vovat | The Cherry Hill Horror

bethje and I have been attending the Monster-Mania Convention since it started, although we still haven't been to any of the ones in Maryland. On Saturday, we ended up getting there pretty late, because Beth had a Civil Service test to take. That means we missed the Cujo and Texas Chainsaw Massacre question-and-answer panels. We arrived during the one for The Crow, but while we did see that movie, none of us remembered anything about it. That included that Ernie Hudson was in it, and yes, someone did ask him about Harold Ramis. The answer was that Ramis really wasn't a Hollywood type. Tony Todd was in both this and the next movie represented with a panel, Candyman. If I were in his place, I would have asked if I could just stay in the room and read a book or something until they'd switched over. Also there was Virginia Madsen, who played the protagonist Helen, and she informed us that she hates it when people pretend to be Candyman in the parking garage.

Next came the twins from The Shining, who were apparently quite difficult to locate, and hadn't acted since that movie when they were ten years old. I didn't realize they were actual twins.

Apparently the casting call was just for two sisters, but the movie makers liked the way they spoke in unison. While it was cool that the convention could get them, there really wasn't too much you could ask. One person asked about the ending of the movie, because I'm sure THEY'D be the ones to know. Another brought up Room 237, but all they said was that they'd never heard any of the theories in it before. The final panel was with Robert Englund, all by himself this time instead of with other Nightmare on Elm Street stars, which makes sense considering that he can easily carry an hour.

I'm sure he could even without questions. He's a talented, classically trained actor who's been in the business for forty years and rubbed elbows with many big stars, but never managed to make it to the A-list. It all comes back to Hollywood being dismissive of horror and science fiction, I suppose. Still, he seems pretty satisfied with being known primarily as Freddy Krueger, which is a good attitude to have. After the show, we had dinner at the nearby Friendly's, which has become a tradition for us.