I have never been one to have a routine or special place I go all the time. Efforts to change that have come about half-circle, and I have had my second year in a row visit to horror movie convention Screamfest.
For those of you who don’t know, Screamfest is a horror movie festival where your favorite horror movie stars and directors show up for autographs, and people can rent tables to sell their horror related merchandise. It takes up a few of the conference rooms at the Wyndham Resort in Orlando, FL and at the end of the evening there are parties at two of the pool locations on the resort premises.
Last year was an absolute blast; with the negative point of the trip being the parking situation (it’s a giant clusterfuck of cars parked illegally over a parking lot the size of two football fields) but otherwise everything was peachy. I had to opportunity to meet some of my favorite horror icons, as well as get choked out by one, and the pool party consisted of a couple thousand people with similar interests getting boozed up and partying with each other and celebrities. Maybe I should have realized things weren’t going that much fun this year when I immediately found a parking spot pulling into the hotel parking lot…
Some of the high points for me last year were meeting Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th) and getting to party with Derek Mears (Friday the 13th 2009) that night. I ran into a number of other celebrities that night, and although a lot remains a drunken haze, I remember just having the time of my life.
However this year was different. The first sign of distress was that the price for admission, which had previously been $25, had now been raised to $35. I personally found this to be bullshit because the lineup consisted of the same people from last year, except the featured guests of the year was Robert Englund (A Nightmare On Elm Street) and John Carpenter (Halloween). My girlfriend loves all things Freddy (I’m a Jason fan) so Robert Englund had to be seen…
In a line that lasted an hour, we finally got to meet Mr. Englund and he was quite pleasant…and this was the highpoint of our trip.
One of the major problems I noticed was the lack of people like I had seen the previous year. I’d estimate at least 4000 people attended last year, and this year I’d say that was cut in half. I think the problem was really the fact that almost everything is a repeat of the previous year, with only a few new guests, and even they are people who have done Screamfest in previous years.
Another thing that really bothers me, and I have spoke to numerous other guests who have the same complaints, is that the celebrities charge anywhere from $20-$40 an autograph, with some charging if you just want a picture taken with them. That is a bad service to fans and highly influences my opinion about a celebrity. This coming from a guy whose favorite part of last year was getting choked the fuck out by his favorite horror movie icon. At least I didn’t have to pay.
As a result, the pool party had some problems too. The first thing I noticed on my way to the pool was a strung out looking Gary Busey (Lethal Weapon) sitting on a ledge wearing a t-shirt, pajama pants, and Van’s slip-on shoes. At that moment I thought “if this was going to be as good as it gets then I will need more alcohol.”
Unfortunately no amount of alcohol can make a boring party a lively one. We headed back and forth to the pool but the party just never picked up, leaving my girlfriend, my roommate, and myself pissed off and vowing to go to Halloween Horror Nights next year instead of Screamfest.
The upside to the pool party was that when I saw Gary Busey hurrying to his hotel room with an obviously much younger girl, a group of kids come by saying they must fight Gary Busey and save the young girls honor from becoming a Gary Busey victim. After the amusement died down, we returned home and went back to sleep.
I guess I wasn’t the only one who wanted out. I read this morning that about the time we showed up to the convention center, John Carpenter, the one person I really would have liked to have seen, had a convulsion and was taken to a hospital. Oh well, at least I got a good parking spot.
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