Screamfest

By: Billy & JM

Christmas may not come until December...but for Tower Farm, the gifts came early this year. This past weekend, we (along with our father, who occasionally comments on this site as "Ralph Merrye") were able to attend Screamfest in Orlando, FL. We have been attending this horror convention since 2007. As always, this year was an exceptionally good time...with a mix of horror icons, writers, and lots of fans.

Friday night, we've found, is always the best time to get in and meet the horror movie stars who wait to sign autographs and take pics with ridiculously starstruck people like us.

Billy: A highlight for me was talking to Adrienne Barbeau. Of course you'll know her from movies like Swamp Thing, The Fog, and Creepshow. She turned out to be really sweet and looked fantastic, and was nice enough to let me snap a pic of us together. By the way, she mentioned she was just on one of the latest episodes of "Dexter" which I'm looking forward to watching.

JM: As in 2007, Dannielle Harris was in attendance. I have been a huge fan of her work since Halloween 4. How could anyone not be a fan of someone who has been in four Halloween movies to date?... playing two different characters! There was also a screening of a new movie featuring Miss Harris called The Black Waters of Echo's Pond -- which, unfortunately, we missed because we're old and needed to get some sleep.
Billy: Meeting Chris Sarandon was really cool. I have been into this guy since I first saw Fright Night, and of course he's awesome in pretty much every other movie he's made. He was seated across from Alex Vincent, the kid from the original Child's Play...so I can only imagine how interesting it was for these guys to be reunited so many years later at a horror con!
JM: Cerina Vincent of Cabin Fever and Not Another Teen Movie was nice enough to take a quick picture with me. She was also promoting the two books she's written, and looked beautiful as always. My personal highlight, though, was meeting Joey Belladonna. As the former lead singer of Anthrax, I have been listening to this guy since I was about 11 years old. I am sure in my excitement I came across as nearly incoherent. But, so what? Getting to talk to Joey Belladonna was awesome!

Note from Billy: I have seen my brother excited about things before...but seriously...seeing him meet Joey Belladonna was like seeing someone being reunited with their long-lost mother. It was wonderful and bizarre all at the same time, and my brother's giddy reaction was by the far my favorite thing about Screamfest this year! I also have to say that Mr. Belladonna was incredibly nice and seemed genuinely happy to talk with fans like my brother, so I have definite respect for this man now (despite having seen Pledge Night, which he couldn't believe we mentioned!).

We also met several other people with whom we didn't take pictures; among them were Shannen Doherty (who was extremely nice), Tippi Hedren (looking great), and the makers of the aforementioned The Black Waters of Echo's Pond, who were cool enough to sign some posters for us.

Of course the dealer room was fantastic. We all spent a lot of time going through bootlegs and memorabilia. And on Saturday, the three of us were lucky enough to attend a Q&A with the one and only Sara Karloff, daughter of Boris Karloff. Ms. Karloff seemed like a really nice woman and had a lot of interesting stories about growing up with "Frankenstein's Monster." She also talked a little bit about the working relationship between her dad and Bela Lugosi, about which there's been a lot of gossip over the years. After this, we sat through a screening of The Bride of Frankenstein. Watching it projected onto a huge screen was definitely a highlight of the day.

FIVE FINGERS FOR SCREAMFEST '09!!!