Monster Mania 1 - Cromwell, CT
Yesterday I took redjo to Monster Mania 1 in Hartford, CT. They’ve been holding them in Cherry Hill, NJ for a few years. I was going to have it be a surprise, just whisk her away, but I was only 95% sure she’d like it and it *is* a two hour drive each way. She definitely wanted to and I’m glad :).
The reason we were going, first and foremost, was to see [Bruce Campbell], the star of the Evil Dead movies. His director and good friend, [Sam Raimi], has gone onto bigger fame as the director of the Spiderman franchise, but Bruce has remained just big enough that he can draw hundreds of fans to a Con but not have to have an entourage. When we arrived, there was a long lineup, and when I enquired about it, they said it was for Bruce Campbell autographs. Er, thanks but no thanks, so we went inside.
The first guy on the lineup of panels was [Jason Mewes], the co-star of the Kevin Smith movies and Zack and Miri. True to form, every third word out of his mouth was some kind of sexual innuendo. The funniest but also saddest parts of his panel were when people asked him about specific moments of his reasonably lengthy filmic career. He has little or no recollection of it. Someone asked about the Clerks II scene where he did a Silence of the Lambs moment, naked, and he said he didn’t remember how many takes they did.
The second panel was three ladies from the original Evil Dead movie, [Betsy Baker, Ellen Sandweiss and Theresa Lilly]. All three of them professed not liking horror movies very much, and most tried pretty hard to keep their kids from seeing Evil Dead until they were at least into their teens. They were game though, most of the questions had some kind of subtext around drug use on the set, hanky-panky amongst actors and the trying working conditions under which the movie was made.
Afterwards, we wandered through the vendor tables, which were a combination of dolls, posters, t-shirts and movie memorabilia from a range of horror movies and sequels, most notably Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead, Hellraiser, Friday the 13th and Halloween. redjo and I bought copy of Bruce Campbell’s “If Chins Could Kill, Confessions of a B Movie Actor”. They announced over the intercom that tickets were still available for autographs by Bruce Campbell and that we could line up again. Which turned out to be not that bad. Well, except for me running back to get another copy of “If Chins Could Kill”. And then a second time to get some cash so I could pay for the autograph and picture from the World’s Slowest Cash Machine. I swear, it was designed by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, connected to a 2400 baud modem, and programmed with an itchy diode which activates in damp weather.
But, I came back nicely in time, and told Bruce that if I met him I always wanted to tell him that “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.” was my favorite piece of his work. He [autographed my copy of the book], said that it was unfortunate it wasn't picked up and, told me he liked my shirt, which resembles the ones he wears on Burn Notice. It's from Trinidad and Tobago rather than Miami though. Mmm, I’m not a fanboy at heart, but this was *fun*.
The next panel was a bit of a train wreck. Imagine, one day, that low-budget movie was made. It was a surprise hit of 1980 called [Friday the 13th], the first of a couple of long franchise slasher flicks. Trouble is, the star of the movie died before the first movie even started, and it turned out that the mother, [Mrs Vorhees (aka Betsy Palmer)] did it. So, faced with a hit on their hands, what could they do? Well, the actual answer is a sequel, starring Jason, with a burlap bag over his head from an actor named [Warrington Gillette]. And another with an actor named [Richard Brooker], this time wearing the now classic Jason hockey mask. A couple more, including [Derek Mears].
Imagine having a panel of five Jasons who get to argue amongst themselves who was the best Jason, who had it the roughest, who got screwed out of the most and how complicated it is to make a Jason movie now. And their mother, who regularly exclaimed that none of them existed and that this was an imaginary world. Reminds me of what would happen if the villain on the Last Action Hero would have been a raving reality TV host instead of a killer bent on revenge.
Then, Bruce again! He was 15 minutes late and went straight at it. Clearly, he has a perspective. Very few original good movies make money. Making movies is hard and expensive. Most movies are derivative, sequels or outright pablum, failing to challenge the viewer on any meaningful level. He singled out Disney as the fine purveyor of this kind of movie. Otherwise, his acerbic wit and penchant for the one-liner carries him along well. He noted that very few of his solo projects had gone anywhere, as evidenced by how few items he autographed that had to do with them. Vast majority were his books and posters from Evil Dead in one fashion or another. He certainly managed a crowd of about 300 very well, and it was a pleasure to watch him amongst his fans.
Then [Robert Englund], who starred as Freddy Kruger and the cast of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, including [Heather Langenkamp who played Nancy]. Man, that movie is 25 years old now. Robert had a very insightful thought that one of the reasons for the Freddy archetype being so successful is that he represents the “Bad Uncle”. He thought it played on the sense that many people have that the American family has broken down and how every flaw exposed is used as a way to beat up the kids involved.
I didn’t realize that Johnny Depp and Charles Fleisher (Welcome Back Kotter) were in it too. Like if Kevin Bacon was in it, that would have elevated this movie to one of those crossroads movies that people who subsequently became famous were in, way back when. They talked about what the upcoming sequel might be like with [Jackie Earl Haley], the actor playing Freddy who played Rorschach in the movie Watchmen.
