2013 Calgary Horror-Con

Last weekend was the third annual Calgary Horror-Con. I'd known about the convention since the beginning, but had been unable to attend during the first two years. I finally made up for that this year.

On Saturday we went down to the Blackfoot Inn shortly after twelve o'clock. This year the convention had added some screening rooms and would be showing some horror films and short films throughout the event. We had gone through all of the trailers and chosen two movies to watch, one on each day.

The Saturday movie we chose was called "Sick: Survive the Night." While not bad, our impressions were basically that the film was slow and almost none of the characters were very likeable. There were a few interesting twists, but still not enough to truly make the movie a worthwhile experience.

I also walked through the two dealer rooms and stopped by to talk with a few folks. Travis Shewchuk (Ravenous FX) had a batch of limited edition Stargate prints available, and we chatted a bit about making props for concert tours. It was pretty interesting and he seemed like pretty good dude.

The other fellow I chatted with briefly was Nat Jones, artist for the zombie comic '68. I picked up the second volume of that book and also his earlier series Frank Frazetta's Death Dealer. It's pretty cool chatting with these folks who are established in the entertainment industry yet live just a few clicks down the highway. I might talk with Travis a bit to get some custom miniature work done for my Stargate project, but of course cost and time will be a factor for sure.

After the regular convention day we went to a special event: a screening of the 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead. After the film there was a panel with director Tom Savini and actors Bill Moseley, Patricia Tallman and Tony Todd. It was really fun, as I'd never seen the movie on the big screen, and the panel was quite entertaining.

On Sunday I went back to the convention alone. I chatted with a few more local creators and got started on rebuilding my Halloween stuff with some prosthetics and blood from Bleeding Arts FX. I sat in on an FX Makeup panel hosted by Ashely from AMFX where the did two quick demos: a bullet through the head, and a nasty burn.

I also picked up a short story anthology from local author J.W. Schnarr called "Torn Realities", which I'm looking forward to reading.

Finally I got a few autographs. Usually I don't like paying for autographs, but this was sort of a special thing for me. Back in university I took a few film classes, one of which was a horror film course. For my term paper I had written a piece comparing the original Night film with the 1990 remake. My professor had really liked it and even suggested that it could be published with a few minor cleanups to it. Being near the end of my post-secondary career and simply wanting to escape I declined, but in retrospect it's a decision I quite regret.

However, that paper was one of my favourites from my time in university and I loved that class...so I took it to the con and doled out my cash to have it signed by Tom, Tony and Patricia.

Each of them was really quite interesting to talk with, and given the nature of the convention layout were very approachable. Little in the way of line-ups and enough time to chat with everyone for a few minutes.

When I asked Tom to sign my paper he immediately expressed interest in reading it! Having only found it in a box late the night before I wasn't able to make copies for anyone to see, but I promised I would do so and send it electronically.

Tony expressed the same interest. Chatting with him was a cool experience. We talked a little about the gala on Friday that I wasn't able to go to, the screening on Saturday night and then ended up talking about magic. Apparently Tony Todd loves magic! We spent a few minutes talking about what my favourite kind of magic was to perform, and about how I absolutely must add going to the Magic Castle in LA an item on my bucket list. I'm pretty sure we could have talked at length, but a line was starting to form up behind me. I am very glad to have decided to go back for autographs.

Lastly I stopped to chat with Patricia and get my final signature. We discussed the level of violence and gore in the 1990 film and how tame it seemed compared to what you see in movies and on today. She happily signed my paper and asked that I send her a link to it so that she could read it as well.

I can't wait to hear what they think of it, even it is over ten years old now!