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HORROR 101: THE A-LIST OF HORROR FILMS AND MONSTER MOVIES VOL 1

July 20th-22nd, 2007

Just a short 2 weeks after HorrorHound, we were heading off (on a much shorter trip) to the Flashback Weekend. Kind of hard to believe that this is the 6th show for the Flashback crew. And each year, they prove that a convention can be held in Chicago and done right. That's one thing Fangoria and Creation still hasn't figure out. But I digress.

The main theme for this show was NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Having 11 cast members from various NIGHTMARE films, 7 of them from the original, this show was simply a must for any Freddy fans. And those fans did show up for it. The Kryptic gang this time consisted of pretty much the same as the last show: Myself, my son Nick, Dr AC, and next to us this time was the Man Called Stone. Our artist buddy Putrid had to bow out on this show to hit some Metalfest show. We all have our priorities. We also got to see old friends (even though most of them we seen 2 weeks previous at HorrorHound....but who's counting) and make some new ones as well.

We did have one minor problem when the show open. The line for Robert Englund was running right in front of our table, literarily blocking our table from the rest of the crowd. But once we pointed this out to Mike and his Flashback crew, they fixed the problem pretty quickly. One staff member in particular, who I can't remember his name, understood completely our complaint and went out of his way to make sure that it didn't happen again. So while it started off kind of shaky, I give them kudos to fixing the mistake very quickly.

Speaking of Mr. Englund, I have seen before at 4 or 5 shows over the last 20 years. And like Bruce Campbell, it just amazes me every time the line that this man creates. This just shows the lasting power that Englund has created with Freddy Krueger. Not to mention the many other genre roles that he has played. Then you add in the fact that he's very friendly to his fans, that makes it even better.

The rest of the NIGHTMARE cast were also very friendly to meet their fans. Some of them, such as Ronee Blakley and Jsu Garcia, were blown away by the fan based that the NIGHTMARE series has created. Garcia said that until he arrived at the show, he had no idea just how big this film was, and was delighted to meet all of these fans. The NIGHTMARE Q&A was very entertaining. First of all, to have two genre icons up there like Englund and John Saxon was awesome to begin with. But all of the cast spoke very fondly of the movie and of the die-hard fans.

I was a little surprised to see that the 3 Dream Warriors from NIGHTMARE 3 didn't seemed to have the line of fans that I would have expected. Sure there were people over there throughout the weekend, but many times I seen them just sitting there. Shame really. They did have a nice Q&A as well, reminiscing what it was like to be part of this iconic series. Not to mention being in basically one of the 2 good sequels...in my opinion.

Now this movie HATCHET has been making a lot of noise lately. The advertisements states that it's not a sequel, not a remake, and not based on a Japanese movie, but a good old fashion American horror movie. I like that ad campaign. The only problem is now they have a lot to live up to. And even more so, during the Q&A, director Adam Green was making other comments to make it sound like this movie really is going to be the one we've been waiting for. When asked about why there's a limited release, he went on to explained why and how that happens. He even makes a comparison to Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN that is going to be opening in quite a few more screens than HATCHET. He says that he thinks that after a couple of weeks, Zombie's HALLOWEEN will be already out of the theaters, where his film will still be playing. Pretty ballsy, if you ask me. But, here the real surprise. At the Anchor Bay table, they were showing clips of the movie. After seeing one clip, all I can say it that...holy crap, that is going to be one gory movie. I am amazed at how gory the sequence was. How he got that pass through the MPAA boggles my mind. Seeing a woman getting the top half of her head ripped off, in one sequence without a lot of quick flash cuts, in all it's gruesome glory, had the old gore-hound in me astonished. Now we can only hope that the rest of the movie is as good as that. So Mr. Green, you have my attention. And I will catching this film in the theater. And I'm hoping it lives up to what you are saying. I really do. Of course, I do have to say that Mr. Green and the HATCHET star Joleigh Fioreavanti were sitting at a table throughout the show, passing out free autograph HATCHET posters and talking with fans. Always giving credit for doing for the fans.

There were quite few celebs around the show. But unfortunately, we only got photos of the ones during the Q&A. Which is a shame, since there quite a few more. Michael Berryman was at the show, and is always a pleasure to talk to. And just how cool is Mr. Berryman? Imagine our delight when during our Sunday breakfast, Mr. Berryman comes over to say hello and ask if were having fun at the show. You won't find too many celebs as nice as that guy.

Back in 2004, we were introduced to the work of John Borowski with his documentary H.H. HOLMES: AMERICA'S FIRST SERIAL KILLER. While we are not usually big fans of documentaries on real life serial killers, Borowski's was a stylistic look and re-enactment of what Holmes was doing back in the late 1800's. We had talked before through emails and we even reviewed his HOLMES movie. So it was great being able to finally meet him in person and to hear about his latest film ALBERT FISH, a new documentary on another not-so-well known serial killer. Though it was funny discussing on how some serial killers were better than others....how crazy does that sound?!?!? But we are really looking forward to seeing this new one.

Other celebs wandering the show were Warrington Gillette (Jason from FRIDAY Pt 2), Ken Kirzinger (Jason from FREDDY VS JASON), John Dugan (Grandpa from the original TCM), TV's Svengoolie, Lew Temple, Charles Band, and of course, the one and only Lloyd Kaufman, always surrounded by his Troma team.

And what would a convention be without seeing our friends? As I've said many, many times before, these shows are reunion for us. We get to see so many of our friends that we've made over the years, both other dealers and fans alike. So it's always a blast to be able to stop and say hello for a bit. Plus it's always nice to see what new items our fellow dealer friends have since the last show.

We did pretty good this year as far as finding some good stuff. We picked up a few more black shirts (never have too many of those) from Jill from Lix and Steve "the T-shirt guy", who always has great stuff. Across the aisle from us was John from Horrorbles. John runs a store down in Berwyn, Illinois, which stocks all your monster needs. Check out the website and visit the store if you're in the area. John had a model kit from OCTAMAN that I was drooling over. I would have loved to take that home, but it was just a bit too pricy for my taste. Not saying that it was too expensive, just too much for me personally to spend on it. But it looked damn cool and had an excellent paint job.

Making their first appearance at the Flashback Weekend were our T-shirt buddies Frank and Steve (Classic Horrors). If you're looking for high-quality shirts of the classic monsters, then check these guys out. We've been pimping their stuff since we first met them at the Cinema Wasteland shows. They do amazing work. We such big fans of their work that they are the ones printing up the new official Kitley's Krypt shirts.

One of my favorite purchases from the show was from our buddies at Xploited Cinema. And oddly enough, it wasn't a DVD, not that we didn't get a few of them as well. But it was the book Muchas Gracias Senior Lobo! For fans of Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy, this book is a must have. Sure, the text is in German, but the book is all about the artwork in there. The book is filled with poster art, lobby cards, ad mats and just tons of cool promotional stuff from Naschy's movies. It is a bit pricy, going for a little over $40. But for us collectors, especially of Naschy's work, it gives us a great look at what is out there, and gives me many more items to search out for my collection.

So another year goes by and another great show. Mike and Mia and the rest of the Flashback crew keep putting their sweat and tears into this convention every year. And it shows. For Chicago area fans, who were always tired of getting screwed over by Creation and Fangoria, the Flashback Weekend has given them a chance to go to a convention that you are pretty much guaranteed to have a great time. So once again, we thank you for a great time and look forward to next year to do it all over again!

PHOTO HIGHLIGHTS

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET REUNION

Robert Englund