Cinema Suicide

It has been a couple of years since I’ve been able to make it out to the annual Rock & Shock horror con in Worcester, Massachusetts. The last two shows have been stymied by weddings or whatever, so getting back this year was a real treat. Rock & Shock, by no means, is a big show. By comparison to the big North American festivals like Festival Of Fear or Weekend of Horrors, even when put up against Cinema Wasteland or Horror Hound Weekend, the con is comparatively small, but as small as it is, it packs a huge punch and manages to be the best show that it can be. It manages to realize its full potential and offer those of us without the means or opportunity to make it out to the big shows a chance to taste the same thrills.

After a brief period of wrangling for credentials, I stood in line with the rest of the schmoes even though my press pass allowed me to walk right by and on to the floor, but the lines are part of the experience and the line for Rock & Shock’s second day, Saturday aka the busiest day of the show, looked something like a line of lunatics waiting for their meds at some locked psychiatric hospital. It wasn’t long before they opened the doors and let us in, though. The floor of the DCU Center, where the con portion of the show is held, was packed to the rafters with exhibitors and this is where most of the magic happens. Sure, you can walk to the back where the guests are seated and express your undying admiration for their work, have your shit signed and then get a picture with them, but the real gold is happening where everyone is desperately trying to sell the stuff they’ve worked so hard to make. There are many dealers in varying shades of sleazy, dishing bootleg DVDs (something that has been miserably absent from past shows), shady flea market tables selling used CDs of music having nothing to do with horror movies, dudes selling tees and posters. They’re not really fans, they don’t give a shit about the movies, they just want your money to, by looks of them, buy lots and lots of cigarettes. It must be argued, however, that they come to the show with some of the coolest crap you’re not likely to find without having to pay for shipping costs on the internet. It’s nice to have everything in one place. But these are the staples of the show. These are the staples of every show. Rock & Shock 2009 offered a whole range of unique items and a sweet line up of guests. Read on after the break for the details and a gallery of Rock & Shock images.

First things first. The vendor area. Though small, the vendor area at this year’s Rock & Shock was one of the most interesting of all the Rock & Shock shows I’ve attended in the past. I’m not sure who comes out to a horror con to get tattooed (last time I attended I witnessed Danielle Harris on the receiving end of the needle), but this year we had two booths that were actively inking people throughout the day with nothing resembling a break for the artists.

Pix Posters, as usual, were on hand selling the latest onesheets of movies out and upcoming. Their selection this year left something to be desired. If you wanted an overseas Inglourious Basterds poster, you were in luck, but let’s say you came empty handed for John Landis and planned to pick up a onesheet for An American Werewolf In London to be signed, like I was, you were up shit creek.

Dealers selling the latest factory sealed DVDs were miserably absent, yet past shows devoid of dealers selling DVD-Rs of hard to find out of print stuff or flicks that never came to DVD were in abundance and selling at prices well below the selections on the internet. A growing trend on Etsy, hand made horror crafts, were in abundance this year as well.

If you’re in the market for hand made goods ranging from skull and crossbones hair clips or hand painted zombie Barbie doll mods, Rock & Shock 2009 was the place to be. The woman selling the outrageously priced yet always packed table for theatrical contact lenses also happened to be selling a range of interesting creepy quilts. Some were as simple as skulls and roses, but if you’ve always wanted to curl up by the fire in a Jason Takes Manhattan quilt, you’d come to the right place. Though much of the Etsy crafts were throwaway gimmicks, some were genuinely cool like The Good The Bad and The Crafty’s coffin shaped gift boxes or Chris Zanti’s creepy jewelry and wide range of 3 for $5 magnets (I bagged a set of Addams Family mags).

Fearwerx, one of the largest online outlets for branded horror merchandise were also on hand with a small selection of their goods, yet it was all worth a look, particularly if you’re a fan of H.P. Lovecraft or Shaun of the Dead. Winchester tees, pint glasses and other shirts bearing passing references to that contemporary British classic were all over the place and if you wanted to show your support for all things eldritch, you could pick up a student i.d. for Miskatonic University and wear it with your Omega Omega Omega Miskatonic U shirt.

The floor was also a haven for your typical ghouls in costume. Where comic cons and anime cons are known for their appropriate cosplay, horror cons bring them out in droves, too. Some of the most elaborate dress-ups seemed to have nothing in common with any movie I’d ever seen, while the guy in victorian vampire garb selling whatever it was that he was selling (a booth making references to custom fangs had no fangs for sale as far as I could tell) had a kick ass get up. A pair of girls made the rounds bearing blood spatter and revealing outfits and according to the business card that Lobo handed me, I’m lucky to be alive after our encounter. I’d later find out that he was a walking advertisement for Spookyworld, but you could have fooled me. Nashua, New Hampshire’s big-ass haunted house attraction, Fright Kingdom also had some dudes in great makeup posing with their custom hearse and handing out flyers hoping to attract con goers to their massive Halloween attraction.

