Supermarket Death Match

Hey, I know we've been pushing our sister blog pretty hard lately, but I thought you'd be interested in checking out this quick vid I throught together for it. We were making salsa verde and I wanted Tricia to do a taste test between the homemade and a store bought variety.

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HorrorHound Weekend: The Recap

Hey, I know it's been a while. Tricia and I have been cooking up a storm and blogging over at our sister blog at the Chronicle-Tribune, The Grub Report. In other words, we've been focusing much more on the meals than the movies. But fear not! We got plenty of movie news and reviews in the queue. And I wanted to update today with a little recap of me and my nephews Michael and Jacobs trip to the HorrorHound Weekend this past weekend in Indy.

Growing up, I wanted nothing more than to be able to attend one of these affairs. Fangoria was constantly pimping their Weekend of Horrors back inthe day, but it was all could do to look at the pictures and dream of a day when I might actually be able to go to a real horror convention. When I learned of the HorrorHound Weekend coming to Indy, I not only decided on the spot that I'd be going, but that I'd also take my teenaged nephews to give them a little taste of what I was into when I was their age... Oh, who am I kidding? I am still waaaay into this stuff!

Before heading out to the convention, I made sure to give the boys a crash course in horror. I mean, like many of the kids their age they thought that Final Destination and Scream were the pinnacle of horror. To get them ready we watched a number of films featuring the celebs that would be attending the convention. Two of their faves were Candyman and Night of the Living Dead '90. So, it's probiably no surprise that they were pretty psyched to meet Tony Todd. After I had him sign my press kit from Night of the Living Dead, I told him that the boys and I had watched those two films the night before coming and he talked to the boys a bit about how they liked them. Then he was gracious enough to pose for a shot with Michael and Jacob. After they had the chance to chat up Tony Todd a bit and get their picture, the boys couldn't stop talking about how huge the man was. And they're right. I mean, check out those hands. It's like the boys have a bunch of bananas draped over their shoulders!

At this point, the boys had gotten over their initial jitters and were into the whole "talking to celebs" thing. So we decided to hunt down another. In amongst the horror films that I watched wi th the boys, I included an old documentary produced by Fangoria called Scream Greats Vol. #1 which traced the history of special effects legend, Tom Savini (well, up until 1986 anyway). The boys were way into the behind the scenes stuff and came to the same conclusion that thousands of horror fans have come to before them... Savini is a genius. While we were waiting in line to get into the convention, I got a tap on my shoulder from Michael and he said in a whisper, "Isn't that Tom Savini?" and it was. He walked right by us and Micheal was completely in awe. It was cool to see that that my nephews were starting to hold these guys in the same high esteem as I do. This shot is of Me, Jacob and Tom Savini.

Evidently, we were among the few people who had a chance to catch Jeff Fahey. He apparently arrived late and then left early on Friday. Fahey, of course, was the star of The Lawnmower Man and had a pretty good role in Rodriguez' half of Grindhouse, Planet Terror. The Fahey film that I watched with the boys, though, was Body Parts. It's the story of a man who loses an arm only to have it replaced with that of a stone cold killer. Of course the arm has a mind of its own and wastes no time getting up to no good. My only regret in meeting Mr. Fahey was that the boys and I didn't get a chance to pitch our idea for a sequel to his 1991 tale of amputation gone awry. It'd involve a completely new set of evil organs and it'd be called, Body Parts II: Satan's Num-nums. With a name like that, how can you not go see it?!?!

While we watched quite a few horror films in preparation for the convention, one movie that I wanted the boys to see was not a horror film at all. It was a musical comedy. I have been pushing the Ramones on the boys for a while, so it was only a matter of time before I showed them the epic that is Rock 'n' Roll High School. The boys saw that I had the soundtrack album in my bag, but didn't realize that there was gonna be anyone at the convention from the film. As soon as they caught a glimpse of P.J. Soles, they knew right away who she was. Jacob asked, "Is that Riff?" and that was exactly how she signed my album, "To Steve, Gabba Gabba Hey! P.J. Soles 'Riff Randall'" And out of all the celebs, she was really the most personable, and even told a couple of short stories about working with the Ramones on the movie. Really, it doesn't get any cooler than that. Plus, check out the shirt... I grabbed this one out of the closet expressly for this photo opportunity!

After meeting so many celebs, we decided to check out a film and luckily we were just in time to catch Sean Clark's first entry into what will (hopefully) be a series of documentaries on horror film locations called, Horror's Hallowed Grounds. The film (featured in the DVD, Halloween: 25 Years of Terror) covered nearly all of the major locations from John Carpenter's original Halloween and was every bit as entertaining as it was informative. Also, we got to see some raw footage for an upcoming doc on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Afterward, we were treated to a little Q&A with the director in which he discussed possible future episodes, his love of Halloween III: Season of the Witch and his grudge against Don Coscarelli. Very cool stuff!

Next, I had to give in to something that the boys had been bugging me about since we walked in the door. They haven't seen Grindhouse (I mean, c'mon... they're twelve and thirteen years old) but as soon as they got a look at the babysitter twins (Electra and Elise Avellan) featured in Planet Terror, they had to get a picture taken with them. Even if those boys knew nothing of the movie, they sure knew that these girls were hot! I had them sign their picture in my Grindhouse book and then I asked them if they'd mind posing with the boys. They were more than happy to. I was having a hard time getting my camera out and apologized for taking so long and one of them said, "That's okay. It gives us more time to hug these boys!" Yeah, I'm pretty sure I heard the boys panting at that point. Check out the picture. Jacob is smiling bigger than I've ever seen him and Michael is just in a daze! Hilarious!

The last celeb we got to meet was Sid Haig. It was kinda weird, because I couldn't really show the boys any of his films. Of course, he's most famous for his role as Captain Spaulding in House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects, but my sister would have killed me if I would have watched those movies with the boys (actually, we did watch the first five minutes of House of 1,000 Corpses just so they'd at least know who he was). Then, my favorites of his films are the Jack Hill blaxploitation and women in prison movies. Once again, not the best idea to be showing those ones to middle schoolers. So, I was surprised that Michael wanted to get his autograph. I guess that little snippet of Sid as Captain Spaulding made an impression on him, because as we stepped up to the table Michael was obviously a little skittish. Sid gave him a little, "What's a' matter boy? Ya' scared of clowns?" and I thought Michael was gonna shoot a dookie. I think the weird face Michael has on in this picture is less about being unprepared for a photo and more about fearing for his life!

Needless to say, we had a great time. We got to watch some cool movies together and meet some cool horror celebrities. The HorrorHound Weekend is returning to Indy in November with a brand new group of horror celebs and we're already making plans to go. I know the boys are already excited for that one and to tell you the truth... so am I!

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