Chiller: Fall 2002

by Mitch Walrath
I've been to only two sci-fi/horror conventions now and with Chiller in Oct. '01 being my second, I can rightfully say it kicked Frightvision's ass.

I went with the honorable Allen Richards. That's right, the very one who runs this website. He's a pro at these, so he asked me to join him. He said it'd be better than Frightvision and it was.

First of all, there was a lot of time and effort put into some of the costumes I saw upon entering the hotel. The stormtroopers were quite funny.

Upon going upstairs, we made it through the maze of dealers and I first bought a book written by one of my film professors, Chuck Derry, or Chuck D., as he's known in the film critic circle. Ya know, rappin' about movies.

Posters were cheap, some video tapes cheap, some toys cheap. I, however dropped a mint on some dubbed foreign stuff. Al's a big fan of Japanese suspense/horror/action, so he got hung up on some of those. I bought Cannibal Holocaust, Guinea Pig, Men Behind the Sun, and Visitor Q. The first three were morbid curiosities that I had to satisfy; I first heard of them when doing a paper on snuff films in grad school. Kudos to the guy who convinced me to buy Visitor Q -- it's like the Brady Bunch on acid, for those who haven't seen it.

The height of my weekend, though, was meeting the actors. I'm a big fan of character actors and I was like a pig in shit. I'm easy to please. I kicked it with Reggie Bannister of Phantasm for a minute. I gave a shout-out to Vernon Wells about The Road Warrior still being one of the best action movies I've ever seen. I told Joe Pantoliano that Memento was the best movie I'd seen so far this year (2001). They all seemed to appreciate my comments in a non-creeped out way.

The best of these, though, (and yes, she deserves her own paragraph) was Erin Gray. If you don't remember, she played Wilma on Buck Rogers. I had the hots for her even in that pre-pubescent, pre-jerkoff stage, where you just fantasize about kissing an older chick. And even though she's older, the years have been kind because she's still very much hot. I told Al that I had to give her props and tell her that the space vampire episode gave me nightmares for a month. (If you don't remember, the space vampire looked kinda like Nosferatu and when he bit Wilma, her voice got all deep and husky. Creepy.) Al said that that was alright if I wanted to sound like a fanboy. Seeing how it was a sci-fi/horror convention, I figured we were all fanboys. I approached her table and I'll be damned if she didn't have a fucking picture of that space vampire. I pointed to it and told her that it creeped me out to this day. She laughed and said that everyone remembers that episode. I briefly took solace in the fact that I wasn't the only geek there.

I then got pissed that the line was too long for me to meet Dee Snider, the one and only front man for Twisted Sister. I will die having never lived.

Saturday night, damn near everybody and their brother dressed up for the costume party. There was a certain girl in a silver skin-tight body suit that was especially captivating. Silvergirl, whereever you are, if you happen to read these words, I have a special place for you in my mind.

With the videos Al bought, my color pallete was stretched to the furthest limits of truly underground and independent film/video. I had no idea how extensive and professional this world was.

The only thing that sucked about the whole weekend was the Jersey turnpike. Navigating it, I think they robbed me of about $15. I should've seen that debacle coming because as we approached that state on Friday, Al asked me what the smell was, to which I replied, "Must be New Jersey."

Even with all the walking and insanely-priced food, it's a weekend well worth it.