Written by: Brett Cameron

Horrorhound in Indianapolis is the third stop in a four con back to back tour for myself and this was the most fun yet!

Good friends Dominic, Chris and Stacy and myself, "the token Aussie" embarked on a road trip from Pennsylvania to our destination that lasted over 12 hours.  We amused ourselves with everything from conversation about posters to obscure slasher films and other things best left out. It was all in good fun and we had a ball.

A blizzard was a setback in Ohio as was an accident which further delayed our arrival by at least 40 five minutes.  We arrived in Indy, sometime after five on Friday, Dominic and myself shared a room with good friend and fellow convention fiend Ken who helped us get situated in the room.  After we passed the time talking with friends like Eric and Ken, (yes another one) from Horrorhound we all jumped in the car and went out to grab a bite to eat.

The Marriott was a decent size place and as the show began we made our way down to the show area. Crowd-wise it was strong for a Friday. 

Being a self confessed fanatic for the films of George A. Romero I was most eager to meet John Harrison first.  He portrayed the Zombie who has a screwdriver impaled into his skull in Dawn Of The Dead and more importantly he composed the scores for Creepshow and my favorite of his scores, Day Of The Dead. He was very friendly but felt very uncomfortable about charging for his signature so he signed for free.  I purchased a copy of the soundtrack for Creepshow from him to show a little appreciation and chatted about past and future projects and he was definitely a highlight for me.

Terry Alexander from Day Of The Dead was next on the list and he has not changed much in his appearance in 20 five years since the films release.  He was all smiles and showed a lot of gratitude towards his fans.  My Day one sheet was graced with his signature for $20 and he posed for a picture then it was time for the next guest.

Michael Gornick was also an important footnote in the films of George A. Romero serving as his Director Of Photography since Martin in 1976 and going on to direct Creepshow two in 1987.  He was fun to talk to and I asked what Ratio he preferred for Martin and the answer was 185.1, he is not a fan of the 1.33:1 composition.  I had numerous items signed by him for $20 a piece, posed for a picture and Dominic and Ken both paid their tributes to these guys and had their stuff signed we were on our way.

At this point it was time to regroup back at the room and have a couple cold brews and figure out our next move.  Long stories short my good mate Dominic worships the ground Actor Richard Lynch walks on, he is his all-time favorite actor and for
years I've endured the "I wanna meet Richard Lynch" speech a thousand times. Well thanks to good friend of ours Mike Baronas this event was gonna come true at this convention. 

He ran off to meet his idol and Ken and myself proceeded to the Day Of The Dead Q&A. I rarely attend these because I am turned off by a lot of the lame questions that are usually asked but it turned out to be fun hearing those involved with this great film speak.  A nice surprise was makeup artist Dean Gates showing up and after the Q&A was over Ken and I had him sign our Day posters.  He was very happy to see me pullout an one sheet for the obscure slasher film Eyes Of A Stranger for him to sign as it was his first paying gig and he appreciated me bringing the film back to his attention. He was a very nice guy and I hope more will be seen of him on the con circuit.

Around this time Chris and Stacy braved the Clive Barker line which had them waiting for four hours!  That is not out of the ordinary for a headline guest as anyone that does all the big shows would know.  They were tired from it but they were very pleased they made the effort to see him.  We headed back to the room to drop off the stuff that was already signed and not needed anymore and Dominic was there after pushing his wheel barrow of stuff he had signed by his "God" Richard Lynch. 

Ken and myself had not yet met Mr. Lynch and I wanted to meet David Hess from Last House On The Left or more importantly for me from the great Italian film, Hitch-Hike, 1978.  The look on David Hess when I unfolded my poster of Hitch-Hike in front of him was a priceless moment for those that were there and was quite a moment. We chatted about his wanting to visit Australia and we got on very well which carried over to later events...

I then met Richard Lynch who was at the table next to him. And I had heard all these industry stories about this guy and was not prepared to meet someone that was quite the opposite in personality than I expected to meet.  Both him and Mr. Hess have a wicked sense of humor and that is always a real ice breaker for myself.  He signed my Bad Dreams daybill and posed for pictures making me burst out laughing at the same time because of things he was saying at pose time.

Hitting it off big with these guys and the kind gesture of Mike Baronas had my friends and myself being invited to dinner with David Hess and Richard Lynch.  All topics were covered in discussion from family to films to being downright crude and silly.  It was most definitely the highlight of our weekend and it was a hell of a way to end the first day!

The rest of the night was spent sinking brews and talking about all things horror till about 6am.  Saturday started abruptly with a fire alarm waking us up which was less than pleasant.

