought another 10 Tartan asia extreme titles.. and we booked into the hotel in the afternoon at sometime.

The next guest was Sean Austin. His line was pretty long but I wanted to get in there while my son was still with me. (re recently watched Rudy together and he loved Sam in the lord of the rings. He was also getting very tired of standing in lines - but we brought along his Nintendo DS to play with. Unfortunately he wouldn't stop playing it - even when we were at Sean's table - until Sean asked him about it and had him close it up so he could shake his hand.
Sean Austin was one of the coolest guys at the Con .. very friendly and chatty ..seemed to be enjoying himself. I had him sign the laserdisc of Rudy ..he asked me if i was going to get him to sign an 8-track as well...

Terrible picture of me but you can see that he was definately engaged and was suprised I knew a few of his older films that i mentioned as some of my favorites. Great sense of humor and extremely down to earth - i recommend meeting this guy if you ever get a chance.


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4541.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4546.jpg


when i first saw who turned out to be Miss Horrorfest I told her i'll be back with my son for a picture .. she told me that would be a good idea because her real hair would be on display - a big pink mohawk. When we saw her - she wasn't in a great mood - and this turned out to be the case for the rest of the weekend ..

i love this picture - you can see I'm regretting going there, she's miserable ... and my kid had had enough ... i call this one : Fun at the Con.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4550.jpg

Great pictures Urge. This being my first convention, the hazy overwhelmed confusion hit me hard. However, I got to chat with Tobe Hooper, Sid Haig, Deodato and Dourif.

Thanks for bringing it all back.

the one think my kid was enjoying was all the star wars stuff ... he really liked the people dressed up... so he was more than willing to be in those pics


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4564.jpg



http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4567.jpg


When the guest list for the con was first announced - i wasnt that thrilled ... but then a couple of additions were made and i chenged my tune. One was Bruce MacDonald .. an amazing Canadian filmmaker. He is relatively unknown so his line was tiny (he was only there for a short whle on Saturday) and i didnt want to miss him for anything. Despite the short line - he spent about 10 - 15 minutes with everyone ! slowest moving line in the place. So i missed the Wes Craven Q&A - that i had priority seating for - but to me Bruce was a priority. Very nice guy. I told him that one of his films was a victim of the New Orleans flood. (it was his film HArd Core Logo that i sent to our HDC boy Austin - that was among the stuff stolen in the post flood looting)


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4572.jpg


My boy was more than happy to pose with these 2 ladies ... they were promoting lego batman and some tomb raider game. he didnt actually care that they were hot - everyone that posed with them got a lego catwoman keyring ..which he wanted.


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4575.jpg

The other thing i missed in the Bruce MacDonald lineup was the Black Christmas panel. (i was bummed i missed it)
John Saxon, Art Hindle, Lynne Griffin, as well as a couple of others were there.
One good thing is that they came back to the Anchor Bay booth to do a free signing ...long ass line but i had to be there as i wanted Black Christmas signed as well as Enter the Dragon .. one for me and one for my son's Tai Kwan Do teacher. It was nice to get a chance to meet these people as well..

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4595.jpg

went back to the regular signing area - by now it's dinner time - to find that Brad Dourif's line was very short. Actually - around 5:30 - 6:00 most signing lines are almost empty. So I popped in to get my copy of One Flew Over the Cucoo's nNest signed. I also wanted Exorcist III signed but i would have to hit a bank machine first. The ATMs were empty so i had to walk all the way back to the north end of the complex. Let me explain :

work my way out of the con main floor, across a lobby full of people dressed up like Narurto and Jedis, up an escalator, across a huge lobby, up another escalator, across a lobby, up an escalator, then another escalator - then across a long walk way, down an escalator, then another escalator ...then i had to get money and go all the way back.

I had to do this in 1/2 because the Wes Craven meet and greet was in a bar across the road about 35 minutes from then.

I arrived back and walked right back to Brad Dourif to get Ex III signed - which we chatted about for a bit .. then got the picture taken. (he doesnt smile in any of his pictures by the way)


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4688.jpg


I had made better time than i thought so i scooted over to see Lloyd Kaufman (Troma) to get Toxic Avenger signed. (he signs for free so i bought Zombigeddon) Before getting my pic - i felt i'd better get a picture of his assistant playing with the lego batman girls.


http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4692.jpg


Lloyd is a very goofy guy who makes wise cracks non-stop .. probably a blast to hang out with.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4693.jpg

You got some great pics there. How much do you figured you spent on pics alone?

Ok - it's now Saturday night - close to 7:00 and i have to make my way back for the Wes Craven event.

I stopped by the Suicide Girl booth and bought a couple of books and got a shot of the girls..

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/...8/DSC_4699.jpg


I also stopped off to see Jeremy Bullock - the man who played Boba-Fett ... another super nice guy. Class act too. He was selling a book "flying Solo' that i wanted ... hardcover.. in a box sleve .. signed and numbered - out of 2000.
if you bought the book you got a signed picture too so i had him sign one for my son and told him i'd be back in the morning with my boy who really wanted a picture with him (which was completely true)


I think at this point i got Shawnee Smith to sign my copy of Summer School. (Fuck Saw) I dont know why i bothered really. too expensive - she was miserable. I had nothing to say at all..

then off i went ...allll the way back where i had just came from .. and across the street to a bar where Wec Craven would be meeting up with the folks who paid for the special event ticket.

Not i have to say that earlier - someone i wont mention was saying how much of an asshole Wes Craven was - rude to his fans, etc. (at the time i was thinking - great - i wasted a lot of money for this ?)

mind you earlier that day i did get into his signing line to get a movie signed for that bloke in the UK and Hills Have Eyes for me. (i would be getting something else signed for free at the meet & greet later) He seemed like a pleasant enough guy there. Also i had my pic done at the photo op - and he seemed decent there as well ...

So i get to the meet and greet and sit at a table with a fellow - right beside the small reserved table where Wes would be meeting his fans. Very few people there.. they couldnt have sold more than 20 of these tickets..

I had a great chat with the fellow i shared a table with. I was tired and rambling - so the poor guy was probably losing his mind - but i really enjoyed myself - it was the 1st time in 2 days i relaxed - even had a couple of guiness (it was an irish pub after all)

when it was my turn to sit with Wes (they pair us up in 2's which as a bit fucked) i found that he was a very nice guy - easy to talk to and we got to chat quite a bit ... (he kept going on even after the rue morgue guys told us our time was up ... so he was in no hurry to move us along personally. very laid back and chatted like a regular guy.

after my companion and i keep chatting until everyone else had gone .. very nice evening - i really enjoyed myself.

My wife and sone had gone out for dinner in the meantime - brought me something back to the hotel. I ate, chatted with the family, checked out some pictures i took - then fell asleep exhausted about 10:00.

A guy i know paged my fucking phone at 11:30 ... woke my wife and i up - and i couldnt get back to sleep so i read Jeremy's book until 2:00am.


not a good sleep that night.