Scarefest 2011 Wrap-Up

 

On my movie review blog, I posted a glut of pictures of what we saw and experienced as staff members at the annual SCAREFEST movie convention, and I posted a review of the bootlegs I bought there, but I didn't really write anything personal. That's what this blog is for...

Just thought I'd take a few minutes and do a write-up about some of the conversations I had with celebrities while there, just for the fun of it.

The first star I talked with what James Hampton, who was the dad in TEEN WOLF; he was one of the stars of the old show F-TROOP when I was a kid, and in a few Burt Reynolds movies, and a couple of Disney movies. He was also in SLING BLADE. He was a really nice guy, and his beautiful wife - Mary Deese - played the mother of Harold Lee in HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY. We talked a lot about our mutual Christian faith, which was nice, but also about some of the movie and television work he'd done. We also talked about my own life a little, and where I am, trying to figure out what the next phase of my life should lead, and he said he was always moved by a sign he saw in front of a church that said, "The safest ship is always the one that stays in the port." -- I attended his Sunday morning Q&A on TEEN WOLF, and my family and I were the only ones there, aside from one other fellow, who didn't ask any questions. My kids were in costume, and Mr. Hampton put on my son's "Jason" mask at one point. You can see the pics on my movie review blog by clicking the link in the top paragraph of this post. During his Q&A he said he had to audition to play the voice of the dad on the TEEN WOLF cartoon spin-off, and he cleared up an on-going myth about the ending of a film, explaining that the filming of that scene took longer than expected, and a college student he sat near was adjusting his shirt tail after unbuttoning his jeans a little to get comfortable during the prolonged film shoot.

All photos borrowed from the official SCAREFEST site.

Don Calfa, who played the German mortician in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD was the next celebrity I got to know; I got him a cup of coffee, and he became my friend for life. He had a long chat with my wife and me, and when we told him we were originally from Wilmington, he asked if the Hieronymus Seafood restaurant was still open. He remembered going there when he was on the coast filming WEEKEND AT BERNIES, and told us how he cooked a sucking pig while at the beach, and how he'd put an oyster shell between its teeth. He was a really nice person. He tickled me because he wore a tan leisure suit, and sported a scarf. He also wore sunglasses a lot.

My little boy wandered over to Erin Grey's booth when no one else was there, and he casually pointed at a photo of her as Wilma Deering, and said, "You were in BUCK ROGERS!" -- She was surprised, and said, "You're too young to know that, aren't you?" And he told her I'd showed him several episodes. She was immediately taken with him, and told him he was going to have a bright future and he would succeed at anything he put his hand to. She let me take her picture with him, and when I asked if she'd take one with me, she whispered, "I usually charge for this, you know," to which I replied, "Well, I'm honored. Thank you." - Later, my son and daughter both wrote her a letter, and he held them to her heart when she read them. She was very sweet, and as pretty as ever. I asked if anyone ever asked about her run on the short-lived STARMAN television series, and she said some did.

My kids also wandered over to Lin Shaye's booth when it was slow, and she also took to them. She told them she was too scared to watch INSIDIOUS more than once, and the red-faced demon in it was too scary for her to be around. She told my wife that the little boy who worked on the movie would watch the effects crew put the makeup on him for 3 hours, but when they were acting, he was horrified. She is a very soft-spoken and sweeter person than the characters she plays in movies, which should be expected, I guess.

It was a delight to get to meet Ernie Hudson, who is best known as one of the GHOSTBUSTERS. He and I talked about the news reports I've been hearing about a third installment, and he acknowledged that Bill Murray was the hold-up. He said Bill Murray wanted to make sure it was good, and he wasn't convinced by the current script yet. Then I told him I was a minister, and I'd been dying since 1984 to tell him that the line he quoted in GHOSTBUSTERS from the Book of Revelation wasn't even in the Bible. He laughed when I acknowledged that he wasn't responsible for the script, and added, "That was Danny," referring to Dan Ackroyd. We had a good laugh about that, as he shook his head, wholly unaware because he never checked. He was a super nice man. Really friendly and personable.

ELVIRA had a pretty long line most of the convention until she appeared as herself, Cassandra Peterson, on the last day. My wife and I told her that we both thought she was much prettier as herself than as Elvira, and she sadly intoned, "I'm much more comfortable as myself, too." -- She thanked us, and we told her we looked forward to meeting Cassandra Peterson, and when we later met her as herself, she was really nice. She saw my son's toy "Jason" knife, and started stabbing the air with it, and laughing like she was revisiting her youth; I asked if I could take her picture with it, and said asked, "Really?" and I said, "Yes," and I just love the picture I took. I liked her a lot.

