Bam, two days in and things still haven’t let up.  It’s been a blur of vendors, talking to filmmakers and panel after panel of stars.  It’s busy, it’s exhausting, but damn it if it isn’t fun.

Got in early today and did some shopping around.  I picked up as much of the free swag I could since I missed out on it yesterday, got a bag and a few fliers.  The best of the bunch is a full-sized poster for The Omen remake, though carrying around this damn big poster is a blessing and a curse at the same time.  Ah well, all in good fun, right?

If there’s one thing I’ve discovered in recent days it’s that this is the place to locate hard-to-find horror DVD’s from around the world.  Although I am a college student on a budget, I could not resist picking up a copy of Battle Royale.  I’ve been anxious to get a copy of this for years, and I just happen to stumble upon it at a convention.  Damn fine luck if I’ve ever had it before, and considering the poor luck I’m notorious for I must admit to dancing a bit over this one.  The Caretaker also got me a shirt at one of the vendors, since in my bright red t-shirt I stood out in the crowd of black-shirt-decorated-with-movie-icon-wearing types.  So, I am now the proud owner of a Camp Crystal Lake Counselor t-shirt.  In the words of a true philosopher: Groovy.

Stepping out on the floor I snagged an autographed pic of Tony Todd in full Candyman regalia, a very cool one if I must say so myself.  Headed on over for the room with the panel discussions to check out their introduction to Halloween Lives, the new documentary that looks over the history of the Halloween series from the beginning all the way to its future.  Although they had some good stuff to say, I didn’t want to keep hauling that damned Omen poster around all day and make a run out to my car to drop it off.  I come back in in time enough to catch the tail end of the presentation, good stuff.

But not as good as the Masters of Horror panel discussion.  On hand they had directors Mick Garris, Stuart Gordon and William Malone as well as writer David Schow.  This was a lively bunch, and these guys are having a ball doing what they’re doing.  They did some discussion on Season 2, already mentioning that the first four episodes by John Landis, Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter are in the can and they’re right in the middle of filming the fifth.  Exciting stuff.  They were getting to answering a good question on why Romero had to drop out of the first season, but, well, the fire alarm that kicked in kind of ruined the mood.  That, and this piercing loud noise couldn’t be shut off for somewhere around ten minutes, cutting out only when their time on stage is up.  It’s a conspiracy, let me tell you…

At any rate, at this time I decide to go wandering and lo and behold discover food!  I went hungry yesterday since I thought the event wasn’t catered, so color me all sorts of delighted to realize that they’ve got some grub.  Yum.

Back to pressing the flesh though.  Going back into the showrooms we run once again into the ever-gracious Lee Perkins at the booth for his upcoming film with Reggie Bannister, Carnies, which by the looks of the stuff they had available should be quite interesting.  Reggie was signing autographs, but the room was so damn packed I didn’t get the chance to fight through it.  On the other end of the room James Karen from Return of the Living Dead was signing autographs, and if I had anything worth signing I would’ve gotten it too, but alas I did not.  Maybe I shouldn’t have ditched that poster after all.

Also picked up a screener for Guardian of the Realm from director Ted Smith who was left by his lonesome in their booth.  He was nice enough to chat with us for a bit and talk about the film that looks pretty damn epic, and with extensive digital and miniature effects cost only a quarter mil?  Nice.  Look forward to a review to this in short time.

On the way back to the next panel discussion I took a bit of advice from The Caretaker and snagged a good deal on a copy of the 25^th Anniversary edition of Zombi 2.  Given my lack of exposure to good old fashioned Italian horror, he figured it would be a perfect introduction.  Yeah, I know Caretaker, I know a lot but still have a lot to learn about horror; I’m working on it.

At any rate, we caught the second half of the panel discussion with Billy Drago and Michael Bailey Smith on The Hills Have Eyes, where they spent a good amount of time lamenting about their makeup in the Moroccan heat and the scenes they filmed together that were cut from the final version of Hills.  Considering how little Jupiter played in the remake, this was refreshing to hear and gives hope for the upcoming DVD release.

The next panel was pretty damn cool, talking about the upcoming slasher flick Hatchet.  If you haven’t heard about this one already, definitely stay on the lookout for it.  It stars Robert Englund, Tony Todd and Kane Hodder in a good old fashioned slasher flick down in the Louisiana bayou.  The clip they showed us involved a bunch of people walking around the bayou at night after their boat crashes, whereupon they run into Hodder in deformed redneck mutant makeup as he wails on one with the titular weapon and bodily rips the top of another’s head off.  These effects are top notch and incredibly brutal to watch.  The actors they had up there (Hodder was conspicuously missing) were enthusiastic and a lot of fun, getting even more enthusiastic as Todd came up and joined them onstage.  This one’s supposed to be incredibly gory, and although they couldn’t reveal much more than the clip, they did give details of one death.  I could go into detail, but I’ll give one word instead: belt-sander.  Oh yeah.

