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(feoamante.com)
IS GREAT STUFF!
- Tom Piccirilli
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Eerie.com
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Past Cons
New
to conventions? Get an idea of what to expect here.
SAN DIEGO
COMICCON
San Diego, CA, 2002
CONestoga
2002
World Horror
Convention
CHICAGO,
IL, USA
2002
World Horror
Convention
SEATTLE, WA. USA 2001
PHANTASMANIA
Austin,
Texas 2000
World Horror
Convention
DENVER, CO. USA 2000
KeeneCon
Cockysville, MD 2000
Here
is the DarkTales link to
Necon
99
World Horror
Convention
ATLANTA, GA. USA 1999
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IN THE NEWS
UPDATED
APRIL 28, 2008
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FANGO RECAP
This was the Los Angeles Fangoria Weekend of Horrors first attempt at breaking out of Hotel mode and going for the actual convention auditorium scene. Creation set them up in the West Wing of the Los Angeles Convention center at the same time that the adult entertainment's AdultCon was going on, as well as a Born Again ChristianCon - so of course, there was a de riguer of sign wavers on the walk carrying placards warning passerby that they were going straight to hell and good riddance. Seems like ever since 9/11 certain Christian sects have watched Radical Islam with an envious eye and thought "Now why don't we do stuff like that anymore?"
Of the three cons, the Fango was the only one that seemed to have any "Oomph!" regarding visitors. Unlike past conventions in hotels however where the Fango seems to possess the entire place with its horrific atmosphere, the massive size of the LA Convention Center / Staples Center, dwarfed any noticable appearance
of an "event". Driving past, the place could have been empty for all anyone would know.
Some folks from the Fango wandered over to the AdultCon to see what was happening over there. It appeared, however, that far more people were wandering in from the AdultCon over to the Fango to see how we Horror folks were doing. The AdultCon was a total washout by all reports and I heard more than a few guys say that the best looking women between the two were at the Fango - and those were just the gal fans they were talking about!
The Fangoria Weekend of Horrors also faced huge competition, going up against the LA Times Festival of Books, which attracts hundreds of thousands of book readers. And of course, many of those writers that appear for signings are Horror Thriller writers, easily diluting the potential fan base for the Fango. As I'd said earlier on the subject, it didn't seem like a good idea setting up a genre fan convention to happen at the same time - but miles away - from another fan convention that covered the same genre. Granted, Fango tilts more toward the Horror Thriller movie fan than the book fan, but Horror Thriller fans multi-task quite nicely. That said, they can't be in two places at once. The Festival of Books had the upper hand here as most of the Horror Thriller writers were from out of town and not as easily accessible as the actors at the Fango - many of which can be seen in most grocery stores in this place (actors gotta eat too, you know?).
What's more, this was also the weekend of the Cochella International Music Festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of music fans world wide - and more than a few thousand young Los Angelos went to see the Goth bands.
Finally, just a few blocks up the street was the annual Fiesta Broadway, which attracts hundreds of thousands of Los Angelenos (about 150,000 this year alone). In short, there was an awful lot going on this weekend to distract Horror fans in this city. Now granted, there is always something going on in a city as large as Los Angeles, but this weekend was one of the busiest of the year.
Perhaps the biggest problem for the Fango this year was that not a single major studio showed up for the event. All of the Horror Thriller movies were represented by Independent film people - many of whom deal in Direct to DVD movies. This is quite odd because it was only last week that CLOVERFIELD, THE ORPHANAGE, and ONE MISSED CALL hit DVD. If ever there was a time to drum up some secondary marketing to sell these movies, you would have thought the Fango would be it.
What's more, the major studios aren't ignoring the magazine, so why did they ignore the convention on their home turf, and not bother to showcase the upcoming HELLBOY II, DARK KNIGHT, ROGUE, FRONTIER(S)*, INDIANA JONES, THE STRANGERS, THE HAPPENING, and X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE? What is Hollywood trying to say by ignoring Fangoria? Or did Fangoria drop the ball? Or is it the fault of Creation? Creation is mad for its super pricey Golden tickets ($249.00 for the Gold Weekend Package) and all of its other special tickets to get folks to pay ridiculous amounts of money when they really aren't getting much more than what the walk-ins paying $25 at the door get. What's more the San Diego ComicCon and the New York ComicCon give fans everything the Fango Golden Ticket buyers get for about $25 bucjks admission. I've been attending the Fangoria and Star Trek conventions for years, tried the Golden tickets once, and I've never heard anyone who tried it have anything nice to say about it. It's become a running joke that, by Saturday the poor chumps wearing that big plastic pocket with the giant "Golden Ticket" inside are really wearing a huge sign around their neck that reads SUCKER! The sad part is, by Saturday, they KNOW it! And they still have Sunday left to go!
