The Horrorfind Weekend, College Park, Maryland
August 16, 2008

(Originally written on August 17, 2008)

Yes, I attended a convention for the second Saturday in a row yesterday. (The previous week I attended the Doll & Teddy Bear Expo in Washington, DC.) I was reading The Washington Post's Weekend section when it mentioned this convention for horror lovers that was happening this weekend. I've been a fan of older horror movies (such as the original version of Night of the Living Dead, the original version of The Omen, the original version of Psycho, The Excorcist, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Child's Play, and The Blair Witch Project) for as long as I can remember and I've long enjoyed reading Stephen King and Anne Rice. I knew that the admission fee was steep (it was $45 for an entire weekend with $25 for Saturday only) but the fact that it was being held just a few miles from my own home had inspired me to check it out.

I read that people were dressing up for a costume contest. I'm not much of a costumer myself but I decided that I would bring one of my dolls with me so I could blend in with the crowd. I originally thought about brining my Fantasy Doll Tobias because he has the very pale white skin and when I put a white wig on him, he looks ghostly. I even have a t-shirt with skulls on it that I purchased at Otakon last year. But I changed my mind because he is 60 cm tall and I was worried about lugging something that large and bulky around, especially since I have to use a walking stick these days because of my bad hip. Instead I decided to bring my one and only Blythe doll because she has an off-beat look. I pulled her string until her eyes turned orange, which made her perfect for this convention. What's more, she's small enough that I could fit her in a pocket on the outside of my purse.

So I arrive at the University of Maryland University College building (where the convention was held) only to discover that I had to pay a parking fee in addition to paying the $25 admission fee. (I ultimately paid $4 for the two hours I was at the convention.) I was annoyed at this, especially when I came to the elevator and I saw this glorified ad for Starbucks.

You'd think the University of Maryland would use whatever revenue it was getting from Starbucks to subsidize the parking garage so there would be free parking on the weekend at least.

As I arrived to the building, I saw this awesome hearse that's from Kim's Krypt. I not only loved the hearse enough to take a few photos, I also loved the name (of course).

Once I paid the admission fee, I took only a couple of more pictures (including one of Chucky the killer doll), which are posted below.

There's a reason why I didn't take more pictures than I did. This convention had signs posted all over saying that shooting video is permitted for personal non-commercial use only and that any other use required the permission of the people who organized the convention. I saw that notice posted on the convention's website the day before so I decided to leave my videocamera at home and bring just the digital SLR camera. However, I didn't see a lot of picture taking--unlike what I usually see at an anime convention when you see hordes of people with all kinds of cameras (ranging from cellphone cameras all the way to professional television studio-grade cameras) shooting everywhere at anyone throughout the entire convention. I felt too intimidated to take a lot of photos.

I was letdown by this convention, especially since I had paid $25 to get inside. Okay, I know that stuff from the dealer's tables would not be included in the admission price so I had no problem with people selling their wares.

But there were far fewer panels offered than at a smaller anime convention (such as Anime USA) and they all seemed aimed at the budding horror filmmaker and/or actor with titles like "Low Cost Producing For Horror Films", "Get Press Coverage Now", "Acting and Auditioning for Independent Horror Films", and "Directing the Horror Film". Sure an anime convention has such panels aimed at budding anime artists but they also feature other types of panels ranging from Japanese culture to Super Dollfies to cosplaying tips to origami lessons to the latest and hottest Japanese videogames and more. You don't have to be a budding anime artist to find a panel that's to your liking. At this horror convention, I felt kind of left out since I have zero aspirations of becoming a horror filmmaker like George Romero. I wish there had been panels on things like the increasingly popularity of horror videogames (such as the House of the Dead and Silent Hill series) or how some people like Rod Zombie had gone from being a hard rock musician to directing his own horror film.

There was an art show which was a tiny room filled with horror-inspired art. Much of the art was pretty good and appropriately macabre. (I still remember the person who painted his stuff on skateboards that had the wheels removed.) But the room was so cramped and tiny that it tended to fill up with people very easily so I didn't linger long.

