Motor City Nightmares Convention Report
By Mitch Emerson
The Motor City Nightmares convention was held this past weekend and yours truly was able to attend this fledgling event on Saturday. Even though George Romero had to cancel his appearance to do a film project, there was no shortage of famous guests. We had Jason himself (Kane Hodder), Michael Myers (Tony Moran) and even the Candyman (Tony Todd)! Surprise last minute addition was Tobe Hooper, director of the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Poltergeist. For the classic horror fans who could resist a 40 year reunion for the cast of the original Night of the Living Dead? In attendance was Kyra Schon, Bill Hinzman, Judith O”Dea, Marilyn Eastman, John Russo, George Kosana and Russell Streiner. Other attendees included James Russo, Caroline Williams and Monique Dupree.
I really think something was trying to keep me away from the con. I ended up having a good time, but I’ll let you judge for yourself. As I was walking out the door I realized that I didn’t have my keys in my hand and had locked the door. Good thing the wife was home, bad thing was that she takes forty-five minute showers and couldn’t hear the buzzer or her cell phone. Good thing I had a book to read. SO after sitting on the steps for forty-five minutes I finally got my keys and headed out to pick up Odd, my friend from Mad World Radio (Listen for Mitch’s Movie Minute to be part of the show in Season Three starting Sept 5th at http://madworld.phoneticbells.com). I was stopped a hundred feet from his house cuz a lady had gotten hit by a car. She seemed ok, a little dazed and bloody, but no one wanted to move her until the paramedics arrived. After getting my first intro to horror for the day I was wondering what could possibly happen next. Blue pancakes, yes blue. There was no way I could be prepared for that, lol. See Odd’s family is just as strange as he is. No, actually they have as much fun as possible and always ask their son what color pancakes he wants and since he is a big Superman fan, it’s usually blue, red or yellow. So after consuming a few Smurfcakes, Odd and I were on our way.
Upon entering the Con, the first thing we did was make a beeline to Wolfman Mac’s (www.nightmaresinema.com) booth as he is a friend of Odd’s and has been on his show a few times. For those not from Detroit, Wolfman Mac has a show on My20 TV called Nightmare Sinema. Mac is a very nice man who has a true love for the old classic horror. As a matter of fact, that’s what his show is all about. He plays old horror flicks including commercials from the time (Think MST3K’s movies blended with TV Land) as well as hosting the show with an original cast of creepy, campy characters. Next up we visited with Monique Dupree (www.moniquedupree.com), a very beautiful and personable actress who is on my up and coming list, who besides her obvious attributes, was a real pleasure to meet. I will be reviewing a few of her films in the coming weeks so make sure you come back for those. I didn’t get a real chance to talk to any of the other celebrity guests that were there, but all were kind and courteous and seemed to be having a real good time.
The highlight of my day was meeting the guys who run Evil Genius Productions here in Detroit. Mike Bugard had such an awesome makeup job compliments of Eric Jaan (www.myspace.com/ericjaan) of Hooligan SPFX that he won the Sexiest Costume Award! Great bunch of guys who gave me a few screeners to scope out so watch for those reviews in the near future. They even extended an invitation for me to visit them on set on their next production! Another production company we chatted with was Silver Bullet, another Detroit based company I look forward to spending time with in the future.
The vendor room was a little lacking if you were looking for movies, but if you wanted toys, props, t-shirts or even custom oil paintings by the great Steven J. Bejma (http://www.graphicsbyartman.com/artman/home/home.html, click on the paintings galleries) of all your favorite horror icons, then you wouldn’t have been disappointed. Stand outs included www.horrormerch.com who had these priceless gems on shirts: The Texas Vibrator Massacre on one and Gaping Anus on the other. Other attractions included the aforementioned costume contest, a tattoo contest and a few movie screenings. All in all a very good effort for what will hopefully become an annual event.
For more general info on the con itself, head over to http://www.motorcitynightmares.com/
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