A number of the celebrities spent very little time at their booths. Gris Grimly was largely unnoticed at his kiosk (I never saw him at all). Director David Slade (HARD CANDY, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT) was only scheduled for Saturday and ducked out early (that's what the busy folks do). Clive Barker (HELLRAISER, NIGHTBREED, THE THIEF OF ALWAYS, COLDHEART CANYON, ABARAT) came, announced the release of a new feature film based on one of his Books of Blood stories, and ducked. A few others did the same. On the other hand, David Naughton stayed at his booth signing lots of autographs for the fans and promoting his upcoming film, BRUTAL MASSACRE. Ken Foree (DAWN OF THE DEAD, FROM BEYOND, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS), who was there for all three days, couldn't have been more accessible. He was also supporting his latest movie, BRUTAL MASSACRE. Reggie Bannister (PHANTASM) stayed, likewise Sid Haig (HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, KILL BILL 2, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS). was there and so was Horror artists extraordinaire, Mike Sosnowski and Eric Pigors. Robert S. Rhine (SATAN'S 3-RING CIRCUS OF HELL) of Girls and Corpses fame dutifully manned his post and had live entertainment as well.
Producer Sean Fernald was there along with most of his actors, supporting RED VELVET. They had a late showing of the full movie in a hot cramped little room where it was standing room only. Sean tells me that William Malone (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL [1999]) came by with a trailer for his latest movie, PARASOMNIA. Sean says that the trailer just "blew me away!"
Darren Ramage of Brain Damage Films was there supporting and promoting his HUGE catalog of ultra low budget Gorilla Guerrilla Horror films. Darren passed me a copy of Sean Tretta's The Great American SNUFF FILM, demanding (as a fellow Horror film fanatic would) that I "See This Film!"
Film maker and Feo Fan, Roger A. Scheck was there, promoting the release of his indie movie, NOBODY LOVES ALICE. Also on hand
were Elske (POULTREYGIEST), Kurly Tlapoyawa (THE STINK OF FLESH), and Kenneth J. Hall (PUPPETMASTER) promoting Scott Phillips GIMMIE SKELTER. Another Feo Fan, Jace (whose zombie horror short can be seen at my MySpace page).
Director Jason Mathern was there, with crew in tow, for his movie GOREGASM, and so was Director Jonathon Lewis for BLACK DEVIL DOLL (a trailer and extra was shown late Saturday night to an enthusiastic crowd).
Speaking of foul-mouthed puppets, a group of us, representing Creature-Corner (Brian King), Dread Central (John Condit), and more began congregating in a loose circle. Film maker Jacob Hair (2001 MANIACS, Snoop Dogg's HOOD OF HORROR) was there as well as my sweet self. We all began making the rounds, introducing each other: Uncle Creepy (Dread Central) aggressively, yet cordially, invited all of us to have sex with him. Then another guy showed up who appeared to know Creepy, ignored the rest of us, and disrupted the conversation with a loud voice, foul-language, and a high school clique-y demeanor so that all attention was drawn to him. Well now that he had my attention, I wanted to know who it was that I was observing, so I said aloud, "Who is this fuckstick?" Said fuckstick was abruptly taken aback by my curiosity and took both exception and umbrage to my tone. Which just goes to show that you can't please everybody. Give it a few days and you'll probably be able to google Fango, Feo, Fuck Stick, and discover who it was. He'll likely be saying something along the lines of "And this son of a bitch, who turned out to be Feo Amante, called me a Fuck Stick! The asshole!"
Anyway, I'm glad I went there and spent a day at the Fango in LA. It was cool hanging out with Jace and his friends and all of the other Horror fans at the Holiday Inn later that night. And of course, it's always cool to meet people who are as happy to see you as you are to see them. I didn't go on Sunday though, there were other things to do.
To be generous, I'm going to figure that, since a convention center the massive size of the Los Angeles one is so extraordinarily huge, Creation Entertainment has to basically start over from zero in growing the fanbase again. Also, people don't like driving into downtown LA. Unless someone specifically plopped some festival or convention there, there is nothing to do in downtown LA. Downtown LA is a joke.
With the new arena comes a new identity crises and a period of adjustment. I hope they work it out, because the 2007 Fangoria Con kicked ass!
