ScareFest
Horror & Paranormal Convention Report continued
September 2009. Lexington, KY
Next up, the many vendors. There was a good number of what you’d expect at any of these events like T-shirts, magazines, posters, toys. Some were overpriced, some offered pretty decent deals. There were tattoo artists, body jewelry and even palm reader/tarot card types that I didn’t really see what kind of services they were offering as I tried to avoid the sales pitches.
The ones I’m most interested in seeing what they have are the filmmakers, artists and the occasional public TV horror host. That’s where you generally find some new stuff going on and different things that you haven’t seen already at other cons. ScareFest had a cool variety of filmmakers that I talked to. They’re out there doing it themselves and showing a drive and commitment to the genre that most fans think about but don’t get any further than the thought. The infamous rogues from Hack Movies were there promoting their latest two pieces of raunchy homemade cinema, Cockhammer and Stiff Jobs (read our review HERE). Hack Movies spin-off The 13th Floor Films were giving away free promo discs for their “The Pizza Delivery Massacre”. Kentucky’s Quickhillfilms was selling “The Hopewell Haunting” for only $2.00 and Emil Hyde, who made “The Landlord” was working the crowd, wheeling and dealing out of his booth like he was part of a modern day traveling medicine show.
As far as the artists go, I don’t find myself too into buying prints lately but the Joel Robinson art (which you may have seen before in Horrorhound) was really very cool, and Steph Sciullo was doing some neat, large red paintings of horror icons right on the spot and selling them cheap. Probably the most eye catching though, were the sculptures by Sean Rodgers (right) who is part of Robert Kurtzman’s Precinct 13 Entertainment. He freaked a little when I asked him to talk about one of his creations on camera, so I didn’t make him. But it was really great, twisted stuff that kept me coming back to study them some more. Some of his pieces were even animated. And his booth was packed. The guy must work around the clock.
- WATCH MORE VIDEOS FROM SCAREFEST
I even rooted out one Public TV host, Gunga Jim of Gunga’s Drive-In which brings B-Movies to the people of Bloomington-Indianapolis. He was selling gag gifts to go along with his personalized public domain flicks (done drive in style) such as “Face of the Screaming Werewolf” and “The Braniac”.
In its second year, the ScareFest has clearly hit a stride. It was well done, well run and will be back as the dates for next year are already set. For the weekend of November 5th – 7th, 2010, ScareFest will return to the Lexington Center for its third year. Great job.
- SHRUB
Next up: WATCH MORE VIDEOS FROM SCAREFEST PANELS
Visit the ScareFest website