A given for any con like this is that you’re going to come across every local low budget indie filmmaker dropping science about their latest productions and introducing yourself with a business card and news that you’re a horror blogger always meant an engaging conversation, a pitch about their project and a screener of the movie. Such was the case for 12 Gauge Pictures, another exploitation outlet from Providence, Rhode Island working parallel to Cinema Suicide favorite, Scorpio Film Realeasing. Also up in there was Morbid Visions, makers of the schizophrenic no-budget picture, Bone Sickness and the production crew of the ambitious indie anthology, Drive-In Horrorshow. Expect reviews to follow. I can tell you this much already, these low budget guys are ambitious and hungry. 12 Guage’s feature, Death Force, is something to write home about. The script makes little sense but the production values are like nothing I’ve ever seen from the low-end of low budget. It also stars Nun Of That’s (review), Shanette Wilson.

Now to the guest area. The main attractions of this Rock & Shock were the legends Malcolm McDowell (of A Clockwork Orange, the Halloween remakes and Heroes) and director John Landis (An American Werewolf In London, The Blues Brothers, Animal House). Also on hand was P.J. Soles, Margot Kidder, Derek Mears, Kane Hodder, Jason Mewes, Tom Savini, Gunnar Hansen, the Fulci triple whammy of Al Cliver, Catriona MacColl and Otaviano Dell’Acqua, Doug Jones, Sid Haig and Bill Moseley and a host of others. In spite of its size, Rock & Shock always manages to book the same guests that the big cons are doing. All of these people, in some capacity, have been at recent shows like Monster Mania, Texas Frightmare and Horrorhound Weekend and most of them are stellar guests. Derek Mears, aka New Jason Voorhees, towered over the crowd, grimacing into the camera when posed with fans but his interactions were top notch. He’s a stand up guy who understands the weight of his role in the Friday the 13th legacy and what it means to fans of the franchise. Friday personalities as these cons seem to be some of the best around the table. Ari Lehman, Adrienne King, Kane Hodder and Betsy Palmer (who wears the crown for my best con experience of all time) are all very good with fans. Mears is another notch in that belt. His manner was nothing short of superb. Jason Mewes, aka Jay from the Kevin Smith movies, was also gracious and very funny. My beautiful wife, Nise, got her chance to meet him and posed for a photo wherein she momentarily shocked his socks off (at my expense) only to have Mewes jump in without a beat and continue bagging on me. Anything for to make her happy. P.J. Soles, whom I’ve had a crush on since I was 13, was a guest I’d been trying to meet since a couple of Rock & Shocks back and finally getting a photo and an autograph ended with a big hug that also cements her in my top 5 con guests.

I found out the hard way that Fulci favorite, Al Cliver, doesn’t speak a word of English. I’m standing there in front of his table, clutching my Shriek Show copy of Zombie 2 and blabbing away about how I like everything the guy is in, including Devil Hunter (in spite of a really bad review here) only to awkwardly discover through his steady smile and gaze that universally communicated, “I have no idea what you’re saying right now, but that’s fine. I’ll jus keep on smiling.” His tablemate asked my name, which I told her and then she pointed to it and Al went to work signing the disc. Years of smoking led me to suspicions that maybe Al was incapable of speaking thanks to throat cancer or something, but a quick search on the internet confirmed my fears that the man’s dialog was always dubbed into English by the same guy. Shades of Milli Vanilli plagued my vision. Sorry, Al. I really didn’t know. You’re a class act. I’ll figure out how to translate that into Italian some day. Encounters on the floor with the legendary filth merchant, Bill Zebub and Providence’s own queen of horor, Penny Dreadful the 13th, were also equally awesome.

My only gripe with this year’s show is the escalating cost of autographs and guest interactions. All interactions are expected to be accompanied by some kind of financial contribution to be determined by the guest. This year’s show was a consistent price tag of $20. While I don’t think this is innappropriate, I think the price is a little high for what you’re getting. Awakward small talk, a signature and maybe a photograph doesn’t seem to be worth $20 to me, but these people have a right to earn a living by capitalizing off their status in the world of horror. Some of them aren’t working like they used to and some of them come from overseas. A weekend of autographing and posing for photos while being fanned with high praise and cash money must be a nice thing. Each one of these people must have walked away with thousands in cash. McDowell’s line was never ending and required a winding series of velvet ropes like some thrill ride at Disney, in order to keep people in check. I just wish that with such a great line up of guests, their time was a little more affordable since meeting so many of them was high on my list. In the end, I paid for three.

Yet again, Rock & Shock was a huge success. If you’re not aware of it or were on the fence because it’s no Weekend Of Horrors, you really have no excuse. You should be at these shows. You’ll notice that I really only addressed the Shock portion of the show. In case you’re wondering, there is a Rock side to it. By this, I mean a quick trip up to the street to The Palladium on all three nights and an additional fee for a ticket means a punk and metal extravaganza that featured the likes of RevCo, Jim Rose, Type O Negative, The Misfits, Saint Vitus, etc. Sunday afternoon closed out the show with a big shower of Faygo and morons known as the Insane Clown Posse. I’ll keep my bagging on Juggalos to a minimum since I handed out a numbed of Cinema S postcards to them, but here’s a protip: Don’t go to the show on the day of the ICP show. It’s nothing but Juggalos trying to scam everyone on the show floor (poor Jason Mewes) while yelling “WOOT WOOT!!!” every time they saw some jackass in a Psychopathic Records jersey.

Bottom line. I can’t wait for next year. See you there?

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