So this is the first time that I ventured to a convention. My cousin is a huge ROTLD fan, and wanted to meet Robert Englund finally. We had already planned to spend Saturday in DC for the HFstival Concert, so we decided to just get the room for the weekend and visit Monster Mania. We arrived around 3pm on Friday and got set up and went to scope out the grounds. We happened to walk past people lining up for Robert, and asked what the line was for and were told so we decided to just jump in it. We were about 20th in the line and only had to wait in it for an hour. They took us into the room (Robert had his own room) and were in there before he even showed up. So when he came in with his wife Nancy, they were doing some setting up of photos and stuff and Robert talked for a few minutes to the 50 or so of us in the room about how he had just wrapped shooting his Chuck appearance the day before and had a gun battle with Linda Hamilton (Terminator of course). Some one asked if there would ever be a FvJ part 2. He said they had worked on the FvJvs Ash but Raimi didn't want to do it unless Ash one, which Robert said he would have liked. He also mentioned Michael Myers coming into the franchise. He said however with the reboots he thinks he will never play the part again. He then mentioned how excited he was for Inkubus and how he really feels this is a franchise that can go on. We then got lined up for our autographs. He was charging $30 per (your item or his) and was more than willing to take photos and customize photos anyway you wanted. Robert is definantly a professional in keeping the line moving, but still take the time to meet his fans. People that had posters already signed by other co-stars of the films he would ask the fans where they met them and everything.
So having gotten Mr. Englund and it only being 15 minutes into the convention, we decided to head over to Kane Hodder. I had met Kane Hodder at Jason's Woods, a local haunted house/hayride about ten years ago, so I wanted to get an updated photo and get him to sign for me. We were surprised when we entered the main autograph room that there really wasn't anybody in there yet. Heather and a few others hadn't even arrived yet due to flights and such, but it was still pretty much no wait for anyone. So we went over to Kane and got our photos. Anybody who has ever met Kane, you know when he takes a photo he usually puts his hands around your throat and chokes you. I couldn't get my cousin's camera to function so he literally was choking him for over a minute. He then told us how he once made a fan pass out by choking him. It was honor to be choked by a legend. One of the photos my cousin took of Kane and I, Kane is checking out Monique Dupree who was walking by, and the photo captures it dead on. Its a funny one.
Since the lines were still short, we took our posters back to our room and headed right back. We were on the farthest end of the hotel, but it was still only a two minute walk with the layout of the event. My cousin had his ROTLD soundtrack LP that he wanted signed, so we got all of the stars from that. Don Calfa was the best. He was funny and very personal and even had candy out on his table. All of the other stars of the film kept coming over and hanging out with Don when they didn't have fans at their table. Don also chased down a waiter asking for some wine. A real classy guy and great to meet. Also props to Miguel Nunez who also was super friendly and almost like talking to an old friend even though he never met him before. I got an autograph from "Kickin' It Old School" for my wife from Miguel, and we talked about how he had just had a really young fan come up because of his role in the Scooby Doo movie. At one point when Miguel didn't have a line he took one of his 8x10s from F13 and put it under his hat, so his face from the movie was covering his own face. Great guy.
By 7pm we had already collected all of the autographs that we planned to get for the weekend so we headed down to the vendor area. I picked up the Halloween 6 Producer's Cut and My Demon Lover (a childhood favorite). Again since this is my first con, I'm not sure how the vendor area compares to Cherry Hill but it wasn't as large as I expected. Still a lot of good finds in there though, but with a wife and 2 year old I really was watching what I dropped cash wise.
Friday night after we ate we went for the Inkubus panel which featured Robert Englund, writer/director Glenn Ciano, and Tommy DeNucci co-star. Robert's passion for the project was obvious and they showed a trailer and I must say I'm really excited for this film, even though I hadn't even heard of it until I started seeing it advertised on this site. For a "low budget" movie, it does look good. There is a grittiness to the film that you don't really see in other films in this price range. They filmed pretty much all of the movie in an abandoned police precint and filmed it in 15 days. Since they didn't have to move locations they were really able to get a lot done. The passion of Glenn from this film is obvious and I hope everyone checks it out. At one point a lady asked Robert a question about how he liked the new Nightmare remake and Robert answered it but said "let's talk about Inkubus, Glenn is really excited to talk about the sex scenes." I actually was already thinking of this question, as someone writes novels and shorts, I asked him being a writer how he translates those over to actually shooting them. Glenn really was excited to talk about the sex scenes, he really got going on a rant when I asked the question. We stuck around for the ROTLD screening and then headed to bed.
