While most people associate comic cons in D/FW with Dallas Fan Expo, I present an alternative: the annual Texas Frightmare Weekend. This is my fifth time walking the halls of the Airport Hyatt and it just keeps getting better and better. Since I am so used to conventions where it is over-crowded, under-staffed and bloated with bland “perks”, Texas Frightmare continues to be my favorite event of the year.
Frightmare’s main strength lies in its name: as a strictly horror-themed convention, it is able to live on its own and have an actual personality, unlike Fan Expo which is just a collection of the most popular TV shows and junk you can just buy more cheaply on Amazon.
This year Mondo shocked its fans with the release of a screenprint for The Thing by Jason Edmiston. Attendees where able to pick it up at the sold-out screening of The Thing at The Alamo Drafthouse and during the convention. On opening night it looked like Mondo had the longest line of people hoping to get this print plus others by some stellar artists. By Saturday morning The Thing print had sold-out, I don’t think anyone was surprised.
One of the biggest draws this year were the celebrity guests. Frightmare really upped their game this year, bringing in some huge horror names, including Malcom McDowell (Clockwork Orange) and cast reunions for The Thing and the underrated Bates Motel. There was even an announcement from Blumhouse Productions (producers of Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge and Get Out) that the great John Carpenter, director of the afore-mentioned The Thing, will most likely be composing the new creepy synth-score for their next Halloween movie.
The panel I enjoyed the most was the Shock Waves 2-hour live podcast. It was a lot of fun where they argued and joked around about 90’s horror films that they thought were over looked. I now have a list of movies I need to watch but I can’t agree with them on Jason Goes to Hell, that movie is rubbish.
A random thought: one thing that really stood out to me was how nice the staff and security was (which I can’t say the same for other nerd conventions), I’m used to security yelling at attendees to go through a different door or get in line or even move faster. It was nice that they treated people like adults and not like cattle. Texas Frightmare Weekend continues to be one of my favorite conventions in Texas. It’s focused, well organized and I can’t wait to go to this convention next year.
