The 2017 Texas Frightmare Weekend wrapped up yesterday and what a weekend it was. I first learned about TFW a few years ago and I attended my first Weekend in 2015. I was a TFW virgin at the time but I had an absolute blast. I attended last year too and plan on attending every year moving forward. TFW first began in 2006 and for its inaugural year, it premiered at the Grapevine Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas and some of the guests were Joe Bob Briggs, Linnea Quigley, Ashlie Rhey, Brinke Stevens, Jon Keeyes, Scott von Doviak, Tom Savini, and Ses Carny. The event became more and more successful and is now regarded as the Southwest’s premier horror convention. As a kid growing up in Dublin, Ireland, there was not a lot to do so watching movies became the norm, and that is where my fascination with horror began. With my mother out at work, I was able to get some of my older friends to rent out horror films that I knew my mother wouldn’t let me watch so I was viewing “Alien,” “The Exorcist,” “The Omen” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” when I was about eleven years old.
While the Texas Frightmare Weekend specializes mainly in horror, it also encompasses sci-fi and fantasy, but horror is the real attraction here. And there is no shortage of Cosplayers either. You can come dressed up as whatever character you want and people here can never get enough of Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers. The Cosplayers here are enthusiastic and really get into character but never so much that you can’t stop them and ask for a photo. This past Saturday, I was at the event with my longtime friend Brian and his daughter Ally, and while taking a small break, I observed a mother who was dressed up in character and she had her young son with her, no older than seven years old and wearing a Michael Myers mask. As he passed an adult wearing the complete Michael Myers costume, complete with boiler suit, large fake knife, and mask, young Michael shouted out “Dude!” and the two Michaels high-fived one another as they passed each other by. Frustrated, the mother said, “Haven’t I told you about talking to strangers?” The child responded with, “Mom, chill, he’s cool!” So there you have it, folks, Michael Myers, the notorious masked serial killer, who has murdered more than 94 people, is “cool.”
I’ve never been one to dress up in costume, although when I was younger and living back in Ireland, I was known to occasionally dress up as Freddy, and scare the shit out of my sister and her friends, all the while blaring the soundtrack to “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” (thank you, Angelo Badalamenti). At TFW, if you’ve ever wanted to put on a costume, but maybe you’re afraid to do so, believe me, this would be the ideal place to start. Even larger events, such as the Dallas Comic-Con, welcome Cosplayers with open arms but at TFW, if horror is your thing, this is the place to be. Every year, TFW always seems to up itself by bringing in bigger and badder names than the year before.
The 2015 Texas Frightmare Weekend was my first year and while there, I had the opportunity to meet Kim Coates. I know many people liked him in “Sons of Anarchy” but I have to admit, the reason I wanted to meet him, was because the first time I saw him where he made an impact on me, as an actor, was back in 1991 with the underrated Bruce Willis actioner, “The Last Boy Scout.” He had a small part that probably lasted less than ten minutes but out of a huge ensemble cast, including Damon Wayans, Halle Berry, and the late Noble Willingham, it was his role that I remembered the most. I also got the chance to meet Robert Rusler, again, an actor known more for shows like “Babylon 5,” but like Mr. Coates, it was his earlier works that impressed me most, including John Hughes’ “Weird Science,” where he was buddies with Robert Downey Jr., and the very underrated, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge.” While my buddy Brian and I were there together, we would take turns taking photos of each other with the celebrities we wanted to meet but when it came time for him to grab a shot of Mr. Rusler and me, the camera started acting up and both of us stood there making fun of Brian, cracking each other up with sarcastic quips, waiting for that “click.”
2016 was another great year and I got to meet a legendary actor whom I had admired for a long time. His name was Charles Cyphers and he had appeared in many of John Carpenter’s earlier movies, such as “Halloween” & “Halloween II,” “Escape From New York,” “The Fog” and also “Death Wish II” with Charles Bronson. He signed my Special Edition Blu-ray of “The Fog” and we chatted a little about his time working with Carpenter.