My son and I wandered over to where Michael Biehn was sitting while my wife and daughter got in line to meet Zac Bagans and Aaron Goodwin from GHOST ADVENTURES, and my son walked over to Biehn and said, "You were Reese in TERMINATOR," to which Mr. Biehn said, "That's right," and gave him an autographed photo as a prize for knowing who he was. I talked with Mr. Biehn about his work on the atrociously bad film THE OMEGA CODE II, and when I mentioned how bad I felt for him when I saw him in it, he said, "Hey, don't feel sorry for me - I got a paycheck for it!" Nice man. His wife was with him, and she invited my wife and me to go see a movie they were screening later, but we didn't get to go because it wasn't kid-friendly. She was really nice. When she told us Michael had recently undergone a heart procedure, he pulled up his shirt and showed us his scars. He was a real trooper.

Zach Galligan was an interesting person to talk to, largely because he was pretty ticked by the bio that was written up for him in the SCAREFEST program, which used phrases like, "never quite able to come into his own in Hollywood," and implied he was a has-been. He said he was going to let someone know how upset he was when the convention was over. He wasn't real thrilled with the thought of talking about GREMLINS, he said, because it was just a small phase in the grand scheme of his life. I noticed he spent a lot of the weekend on his smart phone, which he had to read through, I think, bi-focals. He was pleasant enough, but he wasn't an entirely happy camper, either. I don't think he was too thrilled to be there, and I don't know if it was because of the write-up about him, or if something else was bothering him. I asked him if anyone had asked about his roles in the WAXWORK movies, and he said plenty had.

I didn't really spend a lot of time with the folks who came to represent NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, but I did speak briefly with its script-writer, John Russo, who reminded me a lot of Forest J, Ackerman for some reason. I got to talk a little longer with the actor who played the redneck sheriff at the end, George Kosana, and when the event was wrapping up, I asked him if he'd had a good weekend, and he hurriedly said, "I don't know - I haven't counted my money yet." I thought that was funny. I got Russell Streiner to say "They're coming to get you, Renee" on my blackberry for me, and that was a highlight. He doesn't look anything like "Johnny" anymore.

Lea Thompson, from BACK TO THE FUTURE, was very nice. When I introduced myself as one of the event's staff, she giggled and asked if she could sign my staff shirt because, she said, she was addicted to it. I told her, sure, and she signed the back of it. I had some pictures taken with her, and found the last Hot Wheels DeLorean car in Lexington on the way home! When I mentioned her filmography to my children, she was listening, and seemed extremely flattered when I referenced THE WILD LIFE, which she referred to as "very rare." As I walked around, she waved at me periodically over the weekend, and that was neat. Very nice lady.

Linnea Quigley was a trip. She really liked my silver vest, and kept commenting on wanting one. She also liked my staff shirt, which she said could wear as a night-gown. I watched her table for her so she could grab some lunch, and got a lot of comments like, "You sure have changed!" As I watched her table for her, I noticed she had some Sour breath mints sitting out, an album of photos, and her BIO AND CHAINSAW. She's a tiny little thing. She signed "I like it spooky" on my RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD UNCUT WORKPRINT sleeve.

I developed a crush on Beverly Randolph the very instant I first saw her in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, when she played "Tina," the good girl. I was a little nervous approaching her, so I just told her I went to see the movie twice at the theater when I was a teenager because of her. She touched her heart, and said, "Aw..." and we had an immediate friendship. We talked several times over the weekend, and she was so nice. She was very flattered to hear that she was exactly the type of girl I wanted to date back in '84, and when I said "Tina" reminded me of Mary Anne of GILIGAN'S ISLAND, she said, "I'll take that as a compliment." She's as adorable as ever. She signed my workprint sleeve, too, and added X's and O's.

The rest of the celebrities we met were all nice, too. I was a little intimidated about meeting Danielle Harris, because she was just so pretty, and she's so tiny I could put her in my pocket! She was really sweet, though. She and Lea Thompson were the only stars I had sign my staff shirt. Danielle signed mine above my heart.

Kane Hodder was a trip. He was just hilarious, and as friendly as he could be. Someone brought him a machete to sign, and he slammed it on the table behind my wife, and she squealed, and when my son later pointed her out when Kane was signing an autograph for him, he looked over at Renee and said, "That crazy ladu over there is your mom?" -- So he referred to her as "the crazy lady" all weekend. Awesome guy.