We headed home after a quiet thoughtful McDonalds moment.
The reason we were going, first and foremost, was to see [Bruce Campbell], the star of the Evil Dead movies. His director and good friend, [Sam Raimi], has gone onto bigger fame as the director of the Spiderman franchise, but Bruce has remained just big enough that he can draw hundreds of fans to a Con but not have to have an entourage. When we arrived, there was a long lineup, and when I enquired about it, they said it was for Bruce Campbell autographs. Er, thanks but no thanks, so we went inside.
The first guy on the lineup of panels was [Jason Mewes], the co-star of the Kevin Smith movies and Zack and Miri. True to form, every third word out of his mouth was some kind of sexual innuendo. The funniest but also saddest parts of his panel were when people asked him about specific moments of his reasonably lengthy filmic career. He has little or no recollection of it. Someone asked about the Clerks II scene where he did a Silence of the Lambs moment, naked, and he said he didn’t remember how many takes they did.
The second panel was three ladies from the original Evil Dead movie, [Betsy Baker, Ellen Sandweiss and Theresa Lilly]. All three of them professed not liking horror movies very much, and most tried pretty hard to keep their kids from seeing Evil Dead until they were at least into their teens. They were game though, most of the questions had some kind of subtext around drug use on the set, hanky-panky amongst actors and the trying working conditions under which the movie was made.
Afterwards, we wandered through the vendor tables, which were a combination of dolls, posters, t-shirts and movie memorabilia from a range of horror movies and sequels, most notably Nightmare on Elm Street, Evil Dead, Hellraiser, Friday the 13th and Halloween. redjo and I bought copy of Bruce Campbell’s “If Chins Could Kill, Confessions of a B Movie Actor”. They announced over the intercom that tickets were still available for autographs by Bruce Campbell and that we could line up again. Which turned out to be not that bad. Well, except for me running back to get another copy of “If Chins Could Kill”. And then a second time to get some cash so I could pay for the autograph and picture from the World’s Slowest Cash Machine. I swear, it was designed by the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, connected to a 2400 baud modem, and programmed with an itchy diode which activates in damp weather.
But, I came back nicely in time, and told Bruce that if I met him I always wanted to tell him that “The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.” was my favorite piece of his work. He [autographed my copy of the book], said that it was unfortunate it wasn't picked up and, told me he liked my shirt, which resembles the ones he wears on Burn Notice. It's from Trinidad and Tobago rather than Miami though. Mmm, I’m not a fanboy at heart, but this was *fun*.
The next panel was a bit of a train wreck. Imagine, one day, that low-budget movie was made. It was a surprise hit of 1980 called [Friday the 13th], the first of a couple of long franchise slasher flicks. Trouble is, the star of the movie died before the first movie even started, and it turned out that the mother, [Mrs Vorhees (aka Betsy Palmer)] did it. So, faced with a hit on their hands, what could they do? Well, the actual answer is a sequel, starring Jason, with a burlap bag over his head from an actor named [Warrington Gillette]. And another with an actor named [Richard Brooker], this time wearing the now classic Jason hockey mask. A couple more, including [Derek Mears].
Imagine having a panel of five Jasons who get to argue amongst themselves who was the best Jason, who had it the roughest, who got screwed out of the most and how complicated it is to make a Jason movie now. And their mother, who regularly exclaimed that none of them existed and that this was an imaginary world. Reminds me of what would happen if the villain on the Last Action Hero would have been a raving reality TV host instead of a killer bent on revenge.
Then, Bruce again! He was 15 minutes late and went straight at it. Clearly, he has a perspective. Very few original good movies make money. Making movies is hard and expensive. Most movies are derivative, sequels or outright pablum, failing to challenge the viewer on any meaningful level. He singled out Disney as the fine purveyor of this kind of movie. Otherwise, his acerbic wit and penchant for the one-liner carries him along well. He noted that very few of his solo projects had gone anywhere, as evidenced by how few items he autographed that had to do with them. Vast majority were his books and posters from Evil Dead in one fashion or another. He certainly managed a crowd of about 300 very well, and it was a pleasure to watch him amongst his fans.
Then [Robert Englund], who starred as Freddy Kruger and the cast of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, including [Heather Langenkamp who played Nancy]. Man, that movie is 25 years old now. Robert had a very insightful thought that one of the reasons for the Freddy archetype being so successful is that he represents the “Bad Uncle”. He thought it played on the sense that many people have that the American family has broken down and how every flaw exposed is used as a way to beat up the kids involved.
I didn’t realize that Johnny Depp and Charles Fleisher (Welcome Back Kotter) were in it too. Like if Kevin Bacon was in it, that would have elevated this movie to one of those crossroads movies that people who subsequently became famous were in, way back when. They talked about what the upcoming sequel might be like with [Jackie Earl Haley], the actor playing Freddy who played Rorschach in the movie Watchmen.
We headed home after a quiet thoughtful McDonalds moment.