After finally joining the land of the living around noon we were shocked to see the masses of fans lined up eager to get into the convention.  Now we have been to some crazy convention turnouts but this was ridiculous and with that we made our way to the MaskFest which was about as crowded as a room gets with everyone walking like they are auditioning to be an extra in the next Romero Zombie film.  I went in looking for Daniel Roebuck and found him easily but he was walking round the room and when asked to sign a poster he told me to wait at his table and the guy never came back and anytime you went to his table over the course of the weekend he was never there.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Stuck over in a corner of MaskFest was Brian Clemens from The Beast Within, 1981. We talked about fellow Aussie and Director of that film, Philippe Mora. He was a nice guy and he signed by daybill poster for $20 and posed for pictures.

With the main dealers area all but impossible to reach Ken and myself headed back to the room to find Dominic and we decided to go out to eat and wait out the crowd and that strategy worked out fine.  When we arrived back around 3.30pm you would never know a crowd was even there with exception of Barker and Romero who always had constant lines.
 
There has been a lot of post show crybaby whining about the lines and people getting multiple things signed.  My thoughts on this are that if you are a convention newbie and do not like lines then these shows aren't for you.  And in regards to multiple items, suck it up and wait your turn if it was not for these guys you would not see guests of this caliber.  They help pay the guarantee that makes the appearances of these guests even possible!

It was amusing to see Mike Christopher in full garb as the Hare Krishna zombie from Dawn Of The Dead doing the rounds.  I had him pose for a pic and he signed my Dawn one sheet for $20 bucks. He was a nice guy and appreciated the attention.

There was another item I wanted David Hess to sign, my foreign lobby card for Last House which I did next. 

Dominic, Ken and myself were going round trying to finish up whom we wanted to get and around this time we ran into Uncle Bill and The Creepy Kentuckian from Deadpit Radio at Peter Cowper's table. We talked to UB while CK had his one sheet
for MBV signed. It was a brief encounter but a fun one and they were nice guys.  Dominic and myself had a 8x10 signed by Cowper for $20 and posed for pics even though we had just met him at the MBV reunion two weeks earlier.  Peter Cowper is a very nice guy who still seems bewildered by all the love for this low budget film he did 30 years ago.

Jake McKinnon who has a resume playing monsters and such in the likes of From Dusk Till Dawn and Land Of The Dead was pretty cool.  He signed our posters for $20 a pop and posed for pics.

Tom Savini was neither talkative nor rude, just not interested.  Had him sign a couple posters and that was that.  Greg Nicotero who in shows past for me was very pleasant, did not seem all that interested in talking either.  Oh well, such is life...

I ended Saturday by going over and talking to J.D. Feigelson about seeing Dark Night Of The Scarecrow as a young lad when it premiered around 1984 back in Sydney, Australia.
He was very interesting to talk to and he signed a 8x10 for $10 and posed for a pic.

Earlier in the day Dominic Ran into Director Jeff Burr at the convention who was in the area shooting a film and he came to the show as a fan.  They first met at a con trip Dominic took to LA a couple years back and have remained in touch. He invited us over to a restaurant across the street and from there we went to watch him shoot a Scene with Richard Lynch in the film. We talked about everything from Full Moon films to The Stepfather 2, Dario Argento and even the films of Nicholas Roeg! It was by chance that I had my Leatherface one sheet with me as I brought it for Joe Unger to sign at Monster-mania and Mr. Burr signed it and a laserdisc for Dominic. We posed for pics outside in the hall of the hotel where they were shooting the film and we were on our way
once again.  Jeff Burr could not of been a nicer guy and he never really got the shot he deserved as he's a very good director.

Saturday night was all about hanging with good friends and having a few drinks. We waited for what seemed like hours for a pizza to be delivered and once that mission was accomplished we headed for the bar.

Not having time to make a decent scan of the dealers room, a friend of ours Eric picked up a rare signed DVD that I would of purchased in five seconds had I seen it. I still want that Eric!  The whole group including, Dominic, Ken, Chris, Stacy, Eric and myself sat at a booth and talked and joked for hours.  Mike Baronas joined in on the fun and I went into one of my famous Italian genre film rants, sorry Mike that is what happens.  Chris Roe joined in on the fun pissed off that none of us would eat with him!  He told a hilarious story about Udo Keir that will not be soon forgotten.  Ken- the other one from Horrorhound came over to say hello and before you know it everyone was tired and headed to their rooms.  I stayed for a while with Mike and Gina from Rock and Shock and talked more Italian horror and hopes and plans for upcoming shows.
Before I left them for the bed that awaited me and I was out within 5mins of hitting the pillow around 3am.

Sunday started with our friend and roommate leaving us for his journey home and it was a pleasure hanging out with him again.  Dominic and myself had to run around and get a couple more autographs and we met Chris and Stacy for the drive back to Pennsylvania and on the way once again we had a blast talking film and playing movie trivia.

It was a fun time and one not soon forgotten.  HorrorHound puts on a hell of a convention and I have been to a lot in the past but this was one of the more memorable times
I have had at one.
 
Till the next time...