Up next was a panel with a half dozen screenwriters talking about the trials and tribulations of getting a horror script out there in this day and age, and despite the fact that I’m sure one of them was probably insane, the panel itself was actually quite informative.  Right after that was one of the cooler moments of the day (and in a day of cool moments that’s a pretty tough act) where they brought out the preview for upcoming monster flick Feast, better known to many as the film at the center of the third season of Project Greenlight.  They started out with a clip and man is it frickin brutal.  It starts off idolizing so many of the stereotypes and caricatures from old 80’s monster flicks and turns them on their head in one of the funniest horror movie scenes since Shaun of the Dead, and they then follow it up with one of the goriest, fast-paced attack scenes ever put on film.  Although I wanted to see more of this, I have to duck out early.  Photo ops with Bruce Campbell start soon!

Yeah, long story short photo ops are essentially this thing where you pay $35 ahead of time to get your picture taken professionally with one of the bigger stars of the day.  Yesterday they did it with Lance Henriksen, today they are doing it with Bruce Campbell, and lucky me The Caretaker was kind enough to front me some cash so I can get one for my collection.  Did I happen to mention that The Caretaker rocks?

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4:08 pm

All right, finally have a moment to breath and write things out in my notebook real time.  So much is going on so fast that a break, brief though it may be, is quite welcome.  Waiting in line for my Bruce Campbell photo op now.  To say this is a major geek moment would be an understatement.  I mean, come on, in the horror pantheon he ranks among the greatest.  I’ve heard different people say different things about the guy, some say he’s cool, another wasn’t too impressed, I’ll leave it to my own discretion to judge the guy.

Line’s moving, gotta go, will give my thoughts on the photo op itself when I can.

4:50 pm

Back in the convention main panel room.  I didn’t think I would, but I got butterflies when Bruce came around the corner.  It’s official: I’m a nerd.  The first group who saw him cheered and clapped, he was eating it up.  He rounded the corner to fewer cheers and made a joke about it.  He’s totally eating this all up.  I was about twelve groups back in the line, and then they took my ticket.  The rest is something of a blur since it was so quick, but I did indeed get to sit next to the man.  Got the picture taken, and it was fun.  I wanted to say something but didn’t know what and didn’t want to waste the time thinking something up since there were a lot more people in line.

Well, I did say something aside from my name and usual pleasantries.  On my way out he told me to, “Go hitchhike on your bike sailor.”  My brilliant response?  “That’s the plan.”  I have no clue what the hell that meant, but since it’s Bruce Campbell I’m willing to give him some slack.  Considering all the nuts he gets I’m just glad I didn’t do anything stupid.  Well, moreso than usual at least.  With that, back to the show.

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All right, I get back to the panel room in the middle of the panel for Hack/Slash and am only really paying half attention to it, still geeking of course.  Anyhow, I’m sitting by the door here and turn my head in time to see an elderly woman in a motorized scooter getting stopped at the door by a guy in a lumpy green rubber monster suit pushing a stroller with a stuffed green monkey in it.  This place rocks.

After a couple more panels that people seem to be more or less disinterested in (though Reeker, starring Michael Ironside, looked one helluva lot more interesting than the crowd gave it credit for), it was time for the nights main event.  Yup folks, you guessed it, Bruce Campbell has taken the stage!  He’s done god only knows how many of these things and seems to be eating it all up, taking questions like a cross between an insult comic and a circus ringleader.  He clearly loves what he’s doing but doesn’t take shit from anyone.  He’s done far too many of these and seen one too many nutcases to let them really mess him around.  I could recap the event in its entirety but will instead go through with its highlights.

It started out with the usual questions on Evil Dead 4, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash and the Evil Dead remake, all of which are doubtful to come about any time soon (he made the microphone kiss his ass in regard to FvJvA).  When a girl in a Battle Royale dress asked him a question on The Woods (another project that seems doubtful to come to fruition) he heckled her tie to which she gave him the finger.  Never mess with anyone in a schoolgirl uniform I’ve found.  At this point a couple guys appear in the doorway that Bruce takes time to point out, Dan Hicks (Jake from Evil Dead II) and Timothy Quill (The Blacksmith in Army of Darkness) to which the audience breaks out into applause.

Questions come about on Bubba Nosferatu, to which he responds in the positive for once as it actually looks like something that will see the light of day.  Conversation then turns to his lesser films, at which point he simply turns his back and lets people shout names out to him to which he’ll choose one and talk about it.  Out comes Serving Sara, and, well, long story short he goes into a story involving Matthew Perrys frustration with one of the Evil Dead video games, vicodin and vodka that’s probably not best to be repeated here lest we face the wrath of Mr. Perrys legal department.

At this point the technical difficulties that this convention has been rife with strike through once more whereupon the speakers start broadcasting conversations from one of the autograph signings in back.  It’s funny and infuriating at the same time, but Bruce plays off of it quite nicely.  He then goes into a rant on modern horror (“Stop being obtuse” he says), heckling a couple members of the audience who join him onstage and defending against an odd question about how long it would take him to kick Tom Cruises ass, but in the end he goes into a heartfelt speech on how he finds horror fans to be some of the most genuine, albeit shy, people he’s ever had the chance to come across.  With that, he takes off from the stage and leaves us all to our own devices.

And with that, I need sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep.  It’s been a long day and there’s one more to go, stay tuned for the conclusion of my first convention adventures!

All right, I’ll watch Battle Royale first.  Then sleep.  Yeah, then sleep.