I wanted to make the most of the time I did have, so I hit the road early Saturday morning. I timed my commute perfectly and arrived precisely at 11:00 a.m. (or so I thought). Parking for the event was $8.00, a little steep in my opinion. Moreover, I felt lucky to find a parking space at all, as most of the spots were already taken. And the parking situation wasn’t helped at all by the few imbeciles who couldn’t manage to park straight and took up two slots.

Despite my timely arrival, a long registration line had already formed. Several minutes passed and the line didn’t budge at all. So, I struck up a conversation with another convention attendee. I was positive the convention doors were supposed to open at 11:00, and I couldn’t figure out why the line wasn’t moving. Frustrated, I asked for the time and he told me it was only 10:15. I had forgotten about the time-zone change traveling to Chicago and I inadvertently arrived an hour early! It was actually a blessing in disguise because by the time eleven o’clock rolled around, the registration line was twice as long. When the convention doors finally opened, it took about twenty minutes or so to get to the registration table.

Last year, there were essentially two kinds of admission tickets; a general admission, and a special “gold” pass. Along with preferred seating in the auditorium, the gold pass authorized admission to the “exclusive” celebrity dessert party. Unfortunately, the gold pass was extremely expensive, and wasn’t worth the exorbitant price. (See my review of the 2006 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors).

Due to “popular demand” (and probable complaints), the convention organizers decided to add another “tier” to the admission prices - the “silver” weekend pass. For the discounted price of $129.00, a silver weekend pass granted the holder preferred seating in the auditorium (behind the gold pass attendees) and admission to the celebrity dessert party. While I still felt the silver pass was overly expensive, I appreciated the effort by the convention promoters and I bought one.

As usual, when I entered the convention I felt like a kid in a candy store. My heart ran wild with anticipation and I had to take a few deep breaths to calm myself down. Surrounded with tons of horror movie DVD’s, comics, posters, and other memorabilia, it took considerable restraint on my part to keep myself from impulsively buying everything in sight. After a couple quick laps around the dealer room, I decided to check into the hotel.

The accommodations at the Wyndham were adequate, but there were a few minor maintenance issues that needed attention. The sliding door to my closet was off the track and couldn’t be closed. The temperature in the room was rather warm, despite the thermostat being set on its lowest setting. And I couldn’t open the windows because the handle mechanism was broken. Finally, the bathtub wasn’t as clean as it probably should have been, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to take a bath in it. Other than that, the room was up kept, and overall I was happy with the accommodations.

After I unpacked, I went back down to the hotel lobby. By this time I thought the admission line would have dwindled down some, but instead the line was even bigger! In fact, it was much bigger. It was so big it ran the entire length of the upstairs corridor, into the lobby of the hotel, around a corner and down some stairs, down another corridor, into the lower level of the hotel, and around the entire lower-level room. Later, I asked some convention attendees how long they waited. Some of them reported waiting up to two hours in line to register! Apparently the convention organizers underestimated the large turn-out, and wasn’t prepared for the massive crowd. Next year they might want to consider having more than just two people at the registration table.

The convention had such a large turn-out they eventually stopped selling tickets for admission to the main auditorium. The main auditorium was where the celebrity guests would conduct panel discussions and promote their upcoming projects. Reportedly, they stopped selling tickets to ensure that there were enough available seats. While I think their hearts were in the right place in trying to show that they were not “all about profits”, I think the convention organizers may have short-changed themselves by discontinuing the auditorium ticket sales. Even at its most crowded time (during guest celebrity Shawnee Smith), the auditorium was barely more than half full. People were constantly coming and going in and out of the auditorium, and by prematurely discontinuing ticket sales, scores of people may have been unnecessarily denied admission.

The convention had an ongoing “Fearful Film Fest”, with movies running all weekend long. I happened to sit in on an amusing short film called Cannibal Flesh Riot by Gris Grimly. The movie was filmed primary in a backyard and made for around $6,000.00. Despite the ultra-low budget, Cannibal Flesh Riot was an entertaining short about two bumbling ghouls named “Stash” and “Hub”. With Kevin Smith-like dialogue and periodic stop motion animation, the movie reminded me of a combination of Clerks and Army of Darkness.

Throughout the day I had the opportunity to meet several of the celebrity guests, including Ken Foree, Bill Moseley, Lloyd Kaufman, Dee Snyder, and Debbie Rochon. Arguably the most well-known celebrity, David Arquette, was there promoting his new film The Tripper, but the line to meet and greet “Deputy Dwight 'Dewey' Riley” was extremely long. As luck would have it, I was walking back to my hotel room and I happened to run across the man himself. Somehow, he went unnoticed in the corridor and only attracted a few people. He was autographing photos and I managed to get my picture taken with him. He was extremely personable and gracious with the fans. Clearly, he appreciates the devotion of us horror movie enthusiasts.

The celebrity dessert party began at 9:00 p.m., and I arrived shortly thereafter. The decision by the convention organizers to offer “silver” weekend passes apparently paid off, as the dessert party was very well-attended. Along with an impressive dessert spread, the party offered a cash bar and lively entertainment. Throughout the evening, several celebrity guests made appearances including Ken Foree, Doug Bradley, Bill Moseley, and Shawnee Smith.

The entertainment began with a simple, but amusing, magic show by actor and illusionist, Ron Fitzgerald. What his show lacked in complex special effects, was compensated with a lively presentation and dark humor.

Goth guitarist, Voltaire, was also on hand to perform a few of his acoustic horror ditties. While his musical style is far from what would be considered “hardcore”, his songs are very catchy with clever and creative lyrics.

But the absolute highlight of Saturday night’s event was the seductive and stellar performance by the horror-themed dance troupe, Living Dead Girlz. Based in San Francisco, these sexy “ghouls” are every horror fanatic’s wet dream. The entire show only lasted around ten minutes, but by the end they managed to whip the crowd into a heated frenzy. I originally thought $129.00 for my silver weekend pass was a little pricey, but after I saw the performance of the Living Dead Girlz, I felt my money was well-spent!

Sunday was much more mild, and I think most people spent it recovering from the night before. When I walked down to the lobby, several people were already checking out of the hotel. The weather was bad, and I needed to hit the road myself, so I made a few laps around the convention, bought a few horror movie DVD’s, then journeyed back home.

I’d say the 2007 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, Chicago, was a great success. It was very well-attended and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I still think the gold weekend admission price is still a little high, but if people are willing to pay almost $200.00 for a gold pass, who am I to argue? Creating the silver weekend pass was an excellent idea, as evidenced by the great turn-out at the celebrity dessert party.

Next year, it would be prudent for the organizers to ensure that there are enough people working at the registration table (ie: more than two). People waiting up to two hours in line to enter the convention was ridiculous, and a mistake that shouldn’t be repeated.

Nonetheless, the 2007 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, Chicago, was an enjoyable and memorable event, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for us horror fanatics next year!

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2007 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, Chicago.

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