Written by: The Giallogist

Monster-Mania Con kicked off its convention season as usual in Cherry Hill, NJ this past weekend (March 12-14).

I was really pumped going into this con, as I thought Dave Hagan and his team put together a really solid line-up. Some of the guests included Dario Argento, Gary and Jake Busey, Malcolm McDowell, Thom Matthews (he actually showed), Bruce Abbott, Bill Moseley, Meg Foster, William Katt, Mark Patton and Kim Myers of Nightmare 2, and two kick-ass reunions featuring the cast members of “Night of the Creeps” and “My Bloody Valentine”(’81).

I attended the convention on Saturday only, which as in the past, has been more than a sufficient amount of time to get everything I had set out to. The convention happened to fall on the same weekend that the entire State of New Jersey was drenched with one of the heaviest rainfalls we have seen in a long time. This made the drive there pretty miserable, and the drive home even worse. After making a run for the hotel from the car, in some seriously gravity defying winds and blasting rain, my buddy and I managed to make it in just fine without damaging any of our shit. What’s the best pick-me-up for a soggy, cranky horror nerd? Seeing Tom fucking Atkins sitting on a couch in the hotel lobby that’s what!!!

After drying off a bit and taking a wicked piss, we waited in line to get our tickets for admittance into the show, which cost a fair $20. Once in, we decided to hit up the vendor room first to assess the goods. I always like to do this first at cons so I can get a better idea of how to balance the budget. I’m one who would rather cut an autograph out if I could pick up some cool dvds or posters that might otherwise be hard to come by. We found some really great vhs-to-dvd and poster dealers, as well as some awesome new shirts designs by the great fright-rags.com.

After walking the rooms a bit, we felt it was time to get the autographs going. We had both brought original “My Bloody Valentine” one sheets to get signed by the nine cast member to be in attendance. With much sadness, I learned that Paul Kelman(T.J. Hanniger) wasn’t in attendance due to passport issues, and or a serious illness. I can’t confirm this 100% as the reason, but I heard it from more than one source there. When I learned the news, it was a sobering moment for me. I was looking over at Neil Affleck taking pictures with fans, wearing a mining helmet and offering up little candy hearts in cup on his table and I thought to myself “Shit… life is an odd mutha sometimes”.

Anyway after doing the numbers, we both decided that at $20 a pop, $160 to get our posters signed with the eight cast members in attendance, was too damn much. I know I might regret that down the road, as a MBV reunion is quite rare and it’s my favorite slasher of the 80’s, but I just couldn’t bring myself to drop that much on a cast that has for the most part, not done much else. Having said that, they entire cast seemed really, really nice and approachable. For the people that did pony up the cash, it seems that they got a fair amount of time with each guest and walked away pretty happy. Oh well, perhaps next time…

Next up we headed over to the Main room where Argento($30), McDowell($30 too I believe) and the NOTC cast were set up. McDowell and Argento had retarded lines(I had already met Argento at Fangoria so I skipped), but the NOTC cast surprisingly did not. We hit up Atkins first because well he’s Atkins. He couldn’t have been a cooler guy either. There was a woman in her sixties I would guess, in front of us on the line, and when it was her turn to meet him, she didn’t buy anything, as she just wanted a picture. Not only was Tom cool enough to take the pic, he also made sure the picture came out to her liking before she left. I had him sign my Halloween III poster and my now prized NOTC poster.(I apparently have a rarer version showing Jill and Jason on the dorm steps with the flame thrower and shotgun). Tom was $20 an autograph and that was money damn well spent in my opinion. After Tom we met Jill Whitlow who also could not have been any nicer. Jill took some time to talk to us, and she genuinely seemed appreciative of our admiration of the film and her work in it. Jill like the rest of the cast charged $20 a sig. The coolest cat of the bunch had to be my man Steve Marshall. The guy literally talked to us for fifteen minutes, and was easily one of the nicest guests I have ever met at a convention. He even pulled Tom and the rest of the cast together to take a picture with this guy who seemed to be a die-hard. After the guy snapped his picture, my buddy and I were the only other two there so they had us jump in and take a pic as well. Next we headed over to Lively who was also friggin’ cool as can be. The dude seemed so damn happy to be there and looked like he was just ready to party. He was stealing sharpies from Whitlow and Marshall and having some laughs.

After that, I went back to the dealer rooms and picked up some posters, shirts and movies. I was going to head over to Busey next but I realized two things; his line was ridiculously long, and he was charging $30 for an autograph plus $20 for a picture with your own camera. Eff that noise I say! There were some conflicting reports where some people claimed to not have been charged for a picture but I can’t say for sure. I decided that my “Silver Bullet” poster would look pretty sad anyway with just Gary on there and no more chance of Corey so I skipped him. It was good for me too as I was running low on cash which I stupidly forgot to bring enough off and the ATM was down at the hotel.

As for the other guests I didn’t meet… I hear that Scout Taylor Compton had a long-ass line too, but I wouldn’t know, as she was the only guest upstairs from what I understand. Everyone else seemed to have been charging $20 per signature.  I did feel kind of bad for Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, as it didn’t seem many people were going up to his table, despite the nice and shiny championship belt he had on display in front of him.

That’s really it though… I know some people enjoy making a weekend out of it, and getting to meet as many guests as possible. For me, the one leisurely day approach is best. I had some good times, met some great guests and bought some cool shit. Another con down and I am already looking forward to the next one.