HorrorHound Weekend - Indianapolis 2008 Report
By the Fiend of Grue
HorrorHound Weekend has quickly grown into one of the premier horror movie conventions of not only the Midwest, but all of America over just the past year. In July of 2007 the HorrorHound Weekend exploded onto the scene with their first show in Indianapolis (read last year’s report) and was a huge success for the budding publication that received much praise and approval from adoring horror fans. Pulling in an attendance to rival some the tops in the industry, it was easy to see that HorrorHound had made a name for themselves by finding ways to bring in guests that have never done a convention in the states (Ruggero Deodato) or bring other extremely rare guests (Dick Miller and John Amplas). Having continued success with subsequent shows in Indianapolis, branching out to do a show in Pittsburgh this past June and another new show to be held in Detroit this coming October, HorrorHound is intent on making their fans happy. The fourth go-round in Indianapolis on August 29-31, 2008 was no exception.
The excitement grew quickly as I entered the dealers room and noticed a much better selection of dealers than the last show had. That’s not saying the last show’s dealers were lacking by any means, but the feeling of sameness was starting to set in with many of the same vendors selling the same things from show to show, but this time around there seemed to be a much needed fresher slate of horror goodies to choose from. Dark Sky Films was one of the great new additions to the fold as was shirt designer Benjamin Harley whose horror sports jersey shirts were a hot commodity amongst many fans.
With this being the fourth show held in Indianapolis, a real sense of family is starting to take place at the convention. As the show closed each night, you could find most fans still milling about, conversing, eating, drinking, even hula hooping , but whatever people were busy doing, they were having a great time for many hours after the doors to the dealers room closed. The hotels’ restaurant and bar was jam packed well after midnight and a seemingly endless amount of horror lovers were everywhere, most of which you could easily strike up random conversation with and make new friends.
Saturday night’s festivities started out with an exclusive preview of the new Friday The 13th film which is set to debut in theaters on February 13th, 2009. The clip we saw looked amazing and it’s hard to not get excited about it especially listening to the new Jason Voorhees, Derek Mears, during his Q&A, talk with infectious enthusiasm and incredible humbleness about being given the opportunity to step into the iconic role. The standing room only session left fans frothing at the mouth to see the final product. I had the chance to talk with Derek one-on-one several times over the course of the weekend and I must say that he is a class act guy that is intent on making the fans happy with this new version of Jason. Being a huge fan himself, Derek just wants to do right by the fans and make and entertaining and scary film…you’ve got to respect that.
From there, the official after party began which featured the chance to rub elbows with several celebrities, a raffle drawing, karaoke, food, drinks and Derek Mears doing a memorable cake cutting ceremony in which he sliced and diced the cake with a machete!
With past shows, HorrorHound Weekend has had unfortunate last minute cancellations that were beyond their control, but this time the mold was broken and every single guest on the list made their scheduled appearance. Despite the long holiday weekend which had no less than four Labor Day festivals going on around town and the ever popular drag racing championships going on as well, HorrorHound was still able to pull in a respectable crowd. With guests like Jeffrey Combs, Danielle Harris, Dee Wallace, Jason Mewes, Michael Biehn, Doug Jones, Kane Hodder, Joe Dante, an extremely rare appearances by John Amplas and the legendary Dick Miller (who was also given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the HorrorHound staff ) and many more, there were plenty of reasons to attend this show. Not only that, but HorrorHound’s love of independent horror was on display by them bringing in the ever popular ToeTag Pictures, WarBranch Productions, Scotchworthy Productions and other various independent authors and artists, all of which added to this horror heaven…or hell.
As always with these conventions, it’s sad when the weekend comes to a close and post convention depression settles in. You wish good times like these could go on forever, but unfortunately we have to return to our mundane everyday lives until next time. HorrorHound has found a solid footing in Indianapolis and after talking with editor-in-chief Nathan Hanneman and content editor Aaron Crowell, they have a very interesting wish list of guests for the next show in Indy this coming March as well as a new city to invade in the coming year which should be officially announced soon.
The next HorrorHound event is scheduled during the last weekend of October in Michigan which is already gaining an impressive guest list. I highly suggest that anyone in and around the Detroit area check out the show because these guys certainly know how to satisfy the horror hound in all of us!
Visit HorrorHound’s Official Site!
Visit HorrorHound Weekend on Myspace!
View more photos from the event on Fatally-Yours.com’s Myspace and the Fiend of Grue’s Myspace!
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