Since we had plans most of the day Saturday, we only spent a few hours at the con on Saturday, didn't make any of the early films or panels, so I don't have anything to say about those. Early Saturday we did visit the Inkubus booth and I got to speak with Glenn face to face and he really is a great guy, he even was letting fans try on the weapon from the film. When we got back to the hotel we went to the hotel bar to see if anything was happening but it was pretty dead. The Boondock Saints were all in the bar, those were the only stars I saw there. They were all surronded by women, and I'm not a fan of the film so I didn't really observe them too much, we decided to head down to see in Charles Band's Roadshow was still happening. We did catch the end of the Charle's Band Roadshow which was entertaining and pretty full of people. Charles said when the show was done that he would go back to the autograph room and sell everything for 50% off. Since we got there late and where in the back we rushed up and were about fifth in line. I picked up the Puppet Master box set for $30, which he was selling for $60, and I normally see for around $90, and got that signed. I then hung around for THE EXORCIST screening, which since Charles had run past midnight turned into a last man standing sort of thing as people kept getting up and leaving. It was over after 2:30, with about five or six people left watching until the end. Going back to my hotel stopped and had a chat with Harvey Stephens.
Sunday we didn't really plan on spending much more time around the con so we went for the breakfast buffet in the hotel. Heather Langenkamp was leaving the restaurant as he were entering and we said hi to her. We ended up getting sat down next to John Philbin from ROTLD which was cool. We did head over to the autograph era just to see what was going on, and at about 11am about half of the stars weren't even there yet or maybe had left.
Some observations for what I think other might be interested in:
* Linda Blair, yes was $25 for autograph and $15 for a photo. I didn't meet her though. It seemed like she was rarely at the table when I came through
* The Boondock Saints guys had their own room, which you can to wait in a courtyard to get in and the exit doors were closed so I didn't really get a peek at what was going on in there.
* Pretty much all of the stars were $20 besides Robert who was $30. I think one of the ladies from ROTLD charged $25
* Heather ended up getting there late Friday because of her flight I guess. I actually got to meet her as she was walking in, hadn't even set down her bag yet. After ten minutes later her line was about 50 people deep. Besides Robert and the Saints, she definantly was getting the longest lines
* I was surprised at how short Kane Hodder's lines were. Now I did miss most of Saturday, but Friday he never had more then ten people. He wasn't even there yet when I walked through early Sunday.
* Robert's line was always pretty long, but Saturday it was several hundred people deep I would venture. Sunday I didn't see a line, I'm not sure if he was even signing Sunday though, his room was closed up, so you couldn't really see him unless you went in to get an autograph.
So having gotten Mr. Englund and it only being 15 minutes into the convention, we decided to head over to Kane Hodder. I had met Kane Hodder at Jason's Woods, a local haunted house/hayride about ten years ago, so I wanted to get an updated photo and get him to sign for me. We were surprised when we entered the main autograph room that there really wasn't anybody in there yet. Heather and a few others hadn't even arrived yet due to flights and such, but it was still pretty much no wait for anyone. So we went over to Kane and got our photos. Anybody who has ever met Kane, you know when he takes a photo he usually puts his hands around your throat and chokes you. I couldn't get my cousin's camera to function so he literally was choking him for over a minute. He then told us how he once made a fan pass out by choking him. It was honor to be choked by a legend. One of the photos my cousin took of Kane and I, Kane is checking out Monique Dupree who was walking by, and the photo captures it dead on. Its a funny one.
Since the lines were still short, we took our posters back to our room and headed right back. We were on the farthest end of the hotel, but it was still only a two minute walk with the layout of the event. My cousin had his ROTLD soundtrack LP that he wanted signed, so we got all of the stars from that. Don Calfa was the best. He was funny and very personal and even had candy out on his table. All of the other stars of the film kept coming over and hanging out with Don when they didn't have fans at their table. Don also chased down a waiter asking for some wine. A real classy guy and great to meet. Also props to Miguel Nunez who also was super friendly and almost like talking to an old friend even though he never met him before. I got an autograph from "Kickin' It Old School" for my wife from Miguel, and we talked about how he had just had a really young fan come up because of his role in the Scooby Doo movie. At one point when Miguel didn't have a line he took one of his 8x10s from F13 and put it under his hat, so his face from the movie was covering his own face. Great guy.
