HorrorHound Weekend is a traveling convention hosted by HorrorHound magazine. Each issue of HorrorHound contains film facts, interviews, and horror fan lifestyles to name a few. You can expect to find similar things at the conventions.
What’s HorrorHound weekend without a horror hound?
The Event
I had never heard of HorrorHound Weekend until a month before the event was taking place (March 18-20th). When it travels to Cincinnati it takes place at the Sharonville Convention Center, far enough from downtown Cincy that there’s not a whole lot of traffic which makes it nice. The convention is so large it’s on almost all three floors of the center due to the outcome of guests they have each year.
One of the highlights of the event is the film festival. Features and shorts are shown all three days, which is like heaven for a huge indie horror fanatic like me. This year’s best film and best actor winner was KILD TV, a story about the crew of a local horror movie showcase that broadcasts creepy stories of heinous killers, but one night they are the story, trapped, with a real killer among them. Another interesting film was Frankenstein Created Bikers.
A major disappointment was having to miss the concert that took place on Saturday night. HorrorHound gathered together an amazing lineup of musicians including Psycho Charger, Argyle Goolsby, The Heathens, Big Bad, and For The Wolf.
Psycho Charger
The Guests
Due to the high capacity of guests, the wife and I didn’t get a chance to see the guest of honor, the mistress of the dark herself: Elvira (Cassandra Peterson). However, I did get to see my old pal Ari Lehman (Friday the 13th, First Jason), who after taking a picture with my book proceeded to read it to all passer-bys. I also had quite a surprise while I was at the Full Moon booth looking at movies. Out of nowhere this guy came up from behind me and put his hand on my shoulder, I turned around and it was Kane Hodder! Kane is well known in the horror industry for his role as Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th movies, beginning with part 6 and ending with Jason X, and also the very popular Hatchet movies. I think the longest line I saw all weekend was the one for Lisa and Louisa Burns, the twin girls from The Shining. That line wound all the way around two different walkways!
The vendors at HorrorHound were almost as numerous as the celebrity guests. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Troma had a booth set up with their entire catalogue of movies. (I bought a few movies from them, and when I got home one of the cases was empty! I took it back the next day, however, and they replaced it on top of giving me a free movie for my trouble. Troma rocks!) There were also a few local independent production companies there promoting their work such as Studio 605 (they are producing The Wicked One, a film I’ll be appearing in later this year), and Big Biting Pig Productions based in Kentucky. I walked out of there with nine movies from four different vendors. I need to stop telling people I review movies…I’m overworked as it is!
Closing Thoughts
Overall this was a good first time at HorrorHound Weekend. However, if the numbers keep growing they should really reconsider where they’re having the convention. The wife and I could barely move at certain points, and we heard that last year the fire marshal showed up and almost shut them down. So a bigger place and better setup would make HorrorHound pretty awesome.
