My Experience at Scarefest 6

I had the opportunity to have a Press Pass for Scarefest 6 this past weekend.  I was at the event on Saturday September 14 and this was my first Scarefest.

When you enter the Lexington Convention Center for Sacrefest, you are greeted by an amazing entrance way that leads you down a corridor and into the hall where the convention is held.   The first stop for many fans was of course, the Scarefest backdrop where you and your friends could take a nice commemorative together or with one of the many amazing cosplayers that were walking around.  After you pass the backdrop, you enter the room where all of the vendors and celebrity guests are set up.

The cosplayers that were on hand to entertain and take photos with fans were some of the best I have ever seen.  Aside from the Star Wars and Silent Hill group that were taking pictures with fans by the Scarefest backdrop, there was the king of horror himself, Jason Vorhees.  The man behind the mask was one of the most intense cosplayers I have ever met.  He never broke character and he did not speak.  One of the best takes on Jason I have ever seen.   Absolutely amazing!

First stop made in the sea of amazing guests was none other than Sean Clark, writer/producer of The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond, writer/host of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds and owner of Convention All Stars (many know him as @malfuncsean on twitter).  Sean is a sweet, down to earth person.  He took his time talking to his fans and was very humble about his work.  I would highly suggest saying hello to him at the next convention you see him at.

We made our way through the path of vendors and met the amazingly talented icon, Kane Hodder.  In his appearance, he is very intimidating, but he is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  Kane was also very appreciative to his fans and loves meeting them.  For those of you that have yet to meet or be choked by Mr. Hodder, yes he really does choke you, it is not an act.  He saw my Hatchet Army tattoo on the back of my neck and was so blown away by it, that he asked me if he could take a picture with it. Kane is a real class act and one of the best human beings I have had the opportunity of meeting.

Next, was a short walk across from Kane to the lovely Danielle Harris.  Danielle is so sweet to all that visit her.  She is as adorable in person as she is on screen.  She is also quite funny.  Despite what some people think about her, she was nice to her fans and more than happy to take pictures with them and sign whatever they asked her to.

After meeting Danielle, it was time for the Malcolm McDowell Q&A panel.  Mr. McDowell was all about having fun with the people that asked him questions.  He was serious about discussing his work, but had his guests laughing almost the whole time.

Aaron Goodwin of the hit Travel Channel show, Ghost Adventures, was on hand having fun with his fans and making people laugh. He ran his own “Big Steppin” booth while he signed for fans.  He still took the time out to meet ant talk to each and every one of them.  He was next to his adorable, talented sister Amy.

All of the celebrity guests were just as excited to meet their fans as their fans were to meet them.

There were some random things at Scarefest like the Mystery Machine and the Scooby Gang and of course some mannequins and Halloween props to entertain the guests walking around.

There were a ton of vendors!  All of them were incredible.  My personal favorite was a vendor called Terror Gloves.  They make replica Freddy Krueger gloves.  These had to be some of the best gloves I have ever seen.  Much like other conventions, there was a lot of one of a kind jewelry and other horror collectibles.  There were more vendors at Scarefest 6 than I have ever seen at any other convention I have previously been to.

Everyone was nice as can be and the “staph” was helpful and very well organized.  I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Scarefest even though I was only there for one day of the three day event.  I will more than likely be making the 4 1/2 hour trip to Lexington again next year for Scarefest 7 and hopefully be there for the whole weekend.  I hope all of you that made it out this year enjoyed your time there as much as I did and I hope to see you there next year!

Related articles

• Interview with Jennifer Kirkland, Administrator of ScareFest Horror and Paranormal Convention (littleblogofhorror.wordpress.com)
• ScareFest 6 Horror & Paranormal Convention Begins 9/13 in Lexington, KY! (lefthandhorror.com)
• Movie Review: The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond (2009) (littleblogofhorror.wordpress.com)
• Friday the 13th: Kane Hodder on killer instinct, Jason’s legacy (herocomplex.latimes.com)
• Movie Review: Among Friends (2012) (littleblogofhorror.wordpress.com)
• The Black Waters Of Echo’s Pond Review. (weloveclandus.wordpress.com)
• Interview: Danielle Harris Talks The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond DVD (shockya.com)

Movie Review: The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond (2009)

Written by: Sean Clark, Gabriel Bologna and Michael Berenson

Directed by: Gabriel Bologna

Starring: Danielle Harris, Robert Patrick, James Duval, Electra and Elise Avellan, Mircea Monroe, Nick Mennell, M.D. Walton, Walker Howard and Arcadiy Golubovich

Synopsis:

Nine friends take a holiday at a Victorian home on a private island and uncover a game that when played brings out the worst in each of them. Jealously, greed, hatred, lust, all of the things they keep buried deep inside themselves rise to the surface and come to a boil.