Lance Henricksen was really cool. He spent so much time attending to his fans that he missed getting lunch twice, even after I offered to bring some over to him. I only got to talk with him in passing, but told him of my love for MILLENNIUM, and he touched his heart, signifying how special a project it had been for him. I told him later that I noticed him even when he was in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND and had no lines, and recognized his stage presence even when I was a teen, and he was flattered, and asked, "You did?" When all the other celebrities went home, he stayed behind and signed autographed pictures for the staff members who'd helped him for free.

My son was quite taken with MAD MAN PONDO, a wrestler, and he was really inrteresting to talk to. He told us how he'd wrestled Mic Foley just a week before SCAREFEST, and took pics with my son as he held the barbed wire baseball bat he used in the ring.

Now, I recognized Vernon Wells from THE ROAD WARRIOR and WEIRD SCIENCE, but I didn't realize he was the Big Bad during one season of THE POWER RANGERS, and the villain in COMMANDO until he told me. He was a real gentleman, and very pleasant to talk to.

Bill Moseley was interesting to talk to. I told him I was an ordained minister, and that his performance in THE DEVIL'S REJECTS wrenched my guys, especially in the scene where his character asks his victim to pray to God for mercy and then beats him to death. He said, "Well, thank you!" and smiled, and then I asked him how he felt when he said those lines, and he said it was just a job, and he had the ability to leave his work at work, and then go home and be himself. He told me the wind blew his hair across his brow naturally during that sequence, and he then improvised a lot of the dialogue on the spot, but it didn't really bother him to play the scene because it wasn't him. He said he was a very spiritual person in real life, and even introduced me to his pretty daughter, who'd come to the convention with him. When I asked if he'd take a picture with me, he did, and then he had Kane Hodder come over and pose with both of us, and Kane Hodder about broke my shoulder with his arm when he pressed down on it - he's really strong! 

 Meeting the actors who played Malachi and Isaac from the original CHILDREN OF THE CORN was really neat, but Courtney Gains was a lot friendlier than John Franklin, who wanted money for posed pictures, and was selling old ADDAMS FAMILY magnets that looked as old as that movie.. Gains let me take his picture for free. I got along a lot better with Gains because I told him how old I was, and he said we were about the same age; he asked me if I was going to the VIP party, but I opted out. I'm not a drinker, and didn't think I'd feel real comfortable, but I was flattered that he asked.

Before SCAREFEST, I'd never actually seen SLEEPAWAY CAMP. I'd heard of it, but never saw it, so meeting its primary stars was a different experience. I knew who Felissa Rose was, and I knew about the shock ending of the movie, but I didn't know anything about Jonathan Tiersten, who played the character Angela's cousin in the film. He kept joking around with me all weekend, and at one point when I was helping out at the Hospitality Suite, he came over to me and said, "You think you're something special, don't you, trailblazing through here with that silver vest on..." -- I could tell he was joking, but I wasn't sure ehy he was joking with me. If I'd spent more time with him, we would have gotten along better, but my family was drawn to Felissa Rose, because my wife discovered her love for chocolate, and kept bringing her some. My daughter especially loved her, too. Felissa Rose was very sweet - she posed with my daughter while making the face her character makes at the end of SLEEPAWAY CAMP.

We met a few television personalities, too, including some of the folks from GHOST HUNTERS from the SyFy Channel, and one of the co-hosts of FACT OR FAKED, Ben Hansen, who's really tall. Amy Bruni was really pretty, and extremely sweet, and I thought Britt Griffith was a lot nicer than he comes across on television.

Aaron Goodwin, from GHOST ADVENTURES, and my wife got on like a house on fire; he hugged her probably seven times over the weekend, and our kids thought it was hilarious. They were instant buddies. I shot some footage of him being electrocuted for YouTube that you can see by clicking the title link of this poat. He was a real nut. Zac Bagans, I'm afraid, wasn't very personable at all. He was quite rude several times over the course of the weekend, and when I asked him how he was doing on Sunday, he looked away and said, "I'm just trying to get out of here, you know?" I heard he refused to sign some autographs at one point, even when fans bought his book for forty bucks a pop. I can't speak as highly about Zac as I can about Aaron, who took time to talk with my kids, and my wife and me. Aaron was one of the highlights of the event, and Zac was probably the biggest disappointment, other than John Franklin, who refused to sign my wife's shirt when he saw that we were having Courtney Gains sign it first; "I gotta go," he muttered, and off he went, bags in hand. Considering the otherwise awesome time we had at the event, I'd say we didn't really have anything to complain about.