Last week, in Part 1 of A Fan's Journey Into Horror, Cru Jones talked about what it was like growing up as a fan of horror, taking us through his teen years and into adulthood, when he finally attended his first horror convention (meeting the legendary Clive Barker in the process). This week, in part 2 of 2, Cru Jones drags us further into the always entertaining world of the horror convention.

At a horror convention, surrounded by so many faces familiar from the films you love, the quest for autographs begins the moment you walk in the door.

We spent a significant amount of time on Friday getting autographs from the guests in attendance. Gunnar Hansen (Leatherface from the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Tony Todd (Candyman) were the first to hit the autograph area. We were pretty much the only people there when they arrived, so we had a chance to chat with both actors for a few minutes. Hansen outlined several projects he has in the works, including a film in which he, Kane Hodder and Robert Englund star as a trio of serial killers. He was soft-spoken and polite, and very appreciative of his fans. Tony Todd, on the other hand, was larger than life, with a deep, resonating laugh and a forceful, outgoing personality. I must admit ... he intimidated me. A highlight of the convention for both of us was seeing him try to bust a mack on Rue Morgue managing editor Jovanka Vuckovic. Amazingly, my impression of the Candyman was that of a soft-spoken gentleman (soft-spoken almost to the point of shyness) who seemed genuinely thankful for his fans and their enthusiasm for his work.

The Anchor Bay people were out early Friday trying to promote the indie film Lightning Bug. First time director and Buffy the Vampire Slayer makeup vet Robert Hall was on hand to promote the film. The real buzz began after some convention goers had a chance to see it. By Sunday, copies were nearly impossible to find. Although I passed on Friday’s director-attended screening in favor of standing in line for Clive Barker autographs, I managed to snag an autographed copy from the Cinema 1 booth (incidentally one of their last copies).

And boy am I glad I did.

This is one indie film that lives up to the hype. Lightning Bug is a warm and heartfelt tribute to horror fans everywhere (imagine Good Will Hunting for slasher fans). The acting is uniformly excellent, with the big surprise being Ashley Laurence (of Hellraiser fame) as a beleaguered trailer park mother who longs to provide more than she’s able to for her children. Bret Harrison is also excellent, as is Laura Prepon (who also co-executive produced). Kevin Gage delivers yet another portrayal of a sleazy asshole, his stock in trade. It would be easier to consider it a great performance were it not so similar to many of his other roles.

Perhaps most amazingly, Lightning Bug manages to conjure up many of the feelings I mentioned in part 1. Perhaps that's why I rate the film so highly and am willing to forgive its flaws. The direction is not always surefooted and the film takes some time to warm up, but those aren't huge criticisms. Once it reaches its emotional climax, it is a genuinely moving film and an impressive debut from Robert Hall.

Horror fans: if you had even a twinge of sympathy when you read part 1 of this story, go out and rent (or better yet, buy) Lightning Bug and watch it with your fellow horror fans. This is a film that needs and deserves our support.

Much as we enjoyed it, Lightning Bug wasn't the only film we took in at the convention. Another was a pleasantly surprising, fun romp called Sinners & Saints.

I had no idea what the film Sinners & Saints was about, only that a tall blonde woman with big boobs was hawking it, and even that I didn’t learn until I arrived at the screening room. I’d seen her around (Melantha Blackthrone a.k.a. Countess Bathoria) but really had no idea why she was attending. Having little else to do we decided to give it a try. The convention was winding down and we wanted to fill up the last few hours before we said goodbye to the convention forever. I’m glad that we were able to squeeze this movie in.

Now I don’t want to give the impression that Sinners & Saints is in any traditional sense a “good” film. The acting is amateurish, the direction weak, the story meandering and confusing. All are hallmarks of ultra low budget filmmaking. While there are some relatively impressive computer effects in Sinners & Saints, there is also a lot of time near the end spent on really shitty CG environments.

What I did like about Sinners & Saints is how gloriously tasteless it is. Not only that but it manages to be so in an unpretentious way; it never felt to me (with one notable exception) like the filmmakers were trying to offend the audience, they simply didn’t care if they did. Take for instance a scene where Necrotia, Queen of Hell, kicks a guy in the tenderest of areas. Not to spoil the gleefully nasty surprises in store for those who watch, but let’s just say there’s a scene that will leave the guys cringing for days afterwards ... cringing and suspiciously eyeing the family dog.