I also got to meet an actress I long admired and first became aware of with “The Walking Dead,” Sarah Wayne Callies. I hated that she met her demise in Season 3 but for anybody who watches the show, a favorite character that has been with the group since the beginning, could be here one week, and then gone the next, nobody is safe. When she found out I was from Ireland, she began talking about a show she had just finished watching on Netflix about the Irish Easter Rising of 1916 and that conversation lasted quite a while. She was very relaxed and seemed genuinely happy to meet those who approached her. I also told her I enjoyed “Into the Storm,” another movie she was in that was pretty much a remake of “Twister.”
This year’s Texas Frightmare Weekend was just as big and enjoyable as the previous two years and once again, I got to meet two people I have truly admired since I was a kid. Wilford Brimley is an actor known for many, many films throughout his illustrious career, some of the highlights being “The Thing,” “Cocoon,” “Cocoon: The Return,” “The Firm,” and “Hard Target.”
In 1984, we were the very first family on our street in the Dublin suburb of Donaghmede (pronounced Don-A-Meed) to own a VCR and the first three movies I rented, at age 12, were “The Thing,” “Blade Runner,” and “Watership Down.” I had seen the VHS cover for “The Thing” at the video store for years, always wondering exactly what it was about and it eventually became one of my all-time favorites. Mr. Brimley also lightened the atmosphere in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s “Hard Target,” which, to this day, I still consider a guilty pleasure. Mr. Brimley, now 83 years of age, is still fast with a sarcastic quip and during the day, there was a panel celebrating 35 years of “The Thing” which included Mr. Brimley, Keith David, Thomas Waites, and the film’s cinematographer, Dean Cundy. The four men reminisced about making the movie and while Mr. Brimley didn’t say an awful lot, when he did, he brought the house down with tears of laughter, especially when he referred to a movie early on in his career in which he was going to star alongside the great John Wayne, and scolded him for his inconsiderate and untimely passing!
The last person I met this year, was famed cinematographer, Dean Cundey, the man responsible for shooting many of John Carpenter’s early classics such as “Halloween,” “The Fog,” “Escape From New York,” “The Thing,” “Big Trouble in Little China,” but also the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Hook,” “Jurassic Park,” and “Apollo 13.” As an indie filmmaker since I was 12 years old, being a camera operator was the very fist thing I learned about in filmmaking and how important it is to the overall project. As I matured, I would watch movies repeatedly, studying the works of different cinematographers like Douglas Slocombe, Allen Daviau, Peter Hyams, Dean Semler, and Mr. Cundey. His work stood out the most because he lensed some of my all-time favorite movies so I have been a big fan of his since my childhood and getting to meet him was a dream come true. I asked him what his personal preference was when it came to shooting films, either the Anamorphic Widescreen ratio used in movies like Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Star Wars, or the 1.85:1 aspect ratio used in the “Jurassic Park” films, the “Back to the Future” trilogy, the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series, and “Aliens.” His response? Anamorphic Widescreen. I was elated when he responded with that as that aspect ratio has always been my personal favorite too. To explain the difference the easiest way I can, Anamorphic Widescreen gives you a wider image, while 1.85:1 gives you a taller picture. Spielberg shot “Jurassic Park” utilizing the 1.85:1 aspect ratio because he knew the movie would be full of big dinosaurs, so it made sense to do so but when he shot the Indiana Jones films, he used Anamorphic Widescreen. Mr. Cundey is a cinematic legend and personal hero of mine so getting to meet him was the highlight of my day.
There was also a “Fright Night” panel, in which director Tom Holland, and the stars of his 1985 cheesy classic, Chris Sarandon, Amanda Bearse, William Ragsdale, Stephen Geoffreys, and Jonathan Stark, participated, talking about making the movie, the surprise of all of them when it was released and became a huge hit, and the disappointment with the sequel and subsequent remake.
So there you have it folks. Another year, another Texas Frightmare Weekend. It’s still too early to say what’s in store for us next year, but whatever it is, I’m sure it will be bigger and better than ever! Thank you Loyd!
