Monday, July 9, 2012

Days of The Dead Weekend (Indianapolis July 6th - 8th)


The summertime always seems to be a great time for horror fans, with all sorts of conventions and events happening all over the Midwest and surrounding areas. This past weekend Days of The Dead returned to Indy for what I believe was the second time. This convention boasted celebrity guests such as Roddy Piper, Tom Savini, John Waters, Ace Frehley, Gunner Hansen, Bill Moseley, John Kassir, Felissa Rose and much more.

Being of little monetary means,We were only able to attend on Saturday. Fortunately for us, everyone seemed in high spirits and seemed to be genuinely having a great time. Usually our goal when we first arrive at a convention is to get a lay of the land. Being veterans of Indy’s Horror Hound Weekend, we had a general idea of how these things are ran. So we started off in the main room, walking around checking out all the celebrities in passing and all the vendor booths we could. Inisially we thought the convention was rather small, but to our surprise there was another room dedicated mostly to vendors, (which is my favorite part of conventions) this room was filled to the brim with posters, memorabilia, artwork, and bootleg DVD's!

After we got a general lay of the land we decided to attend the original Leatherface panel featuring the first 3 actors whom played the notorious Leatherface in the original 3 Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. The panel was head up by Spider One (aka Michael Cummings) of Powerman 5000 fame and Rob Zombie’s younger brother. Spider was the MC of sorts fielding questions from the audience as well as asking a few of his own. All questions we directed toward the 3 original Leatherfaces’ (Gunner Hansen, Bill Johnson, and R.A. Mihailoff) as well as the new comer Sam McKinzie whom plays Young Leatherface in the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D. The panel was great and shed some insight into some issues with filming these movies as well as small stories from the sets.

(Left - Right) R.A. Mihailoff, Bill Johnson, Gunner Hansen, Sam Mckinzie & SpiderOne


 After we left the TCM panel we made are way through the convention once more having fun taking pictures with fans in costumes, talking briefly to some of the celebrity guest and even taking some time for photo ops with a few of them as well. See pictures below. We got a chance to talk with a lot of people. John Kessir was very friendly initiating the conversation with the voice of the Crypt Keeper from the TV series Tales From The Crypt. Also Felissa Rose of Sleepaway Camp, and Return to Sleepaway Camp was/ is probably the sweetest woman we have ever met. She was very personable with everyone that walked up to her table, and was an all around sweetheart she even said we were cute!



This convention was really fun, but it did have some down falls. The most notable disappointments were the last minuet losses of Danny Trejo, and Derek Mears. These things are to be expected in the world of conventions, but it was still a bummer. Danny had last minute call to the set of Sons Of Anarchy, and Derek unfortunately lost his mother. Derek and his family are in our thoughts and prayers as he deals with the difficult loss. The other thing we kept noticing what that some of the events and panels seemed to be kind of thrown together and or unorganized. That was unfortunate since some of the event could have improved tremendously if they would have run a bit smoother.

Regardless, We still had a great time and can not wait for Days of The Dead to return next year. Come back on Friday for another movie review! Also this Friday we will be going to Terror in the Aisles 11 in Chicago for a Clive Barker Triple Feature with Hellraiser, Candyman, and the NEW extended cut of Nightbreed (Cabal Cut), so keep your eyes peeled for coverage and photos of that. For more information on that and Days of the Dead Weekend please visit Days Of The Dead and Terror in The Aisles.

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