Monkey with a Death Wish

You may have seen this, but it's still friggin funny so watch it again.

Texas Frightmare Weekend 2008

Day 1:

So, I met my brother, Kelly, in Dallas for this year's TFW which was at the Hilton near the DFW airport. The first celebrity we encounter is Tom Savini. So, I text my friend, Lukas, and we tells me to relay the message to the FX Guru that he's a prick. Quite fitting as we'd seen his assholishness come to light last year. For further info, read my blog on the TFW 2007.

Our first screening was for Soul's Midnight. A crapper vampire flick that put me to sleep about a quarter of the way through. Bloodsucking Freaks from Outer Space got dropped in place of Slaughter House, which was fine, since SH is the one feature I really wanted to see, until I found out it was written and produced by Parrish Randall, a Texas actor and director who thinks he's the shit, but his films are straight crap. We drudged through about 35 minutes of it before b-lining for the door to hit the vendor booths. It was straight horrible.

Nothing really special at the vendor booths, but we did get to see Malachai from Children of the Corn, and Kelly bought me an official movie poster for our birthday, so the plan was to get it signed sometime.

Now, onto film three, The Wild Man of the Navidad. Based off the title and description, I thought it might really suck, but surprisingly, it was pretty good (aside from the gore FX) and the cinematography and picture clarity were great.

The last feature of the night was The Flesh Keeper. A blatant rip off of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Devil's Rejects, and American Psycho, but still held a higher rating than the first two features of the day. So, tomorrow brings more horror icons, more screenings, and more perusing the vendor booths for things we may have missed the first few times.

A side note: out of four features, not a single one had any nudity, which is a must for most b-horror, so you don't walk away feeling totally jipped if the movie and acting sucks.

Day 2:

First business of the day was to get my poster signed. So, I dropped 15 bucks and got my picture taken with Malachai (Courtney Gains). He's a pretty cool dude, just too bad Isaac couldn't make it too.

We decided to opt out of the first two panels and checkout the mall and maybe catch a movie, but there wasn't anything playing in the time needed to get back for the KNB FX discussion. Kelly tried on some jeans at the Levis outlet store, but decided not to drop the dollars, which later led to non-buyers remorse, since they're double the price in Australia.

The KNB panel was pretty good, kind of cool to see a small horror FX company grow into what it is today. Notable work includes the Austin Powers movies, Chronicles of Narnia, and the Masters of Horror series, as well as a whole slew of others. I think he said they were involved in like 600 films over the course of the years.

Next panel was with Harvey Stephens, the guy who played little Damien in the original Omen. Funny thing is, is that he didn't even stay with acting, and only did one other feature when he was 10, which wasn't even horror. It was kind of sad to see how detached he was from the part, and could almost care less, but he's moved onto other things and owns a chauffeur service. His panel was followed by a lame Diary of the Dead discussion which Romero didn't even sit in on.

Harvey and Lloyd, the president of the TFW (I think)

The best panel by far was with Malcolm McDowell, who both entetained with his stories, and was very open to discussion about anything, including his role in Caligula and experiences with Peter O'Toole. What a great guy!

So, ahead was another long evening of screenings, including Fingerprints, Red Victoria, and The Risen. In between the first two features, Kelly and I took a short hike to Chic-Fil-A, and that sandwich was the bomb! The stand-out movie of the evening was Red Victoria, which was filmed over a two and a half year period in Dallas for about $5000. A great horror-comedy, which I know will get distribution soon, and I picked up a copy of the next day along with some others I'd been eyeing. The other two features were easily forgotten, but to Fingerprints credit, it did offer a little nudity, which was proudly applauded by the pervs in the audience.

We were originally going to participate in the Zombie Walk, but after seeing the lame make-up that Bloody Mary provided, we just decided to watch the others make asses out of themselves. There were a few cool ones, and the hearse of the undead was sweet, but I'm glad we didn't partake, as we would have been in (lame) make-up for like 6-7 hours.

There were a few other noteworthy celebs there: Elvira, Ken Foree, Tom Atkins, Rob Zombie's Halloween chicks, Lynn Lowry, and several of The Suicide Girls, but I wasn't dropping anymore cash for autographs, as I think it's ridiculous. And, had Kelly not gotten me the poster, I probably wouldn't have gotten any. I think they need to try selling a pass where you drop like $100-200, and you can get as many autographs as you want. It would beat paying 15-25 bucks a pop, and the celebs can even sell their photos and DVDs to make a little cash on the side.

So, that concludes this year's TFW, which wasn't as exciting as last year, but maybe that's because there were less familiar faces, and more familiarity of the overall event. When something's fresh and new, it's more exciting, ya know, and I felt like a veteran walking around. There's rumor that another convention will happen this Fall, so maybe Lukas or Dustin will want to go. But, I think I'll set my sights a little higher, and may try to catch a Fangoria sponsored event in Chicago or Austin. After seeing two of the TFW, they just seem so amateur. I also need to surf the net looking for the most obscure horror shirts possible, since two different dudes had mine on, but no one could touch my Dexter t's. :)

Been a while and I still ain't back

So, my New Years resolution seems to be merely words spoken and not carried through. Well, that wasn't the intention, but seems to have panned out that way over the last couple of months (once again) due to work and obligations I feel I need to fulfill there. But, I do look for a brighter tomorrow, which should start next weekend with the Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas and chillin with my bro bro Kelly. We'll get to see George Romero (again), Tom Savini (again), some more of the Suicide Girls, Eric Stanze (a director hailing from St. Louis, MO), Isaac and Malachai from Children of the Corn, the chicks from Rob Zombie's Halloween (again), and some of the original cast of Night of the Living Dead (they're probably real zombies now), Day of the Dead, and Dawn of the Dead. So, it will be a screener packed weekend and hopefully barrels of fun. I'll try my damnedest to get a recap once I'm home, but after that, you may not hear back from me until spring as I need to concentrate more on movie watching (the stacks grow weekly), spending time with Heather and friends, and working a little less, even though Heather, Lukas, and Cassandra would say, A LOT LESS. By the time you hear from me again, I will have turned the ripe old age of 33, so here's to the dirty thirties, and if you forgot to get me a present, I'll gladly take a monetary deposit via paypal. :) Cheers!