By 7pm we had already collected all of the autographs that we planned to get for the weekend so we headed down to the vendor area. I picked up the Halloween 6 Producer's Cut and My Demon Lover (a childhood favorite). Again since this is my first con, I'm not sure how the vendor area compares to Cherry Hill but it wasn't as large as I expected. Still a lot of good finds in there though, but with a wife and 2 year old I really was watching what I dropped cash wise.
Friday night after we ate we went for the Inkubus panel which featured Robert Englund, writer/director Glenn Ciano, and Tommy DeNucci co-star. Robert's passion for the project was obvious and they showed a trailer and I must say I'm really excited for this film, even though I hadn't even heard of it until I started seeing it advertised on this site. For a "low budget" movie, it does look good. There is a grittiness to the film that you don't really see in other films in this price range. They filmed pretty much all of the movie in an abandoned police precint and filmed it in 15 days. Since they didn't have to move locations they were really able to get a lot done. The passion of Glenn from this film is obvious and I hope everyone checks it out. At one point a lady asked Robert a question about how he liked the new Nightmare remake and Robert answered it but said "let's talk about Inkubus, Glenn is really excited to talk about the sex scenes." I actually was already thinking of this question, as someone writes novels and shorts, I asked him being a writer how he translates those over to actually shooting them. Glenn really was excited to talk about the sex scenes, he really got going on a rant when I asked the question. We stuck around for the ROTLD screening and then headed to bed.
Since we had plans most of the day Saturday, we only spent a few hours at the con on Saturday, didn't make any of the early films or panels, so I don't have anything to say about those. Early Saturday we did visit the Inkubus booth and I got to speak with Glenn face to face and he really is a great guy, he even was letting fans try on the weapon from the film. When we got back to the hotel we went to the hotel bar to see if anything was happening but it was pretty dead. The Boondock Saints were all in the bar, those were the only stars I saw there. They were all surronded by women, and I'm not a fan of the film so I didn't really observe them too much, we decided to head down to see in Charles Band's Roadshow was still happening. We did catch the end of the Charle's Band Roadshow which was entertaining and pretty full of people. Charles said when the show was done that he would go back to the autograph room and sell everything for 50% off. Since we got there late and where in the back we rushed up and were about fifth in line. I picked up the Puppet Master box set for $30, which he was selling for $60, and I normally see for around $90, and got that signed. I then hung around for THE EXORCIST screening, which since Charles had run past midnight turned into a last man standing sort of thing as people kept getting up and leaving. It was over after 2:30, with about five or six people left watching until the end. Going back to my hotel stopped and had a chat with Harvey Stephens.
Sunday we didn't really plan on spending much more time around the con so we went for the breakfast buffet in the hotel. Heather Langenkamp was leaving the restaurant as he were entering and we said hi to her. We ended up getting sat down next to John Philbin from ROTLD which was cool. We did head over to the autograph era just to see what was going on, and at about 11am about half of the stars weren't even there yet or maybe had left.
Some observations for what I think other might be interested in:
* Linda Blair, yes was $25 for autograph and $15 for a photo. I didn't meet her though. It seemed like she was rarely at the table when I came through
* The Boondock Saints guys had their own room, which you can to wait in a courtyard to get in and the exit doors were closed so I didn't really get a peek at what was going on in there.
* Pretty much all of the stars were $20 besides Robert who was $30. I think one of the ladies from ROTLD charged $25
* Heather ended up getting there late Friday because of her flight I guess. I actually got to meet her as she was walking in, hadn't even set down her bag yet. After ten minutes later her line was about 50 people deep. Besides Robert and the Saints, she definantly was getting the longest lines
* I was surprised at how short Kane Hodder's lines were. Now I did miss most of Saturday, but Friday he never had more then ten people. He wasn't even there yet when I walked through early Sunday.
* Robert's line was always pretty long, but Saturday it was several hundred people deep I would venture. Sunday I didn't see a line, I'm not sure if he was even signing Sunday though, his room was closed up, so you couldn't really see him unless you went in to get an autograph.
