Monsterfest Memories...

 One of the best light conventions for horror fans I've been to is Monsterfest in Chesapeake, Virginia.  I've not been in a while, but as there's one today, October 3rd, I decided to go to my old blog and s̶t̶r̶i̶p̶m̶i̶n̶e̶   walk down memory lane.

2006

 Seven am trip to Chesapeake on the bus. Got some reading in, the bus dropped me off right by the library where MonsterFest was being held, with about twenty minutes to spare before the day began.

A selection of Universal Era horror trailers started things off setting the tone for the day.

Michael Joyner hosted as discussion of the sixties boom in monster fandom.

There was a panel discussion about Horror Hosts, wonderful interplay between the characters, some of whom I'd never heard of (like Penny Dreadful) or just knew of by reputation (like Count Gore De Vol)... but of course, I was there for Doctor Madblood.

Those were the only events I took in, most of the day spent checking out the dealers tables- finding some great deals- and chatting with the other attendees, including some who recognized me from MySpace.


First batch of pictures is up on Flickr, and I've posted a video of Bowman Body, one of the hosts, on YouTube


There was a break when I went up to Great Bridge for dinner... still amazed at how much the area has changed in the last few years.

Saturday night it was movies, so many movies.
Frankenstein - The Edison version that I commented on in Bookworm Friday.
Preview for The House Between- John Kenneth Muir's independent video program... I'd seen it at FantaSci last summer and I'm just as eager to see it now as I was last summer.
Fankenstein - The Universal classic.
Curse of the Werewolf - The Hammer classic. Lurid colours. Great sets, great costumes. Spanish peasants who say things like "'ere now, wot's this?".
Rob, one of the gentlemen running the show, said that the last two movies would be group choice... I shouted out "Ilsa," knowing how completely impossible it was.
Rob's reply was a yeah-right.
Phantasm II- I saw this at Lynhaven Mall when it came out. Man, that was a long time ago.
Nightmare on Elm Street- When discussing trivia about NoES, a girl in the back piped up that it was Johnny Depp's "first premeire". I was restrained from smacking her.
Trailers from Hell- I got my Ilsa. The actual theater trailer for Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS. Shocked the hell out of me, that's for sure.
Freddie Vs Jason- Mindless fun.Didn't totally suck. Same reaction I had when I saw it at the theater.


I won one of the door prizes, a bag o' VHS, which totally rocked- I'd been eyeing Squirm for a while and it was one of the videos included. There were a couple of Universals, Invisible Man and Bride, since I had those two, I gave them to a couple of ladies there who knew how to appreciate the classics- one of whom actually was a big Invisible Man fan, and the original Chaney Phantom.


I've had my Halloween. Much fun. The 31st? That'll be ok. But MonsterFest rocked.

2007


The opening bit today dealt with cartoons, freaky black and white public domain cartoons.  There's something about those cartoons... Betty Boop and her dogboyfriend hiding in a cave while a walrus ghost is singing with the voice of Cab Calloway , backed by skeletons.  
Or Walt Disney's dancing skeletons in a Silly Symphonies cartoon, playing xylophone on another's spine.
Or two keystone style policemen investigating the theft of a mummy by the phantom of the opera looking baddie, who then brings the mummy to life- she looks like Cleopatra and sings like Betty Boop.
All of it made me thing of Grant Morrison's "manic pop thrill" theory of comic books... all the crazy stuff from the fifties that made comics fun, but illogical.


The second thing on the schedule was "Further Than Man Should Go: Transgression and Censorship in 1930's Horror Films"--presented by Tony Mercer.  He talked about the Hayes Code and pre-code horror films, how movies during the golden era pushed the moral envelope, with examples from Dracula, Frankenstein, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde- which I now realize I've never seen- were some of the highlights.
Actually, since I was sort of fixated on him earlier this month, the introduction to the Whale Frankenstein was the highpoint, Edward Van Sloan and his "How do you do?" speech.
Mercer Knows his stuff.  His presentation was brilliant and- most awesomely- he's got a hc of David Skal's Monster Show, the one with the Edward Gorey cover.


I skipped the next piece of programming- a showing of Back to the Black Lagoon- since I've got the Creature Legacy set.  I went shopping instead.  I picked up a Burger King Frankenstein promo figure, a collection of short stories by Matthew Warner- autographed, since he was here- and copy of a Brian Keene chapbook, autographed by Deena Warner, the cover artist, House of Secrets #140, featuring DC's own Frankenstein Monster, The Patchwork Man, and most sweetest was a hc of Skal's Hollywood Gothic, with pictures, the deluxe edition, cover price $39.95.  I got it for $9.  Who can say 'no' to that?


The Bowman Body returned to Chesapeake this year, getting an hours time of interview with Mike Joyner and just telling great stories.  I got a kick out of Joyner asking the audience if they'd seen the Bowman Body footage on youtube... 'cause the first on on the search is mine.


Mercer was back for the next panel, joined by Chris Johnson and Lee Hansen, Mercer's castmate from The House Between, a discussion of eighties horror.  It was an hour and a half was of sweet sweet nerdspeak.


We're on dinner break right now, and I'm in the parking lot eating up wi-fi bandwidth, playing music and praying the raccoons won't get me before they get back.


Seriously.  Raccoons.  I still get shivers thinking about it.  Sometime after midnight last year, after Phantasm 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street, I step outside to have a smoke... and I see a pair of eyes gleaming in the dark from inside a stormdrain.  Rationally, I know it was a raccoon, but the monkeybrain fear/flight/fight part just saw "EYES" and well, that was totally eek.
Special effects I can handle.   Creepy, probably rabid, night animals- not so much.

Creature From the Black Lagoon
Brides of Dracula
From Beyond (Director’s Cut)
Pumpkinhead
The Burning

2008


I'm there now.  The day is over, and I'm outside using the library's wifi.
The first discussion at 10 was Partners in Crime: The Coupling of Horror Art & Fiction by Couples in the Biz – Presented by: Elizabeth Massie/Cortney Skinner & Matt/Deena Warner.
11-  I caught Doctor Madblood talking about one of his "classic" episodes - The Umpire Strikes Back- from 1980.
I got a couple of Ms Massie's book, including A Little Magenta Book of Mean Stories from Borderlands Press.  Much sweetness, and Mr Warner's latest book Horror Isn't A 4-Letter Word
Elizabeth Blue and Pamela Kinney talked about Female Voices In Horror Literature at noon, which for the most part was the two of them and me.
I had to skip Justin's discussion on Writing Your First Horror Novel (but I did buy his first four chapters chapbook), because there was a discussion about Frankenstein In Film, which I had to disagree with one of the moderators opinion on Bride of, which he didn't hold in the same regard I held it.  Heresy.
Tony Mercer, of The House Between, gave a talk about Euro Horror, which I left after the clip of Suspiria, to catch the panel retrospective of the Friday The Thirteenth movies, the panel made up of The House Between's Jim Blanton, also one of Monsterfest's organizers, and Lee Hansen with Chris Johnson.
--
Tonight's movies:

Lost Skeleton of Cadavra – Rated PG - Hosted by: Cortney Skinner
Ghost of Frankenstein – Not Rated
The Mummy (1959) – Not Rated
Halloween 2 – Rated R
Nightbreed – Rated R
Diary of the Dead – Rated R