I was initially extremely excited for Hull Horror Fest, which was held in my own home city and was actually only a short distance away from my house (which is likely the closest con to me full stop, unless local cons start changing venues to those they used 10+ years ago).I was excited because they had announced among their guests Zach Galligan (Gremlins) and Kelly Jo Minter (A Nightmare On Elm Street 5)... but both of them ended up dropping out for whatever reason, I had multiple items for each to sign (I'd have probably got 3 for Galligan and 2 for Minter) so this was a huge disappointment that honestly did damper my enthusiasm for the event.
To be fair I understand dropping out is part of the all convention thing - because of professional commitments or personal reasons - I understand that - it's just, I don't want to drag a conventions name through the mud but part of me believes since both where American based names, I think they may have run out of money and couldn't afford to bring them over anymore, maybe the reasons are legit for both dropping out (Galligan doing an American con this same weekend after dropping out didn't help matters) but sometimes you can't shake that feeling and they hadn't really seemed in a rush to replace them with somebody British based (there's plenty of great people on the scene that have horror credits), but anyway I had pre-booked my ticket (back when both were still due to appear) and I still wanted to meet Harvey Stephens (Damien in The Omen). But now this event was something I was now less than enthusiastic to attend.
I arrived about 9:50 for the 10 o'clock opening, and here is the most notable thing about this compared to pretty much any other event I've been too - I arrived and I was I was second in line (with nobody behind me). I honestly have never been to any event before and arrived this close to open time and got so close to the front and and was soon let in. With the smaller conventions I like to get a sense of the area, so walked around a couple of times, most of the signers were not completely set up now anyway and found Harvey Stephens desk away from the rest - but he wasn't there yet (he was at the venue), but did ask the woman who was assisting him about price etc. to see if I really wanted to pay it...
So I went near the other guest, sadly most of them where either not of interest to me or had met them before (Jon Campling, who I fear since he's from here will always pop up but will have nothing for him), but I had checked the IMDB pages of them and one of them did stick out, Nathan Head, who has done a lot of British horror work and did appear briefly in the Doctor Who episode "Voyage Of The Damned" (the episode with Kylie in) so he was an obvious add to my ongoing Doctor Who poster (is signature is tiny and my camera is not working so I will not do an image of it, but you should see it in later updates) - he was nice fella who seemed pretty knowledgeable about Doctor Who. I had earmarked £10 for his signature (which is the usual minimum guests have charged) but he was only charging £5 - so I decided to also buy a copy of Theatre Of Fear on DVD and have sign that too (which was only another £5 altogether - I am potentially meeting another actor from that movie so thought it would be worth a buy to see if I like this movie).
After meeting Nathan Head, I could see Harvey Stephens was now at his table (ironically his assistant was not there now), even though he is now almost 46 you could still see in his face that he was little Damien - his assistant was off getting pens (though he had some) and there was no silver, which is what I really needed to get my Chirashi signed. Luckily I felt cheeky another to go and ask Nathan Head if I could borrow his silver pen and we was cool enough to do so, and I Stephens sign my Chirashi. I suppose he was nice enough but I didn't get any warmth from him.
After getting the graphs (wish I could have left with more, but wasn't going to get them from others just for the sake of itt). On one stall I found some old film magazines from the 70's and early 80's and purchased a bunch of them - these are cool just for the movie adverts inside but will make interesting reading. After that I had another look around see if there was anything else around but anything close to interesting me was out of my price range today (even then I probably would of brought elsewhere).
I did end up stopping by the District 13 people who run events such as Hull Comic Con and the upcoming UK Comic Cruise (which I'm very excited for) and talked to the guy who run that for absolutely ages about his convention, other conventions across the country, our favourite shows (we both adore Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and I probably talked to him for like an hour.
There was nothing else keeping me there after the event but bumped into my Auntie and Uncle and their Grandson - they had a great time, though my Auntie kept getting spooked by a zombie who crept up on her and oddly my Uncle doesn't think of the little kid when he thinks of Damien but rather Sam Neill (who played him in the first sequel), so I'm not really sure if he was expecting Sam Neill to be here or not - and they were also about to leave and luckily going my way home, so it was a nice smooth exit.
Overall, I can''t pretend I'm not disappointed by the cancellations, and it worries me the convention wasn't packed out (though the ones there where having a good time) and I sincerely hope it continues because I'd be willing to give it another go next year. It's fair to say it was an underwhelming day.
I arrived about 9:50 for the 10 o'clock opening, and here is the most notable thing about this compared to pretty much any other event I've been too - I arrived and I was I was second in line (with nobody behind me). I honestly have never been to any event before and arrived this close to open time and got so close to the front and and was soon let in. With the smaller conventions I like to get a sense of the area, so walked around a couple of times, most of the signers were not completely set up now anyway and found Harvey Stephens desk away from the rest - but he wasn't there yet (he was at the venue), but did ask the woman who was assisting him about price etc. to see if I really wanted to pay it...
So I went near the other guest, sadly most of them where either not of interest to me or had met them before (Jon Campling, who I fear since he's from here will always pop up but will have nothing for him), but I had checked the IMDB pages of them and one of them did stick out, Nathan Head, who has done a lot of British horror work and did appear briefly in the Doctor Who episode "Voyage Of The Damned" (the episode with Kylie in) so he was an obvious add to my ongoing Doctor Who poster (is signature is tiny and my camera is not working so I will not do an image of it, but you should see it in later updates) - he was nice fella who seemed pretty knowledgeable about Doctor Who. I had earmarked £10 for his signature (which is the usual minimum guests have charged) but he was only charging £5 - so I decided to also buy a copy of Theatre Of Fear on DVD and have sign that too (which was only another £5 altogether - I am potentially meeting another actor from that movie so thought it would be worth a buy to see if I like this movie).
I did end up stopping by the District 13 people who run events such as Hull Comic Con and the upcoming UK Comic Cruise (which I'm very excited for) and talked to the guy who run that for absolutely ages about his convention, other conventions across the country, our favourite shows (we both adore Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and I probably talked to him for like an hour.
There was nothing else keeping me there after the event but bumped into my Auntie and Uncle and their Grandson - they had a great time, though my Auntie kept getting spooked by a zombie who crept up on her and oddly my Uncle doesn't think of the little kid when he thinks of Damien but rather Sam Neill (who played him in the first sequel), so I'm not really sure if he was expecting Sam Neill to be here or not - and they were also about to leave and luckily going my way home, so it was a nice smooth exit.
Overall, I can''t pretend I'm not disappointed by the cancellations, and it worries me the convention wasn't packed out (though the ones there where having a good time) and I sincerely hope it continues because I'd be willing to give it another go next year. It's fair to say it was an underwhelming day.
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