There were two rooms full of celebrities but that was a bit of a letdown as well. Basically if you wanted an autograph, you had to pony up more money on top of the parking fee and admission fee. (Some celebrities were charging as much as $25 for a signature and a photograph.) I went into the first room despite the fact that I only recognized two of the celebrities--Mink Stole (who acted in a lot of John Waters' films) and Roddy Piper (who was a wrestling star back in the 1980's). The two celebrities I recognized the most weren't at their tables and I didn't recognize the others so I didn't linger in that room for too long.

I decided to check out the second room since I had recognized more names like Chris Sarandon (who was in the first Child's Play movie along with a whole bunch of other films and television series), Patricia Quinn (best known for her role as Magenta in The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and Dee Wallace (best known for playing the mother in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial). When I entered I felt a sharp pain on my bare arrm (I was wearing a t-shirt) and I froze in place. Someone at one of the other tables said that Tom Savini (who is an actor and special effects artist) was shooting rubber bands at people entering the room. One person suggested that I shoot him back with the rubber band but I was just too shocked to move. All that I know is that the pain lasted for several seconds before it faded.

But then my shock tured to being totally annoyed. Tom Savini just sat there at his table sheepishly grinning. He didn't say "Excuse me" or "I'm sorry" or anything like that. I had to totally resist the urge to walk over to his table and hit him several times with my walking stick. (I just wasn't willing to get arrested for this guy who's some celebrity that I had never even heard of.) He then got up and walked out of the room.

I could've approached the other three celebrities whose names I knew more but I was just not in the right frame of mind plus I was too broke since they were charging money for autographs. Yeah, I was miffed by being shot by a rubber band on my bare arm. Some of you may say, "Hey, you got shot with a rubber band by Tom Savini. Awesome!" Well, it's really not "awesome". Far from it. I was already in a bad mood from the feeling that I was being nickled and dimed at this convention and being shot with a rubber band from a celebrity only added to my annoyance. Plus I've been in an overall bad frame in mind for a few months because of my arthritic hip, my mother's health, and other stuff that has been happening to me lately.

On top of that, during the Saturday afternoon that I was at this convention, the celebrity rooms didn't attract many fans. I don't know if they were turned off by the fees for an autograph or if the celebrities had too little star calibur to attract huge crowds but both rooms were pretty sparse when I checked them out.

Despite all that, I had one happy thing happen to me. In the dealer's room, there was this person named D.L. Marian who sold these one-of-a-kind dolls that were really interesting looking. I was too cash-poor to purchase any of her dolls (espeically since I had plunked down money to purchase a ball-jointed resin pig doll at last weekend's Doll & Teddy Bear Expo). She had a DVD of her work for sale, which was within my price range. The price tag said $15 but she decided to charge me only $10 for the DVD, which was nice of her.

I was interested in the DVD not only because of her unique doll art but also because I think it might be something I could sell myself at future craft shows. I could do a DVD consisting of the thrift store Barbies that I turned into fairy dolls. I could do a deal where I would charge money for the DVD but anyone who purchases one of my dolls would get the DVD for free. (The possibilities are endless.)

I made one other purchase from the dealer's room. I bought a t-shirt for my husband from Evil Brand Clothes because it really suited his personality. I got a promo card from that table that proclaimed itself as Home of the Devil Doll of the Month.

The convention also had continuous screenings of horror movies that didn't charge extra admission (that was already covered by the admission fee to this convention) but I was feeling mostly grumpy by then so I skipped them and went home after a couple of hours.

I'm going to make a mental note of not going to any more Horrorfind Weekends after this. It really wasn't worth the money IMHO. The only good thing I can say about this convention is that the horror fans at a horror convention are nowhere near as hyperactive as anime fans at an anime convention. I didn't see horror fans run in the hallways screaming at the top of their lungs while they try to wrestle each other. They were a lot more subdued, which was pretty good.

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