I've been to a variety of fan conventions in my career. I've been to straight sci-fi conventions and multi-genre collectibles events. But I've never been to a horror convention before...strange, considering how much I love horror movies. So when Creation Entertainment invited me to attend one of their events in Chicago on March 4, how could I refuse?

I showed up at the Wyndham O'Hare in Chicago at 10am to check in for the first day of the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors, and the line wound all the way from the ballroom entrance to the entrance lobby. Well over 200 people were in line waiting. I opted to check in to my room at the hotel and come down later to register. At 11:30, I returned to find the line whittled down to less than 20 people. As I got in line, an entrant for the day's costume contest walked up behind me. Coated in faux blood and carrying a bucket of bloody body parts, the "butcher" kept inching closer and closer to me. I wasn't so much creeped out as I just didn't want to get the sticky blood goop all over me.

By the time I received my general admission wristband, it was almost noon. I had missed the first two panels of the day -- the event intro by the organizers and the Troma films panel -- and the third was yet to start, so I decided to wander around the dealer's room. I threaded my way through the thick crowd of people, catching tables covered in dvds, magazines, graphic novels and t-shirts. I also kept running into the "butcher" for some reason, so I decided to head into the panel room. For those not familiar with conventions, panels are where the question-and-answer sessions take place with the celebrities in attendance. These are usually some of my favorite events of conventions...a chance to get inside the minds of the artists, actors and directors.

This event featured a divided panel room. Those who'd paid for the privilege had numbered reserved seats in the first half of the room. The back half was open seating for those of us who had just paid for general admission. But even stuck in the back half of the room, I could still see and hear the panel fine.

I entered the room during a panel by actress Kelly Stables, best known for playing Samara in the Ring movies. She was very petite and even though she had new projects in the works, such as the upcoming horror flick, Furnace, the majority of the questions were about working on the Rings films. She patiently answered all and received a semi-standing ovation when she ended her panel.

The next panel was hosted by event sponsor Anchor Bay Entertainment and company spokesman Tom Bambard ran through a list of upcoming dvd releases before fielding questions about the company's products from the audience. Among the titles mentioned were upcoming releases of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series, Cemetery Man, Tooth Fairy, new Divimax versions of Halloween 4 and 5 and another rerelease of the classic Evil Dead movies -- this one to be packaged in a mock-up of the infamous cabin from the films. At this announcement, an audience member inquired about the final film in that series, Army of Darkness, only to be told that since Universal held the rights to that film, Anchor Bay couldn't include it in any of their sets. Bummer -- I would love to see a complete edition of the trilogy, which is among my all-time favorites.

Anchor Bay then ran a sneak preview montage clip from their upcoming release, Dante Tomaselli's Satan's Playground. It had a bit of an Evil Dead feel to it, with all of the running through the woods and low-budget special effects. It also stars Ellen Sandweiss from Evil Dead. And to the surprise of the audience, as soon as the clip ended, Sandweiss herself joined the panel to field questions. She summed her acting experience for a fan who asked when she joked, “Twenty-five years later, and I’m still running through the damn woods.”

My favorite panel of the day was next.Writer/director James Gunn came out and gave a brief overview of his newest movie, SLiTHER, which debuts on March 31. Best known for penning 2004's Dawn of the Dead, Gunn added another work cap to his pile by taking on his first directing role with this film. He then brought out the main stable of actors from the film--Elizabeth Banks, Nathan Fillion, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry and Jenna Fischer--along with producers Paul Brooks and Eric Newman.

As normal, Nathan quickly took over and began directing the Q&A session. Questions from the audience ranged from the use of prosthetic effects vs. CGI in the film to how the cast enjoyed working together. At one point, an audience member asked Fillion why he was so often typecast as a Texas preacher. Fillion drew a blank look and said, "I'm not. Bill Pardy, in this movie, is a cop." The panel went a little long and had so many highlights, that I'll be writing about this in a separate upcoming article.

After the panel, the entire SLiTHER cast filed into the autograph area to sign for fans. Reserved seating audience members got first crack at the autographs, so I decided to stay in my seat and catch the next panel.

As I looked around the room, I saw more costume contest entrants milling about. Several zombies, a vampire and a green dragon a la Godzilla passed by where I was sitting. All looked like they put a lot of effort into their costumes -- no off-the-rack outfits here. (...to be continued...)

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In the next article, my day continues with run-ins with two different Jasons (Friday the 13th films), a zombie survival lecture and horror icon George A. Romero.

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