*Actually, FRONTIER(S) was represented by After Dark Films, who also repped their lackluster slate of movies from the After Dark Film Festival of 2007 that took a noise dive and fell flat on its face.
After Dark President, Courtney, announced that they had aquired the French Film, THE BROKEN starring Lena Headley (300) and directed by Sean Ellis (EQUILIBRIUM). Normally, that would be a fine pedigree, but THE BROKEN received a drubbing both from critics and fans when it crashed and burned in Euro theaters. Worse, they tried to pawn it off to distributors at the American Film Market in November and there were too few takers. Now that nobody else wants it, After Dark will take it? That's really shoring up an already bad precedent After Dark created with movies like SKIN WALKERS and CAPTIVITY. People who don't like Horror, don't "get" Horror, and are unable to give Horror fans what they want. There is a vast gulf between what Horror fans SAY, and what non-horror fans HEAR! For the large body of non-horror fans in positions of leadership over at After Dark, its equivalent to a virgin thinking they can fake being a great lover. I don't think any of them understand that the alarm clock is about to go off on their jobs. Which is too bad: The After Dark Film Festival was a great concept. |
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Feo's Road Trip Tips
I've
been told that the following are really just common sense rules,
but they aren't really. Common Sense applies to things we do every
day, things that are "common" to us, and very few people
do road trips.
Road
trips are often done on the spur of the moment and even the ones
that are planned out, are often made without carefully considering
all the factors. Why? Because these factors have not been faced
before. The dynamics of a road trip - with other people in the
vehicle - often run counter to the "common sense" dynamics
of the home or workplace. Even prison cells offer more room than
you are likely to find in a car or recreational vehicle.
These
following tips, based on my years of experience as a road tripper,
are meant to ease your stress, whether you are a first timer or
an annual traveler. Anyone who remembers the awful annual roadtrips
with your parents (and the same arguments that flared up every
single time) knows what I'm talking about.
ROAD
TRIP TIPS
1.
When you are a passenger, never complain about the driving
/ traffic / trip.
2. Plan ahead for bathroom breaks:
a: Try to schedule your bathroom breaks around fuel stops.
b: If you are going to take drinks with you, bring food
to eat while you drink so the liquid won't run right through you.
3.
Plan your next gas stop when the meter gets down to a quarter
tank. When at the gas station, give yourself an extra minute or
two to walk around and stretch a bit. Your body and circulation needs it!
4.
Tolerate the driver's music.
5.
If you use the map while moving, keep it down on your lap. Make
sure that you don't unfold it to the point that it interferes
with the driver's "space" or their visibility.
6.
In heavy traffic, when riding shotgun, automatically volunteer
to give a head check for traffic in other lanes. The driver can't
see through your noggin.
7.
Don't try to win arguments at any time, even if you know you are
right.
8.
If those arguments involve directions, make absolutely SURE
you are right and then point it out on the map.
9.
If you get lost anyway, laugh it off. You will still have to share
close quarters with this person for the rest of the trip. Everybody
makes mistakes and it could just as easily have been YOU in the hot
seat.
10.
When you feel too tired to drive, ask the other person to drive.
Don't worry about who has driven more. If you are both exhausted,
pull over somewhere safe and rest as soon as possible. Don't worry
about "making good time".
11.
It always needs to be said. You MUST buy the following
items before going on a roadtrip:
a: The deluxe carwash
b: The deluxe oil change and get the premium oil.
c: The deluxe coolant and radiator flush
d: The full tune-up with everything checked and all fluids
topped off. All filters replaced with new ones.
e: Have all five tires rotated, checked and balanced (yes
I said 5! You would never go on a roadtrip without a spare tire
would you?)
f: Buy 5 cans of Fix-A-Flat. The tube and nozzle kind.
You'll thank me the very first time you have to use it.
g: Unless you are bringing enough money for hotels and restaurants
along the way, bring along a good sized plastic cooler for your
food and beverages. Keep it inside a large plastic bag. Why not
double bag it? I don't care if they are top of the line Coleman
coolers (like the one I own). Coolers WILL sweat
onto your seats. Trust me on this.
And
finally, rule 12.
When packing the vehicle for a roadtrip, NEVER allow
your stuff to get in the way of ANY of the windows.
It interferes with visibility, it makes you a moving billboard
target for thieves / vandals on the road, and it may conflict
with the highway laws in some states and / or counties that you
pass through.
Follow
these basic rules and every road trip will be a comfort. Additional
things you will discover on an individual basis, but everything
I've set down will make all your problems easy to deal with and
make your whole trip an adventure instead of a downer. |
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