The powers that be have ordered me (can you believe that, me being ordered by anyone) to cover Creation Entertainments Weekend Of Horror & far be it from me to ignore a direct order. Although The Black Saint bows to no one & fears nothing (maybe ladybugs..I hate those little f*ckers) I graciously accepted the assignment for two reasons: I don’t get out much. My Mausoleum has everything I need to keep me happy & I’ve never been to L.A. before. Thought I’d check out the sights & sounds of Hollywood while I was here. But I’ve been too busy working the (sparse) crowd on the first day of the convention to do much sightseeing at all. As a matter of fact I believe I only sat down for maybe 10 minutes of the whole shindig. So I sit here in pain now in front of my laptop (at least I’m sitting) to give you guys the lowdown of the first days festivities.
We all had to wait in line for a bit before being let in (The Saint doesn’t like lines, especially when he paid over $249 for his “Gold” ticket) but I’m not one to rock the boat. There was hardly anyone in line anyway. I was actually first in line but that was fine because it gave me a little time to talk to a couple standing directly behind me & ask them a few questions about why they’re here & what horror means to them. It went like this……
The Black Saint: What’s your name?
Attendee: George.
TBS: Cool, Pleasure to meet you. How long have you been a fan of the horror genre in general?
George: Since I was 7
TBS: And now you’re….?
George: 33
TBS: OK & who’s your companion with you today?
George: Leti.
Leti: (Sheepishly) Hi.
TBS: Hello to you too young lady, How long has she been a fan George?
George: She says she’s been a fan for a while.
TBS: Why do you phrase it like that? Don’t you believe her?
George: (Laughing) Well that’s what she says. She’s not as hardcore as I am but she likes horror.
TBS: OK, Now tell me: What’s your favorite horror film?
George: The original “Halloween” without a doubt.
TBS: What about you Leti?
Leti: I can’t think of any right now, probably Freddy..the Freddy movies.
TBS: Which one in particular?
Leti: I would say the first one.
TBS: That’s a good choice, a very good choice.
TBS: (To George) What is it about horror films that make you such a fan?
George: You know when I was young they really scared me but as I grew older I kept watching & watching them with my friends. I basically grew up with them.
TBS: What was the first horror movie you saw?
George: “Halloween”.
TBS: Really?
George: The music just stopped me, I was so scared…
TBS: Did you go by yourself?
George: No my mom went with me, She actually let me watch it.
TBS: You’ve got a way cool mom. My dad took me to every movie that opened in our neighborhood as well. Let’s give it up for cool parents!!
TBS: (To Leti) You said that “A Nightmare On Elm Street” was your first horror movie & George says “Halloween” was his first. Were they also the scariest films you ever saw?
Leti: I think so, yeah. I can’t think of any scarier ones right now.
TBS: Because there is a big difference between what the first one you saw & what the scariest one you saw, you know what I mean?
George: “Halloween” scared me more because it was the first one but “The Exorcist ” scared me a lot as well.
TBS: That’s my choice for the scariest by far.
George: Yeah, I think that one scared a lot of people. I remember seeing “Psycho” for the first time & that definetely scared me as well, also “Rosemary’s Baby” scared me. I remember thinking “I can’t believe they made that film” when I first saw it!
TBS: You know there’s a remake of “Rosemary’s Baby” in the works right?
George: Yeah, there’s some movies that you just shouldn’t touch and that’s one of them for sure. I don’t know how you felt about the remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” a few years back…
TBS: Actually I thought it was pretty effective myself.
George: It wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t the original, the original is so great.
TBS: If you ever watch the original again you’ll notice that there really isn’t a lot of blood shed in it as opposed to the remake which is drenched in the red stuff.
George: Yeah but then they made a sequel to the remake which wasn’t very good. For instance I love Rob Zombie but I hated both of his “Halloween” movies. I didn’t need to know anything about Michael.
TBS: Exactly! You see when I read about his desire to “Re-Imagine” the original I was excited but wary. After seeing it I was so disgusted. The beauty of Michael Myers is that essentially nobody knows who or what he is. Why he can take so much damage & just keep on coming. He was a force of nature & Zombie put a face to that force & in doing that removed all of the mystery surrounding him.
George: Did you see “The Last Exorcism”?
TBS: Yeah, but I was nervous. Any film with the word “Exorcist” or “Exorcism” gives me the creeps. Luckily for me it was rated PG-13 & I don’t think you can make an effective film dealing with that subject unless you give it an R rating.
George: That’s interesting because we saw it in June in it’s uncut form at the L.A. film festival….
TBS: Wait a minute. There was an uncut version? Because before I saw it I had seen commercials & print ads for it & there were scenes in the commercials & trailers that I didn’t see in the final film. Even the poster image of the girl bending backwards was in the trailer but not in the movie I saw.
George: That scene was in the version we saw.
TBS: Really? So Eli Roth lied to all of us when he said we were the first to see it on a big screen & told us it was really scary. Shit! This is a scoop!
George: Yeah all of those scenes were in the version we saw.
TBS: We were screwed in NY for sure. I guess they realized that they had to rate it PG-13 to get a bigger audience. It did make a ton of money.
TBS: (To George) are you going to be here for all 3 days?
George: No, just today.
TBS: Well I hope you guys have a really good time today at the show. Thanks for taking a few minutes to talk with me. Have fun!
George & Lina: Thanks, You too!