There are a lot of really impressive action and martial arts sequences in the film, too. The people involved with Sinners & Saints deserve credit for not allowing their minuscule budget to hamper their creativity. They shoot for the moon as often as they can, and although they never reach it, I admire the effort. There were three people at the screening; Blackthorne, actor and martial arts director Jason Cavalier, and Jan Pivon. All had an infectious enthusiasm for the project.

One of the very best parts of going to a horror convention is getting a chance to see how the creepy visuals behind your beloved films get made. That's just what Bobby Weiner provided us.

Weiner, known in Hollywood as “Bloody Mary”, was a late addition to the roster, on hand to provide an hour-long interactive make up demonstration. Bloody Mary did the frozen corpses at the end of Titanic, a factshe reiterated many times in the course of the seminar. (Personally, I was more excited to learn that Pumpkinhead 2 was her first film – Soliel Moon Frye on a stick rules!) Despite the fact that she was pimping her products to the point of annoyance, and her habit of referring to Jim Cameron’s big boat movie as The, the session was fun and included free make up kits for those in attendance. In fact, Weiner deserves credit for putting on the only interactive make up session of the convention. There was another workshop that was demonstration only, but getting to makeup someone or be made up as a rotting zombie is the kind of thing horror fans eat up. Additionally, she had a drawing of names at the end of the session for more free make up products.

And guess what? Both the missus and I won, making this event one of the more memorable of the convention.

If you think Clive Barker, two films, a makeup demonstration and autographs sounds like plenty to pack a day, think again. Margot Kidder, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, effects teams ... there was plenty more to get to.

More Please With The Horror, Sir.
Despite her reputation as a nutcase, Kidder was surprisingly lucid during her Q&A session, which was refreshingly free form. Having no new shows or films to hawk, she simply opened the floor for questions from the audience. Kidder is as far away from the typical self-important actor stereotype as you can imagine. Chalking most of her success up to luck and referring to her younger self as “hopelessly naive and stupid,” her responses were wonderfully candid. There were no topics she shied away from, including her own battle with mental illness and the death of Christopher Reeve. As is typical of Canadians in large groups, the crowd was polite and didn’t take Margot to task for trying to draw American filmmakers away from Canada (specifically away from Alberta in favor of Montana). I was tempted to ask her motivation for accepting a part in the dreadful Superman IV, but tact got the better of me.

And there was still more to see. The convention was so packed with events starting every hour on the hour that it would’ve been impossible to attend even half of them. We debated between seeing Tetsuo: The Iron Man (which neither of us had seen) and The Fearless Vampire Killers (which we both had seen). We settled on Tetsuo and regretted it after about 15 minutes.

The clock on the convention was ticking.

We attended all three days and still ran out of time at the very end. We barely made it back onto the sales floor for one last sweep to pick up everything we missed the first time around. Although we didn’t get to see everything we wanted, we packed every moment of our time at the convention with things we wanted to do.

Looking Back On My Journey.
Being around people in the horror industry, “hobnobbing” with authors and actors, being tutored by a Hollywood FX guru, all of it really changed the way I think about my future. I’ve always dreamed of being in the industry, but like the elusive and mysterious horror convention, it had always seemed so far away to me.

But a funny thing happened at the convention; the world shrank a notch. To many people that would be a bad thing, but to me it means everything I’ve ever dreamed of is that much more within my reach.

I’ve come to realize that anyone can do it. I talked with distributors and publishers who are dying for new material from young artists. Thanks to the explosion of the home video market, it’s not like you need a 10-mile resume to get your foot in the door. Anyone with a bucket of fake blood, a video camera, some imagination, and a modicum of talent can make an independent film and see it get a national DVD release, and with the higher and higher quality direct-to-video films coming out, the DTV label is becoming less and less of a stigma. Sure, there is still a long way to go, but the industry is changing rapidly and many small companies are riding the cutting edge.

Still, being a pragmatist, I realize there is a very good chance (like, say 99 percent) that I will never be a part of the entertainment industry. I’m at peace with that possibility. No matter what happens, I can say I shook Clive Barker’s hand and sat down for a quick chat with him. I may lose the autographs and memorabilia I came home with, but nobody can take the experiences away from me.

Thus ends this fan's journey into horror.

For now.