The long wait to own The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond is finally over.  I have never seen this film in its entirety until I bought it.  I had only seen trailers and had read some articles and reviews of  it.  I was interested by it right away.

The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond is conceptually a great film.  There have been other films similar, but this one stands above those.  Sean Clark‘s rewrites of the film were fantastic.  The plot had everything that makes a horror movie worth watching, jealousy, greed, hatred, lust, revenge and demonic possession.  The twists in the plot were put together seamlessly.  There were no wholes what so ever and it was easy to fallow along with what was going on.

The casting of The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond was perfect.  Danielle Harris was incredible.  Robert Patrick was a perfect addition to the cast although he doesn’t have much screen time.  The entire cast was natural in the way that they interacted with one another.  When the game brought out the dark feelings in the group, they were all believable.  Many times with this many emotions in a group in a film, someone ends up over acting a part and completely butchering it to upstage someone else, but I am happy to say that this did not occur here.

Every demonic movie has to have a character that represents the evil in it.  The demon/creature in was creepy as hell.  I loved the overall look of it.  The mask was creative and fit the film perfectly.

On the bluray, and I’m assuming the DVD as well, there is an alternate opening in the bonus features.  The alternate beginning was more disturbing than the one that was used, but the opening that was used, in my opinion, fit the film better.

The ending was very bizarre.  I must say that it was something that I did not see coming.  I loved it!  I was afraid of the typical ending, but was pleasantly surprised.

The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond was definitely low balled by the critics, big time.  I give it a 9 out of 10. 

Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: Revisited

I did an article about Sean Clark’s Horror’s Hallowed Grounds a couple of months ago, and I have decided to revisit it.  As a fan of horror, I am of course interested in seeing where my favorite horror films were filmed, and thanks to Sean Clark, we can all do that now.

For those of you that have not heard about or seen an episode of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, here is a bit about it.

Did you ever wish that you could have actually been on the set of one of your favorite horror films? To have been right there where it all went down? Well in some cases you can, and that is what Horror’s Hallowed Grounds is all about. I will pick a classic horror or cult film and do a full retrospective on the film while visiting all of actual filming locations as they appear today. I will also take some of the film’s stars or filmmakers along to talk about what it was like to make these classic films. This has been a personal hobby of mine for over a decade, and I have traveled all over the world in search of actual filming locations from my favorite films. Now I’m ready to share them with you on Horror’s Hallowed Grounds.Written by Sean Clark

Sean has visited filming sites of some of horror’s most iconic film such as Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III, 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street and more recently, The Fog and The Howling for the Scream Factory BluRay release of the two films.

Sean may be able to walk us through these “hallowed grounds” by himself, but he has had a few guests help him along.  Horror greats such as P.J. Soles and Heather Langenkamp just to name a couple.

You can catch Sean Clark and Horror’s Hallowed Grounds on 2006’s Halloween: 25 Years of Terror and the Scream Factory BluRay releases The Fog and The Howling.

If you want to support Sean and Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, you can purchase a HHG t-shirt from HorrorHound.com.  You can also catch Sean in the new issue of HorrorHound Magazine with an article on the locations of the classic The Howling.

Sean is a very social guy and a very genuine person.  You can like his Facebook fan page and follow him on twitter to keep up to date on Horror’s Hallowed Grounds and Mr. Clark.  Make sure to thank Sean at the next convention you see him at for all the amazing things that he does.

Keep an eye out for Sean’s movie The Black Waters of Echo’s Pond on September 10th, 2013!

 

Related articles

• Why Sean Clark Is Amazing. (weloveclandus.wordpress.com)

Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: Going where every horror fan dreams of going

I know I’m kind of late to the party, but I am loving Sean Clark’s project Horror’s Hallowed Grounds.  I first seen it on the Halloween 25 Years of Terror DVD and I thought it was one of the best ideas ever.

A little background:  Horror’s Hallowed Grounds is written and hosted by the awesome Sean Clark.  He has visited the sites of some of the most iconic horror films such as Halloween,  A Nightmare on Elm Street (A Return to Elm Street), and Tobe Hooper’s 1974 classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre just to name a few.

Sean is the perfect host to give anyone an inside look of the places that hardcore horror fans have dreamed of going.  His knowledge of the locations and movies that he is walking you through is unreal, and he is a complete natural.  Sean’s love of horror really shows through in his excitement at each location.

Sometimes he is not alone in hosting these walk-throughs.  He has been joined by horror alum like PJ Soles, Amanda Wyss  and Heather Langenkamp and other very familiar names.

Horror’s Hallowed Grounds has been featured in HorrorHound Magazine as well as many other online horror blogs.

Keep up to date with Sean and Horror’s Hallowed grounds via any of the social media sites you are on.  Click on the links below to do so.

Facebook

Sean’s Facebook Fan Page

Sean’s twitter